COLLECTORS

by

(Name of First Writer)

Copyright 2001
COLLECTORS (Copyright 2001)

TEASER

FADE IN

INT. NIGHT.

Automobile INT. Toronto, Canada, 9:20 p.m. Hwy. 401. Rain.

A man is in a sports car driving eastbound. He is exiting the

freeway’s collectors to get on to the Don Valley Parkway to
take him down to his home in Rosedale.

Car radio is playing softly. He is tuned into a lite-rock

station. Playing is Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night". The
man is agitated and impatient. His driving is erratic,
bordering on careless. He is in a hurry. There is a
thunderstorm and his car's windshield wipers are struggling
against the torrents of rain. Slightly ahead of him are red
taillights reflecting through his windshield into his car's
interior, casting an eerie red and shadowy glow. Our vision
of him is obscured in a semi-shadow.

The song plays: and i wear my sunglasses at night so i can so

i can forget my name while you collect your claim and i wear
my sunglasses at night so i can so i can see the light that's
right before my eyes

RICK WATTERS
How could I have been so stupid?
Gotta get home before it's too
late. Gotta get rid of it.

RICK winces at the song on the radio.

RICK WATTERS
Sorry, Corey. You're hitting a
little too close to home tonight.

He begins to flip stations, going through typical radio fare -

commercials, jokes, parts of songs - ending up on the rock
station, which is playing the Manic Street Preachers' "Found
that Soul". The song remains continuous throughout the
course of the scene and the next time we see him. (Show me a
wonder you can't be sure of I exist in a place a self-made
vacuum But still stranded here With all the scum So clean -
so lost - so beautiful)

RICK WATTERS
Missy, please don't be home. Oh,
God, please don't let her be home.
(MORE)
 2.
RICK WATTERS (cont'd)
Please, don't let them take her.
Why didn't I listen?

Rick reaches for his cell phone and tries to call home. It
rings four times. There is no answer. He does not see that
the battery level is dangerously low.

DRUMS his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel

Come on, come on.... Missy.... pick
up!

EXT. NIGHT. 9:25 P.M.

A house (276 Chestnut Drive) in the affluent Rosedale

neighborhood. Heard through the rain is a woman screaming and
an unintelligible montage of voices. CAMERA enters the house
through the living room window in search of the source and
reason.

INT. Watters Residence. Living Room.

CAMERA slowly travels through the living room. The room

itself is softly lit and its furnishings are typical of its
upscale owners. There is a fireplace on one wall. On its
mantle are various photos, including a wedding photo. We are
already familiar with the man in the photo. He is furiously
driving to get home. CAMERA stops at this photo for a moment,
then resumes its journey. Two sconces illuminate a particular
painting hanging above the fireplace. CAMERA lingers on the
painting and pans horizontally. The painting is of a French
country garden and celebrates La Belle Epoque. CAMERA also
shows its title on a small gold plate under the framed canvas
- "Le Jardin d'Abolique" - Jean Engare.

INSERT

CLOSE-UP OF PAINTING. THERE ARE SEVERAL MEN AND WOMEN IN THE

PAINTING, WHICH IS IN THE STYLE OF RENOIR. IMPRESSIONIST.
ALL SEEM TO BE ENJOYING A LOVELY SUMMER DAY IN LATE 19TH
CENTURY FRANCE. AS PER THE IMPRESSIONIST STYLE, THE FACES
SHINE WITH LIGHT AND THE FIGURES SPARKLE WITH DAPPLED COLOR.

Also noticeable is the addition of a partial new figure in

the painting, strangely resembling the woman in the photo.
CAMERA then pans to show an interesting and extensive
collection of paintings adorning the walls before finding the
source of the screaming. In the middle of the room stands the
woman in the wedding photo in a state of absolute terror.
She is in her early to mid-30s. Surrounding her appears to be
several dark, wispy, semi-transparent, yet opaque human-like
 3.

shapes resembling wet paint, or it is perhaps the play of

shadows resulting as the trees surrounding the house wave in
the strong wind and driving rain. The effects of the storm
(i.e. lightning and thunder) coupled with the way the room is
lit makes it unclear as to what we are seeing. The woman
herself appears to be almost fully brush-stroked in various
dark colors of paint.

MELISSA WATTERS
Nooooooooooooooo.

Melissa struggles to get away from an apparently imaginary

foe.
Help! Somebody, please, help me.
Help!
VOICE 1
(male and flat)
It's no use screaming. Nobody can
hear you.
(desperate and pleading)

VOICE 2
(female soothing and flat)
There, there. Everything will be
all right. You'll see.

Melissa struggles against the shadows that are around her and
tries to escape her apparent captivity.

MELISSA WATTERS
Let me go!

She puts her hands on her head, trying to escape the noise in
her mind.
All these months you've been in
here. Whispering, laughing. Trying
to make me become one of you.
Making everyone think I was losing
my mind. And now it comes to force?
If nothing else has worked, now
this?

VOICE 3
(female and flat)
You're the one.

MELISSA WATTERS
I still don't understand. Why?
What... what do you want from me?

VOICE 1
(impatient, flat) )
You will understand.
(MORE)
 4.
VOICE 1 (cont'd)
You know perfectly well what we
want. You've been far too
difficult.

MELISSA WATTERS
Nooooooooooo. I won't. I won't be
part of the collection.

The telephone rings. With great effort, Melissa maneuvers to

it but finds that the shadows she appears to see block her
every move. After four rings, it stops.

VOICE 3
Did you think that you could get
away? Did you think that he could
help you?
Shapes grab her again and try to drag her towards the
painting. She struggles against them.

MELISSA WATTERS
Get away from me!

VOICE 4
Not so fast. You belong to us now.

MELISSA WATTERS
No, I'll never belong to you.

With great effort, Melissa breaks free from her apparent

attackers and tries to plot her next move, one made on the
seeming brink of insanity fused with the horror of her
perceived situation. The shapes she envisions appear to
follow her, dripping paint as they move. She attempts to make
her way out of the house, but finds that the shapes
anticipate her every move and block and seal the doors as she
approaches them and tries to open them and then tries to
force them open. Any move results in failure. She tries the
telephone but it does not work. The windows become black and
impenetrable. She screams out the window anyway. Any object
she tries to throw through it fails. The shapes appear to
just pick them up and pull them away from her, teasing her,
taunting her, increasing her torment. Her terror then
compounds with a sense of hopelessness at the impossibility
of her escaping her apparent fate. She makes her way to the
kitchen, opens a cupboard under the sink, and removes a
bottle of a flammable substance. She then opens a drawer by
the sink and takes out a package of matches. Voice 1 takes
the matches from her.

VOICE 1
Well, if you play with fire, you
will get burned.
 5.

INT. AUTOMOBILE.

Rick Watters panics and dials 911. "Found that Soul" is

still playing. (Not a subject not a subject am I Sick and
pale but strangely alive Broken blood vessels line my cheeks
Reflections look bad and somehow unreal But I found that soul
Yeah I found that home But I found that soul Yeah I found
that now)

RICK WATTERS
(erratically and with
fear)
Operator, it's - it's my wife.
Melissa. Melissa Watters. I think
she's in trouble. Something's wrong
at home. She's not answering the
phone. Her life... is in danger....
They're... they're... going to kill
her.... Gotta stop them.... before
it's too late. Yeah, I know there's
a storm. Yeah, the lines might be
down. But you don't understand.
They're going to kill her.

LONG PAUSE.

RICK WATTERS
Who? I don't know. You wouldn't
believe me.

PAUSE.

RICK WATTERS
No, I know, I can't hear you
either. Please, you have to help.

CAMERA moves to the cell phone to show that the telephone's

power has depleted and that its battery has died. It moves
back up to Rick Watters.

RICK WATTERS
Please, you have to help. Send a
police car. Her life's at stake.
276 Chestnut Drive. Hurry....

Rick does not realize he has said it to himself only.

RICK WATTERS (CONT’D)

Almost there. Missy, hold on....
it won't be too much longer. I'll
be home soon.
 6.

He appears relieved at first, glances at his cell phone, and

sees that it is dead. A tear falls from one eye, as he
wonders if his efforts were all for nothing and in vain.

EXT. NIGHT. WATTERS RESIDENCE.

The house has been set ablaze.

INT. NIGHT. AUTOMOBILE.

The song continues. (Show me a wonder Show me a wonder Show

me a wonder Show me a wonder)

RICK WATTERS
Missy! Is it too late?

Rick senses that something is very wrong. He puts his foot on

the gas pedal and his speed increases. He tries to slow down
but cannot. He then tries his brakes. They are stuck. What
the? He skids on the slippery road and loses control of the
vehicle.

EXT. DAY. THE NEXT AFTERNOON. APPROXIMATELY 3:18 P.M.

A fire crew inspects the burned house to determine the cause

of the blaze. Curious onlookers and neighbors are milling
about. Fire Inspector is talking to one of the onlookers
while he makes notes in his casebook. Police Officer drives
up to the curb, exits his car, quickly surveys the scene, and
then approaches the Fire Inspector, who is moving towards the
house.

POLICE OFFICER
Wow. What happened?

FIRE INSPECTOR
Possible suicide. Judging by the
neighbors' accounts, perfectly
stable, good members of the
community. Nothing to warrant
burning yourself alive. Sometimes
you wonder what makes people do
something like this. One of the
neighbors did say that Rick Watters
told him that some strange things
were going on in the house and that
his wife hadn't been feeling well
lately.
(MORE)
 7.
FIRE INSPECTOR (cont'd)
Maybe we'll find out more when the
Coroner's office has finished its
investigation. What brings you
here?

POLICE OFFICER
This is a weird one. Strange that
you mentioned Rick Watters. Looks
like we have two victims. Single
vehicle crash on the 401 last
night. He was killed instantly.
Body was identified earlier this
morning. Couldn't reach the next of
kin. Guess I have a reason now.
Speed and slippery roads make for a
deadly combination. Seemed like he
was in a hurry to get home. Wonder
if we'll ever find out why.

POLICE OFFICER AND FIRE INSPECTOR begin to walk through the

remains of the burned house, examining the damage and
surveying the extensive art loss.

POLICE OFFICER
Art collectors, eh? What a waste.

Both go to the living room and look at the destroyed artwork.

Police Officer picks up one or two ruined paintings and looks
at them sadly.

POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)

I'm sure some of these could have
hung in a museum. Not any more.

FIRE INSPECTOR
Cautiously walks to what was the living room.
Careful where you walk. We'll see
what can be saved. Fire apparently
started in the kitchen. A bottle of
a still- to-be-identified substance
was found near the body. Could
have been an accelerant.

Looks at a splotch on the floor.

Bends down to examine it.

Hmmm. Looks like paint.

He touches the splotch with his index finger and examines it.
 8.

FIRE INSPECTOR
Still wet. Wonder if they were
redecorating.

He notices a painting partially covered by a charred board,

and walks toward it.

FIRE INSPECTOR
What's this?

He picks up the painting with the garden scene on it. He

gives it a quick glance. It is in perfect condition and
untouched by the fire.

FIRE INSPECTOR (CONT’D)

No damage. Nice. I'll make sure
it’s put in with the rest of the
salvageables. Let the estate deal
with it. Once arson is ruled out,
this case should be wrapped up
pretty quick. Don't know if you
guys will be investigating.

POLICE OFFICER
Looks pretty cut and dried. We'll
just wait for your report to see if
you come up with anything unusual.

Both leave the house, go to their respective vehicles, and

drive off.

INT. NIGHT. Art auction house storage room. New York, two
months later.

A painting has been uncrated and is ready for cataloguing and

an upcoming auction. It’s the painting discovered in the
Toronto fire. CLOSE-UP of painting reveals it to be lacking
one figure, that of the latest "addition". A dark shape
appears to step out from the painting and unfolds into a
shadow-like being.

INT. NIGHT. FOX MULDER'S BEDROOM. 12:29 A.M.

Fox Mulder is asleep and in REM dream state. His sleep is

disrupted and agitated, as if he is having a nightmare. He is
talking incoherently.

MULDER
I know you. We've met before.
something went wrong... You
couldn't take her... She wasn't the
one. They had to die... no... no.
 9.

His agitation at his nightmare has increased. He startles

himself awake, and wakes up sweating, disoriented, and a bit
shaky. We see him in half-light. Voice 1 and Mulder deliver
the following almost simultaneously as he jumps up from his
pillow. It will appear to be almost like a superimposition of
the two scenes/settings. In the lighting used to capture the
effect, we are to see that both have in a way become the same
person in a type of bookpage effect. Dark versus light
meeting in shadow.

VOICE 1/MULDER
(flatly)/(with emotion and
almost screaming)
No mistakes this time.

FADE to opening credits.

TAGLINE - Know Your Enemy

ACT ONE

FADE IN

INT. NIGHT. MORRISON RESIDENCE. FOUR MONTHS LATER. 2:34

A.M.

The house and its furnishings should be one right out of a

decorating magazine. Taste, style, elegance.

KAREN MORRISON is asleep in the library. ADAM MORRISON, her

husband, enters the room. In his hand he has a paintbrush
that is covered in paint. Quietly talking on his cell phone,
he walks toward her.
ADAM
Yeah, this oughta do it. Your idea
is brilliant.

Adam smiles, then pauses as the voice on the other end speaks

ADAM (CONT'D)
Yes, you were right all along.
It's almost.... foolproof. Didn't
think I could pull this off so
easily.

He gives Karen a gentle kiss on the forehead and then walks

away to a bookcase, and pulls a book from it, revealing a
tape recorder.
 10.

ADAM (CONT'D)
Even the tape is convincing -
almost like she's really losing her
mind. The info you gave me about
the painting was priceless. Too
bad it has to cost this much.

He pauses.

ADAM (CONT'D)
Yeah, the payoff will be worth it.
You think I should call them yet?

Adam waits to hear from the person on the other end of the
telephone.
ADAM (CONT’D)
You're right. See what Karen does
first. Guilty? Me?

He laughs at the voice on the other end of the phone.

Almost.

Adam goes back to Karen and gently paints a small mark on her
exposed leg.

He then hangs up, quietly leaves the room, all the while
smiling at his handiwork.

VOICE 1
He's even more clever than we hoped
he'd be... Child's play this time.

VOICE 2
What do you think he's up to?
VOICE 1
Does it really matter? Ssssh.
She's waking up.

Hearing voices, Karen then wakes up. She is frightened and

she screams when she sees a dark bruise-like mass on her leg.

KAREN
Adam!

Momentarily, Adam Morrison frantically enters the library.

ADAM
Karen? What is it? What's wrong
honey?

KAREN
Look at my leg. Look at this.
 11.

Karen points to the dark mass on her leg.

KAREN (CONT'D)
They're...They're going to do
something to me. Child's play. I
heard them. Adam, I heard them.
Ever since we got that painting. We
have to get rid of it.

ADAM
Karen, no one is going to do
anything to you. Did you have that
nightmare again? Everything's fine.
It just looks like some dirt on
your leg. Nothing that a little
soap can't take care of. Nothing is
wrong with the painting. It's just
your imagination. Come on darling,
let's go back to bed. I'll fix you
some warm milk.

Adam smiles and treats her tenderly - kisses her, caresses

her.

ADAM (CONT'D)
By morning, you'll have forgotten
all about your dream.

They leave the room, Karen close to tears and Adam seemingly
being the comforting husband.

VOICE 3
And what he doesn't fix, we will.

INT. DAY. FOX MULDER'S office. 9 A.M. THREE WEEKS LATER.

Dana Scully is sitting comfortably at Mulder's desk, feet up,

heels on desk, facing towards the "I Want to Believe" poster.
She is cradling a sketchpad in her lap with her left arm and
is completely engrossed in drawing. Her pencil skillfully
moves across the page. She looks at her subject thoughtfully,
pausing before adding to its shading. There is a slight trace
of a smile as she surveys her work.

CAMERA draws closer to her. It is curious and tries to travel

over her shoulder to capture what she is doing. She appears
to sense that she is being observed and moves in the chair to
avoid the camera's eye.

CAMERA changes focus as the office door opens. Mulder enters

the room. He notices the determination, fascination, and
almost childlike joy in his partner’s face.
 12.

For a moment, he smiles wistfully, as if he was taken back to

a place back in his own childhood; a time before innocence
lost and conspiracies found.

Mulder slowly walks to his desk, and quietly drops a

relatively thick file on it. Startled, Scully looks up at
him. She then regains her composure.

MULDER
Morning, Scully. What are you
doing?

Mulder begins to walk to where she is sitting and in order to

peek at the drawing in her sketchpad.

SCULLY
Nothing.

She closes the pad and puts the pencil down on the desk.

MULDER
(Nods to the sketchbook.)
I didn't know you could draw.

SCULLY
I haven't in a long time. Not since
college actually. I was sitting
here not long ago, catching up on
some files, and then the idea just
sort of hit me on the head. Like a
sign. From above.

On cue, a pencil drops from its perch on the ceiling on to

the desk. Mulder grins and softly laughs. Scully half-
suppresses a giggle at fate's comedic timing.
MULDER
So when do I get to see it?

SCULLY
It's just a doodle.

She notices the thick file on the desk.

Whatcha got?
(Picks up the file and
waves it seductively.)
You know, the artist in you just
might be interested in this one.
Sometimes art's a crime.

SCULLY
Uh-huh..... Mulder, you're getting
that look.
 13.

MULDER
What look?

SCULLY
You saw the white rabbit, ran after
him, chased him down the hole,
apprehended him, stuck his haunches
to the wall and yanked out a file
marked X from his trembling ears.
That look.

MULDER
You forgot to mention that he was
looking at his watch and kept
saying "I'm late".
Mulder looks at her wrist.

Scully gently pulls the file from his hand.

SCULLY
Every detail.

As Scully takes the file, Mulder gazes at the closed

sketchpad. Mulder then proceeds to gently tug at it. Scully
pulls it back. This goes on a few times. He stops for a
moment as she peruses the file. Thinking she is unaware of
his movements, he tries to smoothly slide the sketchpad away
from her notice. Sensing his motion, her hand comes down on
his and slaps it as she looks at him disapprovingly.

Caught red-handed, he looks sheepishly at her, removes his

hand from the pad, gently holds and softly touches her hand
for a moment, and entwines his fingers with hers. After a
moment, she loosens his grip, firmly takes his hand, and puts
it far away from the sketchpad.
MULDER
I see you've been working on your
grip.

The sketchpad sits enticingly on the desk.

SCULLY
Do you know how many people
suffered serious pencil-inflicted
stab wounds last year? And do
you know how many head traumas are
caused by blunt objects, such as
sketchpads, coming into contact
with people's skulls?

Mulder quietly accepts defeat for now. He positions himself

behind her. Scully takes her feet off the desk.
 14.

MULDER
Scully.... All right, all right.

SCULLY
What am I looking at?

MULDER
Possible X File. Go to page 4.

Scully flips to the page and looks at a photo of a painting.

SCULLY
Mmmm. Pretty painting.
Impressionist. Le Jardin
D'Abolique. What kind of an X file?
Art forgery or someone getting
ripped off at an auction isn't
quite enough to lure the fox to the
henhouse.

MULDER
Caught me ruffling feathers again?
Don't know. The painting's current
owner, Adam Morrison, has
approached the Bureau for its, and
especially our, assistance. Ever
since he purchased the work a few
months ago, strange things have
been going on. He says his wife
Karen claims to hear voices and
sees shapes or some sort of
creatures (CAMERA notes Scully’s
skeptical reaction) in the house,
and that they're out to get her -
they being unknown. Ordinarily,
this case seems psychological.
SCULLY
Looks like the Red Queen won’t be
off with her head any time soon.
(Mulder laughs softly with
a touch of sarcasm.)
However, what could turn this into
a possible X file is the painting
itself.

SCULLY (CONT’D)
Let me guess...
(Cuts her off.)
(MORE)
 15.
SCULLY (CONT’D)
What's in the file regarding this
particular piece of artwork shows
that anyone who has owned it at
least during the past 20 years has
disappeared without a trace or died
in a horrific manner. The previous
owner, Melissa Watters, apparently
set herself and her house on fire.
Case was closed as a suicide. No
hard evidence to suggest otherwise.

SCULLY
But...

Scully envisions a large neon paranormal sign being put up at

the henhouse.
MULDER
But, nothing except the end result
justified the case being closed in
that manner. What's also peculiar
about that case is that her husband
Rick was killed in a single vehicle
crash that same evening. Brake
failure on a brand new car. It was
almost too perfect, too tidy (He
gazes at the organized chaos of his
office), too convenient. Complete
erasing of any evidence to suggest
otherwise. Scully, something
strange, possibly connected to that
painting, was going on in that
house. It's all in the file, along
with the complete Metro Toronto PD
report. Read the transcript of Rick
Watters' 911 call that August
night. Read the psychiatrist's
report. Melissa Watters was
desperately trying to get away from
some one or some thing the night
she died in that fire.

SCULLY
Like what? It's all conjecture and
speculation on your end, Mulder.
All I see here are some comments
from their neighbors, attesting
that Mrs. Watters wasn't feeling
well.

She flips through the file and scans its contents.

 16.

SCULLY (CONT’D)
And the report from her
psychiatrist at the Clarke
Institute, obtained under warrant,
I might add, noting Melissa Watters
had suffered a breakdown a few
months before she died. She
claimed that she believed that
someone was going to kill her and
that there was some sort of evil
presence in their home. Apparently,
she had begun therapy but her
doctor indicates that her condition
had severely deteriorated since her
first visit. Overall, the report
appears to be thorough, except on
page two where the investigating
police officer observed a few
inconsistencies concerning Mrs.
Watters' apparent suicide.

MULDER
Inexplicable paint splotches on the
floor... Why that painting was the
only item that wasn't burned and
the only item salvaged from the
house. Scully, something's
missing.... Now, there's
something... almost familiar about
this case and the painting itself.
I'm sure I came across a file on it
a few years ago or something. Too
bad I wasn't able to save them all
from the fire.

SCULLY
Chances are there's a completely
rational explanation for this.
Most likely psychological, as you
pointed out. Schizophrenia?

Scully remembers her own experience.

Or, it could simply be a
hallucinogen in the paint itself.
The tox screens don't appear to
show any signs of substance abuse.
Only drugs in her system were her
prescription medication.

MULDER
We all go a little mad sometimes.
No, Scully, that's not it. Melissa
Watters was playing with something
and it wasn't madness.
(MORE)
 17.
MULDER (cont'd)
It kept changing the rules and she
lost. We'll learn a lot more when
we get to LA.

SCULLY
LA? The case makes perfect sense
now.

EXT. DAY. LOS ANGELES. MALIBU.

9:42 a.m. The next day. MORRISON RESIDENCE.

Agents Mulder and Scully arrive at the front door. Scully

rings the doorbell. Adam Morrison answers the door. Mulder
retrieves his FBI badge from his jacket's inside pocket and
flashes it to him.

MULDER
Adam Morrison? I'm Special Agent
Fox Mulder from the FBI, and this
is my partner, Dana Scully.

ADAM
We've been expecting you.

INT. LIVING ROOM.

SCULLY
Mr. Morrison, from the vague
information we have about this
matter, your initial contact with
the Bureau via Assistant Director
Skinner indicated that some strange
things were going on here in your
home. Can you elaborate on them for
us?

KAREN (O.S.)
Screams.

ADAM
Karen! Are you all right?

Karen Morrison enters the room, distraught.

KAREN
Adam, it's.... it's nothing. I'm
fine.

She looks hesitantly at the visitors.

 18.

ADAM
Karen, these are agents Mulder and
Scully from the FBI. They're here
to talk to us about the painting.

KAREN
Please forgive me. I don't usually
make such a dramatic entrance. It's
a pleasure to meet you.

ALL take a seat.

SCULLY
What has been going on since you
bought the painting?
KAREN
It started just after we brought
the painting home from the auction
in New York. We were very happy to
purchase a work of its quality.
There have been some stories about
the possibility of it being an
unknown Renoir. As you no doubt
know, Impressionism was once
considered the dishonor of France.

SCULLY
Yes, the Impressionist style was at
first received with bewilderment,
suspicion, and abuse.

Scully and Mulder exchange a humorous look.

MULDER
Did you not find it a bit peculiar
that it has been auctioned at least
6 times in the last 20 years?

ADAM
A bit, but these sorts of things
happen all the time in the art
world. We were lucky that we were
able to add it to our collection.

SCULLY
What happened after you bought it?

KAREN
Well, at first, it just felt like I
was being watched. I thought it
was because the painting seems so
lifelike.
(MORE)
 19.
KAREN (cont'd)
It has this way of mesmerizing you
and drawing you in to it. You'll
see for yourself when we go to the
library. About a month after we
bought it, the voices started.

MULDER
What kind of voices?

KAREN
Whispers. I couldn't make them out
at first. I thought I was imagining
things or that maybe there was a
movie or television crew filming in
the area. Very sweet. Very
almost... seductive, I guess. I'd
hear my name and I would turn
around and there would be no one
there. Like a caress. Then not
long after that the voices started
to have no emotion. I felt cold
anytime I heard them. They started
to get louder (indicates her head
pounding and puts her hand to her
ears as if they were screaming at
her even now). They talked about
wanting to be free, and about being
humiliated the last time or
something, and that this time they
would succeed. That they were going
to do something to me. Even kill me
if they had to. Can't you hear them
now? They're here, Agent Mulder,
and Agent Scully. In this room.
Watching you. Studying you.
Laughing at you. Look in the
corner.

Karen indicates a shadow cast on one end of the room by a

piece of furniture.

ADAM
She's been like this for a while. I
don't know what's going on. I
certainly don't hear anything or
see anything.

KAREN
Adam, they're there. I too believed
I was imagining things when it
started. But then I found myself
doing weird things.
 20.

SCULLY
What sorts of things?

KAREN
Well, going upstairs to bed at
night and finding myself in the
library the next morning without a
reason. No idea how I got there,
or how long I was there. Feeling
very very tired all the time. And
then, just a couple of weeks ago, I
noticed this.

She lifts her pant leg to show a bluish-purplish-black mass

on her lower leg - it appears to be a rather large bruise.
KAREN(CONT’D)
It was this small.
(She indicates the size of
a quarter.)
Until just now, when I changed
clothes.

SCULLY
May I have a look at that? I'm a
doctor.

MULDER
Have you been under any stress
lately, Mrs. Morrison?

KAREN
No, nothing out of the ordinary.

MULDER
Do you drink or take any drugs?
KAREN
No, no drugs. Hard to believe in
this town. An occasional glass of
wine. Because Adam works for one
of the networks, we go to parties
all the time. I'm not imagining
this, Agent Mulder.

MULDER
Mrs. Morrison, I'm just trying to
see if there is a rational
explanation for what you seem to be
experiencing.

Scully looks up at him questioningly. She pulls out a pair of

latex gloves from her bag. She puts them on and begins to
examine the bruise-like marking on Karen Morrison’s leg.
 21.

(Looks at the mark and

gently touches it.)
It resembles a bruise, but it
definitely isn't. Have you seen
your family physician about this?

KAREN
About a week ago. It wasn't healing
the way it should if it was a
bruise. And now, it's even larger.

SCULLY
(looks closer at the
"bruise".)
If anything, your bruise looks like
paint. Perhaps you just spilled
some on to yourself without
noticing. Have you been painting
your house recently? Do you take an
art class?

KAREN
No, Agent Scully. I'm a collector,
not an artist.

SCULLY
It should be fairly easy to remove
with a little paint thinner.

She examines it in greater detail.

The skin around it seems pretty dry
and chafed.

KAREN
What do you think I've been trying
to do? Agent Scully, each morning I
wash it off and by the
next day it's back. I'm on my
second bottle of turpentine.

SCULLY
Let me try.

KAREN
You're just wasting your time.
It'll be back and even bigger
tomorrow morning. Nothing I do
works for very long. It's a
nightmare. I'm covered in paint
that won't go away no matter how
hard I try to scrub it off my body.
 22.

SCULLY
Would it be all right if I could
try to take a swab or some sample
of it to the lab for further
examination?

KAREN
Agent Scully, I don't know what's
happening to me. I want to get to
the bottom of this. I can't take it
much longer.

Scully exits the house to get her medical kit from the
vehicle parked outside.

Both Mulder and Adam Morrison walk to the Library to examine

the painting.

MULDER
Have you been collecting for a long
time? You have some interesting
pieces. Mainly French, I
see, with a little Italian, and
some Chinese.

ADAM
For a few years. You have
excellent eyes. "Le Jardin" is our
favorite. It reminds Karen and
me of our honeymoon in the south of
France.

MULDER
You work for a television network?

ADAM
VP Legal. Nothing too glamorous.

MULDER
Legal? As in contracts? Anything
interesting? Some actor hit $30
million per picture yet?
Inquiring minds....

ADAM
Not particularly. The same old
business of money changing
everything. Once upon a time, it
used to be about the pictures but
now it's about greed plain and
simple. Everyone's out to outscrew
everyone else.
 23.

Adam Morrison opens the door to the library. Mulder follows

him inside. The room is filled with a vast and impressive
collection of books, artwork, and antique furniture. Typical
home office set-up, along with a chessboard. Knight crosses
Queen. Adam Morrison approaches the painting and points it
out to Mulder.

ADAM (CONT'D)
The pride of our collection.

INT. LIVING ROOM.

Scully is collecting a sample of the paint from Karen

Morrison's leg. Karen softly moans in a dull pain as a bit of
paint is being extracted.

INT. LIBRARY.

Mulder gives the painting an initial cursory look. He goes

to it and touches it in a typical investigatory manner. He
runs his hands across it, and touches it carefully, probing,
unconsciously looking for something that would be familiar to
him. As the sample of paint is being extracted the painting
almost gasps/shudders in pain, as if a part of it is being
removed. Mulder senses something not quite right, and
although he is touching the painting at the exact spot, can't
put his finger on it.

INT. LIVING ROOM.

SCULLY
Hmmmm. It shouldn't be bleeding.
Scully cleans the resulting wound and puts a bandage on the
area where the paint was removed.
That's strange.

KAREN
I can't wait for you to see the
painting. I know you'll love it.

Both go to the Library. Karen feels slightly uncomfortable

and looks worried as she watches Mulder touch the painting.

INT. LIBRARY

SCULLY
Is that the painting?

Scully walks toward it and looks at it.

 24.

It's even more beautiful than its

photo.

Scully gazes at it closely, but does not touch it. The

addition of Karen to the painting is conspicuously absent.
There is a brushstroke that is reminiscent of a new figure
but Mulder and Scully do not see it yet.

SCULLY (CONT'D)
Is it possible to take it down so
we can look at it more closely?

ADAM
Certainly.

He goes to the painting, and with Mulder’s assistance, takes

it down from the wall, and puts it on the desk.

Mulder looks at the back of the painting.

Do you have a magnifying glass?
There's something written here that
I can't make out very clearly.
Maybe it's the painting's title...

KAREN
Of course.

Karen goes to the desk, opens a drawer, and takes out a

magnifying glass.

KAREN (CONT'D)
I'm sure everything is in order.
We're fairly certain the painting
isn't a fake. Except for a brief
period of unknown ownership, its
provenances are fairly impressive.
MULDER
An impeccable pedigree still
doesn't rule out the possibility of
forgery or fraud. You are aware
that about 10 percent of all
Impressionist paintings are
suspected of being
fakes?

ADAM
Yes, you hear about artists signing
blank pages and canvases on their
deathbeds. Fraud comes part and
parcel with the art world.
 25.

MULDER
Did you read about the recent case
in England? Possibly the biggest,
and most ingenious and damaging
modern art fraud of the 20th
century? A con artist and an
unremarkable painter made fools of
the art world, and by doing so,
punctured its aura of perceived
sophistication.

SCULLY
Mulder?

MULDER
Over a span of a decade, starting
in the 80s, John Drewe
systematically infiltrated some of
the most reputable and security-
conscious art archives in the world
and altered the provenances of
genuine paintings with the purpose
of establishing a lineage to make
way for his partner-in-crime John
Myatt's often sloppy forgeries.
Matisse, Braque, Giacometti, and Le
Corbusier all became part of his
repertoire. He faked their styles
with such virtuosity that his
paintings passed for the
real thing.
As part of the fraud, Drewe then
also proceeded to seed the
collections with false records to
provide those very forgeries with
an instant, although fraudulent
heritage. He also set up a
company that authenticated the
paintings he had faked in the first
place.
The scale of the corruption in the
modern art world was unprecedented.
What distinguished this particular
case from most of the others was
how methodical Drewe was,
and how well he understood the
process of validation in the art
world.
And that he exposed the art
industry as its own worst enemy;
one much too reliant on sources
(MORE)
 26.
MULDER (cont'd)
of authenticity vulnerable to
manipulation, and one riddled with
conflicts of interest that invite
full-scale corruption.

SCULLY
Mulder, one of these days you're
going to strike out with that
photographic memory of yours. I'm
sure we don't need to hear all
about something that probably
doesn't relate to our case.

Mulder glares at her and continues.

MULDER
Chief motivation of an art forger.
Intellectual gamesmanship with the
end result of exposing
yourself as a genius and the art
experts as fools. However, it is
also known that fraud in the art
world, when discovered by dealers
and auction houses, is usually kept
secret so that the public would
continue to have confidence in the
art market. Chances are that the
museums, galleries, and auction
houses affected will never know how
much of their collections have been
compromised and otherwise
corrupted.

SCULLY

Aside and to herself. Mulder overhears.

Same chairs, different desk.

To the group.
Has interest in art become nothing
but a mere romanticism of names, of
owning a Picasso, or Van Gogh, or a
Matisse, or whomever, without
caring about what's on the canvas?
Considering only social climbing or
status instead of the painting's
intrinsic beauty? What makes a
painting worth millions of dollars
one day and having people
practically fight to the death to
acquire it and that not even one
person would want to see it the
next?
(MORE)
 27.
SCULLY (cont'd)
Is it nothing more than about being
or having the One?

MULDER/KAREN
(Simultaneously)The One?

ADAM
Yes, we heard about that scandal.
You take your chances.

SCULLY
Do you have the provenances handy?
We'd like to have a look at them as
part of our investigation. We'll
make copies and then return the
originals to you later today or
early tomorrow. You did know about
the previous owners?

ADAM
Yes, they died in such a horrible
manner.

MULDER
And you're hoping to avoid their
fate.

KAREN
Exactly. Agent Mulder, I don't want
to die just because I happen to own
this painting. I'm sure I'm
worrying about nothing.

Scully looks agreeingly at Karen. She then proceeds to look

at the writing Mulder did on the back of the canvas.
SCULLY
Mulder? It's almost like it's been
written over or something.

Mulder moves closer to his partner and looks again at the

writing on the canvas. As he touches the canvas, a slight,
but seemingly familiar chill runs through his body. He
shivers, looks up, sees Karen, and sees her as being dark and
covered in paint for a moment, with the only light spot being
the bandage on the leg that Scully has just examined. She
then returns to normal and smiles. He has a slightly puzzled
look.

MULDER
Can't make it out. We'll have to
take a photo of it and do some
scans on the wording. If that
(MORE)
 28.
MULDER (cont'd)
doesn't work, we may have to x-ray
the painting.

Karen looks upset about the possibility of an x-ray. Both

Mulder and Scully look at the painting once more.

SCULLY
Except for that writing on the back
of it, nothing appears to be out of
the ordinary. Mrs. Morrison, an x-
ray should not damage your work of
art.

Scully returns the canvas to Adam Morrison. He hangs it back

up on the wall.
Scully then turns around, looks at it, and sees for a moment,
as the sun hits it, the painting in its mesmerizing true form
(as a portrait of evil and notices that Karen has been added
to its dark, rotting, and insect-infested canvas). She
believes it is her eyes playing a trick on her and shakes her
head in disbelief. Scully then looks at the painting again.
It is in its sparkling, light-filled form.

MULDER
Scully, is something wrong?

SCULLY
No. Must be the sun in my eyes.

Scully then touches the painting.

After she is finished, CAMERA notes her favoring her index

finger and that she is touching it as it appears to be
"tacky" as if she has touched some still-wet paint but a
paint that has left no residue on her hand. Scully is
puzzled.

She continues to look at the painting.

KAREN

Notices Scully gazing at the painting. She is a bit nervous

as to what Scully has apparently discovered.
It's pretty, isn't it. Art should
be pretty. There are far too many
unpleasant things in this world.

SCULLY
Renoir.

She takes the folder containing the provenances.

 29.

SCULLY (CONT'D)
We'll get this back to you within a
day.

MULDER
Hopefully, we can find some answers
fairly quickly and put this matter
to rest.

SCULLY
If you don't mind me asking, why
did you contact the FBI?
Right now, there doesn't appear to
be much of a case of any sort, much
less a Federal one. Assistant
Director Skinner should have
referred you to the art theft
section of the Bureau. It
specifically handles these types of
cases. We're well out of our
jurisdiction and field of
expertise. The LA Field Office or
even the art history department at
a university is more than equipped
to handle this sort of matter.

ADAM
A friend, a private investigator,
recommended you. He's read about
your work and your reputation. He
said that if anyone could get to
the bottom of this, you could. You
know what's happened to everyone
who has owned this painting. My
wife and I don't want to be next.
KAREN
You're the one. No mistakes. This
time.

INT. LIBRARY. NIGHT.

Karen has come to the library for her regular nocturnal

visit. She is in a trance-like state.

VOICE 2
Are we alone?

VOICE 3
Yes, he's in the study. Probably
asleep.
 30.

VOICE 5/KAREN
I took care of them. For now. He's
seen who I am becoming. He will
remember soon. He was shocked when
he saw me. How soon he forgets. He
suspects though. She sees too. She
saw who we really are. Perhaps she
can be useful for a while. Only
until she believes. Until she finds
her proof. They won't stay away too
long.

VOICE 3
Long enough. I didn't like her
touching me.
(to VOICE 5/KAREN)
We must do this right. No mistakes.
You're lucky he didn't pick up on
what you said. He would have known
for sure who we are.

KAREN
I followed your instructions.

VOICE 4
What about Adam?

KAREN
What do you mean?

VOICE 2
Oh, nothing.

KAREN
Please. Don't kill him. It was part
of the agreement.
VOICE 3
No. We keep our agreements. You
become one of us in exchange for
his life.

Voices become still. Karen proceeds to fall asleep.

VOICE 3 (CONT'D)
He's of value. He doesn't quite
have the upper hand he thinks he
has.

VOICE 1
Neither does she. They're all the
same. Gullible. Some things never
change. We expect too much.
 31.

VOICE 2
She will realize that we do keep
our word. But it is a question of
semantics.

All Laugh.

VOICE 4
We must do this slowly. They are
here now, remember.

VOICE 3
What do we do about them?

VOICE 1
The intruders?
VOICE 4
We must wait. Let them solve their
mystery as far as we want them to
and let them go home. It's up to
him to decide their fate.

VOICE 2
We've waited a long time for them.
We must use this opportunity
wisely.

VOICE 4
Yes, to observe.

VOICE 3
And maybe have a little fun?

Voice 1 glares at Voice 3.

VOICE 1
He is a force to be reckoned with.
We must be cautious. He'll
continue to dig until he gets his
answers. She is getting stronger
as he turns her to the dark within
her. She may be even stronger than
him. A more formidable challenge.
The unknown variable. We must watch
her closely.

VOICE 2
He has a weakness. They all do.
Perhaps it is her. Perhaps
something else. We will find it and
turn it to our advantage.
(MORE)
 32.
VOICE 2 (cont'd)
With him out of the way, she is
powerless to stop us. And if we are
right about her, we will take care
of her too.

VOICE 3
Yes, Dana Scully does not realize
how big our plans are for her and
how important she is to us. She
might be the key we're looking for.
And the beauty of it is that Mulder
won't realize what has hit him.
Until it is far too late.

VOICE 1
He's a sly fox. We mustn't
underestimate him on any count.

VOICE 3
Yes, but he's in our lair.

Voice 2 looks at where Scully touched the painting.

VOICE 2
She made a mess.
(to VOICE 4)
I think you should fix it.

All move toward Karen, who has fallen asleep on the sofa.

Voice 4 softly touches Karen's leg. Another brush of dark

paint is added to it. Another brushstroke of Karen is also
added to the painting on the wall. She softly moans as her
life essence is entwined with those of the beings in the
painting. All sigh pleasurably.
INT. STUDY. A few minutes later.

Adam Morrison is in the study, and talking on the telephone.

Voice 2 is also in the room, taking the form of a shadow.

ADAM
Yeah, the FBI agents were here
today. Everything is working
according to the plan. It won't be
long now before our little problem
is taken care of.

He hangs up the telephone and smiles. He turns off the light

at his desk, gets up, and proceeds to exit the room.

Voice 2 goes back to the library.

INT. Library.
 33.

VOICE 3
Our plan is working perfectly.

Voice 3 then runs its paint tendril hand suggestively across

Karen's leg. With the touch WIPE to BLACK (like a brushstroke
sweep).

ACT TWO

FADE IN

INT. DAY. MORRISON RESIDENCE. LIBRARY. 8:42 A.M. THE NEXT

DAY.
Karen is performing her morning ritual of removing the paint
from her leg that was brushed on the night before. Adam
enters the room, sees her, smiles slightly, and then exhibits
the behavior of a concerned husband.

KAREN
(Tears welling in her
eyes.)
Is it ever going to end? Why is
this happening to me?

ADAM

Comforts her. He holds her, hugs her and helps wipe the
brushstroke away. He then kisses her on the forehead.
Karen, once the FBI agents get the
lab results back, we'll know what's
going on and how to help you.
You'll just have to be patient for
just a little bit longer.

KAREN
How much longer? I could be dead by
the time they find out what's
happening to me. Maybe we should
just get rid of the painting.
That's the right thing to do. You
know I never wanted it in the first
place. Why you bought it....

ADAM
For you. Those weeks in France were
the happiest of my life. I wanted
you to remember them forever.
 34.

KAREN
You were adamant about buying it.
It really was too expensive. Maybe
we should call the auction house
and sell it to the man who really
wanted to buy it. He seemed so
desperate.

ADAM
Let's talk about it later.

He smiles at her and abruptly changes the subject.

ADAM (CONT'D)
I'll make breakfast.
Adma leaves her to go to the kitchen.

Karen gets up from the sofa and her eye catches a book out of
place and sticking out on the bookcase. She goes to the
bookcase to put the book back in its spot. She's curious when
she struggles to fit it into its proper place. She then moves
a couple of books near it to fit it back in and discovers
something quite interesting. A microcassette recorder and
player.

KAREN
Now what is this doing here?

She then finds the play button and turns it on, keeping the
volume low but just loud enough for her to hear what is going
on - various voices are on the tape, very similar to those
she initially heard. She is shocked at what she hears, and
then takes the cassette out of the player and slips it into
her pocket. Karen leaves the room, with a slight hint of her
being Voice 5.
KAREN (CONT'D)
Adam, you've been sloppy. Tsk. Tsk.
Maybe it's time to give the devil
his due.

INT. DAY. HOTEL ROOM. ABOUT THE SAME TIME.

Mulder is finishing dressing, adjusting his tie. Scully

watches, with a slight hint of a smile.

SCULLY
There's something weird going on in
that house. I doubted this was an X
file. You know something?
 35.

MULDER
What?

SCULLY
It's the painting. For a second, I
saw... I don't know what I saw...
if I can even describe it except
that it was almost... alive... and
evil.

MULDER
What exactly did you see?

SCULLY
I don't know. The painting became
dark. Instead of the pretty
pastels, it was a sea of angry,
raging color. Almost
Expressionist. But not quite. I
don't know. Maybe more Dorian Gray.
Rotting. Dark. I thought I imagined
it or maybe it was just the way the
light hit the room. And then when I
touched it, it was sticky, as if
there was fresh paint on it that
was still drying. That's
impossible. It's over one hundred
years old. And do you know what?

MULDER
What?

SCULLY
And I could have sworn I saw Karen
Morrison in it, like she's become a
part of the painting.
MULDER
Now this is a Polaroid moment.
Maybe we should...

SCULLY
See what develops?

MULDER
Scully...... I had the same
sensation when I touched it. There
was some sort of... dark ...
presence, for lack of a better
word. Melissa Watters. Karen
Morrison. Too many similarities. I
saw her as being black, maybe
almost inhuman, if that's a way to
describe it, just for a second.
(MORE)
 36.
MULDER (cont'd)
Almost like she was brushstroked. I
thought it was just a shadow.

Scully nods in agreement.

I see things. We both don't. We
just have to wait until we get the
lab results back. And it was Karen
thinking she recognized me and
something she said. I've never met
her but there was something about
her that was familiar. Too
familiar.

SCULLY
Celluloid-familiar?
MULDER
No, not that familiar. No mistakes
this time. I'm the one. Where have
I heard that before?

SCULLY
Where haven't you heard that
before? You know what's funny? This
reminds me of the old horror B-
movie "Don't Be Afraid of the
Dark."

Mulder laughs.

SCULLY (CONT'D)
What's so funny?

MULDER
You. Always full of surprises. I
like it. I always suspected that
under that cool scientist exterior
lies a scared little kid hiding
under the bed or sleeping with the
lights on.

SCULLY
(being her usual bad liar self)
You've always out-surprised me.
And I never slept with the lights
on. Or hid under the bed. Until I
met you.

MULDER
Never let it be said that I haven't
shown you a good time. But, what
if? What if there is some one or
some thing inside that painting?
Some sort of I don't know...
 37.

SCULLY
Like what? Lonely little creatures
dragging and consigning some poor
victim into their tortured world?

MULDER
What other explanation can there be
Scully?

SCULLY
Definitely not a literal take on
art collecting.

MULDER
You aren't afraid of the dark,
Scully? Not even just a little?
Mulder then startles her with a quick and unexpected touch,
reminiscent of the hi-jinks of a 6-year-old. After a moment,
Scully absently takes his hand, entwines her fingers in his
and then lets go.

SCULLY
That's not the issue. We're here
because there's a woman who
believes that there may be
something living in her painting
and that whatever it is - that
something is out to get her.
Something is definitely going on.
But not in the painting.

MULDER
What we've seen ...

SCULLY
...has made me sometimes question
some of my beliefs... but...

MULDER
... you still haven't proven me
wrong. Something is going on with
that painting, but you won't admit
it because it goes against your
need to hang everything on your
science. Well, you know perfectly
well that sometimes science doesn't
have an explanation... yet. Part of
you knows that some one or some
thing is in that painting. You saw
something. At least admit it to me
if you can't admit it to yourself.
 38.

SCULLY
I've seen more darkness working
with you than most people see in a
lifetime. I'll admit it. And yes,
sometimes I have been afraid. And
Mulder, I do want to believe, but I
still need the facts. Not simple
faith in possibilities.

MULDER
But... what if there is something
evil living in that painting? And
what if it's playing a cat and
mouse game and using the Morrisons
as the cheese to lure us into its
trap? Scully, I know it and that
somehow it knows me... and you. And
it's hiding. And waiting. Patiently
biding its time.

SCULLY
Like what? What's biding its time?
Mulder, come on. It's paint, it's
canvas.

MULDER
Among others who have worked with
the paranormal over history,
Emanuel Swedenborg warned of the
dangers of evil spirits who will
use all manner of subtlety,
brilliance, and affection to reach
their victim. Hovering around
people like phantoms, secretly
infusing them with evil. Why not in
a beautiful painting? Literally
hanging around, waiting for the
perfect opportunity. Satan himself
could masquerade as an angel of
light. Fairy tales use the motif
all the time. Beauty and the beast.
Well, what if beauty is the beast?

SCULLY
Does everything have to be Jungian
with you? Mulder, this isn't a case
of who's afraid of the big bad
wolf. And besides, Swedenborg was
considered a bit of a nut. For
every one of your books that say
one thing, there are four more that
refute it.
 39.

He looks at her, impressed that she has read some of his

books, but still frustrated that after all she's experienced,
her mind is seemingly just as stubborn and that she still has
to challenge him.

SCULLY (CONT'D)
C'mon Mulder. Karen Morrison is a
nice woman who's looking for a
little attention. There aren't any
spirits, evil or otherwise, or
anything else living in her
painting. Yes, I have seen evidence
of the paranormal. But not in the
Morrisons' home. My eyes deceived
me for a second when it turned
dark. It could be just some clever
film stunt. You said Adam Morrison
worked for a television network. He
could have access to all sorts of
props and equipment.

MULDER
Why go to all the trouble?

SCULLY
Why not? It's the city of the
Angels. Everyone is looking for
their break. To get out of their
everyday lives and pursue a career
in fantasy. I'm sure the producers
out here have seen it all and maybe
the Morrisons have stumbled on to a
good gimmick to get noticed.

MULDER
When are the test results coming
back?

SCULLY
This afternoon. We'll expose the
fraud and then we'll be on the
first flight back to Washington.

MULDER
(to himself but loud
enough for her to hear)
No, Scully, something tells me it's
not some stunt. It's all a set-up.
Making us the fools.
 40.

INT. LA BUREAU FORENSICS OFFICE. AFTERNOON.

Scully enters the office. There is a Female Lab Tech, Agent

Fiore, inside the room.

AGENT FIORE
Agent Scully?

SCULLY
Agent Fiore. Thank you for getting
these test results back to me so
quickly. Is there anything in the
paint sample worth noting?

AGENT FIORE
A couple of interesting things.
Where did you get it?

SCULLY
Case involving a possible art
fraud.

AGENT FIORE

Picks up a case file from her desk.

What we have here are two very
different types of paint. Both are
oil- based. On the surface both
appear to be identical.

SCULLY
But?

AGENT FIORE

Indicates the two specimens near a microscope and motions for

Scully to take a look at the slides.
They're anything but. The paint on
this first slide is pretty ordinary
and common, the kind you buy at any
art supply store. Inexpensive. It's
primarily the kind of paint that a
beginning student would use.
However, the second sample is
highly unusual. Its chemical
composition resembles the type of
paint that would have been used at
least 100 years ago, if not even
longer.

SCULLY
How is that possible?
 41.

AGENT FIORE
Don't know. Do you know much about
paint itself?

SCULLY
No, not really.

AGENT FIORE
Well, painters today tend to use
raw linseed oil diluted with
turpentine as a medium. About a
hundred or so years ago and beyond,
painters generally preferred
polymerized oil, which is also
known as "stand oil". It tended to
be heated or otherwise dried and
then thinned to a painting
consistency by mixing it with
turpentine, or sometimes even an
emulsion mixed with an egg yolk.
Stand oil by itself is not what's
unusual. It's not common today, but
some painters still use it. The
pigments in the stand oil in this
second sample are what's
interesting. They don't exist today
in a truly identical form. I've
isolated two colors from the sample
you provided. There are more, but
in insufficient quantities to
analyze. This blue color (POINTS to
a very small speck of paint under
the microscope) is what is known
today as synthetic ultramarine,
which is the exact color of the
first sample. However, the tests on
the second sample show it to
contain lapis lazuli.

SCULLY
Lapis? I thought it was used
primarily in ancient Egyptian
jewelry.

AGENT FIORE
It was also used in the creation of
pigments in paint. Some artists
prided themselves on the colors
they could create with natural
materials - which ran quite the
gamut. Insects to gemstones to even
cow's urine. Indian cows were a
particular favorite.
 42.

SCULLY
Until India became Hindu. And then
....

Gets a Mulder-like thought and is somewhat embarrassed at

what she thinks Mulder would think if he was there... and
starts to giggle.
Holy cow...

AGENT FIORE
That's one way to put it.
(Both laugh. Scully then regains
her composure.)

SCULLY
What about this purple splotch?
AGENT FIORE
This color is also highly unusual.
The dye appears to have been made
from some sort of insect, and most
likely a specimen of the order
coleoptera, species Candidae,
otherwise known as the ground
beetle. I'm not an entomologist,
but my knowledge of art history
makes me suspect that the beetle
used to make this color most likely
came from either Central America or
India. It's rather unusual. If you
need to know the exact species,
I'll call in an entomologist
specializing in beetles from those
parts of the world to try to
determine it for you. If it's a
beetle that has been classified, it
shouldn't be too difficult.
However, there's very little of it -
just this tiny fragment of what
would have been its shell - and it
could take some time. There's also
another compound in the second
sample, that, to be honest, I
haven't a clue how to classify or
even understand. It emulates human
skin in that the skin is somehow
becoming the paint. In layman's
terms, it's reminiscent of some
weird sort of flesh-eating disease,
but one that's not bacterial.
Definitely not Strep A. And that
isn't even a good way to describe
it.
(MORE)
 43.
AGENT FIORE (cont'd)
It's almost like human cells, and
even DNA have in some way become a
sort of emulsion, like this
substance is somehow overwriting
the DNA. Where did you get this
from?

SCULLY
A bruise-like mass on a woman's
leg.

AGENT FIORE
A leg? I was expecting an actual
painting to be the source.

SCULLY
Yeah, she said it grew from about
the size of a quarter to taking up
most of her leg in a matter of
moments. She says she couldn't wash
it off no matter what she used.

AGENT FIORE
No, that's not right. The
nineteenth-century paint wasn't
fresh. It was dry. It's been on her
leg for at least a few days if not
even a few weeks. There was a
little blood from where you scraped
it off. Wet paint wouldn't make
someone bleed. The modern paint was
fresh. No more than maybe a day
old. A breeze to get rid of with
turpentine. What's turning into a
sort of "human emulsion" is beyond
me. And it is growing or spreading
rapidly.

SCULLY
That doesn't make any sense. If
someone wanted to pull a fraud,
could he buy this paint anywhere?

AGENT FIORE
The modern one, yes. The other one,
doubtful. Not unless you can find a
way to time-travel back about one
hundred years or find a way to
obtain the gemstones and beetles
and the follow the exact techniques
used at the time to make the
pigments. And age the painting.
It's not that it can't be done.
(MORE)
 44.
AGENT FIORE (cont'd)
You'd have to be a fairly
knowledgeable about paint at that
time and be an extremely
sophisticated forger to pull it
off. We're state-of-the-art here
when it comes to art forgery
investigations and we'd be likely
to detect that sort of fraud.

SCULLY
What about someone buying some old
paint somewhere or finding it in an
attic or basement?

AGENT FIORE
It's possible but not likely. You'd
be looking at decomposition. It's
been a hundred years. What you have
here are two very different things
masquerading as one. There's
definitely fraud of some sort, but
not what would be typical to an
ordinary art crime investigation.
The real mystery is what's
underneath the modern paint and why
someone is masking it. Or imitating
it, for whatever purpose.

Scully’s cell phone then rings.

SCULLY
Excuse me.

She reaches for her phone and answers it.

SCULLY (CONT'D)
Scully.

MULDER
Scully, it's me. Did you find out
anything?

SCULLY
Yeah, I'm starting to think like
you. Don't even ask. Looks like
we're not flying home this
afternoon. Where are you?

INT. MORRISON RESIDENCE.

Karen is searching the house, looking for more evidence that

she has been the victim of a sinister game.
 45.

Upon going through Adam's walk-in closet, she discovers a

shoe box containing two tubes of dark paint and some brushes.
All show evidence of recent use.

INT. DAY. ART HISTORY DEPARTMENT. UCLA. OFFICE.

Small cluttered office, typical of academia. Computer, in-

baskets containing student assignments and general
correspondence. File cabinet against one wall. Several
Impressionist prints - Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas,
Pisarro. The door is open. Scully enters the office. CAMERA
notes a framed degree hanging on one wall. It is from the
Universite de Paris - Sorbonne.

MULDER
Dr. Marie LaMarche, this is my
partner, Dana Scully.

BOTH exchange pleasantries. DR. LaMarche then goes to her

bookcase and pulls out a large, but thin and weathered book
from its top shelf. As she is doing this, Scully shows Mulder
the lab report and points to its findings. He looks at it
quizzically. Marie then moves back to her desk and puts the
book on it, noting Mulder gazing at the file that Scully has
given to him. Marie then flips the pages until she finds a
picture of a painting. It is the garden scene.

MARIE
Le Jardin Diabolique. Jean Engare
(EN-GAR-AY). Garden of Demons.

SCULLY
(examines the picture -
INSERT copy of painting
that does not look as
"complete" as the version
hanging in the Morrison
home)
It looks a little different.
Emptier.

MARIE
Until Agent Mulder showed me the
photo of it, I thought that it
existed only in stories and
backroom gossip. I never thought I
would ever come across it.

SCULLY
What's so remarkable about it?
 46.

MARIE
What it truly is. Evil incarnate.
The painting was rumored to have
been destroyed about 20 years ago.
Since it has appeared at least two
times since then, the rumors were
obviously incorrect. Your partner
told me about Melissa Watters. Very
disturbing. And now Karen Morrison.
The usual form the painting takes
is the pretty French garden scene.
It's gone through a number of
changes over the years. Name
changes. False provenances created
to give it a lineage that would be
an art collector's dream. All the
while covering its death toll and
adding to its unspeakable carnage.
The real painting is said to be
something like this.

DR. LaMarche turns the page over to reveal the Expressionist

form. INSERT dark form, again slightly emptier, missing some
of the newer "additions".

SCULLY
Which I saw just for a second. How
is this possible? We examined the
painting thoroughly.

MARIE
The art world has its secrets,
Agent Scully. Ones that have been
buried a long time.

SCULLY
How did the other people get into
the painting? Did some other artist
add them? The one here doesn't look
finished compared to the one
hanging in the Morrisons library.
What do you mean by its death toll?
A painting doesn't kill people.

MULDER
(laughs)
Scully, the extra people in the
painting we saw are some of its
previous... owners. They're being
... collected. You were right.
Lonely, or in this case, rather
evil little entities or creatures
that used to be people.
(MORE)
 47.
MULDER (cont'd)
Consigning other people to spend
eternity in their world.

SCULLY
What?

MULDER
It's true, Scully.

SCULLY
Why? How? If it's such a secret,
how do the two paintings exist? Why
would these... creatures allow the
real painting to be shown?

MARIE
Madness. Not many people believe le
fou. The fool. This book was
discovered in 1943. WWII. Time of
German occupation in France. The
owner at the time was Etienne
Fournot. A simple man, a farmer.
Thought to be insane. At least
after he had owned the painting for
a time. He drew what he saw as
being the real painting - what
you're seeing. He kept a diary -
this book actually - of things that
happened to him and believed that
it would be evidence to prove that
the painting harbored what he felt
were killers of a sort unknown to
this world. No one ever believed
him. He hid it well, so they - the
entities - couldn't find it and
destroy it. The diary and Fournot's
body were found in the remains of
his bombed-out home. The painting
was not found and was presumably
taken by looters.

SCULLY
How did you get the book?

MARIE
My research interests. A few years
ago, one of my students found it in
an attic in a friend's home near
Nice. He thought I might like a
good story.

MULDER
The why? The paint on Karen
Morrison.
(MORE)
 48.
MULDER (cont'd)
The "bruise" you examined. You saw
her in the painting. How? Each new
addition's life force is captured
and absorbed by brushstrokes in the
application of paint to his or her
body.

Marie nods in agreement.

MULDER (CONT'D)
Which works in tandem to tortuously
transfer this force, the soul, the
spirit, that which is human, that
which is good, from the physical
person to the physical,
impressionist painting. In reality,
each addition becomes non-human,
dark, immortal, and predatory. What
remains of the person's
consciousness would stay alive,
active, and evil. The real
painting. What Karen thought were
the voices she first heard. The
ones that plotted to kill her, or
the part of her they wished to feed
on, before she made her bargain,
whatever it is, whatever is keeping
her alive. And Adam Morrison alive.
After the collection of the new
addition, the requisite killings
and the erasing of any evidence
that would implicate the painting,
it moves on to its new home, and
then the occupants or entities
within it continue to prey on and
possess and collect other human
beings. The why? Obsession. At
first, finding the One that will
set them free. Now, frustration.
Rage. No sign of the One. All
that's left is the joy of the kill,
the thrill of the game. They wanted
you to see.

SCULLY
Because I wouldn't believe. And
that my scientific findings would
remove any suspicion of the
painting, and inadvertently, I
would become an accomplice.

MULDER
That's too easy an explanation.
They want something, Scully. And
(MORE)
 49.
MULDER (cont'd)
they're using you, playing you
against me to get it. Or find it.

MARIE
But why go to all the trouble to
draw you to LA? Those living in the
painting do not want the two of
you. Adam Morrison has not been
affected. Their goal is to complete
the painting and by doing so, to be
released from their damnation.

MULDER
(to himself)
You must be careful. It knows you.
Marie smiles. Mulder and Scully do not notice.

SCULLY
(overhearing)
Unless we can help them somehow.
Finding their One.

MULDER
I don't think so. It's deeper than
that.

MARIE
(quietly to herself,
Mulder overhearing)
Far deeper.

MULDER
Scully, you touched Karen. You
touched the painting. You told me
you thought you had touched
something sticky - maybe still-
drying paint. Scully, your eyes can
and do deceive you. You see people,
but you rarely touch who or what
they truly are. This time you did.
And they weren't expecting it.

SCULLY
Which is why you saw Karen as only
being dark for a moment. Like
attracts like. So they...

MULDER
They hid the truth from us. Karen
Morrison, or what's left of her, is
only the illusion she wants us to
see.
(MORE)
 50.
MULDER (cont'd)
Adam Morrison may be part of the
illusion himself, or a pawn in the
elaborate game she's playing along
with the creatures in the painting.
Or he may be playing his own game.
The Morrisons wanted us here. They
specifically asked for us. We have
to find out why.

MARIE
Would it be possible to arrange for
me to see the painting? Perhaps I
might be able to help somehow.

Mulder unconsciously nods in agreement and picks up the

Diary.
He knocks a small object over - an Eastern European craft
item. Unconsciously, he notices.

Marie smiles.

MARIE (CONT'D)
Maybe it will shed some light for
you.

SCULLY
Is there any way to stop the
entities from their plan to collect
Karen?

MARIE
If you can remove the painting from
her home, it is possible that its
influence on her can be stopped and
that her fate can be changed.
MULDER
Her fate was sealed the day she
took her new painting home.

INT. DAY. A SHORT TIME LATER. DR. LAMARCHE'S OFFICE.

Marie is working on her computer and talking on the

telephone.

MARIE
I've made arrangements to see it
tomorrow.

She pauses.
Yes, mon cher (my dear), I
played my part to the hilt.
(MORE)
 51.
MARIE (cont'd)
(laughs) It won't be long now. The
diary was the piece-de-resistance.
It's very convincing. It always has
been. The truth makes for
interesting reading. At least the
version we want them to know. Yeah,
he took it with him.
Fox Mulder? He's exactly what you
told me to expect. Brilliant,
intuitive mind. He hasn't put all
the pieces together yet. He needs
just one more clue. Yes, he knocked
it over. That should trigger his
memory. Yes, you were right. Your
old friend is the one. His
skeptical partner is another story.
She's the question mark.
Yes, I know, we're running out of
time.

(O.S.) A knock on the office door.

MARIE (CONT’D)
Someone's at the door. Must run. Au
revoir. Je t'aime.(Goodbye. I love
you.) Un moment. Entrez. (Just a
minute. Come in.)

Adam Morrison enters the office and moves towards Marie’s

desk. He notes her hanging up the telephone. Both are tense.

MARIE (CONT'D)
I've been expecting you. You just
missed them.

ADAM
Yeah, I know. I watched them leave.
(indicates phone) Well? That was
him, wasn't it?

Marie nods.

ADAM (CONT'D)
It worked?

MARIE
What did you think?

ADAM
Got a call from Agent Mulder asking
if you could take a look at the
painting and tell us how to rid
ourselves of its "curse".
(MORE)
 52.
ADAM (cont'd)
Let me guess. He fell hook, line
and sinker for that "diary".

MARIE
Did you think he wouldn't? We had
to do it this way. Don't be so
nervous. It's for the best. Do you
want Karen to suspect?

ADAM
(picks up and plays with
craft)
Not like she doesn't already. I'm
sure she thinks I'm having an
affair. With you.
Pauses.
Now that would be a laugh. And be
the least of my problems.

MARIE
Disappointing me again, Adam? Some
things never change. And you should
know that your jig is almost up.
Agent Scully has discovered your
hidden creative talents.

ADAM
That's all I need. This whole thing
has been wrong from day one. I
should have put an end to it and
you a long time ago.

MARIE
You know you can't get rid of me
that easily. Adam, when will you
ever learn? And since when have you
grown a conscience? Are the paint
fumes making you see some sort of
twisted light? Cut the guilt Adam.
It doesn't become you. We're so
close.

ADAM
To being exposed? God help us both.

MARIE
To getting what we want. Our
freedom.

ADAM
To getting what you want. I'm only
your errand boy. This has to end.
(MORE)
 53.
ADAM (cont'd)
The price for my freedom is too
high. This wasn't part of the
bargain. Karen doesn't deserve
what's happening to her. God, if it
was happening for real.

MARIE
(smiles)
You chose unwisely. You have as
much at stake as I do. She must pay
the price for your bad judgment.

ADAM
Don't remind me. And every day you
squeeze out yet another drop of my
soul.
MARIE
You sold it far too cheaply. So
quick to sign on the dotted line.
Lawyers.

ADAM
Damn you.

MARIE CELINE
You damned yourself Adam. I offered
you a solution.

ADAM
If those FBI agents knew the truth.

MARIE
We need them. It will end. Soon.
They will know. Panicking won't
solve this.
ADAM
It will end tonight.

He glares at her, leaves, and slams the door behind him,

cursing his folly.

MARIE
(Alone in her office.)
Yes it will.

INT. NIGHT. 10:49 P.M. MORRISON RESIDENCE.

Adam Morrison is alone in the library, working up the courage

to come clean and admit what he has done to Karen, so he can
clear his conscience, beg for her forgiveness and find a way
out of the mess he has gotten himself into.
 54.

He sits at his desk, picks up his wedding photo and gazes at

it. He wonders, where, in his eyes, it all went wrong. He
then puts it down. The desk is strewn with legal papers. He
is in no mood to work. A rare-edition copy of Lewis Carroll's
"Through the Looking Glass" (Alice in Wonderland) is on the
desk. CAMERA holds on the book for a moment. He picks it up,
absently thumbs through it, and then puts it back down on the
desk when he hears a noise. (O.S.) Door opening. CAMERA
focuses on determining the source of the sound. Karen enters
the library. She is angry. She is carrying the box that
contains the paint, brush, and the cassette tape. She moves
closer to Adam and throws the box on the desk in front of
him.

KAREN
Aren't you a little late for your
art class tonight, Adam?

ADAM
Karen, I don't understand.

KAREN
What part of paint your wife by
numbers?

Adam looks at her in shock.

KAREN (CONT'D)
It was you all along. Pretending to
be the concerned, loving husband.
Karen, darling, was it the
nightmare again? Karen, my
precious, let me tuck you in. The
paint you brushed on me every
night. And helped wash off the next
day. What did you do, put a
hallucinogen in the milk that you
made me drink? And what's this?

She shows him the cassette she has found. Karen then goes to
the bookcase, pulls a book from it, and retrieves the tape
recorder. She puts the tape in the recorder and plays it for
him. Adam acts surprised.

KAREN (CONT'D)
Why are you gaslighting me?

ADAM
Karen, it's not what you think.

KAREN
Really? You're not trying to drive
me insane? It just looks that way?
 55.

ADAM
That wasn't part of the plan,
darling.

KAREN
I want the truth. Now. Who is she?
You don't think I look at your cell
phone bills?

ADAM
Karen, there is no other woman. I
love you. Let me explain... I've
wanted to.

The rest of the voices are now noticeable, taking the form of
shadows. Karen notices them slipping out of the painting and
smiles slightly. Adam is oblivious. Note: Each word spoken
reveals brushstroke after brushstroke on Karen - this is
incrementally done until her appearance is one of a figure in
an impressionist painting that can flip into the
expressionist one at a second's notice. Contrasting lighting
(i.e. Karen in shadow and Adam in "harsh" light) should be
used in Adam’s move to his discovery of the light of truth as
it compares to Karen’s own search for the truth - she will
leave the "light" and descend further into "darkness". As the
scene progresses, the lighting should reverse, although we
will not see Karen in the harshest of lights. We will see it
reflected through her. She will be like a shadow looking at
its reflection in the light.

KAREN
Liar. I paid the price. For you.

ADAM
What do you mean?
KAREN
The deal. With them.
(She points to the
painting.)
To spare your life. Letting them
have me instead of you.

ADAM
(Does not understand and thinks the
plan worked all too well to make
her crazy.)
There's nothing in the painting,
Karen. It was all a ruse.
Everything. No one was supposed to
get hurt.

VOICE 1
Everything?
 56.

ADAM

Looks around the room and sees nothing.

What's that?

KAREN
Don't you see them Adam?

Voice 1 steps out of the shadow on the wall and stands before
Adam.

VOICE 1
We meet our creator.

Studies him.
Imperfect as he is.
Looks at Adam with a sort of contempt visible in its form and
especially, tone.

ADAM
(Frightened, backs away)
No, you're not real this time. We
invented you.

Adam waves his hand through Voice 1 of course realizing that

it is just a shadow - there is after all, nothing there.

VOICE 1
(steps closer to him)
How could you forget the last time,
Adam?

ADAM
She said it was over. That the
painting was a fake.
VOICE 4

Picks up the book that was on the desk and throws it across
the room. It starts to burn.
I thought you believed in fairy
tales, Adam.

VOICE 3
Only the ones with happy endings.

All shapes laugh.

VOICE 2
Fool.
 57.

VOICE 1
Come, come Adam. It's been too long
since we last met. It's been what?
Twenty years?

Voice 3 moves closer to him. This allows for an eclipse-like

effect to occur. Part of Adam darkens because of the shadow,
remembering what happened all those years ago.

VOICE 3
We've waited a long time for this
reunion.

VOICE 2
He hasn't changed much. Run Adam.
Like the last time.
KAREN
Adam, what's going on?

VOICE 2
You did your job. You've given us
that which is most precious to you
and more importantly, what we've
sought all these years. Mulder and
Scully.

ADAM
What do you want with them?

VOICE 1
(motions to the burned book.)
Things. What you won't dare to see
through the looking glass. (Adam is
confused.) As for you, you've
become expendable. Like all the
rest.
It's time for you to join them.
She's waited a long time. It was
your turn the last time. You
cheated.

ADAM
So Karen's retribution for my past
sins?

Adam realizes that his plan backfired, and that he

underestimated Marie. That bitch. His mind is also closing in
to knowing he was lied to and was little more than a pawn in
her own game instead of a player. He should have suspected
this all along. He feels angry and stupid. The joke he had
been playing on his wife has turned full circle and he is now
its victim.
 58.

He looks at Karen, who has started to exhibit brushstrokes

all over her body. She is trying to process what she is
learning but still does not understand.

ADAM (CONT'D)
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Please believe me.

KAREN
What wasn't supposed to happen?

ADAM
Living the past 6 years on borrowed
time. Hoping I'd never have to...
(walks closer to the painting.)
Hoping I'd never have to see that
again.

He becomes angry and tries to shake it off the wall.

VOICE 2
I don't think so.

ADAM
I destroyed it 20 years ago, when I
saw it for the first time. When I
found out what it was. I watched it
burn. The fire couldn't get hot
enough to send it back to Hell,
where it came from. It would
never...

He breaks off, not wanting to relive what happened all those

years ago.

Karen starts to put things together.

KAREN
Your family was killed in a fire 20
years ago.

VOICE 1
Such a tragedy. All those
innocents.

VOICE 3
And now we can finish what we
started.

ADAM
It was all my fault. They didn't
listen to me.
 59.

Karen moves closer to him, wanting to comfort him and spare

him the pain of the terrible memory from his childhood. The
shapes pull her away from him. She struggles.

VOICE 2
He's lying to you Karen. Do you
want to know what really happened?

KAREN
(not believing the shapes,
turning to Adam.)
You were only 12 years old.

ADAM
They died because of me.
KAREN
No, it was an accident.

ADAM
A little gypsy girl gave me that
painting as a present. She said it
would bring me and my family luck.
She had such a beautiful, innocent
smile. I believed her. I was never
to tell them where it came from. I
was to keep it until they came
back. My parents didn't like her or
her family. My father, especially.
He thought they were evil. Strange
things had gone on just after they
arrived in town from Romania and he
thought they had some sort of
vendetta against our family and
pretty much anyone in the town. My
father argued with hers all the
time. I would listen to them in my
room. It was horrible. He told me
to stay away from her. I didn't
listen. She was my friend. After
the fire, they disappeared. I never
saw her again, until 6 years ago.

KAREN
Our trip to France.

ADAM
It was at one of those open-air
markets we went to. A woman at one
of the stalls, haggling over a
small painting. She smiled at me as
I looked in her direction.
(MORE)
 60.
ADAM (cont'd)
She was that same little gypsy
girl, who remembered the little boy
all those years ago. She told me
she knew we'd meet again. She said
she had something she wanted to
show to me. That she never forgot
me. She took me to her car, opened
the trunk and unwrapped a large
object that was in it. It was the
painting. I was horrified that it
still existed. I was sure it had
burned with the house. She then
told me she knew what I had done.
That I didn't listen to her. That
because of what I did, my family
died. That I was to blame. And that
it was time for me to start to pay
for my crime.

KAREN
You were just a little boy. It
wasn't your fault.

VOICE 2
He's lying to you. He set the fire.

ADAM
To destroy the painting. They
weren't supposed to be home. It all
went horribly wrong.

VOICE 3
You failed. So now, we destroy you.

KAREN/VOICE 5
You had to buy the painting so you
could do this to me?

ADAM
I was to wait until she contacted
me. And then do whatever I was told
as punishment for my crime. I
prayed that day never came. I was
to get those two FBI agents here at
any cost. I hated it. I hated doing
what I did to you. I had no choice.
Nothing was supposed to happen to
you. It was part of the
arrangement. I don't know what the
plan is. There is someone else
behind all this who wants them for
something. The real painting was
supposed to have been destroyed and
this one was to be a fake.
 61.

Voice 3 surveys him.

VOICE 3
You were misinformed. You really
don't know much about art.

Picks up the burned book and flips to the last page.

And now this chapter must come to a
close.

KAREN/VOICE 5
This was never part of our
agreement.

VOICE 2
No?
VOICE 1
Perhaps you misunderstood?

VOICE 3
We're changing it.

The shapes move closer to them and swoop in on Adam and Karen
and surround them. At a certain angle, it would look as
though they are being attacked. Karen screams and tries to
run away, and to try to save Adam. And herself. Two shapes
hold her back.

KAREN
(Struggling)
Let me go!

Voice 1 lets go of her, but she is still restrained by Voice

3. Voice 1 goes to the painting and pulls something from one
of the trees in it. It appears to be an apple.
Voice1 offers it to her and seeing her turn away from it,
forces it into her hand.

VOICE 1
Give it to him.

It as a test of truth - Karen is to give Adam the apple and

he is to eat it. She doesn't want to. In her dark
incarnation, she knows it's poison and made of acid and that
anyone who bites from it will die.

KAREN
No. You can't do this. I won't. You
can't make me. Adam, it's poison.
Please, don't do this to him. He
was just a little boy. Not this
way. Take me instead.
 62.

The shapes grab Adamkand then hold him down on the floor. He
struggles to no avail and becomes a prisoner, by seemingly
invisible means. The shapes then push Karen closer to him and
as she resists, THEY forcibly push her down on him. Adam....
The apple is dangerously close to his body. He turns away.
Karen struggles to keep the apple away from him.

SHAPES
(together, echoing)
Make him eat it Karen.

Snakelike, one wraps itself around Adam’s neck, and lowers

Karen further on to him and the apple closer to his mouth.
This would slightly parallel the Biblical story of Adam and
the tree of knowledge.
Voice 3 forces Karen’s arm and hand closer to him and brings
the apple near his lips - Adam gasps as he can feel a slight
touch of acid on his face.

VOICE 3
This is the truth you've been
seeking all these years Adam. Can't
you almost taste it? Don't you want
to really know what happened to
your family?

ADAM
You killed them.

VOICE 3
No, you did.

VOICE 2
They were in the way.
KAREN
No! Please don't make me do this.
Please let him live. It's my life
you want. Take it.

The voices then put her hand to his mouth, hold it open, and
force the apple near it, making it so that he has no real
choice except to bite it. He is very much pinned and has
nowhere to move.

KAREN (CONT'D)
Adam, turn away. Don't do this.

She goes closer to him and whispers to him to pretend to bite

it.
 63.

VOICE 3
Do you think you're going to pull
something on us? Backing out?

The Voices and Karen then struggle with the apple. It rolls
away from her, but Voice 2 retrieves it. They overpower her.
Karen struggles.

VOICE 2
You'll just have to watch.

The Voices then hold Adam down and force him to eat the apple
and Karen to watch. As the acid from its juice runs over him,
he screams in pain. His skin burns as it eats into him. He is
severely disfigured in a matter of seconds. The acid and
poison spread rapidly over him. Karen tries to look away. The
entities pin her down to make her watch. She tries to scream.

VOICE 4
Do you think anyone can hear you?
It's what you've wanted. For what
he's done to you.

KAREN
It was never what I wanted. You
never had any intention of keeping
your side of the deal.

VOICE 1
You in exchange for his life.

Adan lays dying and is in severe pain. His body convulses as

the poison quickly works through his system. Karen goes to
Adam and and caresses his acid-eaten body. She is in her
human form once more, and is in tears. Adam looks at her once
more in love. He then struggles to say something to her.
ADAM
They will....

He then dies, apple in hand.

Karen sprawls over his body, crying. She then slowly rises
from the floor.

KAREN
Noooooooooooo!

At this point,she becomes fully brush-stroked and dark.

FADE TO BLACK
 64.

Act III

INT. MORRISON RESIDENCE. 9:37 A.M.

Typical crime scene investigation. Several POLICE,

INVESTIGATING OFFICERS.

Mulder and Scully arrive, cross police lines. Upon showing

her FBI badge, Scully talks to one of the Officers to obtain
some information. Mulder POV to Adam's covered body on the
library's floor. Adam's body is facing the painting. Mulder
sees the half-eaten apple peeking out from under the cover.
CLOSE on Adam’s acid-eaten and burned hand. POV Karen
sitting on the sofa, visibly upset and in tears, talking to
an Investigating Officer. The Investigating Officer is
writing notes in his casebook.

Karen is in shock. She is numb and is grief-stricken.

Mulder walks over to Adam's body and lifts the cover to take
a look. He motions to Scully, who goes to him, squats, and
starts to superficially examine the body. She has a typical
horrified expression at her first look at the body.

MULDER
One bad apple....
(The Biblical significance
of the apple is not lost
on Scully.)

SCULLY
Adam....

Karen/Voice 5 rises from the sofa and approaches Mulder and

Scully. Like two faces of a coin, she looks at once both
grief-stricken and filled with rapt pleasure. Karen breaks
down into tears.

SCULLY
Mrs. Morrison, I'm sorry for your
loss.

MULDER
Do you have any idea how this
happened?

KAREN
(As Voice 5, looks away
for a second, then
regains Karen’s composure
and faces Mulder and
Scully)
No, Agent Mulder, Agent Scully.
(MORE)
 65.
KAREN (cont'd)
Not at all. I wasn't feeling well
so I went to bed early last night.
Adam was working late. I took some
pills to help me sleep. When I woke
up this morning, his side of the
bed hadn't been slept in. I was
worried. I came downstairs... And
then I.... he was... on the floor
... I saw him... like that.
(She points to ADAM's
body.)
I've never seen anything so
horrible in my life.

Tears well in her eyes.

MULDER
(POV to Karen’s leg. It is
exposed and looks
"normal" with no visible
paint. Through her tears,
Karen appears to smile
slightly at his
observation.)

Mulder then crosses to Investigating Officer.

Was there any sign of an intruder?

INVESTIGATING OFFICER
House was sealed up tight as a
drum. There is a possible print,
but it's a mess. Maybe forensics
can clean it up and get an ID.
Did find this though.

Shows Mulder a plastic bag

containing a burned book. INSERT
Mulder POV to "Through the Looking
Glass". Title is barely visible.

INVESTIGATING OFFICER (CONT’D)

Strange.

Mulder is puzzled.

MULDER
Can I take a look at it for a
second?

Invesigating Officer hands him the book.

 66.

Karen moves to and touches the garden scene painting. Mulder

moves within earshot of her. Her back is facing him. His
hand absently runs over the book.

KAREN
It wasn't supposed to be like this.

She then turns and breaks down. Slight and odd trace of a
smile just before she begins to cry. Unconsciously, Mulder
catches this. To him, her words sound odd. He mouths "What
wasn't" as Scully approaches.

SCULLY
Adam Morrison was murdered. Several
fresh contusions on his upper body
evidence that he was held down and
forced to eat that apple. The still-
to-be-identified caustic substance
appears to have run down his body,
which meant he was most likely in
some upright position. Typical
reaction to poison around the mouth
area. Can't confirm the exact cause
of death til the autopsy.

MULDER
Mrs. Morrison, did Adam have any
enemies? Did anyone want to see him
dead?

Karen/Voice 5 shakes her head.

KAREN
No. I don't know.
(pauses as she thinks.
Karen - disjointed/VOICE
5 covering her tracks)
Wait a minute. A couple of times
I've heard him arguing with someone
on the phone. I could never tell
who. He always hung up and said it
was no one.

Mulder approaches the Investigating Officer to ask him to

ensure that the Morrisons' telephone records are obtained
under warrant. POV across the living room with his eyes'
final resting place being the painting. Mulder scans the
painting.
(within earshot of
Karen/Voice 5)
(CONT’D)
Why can't I remember?

Karen/Voice 5 smiles.
 67.

KAREN
You will, Mulder.

A well-dressed woman arrives at the door. Marie. Police

Officer greets her.

MARIE
Bonjour, Monsieur. (Hello, Sir)
I have an appointment with the
Morrisons.

Dr. LaMarche notices the police lines and the investigators

milling about and notes that Mulder and Scully are there.
She innocently wonders what has happened.

MARIE
Alors? Qui-est-ce? (Goodness, what
has happened?)

Marie tries to make her way past the police line.

(CONT’D)
Excusez-moi. (Excuse me.)

Shesees a Forensics sheet covering a body. Marie then sees

Karen and assumes Adam is in another room talking to the
police officers. A slight smile as the other possibility of
Adam being dead enters her thoughts. Mudler clears her
entrance to the crime scene. She moves past the police
officers.
Merci. (Thank you)

MULDER
Adam Morrison was found dead early
this morning.

MARIE
Mon Dieu. (My God.)

She sees the sheet on the floor. Slight hint of satisfaction

as one of her problems has been dealt with.
How did this happen?
(curses herself for being
too late to help)

Marie POV to Karen. She approaches Karen/Voice 5 to comfort

her. She leads her away from Mulder and Scully.

KAREN/VOICE 5
They'll know I did it.
You are going to get me out of
this.

Changes tack as she looks at the painting.

 68.

(CONT’D)
Get that thing out of my house.

Marie hugs and comforts her, as if part of the performance.

Karen begins to cry, on cue.

INT. MORRISON RESIDENCE. LIBRARY. ABOUT AN HOUR LATER.

The room is empty. Adam’s body has been removed and taken to
the morgue to be autopsied. Marie LaMarche is alone. She
walks to the painting and lovingly touches it. Voices are
soft.

VOICE 3
Twenty years is such a long time to
wait.

VOICE 1
Now no one knows the truth.

MARIE
She'll be implicated in Adam's
death.

VOICE 3
We'll have her by then.

MARIE
Was all this necessary just to get
Mulder to remember the past? He
knows, and what he doesn't, he's
going to remember. Soon.

VOICE 2
It's not him we need, remember?
He's the bonus. It's her.

MARIE
Something's not right. We should
have waited a little longer.

She looks at the spot where Adam's body laid.

(CONT’D)
Adam never even found out why his
family really died. He deserved the
truth. Not the lie he lived with
all these years.

VOICE 3
Truths and lies. They're all in the
eye of the beholder.
 69.

VOICE 2
How can you feel sorry for him?
You’re getting soft.

MARIE
Never.

VOICE 1
He got what he deserved. We got
what we wanted.

Mulder enters the room and startles Marie.

MULDER
You've waited a long time.
She looks at him questioningly. Part of her wonders if he
overheard or what he really knows.

MULDER
The painting.

MARIE
Bittersweet. A brief moment of joy
on such a sad occasion. To see it
with my own eyes. That it's real.

Abruptly changes subject.

Mrs. Morrison? Is she all right?

MULDER
She's upstairs sleeping.

Marie touches the painting. For a moment, she appears to

morph into the painting; parts of her are covered in
brushstrokes. Mulder blinks and she returns to normal. He’s
puzzled.

MARIE
How can something so beautiful be
so deadly?

MULDER
A painting doesn't kill people, Dr.
LaMarche. Once Karen gives her
statement to the investigators, and
after Adam's body is autopsied and
and forensics has had some time to
go over the evidence, we'll be
closer to finding out the truth of
what really happened here last
night.
 70.

MARIE
Really? Do we not already know it?

INT. AUTOPSY BAY. A short time later.

Adam Morrison’s body is laying on the examining table.

Scully is in the midst of performing a standard autopsy. She
grimaces at his acid-eaten visage. She notes dark spots on
the side of Adam’s face and neck.

SCULLY
Hmmmm. Now what's this?

She removes a piece of a dark substance with her scalpel.

(CONT’D)
Paint?
Scully then places it under the microscope.

INT. MORRISON bedroom.

Karen is asleep. She is dreaming - reliving Adam's murder

and her role in his death. She screams herself awake and
finds Marie at her bedside.

MARIE
We must hurry. There isn't much
time left.

INT. Hotel Room. Early evening.

Mulder is sitting on the bed, looking through the diary,

searching for the clue that will unlock his memory and
perhaps this mystery.

The Diary is written in French with some English

translations. Mulder’s laptop computer is open to an
Internet translation site. A notepad is near his computer.
Rough hand-written notes, containing a mangled English
translation. The translation below is accurate.

CLOSE in on DIARY. CAMERA scans the book, focusing on

particular passages. Translation to appear on-screen.

INSERT

C'est mon histoire (This is my story)...

Un de ces jours, peut-etre quel'qun lut (maybe someone will

read some day)…

Le 14 juillet 1942, le jour de la Bastille …. (It's July 14,

1942, Bastille Day)
 71.

Tous les mois (all these months)....

Ils visitent toutes les pieces (they have been to every room)

dans ma maison (in my house).

Comme des ombres (like the shadows)...

Ceux qui nous sont malveillant (those who we think are

evil)….

le mort que le monde (death that the world)…

ne connait pas (does not know)….

Dans la peinture (in the painting)...

Ils sont a l'affut. (They lie in wait)...

Autrefois (at one time)...

Leur banissement de la lumiere (their banishment from the

light).

Autant que je sache, ils attendrent quelqu'un (As far as I

know, they're waiting for someone).

Ils chassent (They hunt).

Je suis leur proie (I am their prey)...

J'ai tres peur (I am very frightened/afraid)

ils me tuer (they will kill me)...

J'espere qu'un jour (I hope that one day),

que quelqu'un decouverte la verite (that someone finds the
truth)....

MULDER flips the pages, landing three-quarters to the end of

the diary.

INSERT

Il y a sera (he will be there)....

L'homme qui cherche (the seeker).

Il veut reveler (He will bring to light)

le crime (the crime),

Il cherce la verite (he seeks the truth).

 72.

Il decouvra la solution (he will discover the answer)...

Selon les privisions (according to plan)...

La petite fille (the little girl)....

le petit garcon (the little boy)....

Les horreurs (the horrors) .....

Le feu qui est furieux (the fire that rages)

En dedans de la peinture (within the painting)...

Le petit garcon (the little boy)...

Les jumeaux (the twins)....

Le mort qui est la vie (death that is life)....

Mulder notes something that flicks a switch and sees the

light that is right before his eyes.

He slams the book shut.

INT. MARIE LAMARCHE’s office. Night.

Mulder abruptly enters the office. He slams the door behind

him.

Marie is startled.

MARIE
Agent Mulder, what a pleasant
surprise.
MULDER
Haven't you been expecting me?
You know perfectly well that I've
discovered the truth. That I've
remembered. About why you led me
here.

MARIE
I don't understand.

MULDER
(POV to messy, paper-
strewn desk and some
empty boxes.)
Going somewhere?
 73.

MARIE
I don't know what you are talking
about. We just met yesterday for
the first time. It's my pleasure to
help you with your case on behalf
of my role here at the University.

MULDER
About the boxes?

MARIE
Some old research materials. See
for yourself.

CAMERA reveals a stack of French-language art-history journal

articles. Mulder rifles through them.
MULDER
You've been using us all along. Me,
Scully, the Morrisons. What was the
plan? To wait til the painting
killed them both? Karen as the
bonus. Your reward for a job well
done?
You've wanted Adam Morrison dead
for over 20 years. He found out who
you really were and what you did to
his family. All these years, he
blamed himself for their deaths,
not knowing that it was you who had
already killed them before he
started the fire.
They knew exactly who you were.
The sweet little gypsy girl was
pure evil. His friend was his
greatest enemy. One he was just
beginning to know. They tried to
warn him, but you got to them
first.
You couldn't let Adam find out.
You were what, hiding behind the
house, celebrating as his house
burned to the ground? That they
all had to die? That your tracks
would be covered?
And then you disappear all those
years only to suddenly re-appear on
his trip to France. Fate. Or your
twist on it. Or was it part of the
plan?
What was it about him that you
hated so much?
That he made you human? Even for a
moment?
 74.

MARIE
Interesting story, Agent Mulder.

Mulder throws the diary on her desk.

MULDER
This one's infinitely better.
Especially the end. Never guessed
it. A credit to the brilliant
writer. You, perhaps?

MARIE
It shed some light on the painting
and maybe Adam Morrison's death?

MULDER
Cut the game, Dr. Lamarche, or
whoever you really are.

MArie picks up her phone.

(CONT’D)
You played Adam Morrison perfectly.
Played his fears about the
painting's history. His guilt about
his parents. While slowly taking
everything away from him.
Everything good. To re-set the
story, so it plays out on your
terms. Your ending. His ending.

Marie begins to dial a telephone number.

(CONT’D)
Calling your accomplice?

MARIE
Security.
Mulder takes the phone from her and moves it away.

MULDER
Not so fast.

MARIE
I can't give you any answers.

MULDER
About how I fit into this? No, that
part of the game hasn't been
played. Yet. Your job was to only
get the pieces into place.

MARIE
You give me far too much credit,
Special Agent Mulder.
(MORE)
 75.
MARIE (cont'd)
Your imagination is first-rate.
This is the story you come up with
from the diary of a madman? That
little creatures live in a
painting?

MULDER
So you admit it.

Marie is sullen.

MULDER
Not live in a painting. They are
the painting.

MARIE
And I'm somehow involved with
these... creatures?

MULDER
And Adam Morrison. Playing both
off against each other.
Blackmailing him to ensure that he
causes his wife's insanity.
Ruining his career in the process.
Making everything legit by having
the FBI investigate a possibly
forged painting, and then what
makes the story even better is to
have this very painting owned by
people who all met horrific deaths.
Put a paranormal spin so that
*I'll* get the case.
Adam didn't know your real story,
did he? Never realized the sweet
little girl from his past was a
monster. That lived in the shadows,
waiting to strike.
And then there's Karen. While Adam
thought he was doing your dirty
work, the joke was on him. She was
the part of the plan that would
destroy him. And what better way to
do this than to become the monster
he feared the most.
And you didn't stop there. What was
left was to double-deal the
creatures in the painting. Playing
their game while secretly planning
your own escape.

MARIE
You've been chasing far too many
white rabbits.
 76.

MULDER
Alice isn’t ten feet tall.

MARIE
Truly see what's through the
looking-glass.

Baited, Mulder leaves the office. Marie smiles. This part of

her job has gone well. SHE begins to pack up her office. She
sees that he has left the diary behind. Marie places it in
one of the boxes and then opens her desk drawer and takes out
a shawl - Eastern European - perhaps Romanian, embroidered, a
family heirloom.

INT. MARIE LAMARCHE’s almost-empty office. A short time

later.
Marie is at her desk and talking to someone seated across
from her. Her hands are playing with the shawl.

MARIE
It's in motion. And my freedom?

INT. VEHICLE. 8:49 P.M.

Scully and Mulder in a vehicle, enroute to the Morrison

residence.

MULDER
It was strychnine?

SCULLY
The acid was just used to cover the
paint as Adam Morrison was held
down and forced to bite into that
apple. The bite marks match his
dental records.

Mulder grimaces.

MULDER
It's never an orange, Scully. And
why is that? Is it because it's
neither poetic nor particularly
symbolic? That nothing rhymes with
it?
If Eve had offered Adam an orange,
would the Fall have happened? What
about Snow White? Would the prince
have still rescued her? What makes
an apple evil? Jung had a theory
that...
 77.

SCULLY
(Cuts him off.)
I don't know Mulder. So, bad apples
aside, how was your meeting with
Dr. LaMarche?

MULDER
Dr. LaMarche is an expert in this
case all right. She's part of
what's going on.
She's using us, you, me for
something. I re-checked the
painting's provenances. When it was
sold legitimately, although it was
always sold by different art
auction houses, the dealer's
signature is uncannily similar.
Listed as Alex Hickland or Alex
Hawkins. Handwriting appears
feminine. Like the dealer moved
from house to house each time it
was sold. Did some checking and
found out she left each house
shortly after the sale. Only to
reappear at another house before it
was re-sold or re-auctioned. Alex
Hickland/Hawkins must have tallied
up quite the commission from the
one piece alone.

SCULLY
And between auctions?

MULDER
She disappears from the face of the
earth. Poof.
SCULLY
And?

MULDER
No one disappears. Alex is Marie.
She is set free from the painting
for certain periods of time. It's
in the diary.

SCULLY
(looks for the diary.)
Where is it? It's not here in the
case file folder.

MULDER
I must have left it in her office.
I'll see if she's still there.
 78.

Mulder pulls out his cellphone, dials Marie's telephone

number, and is greeted with an operator's tape-recorded
message of the line being out of service.
Damn. Already closed up shop.

SCULLY
What do you think her game really
is?

MULDER
Ten to one, we'll find out when we
get to the Morrisons' house.

INT. Morrison Residence.

Voices softly and seductively whisper "Karen" to summon

Karen/Voice 5 awake. Prayer-like.

VOICE 1
We don't have much time. They're
closing in on us.

VOICE 2
Karen isn't ready. She's still in
the light.

VOICE 4
They'll be here soon. We can finish
then.

VOICE 3
She's warned us that it's too soon.
What do we do with her?

VOICE 2
She's useful. If it wasn't for
her, we wouldn't get a good price
for our hard work.

VOICE 1
She'll be handled when the time is
right.

VOICE 3
She's made too many mistakes.

VOICE 1
Patience. Let her live her
illusion. Nothing lasts forever.

Karen is waking up, still drugged from sedatives.

She screams at the shadows.

 79.

KAREN
No! This is a dream. You're not
real. Adam!

Karen remembers that he is dead.

No, I won't let you. You can't. I won't do it.

VOICE 3
You in exchange for his life.
We've come to collect.

All drag her toward painting. Karen screams.

FADE to BLACK

ACT FOUR

EXT. MORRISON RESIDENCE. NIGHT. A SHORT TIME LATER.

Agents Mulder and Scully are at the front door. Mulder rings
the doorbell. There is no answer. They notice some of the
lights are on in the house.

There is silence. Karen is in the Library. She is almost

fully brush-stroked.

Very little of her humanity exists at this point. The

collection process has begun.

The shapes/shadows are around her. She stands numb and

frozen. The sound of the doorbell tears ominously through the
silence.
Mulder rings the doorbell once again, tries the doorknob, and
finds it open. He hesitates and then slowly pries the door
open. Both go to the doorway and stand.

SCULLY
Mrs. Morrison? Karen? It's agents
Scully and Mulder from the FBI. Are
you here? Are you all right?

VOICE 2
(finally noticing someone
is at the door)
Someone is at the door.

VOICE 1
Who is so stupidly impatient?
 80.

VOICE 3
(goes to the window and
peers outside)
It's them.

VOICE 2
This isn't unexpected.

KAREN
They've come to take me.

VOICE 1
We have been waiting for these
visitors.

KAREN
Brushstrokes appear to fade.
(flatly to the shapes,
with emotion to MULDER
and SCULLY)
Help me.

Karen screams.

Mulder and Scully enter the house.

INT. MORRISON residence.

Darkness, illuminated by flashlight only. Low-key lighting so

that the house does not appear too dark and makes it appear
to be populated with shadows.

Mulder and Scully pull their flashlights from their pockets

and begin to search the house, looking for Karen.
SCULLY
Mrs. Morrison? Karen?

Both slowly make their way to the library. Mulder slightly

ahead of Scully. She cannot see him except for his shadow,
which is cast by her flashlight. VOICE 2 follows Scully and
proceeds to brush past her, and touches her shoulder.

SCULLY
(unsure of her partner's
whereabouts and feeling
slightly jumpy at the
unexpected touch)
Mulder? Is that you?

No answer. She catches up to him as they reach the library.

Brushes off her shoulder. Mulder indicates that she is to
enter the library from its other, opposing door.
 81.

SHADOWS are inside, waiting. Silence.

As he enters the library, Mulder directs his flashlight beam

towards the centre of the room and illuminates the shapes
congregated near the painting. Or does it just appear to cast
shadows from items already in the room? CAMERA notes that the
painting appears empty.

MULDER
(to figures)
It looks like I've got company.
Well, well, who have we got here?

Silence.

Shapes not answer the question.

MULDER
A picture paints a thousand words.
Surely you have at least a few.

More silence.

VOICE 1
(breaking the silence)
Your reputation precedes you.

MULDER
We've met before?

VOICE 3
Our paths have... crossed many
times.

MULDER
(baiting)
Funny. I never forget a face.

VOICE 4
(laughs)
You've known who we are since you
first came here.

VOICE 2
Maybe you aren't the challenge we
thought you would become. Perhaps
our observations were incorrect.

MULDER
Observations?

VOICE 1
We and others like us have been
watching you for quite some time.
(MORE)
 82.
VOICE 1 (cont'd)
Hoping that we would someday have
an encounter such as this.

MULDER
Others like you?

VOICE 3
We've known each other a long time.

MULDER
You're in my little black book?

VOICE 1
What? Didn't you think you had
fans? Your work has been
impressive. Worth watching.
VOICE 2
You didn't heed the warnings.

VOICE 3
You've been arrogant.

VOICE 4
You weren't ready to play the game
when we first met.

VOICE 2
You had to learn the rules.

VOICE 1
So now we've found something - a
game if you can call it that - that
we think you'll find interesting.
Chosen for the one who always wants
to know the truth.
MULDER

Cautiously tries to get the entities to further reveal

themselves and their motives.
What game is that?

VOICE 1
One you will not win.

MULDER
(smiles)
Of course.

VOICE 3
And don't toy with us about who we
are. You already know the answer.
(MORE)
 83.
VOICE 3 (cont'd)
Your persistence in seeking it
from us is annoying.

MULDER
(concedes)
You won't take her.

VOICE 1
(almost a smile)
We already have.

VOICE 3
Everything is wrapped in
appearances, Fox Mulder.

VOICE 1
Deceiving is believing.

Karen/Voice 5 steps out from the collection of shadows. There

is a very slight trace of the woman left. She has become a
shadowy figure that appears to be made up only of dark brush-
strokes. There is just a slight touch of light in her, more
of a distant reflection. Flashlight-lit, she appears even
more eerie.

KAREN
Agent Mulder.

Karen moves closer to him and tries to touch him with what is
left of her hands, which appear more like paint tendrils. She
lightly places one on his shoulder. A splotch of paint drips
on to him. She moves snake-like to try to touch his face,
but he turns away.

MULDER
I don't feel like curling up
tonight. Sorry.

Mulder moves her hand away from him.

MULDER
You've been this way...

KAREN
(shift to VOICE 5)
From the very beginning. It was
part of Adam's plan. And our plan.
But you knew that.

Mulder mouths "Scully".

Both look for Scully.

Where is she? Where's the lovely
Agent Scully?
 84.

Scully approaches the library from the opposing door. She

enters, directs her flashlight on to Karen and looks in
horror to see her completely constructed in paint. She
reaches for her gun and points it at Karen

SCULLY
Mulder, what's going on?

MULDER
We're too late Scully.

SCULLY

Moves closer to Karen.

Karen?
KAREN
You could call me that.
(Karen/her shadow-like
features appears to fly
toward Scully and stops
just before her. Scully
is spooked. As she sees
Mulder nodding at her,
Scully retreats back one
step and lowers her
weapon. Mulder crosses
the room toward her. They
stand together near the
painting, facing Karen.)

KAREN
(enjoying her new power)
Forgive me. Where are my manners?

Karen picks a white rose from what would be the painting's

garden. It exits/morphs from the painting and goes to her
hand. She gives it to Mulder.

It is fragrant and he brings it closer to his face. The

petals darken and turn into a column of fire that Mulder
drops on the floor. The flower extinguishes. For a split-
second, his face expresses his fear of fire. Entities notice.

MULDER
(Tries to cover his fear
with a smile.)
A rose by any other name.

SCULLY
I thought dramatic entrances
weren't your style.
 85.

MULDER
(to Karen)
Your quarrel is with me.

KAREN
She believes now. Not like before.
She, like you, is a worthy
adversary.

SCULLY
Adversary for what? Who or what the
hell are you?

VOICE 4
(seductively to Scully)
Who would you like us to be?
Karen inches closer to Scully and notices the gold crucifix
and chain around her neck. She walks toward it and admires
it.

KAREN
How pretty!

Karen then grasps it snake-like with her tendrils, snapping

the chain. CLOSE on paint on Scully's neck.

Combination of fear and curiosity in Scully.

KAREN
Oh, but we can't have any of this.

Dangles the chain.

Do you think your God will help
you?
(prayer-like)
Thy will not be done. For thine is
not the power, not the kingdom, and
not the glory.

Karen forcefully throws it across the room toward the

painting. The chain burns. The cross remains on the floor,
inverted and upside-down.

MULDER
Leave her out of this. I'm the one
you want.

VOICE 1
(returning to the subject
of Scully)
She is a part of who you are to us.
 86.

SCULLY
Which is?

VOICE 1
Why don't you tell us who you think
we are?

MULDER
In some old schools of demonology
you were known as the sixth class
of demons. The shadows.
The modern view classifies you as
members of the lower astral realm.
The typical and rather ordinary
paranormal trickster.
VOICE 3
You flatter us.

VOICE 2
Except we're hardly typical.

VOICE 1
Or ordinary.

MULDER
You've been slipping.

VOICE 2
Yes, it is true we have met with
some resistance. Collecting is a
difficult and costly vocation. Far
more than a simple hobby. So many
unexpected variables.
Fraud being first and foremost.
Far too many forgeries.
VOICE 3
The art market has become far too
overpriced.

MULDER
I see. Supply versus demand.

VOICE 2
So little value for the cost of
each acquisition.

MULDER
For the serious collector.

VOICE 3
Exactly.
 87.

MULDER
But that's not enough. Great art
often captures the life within its
creator's soul.

VOICE 2
True enough. From both points of
view.

SCULLY
Only you use humans as paint.

VOICE 3
We are much more than the sum of
our pieces. You will come to
understand.
MULDER
I understand you perfectly.
You're all afraid. You need the
light to shine in the darkness of
where you are.
That's why you mask yourself with
the light and color you so
desperately crave.
Freud called it the compulsion to
repeat. You collect so that you
will be confronted by your
greatest fear.
That you will never find what you
seek.

VOICE 2
(to Mulder - revealing
more of their neurosis
and drawing him rapidly
into it)
We have no fear.

VOICE 1
We will find the One. And then we
will be complete.

MULDER
It's been, what, over one hundred
and twenty five years? What you're
looking for doesn't exist.
Never has and never will.

VOICE 2
Have you found what you're looking
for?
 88.

The shapes move closer to Mulder and appear to swirl around

him. Angrily.

VOICE 4
Do you yourself not have the
compulsion to repeat? To disguise
the rot in your soul caused by your
guilt?

VOICE 3
You've spent your life blindly
chasing a phantom. Hungering for
and pursuing a truth that taunts
and eludes you.

VOICE 2
You're no different than us.

VOICE 1
And was it enough when you thought
you had found it?

VOICE 2
You still want more. You still have
the hunger. It's insatiable, isn't
it.

Scully slowly goes toward Mulder.

VOICE 1
You're no closer to your truth now
than you were all those years ago.
For a brief moment, it is within
your grasp, but then it's snatched
away from you.
VOICE 2
Nobility is so out of vogue.

VOICE 1
Haven't you learned anything,
Mulder? There are no answers. There
is no truth. There is what there
is.

VOICE 3
You've paid too high a price for
believing in illusions.

VOICE 4
You're just like the rest. Man has
always wanted to walk amongst the
gods.
(MORE)
 89.
VOICE 4 (cont'd)
He has yet to discover that he is a
mere thread in the tapestry of the
grandest illusion ever woven.

SCULLY
Mulder, don't listen to them.
They're liars.

Scully pulls Muleer away from the Voices' influences.

Don't be divided from the truth by
what you want to believe.

MULDER
(returns to normal)
Demand versus supply.
VOICE 2
(Conceding the shapes'
tactic was ineffective)
Just when you were becoming
amusing.

VOICE 4
(to Scully)
And as for you....

SCULLY
What about me?

VOICE 4
Would you like us to tell him your
little secret?

VOICE 2
(to Mulder)
Some things should not remain
unknown.

SCULLY

Faces the shadows and avoids the taunt.

And what secret is that?

MULDER
Enough of the little games. We
aren't interested in playing them.

VOICE 3
Do you always back off just when
things get interesting?

MULDER
Interesting for whom?
 90.

VOICE 4
Touche.

VOICE 3
(to Mulder)
There is so much she should know.

VOICE 2
(to Scully)
There is so much you should know.

MULDER
Enough. You all are far more
interesting than Scully and me.

VOICE 1
But you are our visitors.

VOICE 3
You're not letting us be good
hosts.

VOICE 2
You're not letting us tell you the
story.

MULDER
What about your story?
Your home was built circa 1875 by
Jean Engare. Thought of himself as
a contemporary of those who would
be known as the Impressionists.
Artistic envy on his end. Never
accepted into the principal group,
or by anyone, really.
Spent his days on Parisian street
corners. Never got more than a few
francs for his paintings. Primarily
to keep him from being a public
nuisance. He spent more time being
paid to wipe the spit from those
who walked on les grands
boulevards. Frustrated and angry,
he took to dabbling in the
black arts, and created some not-
so-still life.
That quickly gave a new and literal
meaning to art collecting.
Not at first of course. A string
of unexplained murders. The
gendarmerie was baffled. What few
clues there were pointed to Engare.
By the time the police got to him,
he was dead.
 91.

Looks in the painting.

VOICE 2
Oh, he's not here. We....

MULDER
Killed him. And then turned into a
unique version of a serial killer.
Masters of the perfect crime, with
the perfect cover.
After each addition or killing, you
moved on. In the guise of the
painting, you'd always be assured
of finding another home.
There would always be a chance to
discover another potential piece
and to brush away any
incriminating evidence.
The ability to kill with reckless
abandon made it all the more
exciting. No one ever suspected.
Until now.

VOICE 3
Those who did discover our plans
were taken care of. Finding the
One is all that matters.

SCULLY
At the cost of so many lives?

MULDER
What about Adam, Karen? You loved
him. You didn't have to kill him.

VOICE 1
It was part of the agreement.

MULDER
That you kept changing.

VOICE 5
He was on to us. He was going to
get rid of us. Destroy us.

VOICE 1
Like he did 20 years ago.

Voice 5 flips to

KAREN
They made me. I trusted them. They
wanted me, not Adam. I couldn't do
it. I tried to save him, and
(MORE)
 92.
KAREN (cont'd)
get out of the deal, but it was too
late. I should have known they
would break the agreement.

Karen sobs uncontrollably.

MULDER
You only traded illusions. That
you'd have any control. They used
you to exact their revenge on Adam.

SCULLY
They weren't going to let you win.
You knew too much. They couldn't
let you live.
MULDER
And if they didn't kill you, she
would.

VOICE 1
Marie?

MULDER
She legitimizes you.

VOICE 3
She has many talents. We work well
together.

MULDER
Cleaning up your messes.

SCULLY
What is it you want from us?
VOICE 2
Mulder knows. He won't tell you.
There are two sides to every
mirror, Dana. You're afraid to see
past your own reflection.

VOICE 1
Just when you were admitting the
truth to yourself. When you were
turning to the darkness within you.

VOICE 2
You're still a frightened little
girl.

SCULLY
I'm not afraid.
 93.

VOICE 3
Lying doesn't become you.

VOICE 1
The more things change, the more
they stay the same.

SCULLY
(moves closer to Karen)
Karen, you can have your life back.

KAREN
My life? It's over. I'll be charged
with Adam's murder. They won't let
me get away. Either way...
MULDER
You're framed.

Shapes laugh.

SCULLY
It's not too late. This doesn't
have to happen. You can fight them.
You can win.
Do it for Adam, do it for yourself.
Don't let his death be in vain. It
can end here.

Scully tries to touch her, to try to pry her away from the
paralyzing influence of the Shapes.

Karen contemplates her next move. She steps away and clears
the way to the painting.

Mulder moves closer to the painting and attempts to remove it

from the wall.

Shapes are interested and observe. He struggles with its

weight, removes it and then, like DeMille's Moses with the
Ten Commandments, hoists it over his head.

MULDER
Go to Hell.

He tries to smash it to the floor.

Shapes move towards Mulder and throw him against the opposite
wall.

The painting crashes to the floor.

VOICE 1
Not so fast.
 94.

Dazed, Mulder lays on the floor for a moment. There is paint

over the front of his body. His weapon is exposed. He cannot
see in the darkness and gropes to find his flashlight. He
clicks it on only to discover that its batteries have died.

VOICE 2
Check this out.

Shapes laugh.

VOICE 2
Lights out?

VOICE 1
You were easy. Predictable. Tsk,
tsk.
Voice 1 steps over him like a god. It then takes Mulder's
gun, twirls it in the air, and then clicks its safety.
Bang.

Scully jumps. She then shines her flashlight on to the

shadows to find Mulder. Both return the painting to the
wall. She leaves Karen and goes to him to examine him.

SCULLY
Mulder, are you all right?

Mulder, winded, slowly sits up and then rises from the floor.
Shapes are pleased.

MULDER
Now that we've all exchanged
pleasantries, why don't we get down
to business?
VOICE 2
Yes, let's.

Shapes drag Karen in front of Mulder and Scully. Karen

struggles in their grasp. She screams.

KAREN/VOICE 5
Let me go!

MULDER
Your terms?

VOICE 1
The lady protests far too much.

Shapes pull Karen’s hair out and throw it across the room to
the painting.
 95.

Canvas absorbs the material. Karen screams.

KAREN
No!

She drops to and crumples on the floor.

VOICE 1
Now, where were we? Yes, terms.

SCULLY
Terms for what?

VOICE 1
For interfering. For all the damage
you've done.
KAREN
Leave them alone. Let them go.

VOICE 3
Did you think we only wanted them
here to watch?

KAREN
I don't understand.

VOICE 2
Do you think we really wanted you?
Did you think you were anything
else except a means to an end?

KAREN
Using Adam as the bait. It's all
been about getting what you wanted.
Them.
VOICE 1
Was there ever any other reason?

VOICE 3
You're like all the rest.
Disposable.

KAREN
Then let me go. No one will ever
know.

VOICE 2
You know that's not so easy.

KAREN
I won't tell anyone.
 96.

MULDER
Let her go.

VOICE 1

Moves closer to Karen and forces her mouth open. Runs tendril
on her tongue as if to pull it from her mouth.
No, you won't.

KAREN
(pleading)
No. Please don't.

Karen screams.

Shapes then surround her and ponder what to do in order to up

the stakes.

After a moment, they surround her, move closer to her face,

run their tendrils across her forehead, and over the rest of
her face, before going to her eyes. With almost talon-like
claws, they then begin to pluck out Karen’s eyes. Like
blood, paint runs down Karen’s face. Karen screams as Voice 4
take the eyes in its hands and throws the eyes to the
painting. Canvas absorbs the new addition. Karen falls to the
floor.

SCULLY
You bastards.

VOICE 3
(to Mulder)
Now, where were we. Yes, yes. Your
price.

VOICE 2
He doesn't want your life.

VOICE 1
Yet.

VOICE 2
You do understand?

SCULLY
Mulder, who are they talking about?

MULDER
Why isn't he here?

Shapes are silent.

 97.

VOICE 4
All in good time. All things come
to he who waits.

VOICE 1
(to Scully) You'll find the
answer.

VOICE 2
Now, we must get back to business.
Karen, come here.
(POV to crumpled-up Karen)
Oh, but you can't.

Karen, in severe pain, refuses. She sobs. Dark paint runs

from her now empty eye sockets. Shapes forcefully drag her
near the painting.

VOICE 1
It's time.

Mulder and Scully try to pull Karen from the shadows. They
struggle, but are not strong enough.

Shapes pick her up and begin to drag her toward the canvas.

Karen hesitates for a moment. Part of her struggles to turn

light. The Shapes suspect she is backing out. They will not
allow their plans to be botched yet once again. They then
start to viciously drag her into the painting.

Karen screams. Like carrion crows, they swoop down on her and
begin to rip, shred, and consume pieces of her. Parts of her
seem to fly over the room and splatter paint on the walls and
floors.
Mulder and Scully cannot stop her fate. During the struggle,
Mulder's arm appears to morph into the painting for a second
and contaminates it for a brief moment.

VOICE 1
No contamination.

The Shape, talons visible, forcefully lunges toward Mulder

and the painting.

Scully pulls it away and pulls Mulder from the painting's

vicinity. Voice 1 retreats. Part of Karen cries out. It is
too late. Both watch as her remaining essence is violently
swept into the painting.

A large paint splotch on the floor is all that remains.

 98.

Both are upset. Mulder distant and Scully shaken at the

horror of what they just witnessed.

VOICE 1
She wasn't the One. But you knew
that.

Shapes begin to retreat into the painting. Voice 1 nods,

signaling Voice 3.

Voice 3 then moves closer to Mulder and Scully and proceeds

to enter Scully through her back. She turns dark as the
entity moves into and through her. This should resemble an
eclipse. It is neither a pleasant nor unpleasant experience.

For a moment, she resembles one of the shadows, but is

surrounded with a corona of blue-white light of sorts.

Mulder watches in horror. As the entity moves out of her and

away from her, she returns to normal.

Her face has become ashen, she has become shaky, and she has
a look of complete devastation. Voice 3 imparts a particular
piece of information to her during her brief moment of
possession. Mulder gets closer to her.

Voice 3 remains close to the two, watching and listening.

MULDER
Scully?

He reaches out to her.

MULDER (CONT’D)
Are you all right?
Mulder quickly examines her. He moves closer to her. Scully
becomes woozy, and collapses. Mulder catches her and holds
her tightly for a moment.

MULDER
(worried, and possibly worried that
it might be about him)
Don't believe anything they say.

Long Pause.

Scully loosens the embrace, steps away from him, averting his
eyes. Mulder attempts to draw her closer to him.

SCULLY
It's never been about you.

She turns away.

 99.

MULDER
Scully? What is it? What are you
talking about? What did it tell
you?

SCULLY

Scully’s back is toward him.

All these years... I've been so
wrong. We've been so wrong.

MULDER
I don't understand.

SCULLY
(She half-turns to him)
Straw houses.

Mulder looks at her cryptically. Part of him understands but

hopes it is not true and only part of the shapes'
manipulation. He is wary.

VOICE 3
Do you finally see the light, Agent
Scully?

Mulder turns to Voice 3. He understands all too well. He is

visibly upset.

Voice 3 smiles back at him.

VOICE 3
Point-counterpoint.

Both Mulder and Scully face the Shape. Both worried for their
own reasons/motivations.
Satisfied with her handiwork and the evening's events, Voice
3 re-enters the painting and appears to fold back into her
spot and dries up.

The painting is in its Expressionist/natural/rotting view and

quickly flips into the disguise of the Impressionist view.
For a brief moment, we see Karen as herself pre-collection:
in pastel, in the light, before the darkness.

Realizing that she will be trapped forever in the painting

and unknowing of the true horrors possibly awaiting her, she
screams. The painting turns dark once more as she screams,
and then reverses to its cover of the garden scene, complete
with a new smiling figure. The faces appear glowing and
triumphant.

All lights in the house come on.

 100.

Mulder reaches for his cellphone.

Scully goes back to the painting, looks at it, touches it,

questions it/what she learned, removes it from the wall, and
flips it over.

After he hangs up his telephone, Mulder then goes to Karen’s

remains, squats close to the floor, touches the paint splotch
and looks questioningly at the paint on his fingers.

FADE to BLACK

EPILOGUE

INT. MORRISON RESIDENCE. Later that evening.

INVESTIGATORS have departed. House is dark, silent. A woman
enters the library. Although our view is obscured by
darkness, we see that it is MARIE LaMARCHE. Accompanying her
is a dark-haired boy in his late teens, possibly Eastern
European ethnicity. MICHAEL HOLVEY. MARIE carries a rolled-
up canvas. Both fumble their way to the painting.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
Just like old times.

MARIE
We have to do the switch before the
guards come back.

Nervously, she looks around the room and sees sees the large
paint splotch on the floor - Karen Morrison’s remains.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
(Looks at the splotch)
Still bugs you after all this time?

MARIE
They know the truth.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
They know nothing. You worry too
much.

Both quickly remove the painting and switch it with an

identical copy, complete with the new addition of Karen
Morrison.

MARIE
Someone has to. Michael, you're too
reckless and impatient. You don't
listen.
 101.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
Yeah, yeah, the same old story.
It's not like you, you know - this
remorse thing.

MARIE
You're playing a very dangerous
game.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
It's dangerous all right. For Fox
Mulder.

MARIE
They'll find out that what it's
really been about. Your obsession.
MICHAEL HOLVEY
Is that what you think it's about?
You think small. It's bigger than
that. Trust me. Besides, I'm in
control. Don't you forget it.

Marie smiles.
Oh, and don't get any ideas.

MARIE
You may not be as in control as you
think you are. They're on to you
now.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
They're on to Charlie. Not me. As
far as they know, I'm dead.

MARIE
Mulder won't let it slide.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
I won't let him. I don't dare
disappoint my old friend especially
when he’s talking backwards.

MARIE
Let's go. We've got what we came
for. They'll never tell it's a
forgery.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
Which one? We're not quite
finished.

Michael motions to Marie.

 102.

It's cold in here. I'll make a

fire.

Michael moves to the fireplace and lights a fire. He takes a

photo of Adam and Karen and looks at it contemptuously. He
holds it close to the fire and drops it as it ignites. He
then makes his way to the chessboard, takes the Queen figure,
snaps it in half and throws it in to the fire.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
C'mon. Let's get outta here.

Moments later, the house's smoke alarms sound and as they

leave, the house is burning.

INT. Washington, DC. J. Edgar Hoover Building. MULDER's

office. The next day.

Mulder is sitting at his desk, reading the morning newspaper.

There are some old, dusty files sitting at the corner of his
desk. His hand absently runs over one.

Scully enters the office, drops a file on his desk. He looks

up.

SCULLY
The Morrisons' house burned to the
ground last night. Everything was
destroyed. Forensics found a
woman's body. Severely charred
remains. They're presuming it's
Karen Morrison.

MULDER
There was no body. We saw what
happened to her.
SCULLY
I still don't know exactly what we
saw, Mulder.

MULDER
Any idea how the fire started?

SCULLY
Preliminary reports are that it was
arson.

MULDER
The painting?
 103.

SCULLY
Burned. I've asked that it be
shipped here for further
examination and disposal.

MULDER
You won't find anything, Scully.
They're all gone. Anything that
would tie the players to the
painting. Again. The Morrisons,
dead; Marie LaMarche,
gone. Disappeared. I called the
university. No one from the art
history department ever recalled
meeting her. She never existed. Her
"office" had been closed for months
and was used only for storage.
I'll lay ten to one odds that the
painting that was found in the fire
is a fake.

SCULLY
Mulder, it's over.

MULDER
What if it isn't?
It's like trying to destroy evil.
It won’t happen. Maybe both good
and evil do need each other. In
symbiosis. Some sort of ever-
shifting identity. Like a weird
sort of mirror.
The painting has never been
destroyed. Don't know if it ever
can be. It'll just continue to
bump around like some bad lottery
ticket.

SCULLY
Yeah, the ultimate case of buyer
beware. The unlucky art lover will
discover far too late that he will
pay the highest price imaginable in
the hopes of adding to his
treasured collection.

MULDER
Yeah, the acquisition of his life.

SCULLY
If the painting wasn't destroyed,
it'll go underground. Far too easy
for it to be traced via the
legitimate market.
 104.

MULDER
We'll just have to wait til Alex
Hawkins resurfaces.

SCULLY
(looks at the old, dusty
file on his desk)
Whatcha got there?

MULDER
(gives the file to her.
Scully opens it.)

SCULLY
Charlie Holvey?
MULDER
Remember? The one with the dead
twin brother, Michael?

They warned me. I didn't listen.

Scully, Michael Holvey isn't dead
and he's out to settle the score.
He took Charlie's place. They told
you themselves. What shook you up.
What you didn't understand. Straw
houses. Straw houses get blown
away. Bricks don't.
That message was for me. Wonderland
has crashed to the ground. And
unlike Alice, this all won't be a
dream.

INT. A week later. London. W14. Office. 2:15 p.m.

CLOSE on nameplate of ALEX HAWKINS on an Edwardian desk. A

woman who resembles MARIE LaMARCHE is making a deal with a
young couple for a piece of artwork. Money is exchanging
hands.

New to art collecting, the young buyer is quite nervous about

the acquisition.

It is evident that this is the couple's first major purchase.

The woman appears slightly bored with the technicalities of
the transaction. After she receives the funds, Marie exits
the office, moves to a storage room and retrieves a crated
painting. She places it on the desk.

BUYER
This is legitimate? The previous
owners...
 105.

MARIE/ALEX
Perished tragically. An opportunity
to purchase a work of this calibre
comes but once in a lifetime.

She motions for him to sign the new ownership papers. Smiles
as he signs them.

INT. Office. London. W 14. Late evening. Rain.

MARIE LAMARCHE and MICHAEL HOLVEY are at cross-purposes.

Michael Holvey is planning his next move; Marie is hoping it

all doesn't crash down upon him and them.

MICHAEL HOLVEY
Everything has to be perfect. No
mistakes next time.

INT. MULDER's office. Late evening. Rain.

Scully is sitting at Mulder’s desk, putting the final touches

on her sketch.

CAMERA moves to her and reveals it to be a sketch of Mulder’s

"I Want to Believe" poster. It is almost finished and she
has partly completed the shading of "believe". She smiles
thoughtfully at her work. The telephone rings. She answers
it, and plays with Mulder’s desk nameplate during the
conversation. She hangs up and goes back to her drawing.

Thunder rumbles in the distance.

INT. BEDROOM. MULDER's apartment. 12:21 a.m. Lightning,

thunder, wind, rain.
Mulder is in bed and is asleep.

He is restless and tossing and turning. Mulder is rambling in

his sleep, as if he is in the midst of a nightmare. Wakes up
during a clap of thunder. Half-light as lightning strikes.

No...... No mistakes next time.

FADE TO BLACK