Stargate Reimagined: Part II (A Fragment)

Over a year ago, I posted the rough draft of my Stargate II script. At this time, I'm close to finishing Act I of the first draft. Almost nothing from the rough draft carried over to this version, which'll be a loose adaptation of Bill McCay's Stargate: Rebellion, including a few elements from his other novels Retaliation and Retribution, once it's complete.

* * *

FADE IN

On catacomb walls.

Upon the walls, bathed in torchlight, are painted murals. Though similar in style to those created by the ancient Egyptians, these are cruder and less colourful. The scenes they depict are of Atum's underlords expanding the Imperium beyond Earth and Abdju, establishing colonies on multiple worlds, each with their own stargates.

TITLE: STARGATE II

FADE TO

A funeral.

EXT. CEMETERY — DAY

It is a rainy day. A wooden casket rests upon the ground above where it's to be buried, surrounded by bouquets of flowers. Thirty-odd mourners are present, shielding themselves beneath black umbrellas. Among them is MASTER SERGEANT ADAM KAWALSKY. In his blue dress uniform, he stands out from the rest.

Standing at the head of the casket, across from the mourners, a Lutheran pastor delivers a eulogy.

PASTOR

(cont'd) Karin Langford was more than just kind and generous. She had a gift … of an endless, open minded, childlike curiosity. She saw the world not for what it was, but for what it could be. And she saw potential in people that others failed to recognize. Like her father before her, her contributions to Egyptology have changed the world more than most people know….

Time passes.

The mourners are dispersing, leaving Kawalsky standing near the casket. A 25-YEAR-OLD WOMAN with long, wavy red hair and blue eyes approaches the sergeant from behind.

SABRINA

Uh, Sergeant Kawalsky?

Kawalsky turns to face her.

SABRINA

Hi. I'm Sabrina Gosling. Karin's grandniece?

KAWALSKY

Oh, hi.

Kawalsky shakes Sabrina's hand, returning her smile.

SABRINA

Thank you for coming.

KAWALSKY

I'm sorry Daniel couldn't be here. He really wishes he could've made it. He had nothing but the utmost respect for Ms. Langford.

SABRINA

He's tied up in a government project. I understand. Thank you for coming on his behalf. I know she would've really appreciated it.

Sabrina opens her purse. Reaching in, she brings out a familiar trinket: Karin's Eye of Atum pendant.

SABRINA

She wanted Dr. Jackson to have this.

Sabrina hands the pendant to Kawalsky. He accepts it.

EXT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN — SUNSET

Guards patrol the entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 15/DANIEL'S QUARTERS

Inside the medium-sized quarters we find DANIEL JACKSON. Clad in a tank top and boxers, he performs a set of push-ups while opera music plays from the stereo atop his table. Through the one-month growth of hair on his head, a number of small, fresh biopsy scars mark his cranium.

Hearing the lock on his door disengage, Daniel sits up. The door opens, admitting Kawalsky. The sergeant is garbed in a hazmat suit.

DANIEL

Adam. How went the funeral?

KAWALSKY

About as well as those things can go.

Approaching Daniel, the sergeant brings out the pendant.

KAWALSKY

She had this for you.

Daniel takes the pendant, staring at it.

DANIEL

She was her family. She should've kept this.

KAWALSKY

Karin thought of you like a son.

Daniel sets the pendant aside.

DANIEL

How's Sha'ure?

KAWALSKY

Good. Her English's coming along nicely.

DANIEL

(tapping head) If she had my little pals, she'd have a better grasp of the language than either of us, instantly. (beat) Of course, if she did, she'd be locked in this cell here with me.

Daniel begins a set of sit-ups.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 28/EMBARKATION ROOM

The embarkation room's been heavily fortified since the survivors of the Abdju Mission returned. Three  Browning .50 calibre machine guns have been set up facing the stargate. Along the ramp have been planted claymore mines. A metal plug's been inserted through the stargate itself, obstructing the crystal torus. Canisters of nerve gas have even been installed in case the other deterrents fail.

Near the left exit, THREE AIRMEN are seated around a card table playing poker.

AIRMAN #1

 

Oh, man, this hand's as lousy as this detail. (beat) Alright, everybody, ante up. (dealing cards) Seven to the deuce, nothin' there. Boss and the eight, nothin' happenin'. And the jack gets a box.

FEMALE AIRMAN

(antsy) Aren't you guys afraid of somethin' coming through?

AIRMAN #2

It's been idle since the plug was put in. Trust me, nobody's coming through.

AIRMAN #1

(scoffing) All this fortification, and all it did was cost money. They've been shippin' personnel outta here for months.

EXT. PENTAGON — NIGHT

An aerial view of the Pentagon.

INT. PENTAGON/GEN. WEST'S OFFICE

GENERAL W. O. WEST is at his desk going over paperwork. A knock is heard at the door.

GEN. WEST

Come.

CAPTAIN SAMANTHA CARTER enters. Closing the door, she approaches the general's desk, bringing her hand up in salute. Though blonde, blue-eyed, and very beautiful, Carter is no stereotypical Hollywood ditz. Everything about the captain's manner — her disciplined stance, her keen, attentive gaze — indicates she is quite the intelligent, resourceful woman.

GEN. WEST

(saluting) Capt. Carter.

CARTER

(saluting) Sir.

GEN. WEST

Not much for small talk, are you, Captain? (beat) I'm rejecting your request to release Daniel Jackson from quarantine.

CARTER

Sir, Project Giza can't continue without his assistance.

GEN. WEST

He can assist you quite well from where he is.

CARTER

I may need him in the field.

GEN. WEST

Lest you forget, Jackson's carrying technology from a hostile and very formidable enemy inside his body.

CARTER

Lingual nanites, sir.

GEN. WEST

Are you 100% positive that's all they are?

CARTER

Research on the nanites is preliminary. However —

GEN. WEST

Dr. Jackson will remain in quarantine until our people are assured he poses no risk to the general population.

CARTER

With all due respect, General —

GEN. WEST

Dismissed, Captain.

Carter stiffens. Nodding her obeisance, she leaves.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 15/DANIEL'S QUARTERS

Daniel and SHA'URE cling to one another in his bed, their breath coming in tight gasps as their bodies writh in passion. Sha'ure's pale skin seems to glow in the darkness, her flesh soft but sturdy … and very, very active. There's a frantic quality to their coupling, as if they fear interruption at any moment. No time for encouragement, endearments, or words at all.

Blood pounds as they race towards climax. Then the moment comes. Sha'ure gives a great, wounded cry —

Daniel awakes with a convulsive shudder, sitting bolt upright on his cot. He glances down at the crotch of his underwear; he's disgraced himself.

DANIEL

Fuck….

There's another couple knocks at the door. Daniel repositions himself, taking care to hide the wet spot on his boxers.

CARTER

(O.S.) Dr. Jackson?

DANIEL

(irate) I'm up.

Carter enters, clad in a hazmat suit like the one Kawalsky wore earlier.

DANIEL

We met before?

She steps forward, offering her hand.

CARTER

(grinning) We haven't, no. I'm Capt. Samantha Carter, director of Project Giza.

DANIEL

(shaking her hand) Karin Langford was director.

CARTER

I succeeded her after the project was fully militarized.

DANIEL

I can't imagine the last four months have given you much to show for it.

CARTER

That's why I've come to you.

DANIEL

Please sit down, Capt. Carter.

The captain takes Daniel's chair, turning it to face him before taking a seat. She sits there, eyes twinkling like those of a star-struck teen. Daniel shifts uncomfortably under her gaze.

CARTER

I'm sorry. It's just … you're the rarest of all seekers after truth — the crackpot who's proven correct. I predict your name will feature heavily in scientific literature of the future. You'll be another Galileo or Semmelweis, reviled by the so-called experts of their day, but shown to be right.

DANIEL

I hope I'm still alive and sane to enjoy the fame. (beat) Thanks for your good wishes, Captain. But if we could move along…?

CARTER

After the Abdju Mission, my team was asked to research alternative applications for the gate. We didn't get anywhere before word came from the Pentagon to shutter the gate competely. But it came to me: If the ancient astronauts theory is, at least in some points, correct, if they were here for two thousand years, they must've left behind more than just the stargate. I made my proposal to West; I've been granted approval to begin the search.

DANIEL

That's where I come in.

CARTER

You're a brilliant archaeologist. You're fluent in twenty-three languages — twelve of which no one else alive on Earth understands. You're an invaluable asset.

DANIEL

I also probably killed a planet.

CARTER

Dr. Jackson — Daniel — what if I get you out of quarantine? Reunite you with Sha'ure?

DANIEL

(skeptical) West'll never let me out.

CARTER

(grinning) West isn't highest on the totem pole; I have my connections. Just give the word, and you'll be out of this room yesterday.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 18/CORRIDOR

Capt. Carter leads Daniel along the corridor. He's exchanged his tank top/boxers combo for an olive green jumpsuit.

CARTER

You can go pretty much wherever you want. The gym, locker room, and mess halls are all open to you. But Level 28 is completely off-limits, and you can't leave the base without written permission and a military escort. I'm sorry; I couldn't bypass the general on that one.

Carter brings Daniel to a door. Taking out her keycard, she swipes it through the lock, disengaging it.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 18/DANIEL'S LAB

Opening the door, Carter holds it open for Daniel. He steps inside his new laboratory. It's equipped with a desk, several packed bookshelves, and a state-of-the-art computer setup complete with 3D printer. Daniel's mouth falls agape.

CARTER

It's alright?

DANIEL

Just feeling a bit agoraphobic.

Daniel steps deeper into the lab, thumbing through the books on the shelves, examining the 3D printer.

SHA'URE

(O.S.) Daniel.

Daniel spins 'round. Kawalsky's arrived with Sha'ure. Like a deer caught in headlights, Daniel freezes, just staring at his lover. Four months have elapsed since she arrived on Earth; aside from the blue jumpsuit she now wears, she hasn't changed in the interim.

DANIEL

Sha'ure….

Embracing, they hold each other close, tears forming in their eyes. After several moments, they finally work up the courage to let go. Eyes of richest brown meeting eyes of intense blue, they come together again, kissing deeply, passionately.

Kawalsky smiles warmly.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 15/SHA'URE'S QUARTERS

The lights've been turned low. Daniel and Sha'ure lie together naked atop her sheets, spooning. Sha'ure kisses his hand. He, in turn, kisses her shoulder.

SHA'URE

In the days before, my people had only rumours — vague traditions of other worlds beyond the stargate. When you arrived, you made those traditions real.

DANIEL

Are you afraid Imperium troops will come through the stargate? That's what Carter and the soldiers are guarding against.

SHA'URE

We have brothers out there, Daniel. They're still slaves to the vultures who served Atum. But I hope to change that.

DANIEL

Change? How?

SHA'URE

You're the one who knows the stargate best. I know you could find the keys to other worlds. Then we could take the struggle to those living enslaved, and bring them freedom!

DANIEL

(sighing) Sha'ure, you were there when we found the cartouche holding the glyphs for Earth. From our troubles then you must know how hard it is to find the routes between stargates.

SHA'URE

But, Daniel, your wisdom —

DANIEL

(interrupting) I'm merely a scholar; I'm not Atum. And I'll tell you honestly, even if West unsealed the ring, I could spend all the rest of my life trying to find stargate addresses for somewhere — anywhere — and not find the key to another world. (beat) Besides, it may be in everyone's best interest if we keep to our corner of the universe. We don't need another Abdju.

Bitter disappointment shows on Sha'ure's face.

INT. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN/LEVEL 27/CARTER'S OFFICE

Carter is at her desk.

SUPERIMPOSE: "TWO WEEKS LATER"

There comes a knock at the door.

CARTER

Come in.

Daniel enters, a file folder in his hand.

CARTER

You've found something.

DANIEL

The Imperium uses a cursive script unrelated to Egyptian hieroglyphs. I didn't recognize any similiarites to scripts I was familiar with, but my speciality's the Afro-Asiatic languages. I sent samples of the script to universities and institutes around the world to learn whether or not it matched any non-Erythraean writing systems.

Daniel places the folder on the desk. Opening it, Carter begins looking through the print-outs. There're photos of a shattered stele, descriptions, and a sketched map.

DANIEL

(cont'd) There was one find, a stele, which carried some of the script. According to this, the find was made by a German expedition that went to the eastern delta of the Nile back in the '60s. The location seemed to be the ruins of a temple, but they were unable to place the dynasty. And, after discovering the dubious signs in the inscription, there was some suspicion of fraud.

CARTER

What does it say?

DANIEL

The hieroglyphic portion contains an invocation to Sutekh.

Carter raises an eyebrow.

DANIEL

Otherwise known as Setesh, Set, Seteh, Seth. As Egyptian culture went through the millennia, Sutekh went from a brave warrior deity defending the sun god Ra to the personification of evil, fighting Ra.

Carter looks at a photo of the stele afforing a clear shot of a representation of Sutekh. The god has erect, flat-topped ears and a long, curved muzzle.

CARTER

What kind of head is that?

DANIEL

Nobody's been able to identify it from the pictures. Some scholars have identified it a gazelle's head. Others think it's the pig — unclean flesh, and all that.

CARTER

That's a pretty wide range there.

DANIEL

Still others think Sutekh was represented by an animal that's either mythical or now extinct. Most likely the former rather than the latter, since paleontologists haven't discovered any fossils to point to a species like this ever existing. That's why a lot of people in the field just call it the Typhonic beast. (beat) Anyway, the rest of the hieroglyphs make a reference to the god's centre of power to the east, where his strength was measured. The portion in Imperial script seems to be about "godpowers".

CARTER

Godpowers?

DANIEL

Power ratings and constants.

CARTER

You mean derived units? For technology? Weapon yields?

DANIEL

(shrugging) I wish those Germans had recovered the whole stele. (beat) The delta was one of the strongest areas of Sutekh-worship. And, because it's low-lying, often flooded, and still the seat of Egypt's agricultural production, proportionally less has been found there in terms of archaeological sites.

The captain's interest's definitely been aroused.

CARTER

We'll have to re-excavate where they dug.

The Legend of Zelda: Season One (Treatment)

I've only ever played Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and a tiny bit of A Link to the Past, but I've always liked the world of The Legend of Zelda, so recently I've started delving more into the lore of the series, reading the mangas and watching walkthroughs on YouTube to beef up my knowledge. That inevitably got me to thinking how I'd go about adapting the games, either into a movie or a series. I decided TLOZ would work best in the form of a series. Then I started thinking about narrative and characterization. To me, OOT's quintessential TLOZ, but I wouldn't want to make this series a mere adaptation of that one game. I decided I'd use OOT as the basic template, keeping to the main beats, but including elements from other games/my own imagination as desired.

The following's a treatment for the first season, with character bios, lore, and the general plot.

* * *

TRIFORCE

According to the Hylian creation myth, the Triforce was created by the Triune Goddess after the foundation of the world, though its true antiquity and origins are ultimately unknown. The Triforce consists of three tetrahedrons of golden crystal: the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Wisdom, and the Triforce of Courage. Each Triforce capable of bestowing immense power in its own right,  the combined Triforce can make its bearer a living god, though only someone balanced in power, wisdom, and courage can weild all three directly; the Triforce separates when apprehended by an unbalanced soul, two of the three Triforces dispersing to find hosts which embody their qualities.

Coveted by the ruthless and ambitious, the Triforce was the cause of many terrible wars and dynasties. To prevent further misuse, the Seven Sages sealed the Triforce away in the Dark World many centuries ago. The only entrance to the Dark World is in the Temple of Time, located deep in the Lost Woods. The gate's kept sealed by the Master Sword, which can only be drawn from its pedestal by a hero with a pure heart.

HYRULEAN CIVIL WAR

The Hyrulean Civil War was a series of armed conflicts fought amongst the kingdoms of the Hyrulean subcontinent. Instigated by the Hylian king Rhoam and perpetuated by his son Harkinian, it lasted several decades, ending with the unification of the realm under the Hylian banner. The Gorons, Rito, and Zora became vassals of the Hylians, while the Bokogoblins, Gerudo, Lizalfos, Molblins, etc. were hunted to near-extinction and dispossessed of their lands.

GANON

Ganon was born fifty-nine years before the end of the Hyrulean Civil War. His people, the Gerudo, had made their home on the Great Plateau, a lush and fertile land which had been coveted by the Hylians for ages long before the war. After the Gerudo were brought to heel, King Rhoam decreed that all Gerudo males and pregnant women be put to the sword, the surviving females exiled to the inhospitable desert to the west. Ganon's mother died with him still in her womb, but by a stroke of fate, he survived to be found by the twin sorceresses, Kotake and Koume. Raising him in secret away from even their fellow Gerudo, the sisters instructed him in their art, grooming him to become the Gerudo messiah.

At the appropriate age, Ganon took his place as leader of the Gerudo. Under his stewardship, the withering group of nomads settled in an uninhabited valley, where they were reforged into a tight-knit tribe of woman-warriors, taking what they needed in raids on the outlying settlements of the Hyrulean Empire. All the while Ganon remained in the shadows, content to let his favourite wife serve as figurehead until the time was ripe to reveal his existence to their enemies.

After Rhoam's death, long into the war, Ganon made his move. Making himself known to the Hylians, he travelled to Hyrule Castle. Kneeling before King Harkinian, he beseeched him for vassalage, offering his very life in exchange for peace between their peoples. His charisma won Harkinian over, earning the Gerudo his blessing. Following the Hyrulean Civil War, Ganon maintained the facade of a loyal vassal, but began brokering alliances with the marginalized peoples of Hyrule in secret, sowing the seeds of the Imprisoning War.

LINK

The Hylian boy Link was born towards the end of the Hyrulean Civil War. Orphaned when he was three years old, he was found in Faron Woods by the Deku, who sheltered him, raising him collectively. Essentially a feral child with only the mute Deku and telepathic/empathic Faeries of the forest for companions, Link lost whatever speech he had acquired from his parents, becoming mute. At the age of nine, Link was found by Talon, a rancher from Ordon Village. Befriending the boy, Talon took Link back with him to Lon Lon Ranch to raise alongside his two-year-old daughter, Malon.

When Link was sixteen, the Imprisoning War broke out. Drafted into the Hyrulean Forces, Link was shipped out to Central Hyrule, where he began his training at the castle as a soldier.

ZELDA

Princess Zelda grew up isolated on the grounds of Hyrule Castle. Raised largely by her caretaker, Impa, Zelda was totally unlike her indolent/indifferent parents. A precocious child, with an interest in the world beyond the castle walls, at the age of thirteen she began sneaking out of the castle, mixing with the common people under the alias "Tetra".

IMPRISONING WAR

Ganon learned of the Triforce from his surrogate mothers at a young age. He knew the talisman would grant him the power to liberate the subjugated races of Hyrule and establish a just new order. To gain access to the Temple of Time, he needed to first procure the Spiritual Stones to the sealed chamber housing the Master Sword. The Stone of Fire was with the Gorons, the Stone of Water with the Zora, and the Stone of Forest with the Royal Family of Hyrule. 

After befriending Darunia, the Goron king, Ganon was gifted the Stone of Fire. Darunia dispatched his warriors to the Zora domain to attain the Stone of Water. Harkinian sent two-thirds of his forces to assist the Zora, leaving a third behind to protect Central Hyrule. This was the opportunity Ganon had been biding his time for. With Harkinian's blessing, Ganon brought his forces to Hyrule Castle, ostensibly to reinforce the Hylian troops in the event of invasion. The Hylians were betrayed. The Gerudo staged a coup, smashing the Hylian defense and killing the king and queen. Impa, Zelda, a few knights, and a handful of trainees, including Link, escaped.

After the fall of the Zora, Ganon finally had all three Spiritual Stones in his possession. Now only the Lost Woods stood between him and the Triforce. The refugees from Hyrule Castle split into two camps; Impa would go alone with Zelda to a place of safety, leaving Link and the rest to stop Ganon at the Temple of Time.

Neither Link nor his comrades were able to prevent Ganon from penetrating the Temple of Time. With greater skills and experience, Ganon beat the boy to within an inch of his life. In a last-ditch effort to stop the Gerudo, Link grasped the hilt of the Master Sword and pulled it free, unsealing the portal to the Dark World. They were transported to the Temple of Light, finding themselves on a stone platform raised over a yawning abyss, the Triforce waiting on another platform across from them. Link came at Ganon with the Master Sword, but the Gerudo easily swatted him aside, casting the boy to the void below. Ganon then went to claim the Triforce.

The First Jedi: A Star Wars Story (A Fragment)

TFJ was another attempt at writing a nonlinear 9-in-1 retelling of the Skywalker Saga that ended up going nowhere.

* * *

EXT. SPACE

TITLE CARD: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

THE FIRST JEDI

A STAR WARS STORY

PAN DOWN

To Ahch-To, a predominately aquatic world.

A saucer-shaped vessel emerges from hyperspace. This is the Millennium Falcon, a modified YT-1300 light freighter which has seen 88 years of active service and wears her age as a badge of honour.

EXT. AHCH-TO — OCEAN — DAY

Breaking through the clouds, the Millennium Falcon emerges over a pristine and mighty ocean. Dotting the endless blue are islands of black rock.

INT. MILLENNIUM FALCON/COCKPIT — DAY

Inside we meet KIRA and her co-pilot, CHEWBACCA THE WOOKIEE. At nineteen years old, Kira is a beautiful young brunette, her eyes large and brown, radiant with youthful innocence. Chewbacca, 228 years old, 2.3 metres tall, covered head-to-foot in brown fur, glances at his Human companion, thoughtful.

EXT. OCEAN — ISLAND — DAY

The Falcon banks toward one of the more mountainous islands.

EXT. ISLAND — MILLENNIUM FALCON — DAY

Slinging a pack across her back, Kira turns to her companion, 23-year-old FINN. The two couldn't be more different. Skin as dusky as her's is fair, physique as stocky as her's is lean, an aura of world-weariness about him, there remains a kindness in his dark eyes. Hanging from his belt is a chrome bar, 606 mm in length, with ivory inlay and a round guard at one end. It greatly resembles a katana hilt.

As they begin their hike up the considerable hill, they glance back at the Falcon. Watching them from the bottom of the ramp are Chewie and ARTOO-DETOO. A Cyborg, Artoo's brain is encased within a spherical blue-&-white body, his "head" a separate hemisphere containing computer lights and a radar eye. Kira takes a deep breath, then she and Finn continue their journey.

EXT. ISLAND — STONE STAIRS — DAY

Set within the rock and foliage of this idyllic landscape are seemingly endless ancient stone steps. Finn and Kira continue climbing them, determined despite their fatigue.

EXT. OCEAN — ISLAND — DAY

Another vessel closes in on the island. Smaller than the Falcon, it consists of a semi-rectangular cockit, with angular wings sporting heat radiator panels and weapons batteries. A TIE silencer of the First Order.

EXT. ISLAND — STONE STRUCTURES — DAY

Kira and Finn arrive at a clearing. Surrounding them are severals small, modest, primitive stone structures, but there are no signs of present habitation. The pair continue past the dwellings, watchful, but spy no one.

A deep thrum sounds out behind them. They spin around. Standing there is DARTH CAEDUS. The most recent inductee into the Knights of Sith, Caedus wears the black bodyglove and red-trimmed black tabard of their Seventh Knight. With his longish black hair, big nose, and small chin, he's a rather unremarkable-looking fellow — or would be, were it not for the long scar running down the right side of his face. In his right gauntlet is a black steel hilt reminiscent of a longsword's; from it pulsates a red-white energy blade a metre long and 0.1 mm thick.

Kira moves forward with her blaster pistol, opening fire. With preternatural agility, the Sith Knight dodges and deflects the plasma bolts with his sword. One bolt is sent back to sender, sprawling Kira upon the ground.

FINN

Kira! Oh no. Kira! Kira….

Finn drops down beside her, afraid, concerned. Caedus cuts a figure eight through the air with his fiery blade.

DARTH CAEDUS

Traitor!

Finn turns back to Caedus. He unclips the chrome hilt from his belt, raising it. With a sharp snap-hiss, a particle beam shoots out, forming a crimson blade identical to Caedus'. Releasing a battle cry, Finn charges, lunging at Caedus. Caedus deflects his opponent's blade, counter-attacking with his own sweeping cut.

Kira recovers. Getting her bearings, her eyes focus on the two men fighting. Both combatants attack with a primal savagery. Finn blocks, turning defensive moves into offensive ones, and gets a hit in, slashing through Darth Caedus' upper arm. Caedus moves back — wounded, blood freely flowing from the deep slash, but more enraged than weakened — then strikes again.

Weapons clash, blades lock, the two men lit by the red lightsabers, and Darth Caedus pushes Finn back. Attacking with pure ferocity, the Sith unleashes a merciless series of blows, pushing Finn further and further back. Interlocking their blades, Caedus sends Finn's flying from his grasp, unbalancing him. Caedus punches Finn across the face, then lands a blow to Finn's back, opening a nasty gash through cloth and flesh, felling him.

His rival defeated, Caedus turns upon the defenseless Kira. He extinguishes his lightsaber.

DARTH CAEDUS

It's just us now. Yun can't save you.

Caedus strides forward. Kira scuttles back, but there's no escape for her.

An invisible force hits the Seventh Knight with the impact of a battering ram. Lifted clear off his feet, he is sent flying into one of the stone huts, hitting with a sickening crunch.

Kira turns. Standing fifteen metres behind her is a man in a tattered gray jumpsuit and synthleather overcoat. Bearded, dark blond hair shaggy, he meets Kira's gaze. There is suspicion in his blue eyes.

Friday the 13th 1990 (A Fragment)

 

I've started writing Friday the 13th 1990, the fourth and final chapter in my Friday the 13th Reimagined Tetralogy.

The three previous entries in my reimagining were mashups/remakes of the original five F13 movies, but F1390 will be a more ambitious undertaking. I'll still be lifting elements from Parts VI-IX and the '09 reboot, but the plot itself will be much more original.

Here're the scenes I've written:

* * *

FADE IN

On the waters of Crystal Lake on a foggy winter day.

SUPERIMPOSE: "CRYSTAL LAKE — DECEMBER 13, 1650"

EXT. LENAPE VILLAGE — DAY

A band of DUTCH SETTLERS are in the process of razing the village. On horseback, they put the wigwams and central longhouse to the torch, driving the LENAPE out of their homes. Villagers out in the open, the Dutchmen bear down on them with swords and firearms, mowing them down. A number of young Lenape men fight back, but their defense is easily quashed.

EXT. LAKE — SHORE — DAY

The setters march the surviving Lenape across the snow at gunpoint. Hands bound, the captives are mostly the very young and very old, with a select few women of childbearing age.

Reaching a set of boulders overlooking the lake, the Dutchmen separate the children and elderly from their comely trophies and herd them up the rocks. The most feeble are tossed directly in the water, but the ones most capable of swimming back to shore are stabbed or have their throats slit first. Red blood stains white snow.

Before long, every one of the undesirables is slain. All except the VILLAGE MATRIARCH. A woman of late middle age, she has long salt-&-pepper hair worn in a thick braid down her back. She has three white chevrons painted on her forehead and cheeks.

The burly, bearded leader of the Dutchmen, SJAAK BEENHOUWER, unsheathes a sabre, resting the blade on the matriarch's neck.

MATRIARCH

(in Unami, subtitled) Kill me, for I cannot die. Do not waver; it is what I command you to do.

BEENHOUWER

(in Dutch, subtitled) Damn you.

Raising the sword, Beenhouwer hacks off the matriarch's head. Almost as if still possessing life and will, the headless matriarch, neck stump jetting bright red blood, casts herself into the lake. Head and body sink beneath the bloodstained water, joining her people in darkness.

FADE OUT

TITLE: FRIDAY THE 13TH 1990

FADE IN

On ominous black clouds rolling across the heavens over deep shadowed forest.

SUPERIMPOSE: "FOREST GREEN — JULY 7, 1990"

EXT. RURAL ROAD — NIGHT

A mangy wild dog feeds on what once a rabbit in the middle of the road. As a white VW Beetle swerves around the bend, the terrified canine runs for its life into the woods.

INT. CAR — NIGHT — TRAVELLING

We are introduced to ELIZABETH MOTT and DARREN ROBINSON, a likeable couple in their mid-twenties. Lizabeth is a cute lady with long auburn hair; Darren a handsome fella with wavy, sandy hair. She steers while he hums and bops his head to the music playing on the radio.

Through the windshield, they spot three hitchhikers standing by a road sign. JANE MCDOWELL is a beautiful young woman with expressive brown eyes and long, curly brown hair. NICK ROGERS is a tall, strapping, extremely handsome man with dark hair and a square jaw. MICHAEL ROGERS isn't quite as hunky as his surnamesake, but he's no slouch in the looks department, either.

Lizabeth pulls over. Cheering, the trio put their belongings in the trunk then cram themselves in the tight back seat.

JANE

Thank you so much. We've been there for an hour.

LIZABETH

Sure.

Lizabeth gets back on the road.

LIZABETH

So, where're we headed?

NICK

We're going to the Voorhees house.

Darren and Lizabeth exchange glances.

DARREN

Oh, yeah? Plannin' on smoking a little dope, having a little premarital sex, and getting slaughtered?

The passengers are taken aback. An uneasy silence settles inside the vehicle.

DARREN

A joke. It's just a joke. (chuckles) It's called Forest Green levity, y'know.

LIZABETH

So, uh, why are you going to the house?

MICHAEL

We're thinking about smoking some dope, (puts arm around Nick) having a little premarital sex, and, uh, not worry about getting slaughtered.

DARREN

(deadpan) Ah, to be young again.

EXT. DRIVEWAY — NIGHT

The Beetle pulls into the mouth of a long driveway. Long disused, vegetation has sprung up along the path. It leads up to a clearing in the forest, wherein is nestled the Voorhees house, unseen in the darkness.

INT. CAR — NIGHT

LIZABETH

Here's where the house is. They're gonna tear it down soon, but for now it's still standing.

MICHAEL

Excellent.

The three climb out.

NICK

Hey, thanks a lot.

EXT. DRIVEWAY — NIGHT

Jane, Nick, and Michael retrieve their bags from the trunk. Lizabeth and Jane exchange waves, then the VW pulls out, leaving the trio behind.

NICK

Let's do it.

They start up the driveway towards the Voorhees house.

EXT. VOORHEES HOUSE/FRONT YARD — NIGHT

In the overgrown yard, the trio's erected their tent and built a small fire. The decrepit house looms over them, a dark, judgemental sentinel observing them silently.

Nick strips naked while Jane goes topless. Slipping inside the tent, he beckons his lover to join him.

NICK

Come here.

Holding up a finger for Nick to wait, Michael joins Jane by the fire.

MICHAEL

Um ... do you mind if we use the tent for half an hour?

They share a chuckle.

JANE

No, no, no. Actually, take it for the whole night. I'm gonna sleep out here.

MICHAEL

Yeah?

JANE

Yeah, y'know, it's a beautiful night.

MICHAEL

Are you sure?

JANE

Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Go. Go. Go. Go, go, go!

Playfully kicking Michael, Jane drives him into the tent with Nick. She unfurls her sleeping bag as the men get frisky.

Stripping down to her panties, Jane climbs inside her sleeping bag. She finds a comfortable position and gets ready for sleep, but the noise of the men get to her.

PROWLER'S P.O.V. — CAMP SITE

Someone watches the campers through a broken downstairs window.

EXT. VOORHEES HOUSE/FRONT YARD — NIGHT

Aroused, Jane slips a hand down her panties. Under the sleeping bag, she starts pleasuring herself to the symphony of gay foreplay.

INT. TENT — NIGHT

In the glow of lanternlight, Michael on top of Nick, the men make-out.

MICHAEL

C'mon, let's do it.

NICK

You think you're ready for Tony the Wonder Llama?

They exchange positions.

EXT. VOORHEES HOUSE/FRONT YARD — NIGHT

As Nick and Michael really get going, so does Jane. Moving her legs under the bag, she closes her eyes, biting her lower lip.

With the sound of footsteps through grass, Jane opens her eyes. Standing over her is a man. He wears a gray M-1965 field jacket over a navy blue sweatshirt; dark brown cargo pants and a 1940s Marines utility belt, complete with machete, Explorer Ram-II survival knife, and three throwing knives; black leather gloves; black platform boots; and finally, the goalie mask he inherited from Matt Letter. Jason Voorhees' successor, TOMMY JARVIS.

Jane starts to scream, but Tommy is quick to close her up in her bag, muffling the sound. As Jane squirms inside the bag, Tommy drags her over to a tree. With enormous strength, he whacks Jane against the trunk — one, two, three, four, five, six times.

Dragging the limp, broken body back to the fire, Tommy deposits it on the flames. As it starts burning, he turns his attention to the tent.

INT. TENT — NIGHT

Face-to-face, Nick thrusts into Michael. The two men are on the brink of climax.

Tommy's machete pierces the tent wall, penetrating Nick.

NICK

AAAHHH!!!

Tearing upward, Tommy cuts Nick in half. Blood spurts like a geyser onto Michael.

MICHAEL

(screaming) Jane! Help!

EXT. VOORHEES HOUSE/FRONT YARD — NIGHT

With the wet sound of sharp steel chopping into flesh, Michael dies off-screen.

Picking an article of clothing up from the ground, Tommy cleans the blood off his machete before resheathing it.

EXT. ROADSIDE — NIGHT

Beside the VW, Lizabeth stands over Darren, shining a flashlight down as he replaces the flat rear right tire with the spare.

As Darren tightens the bolts with the tire iron, a hunter green '65 Ford F-100 pulls up to them. Headlights burning, the driver steps out.

DARREN

(raises hand) Thanks. Almost through.

LIZABETH

(concerned) Darren, we better go.

DARREN

Why?

LIZABETH

Because I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly.

Darren looks closer at the Ford owner. It's Tommy, goalie mask and all. Reaching inside the Beetle, Darren opens the glove compartment; he pulls out a .22 revolver.

LIZABETH

(shocked) Where'd you get that‽

DARREN

Don't worry about it. Just stay cool.

Darren aims the gun at Tommy.

DARREN

Alright, scumbag. Get back in your truck and out of here. Now.

Tommy starts towards them. Darren opens fire. Shrugging off the bullet, Tommy grabs the tire iron. Swinging it, he shatters Darren's jaw.

LIZABETH

AAAHHH!!!

As Darren collapses, blood running from his ruined face, Lizabeth turns and starts running as fast as her feet can carry her up the road. Tommy throws the tire iron like a shuriken. Spinning through the air, it strikes the back of Lizabeth's head with enough force to kill her instantly.

Tommy looks down at Darren, who's on his stomach crying. Raising his foot, Tommy brings it down on Darren's head, crushing it like a ripe melon.

Friday the 13th 1984 (A Fragment)

I've started writing the first draft of Friday the 13th 1984, the second chapter in my Friday the 13th Reimagined Tetralogy.

Just as F1380 was essentially a mashup of Parts I & II, the plan is for F1384 to be a mashup of Parts III & IV. Exactly how I'm going to go about mashing them up is a question yet unanswered. But I have completed the opening prologue, which is set immediately after F1380. Here it is, provided for your reading enjoyment.

* * *

FADE IN

On Camp Crystal Lake.

SUPERIMPOSE: "CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE — JUNE 15, 1980"

EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE — CAMPGROUNDS — DAY

Three ambulances and four police cars are parked around the main cabin area. All concerned are busy retrieving the victims of Jason and Pamela Voorhees.

EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE — MAIN CABIN AREA — DAY

A fourth ambulance travels down the road into the camp. It's stopped by one of the cops. Inside are two paramedics, VINCENT, and the driver, LAINIE. Vincent rolls down his window to talk to the officer.

VINCENT

What do you need? Where do you need it?

OFFICER

We got five of them. (points) Yours is at the boys' cabin.

VINCENT

What's wrong with them?

OFFICER

He's dead. (beat) Yeah, they're all dead. You can pull it up over there.

VINCENT

(to Lainie) All dead. Some emergency. (beat) Put her over there.

The ambulance makes it way toward the boys' cabin.

EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE — BOYS' CABIN — DAY

Vincent and Lainie load the body of SHELLY GREENBLATT, throat slit ear-to-ear, onto a stretcher. Vincent makes conversation with SERGEANT TIERNEY.

VINCENT

You catch the guy who left the wet stuff?

Tierney shakes his head.

Draping a sheet over Shelly's body and belting it in, the paramedics load it inside the ambulance. 

EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE — CAMPGROUNDS — DAY

The cadavers retrieved, all the vehicles pack it in. They make their way down the driveway out to the main road. 

Camp Crystal Lake is now quiet, peaceful, and serene.

EXT. RURAL ROAD — DAY

Tierney lags behind the other vehicles, keeping a respectful distance between himself and them.

INT. POLICE CAR — DAY — TRAVELLING

Tierney sees a man in green-&-tan dash across the road, slipping into the brush on the other side.

EXT. RURAL ROAD — DAY

Breaking, Tierney gets out of the car.

SGT. TIERNEY

Hey! Hey, you!

The sergeant takes off after him.

EXT. FOREST — DAY

Tierney pursues the man through the woods. Out of shape, the cop stumbles and stops, struggling to keep up with his vigorous quarry.

EXT. VOORHEES HOUSE — DAY

Tierney eventually emerges from the trees. He finds himself on the property of Pamela Voorhees. There is no sign of the man he was chasing.

Walking around to the front door of the house, the officer finds it ajar.

INT. VOORHEES HOUSE/ENTRANCE HALL — DAY

Tierney steps through the door. Carefully, he creeps his way inside.

INT. VOORHEES HOUSE/DINING ROOM — DAY

Tierney finds the tell-tale signs of recent violence. Lengths of sliced rope about a chair; a rifle discarded on the floor; pools and trails of blood which've attracted flies. Only the birthday cake atop the dining table, untouched, remains pristine.

He unholsters his revolver.

INT. VOORHEES HOUSE/STAIRWELL — DAY

Tierney climbs the stairs.

INT. VOORHEES HOUSE/2ND STOREY HALLWAY — DAY

Tierney makes his way across the hall, checking each of the rooms, wary of his prey.

INT. VOORHEES HOUSE/PAMELA VOORHEES' BEDROOM — DAY

Entering the bedroom, the sergeant is greeted by a most horrendous sight. A dresser, serving as an impromptu altar, bears the severed head of PAMELA VOORHEES, dried blood caking her mouth and nose. At the foot of the dresser has been deposited the drowned body of ALICE HARDY, tongue protruding from her slack mouth. While decay hasn't quite set in yet, head and body are already starting to attract flies.

Unbeknownst to Tierney, the man he chased here has crept up behind him.

SGT. TIERNEY

Oh my God….

Raising a claw hammer, JASON VOORHEES drives it into the back of Tierney's skull.

FADE OUT

TITLE: FRIDAY THE 13TH 1984

Stargate Reimagined

Stargate '94 has amazing costumes, sets, music, and lore, but weak writing and characterization. Stargate SG-1 has decent characterization and writing, but it feels like a Trek knockoff, complete with generic English-speaking extraterrestrial civilizations and technobabble. My ultimate dream is to craft a Stargate reboot which contains all the best elements of SG '94, SG-1, SGU, and the Bill McCay tie-in novels, with none of their worst.

I completed an SG '94 rewrite in 2016:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10pWz63Qs1xT4CmcH67rm0WHl3pXe73G1/view?usp=sharing

Written at the height of my postmodern phase, it’s a pretty thorough deconstruction of the original film (American imperialism doesn’t save the day; it gets an entire world killed.). It was meant to be the first part of a trilogy, but shortly after starting on the sequel, development stalled; a casualty of the burnout I suffered while working on my Star Wars Prequel Trilogy rewrite at the time.

I never completely abandoned the project. I continued to brainstorm, write notes, etc. to lay the foundation for my personal Stargate universe.

• Ra is Atum. I made this change because Atum is an older god than Ra, was worshipped earlier than Ra, and also because the pharaonic Ra of Stargate more closely resembles Atum than the hawk-headed Ra of myth.
• Atum isn’t a Goa’uld. He's one of the Ancients, who in this universe were amoral gray-skinned reptilian humanoids who reigned in the Andromeda/Triangulum galaxies prior to their extinction. The Goa’uld are a separate, unrelated species native to the Milky Way who were conquered by Atum’s underlords some 5000 years after the Rebellion on Earth.
• Atum has a minimum of fourteen underlords under him: Anpu (Anubis); Apis; Aset (Isis); Ausir (Osiris); Djehuti (Thoth); Hapi; Heru (Horus); Hut-Hor (Hathor); Khnum; Nekhbet; Ptah; Sebek; Sekhmet; and Wadjet. Each underlord serves a different function in maintaining the Imperium. When an underlord dies/abdicates/is ousted, their first prime takes their place, assuming their name and position.
• Atum was originally a benevolent ruler. After 2000 years of rule, ennui drove him to relegate command of the Imperium to his underlords and go into seclusion. His underlords then turned the Imperium to a totalitarian state, inciting the failed Rebellions on Nubt and Abdju and the successful Rebellion on Earth. With the passage of 10,000 years and countless civil wars and regime changes, the Imperium has fragmented and ossilated between authoritarian and liberal governments.
• The Goa’uld were genetically modified by Khnum to curtail their ability to reproduce and take hosts. Only a single fertile queen exists, and its offspring are incapable of growing to maturity. These neutered Goa’uld, known as "primtah", are placed within underlords and first primes, boosting their immune systems, resilency, and lifespans.
• The Imperium consists of several hundred worlds concentrated within the Milky Way. Most are inhabited by humans and genetically engineered human offshoots, all descendants of peoples taken from North Africa in 10,000-8000 BCE.
• A small number of non-human species joined the Imperium. The most notable of these was the Setim. A caninoid race native to Tuat, they agreed to provide Atum the technological infrastructure to build his empire in exchange for help repairing their planet’s damaged ecosystem. This arrangement was mutually beneficial at first, but following the underlords’ rise to power, the Setim were displaced from positions of influence and forcibly relocated to the ice planet Nubt. With the Rebellion on Nubt, the Setim were exterminated by Sekhmet. Disgusted by this and other atrocities committed by the Imperium, one of the first primes, Sutekh, went renegade. Wearing a helm fashioned after the Setim likeness, he established a revolutionary movement across the Imperium, culminating in the Rebellion on Earth.
• The Apep are a species of giant tentacled serpents, former enemy of the Ancients, present enemy of the Imperium. They aren't nice guys.
• Heru Guards wear retractable, full-body power armour; this armour is impervious to any terrestrial ordnance short of .50 caliber machine guns. Heru Guards are armed with over/under pulse rifles; the primary barrel discharges a plasma blast which can kill, the secondary barrel discharges an electrolaser which only stuns.
• The staff weapon is a ceremonial weapon wielded by Nekhbet Guards alone.
• The zat gun is a sidearm primarily carried by Wadjet Guards. One shot from a zat causes debilitating pain; two shots renders one unconscious; three shots are usually fatal.
• The Imperium has developed lingual nanites. Injected within the language areas of the brain, they link the individual to a vast language database, enabling them to understand/speak/read/write any language stored within the database while also uploading any languages they know to the database. Daniel Jackson was injected with these nanites after being captured by Sekhmet’s forces during the Abdju Mission. Following Daniel’s return to Earth, some of these nanites were extracted and replicated, giving the SGC access to this technology.
• FTL propulsion/communicators don’t exist. Conventional interstellar travel/communication is only possible through the stargate/supergate networks. Atum’s intergalactic voyage from his homeworld to Earth took 2.5 million years.
• Stargate addresses consist of nine symbols each. Each address corresponds to an individual gate.
• All stargates are semitranslucent black, with chevrons/engravings which glow white when active.
• Stargate/supergate travel is two-way.
• Apep stargates are simpler in design than Ancient stargates, triangular in shape, with no moving parts. Though utilizing the same wormhole physics, Ancient and Apep stargates aren't compatible without the application of an adapter.

The Other Side

One of eleven surviving short stories/novellas I wrote in a roughly five-year period (2004-2008).

This was written c. 2010 — a rewrite of a story I wrote in the fall of 2004. The original was typewritten, the last story I ever wrote on a typewriter, and is now lost. I was proud of that original. But if this version's anything to go by, there's nothing there to be proud of. Just pages upon pages of hackneyed hackwork.

* * *

I should had never gone to check out that decrepit building. But I had never suspected the existance of what had lain there within its walls. Never suspected the existance of an evil which had inhabited the place since the nineteen-fourties.

It all began when my father got a new job located in Maine. Unable to coap with the idea of the family being seperated, my mother wanted to pack up the family and relocate to a location close to his anticipated job site. Over a period of a number of weeks, my parents struck a deal with a Raymond Bradley to buy his on sale home on Forman Road, Maine for an even five thousand dollars. After all the paperwork went through, all was final; with some mela-ncholy, we journeyed from Pittsburg to a quiet suburbia in a completely unfamilar part of the country.

"So," my sister, Audrey, asked my father as we made the long approach to our new house in my mother's Olds-mobile Delta Royale, "what's this place like? It isn't a dump, is it?"

My father uttered a short laugh as she said that. "No, it isn't a dump. It was built in 1984, so its relatively new. The house is in good condition."

"Was anybody killed there?" I asked, a slight smirk upon my face.

"Nobody was killed in thisat house," he answered, amused not at all by the macabre question. "The house has no history whatsoever."

We soon arrived at the house. There was nothing spectacular about the building. It was a small, two-story home with blue-and-white paint smeared over its walls; this horrid paint job had been done apparently to convey an aura of cheerfulness, but those who had performed it had failed in their vision.

"We're here!" father exclaimed. He maneuvered the Oldsmobile up the driveway, stopping at the house and shifting the gear into PARK.

We all unfastened our seatbelts, opened the doors and climbed out. As my feet first touched this foreign soil, I immediatly noticed the house across from us, on the other side of the street. As soon as my eyes took in the details of the building, I was left in awe. It was over a century old, a large mansion, six stories tall with an abundance in windows. The dwelling had browned with age, and obviously in bad disrepair; the wood walls were worm-eaten and crumbling, with weathered boards nailed over the front door and window panes.

"We should have moved in there," I said, half-joking, pointing over at the foreboding house. "At least that place looks interesting."

My father looked over across the street at the house, then back at me. "That house was abandoned back in the fourties. Its condemned, and we couldn't buy it even if we wanted to."

At that, we went to place our first steps within our new, badly-painted little home.

Later that night, I sat at our large oak dinner table with my parents and sister as we had our supper, a dish consisting of mashed potatoes and spinach.

"How's dinner, Edward?" mother asked me, looking up from her plate.

"Fine," I replied. Unlike typical children, I found spinach not all that bad.

"Good," she replied, resuming her consumption of her potatoes and spinach.

"Hey Dad," I then proclaimed, looking to him.

"Yes, Ed?"

"Do you know the story behind the house across the street?" I inquired. "What's up with it?"

My father went silent. "Are you sure you want to know?" he asked after a moment passed.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked. "I would like to know why the house is abandoned."

Father was forlorn for a moment, but then agreed to tell the story about the house.

"Well, back in 1896 a man named Efimovich Velikovsky immigrated here to the States from Russia. He had been a very rich man back in his homeland, and had used his money to build a mansion here on Forman Road. From what Mr. Bradley told me, the house supposedly looked very beautiful after it was finished.

"Nothing eventful happened over the next eight years. Velikovsky seemed to be any ordinary man, friendly to those around him, though he spent most of his time locked up in his house. But then one day he disappeared. He, and all the servants who had been living there. The police eventually launched an investigation, but nothing was found. "They never found evidence of any foul play."

"What happened," I asked. "If they were'nt kidnapped or killed or anything, what happened to him and his servants?"

"No one really knows," my father explained. "He might have moved to another town or state, or even back to Russia. But no trace of him could be found anywhere. Since he had no known relatives and never left a will, the city took possession of the mansion. They put it up for sale, [?]but no one had ever expressed intrest in buying the place. After a long number of years had passed they gave up the place and had it boarded up. No one has entered that place since."

"So you're saying nobody's been in there since they boarded it up?" I exclaimed. "What about all his stuff? Did they take it?"

"No," he responded. "They had left the furniture alone, on sale with the rest of the house. When they decided to abandon it, they found the bed[?] and chairs soiled with mouse waste, so never bothered removing anything when it was closed up."

"Cool!" I declared. "So, if I were to go over there and check it out, I would find all this old rich-guy stuff?"

"I don't want you going over there, Edward!" my father suddenly retorted, looking me straight in the eye. "The floors in there are probably all rotted through by now, with all this town's constant rainfall. I do not want you breaking your leg or arm or anything else. Do you understand me, Ed?"

"Yes," I groaned. "I understand."

"Good." The discussion was over. My father resumed eating.

"Besides," my mother said, entering the conversation, "there are probably rats and mould in there. I don't want you getting bit or infected with some disease."

I was not listening to my mother. The mansion held my attention. One way or another, I was going to step foot inside that building and search to see if anything interesting lay within.

That night, as I lay upon my bed within my new bedroom, I dwelt upon the decaying house and the mysterious dissappearance of Efimovich Velikovsky and his servants. I could not comp[?]rehend as to how several people could disappear suddenly without a trace as to where they went. If they had left intention-ally, why had they not told a soul as to where they were headed? And if they had met sinister fates at the hands of human malefactors, why did their bodies or physical evidence not turn up?

I continued to ponder these questions, when something caught my eye. A light. A bright one. Coming through the window beside me. I turned, looked out, and witnessed a sight which filled me with awe and fear.

Outside, across the street at Velikovsky's derelict mansion, green light escaped sections of window that escaped concealment from the wooden boards which were nailed in place, illuminating the front yard and interior of my bedroom. It was not a fire. It certainly was not a flash of lightning. It was very eerie.

I had to know what was causing that light.

I got out of bed, quickly changing into my discarded clothing. As I had my shoes tied in place, I pulled up the window, slipped through out onto the cool autumn grass, and made a sprint toward the decrepit house. As I touched upon the front lawn of Velikovsky's old place of habitatione, the eldritch green glow dissipated, fading away to nothing. I entered the threshold of the front door, and stopped. Surely the light had been cut off because whomever, or whatever, had been generating it had sensed my approach. I briefly considered heading back; yet I would then never learn the secret of the light, and my curiousity would remain unsatisfied.

I moved away from the door to the side of the house facing west, searching for a means to enter the decaying structure. From one look I knew that, despite their age, the boards across the windows would refuse to yield to attempts at prying them off, so I sought to find a window with few obscuring boards; to allow me a chance to squeeze through a large enough possible gap. I soon found such a window. After a number of strenous tries, I finally wrenched the pane open, and crawled through to the inside. I dropped inside, and found myself within a servant's old bedroom.

I could tell that the little room had once been a comely little dwelling in the past. Yet the years had not been kind to it. The once-white wallpaper had peeled and become stained a hideous yellow from moisture. The ceiling, which had once been coated with a layer of rich blue paint, had turned pitch black from build up of mould caused by water leakage. The dresser at the left of the bed had rotted, and the legs had collapsed sometime ago. The bed had decayed and becoming a breeding and spawning ground for vermin, with the carpeting beneath me dirty a covered with stains.

Disregarding the decaying bedroom, I walked out the open door, into a large, long hallway; it was as run-down as the room I had just departed. Yet there were large, dust-covered, mirrors placed upon most sections of the walls.

"Come on, Ed," I said to myself, "what are you looking for? There's nothing here but cobwebs and a lot of dirty mirrors." Yet I decided to act against my inner unease, and continue to search the depths of this dismal house that at once had been a home.

I walked through this corridor, past the doors beside me which had curiously been left open, til I came to the end. Here also was a door; a closed glass door. I slowly and cautiously wrapped the fingers of my right hand around the greasy doorknob, twisted it to the right, then pushed it open and stepped through the dark doorway.

I found myself in a cavernous room, completely unlike either the bedroom or the other rooms I had viewed through their open doors. The room was massive, the size of a theatre's interior, the floor, walls, and ceiling made of massive stone blocks mortared into place. A titanic wooden staircase led from the open doorway to the depths of the distant floor. There were no windows.

"What was this place for?" I proclaimed, speaking to no one.

I decided to explore this unusual room further, in hopes of finding something of possible interest. I put my right hand down along the old wood stair rail, and began to make my way carefully down. The stairs creaked loudly as I made my way down, swaying slightly to and fro. In fear that the wood was unstable, and possibly close to collapsing, I eased my pace downward. After an eternity, my feet finally touched down on upon cold grey stone; I had survived the descent.

I began to pace about the room, searching for anything that would have provided to me an answer as to the purpose of this pseudo-basement; yet the thick dusty air made progress difficult, and the miserable lack of light prevented me from truly spying anything of value to my cause. After I met with futility, I decided to leave this cold room and make my way back to my warm bed, and turned toward the flight of stairs. As my back was turned about, the room was suddenly bathed in a brillant green light, emitting from a source behind me, opposite the wooden steps.

I spun around, to the distant wall. Only it was not a wall, but a glowing doorway into another world.

I could see clouds within this green dimension, swirling corpse-green cumulus clouds, these clouds obscured to me any ground their may have been beneath them, yet above them, in the far distance, I could see the apex of a tall mountain, a foreboding castle built upon it. To my horror, ghostly figures swirled out of the clouds, heading to-ward me.

"Oh man!" I exclaimed, terrified. I froze.

I watched as the ghosts flew up to this bizarre window into their dimension. I made out their horrible evil appearances, with their sunken eyes and their hollow cheeks. Their arms were emaciated, their clothes rags. They came to crowd at the entranceway, but I could see that they were unable to exit their universe. I saw soon another spirit come rising up out of the writhing clouds, wailing as a banshee. This spectre joined its brethren, pressing up against the doorway, as if it were but the glass of a window.

This ghost was as cadaverous as were its kin. Yet he did not possess his aura of malevolence; indeed, he appeared traumatised, as if trapped within a waking nightmare.

"Please, have mercy on me!" the ghost wailed. His voice was heavily accented, foreign, unfamiliar to me. "I am Efimovich Grigory Velikovsky. I have been trapped here,for too long, terrorized and tortured!"

I knew then that this was the former owner of this sinking dwelling, the Velikovsky which had disappeared so many decades before my birth.

"I was a magician, a sorceror from Russia, before I moved here to the United States," he continued. "I tried to hold a seance, to contact the spirit of my grandfather. By accident I opened a tunnel to the Other Side, and dragged here along with my servants into this abysmal place by the evil dead.

"My magic is useless here. You must save us and bring us back to Earth, child!"

I was dumbfounded. "How?" I asked once I found the words. "Do I have to go in and get you out?"

"You cannot!" the spirit of Efimovich Velikovsky proclaimed. "Only blood can free us from this Other Side."

"Blood?" I

"Only blood can free me!" Velikovsky declared. "Return to me with blood, child! Free me. Save my soul!"

At that, the entranceway sealed shut, and the wall returned to being a wall. At that point I blacked out, and remembered nothing more.

The next mornin I awakened the next morning within my own room, within my own bed. Though it seemed as a dream, I knew the events of last night had truly occured. I had seen through into another world. I had spoken with the ancient Efim-ovich Velikovsky of Russia who had vanished without a trace several decades ago.

Outside my room, a knock sounded upon my door. "It's time to wake up, Eddie," a voice cooed. "School starts today."

"Yes, Mom," I replied. I got then up out of bed, and prepared myself for school.

The day at school went by in a blur. My new teacher, Ms. Campbell-Smith, had me introduced to my new class-mates before I was seated at a desk. I payed little attention to the lectures of Ms. Campbell-Smith, and did little work; I concentrated on Efimovich Velikovsky and on my plan to free him. In little time the school hours were over. I left the building, breaking into a run.

He said only blood could free him, I thought as I ran. I hope the doesn't need to be fresh blood, or human blood. Maybe it can be any type of blood. From anything.

I came to the local supermarket. There, with the money I had, I purchased a large piece of lamb meat soaked with blood. In an following half hour, I arrived at the old home of Velikovsky. Taking precautions to ensure not a soul witnessed my prescence, I stole into the house via the bedroom window. Making my way [?]through the bedroom, down the hallway to the open glass door, I entered the stone room, clutching the paper-wrapped hunk of meat as I made my way down those unstable wood steps.

"Hello?" I called out as I came to the floor, beginning to shiver from the intense cold of the rock walls. "I came back. I have some blood."

As soon as the word "blood" was uttered, the doorway to the Other Side blossomed open. I saw the swirling dark-green clouds; the green sky, and the writhing spirits of the evil dead. I saw also the form of Efimovich Grigory Velikovsky, floating before the gateway's threshold. He looked different somehow; his eyes, once troubled and weary, now shone with a menacing gleam.

"What is that?" Efimovich Velikovsky hissed out from the Other Side at me, his watery eyes falling upon the meat in my hands, voice dripping with malice. "I asked for blood, boy!"

"T-the meat is covered in blood, sir," I stuttered, intimidated by the commanding spirit before me. "I didn't know where to get blood all by myself."

"Fine, fine," the Russian growled, growing frustrated with the conversation. "Bring what you have over here, and place it before the gate."

I quickly did as he commanded. I unwrapped the package of blood-soaked lamb, and placed it upon the floor centimetres inches from the blriliantly glowing doorway.

"Excellent work, child," Velikovsky bellowed, a sinister smile crossing his withered lips. "Now, boy, recite words." The ghastly ghost uttered a long stream of Russian words, all of which were just so much gibberish to me. "And get the words exactly right!"

I decided to do as he wished. I began speaking aloud thore unfamiliar words.

"Yessss..." Efimovich Velikovsky hissed, rubbing his skeletal hands together.

I continued to proclaim the incantation, struggling to pronounce the foreign words.

"Go on!" the ghost shrieked, appearing more-and-more ghastly.

I recited the final words.

At that, there was a terrific explosion; and a shock wave of powerful force lanced out and collided with me. With a cry I was yanked up off my feet, pushed back, crashing into the bottom of the wood steps, shattering them into fragments. In intense [?]agony, I forced myself up into a sitting position, my eyes falling back upon the doorway into the Other Side,. The doorway was shimmering, pulsing and heaving like some grotesque lung. The ghosts in the other dimension, including Efimovich Velikovsky, howled with demonic laughter.

"You pathetic fool!" Velikovsky laughed, throwing a gnarled finger out at my direction. "You have doomed yourself!"

"W-what?" I questioned. "What do you mean?"

"I lied to you, brat!" Velikovsky roared. "I was not forced into this world! I came here of my own free will, dragging my servants along with me. I allied myself with the gods of this place, searching for immortality. They gave me my desire. But at a price."

I sat froze.

"To remain, sacrifices must be made. Human sacrifices!"

With those words, Efimovich Grigory Velikovsky began to push his way through the barrier of the doorway. As he emerged into this world, his body began to rapidly age. His hair turned white and fell out as his eyeballs shrivelled into raisins and vanished into his eye sockets. His skin turned green, brown, then peeled off to expose muscles that dried into black tissue that broke off with his movements. His innards and clothes disintegrated to dust as his gleaming white bones grew grey and ancient. What had once been Efimovich Grigory Velikovsky stood before me, a towering living skeleton with eyes sockets burning with an inner fire; the ghoul opened its skeletal mouth, and issued an inhuman roar.

Horrified, I began to plot my escape; the ghoul was free, and it would only be a matter of time before the other ghosts from the Other Side came through following it. Should I leap for the stairs, the ghoul would quickly overtake me in a few short seconds. I had little hope of fleeing this nightmare.

My eyes then fell upon the wet meat laying on the floor to the left of the ghoul.

"Prepare yourself, rat!" the skeletal ghoul spat, pointing a twisted claw of a finger toward me. "Rejoice in the knowledge that you will be the first in many sacrifices to come!"

Without a moment's hesitation, I got to my feet, and sparang forward; I dodged past the ghoul, and threw forward my right foot. With a wet plop, my toe connected with the slimy lamb, and the chunk was thrown forward; the meat passed through the turbulence that was the gate, soon dissappearing from sight as it fell into the wispy green clouds.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" the ghoul cried, shrieking in absolute horror. "The blood! The blood maintains the connection to this world! Without it, the dead cannot come and I cannot remain!"

With that, a hidieous wail escaped the ghoul's lipless mouth. It was a scream of the dead dying. I looked glanced toward the doorway into the Other Side, watching as it collapsed, shrank.

The hellfire went out in the ghoul's sockets, growing black as the tomb. Life escaped those unholy bones, and they seperated, falling apart and tumbling into the vanishing doorway. The door leading into the Other Side slammed closed, and the bone fragments exploded, shattering into a million infintisimal particles.

To this day I cannot forget the events of that day. I still remember the face of Efimovich Velikovsky; before and after he transformed into the hideous skeleton ghoul spirit. I still remember the demonic ghosts which resided on the Other Side. I still remember the swirling green cloud formations, and that evil castle on top of that distant mountain top. I think about the Other Side, and I wonder:

What if something on the Other Side comes through?

The End