Mr. Sandman (7 page)

Page 5 panel 4

 

Mother (trying to grab him as he hobbles away): You're pushing your luck, mister! I still haven't forgotten what you did with the TV last week!

 

Dream Lord (a surprised look on his face as he notices something ahead of him): Where did
that
come from?

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 5

 

A swirling portal has appeared in a hill, in a space cleared of corpses.

 

Dream Lord (off-panel): A hole...a way out!

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 6

 

Dream Lord (now crawling desperately toward the portal, his mother beating him on the back with her broom): If I can... get home... to the Dream Base...my power...

 

Mother (angry and crying at the same time): Get
back
here, Emmett! Come on, you have work to do! Stop running away! Emmett!

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 7

 

The Dream Lord manages to heave his shattered, bleeding body into the portal, and with a flash, he disappears.

 

Mother (racing after him, as his torso vanishes into the hole): Don't leave me...

 

 

 

Page 5 panel 8

 

Mother: ...alone! (She tries to hurl herself after him, but the energy portal has already vanished, and she slams into a solid hill of dirt and rock and bodies.)

 

 

 

 

Page 6 (8
panels)

 

Title (across the top of the page): Long Night's Journey Into Death

 

 

Page 6 panel 1

 

Narrator: He slips through a sea of gelatin, cold and slimy and airless. Around him, he can see nothing, just reaches of featureless plasma. Gasping for breath, he fills his lungs with the stuff.

 

Show the Dream Lord, in his torn, bloody costume, with the sword still protruding from his chest, floating through a vast sea of a murky green gelatinous substance.

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 2

 

Narrator: Nothing is familiar here. He had hoped the portal would lead him home, to regain his power and somehow undo the pain. He hoped wrong.

 

The Dream Lord is plunging forward through the gel, smothering and beginning to lose consciousness.

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 3

 

Flashback of the Bogeyman from the first chapter.

 

Bogeyman: I am your dream, Adams! I am your
Bogeyman
! You have tried to forget me, to exile my memory as you set up your cotton candy kingdom in dreamland! But you could not...you never will!

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 4

 

Closeup of the Dream Lord's face as he chokes and turns blue.

 

Narrator: Once, he was almost a god, a king of dreams and guardian of life. Now, he prepares to die.

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 5

 

Flashback to Emmett's childhood. He is sitting, cross-legged, before a TV set (circa early 1960's), listening to his parents shout at each other while he watches Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

 

Mother (off-panel): ...and you aren't
sick
anymore! You can't always have your way around here!

 

Father: Shut up! I
pay
for you and the kid, every damn day! All you give me is
grief
! What's wrong with you?

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 6

 

Extreme closeup of cartoon image on TV, as Father shouts off-panel.

 

Father: Get out of here, if you don't like it! Get the hell
out
of here!

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 7

 

Bogeyman (in flashback): You can't even keep your own
mind
together, can you?

 

 

 

Page 6 panel 8

 

Flashback image of the young, heavy girl crying at a kitchen table. This is the same panel that was used earlier in this chapter.

 

Girl (very upset, crying): You didn't have to do it this way.

 

 

 

 

Page 7 (8
panels)

 

Page 7 panel 1

 

Suddenly, the Dream Lord is dumped from another energy portal. He falls from the portal, along with a gush of the gelatin substance, out of a brick wall. The first panel only shows him plunging out of the portal in the wall, followed by the gel.

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 2

 

The Dream Lord is on his knees on a dark, cobblestone street. He is dripping with green gel, spitting it out of his lungs and sucking in the air.

 

Dream Lord: Uk...ack...I'm
out
...bluh...still alive...but I don't...think I made it back...home...

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 3

 

The Dream Lord looks down the shadowy street, sees a crowd of dark and menacing figures racing toward him. A spotlight blazes atop a bulky jeep.

 

Dream Lord: No... this is definitely
not
the Dream Base.

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 4

 

Medium shot of the approaching crowd. There are 8 or 10 figures, dressed in black Nazi Gestapo uniforms with swastikas on the sleeves. They look like men, only they have the faces of wolves. They all carry machine guns and pistols, and there is a wolfman operating the spotlight and a large gun mounted on the jeep.

 

Nazi Wolf: You cannot escape, abomination! The Fuhrer has ordered your slaughter! You will die like a pig!

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 5

 

Wolf (off-panel): Kill him!

 

The Dream Lord just kneels where he has fallen for a second, stunned and sick

with pain, He is still dripping with slime, and the sword juts from his heart.

 

Dream Lord (again near tears): Oh God, no. No more, please. No more!

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 6

 

Wolf (still far down the alley): Fire!

 

The corps of Gestapo wolves fire their machine guns, and streams of bullets zing from the walls and floor of the alley. The Dream Lord struggles to his feet and half-runs, half-hobbles away from them. He is gasping for breath and crying as he tries to escape them.

 

Dream Lord: No more! I'm the Dream Lord!

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 7

 

The Dream Lord turns a corner and stumbles down another alley, as bullets flash against the walls behind him.

 

Wolf (off-panel): Slaughter him!

 

Dream Lord: No no no no...I want to go home...I want to wake up...

 

 

 

Page 7 panel 8

 

At the end of the new alley, another pack of Gestapo wolves suddenly appears. Sirens are blaring through the streets.

 

New Wolf: There he is! Kill him!

 

Dream Lord: This is a dream! It has to be a dream...

 

 

 

 

Page 8 (8
panels)

 

Page 8 panel 1

 

The first group of wolves comes around the corner, and opens fire on the Dream Lord. The other wolves fire at the same time, and the Dream Lord manages to stumble through a moldy wooden door out of the alley.

 

Wolf Leader: Get him! Blow his head off!

 

Dream Lord: It has to be a dream!

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 2

 

On the other side of the door, the Dream Lord finds a dark room. Huddled in a corner is a family of refugees from the wolves. The refugees are sheep, dressed in rags, clearly desperately frightened.

 

Dream Lord: Oh, thank God I've found someone! Please, you've got to help me!

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 3

 

Dream Lord: quick, they're trying to
kill
me! I need your help!

 

Mother Sheep: Who...who
are
you?

 

Father Sheep: It's
him
! The abomination!

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 4

 

The father sheep runs to the window and screams to the wolves in the street outside.

 

Father Sheep: Here! Kill him, he's HERE!

 

Dream Lord: No!

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 5

 

The Dream Lord runs and hobbles through another doorway, barely escaping the wolves' guns. Bullets rip up the wall and wooden door frame, barely missing him.

 

Wolf: Get him! Kill him
now
!

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 6

 

The Dream Lord emerges on the other side of the dark doorway, this time in a large nightclub. Nazi wolves are drinking beer and dancing with their women. The room is bathed in red light, a glitzy Berlin-style cabaret. The Dream Lord runs as fast as he can, clutching the sword which still juts from his chest, his face contorted with pain and animal terror.

 

Dream Lord: Help me! Somebody, please
help
...

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 7

 

Dream Lord: ...me.

 

Closeup of his face as he stops short, suddenly and horribly realizing that he faces a room full of enemies.

 

 

 

Page 8 panel 8

 

Medium shot of a crowd of Nazi wolves, all with hateful sneers on their faces. They all pull out their weapons.

 

 

 

 

Page 9 (8
panels)

 

Page 9 panel 1

 

The pursuing wolves burst out of the doorway behind the Dream Lord, all their guns trained on his body.

 

Wolf Leader: There! We have him! The abomination is trapped!

 

Dream Lord (bursting into tears, about to completely fall apart): Nooo!

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 2

 

Bogeyman (off-panel): Oh, Kubla, what in the
world
is wrong?

 

Dream Lord (looking in the direction of the voice): Wha?...

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 3

 

The Bogeyman, or an image of him, has appeared in the cabaret, leaning casually and snidely against a post. He is bathed in the club's red light.

 

Bogeyman:
You're
the
Dream Lord
! Make it go away! Ha ha ha ha!

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 4

 

Dream Lord (screaming): I
can't
! I can't do
anything
!!

 

Wolf Leader (approaching the Dream Lord from behind): We finally have you, monstrosity! You can no longer run from the punishment for what you have done!

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 5

 

Wolf (snarling and aiming his pistol): You stand accused of
murder
! The penalty is
execution
! How do you plead, bastard?

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 6

 

Dream Lord (backing against a wall, into a spotlight): I never...I didn't... do anything...I'm.. I'm sorry...

 

Wolf (off-panel): Liar!

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 7

 

Wolf: You are a murderer
and
a liar! The verdict is
guilty
, the sentence is
death
!

 

All the guns in the room are raised and cocked with a hundred clicks.

 

 

 

Page 9 panel 8

 

Wolf: Kill him!

 

Dream Lord (in a weak, helpless whimper): No!

 

 

 

 

Page 10 (7
panels)

 

Page 10 panel 1

 

The guns fire, riddling the Dream Lord's body with bullets, kicking up blood and sparks as they hit. The Dream Lord screams and topples backwards.

 

Bogeyman (off-panel): Poor Kubla.

 

 

 

Page 10 panel 2

 

Bogeyman (watching calmly): I'm afraid you deserve everything you get, little snake. After all, you really
did
break that sixth Commandment.

 

 

 

Page 10 panel 3

 

The Dream Lord tumbles to the floor, falling into an energy portal which has appeared there.

 

Bogeyman: "Thou shalt not kill," remember? Ah well, I know it's tough to memorize that sort of thing. Maybe you could tie a string around your finger next time. Or your neck.

 

 

 

Page 10 panel 4

 

Closeup of the Bogeyman's cool, sinister face.

 

Bogeyman: It would certainly save you a lot of trouble, hm?