Time Castle Books
PUBLISHING QUALITY GRAPHIC NOVELS
Musings...
Musings is an anthology of graphic musings, written by William DuBay and visually realized by some of the most talented young artists and animators in the world. The annual edition, released in the Spring, is a graphic treat for every comics fan.
The following script(s) are for graphic stories that will be included in the 2009 edition of Musings. Contact william@timecastlebooks.com if you're an artist interested in illustrating this story.
Additional scripts will be posted as they're readied for publication.
“Ghost Train”
PAGE ONE
Panel one/splash/establishing: On a beautiful spring day in 1888, a steam powered locomotive chugs through the Colorado Rockies. From a nearby overlook, three armed riders on horseback silently watch the train near a rickety-looking timber bridge.
MRS. EDWARDS
First trip west, parson?
PARSON WEBSTER
Yes, ma’am. My wife and I are starting a new life in Denver.
Panel two: Inside the train, matronly MRS. EDWARDS sits across from the kindly-looking REVEREND WEBSTER and his young WIFE, cradling their sleeping baby.
MRS. WEBSTER
Now that little Louis is almost three months old, we didn’t think there’d be a better time.
Panel three: The train starts over the elevated bridge. No one on board sees the grizzled man beneath the timbers, grinning as he prepares to push the fire box plunger.
PARSON WEBSTER
We’ve got a brand new church and a waiting congregation.
PAGE TWO
Panel one: The train is halfway across the bridge when the explosives detonate. The three riders on the overlook, horses rearing nervously, watch with sadistic glee.
SFX: BLAWOOM!
MORGAN
There she blows!
Panel two: The horses are reigned in as the riders watch the train plunge and crash into the gorge below. The grizzled outlaw with the plunger watches, as well.
JAKE
Gone’ be a real mess down there.
MORGAN
Yeah, but we’ll pluck that gold out without much trouble.
Panel three: The three riders spur their horses and start down the overlook toward the flaming, smoking wreck. The dynamiter is already scrambling down the hill below them.
MORGAN
Come on!
Panel four: The locomotive lies on its side in flames. Broken bodies are strewn about the wreckage of the passenger and box cars. CAPPY, the dynamiter picks his way through the wreckage toward the mail car and its damaged safe, its door ajar and gold bars spread amidst the debris. He calls up to the three riders making their way down the ravine.
CAPPY
Look’a this, Morg! They’s bullion everywhere!
Panel five: Cappy’s already by the opened safe, stuffing gold bars into canvas bags as the riders head through the wreckage toward him. Suddenly, they hear a baby crying.
SFX: WAAAA!
JAKE: What th’hell--!? A infant!?
Panel six: The three riders halt and look down at the broken, bloodied and terrified Reverend Webster, cradling his screaming son amidst the wreckage. The child’s mother is gone, half buried in the debris. As is Mrs. Edwards.
MORGAN
One of two survivors is seems.
PAGE THREE
Panel one: The vicious Morgan smirks as he aims his Navy Colt down at the os reverend.
MORGAN
Can’t have that.
Panel two: Morgan fires once, the two riders behind him wincing at the carnage.
SFX: BLAM!
Panel three: LOUIS bolts upright in his bed, suddenly awake and screaming.
LOUIS
Noooooo!
Panel four: Louis’ wife, SARAH, suddenly awake, beside him, consoles her husband.
SARAH
Oh, Louis…the dream again?
Panel five: He buries his head in his hands as she wraps her arms around him.
LOUIS
Every night now!
LOUIS
I…I don’t know what to do anymore!
Panel six: Louis slips from the bed, Sarah still clinging to him, concerned.
SARAH
It was thirty years ago, sweetheart.
SARAH
You were an infant. Too young to remember.
Panel seven: Louis slips on his robe and heads for the wash basin and pitcher on their mirrored dresser. She dons her robe, behind him.
LOUIS
No. This isn’t a memory.
LOUIS
It’s something…different.
PAGE FOUR
Panel one: Reverend Louis stares at himself in the mirror, thoroughly incredulous.
LOUIS
I’m seeing everything…feeling everything…from a wholly omnipresent…
LOUIS
…wholly omnipotent point of view.
Panel two: She grasps immediately and registers equal incredulity.
SARAH
God’s view?
Panel three: Louis turns to her, glaring desperation.
LOUIS
Is that blasphemous?
Panel four: She’s instantly in his arms, supportive and loving.
SARAH
It’s your job, Louis. Like your father, you’re a man of the cloth.
SARAH
You’re supposed to see with God’s eyes, hear with his ears.
LOUIS
Not like this.
Panel five: Louis glares into the distance, lost.
LOUIS
I watched…
LOUIS
…and did nothing!
Panel six: Sarah hugs him to her bosom, continuing to console.
SARAH
It was a dream, sweetheart.
SARAH
There’s nothing you could do.
Panel seven: Close on Louis, head on her breasts, lost in his feelings.
LOUIS
No. There is.
LOUIS
I know it.
PAGE FIVE
Panel one: Louis is asleep at his desk, face down in an opened book.
MRS. WEBSTER/os
Louis. Son.
Panel two: Louis looks up groggily at the GHOSTS of his mother and father.
LOUIS
Mother? Father?
Panel three: The spectral Mrs. Webster explains to the groggy Louis.
MRS. WEBSTER
There’s a reason for your recurring dream.
REVEREND WEBSTER
Your evangelical studies are bringing you nearer to understanding the true nature of reality.
Panel four: She stands beside him, spectral hand resting on his shoulder. His father remains on the opposite side of his desk.
MRS. WEBSTER
That which every guru, master, savior and messiah has sought to teach us.
REVEREND WEBSTER
A century from now, science will finally understand that devout desire and sincere belief create the quantum energy that fuels creation.
Panel five: The old reverend leans across the desk, beseeching his son.
MRS. WEBSTER
Something you understand innately.
REVEREND WEBSTER
And you can use that understanding to save us, son.
Panel six: Close on his mother, pleading as she begins to fade away.
MRS. WEBSTER
To bring us all together again.
Panel seven: Close on Louis, head on his desk in his book, as in panel one. He’s sleepily waking from the dream of his mother and father’s appearance.
LOUIS
M-mother…
LOUIS
Father…
Panel eight: He looks up from his desk, teary eyed and groggy.
LOUIS
I can do it.
LOUIS
I can save you.
Panel nine: As he excitedly leaves the room, we see the opened page in the theological studies book upon which he’s been dozing. It reads: “What is believed with the soul can not help but realize fruition.”
PAGE SIX
Panel one: Cappy watches with melodramatically villainous glee as the steam train rumbles onto the old timber bridge overhead.
Panel two: He leans hard on the detonator. It plunges lifelessly.
Panel three: Cappy’s surprised to see nothing happen.
Panel four: Louis stands over Cappy, sawed shotgun in one hand, disconnected detonator wire in the other.
LOUIS
Let me ask you something, cowboy.
Panel five: Cappy turns, wide-eyed in horrified surprise.
LOUIS
You believe in Hell?
Panel six: Cappy goes for his gun.
Panel seven: Louis’ shotgun roars. It near cuts Cappy in two.
SFX: BLOOM!
Panel eight: Louis stands over the dead man, shotgun wafting gunsmoke.
LOUIS
You’re going to be spending some time there.
PAGE SEVEN
Panel one: On the hill overlooking the bridge, Morg and the boys see it all.
MORGAN
Who the hell is that?
JAKE
Where’d he come from?
Panel two: Morg snarls viciously.
MORGAN
I don’t know. But he ain’t getting’ back there alive.
Panel three: Louis nonchalantly looks up at the would-be train-wreckers as they fire. Bullets ricochet off rocks near his feet.
SFX: Blam! Wham! Skree!
Panel four: Louis is unfazed as he calmly reaches down and reconnects the wire to the detonator, bullets continuing to ricochet.
SFX: Boom! K-Damm! Boww!
Panel five: The boys try to make out what Louis is doing.
JAKE
What’s he doing?
Panel six: That’s when Morg sees that the detonation wire leads away from the bridge and up to the overlook where he and the boys are perched. He shits realization.
Panel seven: Louis says a short prayer as he leans on the plunger.
LOUIS
Rest in peace.
Panel eight: The overlook explodes, evaporating the would-be train robbers.
Panel nine: Louis stands by the bridge, watching the train, with his mother, father and younger self, continue safely across the ravine...and into a brand new future.
Panel ten: He smiles as tears roll down his cheeks. Then there’s a soft voice from os.
SARAH/wavy carrot os
Louis.
PAGE EIGHT
Panel one: Louis stirs awake.
SARAH/os
Wake up, sweetheart.
Panel two: Louis is groggy but happy as he rolls over in his own plush featherbed. He looks up into his wife’s loving eyes.
SARAH
Come down to breakfast, sleepyhead.
Panel three: Then he sees his young son JACOB.
JACOB
Grandma’s made your favorite buttercakes.
JACOB
And they smell delicious.
Panel four: Suddenly wide awake, Louis bolts down the stairs in his pjs. His mother and father, now middle-aged, putter in the kitchen.
LOUIS
Mom!
LOUIS
Dad!
Panel five: He rushes into the kitchen ecstatically, never even seeing the buttercakes piled high on the table.
LOUIS
It worked!
LOUIS
You’re here!
LOUIS
You’re alive!
Panel six: Louis squeezes his mother in a joyous bear hug as his father watches.
MRS. WEBSTER
Happiest I’ve seen you in a long time, son.
REVEREND WEBSTER
Ah…he just knows what today is, ma.
Panel seven: Reverend Webster smiles as he sets down his newspaper and raises his cup to sip his tea.
REVEREND WEBSTER
Thirtieth anniversary of our train ride west…
Panel eight: Tears stream down Louis’ face as he hugs his baffled mother and father, Sarah and Jacob looking on, everyone simply ecstatic.
REVEREND WEBSTER
…and the start of our brand new lives.
Copyright © 2008 W.B.DuBay
