The Man and His God

 

INT. FRED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 

Wesley and Illyria continue their conversation in the dark room.

WESLEY (standing, excited) 

You could go anywhere, you could leave.

ILLYRIA 

That's not possible.

WESLEY 

Of course it's possible. 

Are you telling me the great Illyria, idol of millions, was limited to one small dimension?

ILLYRIA 

I traveled all of them as I pleased. 

I walked worlds of smoke and half-truths, intangible. (turns away) 

Worlds of torment 

and of unnamable beauty. 

(looks into the mirror, Wesley's reflection over her shoulder) 

Opaline towers as high as small moons. 

Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust. 

And one world with nothing but shrimp. 

I tired of that one quickly.

WESLEY 

Then why stay in This World? 

Surely there's a world more appealing -- 

-- maybe not the shrimp one --

-- but one where you'd be welcome like you never will be here. 

Why don't you go? 

You can go. Why don't you go?

Illyria snaps, grabbing Wesley by the throat and staring at him angrily. 

She lets him go, tossing him aside as she starts gasping for air.

ILLYRIA (breathing hard) 

It's too small. It's too small. I can't breathe. 

(pacing, panicked, in a circle) 

I can't live with these walls. I can't breathe. There's no room for anything real.

WESLEY 

It's all right.

ILLYRIA (glares at Wesley) 

I should gut you where you stand. You challenged me. 

There's not enough space to open my jaws. 

My face is not my face. I don't know what it will say. 

(panting)

WESLEY 

Illyria... come with me.

Illyria starts to calm down and her panting slows.

EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT 

Illyria and Wesley are standing on the rooftop. 

She's got her head leaned all the way back, staring skyward.

WESLEY 

Are you all right?

ILLYRIA 

I breathe easier.

WESLEY 

The walls don't press in as hard when you can't see them.

ILLYRIA 

But they're still here.

WESLEY 

Yes.

ILLYRIA 

All I am is what I am. I lived 7 lives at once. 

I was power and the ecstasy of death. 

I was god TO a god. (looks down) 

Now... I�I'm trapped... on a roof. 

Just one roof... in this time and this place, 

with an unstable human who drinks too much whiskey and called me a Smurf. 

(Wesley chuckles) 

You don't worship me at all, do you?

WESLEY 

And you really can't leave.

ILLYRIA 

I... don't know. (looks up) 

And I fear in any other dimension in this form I'd be but prey to those I knew. 

(hangs her head) 

I reek of Humanity.

WESLEY 

Don't flatter yourself.

ILLYRIA (looking over the skyline) 

Your World is so small. 

And yet you box yourselves in rooms even smaller. 

You shut yourselves inside... 

in rooms, in routines.

WESLEY 

There are things worse than walls. 

Terrible... and beautiful. 

If we look at them for too long they will burn right through us. 

Truths we couldn't bear. Not every day.

ILLYRIA (sighs) 

We are so weak.

WESLEY 

Yes. Yes, we are.