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Tak sits holding a camera with his mouth hung open. Lesh nudges him.
DR. LESH
Dr. Casey!
Tak snaps out of it and looks down to adjust the lens setting just as two more flashes go off in the air.
DIANE
Gotta be quicker than that around here.
RYAN
It’s electrical...you can smell the charge.
DIANE
You were saying poltergeists...
DR. LESH
(rattled)
I was saying they are generally associated
with an individual. In the general vernacular,
hauntings seems to be connected with an area...a
house usually.
TAK
Poltergeist disturbances are of fairly short
duration. Perhaps a couple of months. Hauntings
can go on for years.
Diane takes Steve’s hand, suddenly frightened.
DIANE
Are you telling me all this could just end
at any time?
DR. LESH
Unless it’s a haunting. But as a rule, there
seems to be no living person around whom
haunting incidents revolve.
DIANE
Then we don’t have much time, Dr. Lesh. Because
my daughter is alive somewhere In this house.
THE FAMILY AND INVESTIGATORS
Everyone is assembled around the console TV. Ryan has a Nakamichi cassette recorder on the coffee table and a pencil microphone taped to the television speaker. Tak has erected his Nikon on a small aluminum tripod aimed at the screen, plus two infrared heat seeking cameras and monitors which scan the entire living room. An electrostatic locator to measure ionization and a magnometer that me asures magnetic changes. Diane is holding Steve’s hand.
Dana comes into the room with an overnight bag strapped around her shoulders.
DIANE
Dana, I’d like you to meet doctor...
DANA
(clipped)
It’s getting dark, Mom. I gotta go. I’ll
call you from Trudie's.
STEVE
She won’t stay in the house after dusk.
ROBBIE
(disgusted)
She’s got brains!
Diane flips on the set. A loca1 news station is finishing the report when Diane turns to channel 27.
DIANE
We receive better on this channel but don’t
ask me why.
Dr. Lesh is thoroughly perplexed. She puts on her glasses as Steve turns out the lamp and lights a cigarette. Diane squeezes her husband’s hand. The CAMERA PUSHES IN to the TV screen and millions of particles of white air.
Diane turns the volume up and Ryan, wearing headsets, flinches, adjusting down the volume on his recorder.
DIANE
I’ll call her.
She says this so matter-of-factly that Dr. Lesh gasps. Diane walks to the center of the living room, folds her hands in front of her, collecting her thoughts, takes a very deep breath and calls to the ceiling.
DIANE
It’s mommy, sweetheart. We want to talk to
you. Baby, please answer. Please talk to
me, Carol Anne.
Dr. Lesh looks quickly to Tak and Ryan for their human responses to this. Tak shrugs unnoticed. Ryan adjusts in his chair and looks up at the ceiling.
E. Buzz prances into the room, looking up as if following on the heels of someone with a treat.
DR. LESH
(to Tak breathlessly)
Look at the dog.
He sits up on his hind legs and begs to no one we see.
DIANE
Are you with us now? Can you say hello to
Daddy? Say hello to Daddy, baby.
CLOSE - RYAN
He tries hard not to smile. No matter. The surpressed laugh is slapped away by what he now hears. Ryan grabs his headsets in two hands, pressing them hard to his ears.
TAK
(tight whisper)
Good Lord...
Everybody turns away from Diane and back to the TV. They strain their hearing, leaning forward, watching...
VOICE
(softly, sweetly, far away)
hello, Daddy.
---------------page 50 is missing----------------- Please email me if you have this page
69 CONTINUED: (3)
DIANE
Carol Anne. Where is this light?
DR. LESH
Tell her to stay away from it!
STEVE
Tell her, Diane!!
DIANE
Sweetheart, the light is dangerous. Don’t
go near it. Don’t look at the light.
Tak speaks into Dr. Lesh's ear.
TAK
I can’t believe it. It’s just a Zenith. But
the voice could be C.B. broadcasting from
somewhere in the house. I’m taking a look.
DR. LESH
It’s not a hoax.
TAK
We’ll see.
Tak takes off.
E. Buzz barks into the air twice and catches something in his mouth. No sooner does Dr. Lesh catch this out of the corner of her eye when several midair electrical discharges illuminate the room.
STEVE
What’s that?!
From one of the flashes a number of tiny objects fall to the carpeting. Jewelry, cameos, broaches, coins, watches, both modern and pocket, along with many thin, wiry clips, sprinkle the f1oor.
E. Buzz immediately starts to sniff whatever it is.
DR. LESH
(to Ryan)
Anything?
RYAN!
(checking readouts)
Nothing’s registering.
TV VOICE
Mommy...there's somebody here.
STEVE
(holding his head in his hands)
Oh Jesus, this isn’t happening.
TV VOICE
Mommy...is it you?
DIANE
(fear enveloping her)
Who is with you?
TV VOICE
(the voice is afraid)
Somebody’s coming!!
He goes room to room looking for pranksters.
When he gets to the active bedroom he hesitates,
listens through the door, pulls in his courage
and turns the knob. Of course, the door is
locked. Tak is never without a trick. He
slips a file from his utility belt and starts
to jimmy the door. The lock gives and Tak
easily turns the knob, and lets out an agonizing
SCREAM! He falls backward holding his side,
rolling over and over until he is at the
top of
the carpeted staircase.
TV VOICE
Help! No, no, no, no...
The little voice hidden behind all the static SCREAMS.
DIANE
(screaming back)
Run Carol Anne! Run away!!
CLOSE - RYAN
His eyes light up.
CLOSE - MONITORS AND READBACKS
Come to life arid start registering wildly.
Diane can’t stand the screams. She holds her ears, in tears now, imploring Dr.. Lesh with her eyes.
DIANE
Carol Anne! Oh God!!
Steve holds Diane to him, she pushes away and SCREAMS at the ceiling.
DIANE
You fucking bastard, she’s just a baby!
TV VOICE
Mommy! Mommy!
DIANE
(screaming through tears to Dr. Lesh)
Help her! Can't you hear what's happening?!
We HEAR soft FOOTSTEPS running across the ceiling and down the wall. Two lamps are turned over and smash to pieces on the library table.
We next HEAR colossal FOOTFALLS BOOMING in pursuit. A gust of interior wind races through Diane’s clothes and hair. She SCREAMS in combined joy and horror.
DIANE
She just moved through me. My God, I felt
her. I can smell her! She went through my
soul!!
Diane runs back to Steve and grabs his shirt, pulling him to her.
DIANE
Smell my clothes. It’s her. It’s her all
over me.
Steve smells and can’t believe it.
STEVE
It is her!!
The footsteps in pursuit grow louder, Diane turns to face the sound. Dr. Lesh turns. Steve and Ryan turn. A perfectly foul smell precedes an implosion of displaced air. Almost the sound of thunder, the impact is so great. Lesh, Diane and Steve blow backward, their clothes flapping in the gale as the force passes through each one of them and out the picture window that. cracks in a dozen places but does not, shatter.
DR. LESH
(picking herself up)
Have you ever heard of the term “teleportation”?
DIANE
Carol Anne!
ROBBIE
That’s like when Mr. Spock beams up Captain
Kirk on “Star Trek”.
DR. LESH
Just about. In a recent case, objects which
disappeared from a house would be seen much
later falling to the ground outside.
DIANE
Carol Anne doesn’t answer. Steve?
DR. LESH
(to Steve)
Where exactly do you suppose Carol Anne was
playing before she vanished from sight?
DIANE
Her bedroom closet. And she wasn’t playing.
DR. LESH
Let’s go up there.
STEVE
It won’t let you in.
DR. LESH
We’ll just see about that.
Lesh practically rolls up her sleeves and heads for the stairway, the rest following.
As they come around the corner they run smack into Tak, just coming down the last step, rubbing his side.
DR. LESH
What happened to you?
TAK
I was just about to check out the locked
bedroom when ...I don’t know...something
took a bite out of me.
Robbie gets very scared.
ROBBIE
You got bit?
TAK
That or the worst muscle spasm in the world.
DR. LESH
Roll up your shirt. Let’s have a look.
Tak turns to face the hall light and untucks
his shirt, rolling it up. Then rolling up
his T-
shirt. Everyone crowds in to see.
ANGLE - TAK’S SIDE AND STOMACH
Teeth marks bear out Tak’s story. The unusual thing is, the bite wraps all the way around his side from kidneys to navel. A pink and partially bruised eleven-inch crescent impression.
CLOSE - ROBBIE
Eye level with it, his little mouth hanging open.
ROBBIE
Wow!
Dr. Lesh takes a tentative step up the stairs then turns back demonstratively.
DR. LESH
Let’s everybody spend the night down here.
STEVE
Honey, I want you and Robbie to come with
me. We’ll sleep in town and tomorrow...
DIANE
(firm and quick)
I’m not leaving Carol Anne.
ROBBIE
I don’t want to stay here any more. This
place’s got jaws.
DIANE
You take Robbie into town.
STEVE
I’m not leaving you alone in this house.
Dr. Lesh has returned to the living room. She bends over and grabs the apron off the couch and pulls. It folds out. A convertible bed.
DR. LESH
Blankets, pillows, sheets. Let’s have a slumber
party.
DISSOLVE TO:
LATER THAT NIGHT
Robbie and Diane are curled up together in the convertible bed. Steve has put two chairs together and sleeps fitfully. Dr. Lesh 1ooks over Tak's shoulder at the oscilloscope and electro hygrometer that is used for measuring changes in the humidity.
Ryan sits in a chair facing the staircase and the upper level of rooms.
His spectroscopic camera equipment is aiming directly up the stairs. Lesh pats Ryan on the shoulders, he nearly jumps out of his skin. They speak in whispers so as not to disturb the others.
RYAN
Jesus, my heart.
DR. LESH
(whispering)
Shhh. More thrills than grading papers, wouldn’t
you say?
RYAN
(whispering)
I can leave here any time, you know. This
isn’t the Army and you’re not my mother.
DR. LESH
(whispering)
If push comes to shove, I bet I’ll beat you
to the door.
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