Mira TRIPS on the scattered bones, comes down on her injured arm. She scrambles to her feet.
Janos calls from inside the chapel.
JANOS
Mira. Please wait.
BLOCKED by another smooth stone wall. A half-choked sob. Mira takes the only available route, and runs into--
HER ROOM
Slamming the door shut. She dives for the bed, pulling up the mattress - NOTHING. [Go back and have her hide a knife there when she gets ready - I’m starting to feel like Bill and Ted.] A moment searching, but she knows it’s gone.
Mira throws her window open, looks down that dizzying height.
MIRA
(screams)
Erzsebet! Erzsebet!
JANOS (O.S.)
Mira.
JANOS (CONT’D)
You are upset. It’s understandable. Rest,
and we’ll talk later.
She goes back to the open window. Looks down. A beat of girding her loins...
Mira steps back, lifts her skirts. She unfastens the coil of rope at her waist, drops her skirts again. A moment to work out the logistics.
She knots one end of the rope around her waist, the other around one of the bedposts. Mira uses both hands, grimacing with the pain.
She straddles the window sill, holding tightly to the rope with her good arm. Looks down - the base of the castle and the cliff below are lost in FOG. Deep breath.
MIRA
Please. I beg You, please.
She grabs the rope with her other hand as well, winces and grits her teeth, and swings the other leg over.Please. I beg You, please.
EXT. CASTLE - CONTINUOUS
Slowly, with a few alarming jerks, Mira rappels down the side of the castle. She keeps her eyes firmly locked on the stones just in front of her. A GUST of wind blows through, strong enough to rock her side to side, but she just closes her eyes and waits it out.
When she stops descending, it takes Mira a beat to realize that she has run out of rope. She looks down - her feet just touch the top of the window a story down from her own.
She only needs three more feet.
MIRA
No.
MIRA (CONT’D)
No, no, no!
Another gust of wind catches her mid-swing. She is slammed against the wall, right on her injured arm. She cries out in pain.
Momentum lost, Mira hangs a beat, then tries to CLIMB the rope. But she can’t do it with a broken and savaged arm. She looks up at the castle, at the open window above her. The rope is beginning to FRAY.
MIRA (CONT’D)
God damn you.
She’s too exhausted for more than one half-hearted sob.
Mira looks down. The mist at the base of the castle roils and churns. Fingers snake their way up the walls.
She drops her hand to the KNOT at her waist. Beat.
MIRA (CONT’D)
I love you, Dominik.
The slightest SOUND from above, and Mira looks up, startled. Her bedroom window is empty, though. But twenty feet higher up, something SMALL AND DARK moves down the wall.
Mira goes at the knot again, in a frenzy. The wind continues to batter her - her fingers are growing numb. She can’t help but look up again to see what approaches.
It’s Erzsebet, CRAWLING on hands and feet straight down the side of the castle. Mira stares, a little scared. Erzsebet stops just above her, nothing seeming to keep her from falling. She reaches out a hand and touches Mira’s cheek.
Erzsebet turns and easily ascends - next to the rope but not touching it. She enters Mira’s window. Mira hangs a beat, and then the rope is PULLED up.
INT. MIRA’S ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Erzsebet half-helps, half-drags Mira back inside. Mira collapses, shaking. Erzsebet seems to just pass her hand over the knot and the rope falls away from Mira’s waist. The girl touches her again - quick, fleeting touches, on Mira’s face, hair, shoulder.
Erzsebet sees the wolf bite on Mira’s arm, the dark, bruised place just below where Bathory broke it. Erzsebet croons over her. Then BITES her own wrist, holding it out to Mira.
MIRA
No!
MIRA (CONT’D)
(more gently)
No. i don’t want to...to be like them.
Erzsebet helps Mira stand. Takes her hand, leads her to the DOOR, which stands as it always had, as though it had never gone away. It swings open on its own at their approach - they step through and walk down the hall.
