bugfuck insanity, part 2

[amonitrate]

22. Cut to Nikki, upside down in the frame again, but calm. and back to the distorted face. Almost like she's looking down at herself. Back up to calm Nikki, and camera pulls back to reveal her in the same tank top as in the Poland scene. The thumping music continues. She's in the pink living room, looking back at the hall to the bedroom. The women, playing with a flashlight. Back in the scene before Nikki had covered her eyes. Two of them stand up and pull at transparent curtains, and outside is the Polish city at night. The snow. Laughter. Fade to black.
23. Bedroom, blue light. Piotrek and Nikki in bed back to back. 
Morning, Nikki making scrambled eggs and breakfast at the stove. in a small kitchen.
Nikki:
Breakfast!
She hunches down toward the floor like she's in pain.
cut to: the pink living room. Nikki comes in carrying a grocery bag. 
Nikki:
Hello...
Night. Down the dark hall, Piotrek. He's wearing the green jacket? He goes into a room. Focus on door knob, cut back to living room, fade. 
24. A gold watch, in the light, on a blanket? Nikki wearing the striped tank top takes it and puts it on. Burns the hole through the silk. Daytime?Close up on the watch, hands going backwards? Nikki looks through the hole. close up on pink fabric. Polish city at night. Streetlights. 
25. Inside, not the hotel. The lost girl and the Phantom, in his suit. Scratchy noise.
Lost Girl (subtitles):
(scared) I didn't mean anything by that. I just asked a question. 
Phandom:
Why did you ask if it means nothing? Whatever you want, is that it?
Lost Girl:
No. Whatever you want. (backing up a bit, submissive body language)
Phantom: 
Oh... Now it's me.
Lost Girl:
Always you.
Phantom:
You can lie to me, but don't lie to yourself. So sly...
He shoves her.
Lost Girl:
Don't push me!
Phantom:
I'll push you to hell!
Shoves her again.
Lost girl:
Stop it!
Cuts to another scene. Still in polish? INterior, woman in a dress, man in a overcoat. Scratchy record sound. 
Woman (doris?)
I can't give you children... I know that. Are you listening to me?
Man (Piotrek?):
I'm going out now. 
Woman:
I'm not who you think I am! I'll never let you have her!
The man leaves. The woman walks forward, her back to the camera the whole time.
Woman:
Never... Never...
Cut back to:
The Lost Girl screaming as the Phantom beats her. Flickering light. She's wearing party clothes, her lipstick smeared, screaming while he looks down at her in contempt. 
Cut to:
The man in the overcoat, outside, waiting by the street. He checks his watch. A man in a hat approaches.
Hat:
Excuse me, do you know the time?
Overcoat:
9:45. 
Hat:
Thank you.
Overcoat watches Hat walk away down snowy street. 
cut to:
Lost Girl crying in her room watching TV. On the TV she sees Overcoat down on the street. She's not crying anymore. 
26. Cut to: Rabbits. Pink Shirt is alone in the room, sitting in the same place on teh couch. Red light fills the scene, and there's a burning hole at the top right, like a cigarette. Sound of a train. Ironing Rabbit enters from behind one of the columns, holding two white lights above her head. Red light fades, Suit Rabbit starts to materialize in the back of the room near Ironing Rabbit. Red light returns, he disappears. 
Cut to: dingy room, desk. Suit Rabbit sits at a table. Places his hands on the top of hte table. 
cut to: someone (nikki?) walking down a hall of red curtains, followed by someone in a red lace dress, only her hand and arm visible, waving her hand until Nikki disappears into the curtains. (like twin peaks)
cut to: Nikki at the bottom of a dingy dark staircase. Walking up the stairs. 
cut to:
The room at the top of the stairs. The rabbit is now a man in classes. He's looking down at a ratty piece of paper. Tapping it with one finger. 
cut to:
Nikki coming up the stairs/hall. This is the beat up version, for the first time. 
cut to:
The man in glasses hears a noise and looks up. Nikki comes in, holding a screwdriver in one hand and her purse in the other. Echoes of the interrogation room with the hypnotised woman.
Nikki:
I don't really understand what I'm doing here. That's one hell of a fucking climb, getting up here. (She sits across from the man in glasses.)
There's an "A" written on the wall.
Nikki:
So I was told you can help me. 
The man in glasses gets up and shuts the door. 
Nikki:
I guess I'll just tell you the thing. (not sure: "ditch my pride"?)
The man in glasses looks at her. Impassive. 
Nikki:
There was this man I once knew. His name was... doesn't matter what his name was. Alot of guys change. They don't change, but they reveal. In time they reveal what they really are. You know what I mean? It's an old story. Well this guy, he revealed something. Looking back on it, all along it was being revealed. He was planning something. Planning something with me in mind. When I get mad I really get mad. I gouged a man's eye out once when I was fifteen he was trying to rape me. I mean, fucker had it out, was pushing my legs apart. Got a finger in his eye socket. Pretty quick, rape was a long way off his mind. He was crying and screaming like a baby. What a fucking man you are, I said. There was goo, but he could still see me with the one eye. See me coming at him. Grabbing his nuts and tearing at him. He seen that alright, felt it too. He was screaming and wailing like a little baby. Sit in the corner, crying, moaning, hugging his nuts till the ambulance come. The ambulance guys, they say what the fuck happened here. I say: he come to reaping what he been sowing, that's what. They say: fucker been sowing some kind of heavy shit. 
27. cut to: back in Smithy's house, Nikki in the bedroom with the 3 tier red lampshade, in the tank top. Day time, comes into a little room. looks horrified, sees the cigarrette in an ashtray, the silk. 
Cut to: slo motion panning towards window, pink room. She's sitting against the wall, daylight, in the tank top. One of the girls is lying on the carpet.
Girl:
It's the shits.
Girl 2:
I really thought you would last, you two. 
Tatoo blonde:
I saw it coming.
(train sound. all the girls are smoking.)
I'm sorry, I did.
(train sound, louder)
Burnette 1:
You're full of shit, Dorie. 
Girl 3:
It sucks. 
Girl 1:
He was the one. I really thought he was. You know? So what, he's gone. 
Dorie:
Find someone else. 
Burnette 1:
It's not easy when you feel like shit.
Girl 3:
Oh, baby. 
(laughter. intercutting with Nikki, against the wall. She smiles for the first time.)
Girl:
Tonight we'll change that.
Another Girl:
Yeah. Tonight will be good.
Girl:
There's always a chance with tits like yours, Carrie. 
Carrie:
(who is the girl lying on the floor.) Thanks. 
Burnette 1:
Tits. 
Girl:
Tits and ass. 
They all laugh. 
Blonde:
(singing) You gotta swing your hips now.
Three girls snap fingers together. Nikki looks like she's searchign for a thought. 
Burnette 1, raising her tank to show her breasts:
These, are gonna bring 'em in like Flynn.
Carrie:
Pretty.
Girl:
Lemme see 'em?
Another girl:
They're pretty, baby. 
Girls:
nice... sweet.
Burnette 1:
Thanks, guys. 
Cut to: Living room, music, the girls all dancing to Locomotion. flashing light, Nikki still at the wall. Pensive expression. The girls disappear mid song. 
Empty living room, with glasses and dishes? Nikki still where she was. 
28.cut to:
Kitchen, Nikki and Piotrek at a small table, eating. Piotrek is unshaven and disheveled.
Nikki:
I'm trying to save us some money. 
Piotrek:
Oh, so now we're rich. 'Cause I drink this piss cold beer. What is the money for if it won't bring something likeable. 
Nikki:
I'm pregnant. 
Piotrek:
Oh. (laughs) You're a funny one. 
Nikki:
I'm pregnant. (more insistent). 
Piotrek Looks up:
What is this?
Nikki:
You don't seem too happy about it.
Piotrek:
You're pregnant?
Nikki: 
Yeah. What is it? What's wrong? 
Piotrek:
Just (doesn't?) come as a shock to me.
cut to:
girls dancing in dim light to "At last the stars above are blue, my heart was wrapped up in clover the night I looked at you..." fades to the bedroom.
1:33:55
29. Night. Nikki in a nightgown. She picks up a red phone. Dials. dialtone.
Nikki:
Hello? (whispering) Hello?
sound of ringing. 
Cut to:
Rabbits.
The Rabbit's phone rings. All three Rabbits in their usual positions turn towards ringing phone. 
cut to: Nikki looking frightened, listening to the phone ring.
cut to: Rabbits. Suit Rabbit stands up, picks up the phone. 
Nikki (voice):
Billy?
audience laughter
cut to: Nikki's face
fade to black
fade to the close up of the silk. Through the silk.
30. The upstairs room with the man in glasses. 
Nikki:
I seen a man come at me with a crowbar once.Guess he figured I was two-timing him. I was coming home, we were shacked up at the time. He was waiting for me in the half light. Waiting for me to come home, guess he'd worked himself into some kind of frenzy. I opened the fucking door and I seen this fucking shape burst out of the chair and a crowbar going up. I scream, and turn. Fucking crowbar comes down smashing down into that fucking door cheap piece of shit, it just splinters into a thousand pieces like a piece of glass, shit flying everywhere. I don't take this kind of behavior. I seen what this fucker was up to. (loud) BAM. I kick him in the nuts so hard his balls go crawling up into his brain for refuge. He goes down like a two dollar whore, crying and shit, telling me how he's never done nothing but love me, bullshit. 
Man with Glasses:
Were you in fact seeing another man?
Nikki:
(shakes head) I was screwing a coupla guys for drinks, no big deal. This one guy, he was kinda cute, fucker had a dick like a rhinoserous. He'd fuck the shit out of you, I'll tell you what. (first real smile/animation) He'd buy me a couple of drinks after. We'd talk, he'd tell me about the town he grew up in. All the little girls he'd fucked. There was a chemical factory in this town, and uh, he'd tell me it was putting so much shit in the air you couldn't think straight. It got to a lot of the people. There was a lot of crazy shit going on there. People having weird dreams, and seeing things that wasn't there. This one time, this one little girl, she was staring off at something one time. Starts screaming. They, the people hanging round, they come to her and ask her what's wrong, and um. She says she sees the end of the world. All fire and smoke and blood rain. You know, like they say. The wailing and the gnashing of teeth. 
cut to:
31. LOUD noise, fast forward night sky to day, outside california.
Nikki:
Hey. 
Two burnette women sit in the grass. They tilt their heads politely. They are possibly two of the women from the party scenes. 
Nikki
Look at me and tell me if you've known me before. 
The women look a bit dubious. The one on the left nods.
Burnette 1:
Yes, we will do that. 
The women exchange a glance. They're slightly rocking side to side. 
Nikki looks perturbed. The women ignore her.
There's a sound, and Piotrek turns around. He's in a white tee shirt and he's squirted ketchup all over the front of himself. It looks like they're setting up for an outdoor barbeque or picnic. 
Piotrek:
Where's the paper towels?
Nikki stares at the wide ketchup stain. 
cut to:
The lost girl, looking upwards as if praying, by candlelight. The scratching record sound. In color. 
cut back to Nikki. 
Nikki:
They're behind you on the table (dazed).
cut to: Lost Girl. 
lost girl (subtiteld):
Cast out...this wicked dream... that has seized my heart.
fade to black.
31. Polish winter night, streetlights. Industrial sound. Traveling by car. 
cut to:
dark stairwell, the same one Nikki ascended. Either the Lost Girl or Doris climbs stairs holding the screwdriver. her hair is in a ponytail. there's an arrow pointing back down the way she came. some kind of dark passage, a scream, cut off. fade to black, back to the stairway. someone on the floor (rewatch with better light?) 1:40
cut to: 
the room with the woman in a dress with her back to the camera. still facing the door. One of the girls from Nikki's place leans into camera.
Girl:
Who is she?
tranposed over: a bloody dead woman, eyes open, on the floor? blood on her face. 
Girl 2:
who is she?
The dead woman has some intestine hanging out, blood on the floor. She is dressed in a suit.
cut to:
Polish city street, night, footsteps. The Lost Girl bundled up in a coat, walking head down. She is stopped by the Phantom.
Phantom:(subtitles)
I almost didn't recognize you.
Lost Girl:
You startled me.
Phantom:
Strange... to find you on the street. 
Lost Girl:
You seem upset...(scared) Are you?
Phantom:
Should I be?
Lost Girl:
No, but... 
Phantom: 
So I shouldn't be?
Lost Girl:
No... but you seem so
Phantom:
I think you don't recognize me... my manner... 
Lost Girl:
That's true. You seem different. 
Phantom:
You too. I'm used to seeing you in our home... not on the street... at night. 
Lost Girl: 
Me too. 
Phantom:
(he seems less terrifying than before) There was a murder... 
Lost Girl:
How awful. Where?
Phantom: 
Just down the way. I think... you knew the person. 
Lost Girl:
Who was it?
Phantom:
Don't know the name... but I have seen you with this person. 
Lost Girl:
You have?
Phantom:
Yes (I have). I think... I've seen the two of you together. 
Lost Girl:
That's awful.
Fades to black.
The mustached man from the room with the woman in the dress is dead on the floor. blood under his head. 
cut to:
The Lost Girl crying in her room. 
32. Back to the California back yard party. There is a closed sun umbrella, a folding table with an orange plastic jug that holds beverages, the bottle of ketchup. Five folding chairs. Piotrek is still by the table with ketchup on his shirt. The door to the house opens and men walk through. 
Nikki:
Who are those people?
Piotrek:
(to the men) Hey, hello!
One of the men twirls a star on a stick. Six men? seven.
Piotrek:
Good to see you. Come in, come in. Get some hot dog. 
It's like a clown car, men piling into the back yard. 
Sailor Hat:
(checks his watch) It's ah, three o'clock. 
The men rearrange the folding chairs. 
Piotrek:
Yes, that's right. (a little wary, defensive?) You're right on time. 
Nikki looks perplexed.
Man in Black:
(hands clenched together, subtitles) The situation is becoming dangerous. 
He and another man turn around and leave. 
Man in Stocking Cap:
(agitated) Give me my hammer!
Nikki watches he and another man get into a fight. IN the background, a man has three juggling pins. Another man holds a big coil of rope. Stocking Cap gets his hammer back. He and the rest of the men sit down in the chairs. Bald man who had previous left comes back.
Bald:
There's no paper, for toilet. There's no paper. (polish accent?)
Piotrek:
It's under the sink, in the cupboard. 
Bald man goes back inside. There are now a few women present. They all have plates of food. Plain hotdogs, without buns. Piotrek carries a plate to Nikki.
Nikki:
What?
In th background, black shirt man is back, with Bald man.
Piotrek:
They are a group that performs in travelling shows in the Baltic region. (Roma?) 
Nikki:
What's that got to do with you?
Piotrek:
I will (would?) take care for the animals. It was said that I have a way with animals. (smiles, eyes wide, emphasis.) 
32. cut to:
The Nikki from the upstairs room with the man with glasses, a spinning trapeze artist transposed over her face. 
Nikki:
Fucker went to some eastern europe shit hole with the fucking circus. Can you fucking believe that? That circus. Talk about carnies. Carnies, gypsies, con men, you name it. A real fucking ball of shit. There was this guy they had working there...
The Phantom next to a polish circus sign, trasposed over Nikki's face as she talks. Phantom is in a green sweater. As she talks, another shot of circus tents, lights. A group of men approaching from the background. 
Nikki:
He'd start talking. You know, real regular. Talking up the crowd. They'd start listening. Pushing in closer.
Transposed: Piotrek, looking wary, stroking a horse.
Nikki:
He did some sort of thing on people. They all called him the phantom. He got in a barroom fight one night, all the bar was arrested, a lotta them fucking circus clowns. So when they take them all down to the station? Guess what. The phantom's done gone and disappeared. This is the kind of shit I'm talking about. (long pause) He was a Marine from North Carolina. He had a sister with one leg. She had a sort of carved stick for the other one. She killed three kids in the first grade. This is the kind of shit. 
Glasses man kind of nods and looks away again.
Nikki:
Fucking funny. People. They all got their own peculiarities. Their own way of living. 
33. Cut to: The pink living room, music, the girls around the room. Train sound. weird growling.
cut to: camera pulling back from the cigarette hole in the silk. dark room, nikki's eye, pull back more to see Nikki holding up the silk, pulling her head back. 
growly singer: 
Walking on the sky. The Right returns to wrong (?) The end is coming round the bend, the world ...(unintelligable)
cut to: girls in the living room. 
cut to: outside the house. train sound. Nikki through the window. music starts again when she comes out the door, holding her purse. 
growly singer:
see fire in the street. (something about a scream)
cut to: view of LA at night. Everything blurs. Streetlights, a faint face in a car? Nikki? Pulling back up to Nikki Grace's mansion. She gets out of the car. Gets her keys out of her purse, walks to a side door. (servant entrance?)Unlocks door and comes inside.
cut to: some sort of switchboard? Lights up. 
cut to: Nikki walking up some stairs, breathing heavy. Into the palatial house. 
cut to:
A group of people sitting (is this the set where Billy and Sue had a drink?)
Doris on the couch in a black suit, with a boy in pajamas. Another man in a suit sits in a chair. 
Doris:
And, and what about school? (stroking boy's hair.)
Man:
One more day.
Doris:
One more day. 
Man:
Maybe two.
The boy coughs, Doris laughs. Nikki walks into the room. Pauses in the doorway. 
Doris turns to see her.
Doris:
Susan? What are you doing here?
Nikki:
What? I thought you were gone?
Doris looks stricken. Nikki is agitated. footsteps.
Nikki:
Billy?
A butler enters followed by Billy.
Nikki:
Billy. Something's wrong. Bad wrong. Dontcha feel it?
Doris turns to look at Billy. 
Billy:
Sue. (firm, pissed off?)
Nikki:
Billy. Do you love me?
Doris:
What? (turns back to Billy)
Nikki:
Billy. 
Billy:
Sue.
Nikki:
Don't you remember anything? How it was?
Billy:
I don't understand what you're talking about. 
Nikki:
(rage, near hysteria) Are you listening?
Billy:
No. Now you go on, Sue.You go on now. 
Butler:
Would you like me to call the police?
Doris:
No. We can handle this. 
Nikki:
Billy, something's wrong. I love you, Billy. 
Doris:
(gets up and crosses to Nikki) I've had just about enough of this. (slaps Nikki)
Nikki:
I love you.
Doris slaps her again. 
Billy:
Go away, Susan.
Nikki:
I love you.
Doris slaps her again.
Billy:
(yells) Sue.
Nikki:
I don't care. It's something more. (quieter) I don't care, it's something more. 
Close up on Doris, stricken, cut to Doris in the police interrogation room, looking back. Cut to the Phantom, waving his hand, transposed on the dead woman in the hallway, back to Doris in the station. The Phantom waves his hand and there's a creepy talking as he waves his finger.
cut back to Doris in the mansion, Nikki's face, Doris looking horrified.
34. Cut to: Driving through a road in the woods. In the backseat of the car, in a sweater, the balding man from the hotel early on. Sitting next to him is Piotrek. They pull up to some shacks in the woods. Piotrek gets out of the car, walks towards the shacks. The Balding man gets out and stays at the car. Piotrek looks back at the man, uncertain. He approaches the latched door, there's a rooster walking by. He knocks on the door. The door opens, a man in a black leather jacket walks out.
Piotrek:
Gordy.
Gordy throws a red plastic cup of coffee onto the ground. Pretty sure Gordy is the Sailor Cap man. 
Gordy(subtitles):
What do you want?
Piotrek:
Where is he?
Gordy:
What's the point? Are you blind? He's gone!
Piotrek:
Everybody?
Gordy:
Why should I answer your stupid questions?You're nothing! You've done nothing! (rooster crows)
Piotrek:
Where did he go?
Gordy:
No idea. He talked... mumbled something about Inland Empire. 
Piotrek looks back at the Balding Man. 
Cut to: A creepy airbrushed clown face, superimposed over a tree at night, lit by spotlight. Nikki walks out from the trees in the spotlight. The clown face fades. Nikki picking her steps along some kind of path through grass, approaching the camera. She's running? her face creepy. the film speeds up, scary noise, Nikki's distorted face blurred by bright light. Eyes wide, grimacing. She's dressed in black. screaming. 
35. Cut to: A different Nikki pulls back, shocked. Through the window of Smithy's house, a dark haired woman approaches (visitor #2) through the yard. She rings the doorbell. Nikki in a red shirt comes out of the back of the house and crosses to the door. Her hair is a mess. She opens the door and lets in the Visitor, who wanders around the living room.
Nikki:
Ahhh--
The visitor sits on the couch.
Nikki takes a seat in the red armchair acrros from her. The visitor wears one knit glove on her left hand. 
Visitor:
I come about an unpaid bill that needs paying. 
Nikki:
(puzzled) Well, alright. 
Visitor:
Do you know the man who lives here? 
The visitor is wearing the watch on her gloved/wrapped arm. She puts her head briefly in her hands.
Visitor:
(whispers)Do you know him?
Nikki:
(whispers) Yes. What is it? What do you want?
Visitor:
It is an unpaid bill that needs paying. 
Nikki:
He- You already said that. But, uh--
Visitor:
Do you know the man who lives next door? Crimp, is the name?
36. Cut to: Nikki at the top of the stairs.
Nikki:
It was a funny name. They was called Crimp. 
cut to: A backyard, a tree. ominous music. Nikki approaches, carrying a purse. Possibly this is the Nikki from the top of the stairs before she is bruised and lined.
Nikki:
Hello? Hellooo. Hello?
She stops and takes a step back as the Phantom appears from behind the tree. He's in a sweater, he has a lightbulb in his mouth. Focus on the lightbulb in his mouth, cut to the tall red lamp, strobe, Nikki sitting against the wall in despair. Cut back to the yard, Nikki reacts as the Phantom (disheveled) walks towards her. She sees the old screwdriver in a pile of junk. Grabs it. Keeps backing up. The Phantom just stands there with his hands in his pocket, watching her. She hurries away, looks back at the tree and he's gone. 
cut to: Polish street at night. The camera enters an archway. Dark passage way, fade to black. 
37. A group of people seated around a table. spread with food and candles. A red shaded lamp in the background. The lost girl sits in the middle, head lowered. Two old men on the left, one at the end fo the table on the right. She's crying.
Lost girl:
There's someone there... I have to tell you... There's someone... 
The balding man backs into the room, leading Piotrek. The old man at the end of the table speaks:
Old Man:
Do you recognize her?
Piotrek sees no girl at the table. The Balding Man holds his arm.
Piotrek:
I don't see her... 
Old Man:
You undertstand she sent for you?
Lost Girl:
I don't know where I am... 
Piotrek reacts. The girl is crying.
Piotrek:
I hear her now... 
Balding Man:
Do you see her now?
Piotrek:
No. 
Old Man 2:
It was... red... 
Old Man 1:
You work for someone?
Piotrek:
Yes. 
Old Man 1:
This is the one who she spoke of. 
Piotrek:
The one I work for.
Old Man 1:
So... you understand. 
Old Man 3:
The horse has taken... to the well... 
Old Man 1 stands and takes a gun from the back of his pants, puts it on the table. 
OM1:
Take the pistol... 
Balding:
Let's go!
Piotrek takes the gun.
One of the men:
Right away! It's after midnight!
He and the balding man leave the room. There's a painting in the background. Two arms in the darkness. One hand holding a lit white candle, the other spread into the air. The lost girl remains at the table, head in hands. Another moment and then she vanishes. The old men move into the same positions as the Rabbits, one old man back at a window and an iron. 
Sound of train, fade to the Rabbits, closer up than before. 
Pink Shirt:
(to rabbit in the suit) I'm going to find out one day.
Ironing Rabbit:
It was red. 
Suit Rabbit:
Where was I?
Pink Shirt:
This isn't the way it was.
(audience laughs.)
everything goes reddish tinted as the Suit Rabbit stands up.
tinny male voice:
It was the man in the green coat. 
tinny female voice:
It had something to do with the telling of time.
Close up on a red reflection in the window. 
Flash of lightening and thunder. Nikki sitting in a chair by a window, rain outside. Or she's outside?  Another lightening strike, Nikki sitting in a robe in the red armchair in the pink living room, Smithy's house. in the dark. back to Nikki sitting outside in the rain. She looks pensive and dreading. More lightning, the sound of a car and lights, the music gets shrill. strobe light on Nikki in the robe, stricken, leaning towards the camera. Discordant music as Nikki in the robe and armchair stares up at the ceiling. Behind her, the girls. She looks around, the lights start going nuts, red sparks streaks of light, as Nikki in the armchair stares around at the girls in the living room. Nikki screams. 
38. Transition to: the girls, dressed in skimpy clothes, on the LA street at night. they yell HELLOOOOO. kind of gleeful and threatening. Laughing. Camera pulls away to reveal Nikki on the street with them, disheveled. 
Nikki:
I'm a whore. 
The girls are laughing.
Nikki:
(self mocking) Where am I? I'm afraaaaaid.
Beck's "Black Tambourine" starts. Nikki laughing with the girls. Blue flashing light behind her head. She looks across the street and sees Doris in the white tee and cut offs hanging around a tree. 
cut to: Nikki with the purse and screwdriver, walking down the hollywood stars street. This is the Nikki from the upstairs room, face bruised. Faint reddish light flashes on her face, she looks up to see scrawled on a black door in white chalk, "AXXon N." and a line, trailing off to nothing. Nikki turns, laughter. Acrross the street, she sees herself laughing with the other prostitutes, staring back at herself. The Nikki accross the street laughing and grimacing at her, the Axxon N nikki taken aback. Sees Doris crossing the street towards her. Camera focuses on AXXon N. and then Nikki starts hurrying away. Starts running. The other Nikki watches. Doris disappears behind a tree. Nikki with the girls. One on the pay phone. Nikki goes up to her, taps her urgently.
Nikki:
Somebody's trying to kill me. 
The girl ignores her. Nikki walks away.
Girl:
I need to make a collect call?
Other girls on street, strung out. Laughing/crying. Suddenly we're on the winter Polish street. Girls stand around in heavy coats. 
Focus on the Lost Girl in a fur coat and a hat. Looking strung out. 30's or 40's car in the background. 
Lost Girl:
(belligerant) Hey, look at me... (mocking) and tell me if you've known me before.
(Possibly she's asking the same girls Nikki asked in California.)
One of the girls she asks is wearing a red leather glove, that she points and waves at the Lost Girl. The lost girl laughs. THe other girls exchange glances. and start mocking laughter. Snow in the air, tree branches. 
39. Back to Nikki hurrying down the street. She comes upon a long line to get into a club or theater. She runs past the line.
NIkki:
Somebody's gonna fucking kill me!
Red light on her face, the people in line watching as she repeats herself, terrified and urgent. 
Nikki:
You gotta let me in man, you gotta let me in. I know that girl. Carolina. I Know Carolina. (th elost girl?) 
The bouncer lets NIkki in. 
Nikki hurries up some blue lit stairs. A burlesque show. Red lamp shade on one table. Someone seats Nikki in the back near the red lamp. Someone comes to get Nikki, Nikki follows her out of the burlesque show. Backstage? Red curtains seen through an open set of doors. A woman in a red dress walks Nikki into frame. Points towards the open doors. Marked exit. The woman in the red dress points away from the exit. She whispers something in Nikki's ear and Nikki starts forward. Repeat of the woman's red sleeve waving and pointing while Nikki walks ahead. Red curtains.Nikki walks into the red light while dischord builds. 
cut to: Nikki at the bottom of the dingy stairwell.  NIkki climbs the stairs. Enters the room with the man with glasses.
Nikki:
I don't really understand what I'm doing here... that's one hell of a fucking climb getting up here. (overlapping, we've heard this before) There was this man I once knew. I'm trying to tell you so you'se understand how it went. The thing is, I don't know what was before, or after. I don't know what happened first. And it's kinda laid a mind fuck on me. My husband, he's fucking hiding something. He was acting all fucking weird one night before he left. He was talkign this foreign talk and telling loud fucking stories...
cut to:
Piotrek hits Nikki, in Smithy's house, Nikki falls to the carpet. She's in the silk slip. Nikki screams, Piotrek's face lit. Nikki gets up and charges him, he punches her again to the floor. Nikki charges again, grabs him.
Piotrek:
I'm not who you think I am. 
He's got his hands around her neck. 
Piotrek:
Are you listening to me? I know it for a fact, I can't father children. 
cut back to the upstairs room.
Nikki: 
Like this (grimaces) His face all red. Eyes bugging out. 
cut to: Nikki's horrified face, lit brightly. 
cut to: Nikki upstairs.
Nikki:
I figured one day, I'd just wake up and find out what the hell yesterday was all about. I'm not too keen on thinking about tomorrow. And today's slipping by. 
Black.
Nikki's face, superimposed on someone else, herself?
Nikki:
I guess after my son died, I went into a bad time. When I was watching everything go around me while i was standing in the middle. Watching it, like in a dark theater. Before they bring the lights up. I"m sitting there, wondering how can this be. 
The phone rings. The man in glasses gets up and goes to another room to answer the phone. 
Glasses:
Hello? Yeah. She's still here. 
Nikki is clutching the screwdriver in a hand with "L.R." written on it and crossed out. 
Glasses:
I don't think it will be too much longer now. Yeah. The horse to the well. Yeah. Crimp?
Nikki's paranoid face.
Glasses:
Yeah, he's around here someplace, that's for sure. (something I can't make out)
Nikki gets up quietly, sneaks out. Hurries down the stairs. Exits the open doors backstage at the burlesque show, the red curtains in the background. An alley. Walks back up the hollywood stars street toward the prostitutes. Flashing white light. 
Girl:
What have you been up to? Where'd you go? Where have you been?
Girls in a line, staring at her, incredulous. Nikki looks across the street to see Doris disappearing behind a tree. Laughter.
Nikki:
Someone's there. Look!
You can just see an edge of Doris, behind the tree. Something shifts in Nikki.
Nikki:
hey. (now, as if high?) Hey. Watch this move. 
She starts clicking her fingers. The girls start clicking their fingers. Nikki takes the screwdriver in hand. Guitar music. The girls scatter.
Doris comes up from behind and grabs Nikki's screwdriver from her hand. Doris grips the screwdriver, charges in, grabs Nikki and jams the screwdriver into her, twisting it. There's a scream. Doris pulls away, Nikki doubling over, Doris's mouth open in horror. Doris runs off. The girls gather back around. They start screaming, run off, a laugh. Nikki screams, the screwdriver sticking out of her. Screaming and crying. She pulls the screwdriver out and drops it on the star for Dorothy L'Amor. She turns and hunching, runs down the street. Blurring lights, she runs out into the intersection of Hollywood and Vine. Collapses next to some homeless people in a storefront: an asian girl and black man huddled together, a black woman lying on a pillow on the other side. they watch as Nikki drags herself to lie between them. Nikki staring off into space, look of horror on her face.
African American woman:
You dying, lady. 
Nikki, unresponsive. 
African American woman:
(to asian woman) What you say about Pomona? What'd you say about Pomona?
asian woman:
You asked about the bus. 
African american woman:
Can't get no bus to Pomona. 
Asian woman:
You can get the bus for Pomona here... if you get on the subway first.
African american woman:
I never can get no bus. 
Asian woman:
You can go all around Hollywood... where I was, from Hollywood and Vine... and you can get to Pomona for $3.50... from Hollywood and Vine to Pomona. 
AAW:
I never heard of no bus there. 
AW:
I went on the bus to Pomona last summer... to visit my friend who lives there. Her name is Niko. I stayed for two weeks. 
AAW:
My cousin comes from Pomona. She has a place there and said I could stay there. What time is it?
AW:
I don't know... it's after midnight. 
AAW:
After midnight?
AW:
My friend niko... who lives in Pomona has a blonde wig... she wears it at parties. but she is on hard drugs and turning tricks now. She looks very good in her blonde wig... just like a movie star. Even girls fall in love with her... when she is looking so good... in her blonde star wig.  She blows kisses and laughs... but she has got a hole in her vagina wall.. she has torn a hole into her intestine from her vagina. 
AAM:
Baby, why you tell us that shit?
AW:
She has seen a doctor, but it is too expensive. and now she knows her time has run out. She score a few more times... and then, like that... she will stay home with her monkey... she has a pet monkey... This monkey shit everywhere, but she doesn't care... This monkey can scream... it scream like it in a horror movie. 
Nikki coughing between them.
AW:
But there are those who are good with animals... who have a way with animals... 
They watch Nikki get up, blood running out of her mouth to the ground. She collapses back between them.
AAW:
(pets nikki) It's okay. You dying is all. 
She gets out a lighter and holds the flame in front of Nikki's face. 
AAW: 
I show you light, now. 
Nikki stares at the flame.
AAW:
It burns bright forever. No more blue tomorrows. You on high now, love. 
Nikki closes her eyes, goes limp and the flame goes out. 
The camera pulls back. to reveal a camera, filming the death scene. 
Kingsley(Voiceover):
cut it. And print it.
Flood lights come on, the people besides nikki in the scene stir. Kinglsey in a head set, watching Nikki just lie there. Niki stirs.
Kingsley:
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for NIkki grace. Nikki grace, everybody. Bravo.
Clapping. Nikki gets up and starts to walk off. In a daze. She waves off someone tring to wrap her in a robe. Wanders through the studio.
Kingsley:
What's the matter, Nikki?
Staff leads her to a lit mirror, starts taking makeup off her. Kingsley approaches. 
K:
Nikki. Nikki.
Takes her by the shoulders. 
K:
Nikki, you were wonderful. 
He hugs her. She pulls away and walks on. Out of the studio building. Sees "Stage 5" and "Stage 6" and hears a noise. 
cut to: The lost girl in her room, crying. On her TV, the shot of Nikki. It's almost like they can see each other.Nikki turns away and walks past red light, Into an ornate movie theater with white marble columns. Dread on her face. Red seats. ON the screen, herself where she stands. Then, the nikki in confessional.
Nikki:
I gues after my son died I went into a bad time when I was watching everything going around me while I was standing around. Watching it in a dark theater before they bring the lights up. 
the telephone in the upstairs room rings. 
Glasses:
Hello? Yeah. She's still here. Crimp? Yeah, he's around here someplace... 
ON the movie screen, something we haven't seen before. Nikki in the Smithy house bedroom, approaching the trilevel red shade lamp on the dresser. Then on the screen, a view of the movie theater, a man walking along the side. She turns and sees the same thing, in reality, the man walking towards a blue lit doorway. THe man with glasses, pauses and looks back at her. She turns back to the screen, sees the same thing. Then turns to reality, the man starts up the stairs. Nikki takes off the blue robe someone had given her. Leaves it behind on a seat. On the screen, Nikki is in the doorway, following the glasses man. Up the stairs.
A blue lit passage. The ticking of a clock, not yet 12:15, the decrepit stairwell. Written on the door: AXXoN N.She opens the door. Sees through a passage into Smithy's living room. Walks down the hall to the bedroom with the trilevel lamp. Opens the drawer, looks inside. On top of the folded green jacket is a gun. She picks it up. Comes back out into the passage with the clock. Takes a different hall, past the door to Smithy's living room. music gets tense. Camera pans back and we see the blue lit passage, Nikki emerging. High, tense string music. Nikki walking back towards the clock. Some sort of interferance. Nikki walking through a dark arched hall. The Phantom opens a door and emerges. He looks and sees the doorway to Smithy's living room. Following in Nikki's footsteps. Nikki in a blue/green passage, lit by wall sconce lights like white candles. She's holding the gun. She stops at a dead end hall, a door at the end, a door on her right. Approaches the door on the right: number 47. She turns quickly and backs up. The phantom approaches from the end of the hall. She fires the gun at him and his face is lit up with white light. Ecstatic. He opens his eyes. Smiles. She fires the gun again. White light on his face. Nikki, horrified. The spotlight burns out the Phantom's face. She fires a third time, same result. She backs up, then loud music and NIkki's distorted grimacing face is superimposed over the Phantom's face. Loud scary sound. She fires one more time. The distorted face disintegrates, black red blood running out of a gaping mouth. White face, like a clown's. 
cut to:
Rabbits. Ironing Rabbit standing between the two on the couch. The door opens. The three Rabbits turn, the sound of a train. The set goes dark, a strobing white light comes in the doorway from outside. Plays over the archway with two columns by the window. Flickering light and we see that the Rabbits have been in Room 47. Nikki backs inside. Shuts the door and turns, despairing. Looks around the roo mwhere the Rabbits are usually. Despair turns to something else. She walks through the room.
Bright blue light. The lovely singing starts. 
Singing:
I sing this poem to you.
Outside in a passage, a couple of the girls. 
cut to: The lost girl, a look of wonder on her face. ON her tv, she sees the two girls running down a hallway. laughing happy. 
Singing:
On the other side I see
The girls running down the hall, the sound of hteir footsteps, The Lost Girl turns briefly toward the sound. 
Singing:
When the lost girl turns back to the tv, she sees herself in the room watching tv. The room has white columns. Nikki steps into the room. The lost girl is in clothes. She stands as Nikki approaches. Spotlight towards the right. The girl and Nikki kiss. Nikki vanishes. 
Singing:
The wind blows outside, and I breath again and know I'll have to live. 
The lost girl smiles.   She hears a sound, turns towards the door, rushes forward. The door opens and she runs into the hallway. 
Singing:
To forget my world is ending.
The girl runs down decrepit stairs. 
Singing:
I have to live. I hear my heart beat
The pink door to Smithy's house opens, Piotrek and a boy enter. 
Piotrek:
Hello?
The girl is in the hall of the house. 
Girl:
Hello?
She rushes into the living room, where Piotrek and the boy stand, the boy carrying a brown paper bag. The girl rushes to embrace Piotrek. Crying in happiness. She hugs the boy. 
The blue light. 
singing:
I see the faces. My hands are tied as I wished but no one comes.
Cut to: Niki in the Rabbit's room, the tinny sound of applause. She seems dazed and exausted and maybe content? Faintly a ballerina way out of focus, over Nikki's face. 
The blue light is in the movie theater. Coming from the projection booth. Cut to Girl and Piotrek embracing.
cut to: Visitor #1 in Nikki's mansion, as if she's remembering or seeing it.
Singing:
Is this mystery unfolding.
Visitor #1 smiles a bit. We're back at the beginning, with Nikki. Who looks over and sees herself in a blue dress sitting on the couch, looking back at her serene. 
singing:
Somethings coming true, the dream of an innocent child. Something is happening. 
cut to black.
The one legged woman walks into the room. Leans against a column.
OLW:
Sweeet.
Sinner man music starts. 
credits: Niko with teh monkey. Rita from Mulholland Dr. She blows a kiss to Nikki. Nikki blows one back. Another woman sittin gnext to Nikki. strobing lights, the monkey, a man cutting wood, the girls come in and dance. A group of african american women comes in to dance. 
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