"THE PROPHECY"

                                      Screenplay by

                                      Gregory Widen

                                           1995

                                      SHOOTING DRAFT

                

               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

                                         THE END