BLOOD LUST

BY JAMES THORPE

MARGUERITE: Wake me when you see a door with an exit sign.

CHALLENGER: Oh, come on woman, where's your sense of wonder?

MARGUERITE: Back at the treehouse on its second glass of wine.

MARGUERITE: Remind me again, why I'm helping bury someone you shot.

CHALLENGER: Predators. They smell a decaying body, next they smell us.

ROXTON: So, unless you'd like a little company tonight…

MARGUERITE: Not even in your dreams.

CHALLENGER: Interesting. There appear to be bite marks on the neck of the animal.

MARGUERITE: Must be something in the air tonight.

CHALLENGER: That's peculiar, there's no blood. There's no blood anywhere.

ROXTON: Drained of blood?

MARGUERITE: This is a dream I've had before.

MARGUERITE: I do tend to bring out the beast in a man.

MARGUERITE: Alright, look, I changed my mind. I don't care if we ever see him again. Now can we take a break?

VERONICA: I feel so foolish.

MALONE: I don't think you were foolish at all.

VERONICA: I'm not usually that jumpy.

MALONE: I'm glad you were. It gave me another chance to see you last night.

NICO: The first time I saw you my heart stopped beating. There was only your face, your smile. Even the jungle was quiet, as if my love shamed the animals into silence.

CALISTA: Don't test me, I'll only disappoint you.

CALISTA: You let your friends escape because you weren't hungry enough. Soon, your cravings will become ravings, your desire, madness. Soon, you will do anything to eat.

MARGUERITE: Come on now, I never thought I'd say this but I don't want to shoot you.

CHALLENGER: Your aim was rather wide of the mark, my dear.

MARGUERITE: I guess my heart wasn't in it.

MARGUERITE: Once more please, we poison Roxton to cure him?

CHALLENGER: The infection is destroying his red blood cells. We attack it the same way as we attack cancer. We toxify his blood and the bacteria can't survive.

MARGUERITE: Remind me never to get sick around you.

CHALLENGER: Bella donna.

MARGUERITE: Beautiful lady.

CHALLENGER: So called because Italian women used to apply it to their eyes. Dilated pupils were considered attractive.

MARGUERITE: Let's hear it for the good old days.

VERONICA: Let's get this straight. I'm not his. I'm not yours.

MARGUERITE: We were crazy.

CHALLENGER: We were desperate.

MARGUERITE: What right did we have to gamble with his life?

CHALLENGER: The Roxton we knew was dead. The thing that he turned into would've killed us and gone on killing. At least we gave him a chance.

ROXTON: Oh my God, what have you done?

MARGUERITE: You know, for someone who was just brought back from the living dead, you don't seem very happy.

ROXTON: I could hear the wind as it crested the mountains a hundred miles away. I could feel the tiny heartbeat of a bird on the wing and when I looked at the stars…forget it…

MARGUERITE: No, go on…please.

ROXTON: Well, suddenly, I knew all the answers. I could see the plan of it all, I belonged. I was home. Do you have any idea what that feels like?

MARGUERITE JUST SHAKES HER HEAD

ROXTON: Calista, my friends can help you. Cure you of the infection like they cured me.

CALISTA: I am pure life, all you are now is slow death.

CHALLENGER: Look at him, does he seem different to you?

MARGUERITE: Not anymore. Now he just seems like the rest of us.

MARGUERITE: That's one thing Roxton understands…how to survive.