INT. DURANT'S CAR - MOVING - LATER
The reunited family is on their way home. James and Nina discuss all that has happened.
JAMES: So how long was I actually out for?
NINA: Too long.
JAMES: I'm serious. How long?
NINA: 1 year, 11 months, 21 days, 14 hours, and 37 minutes.
James chuckles.
JAMES: Wow. So you kept track then?
NINA: Shut up. I missed you.
JAMES: I know.
Shared moment of reverence.
NINA: After the accident, you went into a coma, and I went into labor. Luckily, someone saw the whole thing and called an ambulance. I was in labor for nine hours.
JAMES: Holy hell.
NINA: I know. Little stinker.
They look back at Gwendalynn in the back seat. She smiles and shrugs.
NINA: I didn't see you until the next day. The doctors told me you may not wake up, or that you could wake up in a couple of weeks. There's just no way to tell, they said.
Nina fights back some tears. James brushes her cheek with his hand.
JAMES: You don't have to.
NINA: No. I want to.
Nina composes herself.
NINA (CONT'D): Okay. (beat) After about a year of waiting, they were telling me that I might have to make the decision to pull the plug, and let you go. I couldn't accept that. I wouldn't. (beat) Then, there was this doctor, and he approached me with an idea. He said that there was an experimental new drug that may help you wake up from your coma. I was reluctant and scared at first... But the alternative was something that I just couldn't bare to do.
JAMES: What does this drug do?
NINA: He said that it would help you to wake up from your own mind. Said that when you're in a coma your mind cannot realize it, and the drug will help you to see it. He told me it would make your mind confront itself and that you would eventually come back on your own.
James looks amazed by the similarities to his nightmares in the coma. He involuntarily scratches at his right wrist.
JAMES: Huh.
NINA: What?
JAMES: Nothing. Please, continue.
NINA: Well after about nine months of giving you the drug and taking you to weekly hypnotherapy sessions.
JAMES: Hypnotherapy?
NINA: Yeah. He said that the sessions would work with the drug to help you realize where you were. Hypnotic suggestions he called it. (beat) But despite all this, nothing was happening. I was ready to give up. But the doctor told me that the drug needed time to work. He said it had an accumulative effect. (beat) So I waited some more... and hoped... and now here your are. You've come back to us.
They smile at each other. James looks back at Gwendalynn.
JAMES: (suspiciously) How did you come up with our daughter's name?
NINA: Gwendalynn? I don't know. She just looked like a Gwen.
Gwendalynn smiles at her daddy and waves.
YOU ARE READING
Mountain Falls (Screenplay)
Korku** ~ Winner in the 2020 @EYHO_AWARDS ~ ** Two weeks after James and his pregnant wife are knocked into a coma by a freak accident, only James awakens but into a personal hell: a decaying world plagued by a faceless wraith, where time doesn't seem to...
