04/08/01: Welcome to the Fold (Conclusion)
by Gline
 

INT. HARUNA’S "LAIR" -- DAY                   (FANTASY)

Haruna is shouting at one of her cohorts, who simply stands
there, slack-faced.  When she is out of breath, he simply
turns and walks out.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          Too many groupies.  Not enough
          fighters.

Haruna slumps into a chair, exhausted.
 

EXT. ALLEY DOORWAY -- DAY                    ; (FANTASY)

Haruna, in tatters, resting her head on her knees and crying
into her hands.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          The only thing worse than hatred for a
          revolutionary is indifference.
 

INT. HARUNA’S HIDEOUT -- NIGHT                (FANTASY)

Filthy and dingy.  Haruna loads a RIFLE.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          Indifference can make you crazy.

KA-CHACK!  Haruna chambers a round, stone-faced.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          Or desperate.
 

INT. LECTURE HALL  -- - DAY                    (FANTASY)

Haruna, perched like a bird in the rafters and shadows,
clutching the gun inside her longcoat.

On the podium: a well-dressed STATESMAN, possibly a diplomat
or a prime minister.

Haruna DIVES out of the rafters at the end of an elastic
rope. On the rebound, she takes aim squarely at
 

THE STATESMAN’S FACE

Which appears at the DEAD CENTER of the screen.
BLAM!!  At the sound of the GUNSHOT, the screen SUBDIVIDES,
each panel showing us a different part of his body (and the
surrounding stage, and a spectator or two) getting hit with
lead.  Only the CENTER PANEL, showing the Statesman’s
stricken face, stays the same.

Haruna rebounds back up into the rafters.  She cuts the rope
and smashes through a skylight before any of the GUARDS
think to RETURN FIRE.  Bullets SMACK into the ceiling.
 

EXT. ROOFTOPS -- MOVING -- SAME               (FANTASY)

Haruna running full-tilt.  Police in the blurry distance.

Haruna leaps between buildings.  Lands, snags the gutter,
tears it down with her as she falls into a TRASH HEAP in an
alley.

The police come boiling up the alley in both directions.
Shove the trash aside, looking for her.  She’s gone.
 

EXT. ALLEYWAY -- NIGHT                       (FANTASY)

WANTED POSTERS for Haruna wallpaper the alley.  Dead or
alive. Her face is cruel and angry.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          At least now, she truly mattered to
          them.  If only as anathema.  An inhuman
          monster.
 

EXT. BURNING BUILDING -- NIGHT                (FANTASY)

Haruna is dragged from the flaming timbers by a MOB.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          The people she once fought for were the
          same ones that hunted her down.
 

INT. COURTOOM -- DAY                          (FANTASY)

Packed with jeering spectators and a granite-faced tribunal.
Haruna, in a denim smock, sits in chains, face blank.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          ...the same mob she had tried to get to
          rise up against its masters...

Haruna slowly turns to look at the ugly mob behind her.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          ...but would they have been any less of
          a mob with her in charge?

She turns back to face the front, eyes hollow.
 

EXT. GALLOWS-YARD -- DAY                    ;  (FANTASY)

Haruna, hands tied, ragged and broken, is led to her death.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          On the day of her execution, word
          reached her that a man in a velvet mask
          was running about the countryside
          performing acts of derring-do... and
          had become something of a darling to
          the journalists who covered his
          exploits.

In SILHOUETTE, she mounts the steps to the gallows.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          So it seemed her life was to end as it
          had begun: as nothing more than a
          curiosity to a world that let itself go
          from one distraction to another.

The noose is placed around her neck.  She is blindfolded.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          The last thing Haruna learned --

The trap drops.
Haruna’s neck does not break.  She slowly strangles.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          -- was that heroes --

BLAM!!  A BULLET tears across the square and severs the
rope.
Haruna drops to the ground as a VELVET-MASKED FIGURE dives
in front of the crowd to rescue her.

She stares at her savior; he grins broadly at him.

A guard behind her puts a gun to the back of her head.
 
                         ELIAS (V.O.)
          -- do not exist.

BLAM.  The velvet mask is painted with BLOOD as Haruna
pitches forward onto him.
 

FLASH SHOT -- ELIAS

Amost throwing the book across the room in anger...
 
                         ELIAS
          GOD-MOTHER-FUCKING-DAMMIT!
 

BACK TO SCENE

The crowd closes over Velvet Mask and Haruna’s corpse and
obscures them both from sight.  The screen goes BLACK.

                                          CROSSFADE TO:
 

INT. ELIAS’S ROOM -- MORNING

Elias, still in bed, has the books (all their seals broken)
spread out on the bed around him.  His eyes are hollowed
from staring holes into the ceiling.

OVERLAPPING DISSOLVES as Elias gets himself slowly out of
bed and heads into the kitchen.

He makes himself a mushroom omelet, then sits down and
stares at it.  He can’t even bring himself to eat his own
food right now.

A POLICE GUARD, stationed outside, knocks and sticks his
head in.
 
                         GUARD
          Visitor.
 

EXT. ELIAS’S APARTMENT BUILDING -- AFTERNOON

The costume-play Haruna, in streetclothes (but still looking
really good) stands outside Elias’s building, satchel in
hand.  A SECURITY GUARD looks over her ID with the phone
jammed against his ear.
 
                         SECURITY GUARD
          See, normally I wouldn’t be going
          through all this bullshit, but death
          threats have a way of making people get
          real paranoid.
 
                         HARUNA
          Understandable.
 

INT. ELIAS’S APARTMENT

Haruna is buzzed in by a BODYGUARD.  Elias, his hand
bandaged but otherwise looking OK, sits at his desk.  He
smiles up at her.
 
                         ELIAS (TO THE GUARD)
          Thanks.  I think we’ll be OK.

The guard nods and backs out, locking the door.
 
                         HARUNA
          I brought you a little something.

She holds up a basket of mandarin oranges.
 
                         ELIAS
          Thanks.
               (beat)
          I feel like I’m in some kind of weird
          psychology experiment.  All these
          bodyguards and police...
 
                         HARUNA
          You don’t like being caged up, I guess.
 
                         ELIAS
          If it’s because I know I have work to
          do, and I’m trying not to distract
          myself, that’s one thing.  People
          trying to kill me -- that’s another!

He stands up and checks her out.
 
                         ELIAS
          You’re, uh, not dressed up today?

She shows him her bag.
 
                         HARUNA
          I have a Costume Society function to be
          at tonight, but I thought I’d drop by
          for a bit.
 
                         ELIAS
          Thanks... I actually don’t get a lot of
          visitors.
 
                         HARUNA
          With all this security, I can see why.

She sits down next to him.
 
                         ELIAS
          In general.  I think people are trying
          to give me space so I can work, that
          kind of thing.
               (beat)
          Not like it matters.
 
                         HARUNA
          What do you mean?

Elias is not looking at her, but is speaking from the heart.
 
                         ELIAS
          Do you know why I really stopped
          writing VALIS?
 
                         HARUNA
          From the way you say that, I guess it
          had nothing to do with wanting to go to
          greener pastures.
 
                         ELIAS
          You ever... felt like you were cheating
          the world, and nobody was any the
          wiser?  Nobody’s there to stop you;
          nobody’s there to call you on it?  And
          you laugh with yourself for being able
          to get away with it, whatever it is
          you’re doing... but when you stop
          laughing, you’re hollow.

Haruna puts her other hand on the table.  She’s wearing a
RING -- it’s a costume-play ring, the kind of thing that the
Prince may have given the "real" Haruna.
 
                         HARUNA
          I was doing that to myself before I
          became Haruna.
 
                         ELIAS
          I’ve been doing that with HARUNA.
 
                         HARUNA
          I’m not sure I understand.

He finally faces her.
 
                         ELIAS
          I stole it.  I plagiarized it, I copied
          the whole thing.  It’s not mine.  I
          tried to find out who wrote it
          originally, but it was no dice.  No way
          to find out who originally wrote any of
          them, so I’m scot-free.  In theory.

All the color drains from Haruna’s face.
And then a curious thing happens: she SMILES, almost, but
bites it back, hard.
 
                         HARUNA
          Why?
 
                         ELIAS
          I made a big mistake when I wrote that
          first VALIS book.  I jammed every
          single thing I could think of into it.
          I was on such a high when I wrote that
          thing, man.  And then I found out I
          only had that one book in me.  But by
          that time it was too late to do
          anything but fake it.  So I faked it as
          long as I could.

FLASH SHOT: endless sheets of crossed-out paper.  RESUME.
Elias lets out a bitter laugh.
 
                         ELIAS
          I guess I should have read the whole
          thing before getting in over my head.

Haruna looks very uncomfortable, very wound-up.
 
                         ELIAS
          Let me ask you a question, okay?  And
          be honest with me, here; be serious.
          Why’d you go in for Haruna; why’d you
          go in for costume play in the first
          place?  Why her?  Because she was
          available and you looked the part?

Haruna shakes her head slowly.
 
                         HARUNA
          Because it’s a way out.  A way to
          change things.  Not many people
          understand that.  But I think you do.

She stands up and unzips her bag, spreading out the pieces
of the costume -- the jacket, the waistcoat, the sword -- on
a table, like a surgeon laying out scalpels.
 
                         HARUNA
          There’s something we’re trying to
          change, the Costume Societies and I.
          Maybe you felt a little of it yourself?
          That no matter how brilliant you are,
          there’ll always be someone out there to
          replace you.  There’ll always be
          something else out there to keep the
          world busy and empty and distracted.

She takes off one piece of her clothing and trades it with a
matching piece of the costume as she speaks.
 
                         ELIAS
          You sound like Haruna for real now.

There is a fire in her eyes that is frightening.
 
                         HARUNA
          I was like her before I ever knew about
          her.  Changing the cosmetic side of me
          was easy.  But to learn how to fight
          and dance and do everything she did to
          give herself strength... You gave me a
          direction to aim myself in.
 
                         ELIAS
          Even if I stole it all?
 
                         HARUNA (SMIRKING)
          There are only a finite number of
          stories in the world, anyway!

Elias’s face reddens with anger.
 
                         ELIAS
          Bullshit.  There’re as many stories out
          there as we want there to be.
 
                         HARUNA
          Oh?  So why, then, did you have to
          resort to copying someone else’s work?
 
                         ELIAS
          Point taken.

She buckles on her saber and slides it partway out of the
sheath.
 
                         ELIAS
          Something else you probably need to
          know, then.  It doesn’t have a happy
          ending.

She looks at him, then pulls the saber the rest of the way
out.
 
                         HARUNA
          What kind of ending, then?
 
                         ELIAS
          Read it.

He pushes the original book into her free hand.
                                                CUT TO:
 

INT. "SCORPIONIC" EDITOR’S HOME -- SAME

A wretched mess of a house with almost no sunlight.
The Editor picks his way across the room (something CRUNCHES
violently at one of his missteps) to answer the DOOR.

Two COPS stand there when he opens it.
 
                         EDITOR
          You guys are early.  Actually, that’ll
          look even better.

He offers his hands to be cuffed.

Cop #1 reaches out and, to the Editor’s total astonishment,
seizes him by the hair.  HARD.  Cop #2 balls his fists and
starts PUMMELING the Editor in the stomach, mercilessly.
 
                         EDITOR
          What the hell?!
 
                         COP #1
          This looks even better!

They laugh.  The two cops are FOSTER and JACQUAYS.
 

INT. ELIAS’S APARTMENT -- LATER

Haruna, sitting on the edge of the bed, finishes reading the
original book.  Her face is a stone mask.  It’s hard to tell
what she’s thinking or feeling, if at all.  Elias is peeling
one of the oranges.
 
                         HARUNA
          Are you planning on ... keeping this
          ending?
 
                         ELIAS
          I don’t have much of a choice, do I?

She frowns at him.
 
                         HARUNA
          You’re a writer.  You can make anything
          happen.
 
                         ELIAS
          I’m a writer with no ideas.
 
                         HARUNA
          Then I suggest you find some.  If you
          published a conclusion like that, it
          means a lot of the ... work that I’ve
          put into this would come undone.

Her tone has suddenly become a lot sharper.  And she’s
standing right in front of him with an unsheathed weapon.
 
                         ELIAS
          Something else you’re not thinking
          about.  That’s the only ending that
          fits that story.

He reaches up and gently pushes her sword to one side.
 
                         ELIAS
          The whole point of the story is there
          are no heroes.  The only person who
          could have done something about the
          story for real has probably been dead
          for a long time.
 
                         HARUNA
          I know.

And suddenly she’s crying: her face is wet with tears.
Elias is deeply uncomfortable by this display of emotion.
 
                         ELIAS
          Look, I’m sorry.  Just... that’s the
          truth, OK?

Beat.
 
                         HARUNA
          Could I use your bathroom.
 
          Elias gestures feebly at a door.

Haruna enters and closes it gently.
Elias slowly lets out the breath he was holding.
 

INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE APARTMENT

The beeper on the bodyguard’s belt goes off.
He checks the display: "NOW."

He girds himself and takes a deep breath.
Takes his GUN out and checks it.
 

INT. ELIAS’S BATHROOM

Haruna puts the finishing touches on her outfit.
She slides her sword into her belt.
Looks at herself in the mirror.  She’s sterling.
 

INT. LIVING ROOM

Elias, on the couch, has the books in his hands.
Looking forlorn.  Not thinking about anything.

A KNOCK at the door.  Elias hobbles over to it.
Peeks through the peephole.  Sees the bodyguard.
 
                         ELIAS
          Oh, what’s up?
 
                         BODYGUARD
          They brought the mail up.
 
                         ELIAS
          Kind of early...

He unlocks the door.  He still has his hand on the knob when
it’s PUSHED from the outside.

Elias flies backwards and is thrown against the couch.  It
HURTS.

The bodyguard throws himself into the room and slams the
door.
Closes the distance between himself and Elias.
Hauls him to his feet.
 
                         ELIAS
          What the -- ?

Bodyguard takes the safety off the gun.  CLICK.
Raises it and puts it to Elias’s HEAD.
 
                         ELIAS
          Oh, god.
 
          He closes his eyes and waits to die.

And then:
 

EXTREME SLOW MOTION  --  THE FLOOR

As a SEVERED HAND, trailing a RIBBON OF BLOOD, slowly falls.
The GUN, which slipped out of its fingers, hits the floor a
second later.

Zowie! That's cracking good material, Gline!