An Episode of Not Quite Dead.

Content Warnings

• Mentions of blood
• Mentions of corpses
• Implications of unethical medical experimentation
• Implications of gaslighting
• Depiction of distress (mild)
• Depiction of extreme fear response

Transcript

[WHIPPING WIND]

NEIGE
Alfie? Are you coming? 

ALFIE
Yeah. Just turning on the dictaphone. 

NEIGE
I see. Come on, hurry. We’ve been out in the cold for hours and we are a long way from being able to hunt anything. 

ALFIE
Yeah. 

[ALFIE TAKES A BREATH. HE WALKS THROUGH THE SNOW, INTO A CABIN. THE DOOR CLATTERS SHUT. THE SOUND OF THE WIND SHRINKS.] 

ALFIE
This is it?

NEIGE
Non. There is more, in the earth. 

ALFIE
Oh. 

NEIGE
The door is here, at the back. 

ALFIE
Oh yeah. Lots of steps. Pretty dark down there. 

NEIGE
Oui. Though, after a few feet, it gets warmer, I think. 

ALFIE
Yeah? 

NEIGE
Because of the earth. 

ALFIE
That makes sense. 

NEIGE
Come on. 

ALFIE
Right away? 

NEIGE
There’s nothing up here. 

ALFIE
I know but. 

NEIGE

You don’t want to go into the hole in the ground. 

ALFIE
No. I don’t. 

[NEIGE SIGHS. WOOD TEARS AND CLATTERS.]

NEIGE
There. Now you know we cannot be trapped in there. 

ALFIE
What if the stairs collapse or something. I can’t even see the bottom. 

NEIGE
Non. But. This is the place. 

ALFIE
You’re so sure? 

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
How? From what you said, those people we spoke to, they just said this bit of the reserve was haunted. 

NEIGE
Oui. But that makes sense, doesn’t it? 

ALFIE
I don’t know. 

NEIGE
If this is not the place, I don’t know where else it would be. When I stopped following Casper, I knew he was headed further North. We’re only a few miles from the coast of the Kara sea; there isn’t much further north that we can go. There is nobody out here, not for miles and miles, and where there are people, they don’t build structures like this one. This is a kind of cabin I know. Look at the struts; this wood has been brought here a long way. It’s not native. 

ALFIE
So what? 

NEIGE
So, whoever build this hut. They aren’t from here. And we can be fairly sure that Bonham wasn’t. And we know for certain that Casper wasn’t either. So it’s the place. 

ALFIE
I can’t smell him. I can’t smell anything. It’s freaking me out. 

NEIGE
It is the cold. 

ALFIE
I know. 

NEIGE
Come on. Even if we’re wrong, we need to be certain, don’t we? 

ALFIE
Yeah. Yeah we do. 

NEIGE
Come on then. 

[THEY START DOWN THE CREAKY STAIRS. THE SOUND OF THE WIND GETS FAINTER AND FAINTER, THEN IS GONE. ]

ALFIE
Neige? 

NEIGE
I’m right ahead of you.

ALFIE
Okay. 

NEIGE
It is alright. See how the temperature is rising a little? 

ALFIE
Marginally. 

NEIGE
Come on. Just a little further. 

[THEY MAKE IT OFF THE STAIRS.]

ALFIE
Christ it’s still fucking freezing. 

NEIGE
Oui. Minus eighteen or so, in Celsius, I think. 

ALFIE
Cool, cool. 

NEIGE
Very. 

ALFIE
Ha. 

NEIGE
Come on. 

ALFIE
This is so fucking creepy. It’s like a bunker. 

NEIGE
There’s a door, here. Frozen shut. 

[NEIGE SHOVES THE DOOR, HARD. THERE’S A CRUNCH, THEN IT OPEN]

NEIGE
Stay back!

[ALFIE GASPS. NOTHING HAPPENS. FOOTSTEPS. A CRUNCH.]

NEIGE
Frozen solid. 

ALFIE
What— what are they? 

NEIGE
People, I think. 

ALFIE
Fuck. 

[FOOTSTEPS]

ALFIE
They’re… shit. They’re labelled. Type two. Half-mades? 

NEIGE
There are twenty or so of them here. 

ALFIE
Holy fuck. 

NEIGE
Indeed. 

ALFIE
There’s more here, let me just— 

[A CRUNCH]

ALFIE
Oh— god — his arm— fuck. 

NEIGE
It’s okie, it’s okie, he is long gone, mon râleur. Don’t worry. 

ALFIE
Yeah— yeah. 

NEIGE
What do you have in your hand? 

ALFIE
Um. I think it’s information about— god I don’t know, I can’t read this. 

NEIGE
Czech. 

ALFIE
Casper? 

NEIGE
C’est possible. 

ALFIE
Jesus. 

NEIGE
It is interesting that so many of the notes you have found so far are in English. 

ALFIE
Not really. They were all clearly meant to be read by more than a couple of people. The scale of what Bonham was doing, it was different. English is a common first language, even more common as a second language. 

NEIGE
Oui, this is so. Fucking colonialism. 

ALFIE
Hmm, bit rich from the guy who is French by choice. 

NEIGE
I like the language. I like the place.  I don’t align with the principles of the state the land now supposedly belongs to. Or states more generally. Horribly confusing. Especially with how often the borders seem to move. 

ALFIE
Sometimes you just say these things and it’s completely wild. Are you aware of that? 

NEIGE
Non. Because it is my life, isn’t it? 

ALFIE
I guess. 

NEIGE
No need for guessing, it is fact. 

ALFIE
Stop it. What does the paper say? 

NEIGE
It’s notes about— huh. 

ALFIE
What?!

NEIGE
How it was created, I think. You see these numbers? They seem to be talking about quantities of something. 

ALFIE
They’re trying to make the melange, do you think? ‘Factor V’? 

NEIGE
Perhaps. It would help to be sure. But there are notes about this person; sick with pneumonia. 

ALFIE
They must have turned them here. God. They wouldn’t have even— Neige. We’re so far from everywhere, they were bringing humans out here, how the fuck…?

NEIGE
Humans can exist in all sorts of places you might assume are hostile to them if you have not witnessed it. Besides, as I told you, we are not far from the sea. In the summer, this would be both remote and convenient. 

ALFIE
Does it say where they came from? 

NEIGE
Oui. Tromsø. 

ALFIE
Where? 

NEIGE
It is in Norway. 

ALFIE
Oh. Can you get here from there by sea? 

NEIGE
C’est possible. 

ALFIE
Oh my god. 

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
Were they— do you think they… 

NEIGE
Kidnapped them? It is unlikely. Those Casper brought to the house in England, they were volunteers. 

ALFIE
Do you think they promised to save them? 

NEIGE
I don’t know, Alfie. Come on. There is nothing else here. Only the dead. 

ALFIE
Yeah. Yeah. 

[THEY LEAVE THE ROOM, WALK FURTHER DOWN THE CORRIDOR]

NEIGE
Another door. 

ALFIE
I’ll do this one. 

NEIGE
Oui? 

ALFIE
Oui. 

[DOOR CRUNCHES OPEN.]

NEIGE
Merci. Si fort. Étonnant. 

[ALFIE SCOFFS]

ALFIE
Shush, you. 

FOOTSTEPS. 

ALFIE
Mmm, don’t like that. Don’t like that at all. 

NEIGE
La table? 

ALFIE
It’s— I think— look at the ice, on the floor. I think that’s blood. 

NEIGE
Ah, oui. 

ALFIE
They’re all frozen down. But I think these are surgical instruments. 

NEIGE
You notice how thick the walls are? 

ALFIE
Yeah? 

NEIGE
There is a stove in here. I think this room, they warmed. The other one did not have this. 

ALFIE
So that one was specifically for keeping frozen half-mades in it. 

NEIGE
I think so. 

ALFIE
So the stove in here… For defrosting? 

NEIGE
Or preventing freezing in the first place. 

ALFIE
Yeah. This is purpose built, isn’t it. 

NEIGE
So are many of the places Bonham works. 

ALFIE
Yeah. But. I don’t know. Casper was working out of that basement. It… I know he had to add the chains and stuff but like, it was a house with a basement he used. This is. It’s something else. 

NEIGE
Oui. It is. Is there more you can learn in here? 

ALFIE
Uhh, I don’t know. 

[FOOTSTEPS]

ALFIE
So there’s stuff on these shelves. I think they might be specimens, but it’s hard to tell because everything is frozen. My hands are so fucking cold, I can’t melt the ice with my fingers so I can’t read anything. 

NEIGE
I have a lighter in my pocket. 

ALFIE
Oh, thanks. 

[LIGHTER FLICKS]

ALFIE
Um, yeah, labels. This is latin, I think? I think that means brains? 

NEIGE
Oui, it does. 

ALFIE
And there are numbers. So. These are brains at different stages of decomposition. They must be. 

[ALFIE MOVES THINGS AROUND]

ALFIE
These ones are brains too. But, different? 

NEIGE
Half mades, as you call them. 

ALFIE
You think?

NEIGE
Oui. This word, here? Duté? It is Czech. It means ‘hollow’. 

ALFIE
That’s what Casper called them? 

NEIGE
At first. But his language shifted when I knew him. He called them half-made, like you. I presume this is where you learned it. 

ALFIE
Yeah. 

NEIGE
I never liked this term. It implies to me that they are some kind of… ah. I don’t know. That they represent a space between vampire and human. According to Henri, of course, it is the vampire that represents the midpoint between the human and those you call half-made. To me this is all preposterous. 

ALFIE
What do you call them? 

NEIGE
Dead things. 

ALFIE
Oh. 

NEIGE
That was dramatic of me. When I was younger, and sometimes still, I called them hollow. They are instinct alone. They seek survival which is impossible. They are not vampires. They are dead people. They are what Casper feared we are; empty vessels piloted by the remnants of something else. A thing which is desperate to live, but never can. 

ALFIE
You… you’ve made vampires before, haven’t you?

NEIGE
Yes. 

ALFIE
How many… um. Did any of them not work?

NEIGE
Ah, oui. 

ALFIE
What was… Sorry. 

NEIGE
It is okie, ask your question. 

ALFIE
What did that feel like? For you?

NEIGE
Ah. Emotionally? Devastating. Physically? It was the same as when you mutually swap blood with a human, but it waned, and there was no feeling in it. Usually you get sense of how they feel, non? But there was nothing there. It was unsettling.

ALFIE
I mean. I don’t know. I’ve never done it. 

NEIGE
Ah, of course you haven’t. I’m sorry. 

ALFIE
That’s okay. I’ve been the human. When I was human I didn’t feel like… I don’t know. When I became a vampire, I could feel this like. Knot. Of connection? Like this sort of ache in me, and I don’t know how but I knew it was Casper. But I don’t think that’s the same as when you swap blood with a human. 

NEIGE
Non, it is different. You’re right. His blood made you. It is part of you. When you were so new, it called to the rest of him. I was lucky you struggled so much at first. There would have been no holding you back if you’d realised that if you followed that feeling, it would take you to him. 

ALFIE
Is that true? Would it really have brought me to him? 

NEIGE
In theory, it can. Unless… 

ALFIE
Unless what? 

NEIGE
This sense. It can be manipulated. 

ALFIE
How? 

NEIGE
Well. You know how when we trade blood with each other, we can sense where we are, and a little of how we feel, but it wears off fast? 

ALFIE
Yeah. Like, Casper’s blood is incorporated into me differently because he’s the one whose blood I drank when I was human, it was his blood that turned me. Human bodies process our blood differently to vampire bodies. When I drink yours, I can get this fuzzy sense of you, but it’s gone quick. Like when I was following you to Scotland, I could get this sense that you were in pain, you were in distress. But it wasn’t clear, it wasn’t precise. When Casper talked about feeling things that I had felt, it sounded different to that.

NEIGE
Yes, exactament. And you recall, when your head was off, you could feel your body somewhat, but you could not move it? 

ALFIE
Um. Yeah?

NEIGE
Well, these things, they are connected, I think. 

ALFIE
What do you mean? 

NEIGE
I mean we are a different sort of thing. We do not have to be connected to all of our parts for them to be… part. Am I making sense? 

ALFIE
We don’t need our bodies to be contiguous to be connected, is that what you’re saying?

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
So when we swap blood, we’re like. Becoming a part of each other? Temporarily? 

NEIGE
Oui. 

Alfie? 

ALFIE
I’m having a lot of feelings right now? 

NEIGE
What feelings? 

ALFIE
Uh. I— my head is. I’m thinking. Science, yeah? And sad because Casper and also you and. Then. Blood. And you and me. 

NEIGE
I see. 

ALFIE
And I’m angry. 

NEIGE
What about? 

ALFIE
Casper. Because. He knew this, you know? Obviously he must’ve— like to an extent this is all stuff he knew. And his response—

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
Like that didn’t change anything for him? How?! Like. It’s. Beautiful, isn’t it? 

NEIGE
It is?

ALFIE
Don’t you think?

NEIGE
Yes. I do. 

ALFIE
And he didn’t care. It didn’t— ugh. It doesn’t matter. 

NEIGE
It does. It matters so much. 

ALFIE
We don’t have time for this. 

NEIGE
Perhaps not. 

[ALFIE SIGHS.]

ALFIE
Uhh. These— I recognise that from his notebook. Blood organs. They took these from vampires like us. 

NEIGE
These ones are stored in blood, though. 

ALFIE
A better preservative. 

NEIGE
Oui. I wonder if he meant to come back for them. 

ALFIE

I. Do not know what to make of that idea to be honest. 

NEIGE
Nor do I. 

ALFIE
Okay, I think I’m done in here. Short of lighting the stove and defrosting everything I think it’s told us everything it can. 

NEIGE
Alright. 

[THEY MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ROOM.]

NEIGE
My turn. 

[HE SHOVES OPEN THE DOOR]

ALFIE
Um. What the fuck. 

NEIGE
Yes. What the fuck. 

ALFIE
She. She has an arm on her chest. 

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
She’s tied up. 

NEIGE
Look at how her jaw is set. 

ALFIE

They’ve knocked her teeth out.

NEIGE
I think so. 

ALFIE
What the actual fuck. 

NEIGE
She is an half-made. Look at the decay here. 

ALFIE
Yeah, I see it. But the arm.

NEIGE
It is not hers. 

ALFIE
No. 

NEIGE
It is someone else’s arm. 

ALFIE
Yeah. 

NEIGE
It is a vampire’s arm. 

ALFIE
I can see that. 

NEIGE
I recognise the hand. 

ALFIE
I know, Neige, I know! I know. The site around where it’s been.. grafted. They’ve pulled her skin up, they’ve really tried to— to. 

NEIGE
Yes. And look. 

ALFIE
There’s a hole in her neck. 

NEIGE
It is not just a hole. There is something in it. 

ALFIE
Yeah that’s a rudimentary IV port isn’t it. 

[FOOTSTEPS]

ALFIE
Around where the arm is over her stomach, the skin is in better condition. 

NEIGE
There are more of them. 

ALFIE
Uhuh. 

NEIGE
They all have bits of Casper on them. 

ALFIE
Neige. 

NEIGE
Oui? 

ALFIE
I think I might be freaking out. 

NEIGE
Quoi? 

ALFIE
I can’t feel my hands. 

NEIGE
It’s alright. 

ALFIE
We need to leave. 

NEIGE
We will. But we came all this way, Alfie. We’ve not finished. 

ALFIE
I need to get out of here. 

Why did he— I don’t

NEIGE
You’re alright. I promise you’re alright. 

ALFIE
Why did he— I don’t. Ugh. 

NEIGE
Come on. There’s nothing else in here. Let’s keep going. 

ALFIE
Yeah. I— yeah. 

NEIGE
I have you. 

ALFIE
Thanks. 

NEIGE
Come on. 

[THEY LEAVE THE ROOM. THIS TIME NEIGE STOPS TO PULL IT SHUT.]

ALFIE
Thanks. 

NEIGE
Next one?

ALFIE
Will you go in first? 

NEIGE
Of course. Break the door for me? 

ALFIE
Okay. 

[ALFIE BREAKS THE DOOR.]

NEIGE
You are so competent. 

ALFIE
Ha. 

NEIGE
You are. You’re alright. I swear it. 

ALFIE
Thanks. 

NEIGE
I love you. 

ALFIE
I love you to. Hey— what— 

NEIGE
Love. 

ALFIE
You nuzzle now. 

NEIGE
Oui. 

ALFIE
I love you. 

NEIGE
I know

[NEIGE GOES INTO THE ROOM]

NEIGE
You will like this one. 

ALFIE
Terrifying thing to say. 

NEIGE
Perhaps like is not the right word. There are books in here. 

ALFIE
No bodies with my dead boyfriend’s arm stitched onto them? 

NEIGE
No. No bodies at all. I think this is a study. 

ALFIE
Oh. 

[ALFIE WALKS IN]

ALFIE
This isn’t a study. It’s a library. 

NEIGE
French of you to dispute this. 

ALFIE
What?

NEIGE
Proper names for rooms. It isn’t important. 

ALFIE
I’m not French. 

NEIGE
Nor am I. 

ALFIE
God, nightmare to prize frozen books off shelves. 

NEIGE
There’s a stove in here, too. There’s wood. It is frozen, but it will burn. 

ALFIE
We have a lighter. 

NEIGE
We do. 

ALFIE
We’d have to thaw the whole room out. How long would that take? 

NEIGE
I don’t know why you are looking at me, how the fuck would I know that? 

ALFIE
I don’t know! You’re old. 

NEIGE
Stoves were not invented for most of my life. Not ones like these. 

ALFIE
Yeah but, you would have to know how to heat rooms up and stuff, right?

NEIGE
Not twenty feet under the snow in the arctic circle at the start of winter. 

ALFIE
Yeah. Yeah I can see how this might be quite a specific circumstance, yeah. 

NEIGE
Exactament. I’ll start a fire so that we can warm things close to it. 

ALFIE
I don’t want to be here longer than we have to be. 

NEIGE
Oui

ALFIE
Good idea. I’ll start with the stuff out on the desk. That’s got to be easier to pick up with out tearing it to bits. 

ALFIE
Sketch book. 

[SOUND OF EFFORT]

ALFIE
Hmm. No. Not any easier to pick up, actually. 

NEIGE
I should have anticipated this. 

ALFIE
What, a room full of books frozen onto shelves? Why? 

NEIGE
I feel foolish not to have thought of how difficult it would be to actually look at anything here. 

ALFIE
Even if you had anticipated it, it wouldn’t have helped. 

NEIGE
I suppose not. 

ALFIE
What’s under here? 

[FROZEN LEATHER IS MOVED ASIDE]

ALFIE
Huh. Even if you didn’t anticipate it, looks like Casper did. 

NEIGE
How so? 

ALFIE
He covered some stuff up with leather, so it wouldn’t get covered in frost. 

NEIGE
How do you know it was Casper? 

ALFIE
There’s a letter on the top. It’s addressed to you, I think. 

NEIGE
What? 

ALFIE
Zima. That’s what he called you, right? 

NEIGE
Yes. 

NEIGE COMES OVER. 

NEIGE
That is is handwriting. 

ALFIE
Yeah. 

NEIGE
Where was it? 

ALFIE
Here. 

NEIGE
What’s the book? 

ALFIE
It’s a notebook. Um. 

[PAGES FLICK]

ALFIE
I think this is a summary of. Of what. We saw. In the other room. There’s sketches. It’s in Czech, I can’t read it. 

NEIGE
Yes. And that? What is underneath it?

ALFIE
A sketch book I think. 

NEIGE
What’s in it? 

ALFIE
I don’t know. I haven’t looked. 

NEIGE
Why not? 

ALFIE
Why haven’t you opened the letter? 

[THE BOOK IS LIFTED UP.]

NEIGE
Ah. 

ALFIE
What? 

NEIGE
It. It’s the house, in Normandy. 

ALFIE
Your house? 

NEIGE
He… it was in some disrepair, when I took in there. These are his plans for how to fix it. 

ALFIE
Oh. 

NEIGE
You are right. We should go. 

ALFIE
But— 

NEIGE
I’ve had enough. 

ALFIE
But, the letter. 

NEIGE
You open it. I don’t want to speak to him. 

ALFIE
Um. Okay. 

[PAPER TEARS]

NEIGE
What does it say?

ALFIE
I thought you didn’t want to know.

NEIGE
Non. I don’t want to read it. 

ALFIE
It’s in weird French. I can’t read it. 

[NEIGE SNATCHES THE PAPER AWAY]

NEIGE
It’s not weird, it’s just old fashioned. 

ALFIE
Sorry. 

NEIGE
In English, it is ‘it’s as you say, Zima. We persist at all costs, a monster who drinks until all the veins are dry.’ 

ALFIE

What does he mean, Neige? 

NEIGE

He expected me to come. And he is being cruel. Twisting my words into something ugly. I think we’ve seen enough, haven’t you? Let’s take the notebook and go. 

ALFIE

Okay.

NEIGE
Why aren’t you coming? 

ALFIE

There’s something on the floor. 

NEIGE
What? Where? 

ALFIE
There. Just over from the stove. Where the frost is melting. 

NEIGE
Another door. 

ALFIE
Yeah. 

NEIGE
We don’t have to open it. 

ALFIE
Don’t we? 

NEIGE
Non. 

ALFIE
But you were right. We came all this way. 

NEIGE
Some things are not worth investigating. 

ALFIE

I’ll go. You can wait here. 

NEIGE
What if it’s like what we saw in the other room? 

ALFIE
Then it’ll be horrible and I’ll come back. 

NEIGE
What if it is worse? 

ALFIE
Neige. 

NEIGE
This letter he has left me. These words he quotes back changed, twisted into a violent shape. I told him we persisted, that our lives had no purpose, and if we are monsters we should at least have the grace to be happy ones. 

ALFIE
And the thing about draining all the blood? 

NEIGE
He had killed someone again. It doesn’t matter, Alfie. This is not the point. The point is that I think everything we need to understand what happened here is in the notebook. Whatever is down in that pit beneath us is not worth looking at. 

ALFIE
Neige. 

NEIGE
You won’t go without looking, will you? 

ALFIE
No. 

NEIGE
You are so strange, little love. I do not understand you. You were so paralysed with fear and disgust. 

ALFIE
Yeah. But I need to know. 

NEIGE
You always do. 

ALFIE
Wait here. 

NEIGE
I will. 

[ALFIE TAKES A BREATH. HE OPENS THE TRAP DOOR. ]

ALFIE
It doesn’t go down far. 

NEIGE
Okie. 

[ALFIE GOES DOWN THE STEPS]

ALFIE
It’s. Coffins. 

NEIGE
Of course it is. 

ALFIE
I— wait. There’s something on top of this one. Åke Löfgren. I think that’s a name, isn’t it? 

NEIGE
It is. 

ALFIE
Uh. I think— this is a letter. It’s not Cas’s handwriting. I don’t recognise it at all. 

[FOOTSTEPS]

ALFIE
This coffin has one too. I think it’s in… Sanskrit? And this one is another kind of script, maybe Cyrillic, I don’t know, languages are your thing, not mine. 

NEIGE
I am not coming. 

ALFIE
Okay, whatever. The room’s not very big and it’s more of a… tunnel. Really. But there’s at least thirty of these down here. And shelves. With jars. 

NEIGE
Jars of what? 

ALFIE
Blood. 

I’m going to open one of the coffins. 

NEIGE
Of course you are. 

[ALFIE MAKES A SOUND OF EFFORT, THE WOOD CRACKS AND SPLINTERS OPEN]

ALFIE
Oh. Holy shit. 

NEIGE
Quoi? 

ALFIE
She’s— she’s a vampire. Let me just… Anja Baglien.

[FOOTSTEPS]

ALFIE
And on the shelf. Anja Baglien. They drained their blood and— 

[WOOD MOVES ON SNOWY/FROSTY GROUND]

ALFIE
There’s scratch marks on the lid. Her fingers are broken. She was trying to get out. She— fuck. 

NEIGE
What? What now? 

ALFIE
There’s a locked cabinet at the back of the room. It has a glass front, but it’s shattered. I think I can get— ach!

NEIGE
Be careful! We are days away from hunting. 

ALFIE
I just nicked my arm, I’m okay. 

NEIGE
You’re bleeding. 

ALFIE
Only a little bit. Yeah. More jars of blood. Why are these ones locked up? 

NEIGE
The melange? 

ALFIE
Maybe. Let me bring it up and we’ll see. Ah! There we go 

[ALFIE GOES BACK UP STAIRS.]

ALFIE
What do these letters say? 

NEIGE
Uh, une moment. 

ALFIE
They all had them. And their blood was on the shelf above their coffin’s heads. 

NEIGE
These are testimonies. They volunteered for this. To wait until the— to wait in the ice until there was a cure. 

ALFIE
They’re—  they’re alive?

NEIGE
C’est possible. 

ALFIE
Fuck. 

NEIGE
Fuck indeed. 

ALFIE
What do we do? We— we can’t just leave them down there, this is insane!

NEIGE
Yes. But they did ask for this to be done. Some of them long ago. Before Casper. 

ALFIE
Hang on, Casper told me, once. He said he was north and— 

NEIGE
He found a vampire he believed shared Antoinette’s predilections. And killed her. 

ALFIE
Neige. Do you. Do you think that was here? 

NEIGE
It is possible. This structure is old. There are many more rooms here. Maybe we should open every door before we leave. But I don’t want to. 

ALFIE
I mean. I think we know what this place was. And you’re probably right about the notebook. It’s just. I don’t know. 

NEIGE
Let’s just leave. 

ALFIE
Yeah. Okay. Aha! 

THE JAR OPENS

NEIGE MAKES A STRANGE, INHUMAN SOUND AND THUDS TO THE GROUND

ALFIE
Neige— Neige, what?!

NEIGE
Claudio. 

ALFIE
What?!

NEIGE
The jar! Claudio. It’s Claudio. 

ALFIE
This is Claudio’s blood— ?!

NEIGE
I killed him, I KILLED HIM. 

ALFIE
Yeah! Yeah, he’s dead! This blood is— it’s so old, can’t you smell that?!

NEIGE
I killed him, I killed him. I took him to pieces. I burned what was left. HE IS DEAD. 

ALFIE
He’s not here!

NEIGE
But— but what if—

ALFIE
Okay, it’s okay! We’ll check!

NEIGE
Every room, Alfie. EVERY ROOM. I crushed his skull in my hands. I pulled out that vital, part of him from his throat, the part which kills a vampire when you destroy it, and I— SHREDDED IT. I crushed it. I burned what was left. There was only charcoal when I was done. 

ALFIE
I know! I know! It’s okay! It’s all okay! 

NEIGE
HE SCREAMED WHEN I TORE OFF HIS HEAD AND REACHED INSIDE OF HIM. I FELT HIM DIE. I BURNED HIM. HE WAS GONE. 

ALFIE
I understand!

NEIGE
Non, Alfie. ALFIE. He was waiting for me to come, in that place he’d built for himself in the Alps, he— he was waiting. There was nobody else there. He’d commanded them away. And he did not fight me. He sat there and told me that he could not be killed. Fool. Foolish boy. But— but as I was taking him apart. Alfie. He was missing his— he was missing his hand. 

ALFIE
I— but. My toes, they didn’t grow back or anything, they— they just went off in the human blood and in the vampire blood they just stayed the same, y— you can’t grow a vampire from a cutting like a. Plant. Fuck. Oh fucking FUCK the books about horticulture. FUCK. 

NEIGE
We check every room, Alfie. EVERY ROOM. 

ALFIE
Okay. Okay. We will. We will check every room. But listen to me, Neige! Listen! Everything we’re seeing here, it suggests you can’t do it! You can’t do it. My experiments, Cas’s experiments, that room of fucked up half-mades with bits of Casper stitched into them, ALL OF THAT suggests you— you can’t do it. 

NEIGE
But Bonham stopped. 

ALFIE
What do you mean? 

NEIGE
He stopped. He stopped working on everything. He stopped. You have said it so many times that this is strange, that he would pursue these things and then simply stop. 

ALFIE
We’re going to check, okay? We’re going to check every room. 

NEIGE
Now. Now!

ALFIE
Yeah. Now. We’ll do it now. 

[END]