LORD OF ILLUSION

CHAPTER 05

INT. QUAID'S OFFICES - STAIRWELL - NIGHT(continue):

There's a strange RUMBLING SOUND approaching from round the corner. Harry chances a look. There's a short length of passageway, leading to an open door. From the threshold a CRYSTAL BALL rolls towards Harry, BLOOD- SMEARED. This is the source of the rumbling. Harry stops the ball before it falls down the stairs. Dead silence. After a beat, Harry creeps towards the open door. He pushes it open. Inside, chaos. The fake antique FURNITURE is splintered, the ASTRAL CHARTS slashed.

INT. QUAID'S OFFICES - STAIRWELL - NIGHT:

An illuminated ARROW points up the stairs. Harry ascends, past faded PHOTOGRAPHS of Caspar Quaid with famous faces. At the landing, the passageway turns ninety degrees. Harry halts, and takes out his GUN. There's a strange RUMBLING SOUND approaching from round the corner. Harry chances a look. There's a short length of passageway, leading to an open door. From the threshold a CRYSTAL BALL rolls towards Harry, BLOOD- SMEARED.

This is the source of the rumbling. Harry stops the ball before it falls down the stairs. Dead silence. After a beat, Harry creeps towards the open door. He pushes it open. Inside, chaos. The fake antique FURNITURE is splintered, the ASTRAL CHARTS slashed.

INT. QUAID'S OFFICES - WAITING ROOM - NIGHT:

There are two offices. In the front, a Waiting Room, into which Harry now steps. Beyond it, through a door that stands narrowly ajar, the Fortune Telling Room. From out of the Fortune Telling Room, a MOAN. QUAID (V.O.) Ahh. . . Harry crosses the Waiting Room, reaching into his jacket for his gun. Suddenly, a nightmarish FIGURE leaps from the shadows. His name is RAY MILLER. He's as crazy as a rabid dog, teeth sharpened, eyes wild.

Nix's SIGIL is tattooed on the middle of his forehead. He STRIKES the GUN from Harry's hand and goes for his throat. Harry reaches out behind him, picks up a phrenologist's BUST and SMASHES it on Miller's skull. Miller reels back. Harry makes a dash for the door to the Fortune Telling Room. MILLER Fuckhead.

INT. QUAID'S OFFICES - FORTUNE-TELLING ROOM - NIGHT :

A mysterious, candle-lit space. In the middle of the room, a table. At it sits Quaid. thirteen years older. He has been tortured close to death. Several small SCALPELS protrude from his chest and neck. His life is ebbing away. On the table in front of him, a fan of TAROT CARDS, BLOOD-SPATTERED.

Harry races in through the open door from the Waiting Room. HARRY What the fuck!? Harry picks up the PHONE. It's dead. Miller charges at the door. HARRY Shit! Harry SLAMS the door in Miller's face, and locks it.

As he does so, the candles FLICKER. Harry looks up. A FIGURE looms from the darkness behind Quaid. He's in his late twenties: an androgynous, disturbing sight. His long hair is drawn back into a pony-tail. His mismatched eyes - one black, one milky blue, tell us that he is Butterfield. His hands are BLOODY, and he carries one last SCALPEL. HARRY (to Butterfield) Don't touch him." Butterfield strokes the wounds on Quaid's cheek.

Quaid sobs in pain. BUTTERFIELD What are you going to do about it? Miller's hand tears at the wood around the lock from the other side. His fingers appear, scrabbling to tear the lock out. Harry doesn't move, or Miller will be through. BUTTERFIELD (to Harry) Ever watched a man die? If you watch very closely, you can sometimes see the soul escaping. And if you're very quick, you can catch it. QUAID Please... Butterfield... I wasn't there. Ask Pimm.

BUTTERFIELD Pimm's dead. Jennifer Desiderio's disappeared. They knew the Puritan was coming home. As this exchange goes on, Miller pulls the lock out of the door and starts to THROW HIMSELF against it from the other side. It's all Harry can do to keep himself from being pitched across the room. He looks around for some means of defense. There's a crack in the drapes to the left of the table.

Behind it a WINDOW. BUTTERFIELD So do you. You've seen the future. Haven't you? QUAID Yes. BUTTERFIELD And are you afraid? QUAID Yes. Suddenly, Harry steps aside. The door's flung open. Miller CHARGES in. Harry catches hold of his arm, and THROWS him against the drape. The window CRACKS; the drape comes down around Miller. Amber STREETLIGHT floods in. Butterfield is momentarily distracted. Harry STRIKES the scalpel from his hands. Miller, meanwhile, is struggling to free himself from the folds of the drapes. Harry lands a solid KICK to the man's belly.

Miller is THROWN back against the cracked window, which SHATTERS. Still wrapped in the drape, he FALLS OUT. Harry turns back to arrest Butterfield, but he's already making his escape. Harry starts after him. QUAID (to Harry) Don't leave me. He turns back. TEARS are pouring down the man's face. Harry goes back to comfort Quaid, as Butterfield escapes down the stairs. HARRY You need an ambulance. QUAID (in pain) Too late.

(CONTINUE ON CHAPTER 06)