the kitchen where the fat girl sat and cried. Now, the physical punishment has ended, and mental torment begins.
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Dream Lord: No more...no more...no more...
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Page 15 panel 3
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Dream Lord (quietly, as he looks around him, realizes he is safe from the torture chamber and in familiar surroundings): Unnh...no...where am...I? It...oh, God. I...know this place.
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Voice (off-panel): Emmett, I was willing to try.
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Page 15 panel 4
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Medium shot of the heavy girl, sitting at the kitchen table, her hands folded in her lap, over her bathrobe.
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Girl: I mean, I've done everything I could to make you happy, and you're still off in your own little world. It's like...you're here, your body's here, but the real you, the biggest part, is gone somewhere.
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Page 15 panel 5
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Dream Lord (still shocked): Tally! Oh God, it's you!
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Tally (about to break into tears): All I wanted...was a good life, y'know? With you. I wanted us...to be happy. That's all.
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Page 15 panel 6
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Dream Lord (dragging his bloody, twisted body across the floor, reaching for the girl): Oh, Tally, I'm sorry. I never...realized...what...
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Tally (thrusting her face into her cupped hands and crying): You just...didn't care. You didn't want to marry me. I talked you into it, and then you hated me and wanted out.
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Page 15 panel 7
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Tally (crying): You think I'm ugly , don't you? You can't stand...stand to touch me anymore...
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Dream Lord: No...Tally, you're wrong! I did need you...I just got sick. Everything...went crazy...like me...
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Page 16 (7 panels)
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Page 16 panel 1
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Tally (half-laughing, half-crying--delirious): You were so handsome, so smart, and I thought I was so lucky that you liked me...but you were a liar.
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Page 16 panel 2
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Tally (looking at the Dream Lord, tears running down her face): You don't care about anything...you bastard...
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Page 16 panel 3
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Dream Lord (desperately, crying himself): No, no, I'm sorry! Please, I did care...help me...
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Page 16 panel 4
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Tally (viciously): Go to hell, Emmett! You bastard !
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Page 16 panel 5
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Suddenly, the Dream Lord slides through a portal which has opened in the floor beneath him.
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Dream Lord (as he is sucked away into the portal): Noooo!! Help me, Tally! I'm sorry!
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Girl: You didn't have to do it this way.
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Page 16 panel 6
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Tally (sitting at the table, crying): But don't worry, Emmett. I don't need anybody.
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Wide shot of the kitchen scene, emphasizing the girl's loneliness, the seeming hugeness of the empty room. A small curl of smoke rises from the spot where the Dream Lord and the portal disappeared.
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Page 16 panel 7
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Again, the portal pitches the Dream Lord in a new place. His body is still bloody and bruised, with the sword in his chest and scars and bullet holes everywhere. Obviously, he is in horrible agony, with no release.
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He is deposited in a laboratory. It is the main lab from the UCLA sleep research project, full of monitors and computer banks and elaborate devices. A tall, dark-haired man in a white lab coat is hunched over a counter, working on a helmet-like device.
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Man: Emmett? I think this is IT, buddy!
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Page 17 (7 panels)
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Page 17 panel 1
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Man (holding up the shiny helmet, his back still turned to the Dream Lord): We've done it, damnit! Do you believe it? I think this crazy thing is gonna work !
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Page 17 panel 2
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Closeup of the Dream Lord's horrified face. He suddenly remembers this scene, though he has blocked it from his mind for a long, long time. What comes next is not a pleasant reverie for him, to say the least.
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Dream Lord: No...not again.
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Man (off-panel): The only way we'll know for sure ,
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