Mr. Sandman (6 page)

Page
21
p
anel 7

 

Stranger: Unfortunately, it is most likely
you
who will suffer. Even now, your gilded seams are splitting, your merry paradise deflating like a stuck balloon! You can't even keep your own
mind
together, can you?

 

Dream Lord: No more! I'll destroy you!

 

Again, the environment has changed, this time to an area of deep space filled with plummeting meteors and fiery comets.

 

 

 

 

Page
22 (8
panels)

 

Page
22
p
anel 1

 

The Dream Lord gestures, and the men are surrounded by deep blue ocean.

 

Dream Lord: Drown, you bastard! Die!

 

Stranger: Sorry to disappoint you, Kubla, but I simply cannot comply. In fact, as much as I'm enjoying myself, I'm afraid it is now I who must call a halt to this game...

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 2

 

Stranger: ...like so.

 

The Stranger raises one arm high in the air, energy springs from his fingertips, and suddenly, the environment changes again, this time under
his
control. Now, the men stand on a barren gray plain, surrounded by dead bodies dressed in military uniforms from many wars in different ages.

 

Dream Lord: What did you do?
I
'm
the only one with power like that!

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 3

 

Stranger: Obviously, Kubla, you've been reading the tabloids too long. Welcome! I have prepared this place just for you!

 

Dream Lord (stunned, looking around the plain): My...All these bodies...

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 4

 

Stranger: Yes, they are quite dead, aren't they? Why don't you introduce yourself, and mingle a little? You'll be seeing quite a lot of them from now on.

 

Dream Lord: Where...are we?

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 5

 

Stranger: Well, it's certainly not a campground, is it? Welcome to Waterloo, Kubla...and Gallipoli, and the Little Big Horn, and Masada and Bataan. Welcome to your new home sweet home.

 

The Stranger gestures around him and smiles broadly.

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 6

 

The Dream Lord suddenly leaps at the Stranger, flailing helplessly with rage.

 

Dream Lord: Nooo!! I'm the Dream Lord!

 

Stranger: So you keep telling me. I must admit, though, that I'm disillusioned to see you reduced so soon to animal violence.

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 7

 

The Stranger repels the Dream Lord's blows, then grabs him by the throat and chokes him mercilessly.

 

Stranger: It simply takes my breath away.

 

 

 

Page
22
p
anel 8

 

The Stranger lifts the Dream Lord, by the throat, high above him.

 

Stranger: I would have thought you were above such behavior.

 

 

 

 

Page
23 (8
panels)

 

Page
23
p
anel 1

 

The Stranger hurls the Dream Lord onto a pile of bloody bodies. At this point, Dream Lord is reduced to a whimpering shell.

 

Dream Lord: Unhh! Help! Bogg, Gorr...help me!

 

Stranger: Shut down the telegraph, Adams. Your S.O.S. is useless. All your little creatures are gone now, chasing their tails in doggie heaven. That screaming will just put nodes on your vocal cords.

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 2

 

Stranger (kicking Dream Lord hard in the stomach as he lies on top of the bodies): My my...will you just
look
at yourself? You're a bloody mess.
What
will your friends think, hmm?

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 3

 

The Stranger kicks Dream Lord again, harder, in the face.

 

Stranger: You
are
mighty, aren't you, Kubla? A mighty hero, a great warrior! More like a
mannequin
, I'd say. A
scarecrow
, a façade, a crumbling storefront about to be demolished!

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 4

 

The Stranger stands above the Dream Lord, mocking him and laughing cruelly.

 

Narrator: The man in my dream beat me and kicked me. I tried to fight back, I
tried
...
but he was just too strong.

 

Stranger: You know, Kubla, I'm glad we got together. it was nice to chat and gossip for a change, and the dinner was superb. All told, I would much rather break filet mignon instead of bread at a
last supper.

 

Dream Lord: Who...who
are
you?

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 5

 

Stranger: Don't you recognize me, Adams? I'm flabbergasted! After all we've been through together? This is inexcusable!

 

Dream Lord: I've...never seen you before...in my life!

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 6

 

Stranger: Oh, you've seen me. I am your nastiest dream, Adams, your most awful nightmare! I have come to life to devour you!

 

Dream Lord: Impossible! The Dream Lord doesn't dream!

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 7

 

Stranger: Wrong! False! Go directly to jail! I am your dream, Adams! I am your
Bogeyman
! You have tried to forget me, to exile my memory as you set up your cotton candy kingdom in dreamland! But you could not...you never will!

 

 

 

Page
23
p
anel 8

 

Stranger: I have returned to make you atone for what you did. Your crimes are atrocious, unforgivable, demanding only
one
penance, one possible
penalty
! You stupid little fish...I have come to
kill
you!

 

Narrator: He insulted me. He threw accusations at me, and I could not deny them.

 

 

 

 

Page
24 (9
panels)

 

Page
24
p
anel 1

 

Stranger (as he again kicks Dream Lord in the face): And now, I really must be going. Time waits for no man, and all that. I
do
hate to cut this short, but I can tarry with you no longer.

 

Narrator: The man had to leave.

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 2

 

Stranger (as he draws a long, bloody sword from the scabbard of a dead soldier at his feet): Thank you for all your hospitality, Kubla. I
did
enjoy myself, but I'm afraid we will
not
do it again in the future.

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 3

 

The Dream Lord cringes as the Stranger approaches him with the blade.

 

Dream Lord: No...no, please don't! Don't kill me!

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 4

 

Closeup of the Stranger's sinister face.

 

Stranger: What was that?

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 5

 

Dream Lord (with tears in his eyes): I...I said...
please
don't...kill me!

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 6

 

Stranger: Say "pretty please."

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 7

 

Dream Lord: P-pretty please...

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 8

 

Stranger: Go to hell.

 

He plunges the sword into the Dream Lord's chest.

 

 

 

Page
24
p
anel 9

 

The Stranger waves to Dream Lord and disappears.

 

Stranger: And with that, I bid you "Goodnight, sweet prince." Happy dreams!

 

Narrator: The man killed me, then left. He vanished into thin air.

 

 

 

 

Page
25 (1 panel
)

 

Page
25
p
anel 1

 

Full-page splash panel, showing the Dream Lord sprawled lifelessly on the heap of dead bodies on the desolate plain. The sword is stuck in his bloody chest.

 

Narrator (in box at top of page): When I woke up this morning, I thought about the dream I had, and wondered what it meant. I thought about all the horrible people, and the lousy things that kept happening to me. The more I thought it over, the more sense the dream made.

 

Narrator (at bottom of page): I think it was a sign. I think I will kill myself.

 

Continued....

 

END OF PART ONE

 

 

 

 

Part II
:
Long Night
'
s Journey Into Death

 

 

Page 1
(5 panels)

 

This page will consist of a series of small panels within a large splash panel.

 

 

 

Page 1 panel 1

 

Quote: "What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow/Out of this stony rubbish?"

 

Closeup of the sword that was plunged into the Dream Lord's chest in the last chapter, surrounded by a bloody stain where it punctured his heart.

 

 

 

Page 1 panel 2

 

Quote: "Son of man, you cannot say, or guess, for you know only! A heap of broken images, where the sun beats..."

 

Medium shot of the Dream Lord, from the waist up; he is lying, exhausted, suffering, and near death, amid the twisted and decaying bodies of thousands of unknown soldiers. The Dream Lord is still dying on the endless battlefield where the Bogeyman defeated and stabbed him. This panel should be drawn at an angle, or upside-down.

 

 

 

Page 1 panel 3

 

Quote: "....And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief! And the dry stone no sound of water! Only there is shadow under this red rock..."

 

A wider shot of the Dream Lord's sprawled body atop the limitless stretch of corpses, with a dead, scraggly tree needling up from the rubble near him.

 

 

 

Page 1 panel 4

 

Quote: "Come in under the shadow of this red rock! And I will show you something different from either! Your shadow at morning striding behind you! Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you."

 

Closeup of the Dream Lord's shocked, mesmerized face; he still wears his mask, but the long nose given him by the Bogeyman is now gone.

 

 

 

Page 1 panel 5

 

(The splash panel)

 

Quote:

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

—from 'The Waste Land' by T.S. Eliot

 

This final line is at the bottom of the splash panel. The panel itself is a wide view of the sprawled, agonized Dream Lord among the corpses and destruction. The scene is suffused with a harsh, orange light, like that from a desert sun.

 

 

 

 

Page 2 (10
panels)

 

Page 2 panel 1

 

Flashback image of the Bogeyman, from the last chapter.

 

Bogeyman: You stupid little fish...I have come to
kill
you!

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 2

 

Profile of the Dream Lord, still lying on the ground with the sword protruding from his chest.

 

Narrator: Death comes slowly in a dream. Time bends, distends, curls in upon itself like an armadillo. Facing a final precipice, minds retreat to safer ground.

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 3

 

Another flashback of the threatening Bogeyman

 

Bogeyman: I am your nastiest dream, Adams, your most awful nightmare! I have come to life to devour you!

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 4

 

Narrator: The borders of delusion and reality, already smoky from sleep, disappear. Logic and sensation spiral into the sky like kites.

 

The Dream Lord tilts his head back and looks up at the gray sky of the massacre plain.

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 5

 

Another flashback: the Dream Lord's memory is beginning to drift aimlessly back and forth.

 

Bogeyman: Say "pretty please."

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 6

 

Wide shot of vultures circling over the Dream Lord, winged silhouettes in the blazing orange sun.

 

Dream Lord (in a whisper): Pretty please.

 

Narrator: The sharp edge of extinction is muffled. Explosions become kisses. The frigid, sudden dives flow into sensuous ballet.

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 7

 

Bogeyman (in flashback): Go to hell.

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 8

 

Narrator: Death in a dream is kind.

 

Dream Lord (his face contorted and crying, tears running down into his ears): Leave me...alone... (His voice is broken, failing) ...please..

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 9

 

Narrator: There are, of course...

 

Bogeyman (louder, more of a closeup): Go to
hell
!

 

 

 

Page 2 panel 10

 

Narrator: ...certain exceptions.

 

Dream Lord (writhing and whimpering): No no no no no...

 

 

 

 

Page 3 (8
panels)

 

Page 3 panel 1

 

Closeup of the Bogeyman's screaming mouth.

 

Bogeyman:
Go to Hell!

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 2

 

There is a memory image of a short, fat girl in her early 20's, yelling at the Dream Lord.

 

Girl: Go to hell, Emmett! You
bastard
!

 

Dream Lord (his monologue in a narrative box): Who is she?

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 3

 

Wider shot of the heavy girl, her face now turned away and hidden in her hand. She is sitting at a kitchen table, dressed in a bathrobe, holding a cup of hot coffee which spills onto the floor as it tilts in her shaky hand.

 

Girl (very upset, almost crying): You didn't have to do it this way.

 

Dream Lord (in narrative): I don't think I want to know.

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 4

 

Another disjointed memory, of somebody scaling and gutting fish on newspapers on a kitchen table. It is a flashback from his childhood.

 

Voice of adult (face is not shown; only hands, arms, fish are in panel): Come on, Gary. Use the knife to slit 'er open, right on back to the tail. Then we scoop out the guts.

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 5

 

Dream Lord (in narrative): When was that? I...look at all the rats! They're working their way to me. I hope I die soon.

 

Medium shot of 3 or 4 rats hopping around a nearby corpse, nibbling on the abdomen.

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 6

 

Dream Lord (whimpering, crying): Oh, God...please let me die...

 

He gazes over his chest at a rat which is watching him, sitting on its haunches in the foreground.

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 7

 

Dream Lord hears somebody shout, and he whirls his head around to see who it is. He is shocked by the familiar voice.

 

Voice (off-panel): Emmett! Emmett Adams!

 

Dream Lord: Huh? I thought I was..

 

 

 

Page 3 panel 8

 

Dream Lord (off-panel): ...alone.

 

A woman stands nearby. She is in her early 40's, tall and bony, with black hair pulled back in a bun. She wears a house dress and apron, and though she is not monstrous-looking or ugly, she has a stern, commanding expression. She stands over the heaps of corpses, her hands on her knobby hips, glaring at the Dream Lord.

 

Mother: Emmett! This is absolutely
shameful
!

 

 

 

 

Page 4 (8
panels)

 

Page 4 panel 1

 

Mother (off-panel): How many
times
do I have to
tell
you...

 

Dream Lord (whispering): Mother.

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 2

 

Mother: ...you have to start
picking up
after yourself!

 

She lifts an arm and a leg from the corpses, tidying up as if she were at home. She walks right on top of the bodies, seemingly oblivious to them. Mother: What a
mess
!

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 3

 

The Dream Lord weakly lifts a hand toward his mother, shocked and trying to understand what's happening.

 

Dream Lord: Mother...what are you doing here?

 

Mother (still picking up body parts): That's a silly question, isn't it? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm certainly not sunbathing at the lake! Why haven't you cleaned this room like I told you?

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 4

 

Dream Lord: Mom...I'm dying.

 

Mother: What a lame excuse! I told you
four times
to clean this place, and you still haven't done it! All you ever do is lie around on your back like a lazy
bum
!

(She points at him while she yells, her other arm full of severed limbs.)

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 5

 

Dream Lord (desperately): Please...help me.

 

Mother (tossing aside a load of bloody limbs and marching toward the Dream Lord): Oh, I'll help you all right, young man.

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 6

 

Mother (grabbing the Dream Lord's arm and pulling him up): I will help you get out of that bed...

 

Dream Lord (as he is lifted from the pile of bodies): Aaaaargh!

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 7

 

Mother (effortlessly yanking the Dream Lord to his feet): ...And start cleaning your room! Now get going!

 

Dream Lord (clutching painfully at the spot where the sword is stuck in his chest): Oh,
G
od
, it
hurts
!! Mom,
no
! Help me, please!

 

 

 

Page 4 panel 8

 

Mother: Don't be such a baby, Emmett! You put on such a routine, every time you get a scratch! I won't play along, you hear me? I won't give you the attention!

 

Forcefully dragging the Dream Lord along behind her, she walks toward a scraggly, dead tree, against which a broom leans. Rats scurry away before them.

 

 

 

 

Page 5 (8
panels)

 

Page 5 panel 1

 

Mother thrusts the broom into the agonized Dream Lord's quivering hand.

 

Mother: You've got to grow up, Emmett. You have to learn responsibility. Your father won't reprimand you, but I will! Your father doesn't care!

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 2

 

Closeup of the Mother's face as she suddenly and briefly becomes quiet. She gazes away from the Dream Lord, off into the distance, thinking about her husband. She looks sad and thoughtful.

 

Mother (quietly): He just doesn't care about anyone.

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 3

 

The Dream Lord can't stand the pain anymore, and stumbles away from his mother. He is screaming and clutching his chest, about to collapse to the ground.

 

Dream Lord:
Aaaaggghh!
Help!

 

Mother: Emmett? You get back here, you little ham! That won't get you out of your chores!