EPISODE: 9
With dread, Josh sees the unmistakable features of an OLD
WOMAN, crouching beside his bed. Staring at him.
LORRAINE (CONT'D)
In each photo, she got closer and
closer to you...
Josh flips to the next picture - in this one, Young Josh is
standing by a car.
Behind him, the details of the Old Woman's dress are visible.
Her arm is extended...reaching out for Josh's neck.
Renai's hand flies to her mouth.
LORRAINE (CONT'D)
Finally, I was so scared, I called
Elise.
Sweat pours down Josh's brow.
He lets the photographs flutter from his fingers, backing
away. Fragments of memories rock his entire body.
JOSH
I don't...I don't remember any of
this...
ELISE
You've blocked it out.
(beat)
But in the back of your mind,
you're still afraid of having your
picture taken, aren't you?
Josh grabs the wall, weak at the knees.
LORRAINE
I've kept the photos hidden ever
since then...until tonight.
ELISE
I advised Lorraine to hide them. To
stop taking your picture. And to
let you forget.
JOSH
Who is she?
ELISE
A parasite. She befriended your
astral body, then drew you out into
The Further, just as Dalton has
been drawn out. But she deceived you. All she
wanted was an empty vessel. A
physical body. Yours.
LORRAINE
I'm sorry, Josh.
ELISE
I didn't want to make you remember
this...I only do it for the sake of
your son.
A quiet descends over them.
ELISE (CONT'D)
Your son is out there.
(beat)
And you are the only one who can
bring him back.
Josh looks up at her.
JOSH
How long do we have before...that
thing...takes him over completely?
All eyes are on Elise.
ELISE
If you cannot reach him tonight,
then he is gone forever.
INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - LATER
The lights have been dimmed. Josh sits on a single person
lounge chair.
Elise sits opposite him.
Tucker and Specs set up around her, fixing their cameras in
place. Renai leans forward on the couch opposite, chewing her
nails to the quick. Lorraine is next to her.
ELISE
Remember who you are and why you
are traveling. Keep one foot in
this world.
(beat)
Are you ready?
Josh nods. Renai hugs him and they hold onto it. She whispers
to him, staring into his eyes. RENAI
I want you to know something...you
have never been less than good
enough for me. You've always been
perfect for me. You're my best
friend...my soulmate. I love you so
much.
JOSH
I love you too. I have since the
first time you looked at me. I
don't exist without you.
Elise drifts over to the piano, lifting the METRONOME from it.
She sets it down in front of Josh, freeing the weighted swing-
arm so it moves back and forth.
TICK...TICK...TICK.
ELISE
Close your eyes, Josh...and relax.
Breathe deeply. Let all life around you
fade out into the background...until
the only thing you can hear is the
ticking of the metronome.
We PUSH IN on Josh, inhaling and exhaling. TICK...TICK...TICK.
ELISE (CONT'D)
Focus on a spot in the center of
your forehead. Feel that spot
getting further away as you drift
off to sleep.
We are now in an ECU of Josh. TICK...TICK...TICK.
ELISE (CONT'D)
I want you to relax your physical
body and let the astral body gain
strength...feel it rising out of
your chest.
Renai watches, literally and figuratively on the edge of her
seat. Tucker and Specs take notes from the corner.
Josh breathes deeply. Eyes shut tightly.
ELISE (CONT'D)
Detach yourself.
Josh's eyes open suddenly and he stands up, frustrated,
marching across the living room.
JOSH
This is useless...I have no idea
what I'm doing and you just
suddenly expect me to...
He turns around and stops dead. His words trail off.
HE IS LOOKING AT HIMSELF.
He sees his own body, sitting in the armchair, eyes closed.
Elise is sitting opposite, with her back to the Josh who is
now standing.
The living room is exactly as it was - only Renai, Lorraine,
Tucker and Specs have disappeared. They are nowhere to be
seen.
Stunned into mute shock, Josh stares at his own body in the
armchair.
Slowly, Elise turns her head away from the Josh in the chair,
staring eerily into the standing Josh's eyes.
She can see him.
ELISE
(softly)
Now you are free.
(beat)
Keep your guide, and a steady
stride...and into The Further you
go.
She turns back to the Josh in the chair. The room seems to
have darkened even more somehow.
Josh turns and glares into the darkness of his hallway as it
yawns outwards, eventually swallowed by complete blackness.
He is not in another world. He is in his own house.
NOTE - The following scenes are not going to be "movie
quiet". They will be inhumanly quiet. There will no score.
Only sound scape. This is another world and should feel so.
Josh moves forward, gliding down the hall slowly. He looks
down and sees that his feet are slighty raised off the
ground.
He is floating.
He moves into the darkness of the hall...past the bedroom
doors and closet doors. As he floats past, he scans every darkened corner for the
slightest trace of movement.
He reaches the front door. He moves towards it and as he does
it OPENS.
EXT. THE FURTHER - NOT NIGHT OR DAY, BUT DARK
His street beckons beyond the door.
Josh floats across his lawn.
There are no people or cars on the street...it is as desolate
as a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
A
total
absence
of
LIFE.
Some lights flicker from within the houses, but no movement
or signs of human forms. Only mist.
Josh floats an inch above the road, moving down the street.
One thing to notice is that there is a total lack of horizon
or city scape here...Josh's immediate surroundings are
visible for about one hundred yards or so...anything beyond
that, in any direction, fades into blackness. As if someone
were shining a giant spotlight down on him.
INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD
Renai watches Josh. He is completely still...in a trance.
His eyelids flutter as his eyeballs probe in all directions
underneath.
ELISE
He's in...
EXT. THE FURTHER - NIGHT
Josh keeps moving, his fear registering, even in this world.
He looks down at his feet.
He is frustrated that he can't move any faster. He
concentrates with fierce intensity--
--and then watches as his feet touch the ground. He is walking.
He starts to move faster, gaining control of his movement.
JOSH
Dalton?
The sound of his voice is strangely dead - as if he were
inside a soundproof recording studio. There are no walls or
angles for it to bounce off.
JOSH (CONT'D)
Dalton? Where are you?
For a long time, there is nothing...
...
...then he sees it.
A figure...shrouded in shadow. Standing on the street corner
with his back to Josh.
Josh moves towards the figure.
Closer. Closer.
The man abruptly turns the corner without looking back.
Josh glances around the corner. There is nobody there.
He continues down the street. He sees a little girl. Far in
the distance, but close enough to focus on. She stands and
stares...
...then turns and walks away. Gone...like an apparition.
He looks to his right and sees--
--A SHADOW.
Behind a curtain in one of the windows, back lit by candle
light. As with the others, the shadow turns away and
disappears.
Josh walks towards the front door of the house. He reaches it
and turns the handle.
INT. HOUSE - THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
A long corridor beckons. As with all of this world, it is
dark here. Josh walks into the corridor, looking to his left and right
into empty rooms. Living rooms and bedrooms. Devoid of life.
The colors are muted...the palate drained. Only REDS and
BLACKS pop out. Blood and darkness.
Josh keeps moving down the corridor.
Up ahead, he sees a figure run past the top of the hall,
ignoring Josh.
He presses forward, following the figure.
JOSH
Dalton?
He glances into an empty kitchen. Food rots on the table.
His footsteps have no sound as he continues on.
JOSH (CONT'D)
Dalton?
He passes a door that is partly open. He pushes it wide open.
INT. SMALL ROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
The room is small and empty. A strange room...like a stage.
A figure is sitting in the corner, facing the wall like a
child being punished at school.
Josh steps closer, cautious. Takes another step.
JOSH
Where is Dalton?
He steps closer yet again.
His hand reaches out to touch the figures back...
...his fingers are almost grazing the figures shoulder.
Soft laughter behind him. Josh glances back to look for the
source.
When he turns back, the FIGURE IS GONE.
He wheels around, seeing the small-statured figure of the
DWARF that Renai encountered, stepping through the door of
the room. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
Josh sidles back into the corridor. His pace is sluggish,
dream-like.
Frustrated, he stops. Then turns to his left.
SOMEONE IS RIGHT THERE IN HIS FACE. A MAN.
The man is not looking at him...only standing very close. His
neck lolls on his shoulders...around and around. He seems
stuck on a loop. He is dressed in a fifties era suit.
JOSH
Do you know where Dalton is?
The man doesn't acknowledge him.
MAN
Why do I have to put up with you?
What a tramp. You call this a home?
I work all day for this?
He marches away, leaving Josh standing alone.
Josh keeps going, whirling around. He reaches a set of stairs.
The stairs descend into darkness.
Josh squints into the dark, afraid.
JOSH
Dalton? Where are you?
The low rumble of this place is the only reply. Josh turns to
walk away. A distant voice stops him.
DALTON (O.S.)
Dad...
Josh SNAPS back.
The voice drifted from out of the darkness at the bottom of
the stairs.
Josh scurries down the creaky ramp towards it.
INT. HALLWAY, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
The core of a rotten apple. The bowels of hell.
Drenched in shadow, Josh fumbles forward into yet another
corridor of this labyrinth. He realizes he knows where he is. He is in his OLD HOUSE. An
alternate world version of it.
The lighting is different - it's darker. There are no signs
of life. Water drips somewhere.
Josh stumbles forward, seeing an open door.
INT. LIVING ROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
Josh slinks into a darkened and dilapidated living room.
There are THREE PEOPLE in here - a middle aged woman, a middle
aged man and a young girl. They are all FROZEN, standing in
place as if someone had hit the pause button on their life.
The woman is in the middle of ironing. The man is sitting in an
arm chair reading a newspaper. The girl is lying on the floor.
The whole scene looks like a macabre 'Leave It To Beaver'
tableau - a cheerful family frozen in time.
Josh steps closer to the mother...
...hairs prickling up on his neck when he sees her BLINK. Her
body moves slightly. She is not frozen - merely playing
statues. Like a street performer keeping as still as possible.
Josh turns to the father. He is the same. His hand shakes,
struggling to hold the newspaper in place.
He backs away from them, truly creeped out. His back hits a
window and he turns, peering through the glass down at the
street below.
A figure, hidden in silhouette, is gazing up at him.
INT. KITCHEN, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
Josh stalks into a kitchen off the living room. A weathered
door is adjacent to the kitchen.
The door is ajar.
Through it, Josh can see somebodies leg.
Josh approaches the door, prodding it open gently with his
finger.
It is a bedroom. A tattered cot sits against the wall. A
YOUNG MAN (17) sits on the cot, holding a rifle. Like the
others, he is trying to be completely still, as if on pause. He is having more trouble than the family, trembling
slightly.
JOSH
I'm looking for my son, Dalton.
The boy does not look up. Does not move.
Josh retreats, scanning the kitchen. There are soiled pots in
the sink. Rotting food, but no bugs. Josh turns the faucet
but no water comes forth.
When he turns back, the YOUNG MAN is gone. No longer in his
bedroom.
Josh glances back at the living room.
The Young Man is now standing inside the living room.
Again, he is frozen. Holding his rifle. Looking down at his
family, who are now splayed out on the carpet, soaked in
BLOOD.
Each of them has a bullet hole in their head.
Repulsed, Josh tip-toes past them. He looks down at the
mother - a bullet wound in the center of her chest.
She blinks...still playing dead.
INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS
More corridors disappearing into darkness.
Josh wrenches his hair in frustration. He boils over,
screaming at the top of his lungs.
JOSH
DALTON!!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!!
His cry recedes into nothingness.
DALTON (O.S.)
Dad....
He heard that. Excited, he spins around, trying to determine
where it came from.
As he does, he sees that the entire dead family is now
gathered at the door to the living room. Watching him.
He summons all his strength and starts running, backing away
from them....