Scene 9 and 10
Nov 21, 2015 2:25:14 GMT
Post by joannem on Nov 21, 2015 2:25:14 GMT
SCENE 9 – ECHOES?
Fade in
(FX: CLOCK TICKING)
CHARLES
Here. Let us steal out through the library.
HARRIET
The library! We must check on poor Earl.
CHARLES
Is this wise, dear?
HARRIET
Wise? Of course not, but still I must know who lies here. Perhaps there is a chance he is held hostage somewhere.
CHARLES
We should hurry to the constable.
HARRIET
Murder upon murder before we arrived. Where was your precious constable then? We must solve this mystery or risk becoming a part of it. Undo these screws with me.
(FX: SOUND OF THE COFFIN LID BEING PRISED OPEN)
HARRIET
Ah. I'd hoped for a moment he might still be alive. His face is quite... Unblemished.
CHARLES
The papers hinted at.... Well....
HARRIET
So he didn't shoot himself through the face.
CHARLES
Quite.
HARRIET
Yet another murder on her hands.
(FX: THEY CLOSE THE LID)
CHARLES
Where has she gone? Fled do you think? Or are her sights still upon us?
HARRIET
Perhaps we should wait. Let her come to us.
CHARLES
You would have us as bait?
HARRIET
Of a kind.
(FX: A PIANO IS PLAYED QUIETLY)
HARRIET
The music room. Come listen at the keyhole!
(FX: A PIANO IS PLAYING SLIGHTLY LOUDER, THEN SUDDENLY STOPPING)
LADY MILDRED
Keep playing Rachel, it helps calm my nerves.
RACHEL
Yes Great Aunt.
LADY MILDRED
You girls were always so gifted. Malcolm and I always enjoyed your recitals and all your little dress up plays. Do you still know Chopin, Rebecca?
REBECCA
I am in want of practice these days. However, if you wish...
LADY MILDRED
Thank you, most kind.
(FX: A FRESH SELECTION BEGINS)
LADY MILDRED
Where are we in our arrangements?
REBECCA
Everything is as it should be, however we will not gain rights to Earl's estate until the reading of the will.
LADY MILDRED
I assume Harriet lives until she validates the will.
REBECCA
Yes great Aunt.
LADY MILDRED
And of tonight?
REBECCA
No-one would be believe her ramblings, she'll not believe them herself. Dreams, a series of unfortunate accidents.
LADY MILDRED
And then?
REBECCA
Perhaps a train derailment. She'd not stand out in wider tragedy. And all of it, all of it shall be ours.
Fade out
SCENE 10 – CHRISTMAS DAY
Fade in
(FX: DOOR BURSTING OPEN AND THE PIANO SUDDENLY STOPS)
LADY MILDRED
So kind of you to join us my dears!
HARRIET
Rebecca. You are quite... Quite insane.
CHARLES
Where are the others?
HARRIET
There are no others.
REBECCA
You interrupt us. How... tiresome.
(FX: THE MUSIC STOPS PLAYING)
CHARLES
She has a gun.
HARRIET
Is that Earl’s? The one he... The one you...
REBECCA
Yes, why yes it is. He bade me never touch it, yet experience shows he quite overestimated the complexity of its operation.
CHARLES
Try not to annoy her.
REBECCA
Perhaps you should listen just once in your days.
HARRIET
You did alone. Or did Sir Malcolm...?
REBECCA
He noticed when I was little we saw the world in the same way. And yet, the cuckoo in the nest and all that. There can be but one final inheritor.
HARRIET
Inherit what? A pile of brick and rot sodden in the blood of your loved ones.
REBECCA
Loved ones? I never loved them. And they never loved me. Except Earl, maybe.
HARRIET
You monster.
REBECCA
Monster? Come now. There are no monsters. Every cheque in England is written in someone else's blood. Slaves whipped on the plantations of the Indies. Children losing their fingers in the mills. At least I looked them in the eye. And so much more satisfying than the slaughter of strangers.
HARRIET
You killed Wilfred. You killed all of them. You killed your own twin. Up on the moors, that was you.
REBECCA
Rachel? How could she do that to me? Cast me aside? Choose Earl over me? She followed. We quarrelled. She... fell. I was... cold, I took her clothes but.... She was always a part of me. She still is, inside of me.
CHARLES
Feign madness if you wish. It will not save you from the gallows.
REBECCA
Brave words for a man without a pistol.
HARRIET
And Lady Mildred?
REBECCA
You'd best ask Sir Malcolm about that. A pillow... to still her nagging. I knew so... He did as he was told.
HARRIET
But drew the line at our murder tonight? And so you killed him instead?
REBECCA
It is late in the season. My mushrooms were not quite as potent as I'd hoped.
CHARLES
But still we suffered hallucinations. Rebecca fed us chicken and Panther Cap soup, often mistaken for the Blusher mushroom.
REBECCA (In Lady's Mildred's voice)
Quite right. Clever boy. I told you I liked him.
HARRIET
You are quite mad.
CHARLES
Are you going to kill us?
REBECCA
One of us will, (giggles) but I don't know which one.
HARRIET
Rachel. You say Rachel's inside you? A part of you now? I don't believe you.
REBECCA (cautiously)
She is. She is here.
HARRIET
Worse than a murderer, you're a liar too.
RACHEL
No, Harriet. It is true. I am here. Within her. You'd not condemn me to hang?
HARRIET
Rachel. If that is truly you - There must be an end to this. Wilfred. Earl. You could have stopped her.
RACHEL
No. I... I couldn't help her.
HARRIETYou can save yourself. You can end this now.
CHARLES
Harriet, she raises the pistol!
HARRIET
Rachel, Rachel, you cannot save her. Do I show fear? Why do you fear her? You couldn't save them. You can save yourself.
(F/X A gunshot. Silence)
CHARLES
Oh, Harriet. Harriet!
HARRIET
It is over.
CHARLES
How did you know she would....
HARRIET
I didn't. But - I knew Rachel. Maybe her spirit was in there somewhere. Or perhaps Rebecca... Perhaps you forget you're acting if you're acting all the time.
CHARLES
Then this was her finest performance.
HARRIET
No. No. That was Rachel. The light shines in the darkness...
CHARLES
...and darkness overcame it not.
(FX: THE PEAL OF CHURCH BELLS IN THE DISTANCE)
CHARLES
The bells. Happy Christmas.
HARRIET
Happy Christmas my love.
Fade out
THE END
Fade in
(FX: CLOCK TICKING)
CHARLES
Here. Let us steal out through the library.
HARRIET
The library! We must check on poor Earl.
CHARLES
Is this wise, dear?
HARRIET
Wise? Of course not, but still I must know who lies here. Perhaps there is a chance he is held hostage somewhere.
CHARLES
We should hurry to the constable.
HARRIET
Murder upon murder before we arrived. Where was your precious constable then? We must solve this mystery or risk becoming a part of it. Undo these screws with me.
(FX: SOUND OF THE COFFIN LID BEING PRISED OPEN)
HARRIET
Ah. I'd hoped for a moment he might still be alive. His face is quite... Unblemished.
CHARLES
The papers hinted at.... Well....
HARRIET
So he didn't shoot himself through the face.
CHARLES
Quite.
HARRIET
Yet another murder on her hands.
(FX: THEY CLOSE THE LID)
CHARLES
Where has she gone? Fled do you think? Or are her sights still upon us?
HARRIET
Perhaps we should wait. Let her come to us.
CHARLES
You would have us as bait?
HARRIET
Of a kind.
(FX: A PIANO IS PLAYED QUIETLY)
HARRIET
The music room. Come listen at the keyhole!
(FX: A PIANO IS PLAYING SLIGHTLY LOUDER, THEN SUDDENLY STOPPING)
LADY MILDRED
Keep playing Rachel, it helps calm my nerves.
RACHEL
Yes Great Aunt.
LADY MILDRED
You girls were always so gifted. Malcolm and I always enjoyed your recitals and all your little dress up plays. Do you still know Chopin, Rebecca?
REBECCA
I am in want of practice these days. However, if you wish...
LADY MILDRED
Thank you, most kind.
(FX: A FRESH SELECTION BEGINS)
LADY MILDRED
Where are we in our arrangements?
REBECCA
Everything is as it should be, however we will not gain rights to Earl's estate until the reading of the will.
LADY MILDRED
I assume Harriet lives until she validates the will.
REBECCA
Yes great Aunt.
LADY MILDRED
And of tonight?
REBECCA
No-one would be believe her ramblings, she'll not believe them herself. Dreams, a series of unfortunate accidents.
LADY MILDRED
And then?
REBECCA
Perhaps a train derailment. She'd not stand out in wider tragedy. And all of it, all of it shall be ours.
Fade out
SCENE 10 – CHRISTMAS DAY
Fade in
(FX: DOOR BURSTING OPEN AND THE PIANO SUDDENLY STOPS)
LADY MILDRED
So kind of you to join us my dears!
HARRIET
Rebecca. You are quite... Quite insane.
CHARLES
Where are the others?
HARRIET
There are no others.
REBECCA
You interrupt us. How... tiresome.
(FX: THE MUSIC STOPS PLAYING)
CHARLES
She has a gun.
HARRIET
Is that Earl’s? The one he... The one you...
REBECCA
Yes, why yes it is. He bade me never touch it, yet experience shows he quite overestimated the complexity of its operation.
CHARLES
Try not to annoy her.
REBECCA
Perhaps you should listen just once in your days.
HARRIET
You did alone. Or did Sir Malcolm...?
REBECCA
He noticed when I was little we saw the world in the same way. And yet, the cuckoo in the nest and all that. There can be but one final inheritor.
HARRIET
Inherit what? A pile of brick and rot sodden in the blood of your loved ones.
REBECCA
Loved ones? I never loved them. And they never loved me. Except Earl, maybe.
HARRIET
You monster.
REBECCA
Monster? Come now. There are no monsters. Every cheque in England is written in someone else's blood. Slaves whipped on the plantations of the Indies. Children losing their fingers in the mills. At least I looked them in the eye. And so much more satisfying than the slaughter of strangers.
HARRIET
You killed Wilfred. You killed all of them. You killed your own twin. Up on the moors, that was you.
REBECCA
Rachel? How could she do that to me? Cast me aside? Choose Earl over me? She followed. We quarrelled. She... fell. I was... cold, I took her clothes but.... She was always a part of me. She still is, inside of me.
CHARLES
Feign madness if you wish. It will not save you from the gallows.
REBECCA
Brave words for a man without a pistol.
HARRIET
And Lady Mildred?
REBECCA
You'd best ask Sir Malcolm about that. A pillow... to still her nagging. I knew so... He did as he was told.
HARRIET
But drew the line at our murder tonight? And so you killed him instead?
REBECCA
It is late in the season. My mushrooms were not quite as potent as I'd hoped.
CHARLES
But still we suffered hallucinations. Rebecca fed us chicken and Panther Cap soup, often mistaken for the Blusher mushroom.
REBECCA (In Lady's Mildred's voice)
Quite right. Clever boy. I told you I liked him.
HARRIET
You are quite mad.
CHARLES
Are you going to kill us?
REBECCA
One of us will, (giggles) but I don't know which one.
HARRIET
Rachel. You say Rachel's inside you? A part of you now? I don't believe you.
REBECCA (cautiously)
She is. She is here.
HARRIET
Worse than a murderer, you're a liar too.
RACHEL
No, Harriet. It is true. I am here. Within her. You'd not condemn me to hang?
HARRIET
Rachel. If that is truly you - There must be an end to this. Wilfred. Earl. You could have stopped her.
RACHEL
No. I... I couldn't help her.
HARRIETYou can save yourself. You can end this now.
CHARLES
Harriet, she raises the pistol!
HARRIET
Rachel, Rachel, you cannot save her. Do I show fear? Why do you fear her? You couldn't save them. You can save yourself.
(F/X A gunshot. Silence)
CHARLES
Oh, Harriet. Harriet!
HARRIET
It is over.
CHARLES
How did you know she would....
HARRIET
I didn't. But - I knew Rachel. Maybe her spirit was in there somewhere. Or perhaps Rebecca... Perhaps you forget you're acting if you're acting all the time.
CHARLES
Then this was her finest performance.
HARRIET
No. No. That was Rachel. The light shines in the darkness...
CHARLES
...and darkness overcame it not.
(FX: THE PEAL OF CHURCH BELLS IN THE DISTANCE)
CHARLES
The bells. Happy Christmas.
HARRIET
Happy Christmas my love.
Fade out
THE END