Two Winters Past

DARKNESS:

MOLAY (VO): They came here formless and without words when the world was still hot. Endless time they had drifted through space, banished for forgotten crimes on long-dead worlds. The planet cooled and they awakened. They were not the only beings to have crashed here. There was war. There was mutual devastation. All life rose from the decay of their bodies, but still they dreamed, deep beneath the crust. The planet forgot. Environments became habitable and life flourished. Voices came like ghosts to the living, whispering in dreams and the ravings of the mad. Dead now, but time waited for the Elder to rise once more, and Earth will be wiped clean.

FADE IN:

EXT. HIGHWAY. EVENING.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE are resting in an abandoned car. Birds are chirping.

VALENTINE: I’m thinking we should camp in Whitney Point, we can probably reach Parlor City some time tomorrow. You know what you want to try when we get to the Confluence?

CHLOE ISIS: No.

VALENTINE: What’s wrong?

VALENTINE takes a plastic bag of nuts out of his pocket and dumps some in his hand.

CHLOE ISIS: Nothing. Jack’s prayer was the best answer I could think of.

VALENTINE hands the bag of nuts to CHLOE ISIS, who pours herself a handful and hands it back to VALENTINE.

VALENTINE: That dude was nuts!

CHLOE ISIS: Chris said all those same things.

VALENTINE eats his handful of nuts and pours himself another handful.

VALENTINE: Chris never talked to me once about the Necronomicon!

CHLOE ISIS: It’s too much of a coincidence!

CHLOE ISIS takes the bag of nuts from Valentine and pours herself a handful.

VALENTINE: Look, I’m willing to do this for Chris. Jack was another whack job like those Cooleys, and I’m glad he’s gone.

CHLOE ISIS: So you KNOW the Necronomicon isn’t real.

VALENTINE: It’s a story! It’s science fiction.

CHLOE ISIS: I heard it was based on Crowley. Didn’t Lovecraft mention him?

CHLOE ISIS pours herself another handful of nuts and hands the bag to VALENTINE.

VALENTINE: Lovecraft wrote about a wizard that some people think was supposed to be Crowley, but he is never mentioned by name. Lovecraft was a nobody, Crowley probably didn’t even know he was alive.

VALENTINE empties the bag in his hand.

CHLOE ISIS: Chris told me first that these things were in the Earth. Chris told me it would be in the Confluence. Until you come up with a better idea, the Necronomicon is the best chance we got.

VALENTINE: There is an occult shop not far from the Confluence.

CHLOE ISIS: We should be good then. Was this the last of our food?

CHLOE ISIS takes the empty bag from VALENTINE and hands it back.

VALENTINE: Hopefully we’ll find something in Whitney Point.

They walk down the highway. Camera cranes up, looking down the long, straight highway and the valley below. Worn down, rounded mountains extend across the horizon.

MOLAY (OS): Chloe!

VALENTINE and CHLOE turn, look around. A figure advances in the distance.

VALENTINE: He’s alive!

MOLAY is walking toward them.

CHLOE ISIS cries out, runs toward him.

They meet. CHLOE ISIS and MOLAY embrace.

VALENTINE catches up, looks unhappy.

Continued tomorrow