PROLOGUE
EXT. A DESERT GARDEN –
NIGHT
A rail-thin man kneels at
a boulder half the size of himself. His
head is bowed, his clasped hands raised.
Far away from him, the
black head of a serpent rises into view – a shadow given shape. It hisses and slithers slowly toward the
kneeling man.
The man shivers and sobs. This is JESUS – not the perfect, white-washed
messiah, but a terrified, middle-aged, Middle-Eastern laborer.
JESUS
(Subtitled)
Father? Can you
hear me?
From everywhere at once, a
hiss echoes. Jesus looks up to the sky –
where he thinks heaven is.
JESUS
(Subtitled)
If it is possible, please…take this cup from me.
Loud snores fill the
air. Jesus turns.
A stone’s throw away from
him lies a group of men: laborers all.
They are the APOSTLES, and they are all fast asleep.
You have to fuc – effin kidding.
JESUS
(Subtitled)
The spirit is willing, but the flehs is weak.
Not as far away as before,
the shadow serpent picks up speed.
Jesus turns back to “heaven”
and raises his hands high while his head falls onto the stone.
JESUS
(Subtitled
Please father!
I don’t want to die.
The moving snake’s body
gets darker. At its belly, two legs
burst out. Now half-human, half-snake,
the shadow serpent starts running.
It races past the
apostles, making straight for Jesus.
Jesus keeps praying,
oblivious.
The serpent’s right behind
him now. It opens its mouth, bearing its
shadow fangs. It LEAPS at its prey.
But inches away from
tasting that sweet messiah meat, a beam of white light SHOOTS through its
head. The snake is driven into the
earth, melting into the night.
The beam of light fades
revealing the blade of a sword.
And its wielder is an
angel, right out of a William Blake painting.
His silver armor gleams, and outstretched behind him are a pair of wings
so white they glow. On his head is a
silver helm that covers his entire face, save for two openings for his
eyes. This is REMIEL.
He pulls up his sword and
sheathes it as he steps in front of Jesus.
Jesus raises his head,
looking straight at the angel.
JESUS
(Subtitled
Father? Are you
there?
We take on Jesus’s POV,
and where we know the angel to be standing, there is nothing.
Jesus’s head falls against
the stone.
But Remiel is still
standing there. He lifts his hands to
his helm, making to take it off…
When he’s suddenly spun
around to meet another angel.
This one is taller and
broader than Remiel, with golden armor,helm and wings. Like Remiel, his face is covered save for the
eyes. This is GODRIC.
And the pair speak to each
other in English.
GODRIC
Stay
yourself Remiel! We are forbidden from
showing ourselves to mortals.
REMIEL
I’ve
had enough, Godric. We were made to
protect them.
Remiel points right at
Jesus, who cannot see either angel in front of him.
REMIEL
I was made to protect him.
I was made to protect him.
GODRIC
Even
so, the fiends have been beaten back.
Banished from this mortal plane.
Our work is finished.
ON REMIEL who can’t take
his eyes from the prophet begging for his life.
REMIEL
Mine is not.
GODRIC
Do
not misremember our task, little brother.
We were only meant to protect them from the spawns of Lucifer. Against which they could not fight back.
REMIEL
So the Seraphim say.
GODRIC
So God the Father has commanded!
REMIEL
But
not to us, Godric. We’ve never spoken to
the Father. We’ve never even met him!
GODRIC
Very
few have, Remiel, and you know why. What
is your point?
REMIEL
My
point is I don’t need to know the Father to know the purpose he gave me. It drives me, Godric, as I know it does
you. We are Guardians. Only now, we’re being told we’re not
anymore. Yet I still feel like one. If it was the Father’s will that I should not
be…
GODRIC
You
travel down a dangerous path. The
Seraphim are the keepers of the law, and they have declared our purpose
achieved. By the law of heaven, we are
to return home.
Cries recall Remiel to
look down on the suffering Jesus.
REMIEL
I
have walked with this man. Watched
him. Heard him. He believes, truly, that he carries a message
given to him by our Father.
GODRIC
That
is impossible.
REMIEL
I
know.
GODRIC
Which
is why his belief will fail him. Because
it is not enough to believe. He must
also have faith.
REMIEL
(Talking about me without having to)
He
has faith.
GODRIC
Does
he? Enough to be challenged? Beaten?
Killded? And even after all that,
when he learns the truth, do you think he has the faith to go on believing in a
Father he may never truly know?
A SIGNAL CRY echoes. Jesus is spooked. He gets up, goes to the edge of a cliff
nearby and looks down.
Below he sees the glow of
many torches moving through the trees.
GODRIC
They
are coming for him. His own kind. Do you think he will give himself over, for
them?
Godric holds out a hand
toward the sleeping apostles.
GODRIC
In
the end, they will choose themselves over their brothers.
Jesus rushes back to the stone
in a panic. He looks on the sleeping
apostles, then at the road leading away from them, and danger.
GODRIC (O.S.)
Remiel…
Remiel, who has been
watching Jesus, turns to Godric.
GODRIC
I
do not know what happens now. But we
have been called home. And commanded to
give up our guard.
JESUS (O.S.)
Father!
Jesus commands focus –
like, through impassioned eyes.
JESUS
(Subtitled)
So
be it. Let it be as you, not I, would
have it.
The rail-thin man goes
back to the cliff and looks down on his doom.
JESUS
(Subtitled)
I am going to die.
Remiel turns to Godric
with a similar, determined look in his eyes.
GODRIC
Remiel, he’s mad!
REMIEL
Forgive me brother.
Remiel strides to the rock
Jesus was praying against. He sits.
GODRIC
He
is a martyr! Nothing more. He is not the first, and he will not be the
last!
REMIEL
Perhaps.
Remiel turns his head back
to Jesus. He exhales audibly, then
brings his hands to his helm.
Remiel lifts his helm off
his head, and as he does the warm light around him grows brighter.
That light strikes Jesus’s
face. The prophet’s eyes drink it in –
he sees.
Underneath the full helm,
Remiel reveals a face that looks exactly like Jesus’s, only fuller, healther,
and smiling.
REMIEL
(Subtitled)
Hello.
END OF PROLOGUE
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