                                                      SCENARIO RPGMAKER
                                             http://geocities.com/dw817



                            "THE PROPHECY"



 With the sound of wind, of sand gritting against glass:

 FADE UP ON:

 A howling dust storm battering the doors and walls of a tiny 
 woodplank church.

 Inside, huddled together against the rage outside, are a 
 small group of people. All in black, mostly elderly, they 
 kneel in prayer.

 Before them, on the cramped altar, lies a man. Dressed in 
 the uniform of a general, surrounded by the silk softness of 
 his casket.

 He's an old man, far from the crump of battles, consumed now 
 with stillness, listening to the prayers of old people. Of 
 desert wind, moaning through thin wood.

 The candle beside his head flickers and wanes in the ceaseless 
 gusts, strains for life, then goes out.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT

 It's not the best part of town and probably never was. A 
 place of seedy, anonymous brick flophouses shackled by rusting 
 fire escapes, lying on an alley unique only for its bad 
 drainage. It's here, in the dim, flinty light, that a figure 
 enters.

 Wearing a long coat and, despite the night, sunglasses, he 
 pauses on the slimy asphalt and gazes up the sides of the 
 flophouses, to their yellowish windows and competing Mexican 
 radio stations. One window, dark and quiet on the third floor, 
 catches his gaze.

 There's a metal hand railing in the alley that the long-coated 
 figure effortlessly pops up onto. Sunglasses focused on the 
 window, he lowers himself into a motionless crouch, a perch, 
 on the railing with the ease of a crow. Or a gargoyle.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Dawn is a muddled, limp thing that does nothing to improve 
 the alley. The figure is still there, a motionless gargoyle 
 perched on the railing. Watching the window.

 The shadows shorten, the air grows warmer, and now there's 
 movement behind the window.

 The sunglassed gargoyle drops down off the railing, jumps up 
 to the first rung of the fire escape, and begins climbing.

 BEHIND THE THIRD FLOOR WINDOW

 Is a room as grim as we expect. Lumpy iron bed, sink that's 
 been pissed into one too many times, and SIMON; a man in a 
 tight sweater and dark sunglasses, busily emptying his pockets 
 on the ruined dresser: loose change, a town paper's obituary 
 column.

 Simon's sunglassed eyes look up suddenly, his body 
 stifffening. He whips around to face the window just as it 
 EXPLODES into fragments.

 The gargoyle LEAPS into the room on the trail of glass. Simon 
 spins and THROWS himself against the intruder. The two 
 STRUGGLE savagely across the room, SMASHING chairs.

 Simon manages a grip on the gargoyle's face and POUNDS the 
 back of his skull against the wall. The gargoyle gets his 
 locked fists up and SWINGS them like a war club, SMACKING 
 Simon's face and SPRAWLING him backwards onto the bed.

 The two, across the room for each other, pause.

  GARGOYLE
    Where is it?

 Simon's climbed to his feet, the two men in sunglasses now 
 walking slow circles around each other.

  SIMON
    Leave me alone.

  GARGOYLE
    You've found it, haven't you?

  SIMON
    Fuck you.

 The gargoyle drops his head and DRIVES himself into Simon, 
 who HAMMERS the gargoyle with his fists. Blood SMEARS.

 The gargoyle's gotten free a knife that he JAMS into Simon's 
 leg. Pressing home his advantage, the gargoyle SLAMS Simon 
 up against the wall. He TEARS open Simon's shirt, digging 
 his fingers into the chest, RIPPING the skin aside, the first 
 plunging deep, CRACKING the sternum bone, pushing even 
 further, toward the blood gouged pumping beneath --

 -- Simon PLOWS his knee up between the gargoyle's legs. Over 
 and over. Till the grip loosens and Simon SHOVES him to one 
 side, using the momentum and drives to SWING the body around 
 and at the shattered window. The gargoyle SMACKS the frame 
 and COLLAPSES, his head CRACKING on the sill and FORCING a 
 shard of glass through his neck.

 Simon moves to the window and brushes aside the gargoyle's 
 sunglasses, revealing two totally empty eye sockets. Pushing 
 his thumbs into them, Simon uses the leverage to lift the 
 gargoyle off the sill and push his body out the window.

 The gargoyle bounces once on the fire escape, then spread-
 eagles thirty feet to the asphalt.

 Somebody turns up their Mexican radio station.

 The gargoyle's a wreck.

 But he manages, slowly -- his shattered remains arguing every 
 inch -- to climb first to his knees, then miserably to his 
 feet. A bent, splattered, hopeless thing that manages to 
 stumble three or four feet before being HIT by a freeway-
 speed firebird BOMBING down the alley.

 The impact PINS the gargoyle to the grill and RAMS him into 
 a brick wall, CRUSHING a chest that BELCHES out a sickly, 
 bruised heart like a wet rag against the firebird's 
 windshield.

 THREE FLOORS ABOVE

 Simon leans against his splintered window and looks down at 
 the pinned and very finished body of the gargoyle. His own 
 shirt and pants are a mess of torn blood and his breathing 
 is difficult. Pain flashes across his forehead as he checks 
 that his own sunglasses still sit snugly on the bridge of 
 his nose.

 At the sound of a distant siren Simon turns and quickly 
 finishes packing his duffle bag. Stiffly pulling on an 
 oversize surplus army jacket that partly conceals the damage 
 beneath, he picks up the bag and painfully shuffles out.

DISSOLVE TO:

 The gargoyle, still pinned to the wall by the firebird.

 A FLASH bounces off his skin. Then another. He's being 
 photographed. Go wide and find him in the middle of a police 
 investigation. Bored blue uniforms, yellow barrier tape. The 
 usual.

 A plain jane sedan pulls up and deposits THOMAS DAGGET, 
 thirties, tweed coat and steel notebook. He smiles at a couple 
 of cops, ducks under the yellow barrier, and nods a greeting 
 to an older uniform sergeant, BURROWS.

  THOMAS DAGGET
    Hey.

  BURROWS
    Hey.

  DAGGETT
  (looks up at sky)
    Thought those clouds this morning 
    spelled rain for sure, but it's turned 
    into a beautiful day, wouldn't you 
    say, Sergeant Burrows?

 Thomas takes a deep, healthy breath. Burrows just stares at 
 him.

  BURROWS
    I warned you about that cheerful 
    shit.

  DAGGETT
    Sorry. I'm working on it.

 He eyes finally make their way to the gargoyle.

  DAGGETT
    What's the word?

  BURROWS
    Friend here did a half-gainer with a 
    firebird tuck from the third floor.

  DAGGETT
    Jumper?

  BURROWS
    Not unless he decided not to bother 
    opening the window first.

  DAGGETT
    Drugs? Alcohol?

  BURROWS
    Well, he wasn't exactly in a condition 
    to walk a chalk line when we got 
    here. You're welcome to try and smell 
    his breath if you like, that is if 
    you can find the mouth.

  DAGGETT
    Ghouls been by?

  BURROWS
    On their way. Willie promises a white 
    paper tomorrow. Or Wednesday, 
    depending on his golf game.

  DAGGETT
    Firebird driver?

 Burrows nods in the direction of a very shook up young man 
 sitting on the curb.

  BURROWS
    Mr. Jiminez. Was taking a short cut 
    to his job at a packing plant on San 
    Pedro. First thing he remembers about 
    the deceased is several vital organs 
    bouncing off his windshield.

  DAGGETT
    Have you had him walk a chalk line?

  BURROWS
    He's straight. Shook up some.

  DAGGETT
  (looking at gargoyle)
    Anything on him?

  BURROWS
    No wallet, license, nothing. He is 
    missing one or two things, though.

  DAGGETT
    Like?

  BURROWS
    His eyes.

  DAGGETT
  (looking at tangled 
  mess)
    Along with everything else.

  BURROWS
    We've found everything else -- and 
    what fun that was, let me tell you -- 
    but the eyes are still AWOL. Might 
    just be stuck in the radiator grill. 
    Little weird though.

  DAGGETT
    What?

  BURROWS
    Both popping out together like that. 
    Worth a page in my scrapbook.

 INT. FLOPHOUSE

 Burrows and Thomas coming up the stairs.

  DAGGETT
    Who's the room registered under?

  BURROWS
    John Smith.

  DAGGETT
    Anything interesting inside?

  BURROWS
    There are, what an intelligent, 
    experienced detective like yourself 
    could possibly construe as signs of 
    a struggle.

 They enter the room, which is, of course, totally trashed. 
 Thomas steps over the splintered furniture.

  BURROWS
    Naturally nobody saw or heard 
    anything.

  DAGGETT
    In such a fine establishment as this?

 Thomas looks at the splashes of blood, overturned dressers, 
 a newspaper, the "Chimney Rock Republican"; one name in its 
 obit section circled.

 Burrows sighs and checks his watch.

  BURROWS
    Ku San's on fourteenth is still open 
    for another hour. Whatd'ya say we 
    pull out the 'ol "SUICIDE" rubber 
    stamp and get some lunch. Rancid 
    chow mein and watered beer for under 
    three bucks.

  DAGGETT
  (looking at floor)
    There's glass in the carpet.

  BURROWS
    That usually happens when you break 
    a window.

  DAGGETT
    It's on the inside.

 Amongst the glass fragments at Thomas' feet is a pair of 
 dark sunglasses. He picks them up, taps them in his palm, 
 and looks out the window down to the man with no eyes, pinched 
 between brick and chrome.

  DAGGETT
    Where's Chimney Rock?

  BURROWS
    Arizona desert, I think. Which is 
    exactly where I'm going to be in two 
    years, three months.

  DAGGETT
    And give up all this?

  BURROWS
    You're breaking my heart.

DISSOLVE SLOWLY TO:

 The sun sinking beneath the horizon of a vast and undulating 
 expanse of desert.

 Travel through the landscape as the sky purples and darkens 
 and silhouettes tall, finger-like spires of volcanic rock. 
 Hear the coyotes, the wind making its constant, probing 
 search. Before the night swallows it all whole,

 Come upon The Town.

 It used to be something. But that's long gone. Now, wrapped 
 in the sucking blackness of a wilderness night, it's a shell 
 of a place.

 Lights still burn in some of the windows but fool no one. 
 The ghosts are the majority here. Biding their time. Waiting 
 for The Town to surrender and slip beneath the waves of the 
 desert.

 The wind slinks over the hills, creeps down past boarded-up 
 storefronts, skeletal ocitillo, and the rusting hulks of 
 abandoned mining equipment. The corpse of a summer's kite 
 twists slowly on a power line.

 ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

 From the inky oblivion of the road, comes a crunch of gravel.

 ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN

 Stands a large, nineteenth century brick schoolhouse. An 
 icon from a more prosperous past, its dark massiveness was 
 meant for scores of ruddy-faced miner's kids. Now it seems 
 to be imploding, eating itself with creeping decay. On this 
 night it is silent and dark but for a small glow in one corner 
 and the faint sound of children's voices in song.

 It is a hymn. An ancient, Latin one. The melancholy beauty 
 of voices rising and falling in choir.

 INSIDE THE BUILDING

 Is a school auditorium. On the stage, dwarfed by it, are 
 twenty five students from first grade to high school, singing 
 together as a choir. A young woman, KATHERINE, directs their 
 acapella voices as the small group of parents, lonely in the 
 huge room, look on.

 OUTSIDE

 The voices drift on the night, down the road, and lap against 
 the peeling facade of a storefront. A mortuary.

 INSIDE

 The rooms are dark but for one. There, bathed in the 
 flickering light of a tall candle, lies the body of the old 
 general we saw at the opening.

 THE FRONT DOOR

 Of the mortuary has a locked handle that jiggles from outside. 
 A small panes of glass beside it is BROKEN by a hand.

 IN THE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

 Young voices struggle with the complicated hymn and its pain 
 of centuries. Faces white, Mexican, Navaho. Katherine guides 
 them with soft hands. She smiles in pride. They smile back. 
 Proud. Of her. Of themselves and the beauty coming from their 
 mouths.

 One small, beautiful navaho girl, MARY, maybe eight, gets a 
 special smile of special friendship from Katherine.

 THE MORTUARY'S

 Front door now stands ajar in the darkness. Small shards of 
 glass glisten in the carpet.

 INSIDE

 Is the dead General. Even in the bleached ravages of age and 
 death, his face still holds a shadow of vigor and pride.

 It takes a moment in the weak flicker of the candle to realize 
 someone is there with him. Simon in his oversized surplus 
 jacket. His arms are folded tightly across his middle, as if 
 in deep cold. But his gaunt face is moist with sweat and his 
 breath is shallow and uneven. He stares at the old man behind 
 sunglasses and takes slow, cautious steps forward into the 
 amber glow.

 Holding out two blood-stained fingers, Simon touches the 
 General's forehead. A new strain crosses his perspiring face. 
 Concentration.

 Placing his right palm on the General's chin and the left on 
 his forehead, Simon CRACKS OPEN the dead man's mouth.

 IN THE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

 The hymn is reaching its aching climax of medieval longing.

 IN THE MORTUARY

 Simon leans down to the open mouth, and in a voice soft and 
 deeply weary,

  SIMON
    Qui ex Patre Flioque procedit...

 Then, with the school choir distant and faint in the night, 
 the living man places his mouth over that of the dead man...

 IN THE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

 It's coffee and cake now as parents proudly hug their children 
 and congratulate their young teacher. Even in this gloomy, 
 crumbling building it's a warm, small town moment.

 OUTSIDE

 Simon has left the mortuary and now limps with difficulty 
 through the silent streets, leaning against shop walls for 
 support.

 AT THE SCHOOL BUILDING

 Through the doors out steps the eight year old Navaho girl, 
 Mary. Alone, she stands on the stone stairs and looks out 
 into the night with sensitive eyes. She concentrates. Knows.

 Katherine follows her out.

  KATHERINE
    Hey bright eyes, what's the deal 
    being out here all alone without a 
    coat?

 The girl's eyes seem too serious for a child's. Too 
 perceptive.

  MARY
    Someone's here.

 Katherine looks out into the night.

  KATHERINE
    Where?

 Mary stares a moment longer, then becomes a child again, 
 smiling and popping Katherine one on the arm.

  MARY
    Pig out on all the cake?

  KATHERINE
    Oh, there might be one, tiny, skinny 
    piece left, but you're gonna have to 
    race me for it.

 Mary suddenly points past Katherine's shoulder.

  MARY
    What's that?

 When Katherine turns Mary dashes back into the building.

  MARY
    Ha!

  KATHERINE
    You little sneak!

 Katherine chases after her.

 AT THAT MOMENT

 Simon comes limping up from the road. His breathing's bad 
 now as he moves stiffly along the school's brick walls, coming 
 to an old, rusty back door he creaks open and slides through.

 INSIDE

 He climbs a littered and disused staircase, past broken beer 
 bottles and condom wrappers to a dark and creaky second floor.

 It's part of the school building long abandoned. Doors to 
 classrooms lie half off their hinges, windows are broken, 
 rats squeak between ancient desks stacked like funeral pyres.

 Simon, his breath echoing in the cold darkness, shuffles 
 along the broken linoleum till he comes to a rectangle cut 
 in the wall where a row of lockers used to be. He crawls 
 into the space and there, surrounded by rot, curls up on 
 himself and sucks his thumb.

DISSOLVE TO:

 INT. APARTMENT

 Thomas Dagget's eyes opening slowly. He sits up in his bed, 
 runs a hand through his hair, and looks out with only medium 
 enthusiasm at the morning.

 INT. CHURCH

 Thomas lights an offering candle and kneels for a brief, 
 silent prayer. He crosses himself, stands, and walks for the 
 door. Before leaving he glances back at the altar. A 
 questioning moment between two akward, estranged friends.

 INT. POLICE CENTER

 Thomas sits at his desk half-heartily trying to make sense 
 of the three dozen files piled there. Lt. Paul, his boss, 
 leans against a wall nearby.

  LT.
    How's it going?

  DAGGETT
    I was just looking for my "SUICIDE" 
    rubber stamp.

  LT.
    Sorry about leaving you without a 
    partner. Everything's up in the air 
    till the commission settles their 
    manpower budget.

  DAGGETT
    I'm okay.
  (his phone rings)
    Dagget... It's done already?
  (smiles)
    Must have rained over the golf course 
    this morning. I'll be right over.

 INT. CORONER'S OFFICE

 A set of golf clubs rest forelornly in the corner. An 
 irritable looking coroner fumes behind his desk as Thomas 
 enters.

  DAGGETT
    Hey, Willie, sorry to hear about the 
    weather.

 The coroner just stares at him.

  DAGGETT
    Should I bother sitting?

  CORONER
    Sit.

 Thomas obeys as the coroner spreads out a stack of white 
 sheets.

  CORONER
    Where would you like me to start?

  DAGGETT
    I think we can skip the cause of 
    death.

  CORONER
    All right. To begin with, your man 
    has no eyes.

  DAGGETT
    Weren't stuck in the radiator grill?

  CORONER
    No, he never had any eyes. We checked 
    the sockets. There's no optic nerve, 
    muscle pores, loose viscus, nothing.

  DAGGETT
    Huh.

  CORONER
    We also did a toxicology on his blood: 
    High sodium, elevated selenium, no 
    floating cholesterol platelets, trace 
    ammonia.

  DAGGETT
    Something wrong with that?

  CORONER
    No, it's actually pretty common -- 
    for an aborted fetus.

  DAGGETT
  (rubs eyes)
    I should have listened to Burrows...

  CORONER
    We also did a bone section. Wasn't 
    that much trouble since most of them 
    were sticking out of his chest anyway.

  DAGGETT
    And?

  CORONER
    When babies grow up their bones get 
    larger by adding calcium layers over 
    the interior haversham canals. Child 
    growth isn't uniform though, comes 
    in spurts that always leave growth 
    rings in the bone. Everybody has 
    them -- except your man. That would, 
    to a hasty observer, seem to indicate 
    he had never been a child.

  DAGGETT
    I assume you, a cautious and learned 
    observer, of course have an 
    explanation.

  CORONER
    Not even remotely. Want to hear the 
    last one?

  DAGGETT
    Not even remotely.

  CORONER
    He's a hermaphrodite.
  (Thomas stares at him)
    -- Has both male and female sex 
    organs.

  DAGGETT
    Think of the possibilities.

  CORONER
    Yeah, you can be impotent and frigid 
    all at the same time -- they don't 
    normally work.

 Thomas sighs and climbs to his feet.

  DAGGETT
    Well, I'd love to say thank you, but --

  CORONER
    Oh, I also have a bonus prize for 
    you.

 The coroner opens his desk and pulls out a small, ancient 
 looking leather bound book.

  CORONER
    Found this sealed in his coat lining.

 Thomas turns it over in his hand.

  DAGGETT
    It's a bible.

  CORONER
    A pretty old one, I think.

 Thomas runs his finger across the gold-leaf cover.

  CORONER
    We checked it out inside. Thought 
    there might be a name or fingerprint 
    somewhere. All we found was a curled 
    page marking the fourteenth chapter 
    of St. John's Revelations.

  DAGGETT
    There is no fourteenth chapter to 
    Revelations.

  CORONER
    Maybe this is the teacher's edition.

 Thomas opens the bible and there it is, in Latin, the 
 fourteenth chapter.

  DAGGETT
    Can I keep this awhile?

  CORONER
    Sure.

  DAGGETT
  (beat)
    Can you sit on all this a few days, 
    Willie? Not circulate the file? I 
    need some time before all the 
    questions start.

  CORONER
    Oooh, are we breaking the rules again?

  DAGGETT
    So what else is new?

 INT. POLICE OFFICE

 Thomas at his desk, working under a lone gooseneck lamp. 
 He's translating the fourteenth chapter of St. John's 
 Revelations from Latin onto a slip of paper. Finished, he 
 sets the ancient bible down, turns off the gooseneck, and 
 leans back in his chair, alone in the dark.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. DESERT - EARLY MORNING

 Here, outside The Town, horizons are distant, faraway things. 
 The sky overhead is streaked red and blue with barely morning 
 as the screen door of a simple stucco house swings open. 
 It's Katherine, the teacher. Wearing levis and boots, she 
 carries a saddle swung over one denim shoulder out to a corral 
 behind the house where a horse shuffles and whinnies 
 impatiently.

  KATHERINE
    In a minute, in a minute...

 Katherine throws the saddle over the horse and cinches it 
 down as the sun, still tucked behind pink and grey cliffs, 
 begins to heat up the sky.

 EXT. SANDSTONE CANYON - MORNING

 Deep and narrow, an idyllic canyon of compressed sandstone 
 walls smoothed, rounded and etched by centuries of wind. A 
 tiny creek flows past weak banks of scrub pine and pocked 
 sycamore. A silent place a long way and a long time from 
 anything but the approach of galloping hooves.

 Katherine and her horse run full-out through the canyon, the 
 clack and splash of hooves echoing off steep, shadowed walls. 
 Horse and rider drive each other harder and harder, their 
 hot breath brief clouds in the arch, thin desert air.

 Boulders shattered by winter cold and summer heat, deep wind-
 cut caves hiding scorpions, sidewinders, or a wary mountain 
 lion all pass as in a blur; arrogant hawks and patient 
 buzzards, ruins of thousand year old Anasazi villages high 
 on the cliffs, their weather-beaten skulls, seen and unseen, 
 staring out; everything is one smear of color and smell as 
 Katherine gallops past them and up the cliff trail, out of 
 the canyon, and onto the main plateau.

 ON THE PLATEAU

 Katherine strokes her horse and feeds it a bag of carrots. 
 She pulls a thermos from the pack, sits down against some 
 old man rocks, and with the coffee steaming in her hand, 
 greets the sun now cresting the Chuska Mountains.

 There's a rutted, silty dirt road nearby. An ancient, battered 
 school bus rattles its way past and stops. The bus driver, a 
 Navaho, JOHN, climbs down and rubbing the side of his head 
 painfully walks up to Katherine.

  JOHN
    You could save my life with some 
    coffee.

 He holds out an empty cup Katherine fills. Sipping painfully, 
 he lays down beside her and pulls the brim of his baseball 
 cap over his eyes.

  KATHERINE
    Tough night?

  JOHN
    You don't want to hear about it.
  (peeks out hopefully)
    Or maybe you do.

  KATHERINE
    No thanks.

  JOHN
    Just checking.

 The bus is full of young school kids.

  KATHERINE
    Shouldn't they be getting to school?

  JOHN
    Impromptu field trip. I'm broadening 
    their minds. And sparing them the 
    sight of their beloved chauffeur 
    barfing his guts out.

 Katherine's horse snorts.

  JOHN
    I hate horses. How was the canyon? 
    Honey-suckle out yet?

  KATHERINE
    Didn't see any.

  JOHN
    I hate that canyon. I hate this this 
    whole plateau. Too many goddamn 
    ghosts. Leave it to them I say. San 
    Diego, that's where I'm going. Or 
    Oxnard. I like the sound of that. Ox-
    nard.

  KATHERINE
    I'm happy here.

  JOHN
    Oh lord protect us, another romantic 
    pale face in love with the desert.

  KATHERINE
    Just got to give it a chance.

  JOHN
    Try growing up here.
  (tries word out on 
  tongue)
    Ox-nard.
  (sticks out coffee 
  cup)
    Uno mas, see-boo-play.
  (she pours)
    Speaking of romantic pale faces, the 
    rumor mill is in high gear again.

  KATHERINE
    Who this time?

  JOHN
    That funny looking guy from Window 
    Rock. The BIA lawyer.

  KATHERINE
  (non-committal)
    Huh.

  JOHN
    No! Say it isn't so!

  KATHERINE
    It isn't so.

  JOHN
    Thank you.

 He finishes the coffee and climbs painfully to his feet.

  JOHN
    Thanks for the joe.

  KATHERINE
    No prob.

  JOHN
    You're a credit to the community.

 He shuffles back to the bus.

  JOHN
    All right children, looks sharp! 
    This is a school day! And no talking 
    loud!

 The bus coughs alive and crawls forward. Katherine waves to 
 the faces behind glass, then settles back for a last moment 
 of peace as silence lays again over the land.

 EXT. KATHERINE'S HOUSE - DAY

 Showered and changed into her teaching clothes, Katherine 
 climbs into a rattling pickup.

 EXT. THE TOWN

 Katherine drives to work, passing on the outskirts the closed 
 copper mine, vast and abandoned. Down beyond the fading main 
 street lies the great crumbling brick pile that is the school. 
 Katherine parks her truck, grabs her leather bag, and walks 
 in.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Katherine's lecturing her students. All twenty-five of them. 
 There's high school age sons of white ranchers, Navaho girls 
 on the edge of puberty, tiny Mexican children. All being 
 taught together in one room.

 It's dinosaur day. Katherine has a large fossilized bone on 
 her lap.

  KATHERINE
    This is "Camposaurus". Camposaurus 
    was a herbavore, which meant he only 
    ate plants. Camposaur stayed mostly 
    to himself and never bothered anyone.

 The little girls smile. They like Camposaurus. Katherine 
 holds up another bone fragment.

  KATHERINE
    This is a leg fragment that belongs 
    to the killer of the plateau, 
    Alosaurus. Alosaurus was a vicious 
    carnivore, which meant he'd eat 
    anything that moved, especially nice, 
    juicy Camposaurs.

 The little boys grin. They like Alosaurus.

  KATHERINE
    Both these guys lived together right 
    here on the White Rock plateau eighty 
    million years ago, when this area 
    used to be on the banks of a huge, 
    shallow sea. Remember how we talked 
    about how sedimentation fossilizes 
    bones? That's also what made the 
    hills out behind our town and put 
    the copper in the ground.

  HIGH SCHOOL KID
    Lot of good that did us.

 Katherine lifts off the desk an ancient 1950s gieger counter 
 and switches it on. It ticks softly when she points it at 
 the dino bone.

  BOY
    It's radioactive! Like Godzilla!

  KATHERINE
    Just a tiny bit, Alex. Do you know 
    why? Uranium, that's the rock they 
    use in nuclear power plants --

  BOY
    And bombs!

  KATHERINE
    And bombs Alex, yes, is all through 
    these hills naturally. Millions of 
    years ago the dinosaurs here ate 
    plants and drank water which had 
    uranium in it that became concentrated 
    in their bones, which is exactly 
    how, with Mr. Geiger counter here, 
    we're going to find some.

 The class CHEERS.

 EXT. HILL - DAY

 With the brick schoolhouse tiny in the background, Katherine's 
 class trudges its way up the barren, rocky hillside behind 
 the town. The teenage rancher's kids try to make time with 
 the Mexican girls One of the little boys has gotten into a 
 shoving match with a little girl.

  KATHERINE
  (coming between them)
    -- Hey. Come on. What's the deal, 
    Brian?

 The girl folds her arms defiantly. The boy is pissed, 
 embarrassed.

  BRIAN
    She...

  KATHERINE
    Yes?

  BRIAN
    ...She, she called me a "Dick Head".

  KATHERINE
    Sandra?

  SANDRA
    Well, he is.

  KATHERINE
    All right, Brian. You get one free 
    insult. Make it good.

 Brian concentrates.

  PAUL
    You... You're a... Cow Demon!

  KATHERINE
  (beat)
    Uh... Okay. Everybody satisfied?
  (looks at Brian)
    Cow Demon?

 UP ON THE HILL

 Katherine's given the geiger counter to the little Navaho 
 girl, Mary. Focusing grimly on the rock in front of her, 
 Mary guides the detector over the stones till suddenly it 
 begins clicking softly.

  MARY
    I got one! I got one!

 The high school kids come up and help dig.

  KATHERINE
    Easy... Easy... Don't break it.

 Almost immediately, an eye socket appears in the dust.

 As the students carefully brush away the dust, Katherine 
 looks back across the crumbly path. A coyote has crept up 
 onto a near ledge. It just stands there. Watching her.

DISSOLVE TO:

 INT. BIG CITY CHURCH

 It's mostly empty at this time of day and the young man 
 sitting in the pew, staring at the altar, is alone. His name 
 is GABRIEL and he wears jeans, a faded leather jacket, and 
 dark sunglasses, even inside. His thin hair is slicked back 
 and there's an almost feminine quality about him.

 He sits there a moment longer, staring, then gets up and 
 leaves.

 EXT. DOWNTOWN ALLEY

 The alley from the beginning. Gabriel pulls his old, 
 convertible rambler to a stop and walks into the flophouse.

 INT. FLOPHOUSE

 He comes upstairs to the landing, where the door to the room 
 is covered with a strip of yellow tape: POLICE INVESTIGATION. 
 DO NOT ENTER.

 Gabriel pulls the tape aside and KICKS the door open.

 INSIDE

 It's still the disaster we remember. Gabriel walks slowly 
 through the room. He scratches up some blood, tastes it.

 There's spray-painted outlines where the police have removed 
 certain items. Gabriel takes note of this, tastes the blood 
 again, and leaves.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. KATHERINE'S CLASSROOM BUILDING - DAY

 It's lunch break. Most of the students sit in loose cliques 
 around the front of the building; eating, skipping rope, 
 picking fights.

 INSIDE

 The recently unearthed skull sits on Katherine's desk. Feet 
 up beside it, she leans back in her chair looking through a 
 dinosaur book. One of her students, a twelve year old boy, 
 finishes cleaning up the floor and stands beside her.

  BOY
    I'm all done with the cleaning, Miss 
    Henley.

  KATHERINE
    Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it.

  BOY
  (looking at book over 
  her shoulder)
    Find out what it is, yet?

  KATHERINE
    Well, it's either a 44 million year 
    old Strychtosaurus or that cow Mr. 
    Sorenson lost last winter.

 The boy, still standing beside her, begins to look nervous. 
 Slowly, he lets his weight rest against Katherine's shoulder. 
 She smiles good naturedly up at him.

  KATHERINE
    Go eat your lunch, Jason.

 The boy immediately stiffens and begins backing up, almost 
 relieved.

  BOY
    Sure, Miss Henley. Thanks. See ya.

 Katherine watches him leave, smiles again, and goes back to 
 the book.

 AROUND THE BACK OF THE BUILDING

 On the abandoned back stairs, a couple of Mexican boys sit 
 smoking cigarettes. They whistle and kid with the four young 
 girls that pass them going up the steps.

 UPSTAIRS

 Is the abandoned, decayed part of the building. The four 
 girls know they're not supposed to be here and that's probably 
 half the fun. They run through the crumbling halls, giggling 
 and hiding from one another. Their cries, the smack of their 
 shoes, echo off off the peeling halls.

 One of them is Mary, running down a hall, banging a stick 
 with another girl. At a corner Mary peels off from her friend, 
 runs down a new hall, turns a corner,

 And comes on Simon. He's still curled where we last saw him, 
 in the wall niche where some lockers used to be. The two 
 stare at one another. Finally,

  MARY
    Hi.

  SIMON
    Hi.

  MARY
    What's your name?

  SIMON
    Simon.

  MARY
    You don't look so good, Simon.

  SIMON
    No, I don't.

  MARY
    I'm Mary.

  SIMON
    Hello Mary.

  MARY
    Does Miss Henley know you're here?

  SIMON
    No one does, Mary. Can we keep it 
    just our secret. For a little while?

 Mary thinks.

  MARY
    Okay.

 You can hear her friends coming closer.

  MARY
    I have to go.

  SIMON
    It was nice meeting you, Mary.

 Mary goes to leave, stops, turns back.

  MARY
    Are you hungry? I could bring 
    something.

  SIMON
    That would be very nice.

  MARY
    Okay. Bye.

 She smiles and runs down the hall. Simon grits his teeth, 
 turns to the wall, and prepares himself for a long, long 
 day.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY

 An old fifties two-level, Polynesian lamps and glitter stucco, 
 now faded and browinish with water stains. Gabriel, the young 
 man with the sunglasses and leather jacket we last saw kicking 
 down the door at the flophouse, walks up the apartment's 
 stairs to the second level, knocks once, and opens the door.

 THE APARTMENT INSIDE

 Hasn't been very well looked after lately. Either has the 
 occupant. Sitting slumped in a kitchen chair, staring at the 
 floor, he peers through dully yellow eyes that barely seem 
 to register his visitor.

  GABRIEL
    Gee Jerry, you look like shit.

 The eyes lift to Gabriel, revealing a pale, bloodless face 
 eaten with dried sores.

  JERRY
    Leave me alone, Gabriel.

  GABRIEL
    Soon, pal. Soon.

 Gabriel drops into the chair across from Jerry and pushes 
 aside with distaste the maggot-ridden plates of food piled 
 on the table. He reaches his hand out to Jerry.

  GABRIEL
    Come here.

  JERRY
    Go away.

  GABRIEL
  (sing-song, like to a 
  baby)
    Come here...

 Gabriel puts his hand under Jerry's chin and turns the face 
 side to side, examining the cracked, decaying skin and filmy 
 eyes.

  GABRIEL
    Hmmm. Still a little life left in 
    you. Barely.

  JERRY
    Fuck you.

 Gabriel releases Jerry's chin and slouches down in the chair.

  GABRIEL
    There's something I want you to do 
    for me.

  JERRY
    What a surprise.

  GABRIEL
    Don't be that way.

  JERRY
    I just want to... Why won't you let 
    me...

  GABRIEL
    I will, I will. Promise.

 A dark, intestinal looking amber fluid begins to pool out of 
 Jerry's pant leg.

  GABRIEL
    You need some new clothes, son.

 A tear wells in Jerry's decomposing face.

  GABRIEL
    Aw come on, don't start. You know 
    how I hate that...

  JERRY
    I'm so tired. I'm so goddamn tired.

  GABRIEL
    Watch the profanity. -- Just one 
    more favor. Honest.

  JERRY
  (deep sigh)
    What?

  GABRIEL
    I want you to get something for me. 
    A few personal effects the cops ripped 
    off from the lovely Allenwood Arms 
    on Seventh Street. It'll be sitting 
    in their property room down on San 
    Julian.

  JERRY
    I'm supposed to just go in there? 
    Like this?

  GABRIEL
    Give you a bath, put on some decent 
    clothes,
  (beat)
    Maybe a very large brim hat, you'll 
    be fine. Just go in between five and 
    five-ten, it's a shift change and 
    nobody'll notice you.

  JERRY
    How do you know?

  GABRIEL
  (cocks an eye)
    C'mon.
  (tosses yellow ID 
  card onto table)
    This should be more or less up to 
    date.

  JERRY
    Got a name this stuff is under?

  GABRIEL
    John Doe.

  JERRY
    Why doesn't that surprise me.

 Gabriel gets up, pats Jerry on the head, and walks to the 
 door.

  GABRIEL
    I'll see you tonight.
  (flips him silver 
  dollar)
    Here's some bus fare.

     CUT TO:

 The SLAM of a racquetball against the scarred white wall of 
 an indoor court. It ricochets off the ceiling, hits the back 
 glass partition, and is SLAMMED again. Four players, including 
 Thomas, grunt and sweat across the hardwood floor. It's 
 brutal. Shoulders and knees bang off one another.

 One of the players falls back, yells to Thomas.

  PLAYER
    Cover me! Cover me!

 Thomas dives into position to make the save, recovers, and 
 yells to the player as he dashes to the next corner.

  DAGGETT
    Pop it up!

 The player SLAMS it brutally at Thomas, who misses miserably.

  DAGGETT
    Thanks a lot.

 Another player picks up the dead ball and puts his arm around 
 Thomas.

  PLAYER #2
    You're missing the point of the game, 
    Thomas. You must absolutely trust no 
    one. Form alliances, but break them. 
    Lure another to trust you, then betray 
    him! You play with too much honor. 
    Sink to the gutter. Use people. Lie 
    and double-cross them.

 Player #2 tosses the ball to Thomas, who serves, and the 
 scuffling is back on. Shouts to one another. Promises of 
 support.

  PLAYER #2
    Come on Thomas, let's take out Sam 
    together!

 Thomas and Player #2 team up on a third player, pressing him 
 hard. Suddenly Thomas breaks back, intercepts the ball, and 
 drives against Player #2. The about-face is too abrupt for 
 him and Player #2 is eliminated in a double-cross. He smiles 
 proudly at Thomas.

  PLAYER #2
    Magnificent decadence.

 INT. GYM LOCKER ROOM

 Thomas and the three players congratulate each other on the 
 evil and treachery in each other's strategies as they shower 
 down.

  PLAYER #1
    The important thing, Tom, is seeing 
    the game for what it is.

  PLAYER #2
    A sickening, hopeless, giant sucking 
    hole of depravity.

 Laughs.

 INT. LOCKER ROOM DRESSING AREA

 As Thomas combs his hair and slips on his regimental 
 detective's suit 'n tie, the other three put on their black 
 pants, shirts, and stiff white Roman collars. They're priests.

 Two of the priests hoist their gym bags and head for the 
 door.

  PRIEST #1
    See ya guys next Tuesday, huh?

 Thomas is left alone with Player (priest) #2, Bill.

  BILL
    So how's work?

  DAGGETT
    Okay. Y'now.

  BILL
    Life on the dark side.

  DAGGETT
  (beat)
    Can I ask you about something?

  BILL
    Sure.

  DAGGETT
    It has to stay between us. I need 
    your word on it.

  BILL
    As a racquetball player or a priest?

  DAGGETT
    I'll take the priest for the moment.

  BILL
    What's on your mind?

  DAGGETT
    It's a case. We found this guy. He 
    was... different. But he had on him 
    an old bible.

 He pulls the bible out of a cloth sack and hands it to Bill.

  BILL
    It's a Vichini.

  DAGGETT
    Worth a little?

  BILL
    More than a little. They're the best. 
    Sixth century. Hand illuminated. 
    Vichini only did twenty, each pocket 
    size for a king to carry into battle 
    beside his heart. Some consider them 
    the finest bibles ever made. I thought 
    they'd all be in museums. What are 
    you doing with it?

  DAGGETT
    This one's a bit special.

  BILL
    How?

  DAGGETT
    It's has a bonus chapter to St, John's 
    Revelations.

  BILL
    Really? What does it say?

  DAGGETT
  (reading from slip of 
  paper)
    "And as in the first war, the angels 
    so fought over the nature of their 
    God, and there was much vanity and 
    destruction in heaven. For some angels 
    called their Lord the son of God, 
    and others called Him the begotten 
    father of Jesus Christ." What do you 
    think?

  BILL
    I've never heard that quote before. 
    Theologically, The "first war" 
    obviously refers to the war in heaven 
    where Michael the archangel threw 
    out Satan and his gang. Old time 
    bible stuff. But this implies there 
    was a second war. That's news to me.

  DAGGETT
    And the rest of it?

  BILL
    Oh, it's a fairly common theological 
    debate. Or was. The idea that if 
    Christ is God's son, does that make 
    him less than God or are they the 
    same being in different forms. That 
    very argument almost tore the early 
    Christian church apart in the 4th 
    Century. That was the good old days 
    when people actually worried about 
    theology. Anyway, it was settled 
    when the bishops of the world got to 
    together at the Council of Nicene in 
    325 and hashed out the various 
    interpretations of scripture into a 
    uniform dogma of belief. The result 
    was the Nicene Creed, which basically 
    said that Christ was in fact the 
    same as God and was owed the same 
    power and respect as the Father. 
    That they were the same.
  (smiles)
    But it's not exactly the sort of 
    thing angels would fight over.

  DAGGETT
    Why?

  BILL
    Well, they could just ask God, right?

  DAGGETT
    Do you think it's possible that John 
    might have written that extra chapter?

  BILL
    Who knows? Vichini was the greatest 
    biblical scholar of the age, some 
    claimed he made his own translations 
    from the original writings. Maybe he 
    did find some unknown writings by 
    John. It's possible I suppose. John 
    always was a little negative about 
    angels. All this actually has 
    something to do with an LAPD murder?

  DAGGETT
    I don't know yet. Maybe. Probably 
    not.

  BILL
    I hate to break it you, but that 
    particular family spat has been 
    settled for 1,600 years. Nobody loses 
    sleep over it anymore. Honest.

  DAGGETT
    What did John have against angels?

  BILL
    Oh, he didn't trust them much. All 
    that running around smiting and 
    killing in the name of the Lord. 
    God's wild bunch. He thought it made 
    them fickle and vain. One click above 
    ghosts. Satan didn't help the image 
    much either.

  DAGGETT
    Satan?

  BILL
    Well, he did start as an angel.

 EXT. GYM

 Thomas walks Bill out to his car.

  BILL
    So when are you going to get a real 
    job?

  DAGGETT
    You mean with the Church?

  BILL
    You almost did it once. I never saw 
    a seminary student more called to 
    the collar than you. Why didn't you 
    ever become ordained?

  DAGGETT
    It's a long story.

  BILL
    You'll have to tell it to me sometime.

  DAGGETT
    Sometime.

 EXT. DOWNTOWN - DAY

 The building is squat and brick. A non-descrip warehouse 
 that subs as a police evidence storage area.

 The sun is hard today as it beats down on Jerry's large-
 brimmed felt hat. Daylight and Jerry don't get along very 
 well. His sunken, filmy eyes squint at its glare. The decayed 
 flesh cracking along his cheeks flames at its touch. He 
 shuffles down the sidewalk, the brackish, amber fluid that 
 gurgles down his leg filling his shoes and leaving behind 
 shiny wet footprints like a snail.

 There's nobody around the back door and its unlocked. Jerry's 
 shrunken claws pull it open.

 INSIDE

 Is a crush of filing cabinets and erector-set shelves. All 
 of it crammed with low grade stuff. The heroin busts and 
 million dollar currency arrests don't end up here. Here it's 
 all shoe boxes and dusty files. Fragments of small lives 
 forgotten.

 Jerry pulls the brim of his hat down even further as he works 
 his way past rack after rack. The single uniform he meets 
 looks only casually at Jerry's lapel ID badge. It's on the 
 third shelf he finds it. John Doe #78. Jerry lifts the box 
 and walks out.

 INT. COUNTY BUILDING BASEMENT

 Gabriel steps off the elevator and follows the signs for 
 MEDICAL EXAMINER. Along the way he passes a checkpoint guard.

  GUARD
    Need a pass, friend.

  GABRIEL
    I'll just be a second.

  GUARD
    C'mon...

  GABRIEL
    Sorry.

 Gabriel walks back to the guard, smiles, and KNOCKS him clean 
 out of his chair with the back of his arm. The guard SMACKS 
 against the wall and crumples out of view.

 INT. MORGUE

 Tiled floor and refrigerated corpses. Nobody's around when 
 Gabriel enters. He walks over to a file cabinet and removes 
 a thick folder. Then he walks to the big filing cabinets, 
 the ones that hold a body in each drawer. He strolls along, 
 tapping each label till he finds the one he's looking for, 
 slides it open, and looks down at the naked body of the 
 gargoyle.

 He's been sewed back together. Kind of. Gabriel grabs the 
 eyeless corpse under the armpits and drags him out onto the 
 floor where he pushes the legs together and outstretches the 
 arms, like a crucifix. From his coat Gabriel takes out a 
 small vial of oil and rubs it onto the gargoyle's feet and 
 hands. Anointing them. Then with the tip of his finger, he 
 draws a faint sign of the cross on the forehead, stands, and 
 walks for the door.

 In the background, as Gabriel leaves, we see the body of the 
 gargoyle BURST into flame.

DISSOLVE TO:

 INT. KATHERINE'S SCHOOL

 Katherine's students are shuffling back from lunch to their 
 seats, making small talk and paper airplanes. Katherine does 
 a head count, then stops a young boy coming through the door.

  KATHERINE
    Brian, have you seen Mary?

  BRIAN
    I think she's out back somewhere.

  KATHERINE
  (to girl)
    Allison?

  ALLISON
    We haven't seen her since lunch.

  KATHERINE
    We're you guys up in the...

 The girls, Mary's friends, shrug innocently. Katherine sighs.

  KATHERINE
    Okay everybody, get started on today's 
    reading. Quietly. I'll be right back.

 Katherine closes the door behind her. The class immediately 
 erupts into goofing off. The door opens again.

  KATHERINE
    I mean quiet.

 IN THE ABANDONED PART OF THE BUILDING

 Katherine walks through decayed and rusting halls.

  KATHERINE
  (calls out)
    Mary...

 It's spooky up here. A part of the building Katherine clearly 
 dislikes.

  KATHERINE
    Mary...
  (to herself)
    Shit.

 Katherine calls out Mary's name a few more times, turns a 
 few more corners, and suddenly comes on her.

  KATHERINE
    Mary?

 Mary's sitting beside Simon, the bleeding, ashen-faced man 
 with sunglasses. She's giving Simon a piece of sandwich and 
 a coke. Katherine is instantly wary.

  KATHERINE
    Mary, come here.

  MARY
    But Simon and I were --

  KATHERINE
    Come here.

 Mary reluctantly walks over to Katherine.

  KATHERINE
    Go back to class.

  MARY
    But --

  KATHERINE
    Go.

 Mary frowns, waves once to Simon, and leaves. There's a 
 heaviness to the air around Simon. A kind of buzzing. 
 Katherine blinks her eyes a few times. Focuses.

  SIMON
    She wasn't doing any harm.

  KATHERINE
    It's not her I'm worried about.

  SIMON
    Of course.

  KATHERINE
    What are you doing here?

  SIMON
    Small job. Mostly done now. Just 
    passing through.

  KATHERINE
    This is school property, you can't 
    sleep here.

  SIMON
    It wasn't part of the plan. Honest.

  KATHERINE
  (notices blood stains)
    Are you all right?

  SIMON
    No. Not really.

 That buzz. Katherine rubs the side of her temple.

  KATHERINE
    I'll have to call the police.

  SIMON
    I wish you wouldn't, but I understand.

  KATHERINE
    They'll help you.

  SIMON
    Oh, I rather doubt that.

 Katherine turns and leaves, her footsteps fading. Mary appears 
 again.

  MARY
    Hi.

  SIMON
    Hello. I thought you'd left.

  MARY
    I hid. I'm very clever.

  SIMON
    I'm sure you are.
  (beat)
    You were nice to give me the food.

  MARY
    I know.

  SIMON
    I haven't much time, Mary. And since 
    you've been so nice to me, there's 
    something I'd very much like to give 
    to you.

  MARY
    What?

  SIMON
    Just for a little while. Something 
    very special. Can you keep it a 
    secret? The biggest secret ever?

  MARY
    Yes. What is it?

  SIMON
    Come here, Mary.

 She takes a couple of shy steps toward him.

  SIMON
    Closer...

 As she does --

     CUT TO:

 Katherine, outside the building, rounding up some of the 
 kids who decided to take an impromptu recess. Hustling the 
 last one up the stairs, she pauses suddenly. She hears 
 something. Faint coughing.

 Katherine walks back around the side of the building and 
 sees Mary bent over, vomiting. Katherine rushes up to her.

  MARY
    I don't feel good...

  KATHERINE
    What's the matter, pumpkin? Did you 
    eat something?
  (concerned beat)
    Did he give you something?

 Mary coughs up the last of her lunch.

  MARY
    Can I go home now?

 Katherine wipes off Mary's mouth with a hanky.

  KATHERINE
    Sure, hon. Let's go.

 EXT. TOWN - DAY

 Katherine drives Mary home, a dusty, tired mobile home slumped 
 among the saguaro and tumbleweed on the edge of town.

 INT. MOBILE HOME

 Mary and Katherine pull open the door and enter. Mary's 
 elderly grandmother is sitting watching "All My Children". 
 She smiles at Katherine and looks at Mary with concern as 
 the little girl rubs her stomach and explains something in 
 Navaho.

 IN THE BEDROOM

 Katherine helps tuck Mary in bed as her grandmother brings a 
 glass of water.

  KATHERINE
    I'll have the school send over a 
    doctor.

 The grandmother sits beside Mary, whispers gently in Navaho, 
 and softly stokes her brow.

 IN THE LIVING ROOM

  KATHERINE
  (on the phone)
    ...He's was just laying up there. I 
    thought, with the kids and 
    everything...

  VOICE
    Most of my boys are up the highway 
    on a tanker spill at the moment. 
    They may be a while. These people 
    are rarely any problem. I'll have a 
    deputy come by tonight or tomorrow 
    and shoo him out.

  KATHERINE
    He looked hurt.

  VOICE
    They all do, ma'am. Inside or out, 
    they're all damaged goods.

 IN THE BEDROOM

 Alone and tucked into bed, Mary stares off at something very, 
 very far away.

DISSOLVE TO:

 INT. THOMAS'S APARTMENT

 The sun orange and fading outside his window, Thomas drifts 
 off into a nap on his couch. The phone rings.

  DAGGETT
    Yeah.

  VOICE
    It's your friendly coroner.

  DAGGETT
    Why is my friendly coroner, after a 
    long day at work, calling me at home?

  VOICE
    I have something you'll want to see.

  DAGGETT
    I doubt it.

  VOICE
    No, you'll definitely want to see 
    this.

 INT. MORGUE

 On the floor is the smoldering, blackened outline of a body. 
 A thick, slimy goo gurgles and pops. The whole room is afoul 
 with acrid smoke.

  CORONER
    They also took the autopsy file.

  DAGGETT
    "They"?

  CORONER
    He, she, it. They took it. They also 
    lifted all the physical evidence 
    from the San Julian impound.

  DAGGETT
    Where was everyone?

  CORONER
    The cop at the desk is in the hospital 
    as we speak with a broken collarbone. 
    Everyone else was down the hall 
    watching the basketball playoffs.

  DAGGETT
    Who won?

  CORONER
    Temple.

  DAGGETT
    Lucky.

  CORONER
    Yeah. Foul on the buzzer.

 Thomas jams his hands in his pockets and leans against an 
 autopsy table. Watches the smoke curl slowly up from the 
 impossibly melted goo in front of him.

  DAGGETT
    Looks like the snow angels we used 
    to make as kids. Lie down in a clean 
    bank. Move your arms up and down...

  CORONER
    You know what this means. Our friend's 
    cleaned out all the evidence on this 
    guy. Everything.

  DAGGETT
    Did the cop get a look at who nailed 
    him?

  CORONER
    Tall. Smiled a lot.

  DAGGETT
    Anything else?

  CORONER
    He wore sunglasses.

 Thomas pulls out out his notebook.

  CORONER
    You gonna figure this one out, Tom?

  DAGGETT
    I'm going to try.

  CORONER
    When you do, give me a call. Tell me 
    I'm not crazy.

 INT. JERRY'S APARTMENT

 Gabriel crouches on the linoleum and pours everything out of 
 the evidence box onto the floor. He sifts through it, a smile 
 appearing when comes across the Chimney Rock Republican and 
 its circled obituary.

  GABRIEL
    You like the desert, Jerry?

 Jerry is looking worse by the day. A rotting, oozing fissure 
 has opened on his forehead. His right eye doesn't move 
 anymore. He sits on a kitchen chair glumly.

  JERRY
    You promised. You promised that --

  GABRIEL
    -- Soon. Honest. Don't be a pest 
    about it.

  JERRY
  (sighs)
    Never trust a fucking angel.

  GABRIEL
    Excellent advice.

 INT. POLICE STATION

 Thomas sits hunched over his notes from the first day of the 
 investigation. Written in it is the Chimney Rock Republican 
 and the obituary name of General Arnold Hawthorn. Lt. Paul 
 sits down in the chair opposite.

  LT. PAUL
    Do you ever have one of those 
    afternoons where you feel no one's 
    giving you a straight answer about 
    anything?

  DAGGETT
    Oh, maybe five or six times a week.

  LT. PAUL
  (reading sheet)
    It says here somebody got into the 
    property warehouse and cleaned 
    everything out of your evidence box. 
    No, he did leave one thing. A 
    footprint. 11-D.

  DAGGETT
    Mud on his shoes?

  LT. PAUL
    Spinal fluid.

 Thomas slowly closes his notebook.

  LT. PAUL
    I'm not going to get a straight answer 
    out of you either, am I?

  DAGGETT
    Not yet.

 The Lt. rubs his eyes tiredly.

  DAGGETT
    I need to go to Arizona.

  LT. PAUL
    For your health?

  DAGGETT
    So I can give you a straight answer.

  LT. PAUL
    Sure, why not? Take the kids. See 
    the Grand Canyon. Send me a fucking 
    postcard.

  DAGGETT
    Sorry.

  LT. PAUL
    I've got a headache, Tom, and I hate 
    my life. If you have to go, go.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT

 On an utterly lonely blacktop, Gabriel shoots by in his top-
 down rambler, insignificant in the night's vastness. Jerry's 
 in the back, feet up on the seat.

  JERRY
    Why do you need me? I can hardly 
    walk now.

  GABRIEL
    Some things are human work, son. 
    Live or dead, human work. Besides, I 
    like you.

  JERRY
    Lucky moi.

 Gabriel suddenly stands on the brakes, SCREECHING the rambler 
 to a dusty stop. He kills the engine and everything is 
 instantly whispering night and coyote howls. Gabriel climbs 
 out and walks to the edge of a cliff. Far below, nestled 
 among the finger-like spires of volcanic cones, lies The 
 Town. Twinkling lights in a cold, dark embrace.

 Gabriel pushes his sunglasses up his nose and smiles.

  GABRIEL
    I can always smell a graveyard.

 Two coyotes begin fighting and snarling with each other in 
 the dust nearby.

 EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT

 On a low hill at the edge of town. Cracked, sinking 
 headstones. The rambler's parked next to a new one, Slim 
 Pickens on the AM, as Jerry digs up the fresh grave marked 
 General Arnold Hawthorne. Gabriel sits perched on the 
 headstone over the grave like a winged creature.

  JERRY
    I hope you're enjoying this.

  GABRIEL
    I always enjoy watching you work, 
    Jerry.

  JERRY
    How did I ever get you in my life?

  GABRIEL
    Come on, you didn't really want to 
    kill yourself.

  JERRY
    But I did it, didn't I? I did kill 
    myself.

  GABRIEL
    Well, yes. Technically.

  JERRY
    And you're just keeping me alive.

  GABRIEL
    Letting you die slower.

  JERRY
    I'm so in your debt.

  GABRIEL
    Thank you, Jerry. I'm touched. Really.

 Jerry's shovel CLANKS onto something hard. He scrapes away 
 the dirt, revealing a coffin lid. With a socket wrench Jerry 
 removes the fastening bolts, then with the edge of his shovel, 
 pries open the lid.

 It's the ancient, wasted general we saw at the beginning. 
 His medals flash in the moonlight.

  JERRY
    Not much to look at.

  GABRIEL
    Ah, but it's not what's on the outside 
    that matters --

 Gabriel leaps off his perch down into the grave.

  GABRIEL
    -- It's what's on the inside.

 Gabriel reaches down, places one hand on the General's 
 forehead, one on his chin, and BREAKS the mouth open. He 
 gazes down into it. Then suddenly stiffens and straightens 
 up.

  GABRIEL
  (upset)
    It's not here.

 Gabriel frantically look in the ears. Up the nose.

  GABRIEL
    It's not here!

  JERRY
    Oooh, bad news for the war effort.

  GABRIEL
  (spins wildly on him)
    Shut up!!

 Gabriel BANGS the coffin lid in frustration. Tries to think.

  GABRIEL
    Now, if you were a soul, where would 
    you hide?

  JERRY
    The hell away from you.

 INT. THOMAS'S APARTMENT

 The numbers on the clock radio roll over five AM and the 
 news comes on. Thomas stirs in bed, rubs his eyes, and looks 
 out at a sky untouched by any sign of dawn.

     CUT TO:

 In coat and tie, Thomas sits in his spartan kitchen stirring 
 a coffee when the phone rings.

  FEMALE VOICE
    Hey little brother.

  DAGGETT
  (smiles)
    Hey. How's the world?

  VOICE
    The world's the usual. Except for a 
    guppy. the world's minus one guppy 
    this morning.

  DAGGETT
    And Jamie and Mac?

  VOICE
    They keep asking for Uncle Tommy. 
    The only man that can make stuffed 
    bears talk.

  DAGGETT
    My one true calling. What's up?

  VOICE
    What do you mean?

  DAGGETT
    It's five-thirty in the morning.

  VOICE
  (beat)
    I just thought I should call.

  DAGGETT
    You always were telepathic.

  VOICE
    Don't go.

 Thomas looks up at his overnight bag, sitting half-packed on 
 the dresser.

  DAGGETT
    It's my job, Jan. I go places 
    sometimes.

  VOICE
    I just had this terrible feeling 
    about it. What's happening, Tom?

  DAGGETT
    I don't know.

  VOICE
    I miss you. Even when you're here. I 
    miss you. I miss my brother. It's 
    been four years, Tom, since...

  DAGGETT
    I know.

  VOICE
    We're the only blood family we have 
    left, you and me. I worry about you.

  DAGGETT
    I'll be okay.

  VOICE
    Sorry about the dawn-attack call. I 
    love you.

  DAGGETT
    I love you too, Jan.

 He cradles the phone, stares at it, then picks up his 
 overnight bag.

 EXT. THE TOWN - NIGHT

 Silent and dead at this hour. Gabriel's boots creak on the 
 floorboards of the 19th century plank sidewalks. He taps his 
 finger aimlessly along plate glass shop windows.

  GABRIEL
    Boy, what a dump, huh?

 Jerry, limping on a foot that's caving in on itself, wiping 
 the spinal fluid out of his dead eye, shuffles along behind.

 Gabriel pops off the elevated sidewalk, grabs a parking meter 
 and swings himself playfully around.

  GABRIEL
    Why can't this shit ever go down in 
    Miami? Or Bora Bora? I feel like 
    I've spent my whole damn stay in gin 
    swills like this.

  JERRY
    Life's a bitch.

 Gabriel suddenly freezes. He sticks his nose up, sniffs like 
 a coyote, then abruptly drops to the ground in a push-up and 
 smells the dirt. Tastes it with his tongue. Smiles.

  GABRIEL
    Well well...

 INT. THE SCHOOL BUILDING - NIGHT

 A fracture of broken moon tumbles through shattered windows 
 and falls dully across shapes old, shapes forgotten, and one 
 shape trying hopelessly to drag itself across the floor. 
 It's Simon; breath a rasp, blood-soaked pants leaving a long 
 smear behind him like a hemorrhaging snail. He coughs, drags 
 an arm across the lenses of his sunglasses,

 And looks up at a pair of black, lizard-skin boots.

  GABRIEL
    Hi, Simon.

 Simon rolls on his back and sighs.

  SIMON
    Gabriel.

 Simon looks up at puss-faced Jerry, leaning quietly in a 
 dark corner.

  JERRY
    Don't mind me. Just along for the 
    ride.

 Gabriel sits down against the wall.

  GABRIEL
    So, what shall we talk about? 
    Theology?

  SIMON
    I'm a little talked out on theology.

  GABRIEL
    Fair enough...

 Gabriel turns his boot to the moon, watches the pale light 
 glint back off the lizard scales.

  GABRIEL
    You know why I'm here.

  SIMON
    Oh yes.

  GABRIEL
    Don't happen to have it on you by 
    chance?

  SIMON
    No.

  GABRIEL
    That would have been too easy.

 Simon suddenly JUMPS to his feet. Tries to escape. Jerry 
 trips him, SPRAWLING Simon back to the floor.

  GABRIEL
    Please, Simon. Get serious.

 Gabriel walks over to him. Puts his face close.

  GABRIEL
    Now. Where's the soul?
  (beat)
    You know. So high. Used to reside in 
    the recently departed General 
    Hawthorne.

 Simon doesn't answer. Gabriel shrugs.

  GABRIEL
    Have it your way, big guy.

  SIMON
    I do have one question.

  GABRIEL
    Shoot.

  SIMON
    Do you even remember what this war's 
    about?

 Gabriel pauses, almost thoughtfully. Then he smiles.

  GABRIEL
    That's hardly the point, is it?

  SIMON
    I guess I never did get the point.

  GABRIEL
    Happens.

  SIMON
    How do you do it, Gabriel? How do 
    you go on and on in this place?

  GABRIEL
    I like it here, Simon. I always have.

  SIMON
    I'm so tired...

 Gabriel grasps Simon's hand.

  GABRIEL
    Then join us, Simon. Reject the Nicene 
    Council. We were here first.

  SIMON
    I can't do it, Gabriel. I don't even 
    know why anymore, but I can't.

  GABRIEL
    You know the routine.

  SIMON
  (swallows hard)
    Yes.

 Gabriel's hand is suddenly on Simon's face, fingers spread, 
 claw-like. They press into the flesh. Hard. And harder. Until 
 Simon starts to bleed.

 Then to burn.

 INT. KATHERINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

 Katherine startles abruptly in her bed at the faraway sound 
 of Simon's screams. Screams carried either on the wind or 
 her dreams.

 INT. MARY'S HOUSE - NIGHT

 Asleep, sweaty, shivering, Mary suddenly opens her eyes.

 INT. THE SCHOOL BUILDING - NIGHT

 Gabriel releases his grip on Simon, letting him fall back 
 against the wall, afire. His clothes twist and blacken. His 
 skin creeps and pops. His sunglasses melt and fall away; 
 revealing two hollow pits beneath. Gabriel lifts Simon's 
 entire body up off the floor by just the disintegrating face, 
 and stares into the hollow pits.

  GABRIEL
    Not yet.

 And the fires go out. Gabriel drops the crackling, acrid 
 body onto the floor. Impossibly, through the sizzling mucus 
 and molten hair, it breathes. It gasps in pain. It won't 
 die.

  GABRIEL
    I can do this for five months, 
    Simon...

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. THE TOWN

 The skies above lighten and smear blue and red.

 KATHERINE

 Finishes dressing for school, picks up her teaching bag, and 
 crunches out across the gravel to her pick-up.

 INT. THE SCHOOL BUILDING

 Gabriel's lizard boots pace back and forth past Simon's 
 writhing, burning body. Gabriel's more jittery now. Losing 
 his patience. He bends down and pulls Simon's face up to 
 his.

  GABRIEL
    This is getting boring, Simon.

  JERRY
    Amen.

  GABRIEL
    Where is it? Where did you put it?

 The seared skin around Simon's mouth comes off in Gabriel's 
 hand. But Simon is still, even now, silent.

  GABRIEL
    Where is it!

 He flings Simon with a horrible crunch against the wall.

  GABRIEL
    I'm just about out of tricks here. 
    You're a tough one, friend. Old 
    school.

 He walks over and places a hand with something like friendship 
 on Simon's charred shoulder.

  GABRIEL
    God loves you, Simon.

 And with the other hand Gabriel JAMS his fist into Simon's 
 chest, PULLING OUT a lumpy, burned heart. Simon's mouth 
 springs open and hisses emptily. Gabriel slips the heart 
 into his pocket and lets go of Simon's shoulder. The body 
 instantly disintegrates and crashes to the floor.

 EXT. THE TOWN - MORNING

 Katherine squints at the morning glare as she drives through 
 town. Pulling into the school's drive she sees, parked at 
 the building's back door, a sheriff's patrol car.

 INT. SCHOOL BUILDING

 Katherine comes up the stairs of the building's abandoned 
 floor, passing the stacks of rotting desks toward where she 
 last saw Simon. There's a bad smell in the air.

 At a turn stands a deputy that looks up as Katherine 
 approaches.

  DEPUTY
    You may want to skip this, ma'am.

 Katherine looks past him to where a second deputy crouches 
 down beside... beside something. It's human shaped, but like 
 a shadow. A shadow twisted in agony and slicked with a tarry, 
 smoldering ooze. The smell is overpowering. The crouched 
 deputy has a handkerchief over his mouth.

  CROUCHED DEPUTY
    God damn...

  DEPUTY
  (to Katherine)
    Were any of your students up here?

  KATHERINE
    Mary...

 EXT. MARY'S FAMILY TRAILER - DAY

 Katherine pulls-up and parks.

 INSIDE

 Mary is still in bed, droopy-eyed and sweating. Her 
 grandmother is there, and so is an elderly Navaho. He stands 
 beside Mary's side, holding above her body a clenched pouch 
 that he passes slowly back and forth.

  KATHERINE
  (to grandmother)
    How is she?

  GRANDMOTHER
    Same.

  KATHERINE
    Did the doctor come by?

  GRANDMOTHER
    He found nothing. But something is 
    in her. I know. Something the 
    Belagaana doctor can't see. The night 
    people have been around two days 
    now. It is a warning.
  (nods to Navaho man)
    So we have called the hand trembler. 
    To find if she must have an Enemy 
    Ghost Way.

 The old man mumbles a soft chant as he moves the pouch back 
 and forth across Mary's body.

 EXT. MARY'S FAMILY TRAILER - DAY

 Katherine walks back out toward her pickup. She stops. Thirty 
 yards away, almost invisible in the sage say for the glare 
 of its evil, intelligent eyes, is a coyote. As she feels 
 it's gaze a shadow suddenly crosses her shoulder. Katherine 
 turns quickly but only barely catches, out of the corner of 
 her eye, a glimpse of something very large.

 And winged.

     CUT TO:

 A huge semi ROARING deafeningly past on an empty desert 
 highway, KICKING UP a dusty cyclone that drifts over a one-
 horse gas station and Thomas, sitting there in his car 
 checking a map.

     CUT TO:

 EXT. COUNTY BUILDING - DAY

 Small townish; old adobe and stucco walls, cannon on the 
 front lawn, every door loudly declaring itself a department: 
 SOCIAL SERVICES, COURTS, and, SHERIFF.

 INSIDE

 The Sheriff's personal office is turn of the century regal, 
 with high beam ceilings and rotating fans. Nothing seems 
 newer than 1940, including the coffee pot the Sheriff pours 
 a mugful from. Trim with glasses, bolo tie and boots, he 
 looks like Barry Goldwater.

  SHERIFF
    And to what do I owe the thrill of a 
    visit from a So Cal homicide cop?

 He hands the coffee to Thomas, sitting in a chair beside his 
 solid oak desk.

  DAGGETT
    Run of of the mill psycho killer 
    body dismemberment on our end. The 
    usual.

  SHERIFF
    Lovely place, Los Angeles.

  DAGGETT
    Got a lead I wanted to run down 
    Chimney Rock way. Thought I'd do the 
    courtesy of telling you first.

  SHERIFF
    Big of you.

  DAGGETT
    You're welcome to put a babysitter 
    on me if you like.

 The Sheriff smiles.

  SHERIFF
    Son, this is the third biggest county 
    in the country, not even counting 
    the 25,000 square mile Indian 
    reservation right next door, and 
    I've got fewer men than just one of 
    your little palm tree precincts to 
    cover all of it. 'Fraid the only 
    help you're gonna get from me, short 
    of another shoot out at the OK Corral, 
    is that cup of coffee in your hand. 
    A middle-aged secretary enters with 
    a stack of paper.

  SECRETARY
    Here's the last week's watch reports.

 She hands them to the Sheriff, who passes them on to Thomas. 
 He flips through the stack, comes up with nothing. The 
 secretary hands another, single sheet to the Sheriff.

  SECRETARY
    Bobby just called this in from Chimney 
    Rock.

 Thomas perks at The Town's name.

  SHERIFF
  (to Thomas)
    Sent a car up there this morning. 
    Teacher complained some vagrant was 
    sleeping in her schoolhouse.

 The Sheriff's brow crinkles in consternation as he reads 
 further.

  SHERIFF
  (to secretary)
    Damn it, get Bobby on the phone, 
    Clarice. What the hell is this suppose 
    to be?

  DAGGETT
  (re report)
    May I?

 The Sheriff hands it to him. Glancing at it we pick up words 
 like BURNED, BLACK SLICK, BODY OUTLINE. Thomas copies the 
 name of the school down, gulps his coffee, and shakes the 
 Sheriff's hand.

  DAGGETT
    Thanks for the coffee.

  SHERIFF
  (as Thomas turns to 
  leave)
    Small piece of advice, Lt. Dagget, 
    that I give free of charge to all 
    visiting big city policemen: It's 
    wild country up there. Always has 
    been, always will be. You come across 
    anything that snarls, you call me 
    first, hear?

  DAGGETT
    I never turn down advice, Sheriff. 
    Especially when it's free.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Thomas's sedan passing through the vast, empty land.

 FAR ON THE HORIZON

 A small clump of buildings emerge clinging hopelessly to the 
 earth. The Town.

 EXT. TOWN HOTEL - DAY

 A former miner's hotel, stone walls and sagging wrought iron.

 INT. HOTEL ROOM

 Thomas tosses his bag onto the bed, opens the balcony door, 
 and looks out on the crumbly shale hills, the abandoned 
 prospecting shacks, and the Chuska Mountains, clouds brewing 
 darkly across its shattered back.

     CUT TO:

 A close-up of the circled newspaper obituary for General 
 Hawthorne. The paper lowers and reveals behind it the 
 general's grave. The dirt around the tomb is loose, recently 
 filled. The grave keeper, a young, gangly, drifter type stands 
 nearby with his shovel.

  DAGGETT
    How long ago was he buried?

  GRAVE KEEPER
    Which time?

  DAGGETT
    What do you mean?

  GRAVE KEEPER
    Somebody dug him up last night. I 
    just finished putting him back.

  DAGGETT
    Did they take anything?

  GRAVE KEEPER
    Nothin' on the outside.

 INT. THE SCHOOLHOUSE

 Thomas's breath escapes in warm clouds here in the unheated, 
 abandoned part of the building. Rats scurry away from feeding 
 on the dark, human-like stain on the floor as Thomas crouches 
 down beside it. He probes the dried, black, crusty flotsam 
 with his ball-point pen. Just like the burned body back at 
 the morgue.

 Far away you can hear the sounds of children. Of a teacher's 
 voice.

 DOWNSTAIRS

 It's only past the final door, into the smallest corner of 
 the building, that the walls become clean and brightly painted 
 by eager third graders. The creepy silence transforms itself 
 into the giggles of children as they bang open the classroom 
 door and whoop themselves outside for recess.

 The last one out is Katherine. She's surprised to see Thomas.

  DAGGETT
    Hello.

  KATHERINE
  (suspicious)
    Can I help you with something?

  DAGGETT
    Tom Dagget. I'm with the police.

  KATHERINE
    About the guy upstairs?

  DAGGETT
    I'd like to ask you a few questions.

  KATHERINE
    I've kinda got my hands full right 
    now.

  DAGGETT
    I'll just tag along.

 Katherine unlocks a hall cabinet and pulls out a stack of 
 volleyballs. She tosses two to Thomas.

  KATHERINE
    Here, make yourself useful.

 Arms full, she pushes the building door open with her shoulder 
 and backs out into the sunshine. She tosses the balls out to 
 the kids.

  KATHERINE
    Okay, everbody stays on the courts 
    today.
  (kids groan)
    -- I mean it.

 She sits down beside Thomas on the building's stone steps.

  DAGGETT
    What grade is this?

  KATHERINE
    All of 'em.

  DAGGETT
    Town doesn't look that small.

  KATHERINE
    Nearly all ghosts now. When the copper 
    mine closed it took most of the town 
    with it. We just teach out of this 
    one corner of the schoolhouse now. 
    Rest of it's been abandoned for years.

  DAGGETT
    You're the only teacher.

  KATHERINE
    Yup. Just me.
  (to kid threatening 
  another)
    -- Randy...

  RANDY
    But he --

  KATHERINE
    Do it again and I'll put your head 
    in the door and slam it.
  (to Thomas)
    Love and understanding are important 
    tools in education.

  DAGGETT
    Clearly.

 The children skitter back and forth playing.

  DAGGETT
    The man upstairs, did you talk to 
    him?

  KATHERINE
    I wanted to know what the hell he 
    was doing there.

  DAGGETT
    What did he say?

  KATHERINE
    That it wasn't part of the plan. He 
    looked hurt. Bloody. Like someone 
    had cut him. That happens here.
  (beat)
    Was that... stuff... on the floor 
    really him?

  DAGGETT
    Did any of the children talk to him?

  KATHERINE
    Yes.

  DAGGETT
    Who?

  KATHERINE
  (protective)
    She's home sick from school today.

  DAGGETT
    Can I speak with her parents?

  KATHERINE
    They're dead. She lives with her 
    grandmother. I'll have to ask her.

  DAGGETT
    All right.
  (stands, hands her 
  slip of paper)
    This is my number at the hotel.

 Thomas starts away. Pauses.

  DAGGETT
    Did you know Arnold Hawthorne?

  KATHERINE
    The General? Saw him here and there. 
    It's a small town.

  DAGGETT
    Military man?

  KATHERINE
    About a million years ago. His 
    interests lately were more like 
    gardening and herbal tea.

  DAGGETT
    Did you go to the funeral?

  KATHERINE
    Everyone did. He lived here.

  DAGGETT
    No dark hidden secrets?

  KATHERINE
    There are no secrets in small towns, 
    Mr. Dagget, dark or otherwise.

 ACROSS THE STREET

 Up the crumbly embankment, sitting perched on the roof of an 
 abandoned house, is Gabriel. He watches Thomas walk to his 
 car. He watches the children playing, lifting his nose to 
 snort the air, like a coyote.

 INT. THE TOWN LIBRARY

 Thomas sifts through some clippings on General Hawthrone. 
 Tactical genius. The man who saved Korea. Brutal. Almost 
 court marshalled a dozen times for his inspired savagery. A 
 truly ruthless man -- who spent the last twenty years quietly 
 tending his garden in a dying town.

 INT. THE TOWN CHURCH

 Small, simple, and woodplanked. The church we saw at the 
 beginning. Thomas sits there, staring at the candles, the 
 altar, the crucifix.

 He's alone there. But for a creeping buzz. A feeling in the 
 air.

  GABRIEL'S VOICE
    It's unusual to see someone of your 
    age in church on a weekday.

 Thomas turns in surprise. Gabriel is kneeling in the row 
 behind, inches from his ear.

  GABRIEL
    Don't get me wrong. I think it's an 
    excellent sign of character.

 There's something cold and creepy about Gabriel. Out of place 
 in here. There's another sound. Teeth chattering far in the 
 back. Thomas turns and sees Jerry, deep in the shadows of 
 the choir box. Jerry waves.

  GABRIEL
    Never mind him. He shouldn't even be 
    in here. Least not standing.

 Those sunglasses. Impenetrably dark. Like at the skid row 
 flophouse.

  GABRIEL
    You're not from here.

  DAGGETT
    Either are you.

  GABRIEL
    I'm looking for something.

  DAGGETT
    Have you found it?

  GABRIEL
    I will. Have you found what you're 
    looking for?

  DAGGETT
    I will.

  GABRIEL
  (appraising him)
    I don't doubt it.
  (stands)
    You'll let me know? When you find 
    it?

  DAGGETT
    Where are you staying?

  GABRIEL
    I'm around.

 And he walks out, leaving Thomas alone in a place gone 
 suddenly cold.

 INT. THOMAS'S HOTEL

 There's a note waiting for him at the front desk: "Her name 
 is Mary Tsosie. You can talk to her at noon tomorrow. I'll 
 be at the VFW hall tonight -- Katherine."

DISSOLVE TO:

 INT. VFW HALL - NIGHT

 Thomas sticks his head in through the door.

  MICROPHONE VOICE
    ...B-26... B-26...

 It's an Indian bingo game. Thomas' eyes drift down the table 
 packed with elderly faces and find Katherine and John the 
 Navaho bus driver. Katherine waves him over. Both her and 
 John are totally obsessed with the game, keeping track of 
 several cards.

  DAGGETT
    I got your note.

  KATHERINE
    Have a seat. You need a card. Here, 
    play one of mine.

  DAGGETT
    No, it's okay. Really --

  JOHN
    You must learn to shed your high-
    strung ways, pale face. You must 
    learn the spirit joy in patience, 
    peace, and making fifty or sixty 
    bucks.

  MICROPHONE VOICE
    ...G-19... G-19...

  KATHERINE
    John, this is Mr. Dagget. Says he's 
    with the police, though judging by 
    his coat and basic command of the 
    english language, I don't think it's 
    from anywhere around here.

  DAGGETT
  (shakes John's hand)
    Tom. From Los Angeles.

  JOHN
    That near Oxnard?

  DAGGETT
    Sort of.

  KATHERINE
    Long way from home, Tom-from-Los-
    Angeles.

  MICROPHONE VOICE
    D-9... D-9...

 Thomas lazily glances at his card, his eyes opening suddenly 
 wide.

  DAGGETT
    -- Hey, wait. I won. I won!

  KATHERINE
    -- What? No way --

  JOHN
    Recount! Recount!

     CUT TO:

 INT. TOWN HALL - NIGHT

 A Navaho social in full swing -- square dancing. The Indian 
 band on stage plays deeply traditional, inspiring, -- Hank 
 Williams. John easily whirls Katherine around; a steely-eyed, 
 master square dancer. Thomas leans against the wall tugging 
 on a beer. When John releases her for another partner she 
 points at Thomas.

  KATHERINE
    Your turn.

  DAGGETT
    Oh, no thanks.

  KATHERINE
    C'mon, don't be a drip.

 She leads him out onto the floor.

  DAGGETT
    I'm not very good at this...

  KATHERINE
  (as they dance)
    No, you're not, are you?

 She smiles. Gets a smile out of him.

  KATHERINE
    Let me lead.

 EXT. DANCE HALL - NIGHT

 Couples drift off the building's porch and into the street 
 to cool off, smoke, and take a few hits off paper bags. John 
 leans against the brick wall, tugs liberally from his paper 
 bag, and exchanges war hoops with some friends across the 
 street. He passes the bag to Katherine and Thomas.

  JOHN
    So how's our star pupil feeling today?

  KATHERINE
    Mary? The school doctor came by. 
    Declared it "Non-specific 
    gastrointestinal disorder".

  JOHN
    Latin for "I don't have the slightest 
    fucking idea".

  DAGGETT
    Will she be able to talk with me?

  KATHERINE
    That's up to her.
  (to John)
    Mary's grandmother called a hand 
    trembler.

  JOHN
    Uh oh. Hocus pocus time.

  DAGGETT
    Is that serious?

  JOHN
    Depends what the hand trembler says. 
    People call them in when they think 
    a witch or a Yei is trying to sprinkle 
    corpse sickness in their hogan, or 
    if the Night People have been hanging 
    around too much. Night people screw 
    around a lot, but they're good at 
    warning of evil ghosts.

  DAGGETT
    Who are the Night People?

  JOHN
    They come as coyotes.

 EXT. ROAD - NIGHT

 Thomas sits in the truck's bed as they Katherine drives 
 through town. John, on the near side of royally toasted, has 
 his boot stuck out the passenger window. Thomas looks up at 
 the night sky. At its blaze of stars.

  DAGGETT
    Beautiful stars out here.

 John drinks again from his bottle, rests his head on the 
 open window and looks out.

  JOHN
    Too much fucking sky in the desert. 
    It pushes on you.
  (sighs)
    Sometimes I wonder if anyone in heaven 
    even knows this place is here...

 INT. JOHN'S HOUSE - NIGHT

 Early American bachelor. John collapses onto the couch as 
 Katherine heads for the kitchen.

  KATHERINE
    Where do you keep the coffee in this 
    joint?

  JOHN
    Above the stove.

 She messes with the grounds and filter. Thomas paces the 
 room, looks over the pictures and a few weavings.

  DAGGETT
    What happens if the hand trembler 
    says a ghost has been...

  JOHN
    -- Messing with Mary? If you're smart 
    you say thank you very much and forget 
    about it. But if you're heavy 
    traditional, and Mary's people are 
    serious traditional, you have an 
    Enemy Ghost Way.

  DAGGETT
    What's that?

  JOHN
    Goddamn expensive. It's a Sing to 
    purify and drive off the corpse 
    sickness. Two days of dancing and 
    ceremony and feeding the whole damn 
    village. Not even to mention hiring 
    the yataallii, if you can even find 
    one these days. And you can bet they 
    don't come cheap. But every clan 
    does it a bit different. Especially 
    Mary's.

  DAGGETT
    You know them?

  JOHN
    The Bitter Sky Clan. Hard core 
    reservation. No lights, no running 
    water, no HBO. Their village is out 
    on the edge of Old Woman Butte. 
    Million miles from anything. Witch 
    country. Settled right there in the 
    Dead People Land where no one else 
    would, right on top of the old Anasazi 
    village. They're a dying clan. Just 
    the old ones now. All alone out there 
    in the middle of nothing.
  (drinks)
    They can keep it.

  DAGGETT
    Do people really still believe in it 
    all? Ghosts, Sings, corpse sickness?

  JOHN
    Depends, I guess. Sometimes you go 
    along because it's a village thing, 
    or you don't want to disappoint 
    grandma. But sometimes, when you're 
    alone out there, far from town, and 
    the wind kicks up and sneaks into 
    your hogan... I don't know.

 John closes his eyes and drifts off. Thomas wanders into the 
 kitchen.

  DAGGETT
    I think John's out for the evening.

  KATHERINE
    Saturday night in Chimney Rock.

 She hands him a mug of coffee.

  DAGGETT
    So how does a person like you end up 
    teaching here?

  KATHERINE
    When I was younger I used to believe 
    that no matter how much you mucked 
    around in your life, one day, if you 
    listened hard enough, a voice would 
    tell you what you were really cut 
    out to do. And when it didn't show 
    up on schedule I decided to go look 
    for it. And I looked in a lot of 
    places, believe me. I drove that 
    road out there so far that the end 
    became the beginning again. And it 
    was when I got here that I realized 
    there never was going to be a voice. 
    So I stopped looking and took the 
    first job they offered me. That make 
    any sense to you?

  DAGGETT
    Oh, I know all about voices. Problem 
    is not all of them are very nice.

  KATHERINE
    How did you end up a cop?

  DAGGETT
    It was the evil of two lessers.

  KATHERINE
    Are you always this cryptic?

  DAGGETT
    No. When you get to know me I can be 
    down right evasive.

 EXT. HOTEL - NIGHT

 Katherine pulls up to drop Thomas off.

  DAGGETT
    Thanks for the lift. Tomorrow at 
    noon? At the little girl's house?

  KATHERINE
    First trailer on the highway past 
    town.

 Thomas climbs out.

  KATHERINE
    I must say, Mr. Dagget, that you 
    don't seem very like a police officer 
    to me.

  DAGGETT
    That's what my bosses keep saying.

  KATHERINE
    I meant it as a compliment.

  DAGGETT
    So taken. Goodnight, Miss Henley.

  KATHERINE
    Goodnight, Tom-from-Los-Angeles.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Thomas lying in his hotel bed, flinching through a dream-
 filled sleep.

 There's glimpses of shattered images: War. Death. And a small, 
 dark-haired girl. Thomas's eyes open and fix on the ceiling.

 Out his window, perched on the railing of his balcony, is 
 something dark and winged.

DISSOLVE TO:

 The honey warmth of dawn heats the bluish, quiet streets of 
 The Town. Across shale hills and abandoned 19th century 
 miner's shacks, there echoes the faint, clear notes of a 
 trumpet. The bluesy notes drift over narrow dead-end streets, 
 junked cars, and the abandoned copper mine out past the end 
 of town.

 INT. MINE

 Deep in the tunneled rock, past the rusting conveyor belts, 
 Gabriel sits in a small cave blowing Miles Davis on his 
 trumpet. There's just the blanket he sits on and a single 
 candle. Jerry comes around the corner.

  GABRIEL
    Get any sleep?
  (Jerry only stares)
    -- Just kidding.

 EXT. THE SCHOOLHOUSE - MORNING

 As Katherine climbs out of her pick-up she sees several of 
 her students standing in a circle. Crouched in the center, 
 talking to them, is a man. Gabriel. Jerry stands nearby.

 Gabriel is showing a boy his trumpet. Demonstrating where to 
 put his fingers.

  GABRIEL
    ...There, and there. Now pucker your 
    lips... aim it that way, and just 
    blow a little bit, this is a special 
    trumpet.

 The boy puffs lightly. The trumpet emits a piercing, clear 
 note that SHATTERS a window high up in the abandoned part of 
 the building. The youngsters whoop and applaud.

  GABRIEL
    Very good, Timmy. Very good. Here, 
    have a Junior Mint on me. Open up.

 As Timmy opens his mouth we clearly see Gabriel looking down 
 into it. Looking for something...

  GABRIEL
    Who's next?

 Katherine approaches the scene warily. The children all beg 
 for their turn. Gabriel selects Sandra, one of Mary's second 
 grade friends, and puts her on his knee.

  GABRIEL
    And who are you?

  SANDRA
    Sandra.

 She can barely get her fingers around the trumpet.

  GABRIEL
    And did you see the man upstairs, 
    Sandra?

  SANDRA
    A little.

  GABRIEL
    Did you talk to him?

  SANDRA
    No.

  GABRIEL
    And who did, Sandra. Who talked to 
    the man?

  SANDRA
    Mary.

  GABRIEL
    And where is Mary, Sandra?

  SANDRA
    She isn't here. She's sick.

  GABRIEL
    You've got very pretty teeth, Sandra. 
    Here, let me see...

 He gently pushes down her chin with his thumb, opens her 
 mouth, and gazes in.

 Katherine enters the circle.

  KATHERINE
    What the hell do you think you're 
    doing?

 Gabriel looks up, unperturbed, and smiles.

  GABRIEL
    Just talking to the kids, Ma'am.

  KATHERINE
    Get off his knee, Sandra. Everyone 
    else, go inside. Now.

 The kids reluctantly shuffle off.

  BRIAN
    'Bye, Gabriel.

  GABRIEL
    See ya, kids. Be sure to study your 
    math.

 He has the same sunglasses as Simon. The same cold, creepy 
 air about him.

  KATHERINE
    Who are you?

  GABRIEL
    It's a long story.

 Jerry suddenly snorts loudly, trying to retrieve a sticky 
 red glop that starts running out of his nose.

  GABRIEL
    Ignore him.

  JERRY
    Everyone else does.

  KATHERINE
    I don't know what the hell is going 
    on, but you both better get out of 
    here. Right now.

  GABRIEL
    You're right...

 He climbs to his feet and stands close to her.

  GABRIEL
    ...You have no idea what's going on.

 He stands there a beat. That terrible coldness that swirls 
 about him. The shriek of ghosts under his breath. Then he 
 climbs into the rambler with Jerry and pulls away. Katherine 
 watches the car drive off, then yells over to the school 
 janitor.

  KATHERINE
    Al! Keep an eye on the children for 
    me. I'll be right back. And call the 
    sheriff.

  JANITOR
    Sheriff? What the hell do I tell 
    him?

  KATHERINE
    Just call.

 Katherine gets into her pickup and starts the engine.

 EXT. THE TOWN - DAY

 Katherine drives through the main drag and out past the fringe 
 of town. As she passes the old copper mine she sees, parked 
 near the mine's tunnel entrance, Gabriel's rambler.

 EXT MARY'S GRANDMOTHER'S TRAILER - DAY

 As Katherine pulls up, she's surprised to see Thomas climbing 
 out of his own car.

  KATHERINE
    You weren't suppose to be here till 
    noon.

  DAGGETT
    You're a little early yourself.

  KATHERINE
    I wanted to check on her.

  DAGGETT
    That makes two of us.

     CUT TO:

 On the sandy lot that extends back from the trailer is a 
 wizened cottonwood tree. Katherine, Thomas, and Mary are 
 seated beneath its shade. Katherine is protective of the 
 little girl, running a hand maternally through her hair.

  KATHERINE
    How are you feeling, pumpkin?

  MARY
    Better.

  KATHERINE
    This is Mr. Dagget, Mary. He'd like 
    to ask you some questions. You don't 
    have to answer if you don't want to.

  MARY
    It's okay.

 There's a dreamy, far-away look in Mary's eyes. It worries 
 Katherine.

  DAGGETT
    Mary, when you talked to man up in 
    the building --

  MARY
    -- Simon.

  DAGGETT
    Yes, Simon. What did Simon say?

  MARY
  (smiles)
    That's funny. "Simon says".

  DAGGETT
    Right. Like the game.

  MARY
    I'm good at it. I'm very clever.

  DAGGETT
    We'll have to play together sometime.

  MARY
    Simon even said so. He also asked if 
    I could keep a secret.

  DAGGETT
    And what was that?

  MARY
    Something he gave me.

  KATHERINE
    What, pumpkin?

  MARY
    Then it wouldn't be a secret.

  DAGGETT
    You're a good friend not to tell, 
    Mary. But I'm a friend of Simon's 
    too. So if you ever want to tell, 
    you can to me. Okay?

  MARY
    It's a secret...

 Mary lowers her head and shuts her eyes.

  MARY
    ...But sometimes it hurts.

 Thomas and Katherine exchange looks. Mary's pretty eyes rise 
 again as she calmly asks, in that cute little eight year old 
 voice:

  MARY
    Have you ever killed a chinaman?

  DAGGETT
    No Mary, I haven't.

  MARY
    They don't bleed. Not the way you 
    and I do. Or maybe it was just the 
    cold...

 Thomas looks to Katherine for an explanation, but she's as 
 confused as him.

  MARY
    I've killed them, you know. Lots. 
    You could always tell when they were 
    coming. There'd be the trumpets first. 
    Every note flat. Then those songs... 
    After that they'd charge. Right down 
    through the snow. The guns would 
    freeze and it would be just knives... 
    It was so cold and there were so 
    many of them. But I was smarter than 
    they were. Even at Chosin, I was 
    smarter...

 Mary's been explaining this in a girlish, show-'n-tell kind 
 of way. Suddenly her face cracks as her voice chokes with a 
 sob.

  MARY
    It scares me, Miss Henley. I hate 
    it. Please, make it stop!

 She buries herself into Katherine's arms, sobbing.

  MARY
    Make it stop!

  KATHERINE
  (rocking her)
    It's okay... It's okay...

 Mary suddenly pushes away and runs back toward the trailer, 
 into the arms of her grandmother.

  KATHERINE
    I'm sorry, I didn't mean to --

  GRANDMOTHER
    It's all right, Miss Henley. We know 
    you love Mary...

  KATHERINE
    What are we going to do?

  GRANDMOTHER
    She's going to have the Enemy Ghost 
    Way. We leave this afternoon.

 The grandmother turns and walks back to the trailer.

  DAGGETT
    Where will they do the ceremony?

  KATHERINE
    In the home village. The Hand Trembler 
    must have found corpse sickness...

  DAGGETT
    They're taking her away? Shouldn't 
    she see a doctor?

  KATHERINE
    She's already seen a doctor.
  (then, under her breath)
    That son of a bitch...

  DAGGETT
    Who?

  KATHERINE
    Gabriel the children called him. The 
    little shit was hanging around my 
    kids this morning asking about Mary. 
    He and his buddy make a real pair.

  DAGGETT
    Maybe it's time I checked out Mr. 
    Gabriel.

 Katherine turns from trailer and looks at him.

  KATHERINE
    I know where he parks his car.

 INT. THOMAS'S CAR - DAY

 Katherine and Thomas drive back down the road leading to 
 town.

  KATHERINE
    Chinamen? Chosin? I've never heard 
    her talk like that before.

  DAGGETT
    Chosin Reservoir was a Korean war 
    battle the Marines had against the 
    Chinese, supposedly the bloodiest 
    hand-to-hand fighting of the century. 
    Someone been teaching that to your 
    class?

  KATHERINE
    Sure, right next to Jack 'N Jill.

  DAGGETT
    Where would she have heard it?

  KATHERINE
    Nobody I can think of.
  (beat)
    Maybe one.

  DAGGETT
    Who?

  KATHERINE
    General Hawthorne.

  DAGGETT
    Did she know him?

  KATHERINE
    He didn't like children.

  DAGGETT
    You couldn't and tell a story like 
    that to one.

 He pulls over to the side near the copper mine entrance. No 
 sign of the rambler.

  KATHERINE
    It was there earlier.

 Thomas drives up the dirt path to the mine's tunnel entrance. 
 They climb out and stand near its mouth. In the dust is the 
 rambler's tracks and several footprints leading into the 
 mine.

 Thomas steps up to the edge of the tunnel. It's a black, 
 yawning thing that swallows the sunlight whole for breakfast.

  DAGGETT
    If I was smart I'd call the Sheriff 
    or somebody in town who knows this 
    place. Then again, there is one thing 
    worse than getting killed.

  KATHERINE
    What?

  DAGGETT
    Looking like an idiot if it's nothing.

 He pops his trunk and takes out a flashlight.

  KATHERINE
    I'll come along.

  DAGGETT
    No, if someone has to fall a hundred 
    feet down a black pit, he should at 
    least be on official duty.

 Thomas switches on the light and takes a tentative step 
 inside.

  DAGGETT
    Then again, it is kind of spooky in 
    there. Here, you can hold the 
    flashlight.

 INT. THE MINE

 The sun very quickly becomes a memory. And after the first 
 bend it isn't even that anymore. There's only the glow of 
 the flashlight; glancing off the abrupt edges of tunneled 
 rock. Here and there are the flotsam of a bankrupt industry; 
 dented ore carts lying on their side, rusted drill bits, 
 piles of support timbers. And all around them the sucking 
 blackness of the earth.

  KATHERINE
    It's cold...

 They walk further down into the mine. The atmosphere becomes 
 close and creepy. Thomas has been following tracks left in 
 the dusty floor that abruptly disappear. He stops and sighs.

  DAGGETT
    Shit.

 -- A BAT suddenly SHRIEKS out of the darkness, glancing off 
 Thomas's shoulder and TANGLING in Katherine's hair. She 
 screams and spins around, loosing her footing and half falling 
 into a yawning ore chute she hadn't seen beside her. Thomas 
 rushes over and pulls her out. She climbs shakily to her 
 feet.

  DAGGETT
    You okay?

  KATHERINE
    Yeah... Sorry.

 Thomas takes a last pass at the mine shaft with his 
 flashlight.

  DAGGETT
    Well, I've seen enough.

 As he turns to leave the flashlight burns out.

  DAGGETT
    Wonderful.

 He bangs it once against his thigh before he notices for the 
 first time a dim, amber light coming from a space between 
 the rocks.

  KATHERINE
    What is that?

  DAGGETT
    I don't know. Maybe a bum or 
    something.

 But his gun's out at his side. Just in case. They follow the 
 light to the gap in the rock, gingerly stepping into

 A CAVERN

 -- That could easily belong to a bum. It's Gabriel and Jerry's 
 digs. Just the moldy blanket, single oil lamp, piles of 
 twinkie wrappers,

 And something else.

 From outside the cave it's the same whine, the same blurryness 
 that drips off Gabriel like sweat. But once they step into 
 the room, into the lair, it suddenly jumps in volume. This 
 is where Gabriel sleeps, and it's thicker here, like honey 
 on the walls. Thomas has difficulty focusing his eyes.

  KATHERINE
    Do you feel it?

  DAGGETT
    ...Yes.

  KATHERINE
    What is it?

 But Thomas can't hear Katherine anymore, her voice has 
 disappeared beneath the whine. As it becomes too much he 
 leans his weight against the rock wall and shuts his eyes.

 It's then they come. Flashes of images: Of screams and fire. 
 Of impossible vistas of emptiness and death. And shrieking 
 overhead, shrieking everywhere; grotesque, winged creatures 
 with no eyes. Some with faces we know; Gabriel, Simon, and 
 the gargoyle. All these images are being jammed into both 
 their minds by the cave.

 Thomas forces his eyes open but the scenes playing all around 
 him won't go away. Tears are running down Katherine's face 
 as she stands there locked in the same images. Thomas stumbles 
 about the room as if drunk, the visions, incomprehendibly 
 black visions of war and destruction on an alien plateau, 
 eat his brain. He sinks to his knees and begins to cry.

  DAGGETT
    Oh no... Oh God no...

 Katherine's curled up on the floor like a child, weeping. 
 The images are driving them mad. Thomas, fighting the insanity 
 pounding at him, crawls pathetically across the floor to the 
 oil lamp. His fingers grasp it spasmotically as he rises to 
 his knees and leans back.

  DAGGETT
    No!

 He HEAVES the lamp against the cave wall, where it EXPLODES, 
 the oil erupting into a swirling blaze that CONSUMES the 
 corner.

 The images break a second in the heat and light and sucking 
 wind. Just long enough for Thomas to grab Katherine's arm 
 and pull her out of the room.

 EXT. MINE - DAY

 Katherine and Thomas lie in the dust outside the mine's tunnel 
 entrance. Catching their breath. Trying to organize and repair 
 the short circuits in their brains. Thomas rolls on his side, 
 squints at the sun. Katherine's voice is faint and raspy.

  KATHERINE
    What... What was that? Hell?

  DAGGETT
    ...No. The voices. They were screaming 
    and fighting over... theology. They 
    don't sweat much about that in hell. 
    But they do in... heaven.

 He squeezes a handful of dirt in his hands.

  DAGGETT
    The son of a bitch. He carries it 
    around with him like a photo album. 
    A big, greasy cloud wherever he goes. 
    They all do.

  KATHERINE
    How can that be heaven? Jesus Christ. 
    How? I don't even believe in heaven.

 The tears start rolling down her face. She looks up and shouts 
 at the endless sky above them.

  KATHERINE
    You dumb fucking assholes! How could 
    you have done that!

  DAGGETT
    That extra chapter by St. John was 
    right. It's a war... Just like the 
    first one. Just like when the angel 
    Michael beat Lucifer and cast him 
    out. Only now they've turned on each 
    other... Turned on each other in a 
    civil war over theology.

 He laughs hopelessly at the insanity of it all.

  DAGGETT
    Oh sweet God, theology.
  (sighs)
    "God's wild bunch".
  (shouts)
    God's morons!

  KATHERINE
    How do you know know so much about 
    that?

  DAGGETT
    I just know.
  (shakes his head)
    Yes folks, the good news is that 
    there's life after death in heaven. 
    The bad news is that it's as screwed 
    up as here.

  KATHERINE
    They were like us.

  DAGGETT
    They are us. Aborted children. And 
    they need us. They need our corrupt, 
    dark souls for their fight. They 
    need...

  KATHERINE
    ...Mary.

 Katherine climbs abruptly to her feet and walks for the car.

  DAGGETT
    What are you doing?

  KATHERINE
    I don't know what this is. I don't 
    know what I believe. I don't know if 
    my sanity is lying back in that cave 
    flopping around waiting for me. But 
    I know one thing. Those... Those 
    things aren't taking her!

 INT. THOMAS'S CAR

 Katherine and Thomas drive along in silence. Finally,

  KATHERINE
    In those... visions... did you ever 
    see... God?

  DAGGETT
    No.

  KATHERINE
    Me either.

 INT. MARY'S GRANDMOTHER'S TRAILER

 Katherine and Thomas open the trailer door and enter 
 cautiously.

  KATHERINE
    Mary?

 Thomas looks out the window and notices for the first time, 
 parked behind the trailer, Gabriel's rambler. He immediately 
 pulls out his pistol, runs for the closed door at the end of 
 the hall and KICKS it in. The door FLIES open, revealing 
 Gabriel sitting on the bed beside Mary.

  DAGGETT
    Get away from her.

 His gun's leveled at Gabriel's head. The angel sits there 
 impassively, then smiles.

  GABRIEL
    You know. Son of a bitch, the priest 
    wanna-be actually figured it out. 
    That's a rare club, son. At least 
    down here.

  DAGGETT
    Back away from the kid, man. Now.

  GABRIEL
    She won't feel anything, honest. 
    I'll have to tear her apart of course -- 
    just the way it goes -- but it'll be 
    all right in the end. A good catholic 
    boy like you, Mr. Daggett, you should 
    be on my side.

  DAGGETT
    Goddamn it --

  GABRIEL
    You're gonna have to watch that 
    profanity.

 Jerry suddenly LEAPS out from behind the door and TACKLES 
 Thomas to the carpet. The gun skitters to one side as Jerry 
 SINKS his rotting teeth into Thomas's shoulder. Thomas cries 
 out and SLAMS his fist against Jerry's head, knocking off an 
 ear.

 Gabriel turns back to Mary's frightened face and smiles as 
 he runs a hand through her hair.

  GABRIEL
    It'll only be a moment...

 Katherine suddenly HAMMERS Gabriel across the side of the 
 head with a chair, KNOCKING him to the floor. As he gets up 
 she HITS him again.

 Thomas manages to bring his leg up and KICKS Jerry hard 
 against the chest, forcing him off.

 Gabriel GRABS both of Katherine's legs and PULLS, CRASHING 
 her flat on her back.

 Thomas scrambles for his gun, grabs it, and as Jerry comes 
 at him again spins and FIRES twice. The slugs RIP into Jerry's 
 chest and knock him to his knees. As the putrid, curdled 
 juices pump lumpily out of him, Jerry looks up at Thomas and 
 smiles.

  JERRY
    Thanks man, I appreciate it. You're 
    a sport.

 Thomas FIRES a slug into his forehead. Jerry's brain winks 
 out as he collapses to the floor, dead.

 Thomas's gun is abruptly WRENCHED from his hand onto the bed 
 as Gabriel NAILS him with a thrown lamp, vaults the bed 
 between them, and grabs him by the collar, SLAMMING Thomas 
 up against the wall. He looks down at Jerry's finally lifeless 
 corpse, incensed at Thomas's handiwork.

  GABRIEL
    You little pest, do you have any 
    idea how hard it is to get one of 
    those?

 He THROWS Thomas down onto a table, SPLINTERING it. Katherine 
 climbs shakily to her knees.

  KATHERINE
    You son of a bitch, why? Why do this?

  GABRIEL
    Because I'm an angel, you miserable 
    wretch! I kill first borns while 
    their mothers watch! I turn whole 
    cities into salt! I even, when I 
    feel like it, rip the souls from 
    little girls! And from now until 
    eternity, the only thing you'll be 
    able to count on in your pathetic 
    little existence is never knowing 
    why!
  (deep breath)
    I'm wasting my time here.
  (turns to Mary)
    C'mon petunia, let's get on with 
    it...

 Gabriel walks over to the bed. The moment he gets close, 
 Mary lifts Thomas's pistol up from the sheets and SHOOTS him 
 twice, the impact KNOCKING him on his ass.

 Katherine rushes to Mary, scoops her up and runs for the 
 door. She pauses beside Thomas, still lying in the wreckage 
 of the table.

  DAGGETT
    Go. Go!

 Katherine disappears through the bedroom doorway.

 Gabriel spins around and stands. Thomas leaps from a ragged 
 crouch, HITTING Gabriel low with a body-block.

 It's like butting concrete.

 Gabriel picks up Thomas by the scruff of the neck and HEAVES 
 him THROUGH the flimsy room paneling. Thomas CRASHES with a 
 mass of splinters into the kitchen. He stumbles backward 
 hopelessly as Gabriel peruses him through the trailer. He 
 desperately throws pots, glasses, anything at Gabriel. Finally 
 trapped, he scrambles up onto the dinner table, SCATTERING 
 salt and sugar bowls, and DIVES through the levored window.

 OUTSIDE

 Thomas, in a hail of shattered glass, smacks the red earth, 
 pulls himself up to his knees and tries to stumble and crawl 
 away as Gabriel BANGS open the trailer door and stomps down 
 the stairs toward Katherine, her arms around Mary.

  KATHERINE
    ...You...

 He eases his gait, measuring the distance to her.

  KATHERINE
    ...Can't...

 There's just those sunglasses coming. Those endless pits of 
 black.

  KATHERINE
    ...Have Her!!

 Katherine lifts Thomas's pistol and FIRES. Again. Again. The 
 slugs BANG off the corregated metal, SMASH a window, KICK up 
 some dust,

 And PUNCTURE the propane tank beneath the trailer.

 -- WUMPP-BAM!

 The entire trailer EXPLODES in a fiery cloud of TWISTING 
 METAL.

 Katherine huddles Mary close to the ground as flaming chunks 
 WHACK everywhere.

 Gabriel is HAMMERED to the earth and disappears in the rolling 
 fire cloud. Thomas, further away, is KNOCKED head-over-heels 
 in the ruddy dust.

 The fire cloud dissipates quickly into the sky, leaving behind 
 scorched brush, and little else, crackling softly. Gabriel's 
 body looks blackened and still. Katherine rushes to Thomas, 
 who's pulled himself up to his knees, a ragged slice above 
 his eye bleeding badly. She helps him to his feet and over 
 to the pickup, where he sits down against the tire as 
 Katherine pulls out her first aid kit. Mary's there, standing 
 with her shaken grandmother.

  DAGGETT
  (re grandmother)
    Where...

  KATHERINE
    She was coming up the street.

  MARY
    Is Gabriel dead?

 Mary's knelt down beside Thomas.

  MARY
    They're not like you and me. You've 
    got to cut their hearts out. The 
    only thing God gave them.

 A sheriff car ROARS up, the two deputies exiting warily.

  DEPUTY
    What the hell happened here?

 Katherine's wiping the blood out of Thomas's eye. Gasping 
 from the shearing pain, he tosses an ID at the foot of the 
 deputy.

  DAGGETT
    LAPD.

  DEPUTY
  (looks at it, hands 
  it to partner)
    That's a start. How about the rest 
    of it?

 From somewhere back in town there's the growl of a volunteer 
 fire engine.

  DAGGETT
    That man over there. He's wanted. 
    Murder. I'm taking him in.
  (grimaces)
    -- Shit...

 The pain's unbareable. Katherine dabs his cut with 
 disinfectant.

  DEPUTY
    I think you're going to the hospital 
    first.

  DAGGETT
    -- No, I have to --

 Again, the pain.

 The second deputy has walked over to Gabriel.

  DEPUTY
    Is he alive?

  DEPUTY #2
    He's alive.

  DEPUTY
    Cuff him. We'll take him to the 
    hospital in our car.

  DAGGETT
    -- No, you don't understand. You 
    have to let me have him --

 The volunteer fire engine growls up through the weeds, 
 drowning out Thomas's words. Two firemen kneel down beside 
 him with medical kits.

 The deputy has walked over to his partner and the two are 
 dragging back between them a cuffed, comatose Gabriel.

  DAGGETT
  (hoarse, faint)
    You'll never hold him.

 Thomas tries to get up, but the pain and a hand from the 
 firemen keep him down. As the deputies pass, he manages to 
 desperately grab the one's pant cuff.

  DAGGETT
    Take off his sunglasses... Jesus 
    Christ, just take off his 
    sunglasses...

 Gabriel's head lies low between the shoulders. The deputy 
 looks with concern at the firemen.

  FIREMAN
  (re Thomas)
    He'll be all right. Just a bad hit.

 The deputy nods. As they carry on to the car with Gabriel, 
 the angel turns his head slightly and smiles a smile only 
 for Thomas.

  FIREMAN
  (to partner)
    Let's get a splint.

 The patrol car pulls away. As the firemen walk back to their 
 engine, Thomas looks frantically at Katherine.

  DAGGETT
    We have to get out of here.

  KATHERINE
    But your head...

  DAGGETT
    If you want Mary to stay alive past 
    sundown we have to leave, and we 
    have to do it now.

 They lock eyes. Then Katherine without a word helps Thomas 
 up into the passenger side of the pickup. Mary gathers her 
 grandmother into the pickup's bed and climbs up beside her 
 as Katherine starts the engine. The firemen turn in confusion 
 as the truck peels out of the lot and up onto the road.

 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY

 Katherine's truck shoots by. Just before town, near the copper 
 mine, it slows down at a junction.

 And there, lying on its side down the embankment, is the 
 sheriff's patrol car. A single, bent tire turns aimlessly.

 Katherine hits the gas and takes the junction that leads 
 away from town, out onto the endless expanse of the plateau.

 INT. TRUCK

 The bandage on Thomas's forehead covers most of one eye. He 
 closes the other tightly, riding a spasm of pain, before 
 letting his forehead rest against the door glass and gazing 
 out at the empty tracks of land.

  DAGGETT
    Where are we going?

  KATHERINE
    Mary's village.

 Katherine looks over her shoulder to Mary's grandmother 
 sitting in the truck bed. She nods in understanding.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Katherine's pickup passing alone through the wrinkled desert.

 EXT. GAS STATION - DAY

 A trading post with a few pumps, growing orange in the 
 weakening afternoon light. A scruffy dog barks constantly as 
 the teenage Indian sticks the nozzle in Katherine's pickup. 
 Still glassy-eyed with throbbing pain, Thomas takes another 
 handful of aspirin and climbs out of the cab.

 There's a tiny, weatherbeaten church across the weedy lot 
 from the trading post with a pay phone bolted to it. Thomas 
 crunches across the lot, picks up the receiver, and punches 
 in some numbers.

  TELEPHONE VOICE
    County Coroner's office, Assistant 
    Coroner Raphael speaking.

  DAGGETT
    Willie?

  VOICE
    Tom?

  DAGGETT
    You weren't crazy, man.

 And Thomas hangs up. He backs away from the phone and for 
 the first time notices the church it's attached to.

 INT. CHURCH

 Thomas steps inside. It's empty and there's some doubt whether 
 it's been used in a generation. The pews are dusty and 
 scraped, some broken down completely. Thomas sits in one and 
 looks across the space and dust and years to the crucifix 
 hanging behind the altar.

  DAGGETT
    So what's the deal, huh?

 The pew creaks and groans as he shifts his weight.

  DAGGETT
    I mean, do you have any kind of plan 
    here? Cause I'm just about of ideas, 
    friend.

 Jesus' pressed-metal eyes gaze only upward.

  DAGGETT
    Do you even listen? Do you still 
    come to places like this? Old Man, 
    you have been calling me most of my 
    goddamn life, but every time I get 
    close, you just keep moving that far 
    away. What's it to be? You want me 
    to kill your henchmen? Can't you 
    even control your own killers anymore?

 Thomas holds his face in his hands a silent moment. When it 
 raises we see the raw hurt in the eyes as he shouts,

  DAGGETT
    What do you want from me!

 The only reply is dust dancing in the light and the rumble 
 of semis on the highway.

 Standing in the back, watching Thomas with tears welling in 
 her eyes, is Katherine.

DISSOLVE TO:

 The road's turned to dirt and the plateau into a maze of 
 ragged cliffs and brutally hacked canyons.

 The light is shadowy and golden now as Katherine's pickup 
 turns off the small dirt road onto an even smaller one that 
 winds impossibly up the side of a volcanic butte.

 Higher and higher the truck climbs on the rutted and 
 treacherous path, till at last it crests the ridge and comes 
 upon

 THE VILLAGE

 Perched frighteningly on the leading edge of Old Woman Butte, 
 this is the home of the Bitter Sky Clan. The village is a 
 small grouping of ancient adobe walled hogans first built a 
 thousand years ago by the Anasazi. There's no electricity 
 here, no TV antennas or frozen yogurt. Just the slow curl of 
 cooking fires drifting up through smoke holes and the stern, 
 deeply lined face of an old Navaho man approaching the pickup 
 as Katherine stops.

 The old man wears jeans, a bright maroon silk shirt, and a 
 black felt reservation hat with a turkey feather. He holds 
 in his right hand a small leather case.

  OLD MAN
    I am Bartholomew Grey Horse, born to 
    the Deer Spring Clan, born for the 
    Slow Talking People. Today I am the 
    yataalii for Mary Tsosie of the Bitter 
    Sky Clan.

 The old man, Bartholomew Grey Horse, walks up to Mary and 
 her grandmother sitting in the bed.

  GREY HORSE
    Ya-tah.

  GRANDMOTHER
    Ya-tah-hey.

 Several villagers approach and greet Mary and her grandmother, 
 some nodding politely to Thomas and Katherine as they climb 
 out of the cab. Nearly all of them are elderly.

 Thomas, one eye still half-shut by a bandage, walks over to 
 the village's edge where a short stone wall, and little else, 
 separates the adobe homes from the long, 2000 foot drop to 
 the desert floor. He leans against it and gazes out on a 
 view that must encompass half the world. In all directions, 
 for tens upon tens of miles, there are only volcanic spires 
 and crumbling buttes, all reduced from up here to short, 
 ominous playthings. A village truly alone in the world.

  MARY
    This is a good place.

 She's appeared beside him. Thomas crouches down to her level 
 and smiles.

  DAGGETT
    Yes?

 Mary's sight is on the view, eyeing it critically.

  MARY
    Separate water source. Stocked grain. 
    Only one possible approach. A man 
    could, with the proper defenses, 
    hold off an entire battalion for 
    weeks. Months.

 Thomas's voice sighs sadly as he runs a hand softly through 
 her hair.

  DAGGETT
    Which one of you is that talking, 
    Mary? Or do you even know anymore?

 Mary's eyes fill with tears as her grandmother appears and 
 leads her back to the adobe hogans.

 Grey Horse, the yataalii, is there now.

  GREY HORSE
    We will start the Sing soon to remove 
    the Yei spirit and stop the ghost 
    sickness.

  DAGGETT
    This might not be the work of a Navaho 
    ghost.

  GREY HORSE
    It's all the same.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Night creeps over the Chuska Mountains across the crusty 
 caliche flats and over the village, pushing back the dying 
 day to a thin, fading blue line etched across the horizon. 
 As the darkness settles on the hogans we see a glimmer of 
 light from within and the rising, guttural chants of the 
 yataalii.

 INT. KIVA - NIGHT

 Under the village, beneath the surface of the butte, is the 
 large communal kiva room. Accessible by a single ladder 
 through a single smoke hole, it is down here that the village 
 performs its Enemy Ghost Way for Mary.

 The little girl is there, attended by her grandmother, sitting 
 stoically still on a blanket as Grey Horse, grasping his 
 painted prayer sticks, by the glow of a fire chants the Enemy 
 Ghost Way cure. Katherine's eyes sting in the smokey air as 
 she watches Grey Horse take from his case small handfulls of 
 colored sand that he pours in fine patterns onto the floor.

 The whole Bitter Sky Clan surrounds them. Old, lined faces. 
 A small, dying people here to support its last granddaughter.

DISSOLVE TO:

 EXT. VILLAGE - NIGHT

 Katherine stands there in the chilly darkness outside the 
 kiva. Mary's grandmother, passing with some other women, 
 pauses and squeezes Katherine's arm.

  GRANDMOTHER
    Now we sleep, Katherine. Tomorrow, 
    after dark, we begin again.

 INSIDE THE KIVA

 The fire has died to embers, casting its weak glow on a now 
 empty room.

 OUTSIDE

 Katherine wanders along the edge of the village, turning up 
 her collar under a blinding mass of stars. There's nothing 
 beyond the village. Not a light, not a sound. Say the wind. 
 It is the icy brush of wind on her body that now whispers.

  VOICE
    Hello, Katherine.

 Like the wind, it is low and thin and hoarse. Like the wind 
 it seems to come from everywhere. And, like the wind, it is 
 utterly without pity or remorse.

 Katherine turns.

 Perched on the wall behind her in a low crouch is a figure 
 clad entirely in layers of black. Its head and hands are 
 hairless and waxy white. There are eyes in this winged head, 
 but blood chilling ones of putrid yellow. There are endless 
 scars and shapes and wrinkles, but mostly, only, there are 
 the eyes.

 Katherine gulps down, with only partial success, the hysteria 
 rising in her throat.

  KATHERINE
    Oh Lord, I can't do this. I can't do 
    this anymore...

  FIGURE
    We must talk, Katherine.

 It's takes all her strength to look upon him.

  KATHERINE
    You're... You're...
  (tries to form the 
  word)
    ...God?

  FIGURE
    God is love, Katherine.

 The eyes narrow. Rippling pools of unfathomable evil.

  FIGURE
    -- I don't love you.

 There's a crouched silhouette beside the figure. Dimmer. 
 Skinny. A wheezing sycophant. An afterthought.

 Katherine backs away from both of them.

  KATHERINE
    I can't. I can't do this tonight. Go 
    away.

  FIGURE
    I can kill you, Katherine. I can lay 
    you out and fill your mouth with 
    your mother's feces. Or I can talk 
    with you.

 Katherine stops. Faces him.

  FIGURE
    I am here, before you, in a form to 
    put you at ease.

  KATHERINE
    Good job.

 The sycophant shivers and ruffles something feathery under 
 its cloak.

  FIGURE
    I rarely do this in person. I am, 
    perhaps, somewhat out of touch.

  KATHERINE
    Are you one of them?

  FIGURE
    No.

  KATHERINE
    You're not an angel?

  FIGURE
    Oh, I am an angel. A very special 
    one. The first. The oldest. The naive 
    eagle scout, he once loved me above 
    all others, and I him. It was the 
    only true love for either of us, but 
    like all true love, it couldn't 
    possibly last.

 The figure cranes his neck around to the horizon beyond them. 
 The movement makes a liquid, snapping sound.

  FIGURE
    The winged party boys will come, 
    Katherine. They'll come to feed on 
    the guts of your little Mary.

  KATHERINE
    What do you care?

  FIGURE
    I have my interests...

 He turns back to her.

  FIGURE
    The naive eagle scout, he has his 
    interests too. He even has a place 
    for them, as I do for mine. Big, 
    shiny place. You'd like it. Only 
    it's been empty for a long time. 
    Can't open till after the 
    resurrection. The problem's with the 
    hired help. Always had problems with 
    the hired help. They're arrogant, 
    boastful little pricks. Not like me. 
    What I did I did for love. But they, 
    the winged party boys, even before 
    the park could open for its first 
    customer, they started fighting over 
    the popcorn stand.

 The figure shifts his perch on the wall.

  FIGURE
    You see, Katherine, heaven can't 
    start accepting guests till this 
    fight is settled. And without people, 
    there is no heaven. All those good 
    and true souls left mouldering in 
    the ground clutching their H-tickets 
    and waiting and waiting and waiting... 
    Some, lying down there with the worms 
    century after century, they start to 
    get doubts about the whole program. 
    That's when, out of sheer boredom, 
    some of them come to me. Because I'm 
    always open for business. 24 hours a 
    day, seven days a week. Even on 
    Christmas.

 The figure's face darkens.

  FIGURE
    Some of the angels cheat. They sneak 
    a few souls in to help with the fight. 
    The really dark ones. And now one of 
    them has found a special soul so 
    wonderfully sick that it might just 
    win it for them. And if one side 
    wins, even the wrong one, then there's 
    no fight. And if there's no fight, 
    there can be a heaven.

  KATHERINE
    And if there's a heaven?

  FIGURE
    I'd be very unhappy.
  (beat)
    I am here to help you and the little 
    bitch not because I love you, not 
    because I care about you, but because 
    I want this war to go on and on and 
    on.

 The figure straightens up, stretching its spine.

  FIGURE
    I bring you the chance to save your 
    Mary, Katherine. And along the way, 
    stop the resurrection.

  KATHERINE
    How?

  FIGURE
    Listen when I speak. Now go to bed, 
    Katherine. Tomorrow, I promise you, 
    is a big day.

 INT. HOGAN

 Thomas's sitting on the hard-packed floor, leaning against 
 the adobe wall, maybe trying to sleep. Mostly trying to ignore 
 the thumping pain in his head. The oil lamp's flame shudders 
 in the gust of Katherine opening the door.

  DAGGETT
    Is it over?

  KATHERINE
    For now. They start again tomorrow.

  DAGGETT
    And at the end of it?

  KATHERINE
    The Enemy Way chant removes the 
    invading yei ghost.

  DAGGETT
    Will it work on a general's soul?

  KATHERINE
    We'll see.
  (beat)
    How's the head?

  DAGGETT
    Still attached. Barely.

 She sits down on the floor beside him.

  KATHERINE
    Here, I'll change the bandage.

 She carefully unwraps the blood-soaked gauze.

  KATHERINE
    Does that hurt?

  DAGGETT
    No.

  KATHERINE
    Then I must be doing it wrong.

 She peels back the compress and dabs the wound.

  KATHERINE
    I saw the devil tonight.

  DAGGETT
    How nice. Which one?

  KATHERINE
    The main one. Satan. Lucifer. The 
    dark angel. You know.

  DAGGETT
    What did he have to say?

  KATHERINE
    That he did it all for love. That 
    and I have a choice. Mary's life or 
    a billion souls waiting in the 
    pipeline for heavenland to open.

  DAGGETT
    You're not kidding, are you?

  KATHERINE
    No sir.

  DAGGETT
    Satan? You're sure?

  KATHERINE
    You had to be there.

 Thomas suddenly slams his fist against the wall in anger.

  DAGGETT
    Why wasn't I!

  KATHERINE
    We can double date next time if it's 
    that important to you.

  DAGGETT
    You don't understand, I've spent my 
    whole life...
  (looks upward)
    I don't suppose it would occur to 
    anyone in authority to fill me in on 
    what's going on every once in awhile, 
    huh? Shit!

 The ache in his head's flared up. He leans it back against 
 the wall to ease the pain.

  DAGGETT
    Did he say anything about the Nicene 
    Council? About the rank of Jesus 
    Christ in the holy Trinity?

  KATHERINE
    It didn't seem important to him.

 Katherine finishes taping the new bandage.

  KATHERINE
    Are you a priest?

  DAGGETT
    A near miss.

  KATHERINE
    Why?

  DAGGETT
    It's a long story.

  KATHERINE
    This may be your last chance to tell 
    it.

 A wind outside rustles through the hogans.

  DAGGETT
    The other night, you were talking 
    about waiting for a voice to call 
    you to something. Well, let me tell 
    you, the worst thing that can happen 
    to you is to be called to something. 
    Since I can remember a voice from 
    somewhere deep in the Church called 
    me. So loud and so often that by 
    thirteen I knew I was going to be a 
    priest. You know what that's like? 
    My parents, friends, all of them 
    thought I was crazy. But see, I had 
    this voice. The voice that kept 
    coaxing me along, telling me there 
    was a reason. So I entered the 
    seminary and was half way to my 
    starched white collar when my mother, 
    father, and my little brother were 
    wiped out in a car crash.

 He pauses, the old emotions creeping back up on him.

  DAGGETT
    I had never asked anything of the 
    voice. Not when the neighborhood 
    kids made fun of me, not when my 
    father looked down at me like some 
    knock-kneed faggot. I never questioned 
    a damn thing. But on the morning I 
    spent looking down at three parallel 
    graves, I asked it one question. 
    Why. Why were these people taken 
    from me? And the voice, that same 
    voice that would wrench me out of my 
    sleep some nights with its jabbering, 
    it was suddenly stone silent. It was 
    the only question I ever asked of it 
    and it just left me hanging in the 
    fucking wind...

 He blinks back the tears welling in his eye.

  DAGGETT
    So after that I traded in priest 
    school for homicide school. Because 
    if God wouldn't talk to me the devil 
    sure as hell would, and his ways 
    were a lot easier to understand.

  KATHERINE
    We've never seen God, have we? Not 
    in any of this.

  DAGGETT
    Yeah, He's certainly a shy son of a 
    bitch, I'll give Him that.

  KATHERINE
    Maybe we're not supposed to. Maybe 
    that's faith.

  DAGGETT
    Do you still have faith in anything, 
    Katherine?

  KATHERINE
    I have faith in Mary. And that I'm 
    going to save that little girl from 
    those creeping things out there. 
    From all of them.

  DAGGETT
    Maybe you were called to something 
    after all.

  KATHERINE
    Maybe we both were.

 The oil lamp wanes and fades. Katherine lays her head on 
 Thomas's shoulder, and as darkness swallows them he holds 
 her. They hold each other.

DISSOLVE TO:

 John the bus driver lying fully dressed on his bed asleep. 
 The night breeze through the window, and maybe something 
 else, tickles his nose. His eyes open, blink, turn left, 
 right, then up,

 -- And see Gabriel perched on the headboard, staring down at 
 him.

  GABRIEL
    Heavy sleeper, John.

 John's eyes open wide in shock. Gabriel's skin is blackened 
 and blistered in parts. Whole shards of his shirt are missing. 
 John tries to sit up but Gabriel forces his head back down 
 with his palm. With the ease of a spider he slides down and 
 beside John.

  JOHN
    Don't -- Don't hurt me, man. My 
    wallet's in the dresser.

  GABRIEL
    Don't be such a materialist, John.
  (sees empty bourbon 
  bottle on dresser, 
  sighs)
    No end to your bad habits.

  JOHN
    What do you want?

  GABRIEL
    A moment of your time.

  JOHN
    You ought to have that nose looked 
    at, man.

 Gabriel leans said nose in very close and whispers,

  GABRIEL
    Where are they, John? Katherine and 
    Mary? Where would they go?

  JOHN
    What? Mary? I don't know.

  GABRIEL
    Sure you do. Think hard.

  JOHN
    No, really. I don't know. The school 
    maybe.

  GABRIEL
    Now you're not even trying, John. 
    You're Katherine's best friend. She 
    tells you everything.

  JOHN
    I'm just the driver, y'know?

 Gabriel extends a blistered, open palm over John's face.

  GABRIEL
    I can help you remember, John...

 FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM

 We see Gabriel leaning over John as a sickly yellow glow 
 begins to rise and reflect off the walls. Beneath it comes 
 John's worst and deepest screams...

     CUT TO:

 Gabriel SPLASHING the soot off his face and arms in a small, 
 institutional bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror, 
 runs a hand through his hair, and walks out the door into

 A HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

 At the end of it is the intensive care unit, that 
 institutional purgatory where a small handful of patients, 
 wired and tubed and oxygenated, lay inconclusively between 
 life and death. There's a nurse's station there, all health 
 status video screens and a single nurse that looks up from 
 her work at Gabriel.

  NURSE
    Can I help you?

  GABRIEL
    Someone's going to die here soon. 
    I'll just be a minute.

  NURSE
    There's no visitors allowed in ICU.

  GABRIEL
    The timing's important. I can smell 
    these things, you know.

 The nurse reaches for the telephone. Gabriel takes it away 
 from her with one hand and with the other grasps her face 
 open-palmed and whispers,

  GABRIEL
    Go to sleep.

 The nurse slides out of her chair and collapses to the floor. 
 Gabriel pulls out the metal clipboards holding each patient's 
 chart and flips through them, tossing one after another aside 
 as unsuitable.

  GABRIEL
    Recovering... Recovering... Stable...
  (finally settles on 
  one)
    Deteriorating critical.

 Satisfied, he steps over to one of the beds, pulls back the 
 curtain and sits down beside an unconscious, middle-aged 
 woman. He watches patiently, listening the beeping scrawl of 
 the EKG above her.

 It was weak to begin with but now it's faltering badly, 
 becoming the unsynched etchings of a child. A beeping alarm 
 has begun to ring and her breathing is slowing to nothing. 
 At the last possible moment Gabriel places his fingers across 
 her face, whispering to her, coaxing her.

  GABRIEL
    Whoa, not just yet. Come on back. 
    That's it...

 The EKG's still flat but the woman is breathing. She begins 
 to choke, to cough, then suddenly sits up and opens her eyes. 
 She looks in disbelief around her, finally settling on 
 Gabriel's grin.

  GABRIEL
    Hi.

 A look of utter desolation and sadness sweeps over her as 
 she begins to cry.

  WOMAN
    No, no...

  GABRIEL
    Hey, c'mon, don't start...
  (looks at chart)
    -- Rachael. Here...
  (hands her kleenex)
    It's only for a short time.
  (grins)
    Promise.

DISSOLVE TO:

 The sun cresting the Lukachukais and warming with honey 
 colored reflection the interior of the hogan.

 Katherine's head is still on Thomas's shoulder, the two of 
 them asleep sitting against the wall.

 Katherine opens her eyes and rises stiffly. She looks out 
 the simple window to the glow of morning without expression, 
 turns, and walks out.

 IN THE OTHER HOGAN

 Mary's Grandmother and some of the other elderly villagers 
 are attending Mary as Katherine enters. Mary is sitting up 
 in her bed. She smiles at Katherine.

  MARY
    Hi, Miss Henley.

  KATHERINE
    Hi, pumpkin. Good morning.

 Grey Horse is kneeling near the bed preparing a bowl drink. 
 Into it he crushes charcoal, dodge weed, juniper and ghost 
 plant. This he stirs, heats over flame, and feeds to Mary. 
 She grimaces and leans back in the bed as Grey Horse says a 
 brief prayer.

 OUTSIDE

 Katherine runs into Thomas outside the hogan.

  KATHERINE
    How's the head?

  DAGGETT
    Shitty. Coffee?

 She accepts a mug, blowing a cloud of steam off the top.

  KATHERINE
    What are we going to do if he comes?

  DAGGETT
    You mean when, right?

  KATHERINE
    When he comes.

  DAGGETT
    There's no phone here? Radio?
  (she just looks at 
  him)
    Stupid question.
  (beat)
    If we were smart we'd leave. Get to 
    a town. A sheriff station.

  KATHERINE
    Mary's ceremony isn't over yet. The 
    Enemy Ghost Way. The alien spirit 
    hasn't been driven out.

  DAGGETT
    Do you really believe in the ceremony?

  KATHERINE
    Would you have believed in any of 
    this three days ago?

  DAGGETT
  (nods)
    So we stay and dump the General's 
    soul.

  KATHERINE
    You have the gun?

  DAGGETT
    With one shot left. The spares --
  (sniffs his shirt)
    -- And a change of clothing, are all 
    still at the hotel.
  (sighs)
    We're going to have to come up with 
    something.

  KATHERINE
    We could always ask him.

 Thomas looks up. She's referring to Lucifer, who's appeared 
 perched on the edge of the low, eye-level hogan roof. The 
 sycophant is also nearby, chattering its teeth and staring 
 at Katherine with jealous, rabid eyes.

 Lucifer shivers, a claw turning up the collar of his cloak.

  LUCIFER
    I always forget how cold it gets in 
    the desert.

 The swimming, bottomless eyes fall on Thomas.

  LUCIFER
    Mr. Daggett, I presume. How's the 
    faith?

 Thomas can't bring himself to say anything. To form the words.

  LUCIFER
    Come come, must you be so wishy-washy 
    about everything? With the absent-
    minded eagle scout, I can see that. 
    But you're looking at the devil man, 
    say something.

  DAGGETT
    Fuck you.

  LUCIFER
    Much better. Can I have some coffee?

 Thomas gingerly hands him the cup. The angel Lucifer lifts 
 it, and with something unimaginably awful darting out of his 
 mouth, drinks. He offers the mug back to Thomas for a sip.

  DAGGETT
    Keep it.

 He finishes it. Cranes his neck.

  LUCIFER
    I have come to remind you that the 
    winged party boys are just that: 
    spoiled boys. You are armed, however 
    pathetically, with the one thing 
    they never really understood: 
    theology. It's not much, but that's 
    life.

  DAGGETT
    Is this supposed to be our "win one 
    for The Ripper" speech?

  LUCIFER
    Don't press your luck, Mr. Daggett.

 And you know instantly, in the bottom of your stomach, that 
 those eyes mean it.

  LUCIFER
    Go and get ready, Thomas.

 Thomas hesitates, holds the gaze, then turns and leaves. In 
 an instant Lucifer sweeps down from the hogan roof to 
 Katherine's side. Face and eyes and maggot breath 
 uncomfortably close, he smiles.

  LUCIFER
    Have you ever considered Katherine, 
    that the great absentee landlord, 
    the soft-eyed eagle scout your 
    childhood prayers are for, is just 
    using you? That you're only the 
    exterminator to get rid of his pests?

 Lucifer places a cloaked arm around her shoulder and leads 
 her to the walled edge to look out across the endless plateau. 
 His mouth presses against her ear and whispers,

  LUCIFER
    God's junkies are coming, Katherine. 
    And when they do, all hell is going 
    to break loose...

     CUT TO:

 A tiny speck on the empty horizon. It grows, takes shape, 
 and finally becomes a red convertible rambler as it WOOSHES 
 past on a desolate throat of forgotten highway.

 Gabriel's at the wheel. Beside him, grey-blonde hair streaming 
 out behind her, is Rachael, recently lifted from the file-
 and-forget section of the hospital ICU. She tilts her head 
 up. Lets the sun warm her pallor. Just a sociopathic angel 
 and his somewhat deceased babe out for a top-down cruise 
 across a sixty million year old desert.

 It could happen.

 INT. ROADSIDE DINER - DAY

 A reality bruised waitress, Madge, sets down a coffee and 
 milkshake before Gabriel. He downs the shake in one belt.

  GABRIEL
    Say, Ma'am, any idea where I can 
    find Old Woman Butte?

  MADGE
    It's on the reservation.

  GABRIEL
    I don't suppose you could be just a 
    tad more specific. Madge.

 The waitress' eyes move from the guy with sunglasses and 
 burn marks on his shirt to the woman sitting alone outside 
 in the rambler.

  MADGE
    Isn't your friend hungry?

  GABRIEL
    Not for a while, I'm afraid. Funniest 
    thing.

 Madge has a lot of things she misses in her life, but one of 
 them she decides isn't Gabriel.

  MADGE
    Take 522 to the Sonsela Wash cut-
    off. First dirt road go left. Twenty, 
    twenty-five miles you'll see it. 
    Big, black and all alone.

 Gabriel downs the coffee, stands, and tosses a bill on the 
 counter.

  GABRIEL
    I doubt we'll meet again.

  MADGE
    Suits me.

 EXT. VILLAGE - DAY

 Thomas drags a heavy chain from Katherine's truck and begins 
 fastening it to a post. Lucifer watches perched on a nearby 
 rooftop.

  DAGGETT
    You could always lend a hand.

 Lucifer just smiles or sneers or whatever he does with that 
 hideous mouth.

 INSIDE THE KIVA

 Grey Horse begins laying out his prayer instruments as Mary 
 is prepared with paint and oils.

 OUTSIDE

 Katherine leans against the doorway, nervously watching the 
 horizon.

DISSOLVE TO:

 The sky thinning into uneasy pastels as the sun falls 
 unceremoniously toward the mountains. A few lanterns have 
 been lit, and from inside the kiva can be heard the chants 
 of the Navaho Enemy Ghost Way.

 Katherine's eyes are still on a horizon dropping off into 
 shadow. She stiffens. There, at the end of the earth, appears 
 a silent plume of dust. It could be anybody's car, but it 
 can only be one car. Thomas steps up beside her.

  KATHERINE
    He's coming.

 Thomas sticks his head into the kiva, speaks softly to one 
 of the elderly villagers attending the ceremony.

  DAGGETT
    Is there any way to speed this up?

  VILLAGER
    No.

 A fire has been built on the kiva's floor. Through the choking 
 smoke can be seen Mary lying on a mat as Grey Horse chants 
 to the yei spirits and adds fine colored earth to the growing 
 sand painting beside her. His voice rises and falls in 
 guttural syntax. He's coaxing. Coaxing the alien spirit out 
 of the child.

  DAGGETT
    Lock the door.

 He pulls his head out and hands Katherine the pistol.

  DAGGETT
    Stay inside. It's only one round, so 
    make it count.

 There's a pause and for a moment their eyes lock. She touches 
 his arm, almost says something, then disappears into the 
 kiva. Thomas closes the door behind her. He turns and looks 
 out at the distant plume of dust. Growing closer.

 EXT. GABRIEL'S RAMBLER - DAY

 Radio turned up, sophomoric grin glued on his face, Gabriel 
 roars past and begins the snaking climb up the side of the 
 butte. The sun has almost completely slipped away now, leaving 
 the land a deathly bluish grey.

 The road flattens out at the top of the butte and Gabriel 
 can see the village glowing at the far end. He punches the 
 rambler, winding it up for the last stretch, and pats the 
 blonde on the knee.

  GABRIEL
    You'll like this, Rachael.

 Maybe not.

 There's a sudden glint of metal in the headlights as Thomas 
 at the last moment PULLS UP the heavy chain and HOOKS it 
 over the far post. Gabriel does something pointless with the 
 brakes and SLAMS forward into it. The whole rear of the car 
 STANDS UP on impact, PITCHING Gabriel through the windshield 
 into the dust.

 Thomas steps out from behind the post armed with an iron 
 bar. The rambler hisses and belches a death rattle as he 
 cautiously walks toward the spot of gloom where Gabriel lies.

  GABRIEL
  (breathless)
    Nice move.

 Thomas's feet crunch softly closer.

  GABRIEL
    You ought to come work for us. 
    Upstairs. We sneak the odd civilian 
    in now and then, you know. You'd 
    like it. Nobody tells you when to go 
    to bed, can eat all the ice cream 
    you want. And you get to kill. All 
    day and all night. Just like an angel.

 Thomas doesn't answer. Gabriel's body looks ravaged as he 
 carefully steps closer and closer.

  GABRIEL
    Save yourself, friend. Why go to the 
    wall with the bitch and her rug rat? 
    It'll all turn out the same anyway. 
    Here or in heaven, we're still gonna 
    tear the kid apart.

  DAGGETT
    I'm not an angel, heaven or hell. 
    I'm a man you eyeless puke, which 
    means I have one thing you never 
    will. A soul. And though I may, 
    somewhere inside, believe in a God, 
    I will never, never, believe in you.

  GABRIEL
    A little speechy today, aren't we?
  (sighs)
    Okay pal, have it your way.

 Gabriel's legs suddenly SWING AROUND and SMACK Thomas, 
 sprawling him back into the dirt. The iron bar goes flying 
 as Gabriel in a flash is on top of him. Thomas thrashes but 
 Gabriel easily pins his shoulders and sits on his chest. 
 Without hurry he uncurls the fingers of his right hand.

  GABRIEL
    This is going to really, really hurt.

 Thomas's eyes are wild with fear.

  DAGGETT
    ...You -- your war...

 Gabriel's spread fingers lower themselves toward his face.

  GABRIEL
    C'mon, son, out with it. Make this 
    one count.

  DAGGETT
    Your war's a lie!

  GABRIEL
  (pauses)
    What?

  DAGGETT
    Running around acting like this is 
    really about whether Christ is just 
    the son of God or if he is God. 
    Bullshit! That's not what this is 
    about at all, is it?

  GABRIEL
    You're wrong.

  DAGGETT
    Then prove it to me, Gabriel. I 
    studied three fucking years of 
    theology before I picked up a gun. 
    C'mon, you're chief goddamn angel, 
    I'm just a little man. Prove to me 
    Christ is just a son and less than 
    God. Prove it!

 Gabriel hesitates.

  GABRIEL
    I don't have to.

  DAGGETT
    Because you can't! Because this war 
    isn't about some obscure medieval 
    hangup. You're just jealous.

  GABRIEL
    You're wrong!

  DAGGETT
    Try me, Gabriel. Go on. Prove to me 
    the temporal nature of the Trinity. 
    Show me through logic how the Son of 
    the Word can be separated from the 
    Father. Fight me with philosophy, 
    Gabriel!

  GABRIEL
    No!

  DAGGETT
    Because you and your army are wrong! 
    And you know it. You knew it sixteen 
    centuries ago.

  GABRIEL
    We don't have to listen to him! He's 
    just a son!

  DAGGETT
    That's it. You're jealous. Jealous 
    He could love something more than 
    you...

  GABRIEL
  (hisses)
    Shut up...

 Gabriel's becoming unglued.

  DAGGETT
    If you wanted to know so badly, 
    Gabriel, why didn't you just ask 
    Him? Why didn't you just ask God?

 A shudder passes through Gabriel. He straightens up and looks 
 down at Thomas as emotion racks his body.

  GABRIEL
    Because He doesn't talk to us anymore!

 The two stare at one another. Then Gabriel, lost in himself, 
 suddenly turns away from Thomas and walks into the darkness. 
 For the village.

 Thomas climbs quickly to his feet, spins around --

 -- And is HIT full-force by a rabid, SHRIEKING Rachael. Her 
 legs lock around his body vise-like as her teeth and nails 
 DIG into his skin. He cries out and stumbles to the ground. 
 The two grapple furiously in the dust, Rachel's crazed face 
 taking BITE after BITE out of his shoulder and neck.

 Thomas manages a fistfull of her hair and YANKS the fangs 
 off his shoulder. With his other arm he CUFFS her hard, 
 BREAKING the grip and ROLLING her aside. He staggers to his 
 knees and begins to run. Shrieking, a mad porcelain banshee 
 out of the dusk, Rachael catches up and TACKLES him. On the 
 way down his head strikes a small stone wall and the pain is 
 white thunder. Gagging and weeping in blank shock, he crawls 
 on his hands and knees as Rachael OPENS UP his arm from 
 shoulder to elbow with her nails. As the blood tumbles like 
 ribbons, Rachael JUMPS onto his back, DIGGING her claws into 
 his scalp.

 It's about all one human can take.

 Mad with pain and anger and desperation, Thomas manages to 
 climb to a shaky crouch, Rachael still shrieking on his back. 
 Throwing all his weight backward, he JAMS her into the short 
 stone wall. The impact SNAPS her hold and PROPELS her over 
 the wall --

 And two thousand feet down the side of the butte.

 Thomas Daggett can only curl up into a ball, gulping shallow, 
 shuddering breaths.

 IN THE VILLAGE

 Gabriel walks resolutely up to the first hogan and KICKS 
 down the plank wood door. No one home. He walks to the second 
 and KICKS its door down. Nothing.

 IN THE KIVA

 Mary's ceremony is nearing a crescendo. Grey Horse has donned 
 the colorful mask of the yei god Monster Slayer as the 
 relatives now join in the guttural chants of the Enemy Ghost 
 Way. Through the thick, choking smoke of the ceremonial fire 
 we see Katherine, nervously watching the door.

 IN THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE

 Thomas tries hopelessly to make his way back. Stumbling every 
 few steps, he's beyond pain and into driven numbness. It's 
 hopeless though. We know it.

 IN THE VILLAGE

 Gabriel KICKS down another door to another empty hogan. 
 There's only one left. As he approaches, from within can be 
 heard the muffled sound of chanting.

 THOMAS

 Takes a few more fumbling steps and falls again. He reaches 
 out to something metal for support. It's Katherine's pickup.

 GABRIEL

 Steps up to the kiva door and KICKS it. The frame buckles 
 but holds. He steps back a few feet, puts all his weight 
 into a turn, and KICKS again. The door SHATTERS.

 INSIDE

 Wood splinters ROCKET through the smoke as Gabriel appears 
 in the doorway. Grey Horse, everyone, freezes.

  GABRIEL
    Relax folks, it's just a soul.

 From out of the smoke steps Katherine. She FIRES, one round, 
 into Gabriel's side. The archangel is pitched against the 
 kiva's wall, where he stays a moment before turning to 
 Katherine.

  GABRIEL
    I'm getting real tired of you.

 She stands her ground between him and the child.

  KATHERINE
    Go to hell.

  GABRIEL
    Heaven, darling. Heaven. At least 
    get the zip code right.

  KATHERINE
    It's all the same, isn't it?

  GABRIEL
    No. In heaven we believe in love.

  KATHERINE
    And what do you love, Gabriel?

 Once again, the shade of doubt holds him up. But it's quickly 
 pushed aside for a corrupted grin. He's given up all pretense.

  GABRIEL
    -- Cracking your skull.

 He advances on her.

  KATHERINE
    That's all it is for you anymore, 
    Gabriel, isn't it? Just the killing 
    and the burning. You don't work for 
    God anymore. You don't fight for 
    love.

  GABRIEL
    Shut up!

 And he's on her. With his left arm he brutally forces her to 
 her knees as his right hand, palm out and fingers splayed, 
 clamp themselves over her face. Katherine's mouth opens in a 
 silent scream as the pain, immediate and beyond endurance, 
 flows through her body.

 From somewhere outside, there's a sound.

 Katherine gulps chokes of agony as her very clothes begin to 
 smolder around her.

 We hear the sound once more, closer, before --

 The entire kiva wall EXPLODES INWARD as Katherine's pickup 
 CRASHES through it. The mangled grill and hood SLAM into 
 Gabriel from the side and SMASH him to the ground like a 
 broken puppet. Katherine falls backward to the floor, gets 
 up, and runs to the truck's cab. Inside sits a near catatonic 
 Thomas. Katherine takes only a second to share a look with 
 him before reaching back and pulling out the pickup's tire 
 iron.

 Gabriel, a shattered, broken thing, pulls himself up to his 
 knees. The sunglasses are gone and two eyeless pits stare 
 out at Mary, huddled in the corner. Bleeding from every pore, 
 one arm bent back the wrong way, he crawls across the floor 
 toward her, his voice the milky slur of a stroke victim.

  GABRIEL
    God loves you, Mary!

 Katherine brings the tire iron down on his skull with all 
 her might, DRIVING him to the floor. She turns to Grey Horse, 
 her eyes wild.

  KATHERINE
    Finish it.

 He, everyone, just stare. Stunned to stone.

  KATHERINE
    Finish it!

 Grey Horse timidly picks up his prayer stick and with a voice 
 faltering and cracked, in the insane glare of the wrecked 
 pickup's headlights, resumes the Enemy Ghost Way chant.

 Katherine turns back to Gabriel.

  KATHERINE
    Go home.

 She HITS him again with the tire iron. Then lifts it high 
 once more above her head. She's going to crush him, to implode 
 his skull.

 When a hand stops her.

 Sort of a hand. A claw. Lucifer's. He's standing behind her, 
 holding the raised bar still.

  LUCIFER
    No.

 Katherine releases the bar and lets it clang to the floor. 
 Lucifer turns to the villagers, gazing fearfully at him as 
 they awkwardly try to finish the chant.

  LUCIFER
    Please. Go on.

 Lucifer's gaze falls on a deeply fucked-up Gabriel who groans 
 at the sight of him.

  GABRIEL
    Oh man, this just isn't my day.

 Lucifer kneels down beside him. Katherine instinctively starts 
 to reach for the tire iron but the sycophant hisses a liquid, 
 chattering warning at her.

  LUCIFER
    Long time.

  GABRIEL
    The world's young, man.

  LUCIFER
    And full of ambition.

  GABRIEL
    This isn't your war.

  LUCIFER
    But I remember the last one. Michael's 
    war.

  GABRIEL
    You lost.

  LUCIFER
    But lots of angels were with me. 
    every one followed their leader out 
    of heaven.

  GABRIEL
    Yeah yeah, I was there, remember?

  LUCIFER
    Except one. Oh, he was with me all 
    right. He hated the Eagle Scout. 
    Envied the power He gave to His Son. 
    But this angel never came out front 
    during the war. And when it ended he 
    thought maybe, maybe the Eagle Scout 
    didn't notice. So he laid low and 
    towed the company line till he could 
    start his own war. It was all just 
    jealousy.

  GABRIEL
    You're dreaming.

  LUCIFER
    But maybe He did notice. Maybe that's 
    why I'm here.

  GABRIEL
    -- Stay away from me.

  LUCIFER
    You've always been a part of me, 
    Gabriel. And now it's time to come 
    home.

  GABRIEL
    Fuck you!

 Lucifer slams Gabriel's head against the floor and pins it. 
 As the angel thrashes furiously, Lucifer FORCES his arm into 
 Gabriel's chest. Gabriel cries out as Lucifer PULLS his arm 
 half out and FORCES it deeper. Again. And again. Soon 
 Gabriel's screams become giggles, then a crazed, hysterical 
 laughter.

 The room goes insane. An impossible nightmare of chanting 
 Navahos, glaring headlights, and Gabriel's echoing laughter 
 as Lucifer pumps his chest. Laughter that rises to a kind of 
 orgasmic cry then instantly stops as Lucifer pulls out the 
 angel's heart,

 And eats it.

 At that instant Grey Horse places his hand on Mary's forehead, 
 speaks a last line, and the chant is completed.

 Sticky, smoky, awful silence. Gabriel is a non-thing. A 
 battered, hollow shell.

 Bartholomew Grey Horse, his voice cracked and finished, turns 
 to Katherine.

  GREY HORSE
    The enemy spirit is gone.

  DAGGETT
  (weak, faint)
    Where?

 From outside the kiva suddenly comes the sound of a wounded, 
 savage GROWL. Katherine walks to the doorway. Just outside a 
 lone coyote is twisting in the dirt with furious agony. 
 Abruptly its thrashings cease. The animal stands and flashes 
 for an instant at Katherine cold yellow eyes more than animal. 
 Then it's gone into the blackness. Forever.

 She turns and goes back to Thomas in the cab. Bleeding to 
 death is a real possibility for him. She pulls an old shirt 
 out of the back and tries to makeshift a wrap for his sliced 
 arm.

  DAGGETT
    More will come... To look for the 
    soul...

  KATHERINE
    And they won't find it. Not in Mary.

 A few of the village elders appear at the cab.

  KATHERINE
    Can you help him?

  VILLAGER
    We have some bandages.

 Katherine walks over to where Mary, sweaty and shaken, sits 
 huddled in a corner attended by Grey Horse.

  KATHERINE
    Are you all right, pumpkin?

 Mary's voice shakes as tears roll out her eyes.

  MARY
    I'm okay.

 Katherine gathers her up into her arms and holds her.

  KATHERINE
    It's going to be okay... We're all 
    going to be okay...

 The chattering, hissing sycophant grabs Gabriel's body by 
 the hair and shoulders and drags it out the door. Lucifer 
 has remained behind, crouched on his haunches, his liquid, 
 yellow eyes on Katherine.

  KATHERINE
    I can't quite bring myself to say 
    thank you.

  LUCIFER
    I understand.

  KATHERINE
    Then this is done.

  LUCIFER
    Not necessarily. Maybe I like you. 
    Maybe I want you to come with me.

 He rises to his feet and steps slowly toward her.

  LUCIFER
    You owe me, Katherine. And you're 
    going to ask me to take you home.

  KATHERINE
  (clutching Mary)
    No.

  LUCIFER
    You will. You will because any other 
    way is going to be more awful than 
    you can imagine.

  KATHERINE
    Are you threatening me?

 Just a grinning, twisted stare.

  KATHERINE
    Then you've picked the wrong person 
    this time. I've just about had it up 
    to here with ghosts. So you can put 
    away the horror movie sneer and the 
    K-Mart halloween eyes, because we 
    know you now. We know you all. And 
    if you want to force the issue then 
    go ahead because you're just another 
    angel to me. Take a look at your 
    buddy Gabriel. Then ask yourself, do 
    you really, really want to fuck with 
    us?

 The smallest hint of a pause.

  LUCIFER
    Perhaps another time.

  KATHERINE
    I'm holding my breath.

  LUCIFER
    Goodbye, Katherine. For now.

 And he's gone. Through the door and into the night.

  MARY
    Is he coming back?

  KATHERINE
    I don't think so, honey... I don't 
    think so...

DISSOLVE TO:

 The fullness of day over Old Woman Butte, hot and bright. 
 Chasing the night and its fears away under the punishing 
 glare of noon.

 The village is full of police vehicles now. Green broncos 
 from the Navaho Tribal Police. Blue and white sheriff 
 department sedans.

 The Navaho cops are talking with Katherine and Mary. Thomas 
 is sitting on the trunk of a patrol car getting his wounds 
 properly bandaged as the Sheriff we met earlier leans beside 
 him chewing on a wild oat stalk.

  SHERIFF
  (to deputy bandaging 
  Thomas)
    Is he going to live?

  DEPUTY
    With any luck.

  SHERIFF
  (to Thomas)
    I thought I told you to give me a 
    call if anything snarled.

  DAGGETT
    There wasn't a phone.

  SHERIFF
    Hmmm.

 He chews some more on his stalk. Looks off at the village.

  SHERIFF
    This fella, Gabriel...

  DAGGETT
    Yeah.

  SHERIFF
    Gabriel what?

  DAGGETT
    Just Gabriel.

  SHERIFF
    Pretty violent guy, Gabriel. Even 
    for out here.

  DAGGETT
    Yeah.

  SHERIFF
    Caught up with him at the village?

  DAGGETT
    He caught up with me.

  SHERIFF
    What were you doing way up here?

  DAGGETT
    Enemy Ghost Way for Mary Tsosie.

  SHERIFF
    Indian stuff.

  DAGGETT
    Yeah. Indian stuff.

 The Sheriff looks over at Katherine's pickup still jammed 
 into the side of the kiva.

  SHERIFF
    Did you kill this Gabriel?

  DAGGETT
    Maybe. I think so.

  SHERIFF
    Don't have any idea where the body 
    is I suppose.

  DAGGETT
    No.

  SHERIFF
    Well, if he's alive he won't get far 
    out there. Us or the coyotes, it'll 
    be the same.
  (beat)
    I rang your office in LA. They don't 
    have a warrant out for a Gabriel. Or 
    anybody else in Arizona.

  DAGGETT
    I hadn't gotten around to it.

  SHERIFF
    Sort of an out of pocket thing.

  DAGGETT
    Yes.

 The Sheriff takes his hat off. Runs his finger along the 
 inside band.

  SHERIFF
    That woman lying at the bottom of 
    the arroyo, the one still in her 
    hospital gown, know anything about 
    that?

  DAGGETT
    No.

  SHERIFF
    Really.

  DAGGETT
    Really.

  SHERIFF
    This Gabriel was sure one busy dude.

  DAGGETT
    Yes, he was.

 Beat.

  SHERIFF
    You'll be going back to Los Angeles 
    now?

  DAGGETT
    Yeah.

 The Sheriff pushes off from the patrol car and tosses aside 
 the oak stalk.

  SHERIFF
    Don't hurry back.

 The deputy finishes his bandaging.

  DEPUTY
    Don't do much but breathe the next 
    few days. And get to a hospital. 
    You're going to need some serious 
    stitches.

  DAGGETT
    Thanks.

  DEPUTY
    Say hi to Hollywood for me.

 He follows his boss. Katherine and Mary walk up.

  MARY
    You look bad.

  DAGGETT
    Thank you. I feel worse.
  (to Katherine re Navaho 
  cops)
    They lean on you much?

  KATHERINE
    Not really. I think they might have 
    even understood. One of them's related 
    to this clan. He'll give us a ride 
    back if we want.

  DAGGETT
    Good. I think I've about run out of 
    hospitality with the sheriff's 
    department.

 The moment drifts into silence.

  KATHERINE
    Do you think it's really over?

  DAGGETT
    Till we die.

 Her eyes settle on his.

  KATHERINE
    When I die, I want you with me.

  DAGGETT
    I want that too.

 She touches his cheek, Mary cradled between them.

DISSOLVE TO:

 Thomas sitting in the back of the tribal police bronco, 
 looking out the window to the shimmering sands; red and yellow 
 and black. To clouds brewing over faraway forgotten mountains. 
 To the end of the earth.

 As the bronco drifts away from us toward the empty, rocky 
 horizon, as it slowly blends and is consumed by the land,

 FADE SLOWLY TO BLACK

{Fin}
