Sc. 17 INT - BRIGID & LACHLAN'S BEDROOM - FARMHOUSE - DAY
SFX: ROOSTER CROWING
Brigid wakes, and glances across at Lachie, motionless in his bed.
BRIGID: Lachie?
No response. She throws back her covers and scrambles down her ladder and jumps on the desk chair under Lachlan's bed, reaching up to shake him.
BRIGID: Lachie! Lachie!
Brigid jumps to the floor, runs to the door and calls down the hallway.
BRIGID: Mom! Mom!
Julia comes running.
JULIA: Brigid, what are you shouting about?
BRIGID: Lachie won't wake up!
Julia reaches over Brigid and shakes her son.
JULIA: Lachie? Lachie!
He can't be woken. Julia puts a hand to his mouth then his forehead. Brigid steps back as her mother takes charge. Deirdre enters and bustles to Julia's side.
DEIRDRE: What's wrong?
JULIA: He's breathing but he's cold... His pulse is slow. Bridge, get me his sugar meter.
Brigid is backing away, terrified.
JULIA: Brigid! Help me!
DEIRDRE: Where is it, Jules?
JULIA: His backpack, front pocket.
Deirdre finds the backpack and withdraws the small, black leather case and hands it to Julia. Deirdre watches as Julia sets about pricking Lachlan's finger and taking his blood sugar.
Brigid reaches for the comfort of her pendant. She watches her mother waiting for results to come up on the display.
JULIA (confused): His blood sugar's fine.
Brigid sprints from the room.
DEIRDRE: Then what?
The back door SLAMS.
Sc. 18 EXT - FARMYARD - DAY
Her feet bare, her pajamas soaked by the driving rain not three steps from the slamming back door, Brigid runs across the farmyard and into the forest.
Sc. 19 EXT - FORESTED HILLSIDE - DAY
Slipping in the mud, using tree trunks, branches and roots as handholds, Brigid runs desperately up the hill.
Sc. 20 EXT - THE GREEN CHAPEL - FORESTED HILLSIDE - DAY
Reaching the spring, Brigid struggles with the necklace and, with strength born of fear, yanks the chain from round her neck and throws it at the pool.
BRIGID: There, give him back! Give him back!
The necklace ricochets out of the pool, hitting Brigid painfully on the chin. She shouts into the sky.
BRIGID: You said it was a fair trade!
The wind increases and the rain begins to whip around her like a personal tornado. A voice like a howling wind shrieks from the storm,
SHADOWKEEPER: A fair trade for your insolence, child! It's been a long time since someone has dared steal from me!
BRIGID: I'm sorry! I didn't... I just... Please, give me my brother back!
SHADOWKEEPER: But it was what you wanted.
An image of Brigid's face leans out of the swirling water before her and, in her own voice, repeats her curse of the day before:
SHADOWKEEPER/WATERY BRIGID: They can both SUFFER!
BRIGID: But - but I didn't mean it! I was angry!
Brigid's watery face becomes the face of the hag from the night before and begins circling her again, whipping up the storm.
SHADOWKEEPER: 'Didn't mean it'?! My stronghold shook with your fury! Your rage wrested from the pool enough life-force to heal a hundred souls! Only your tears and the tears of your family will replenish it.
BRIGID: But I didn't know! I didn't believe in you when I took it back! PLEASE!
The Hag's face grows more ferocious as she rises into the storm and looms over the little girl.
SHADOWKEEPER: You believed enough to give me your trinket. You shall not have him back!
The Shadowkeeper SHRIEKS again and makes a graceful, dramatic dive for the pool.
BRIGID: NO!! GIVE HIM BACK!!
The haggard face plunges into the water and Brigid makes a desperate grab at the Shadowkeeper's watery locks. Brigid gasps as she is lifted from her feet and sucked into the rushing water of the Shadowkeeper's body as it floods the pool.
Sc. 21 EXT - WATERS OF THE GATEWAY - UNKNOWN
Brigid is tumbling in a watery aurora of color and light.
Holding her breath, she struggles to find which way is up.