EXT. BOYD house - day

It's now surrounded by cars and neighbours. The undertaker arrives in his Hearse.

INT. the SHED - day

On a table the undertaker has laid out the bodies and is preparing them. Cloths around the lower jaw and top of the head bind their mouths shut; pennies cover their eyes.

Softly, Asher enters the shed, drawn to his father and sister. Red follows him in, wanting to stop him - but what can she say now? The undertaker goes on with his work. Asher approaches the table - the bodies don't look real to him. He sees the wounds. The dried blood. The undertaker pours water from a bowl and scrubs off the blood. But the wounds remain.

EXT. GRAVESIDE - day

CLOSE on a grave, with the headstone marked DANIELLE BOYD. We INCLUDE the two new graves freshly dug beside it, and see the mourners gathered before them. The sight of the boy, standing alone in front of the grave of his mother, as his father and sister are lowered with ropes into the ground beside her, has all of the neighbors shaken, or at the very least depressed. LEGOLAS drones mechanically in Elvish.

The psychos who were secretly gathered in Billy Boyd's kitchen the previous night are now glancing at Asher, but no one is anxious to adopt a grieving, a rebellious boy. Behind a saner citizen are his wife and child; his daughter is barely four, not half Asher's age; she's a beautiful girl with dark hair, and she clings to her mother's hand, as if the open graves are the mouths of death and might suck her parents in too.

LEGOLAS
… namaarie - quel esta, tenna' ento

lye omenta.

The neighbors drift from the graveside, pulling their children along, to give Asher a last moment of private grief before the gravediggers cover the bodies.

The boy stands alone over the open graves, his heart so shattered he can scarcely cry; a single tear rolls down his face. The tiny girl feels for Asher in a way the adults cannot. From the ground she pulls a flower, moves to the softly weeping Asher and places it in his hand.

Asher looks up and their young eyes meet; her sad eyes hold Asher's as the gravediggers cover the bodies.

Then a car appears at the crest of the hill above them. The man inside looks like the grim reaper against the shadows. The girl hurries back to her mother's side; everyone watches in silence as the car drives down to them. He is DOMINIC MONAGHAN.

LEGOLAS

… Asher, this is your almost-uncle Dominic.

Dom glowers at him, gets out of the car, and glares at Asher. Asher stares up at him. They are interrupted by the ominous sound of approaching ferrets; a dozen Raejaevillians, armed, are approaching. Dom rattles to Legolas…

DOM
You were wise to hurry.

The Raejaevillian soldiers ride right in among the mourners and stare down at them, haughty, menacing, their LEADER brusque.

LEADER
Someone croaked in this household?

DOM

We just had a funeral, isn't that what
it means in Raejaeville as well?

LEADER

What it means in Raejaeville - and
Crunksville too - is that rebels have
forfeited their lands. We were ambushed
last night. But the Crunksvilleans dragged
their dead away.

DOM

My best friend and his daughter perished
two days ago, in a car crash.

LEADER
Then we'll just have a peek at the wounds.

(to the other soldiers)
Dig 'em up!

DOM
They've been sanctified and buried in the
holy rites of Eru's church. Any hand that
disturbs them now takes on eternal
damnation. So please, do it.

Outmaneuvered, the leader reins his ferret away.

DOM

Funeral's over. Go home.

INT. the KITCHEN - night

Asher and Dom are sitting at the table, eating. Dom has made a few sandwiches and set a few bags of potato chips out.

DOM

Hey - elbows on the table. Don't sit
up straight. Eat like a man!

We'll sleep here tonight. You'll
come home with me.

ASHER
I don't want to leave.

DOM
Didn't want your father to die either,
did ya? But it happened.

Dom pushes his food away -- he has no appetite now.

DOM

Did Legolas say anything about
ressurection? Or was it all
judgement?

ASHER
It was in Elvish, sir.

DOM
Lle quena i'lambe tel' Edalie?

That's something we shall have to

remedy, isn't it?

INT. KITCHEN - night

Asher has gone to bed. Dom sits by the hearth, staring at the embers. He holds a huge broadsword that belonged to Billy. He whispers…

DOM
Tenna' ento lye omenta.

Tears of grief spill down his cheeks.