LINOGE That's all of them.
98 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND THE CHILDREN, FLYING DAY.
238
LINOGE is in the lead as he was before, just behind the FLYING CANE. He is holding hands with PIPPA and RALPHIE as before, and
STORM OF THE CENTURY 323
the other kids string out behind them, making that V. The kids are laughing, happy, TOTALLY
BLISSED OUT. Until
LINOGE (voice) And if I drop them there
I '
LINOGE opens his hands, letting go of RALPHIE and PIPPA. Their expressions of happiness immediately turn to terror. SHRIEKING, unlinking from each other, the EIGHT CHILDREN tumble downward and are swallowed in the floor of clouds beneath them.
99 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.
LINOGE they die here.
100 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE AND AUDIENCE, FEATURING LINOGE.
LINOGE lowers his cane, and the BRIGHT BLUE LIGHT leaves the windows; they FADE TO BLACK.
The ISLANDERS are terribly shaken by what they have seen. None, quite understandably, are more shaken than the parents.
LINOGE
You'll see it happen. They'll puff out . . .
He turns slightly to his left, PUFFS WITH HIS LIPS, and several candles (eight, in fact) mounted along the wall GO OUT.
LINOGE
(smiling, continues) . . . like candles in the wind.
URSULA GODSOE totters to her feet. Her once-pretty face is now battered and twisted with grief.
She sways and almost falls. MELINDA HATCHER rises and steadies her. URSULA pleads with all her heart.
URSULA
(through tears)
Please don't hurt my Sally, mister. She's all I got left, now that Peter's gone. We'll give you what you want, if we have it to give. I swear we will. Won't we?
324 STEPHEN KING
101 INTERIOR: TOWN HALL MONTAGE.
CAT WITHERS . . . SONNY . . . BELLA BISSONETTE . . . JENNA FREEMAN . . . JACK, LUCIEN, and ALEX HABER in a guilty little huddle . . . they all nod and MURMUR AGREEMENT. Yes, they will give LINOGE what he wants. They are ready to do that.
102 INTERIOR: THE FRONT ROW.
HATCH
(stands beside his wife) What is it? Tell us.
239
103 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE AND AUDIENCE, FEATURING LINOGE.
LINOGE
I've lived a long time thousands of years but I'm not a god, nor am I one of the immortals.
LINOGE holds his cane in the middle, raises it above his head, then brings it down horizontally in front of his face. A faint shadow, thrown by CANDLELIGHT, crosses his face from the forehead down.
As it does, the strong and handsome features of a man in early middle age CHANGE . . . AGE.
LINOGE'S face becomes the lined and sagging countenance of a man who is not just old but ANCIENT. The eyes peer out of sagging sockets and from beneath puffy eyelids.
The AUDIENCE GASPS AND MURMURS. Once more, the director will intercut the faces he wants, getting reactions. We see ANDY ROBICHAUX, for instance, sitting beside his son, holding and stroking the boy's small hand.
LINOGE So you see me as I really am. Old. And sick. Dying, in fact.
LINOGE raises his cane again, and as the shadow goes back up, LINOGE'S YOUTH RETURNS. He waits as the AUDIENCE MURMURS.
LINOGE
By the standards of your mayfly existences, I have long to live yet I'll still be walking the earth when all but the freshest and newest among you . . . Davey Hopewell, perhaps, or young Don Beals
. . .
*
We INTERCUT SHOTS of DAVEY with his parents and DON sleeping on his cot.
LINOGE
(continues)
. . . have gone to your graves. But in terms of my own existence, time has grown short. You ask me what I want?
104 INTERIOR: MIKE AND MOLLY ANDERSON.
MIKE already knows, and his face is filling with HORROR and FURIOUS PROTEST. When he begins speaking, his voice rising from a WHISPER TO A SCREAM, MOLLY seizes his wrist . . .
MIKE No, no, no, no ...
105 INTERIOR: LINOGE, AT THE PODIUM.
LINOGE
(ignores MIKE)
I want someone to raise and teach; someone to whom I can pass on all I have learned and all I know; I want someone who will carry on my work when I can no longer do it myself.
106 INTERIOR: MIKE.
He rises to his feet, dragging MOLLY with him.
MIKE
No! No! Never!
240
107 INTERIOR: LINOGE.
LINOGE (ignores MIKE)
I want a child. One of the eight sleeping back there. It doesn't matter which one; all are just as likely in my eyes. Give me what I want give it freely and I'll go away.
326 STEPHEN KING
108 INTERIOR: THE STAGE AND THE AUDIENCE, ANGLE ON MIKE AND
LINOGE.
MIKE
Never! We'll never give you one of our children! Never!
He pulls away from MOLLY and lunges for the stairs leading to the stage, meaning to tackle LINOGE. In his fury, any doubts he might have had about his ability to prevail over
