CAMERA PANS THE DIM MOON OVER THE NEW YORK SKYLINE ON A PURPLE NIGHT. CUT TO THE STREETS BELOW: A SHAVEN-HEADED MAN WALKS DOWN A DARK INDUSTRIAL STREET, WHERE THE ONLY LIGHT COMES FROM THE DIM POOLS OF THE LANTERNS DOTTED AROUND. HIS ARMY BOOTS CAN BE HEARD THUMPING OVER THE SIDEWALK AS THE SHOT CUTS TO HIS PERSPECTIVE - AS HE APPROACHES AN ALLEYWAY, SMALL GASPING SOUNDS ARE HEARD COMING FROM IT, THOUGH IT IS UNCLEAR WHETHER THE ONE MAKING THEM IS LAUGHING, CRYING, OR WHISPERING.
AS HE PASSES THE OPENING HE LOOKS AROUND THE CORNER. A TEENAGE GIRL IS CROUCHED ON HER HEELS, HUGGING HER KNEES. SHE SNAPS HER HEAD UP QUICKLY AS HE APPROACHES.
MAN: Um... are you okay?
GIRL: [eyes reflecting the street-light’s light like a cat’s] Nobody is okay.
MAN: [smiles wryly, keeping his distance so as not to spook her] Yeah ... you’re prob’ly not wrong about that. [watches her warily, crouched on the floor across the alleyway] Look, is everything cool here? Do you need help?
GIRL: [rises to her feet slowly, watching him] No. [finally smiles] I’m out of there – everything is going to be fine now.
MAN: Did something happen to you? [concerned] I have a cell, if you need me to call the cops or anything –
GIRL: [laughing] The cops can’t do anything about the one who put me in that... place.
MAN: Uh-huh. Well look, I don’t like to push, but... we should probably get you off the streets. How about I take you home? [as she looks at him doubtfully] Look, I’m not dangerous. I promise. I can call someone else to come get you if you’d rather that, but I can’t just leave you here.
GIRL: [biting her lip, thinking, then finally nodding & pushing off the wall unsteadily – pulls out syringe protruding from her arm out & drops it the ground without the Man seeming to notice] ... Yeah. Okay. Thanks. [gathers herself together & smiles at him] Promise not to... y’know... kill me.
MAN: Scout’s honour.
GIRL: [as she approaches him] In fact, you should really let me kill you.
MAN: Sure thi- wait, what?
GIRL: It’s only fair. Drinking your blood would help restore my strength. Since it was God who took it from me when he threw me downstairs, it seems just that His most favoured creation should give it back. [laughs, shaking her hair over he shoulders] It’s not like I’ll ever get the big man himself to heal the damage he caused. All HE ever does is smite and judge and smite some more. [pauses, then adds afterthought] Asshole.
MAN: [staring at her] Oh-KAY... so, lady, I’m guessing you either took a knock to the head, or you’re just generally... [circles a hand around his head making a crazy sign] Look, I should prob’ly take you to a hospital. Looks like you’ve been through a shit-ton, and I get it – I really do. But, that said, I am SO not the person to deal with you right now.
GIRL: Oh, you’ll do fine. [sniffs] Your blood smells
great. You shouldn’t beat yourself up.
MAN: No, no, you don’t understand. [sighs] Thing is, I’m the jaded old-timer figure of this movie, ya dig? I mean, I’m still like one of the moral centres and all – at least until the REAL hippies start showing up - but really, my own head’s already pretty fucking crowded here. Look, it’s not that I’m UNWILLING handle your PTSD on top of mine – I haven’t lost ALL my compassion, else I’d probably have shown up as a demon instead – it’s more that I’d probably just make you worse if I tried to fix your damage myself, since I’m also haunted by my dark past. [looks around] Ideally, of course, this is the point where a fast-talking no-nonsense matriarch would come and take you off my hands, leaving me free to hunt down whoever made you all loopy and blow up their shit without the encumbrance of a trauma victim. But I have a feeling this movie is gonna be unnecessarily long anyway, so what say we just find you a hospital instead, huh?
GIRL: Oh, that’s okay. You can still help me. [snaps head on one side with a sinister smile- her eyes scorch black] We don’t have to form a connection based on full character history or anything...
MAN: [under his breath as he sees her black eyes]... Aaand there you are.
REACHES INTO A POCKET AS SHE LUNGES AT HIM, THEN STOPS WITH A JOLT – SHOT MOVES OUT REVEAL HE HAS STABBED HER IN THE HEART.
MAN: Girl was only fifteen or sixteen years old. [yanks dagger out of her breastbone, making said girl’s body jolt again as the demon glares from behind black eyes] You fucking
dick.
MAN STEPS BACK AS THE WOUND IN ITS CHEST BEGINS TO SMOKE, HARDER AND HARDER, UNTIL FLAMES ARE LICKING AT ITS EDGES. HE WATCHES WITH GRIM SATISFACTION AS IT GOES UP LIKE A BONFIRE - WHEN IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A FLAMING STRUCTURE OF MELTING FLESH, BEGINNING TO LIST TO ONE SIDE, HE TURNS AND WALKS OFF INTO THE NIGHT. PULLS OUT HIS CELL AND DIALS – FEMALE VOICE ANSWERS.
MAN: Demons are
dicks.
SOLUMINA: You hit town yet?
MAN: Yeah, yeah, I’m here. I had to park like sixteen blocks down. Just got attacked by some asshat in an alley. I saw a syringe – I think the girl OD’d, and the demon crawled inside when she gave up. You know how they love a good ol’ soul in despair.
SOL: [silence] You take care of it?
MAN: They’re both dead. [pause] I couldn’t save the kid - didn’t have any Holy water on me.
SOL: Hey man, you did what you had to do. Okay? Look, we have to stay alive. If this End of Days prophecy I keep hearing about is really a thing, we demon-hunters are gonna be the survivors’ only chance.
MAN: Whoa, hold up – don’t tell me YOU believe that End of Days shit. I thought everyone who ever went near Council business knows there ain’t no God or Paradise. There’s just us, and them.
SOL: Doesn’t matter. What matters is, the DEMONS believe it. Hell believes the time is nigh, and it’s gathering its strength to engulf the Earth - God or no God, that shit sounds like getting messy to me. [pause] And we both know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think the same.
MAN: [shrugging] Hey, maybe I just came to catch up with my oldest friends. You ever think of that?
SOL: Uhhh, nope.
[MissC is heard yelling in background: “That him? Where IS the old fucking tart?”]
SOL: [to MC] Yeah, he’s like, sixteen blocks away. [pause as MC’s voice is heard yelling again] Miss C says hurry the fuck up, we haven’t seen your elusive ass in forever.
MAN: I’ll be there in five.
SOL: Awesome. We have a TON of catching up to do. And Versus?
VERSUS: Yeah?
SOL: Just... try and walk sixteen blocks without getting into trouble, huh?
VERSUS: [smirks] You know me. [hangs up and continues down the street - the burning form behind him explodes into embers like a small firework display.
Green River strikes up and as he walks off into the night, embers floating to the ground behind him like fireflies lulling down to sleep.