| [Scene
starts with a cover of Rolling Stone magazine. At the top is a small headline proclaiming "Beef : Death At Last". The main headline says "Love is Strange : Swan & Phoenix Hitch Up During Faust Finale On Network TV". The cover shows a caped figure with a question mark in the place of a face, and Phoenix singing behind it." Switches to a picture of the Death Records logo. Opens to a car pulling up amid paparazzi trying to get a look in.] |
|
| Man #1 : | Hey, Swan. Are we gonna get to shoot pictures of you tonight? |
| Man #2 : | What's this rumour you're going to wear a mask on-stage? |
| Man #1 : | Hey, how can we shoot you if you got a mask on, man? |
| [Camera switches to inside the car, which contains Swan, Philbin, and Phoenix, who is sniffing something.] | |
| Swan : | [Quietly.] You can't fools. Philbin, it was genius making the end of the opera a wedding. |
| Philbin : | You mean Faust, instead of burning in hell, he gets the girl? |
| Swan : | Yes. And you, Philbin, will be the priest. |
| Philbin : | I've never been a priest before. That's terrific. |
| [Scene
switches to crowds of screaming fans trying to get in the front doors of
the Paradise, being held back by NYPD officers. Then switches to Swan's
private screening room. The door slides up revealing the Phantom who
enters the room cautiously. He sees shelves full of videos. Camera then goes to Swan entering the Paradise. Camera goes back to the Phantom, who pulls a reel of video from a shelf entitled "Contract of Agreement". He removes it from its cover. Scene goes back to Swan, who is being overwhelmed by crowds before some bodyguards come and push them away. Then the Phantoms hands can be seen, in the screening room again, setting up the reel on a player. Scene then goes back to Swan. An older woman pushes her way past the bodyguards and runs towards Swan.] |
|
| Woman : | Swan, you remember me, don't you? |
| [Swan ducks into a room. Woman gets to the door way just in time to be stopped by another bodyguard. The same bodyguard who had previously carried Winslow out of the Swanage during Chapter 8.] | |
| Woman : | You do, don't
you? Swan!! |
| [Camera goes back to the Phantom. Then back to the woman. Three younger girls have now come up beside her.] | |
| Girl #1 : | Do you know him? |
| Woman : | Well, we went steady together in high school. |
| Girl #2 : | You're kidding. You're old enough to be his mother. |
| Woman : | [Opens
up locket on her necklace. The left picture is the woman much younger, the
right is Swan, looking the same as he does currently.] This was taken twenty years ago. |
| Girl #2 : | My God. He doesn't look any different! |
| Chapter 27 |