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6 - SERIES OF INTERCUTS - MEDIUM SHOTS
 

thru

12 - FOLLOWING ARKY. MEDIUM CLOSE behind him as he 
rushes away from the shattered door. We get a 
distorted perspective of the crates, et al, rising 
toward the ceiling in rows and aisles and profusion 
all around him. He's moving fast (undercranked?) 
as CAMERA GOES WITH.

INT. OFFICE - ANGLE PAST NINO & OTHERS - THRU GLASSED-IN WALLS & DOOR toward Arky running like a gazelle toward the office.

Arky rushing faster and faster toward office cubicle at rear of warehouse. A light is on in that office and we can see a nattily-dressed man rising with alarm from behind a desk, as the two other men and a totally gorgeous woman shrink back from the oncoming juggernaut. SOUND of a freight train in B.G. It's Arky, but he's coming1 on like the super-express.

CLOSEUP on the faces of the men and woman as Arky thunders toward them. CLOSEUP on Arky's strained, howling face, CLOSEUP on the men and woman, CUT BACK AND FORTH and:

13 - INT. OFFICE - TOWARD DOOR

As Arky bursts through the glass-paneled door, several of the cubicle's windows shattering outward as he booms into the small space. He hits the desk with his thighs and falls across the desk. He stares up at the man who was sitting there a moment ago. The nearly-transparent, sickly-yellow rain slicker has billowed out to cover him like a blanket.

Everything on the desk—papers, ledgers, geegaws, pencil pots, telephone, Rolodex—has been sent flying to the walls and floor. He lies there now, in an eye-of-the-hurricane silence as profound as the express train hullabaloo of a moment ago, staring at:

The nattily dressed man is NINO LANCASTER. He is David Niven forty years ago. He is smooth, sleek, impeccable, cultured, self-possessed, urbane, quiet, powerful, slim and tailored. His fingers are manicured. His eyes are chill. Early 40s, six feet tall, pale and silky, his pants automatically take on a razor-sharp crease when he puts them on.

The gorgeous woman in her 30s is HAZEL HORNE. She is Nino's bookkeeper, accountant, attorney and paramour. She is what is meant by the concept
class.
Men would crawl through broken glass for her, but unless they had a Master's degree, she wouldn't even see them. She and Nino are intelligent and elite. She is also unafraid of the juggernaut. She looks down at Arky as though from Mt. Olympus. Her outrageous beauty is only heightened by the bemusement and intelligence in her face.

The other two men are pistoleros, enforcers. They are apemen. Each one could pick up a pair of NFL linebackers and carry them like shopping bags. The one is black, the other is white. Nino has dressed them to give the appearance of their being
homo sapiens,
but the suits fit GUS and BORK awkwardly, as if the thugs are not used to standing erect. We are talking human Land Rovers here.

They stand amid the rubble, looking down at Arky Lochner folded across Nino's desk. Arky is panting, crying, twitchy and hysterical, babbling:

Arky

(babbling)

Ya gotta help me, ya gotta save me, my life's in yer hands, it's gonna turn me into a bug, a thing what crawls, an' then he's gonna eat me, no, he's gonna give me to his wife, this snake lady, and
she's
gonna eat me, so youse had better help me, 'cause if ya don't it'll be all over fer me...

This preceding dialogue by Arky should be so run-on, so wild and babbling, that the actor will be half-ad libbing it. He seems determined to gibber forever. Hazel takes one step toward him and in a fluid motion pincers his lips between thumb and forefinger, shutting him up. In the beat of silence, one of the simian pistoleros speaks gutterally.

BORK

(dumbly)

You want I should twist off his head, Mr. Lancaster, sir?

14 - FAVORING NINO

Lancaster shakes his head slightly, very cool and reserved. Hazel lets go of Arky's lips, wipes her fingers on his hat-brim. Arky is silent, but trembling, imploringly.

NINO

(urbanely, softly)

I perceive that you must be seriously deranged to burst in here unannounced, Arky, with half my boys looking for you.

His voice is sweet, but deadly, like a box of poisoned chocolates.

NINO (CONT'D)

That is, unless you have secreted somewhere on your scrofulous body the $165,000, including today's interest at 7 50%, that you have owed me for three months, three weeks and four days.

ARKY

(hysterical)

Y'gotta perteck me, Mr. Lancaster!

BORK

(like a child)

I could do that, I could twist off his head fer ya, Mr. Lancaster, sir.

HAZEL

(cool)

Sit, Bork.

Bork sits. Hazel lifts Arky from the desk, dusts him very maternally.

HAZEL (CONT'D.)

(to Nino)

Nino, before we have Gus and Bork reduce him to his component parts for shipment, would you be interested in hearing his tale of woe?

Nino sits down behind the desk. He stares at Arky with cool detachment.

NINO

Calmly now, Arky. Tell us what seems to have unhinged you.

(to Hazel)

I think he can stand on his own now, Hazel.

She releases Arky, steps back, watching with bemusement. Arky wets his lips, looks around trying to get oriented, realizes he's in trouble even here, but squeaks out a recitation.

ARKY

(fast but clear)

The hundred sixty-five Gs I got loaned from you, Nino... I,, uh, er, I needed it 'cause I made this, uh, kinda
deal
with a, er, a
demon,
this big thing wit' teeth calls hisself Volkerps...

Bork and Gus explode with laughter. Nino gives them a hard look. They fall silent.

NINO

(quietly)

A demon? A supernatural being?

ARKY

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it! A creature of stygian darkness; a denizen of the nether reaches; a monster from some nameless plane of witchcraft and horror. Yeah, you got it.

HAZEL

Bork, twist his head off.

Bork rises, Arky screams, Nino makes a casual stop motion with his hand. Bork pauses. Hazel smiles evilly.

15 - ANOTHER ANGLE - FAVORING ARKY

ARKY

(for his life)

I ain't makin' it up, Mr. Lancaster. Honest ta viggerish, I ain't makin' this up. The thing's after me! It was right outside inna alley.

NINO

Go on.

ARKY

We made this deal, me an' this Volkerps. He gives me all the winners at Santa Anita, Pimlico, Aqueduct, Hawthorne, Liberty Bell and Maywood, all the same day...

HAZEL

In exchange for...?

ARKY

First refusal option on 51% of my Immortal Soul.

HAZEL

Things must be worse in Hell than we know. Your soul's got to be pretty grungy and soiled, kid.

ARKY

(offhand)

He said good help was hard to come by; mentioned doing windows and floors, whadda I know.

NINO

Then you'd be able to pay me back in full, including the crippling interest; and you'd finally manage to extricate yourself from the nasty, brutish life that distinguishes you.

ARKY

Yeah, yeah, that's how I supposed it'd be. Yeah, sure...an' pigs'll fly.

(beat)

He gimme the winners all right. Sure, he did that! Twenty, thirty, forty-two of 'em. An' I bet 'em all; an' they won, each and every one of 'em.

(beat, cries)

Except a few had strokes an' died as they crossed the finish line, an' a bunch got disqualified 'cause they was fulla dope, an' eleven of 'em got scratched for bumpin' in the stretch... and on and on like that. Every one of 'em came in first...an' I lost every cent I got from you, Mr. Lancaster, an' that's why I been duckin' your collectors ... an' this Volkerps is gonna come and take me away and eat
me
in a week if you don't perteck me!

16 - 2-SHOT - NINO & HAZEL

NINO

And why should I bother, even allowing that this fantasy has a basis in fact?

HAZEL

One hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, plus the vig for four months including next week.

NINO

(to Arky)

Ms. Horne is my accountant, Arky. She makes a strong case for your continued existence, despite its truly outstanding wretchedness.

ARKY

Then you
believe
me!

NINO

I believe that I believe
you
believe it.

(beat)

I'm intrigued. Had you fabricated a tale of flying saucers and little purple aliens, or of burning bushes with Messianic messages, I could not be more intrigued.

(beat)

As the most powerful underworld figure in this great metropolis, I have managed to make cohesive sense of the rackets. Now I grow bored. Ennui fills my days' and nights...

(smiles at Hazel)

...save for the joys of my association with Ms. Horne, of course.

HAZEL

(beams)

You little dickens, you.

NINO

(resumes)

You've bought yourself a momentary reprieve through dint of sheer imagination, Arky. I won't have Gus and Bork dissect you. Nay, I shall assist you.

(beat)

Already I feel heroic.

HAZEL

Fiscally speaking, Nino, I commend your decision. But operationally. . . ?

17 - ANOTHER ANGLE

Nino rises, begins pacing the tiny office. He stops and turns to the still trembling (but bravely smiling) Arky.

NINO

How did you even go about
locating
a demon in these conservative climes?

ARKY

There's this, uh, er,
woman
I heard about, supposed to have strong in with the netherworld. I visited her a couple of times. She set it up. I think she gets a commission.

NINO

I suggest we pay her a visit.

(beat)

Gus, the car, if you please.

Gus goes, and Nino turns to Hazel. She comes to him, he kisses her in the most husbandly fashion, politely and quickly.

HAZEL

Try to hurry, dear. We have dinner with the Mayor tonight.

Nino smiles, takes Arky by the arm, and they go as we :

DISSOLVE TO:

18 - INT. SHOPPING MALL - ESTABLISHING

A large urban mall, with the usual video rental shops, high end clothing stores filled with yuppie goods, fast food stalls, cosmetics emporia, electronic games shoppes, department store annex, the usual. CAMERA ESTABLISHES then comes in rapidly on the ABSOLUTELY ABRAXAS T-SHIRT SHOPPE, a mall store that is clearly a head shop and t-shirt emporium; as Nino, Gus and Arky enter.

19 - INT. ABRAXAS SHOPPE - FULL SHOT