INT. the HANGING GARAGE - in Asher's dream

Once again the boy stands in the doorway, looking at the garish, hanged faces in his nightmare. Then a mangled hand comes from behind him and grasps his shoulder. Asher gasps, but the hands hold him gently. He turns to see his father and his sister. They are wounded, bloody, but they smile at him - they're alive. Weeping in joy, Asher reaches to hug them, but his father stretches forth a forbidding hand.

Asher keeps reaching out helplessly. His father and sister move past him to the hanged people. Two empty nooses are there. Before the boy's eyes they put their heads into the nooses and hoist themselves up. Asher's grief explodes; his tears erupt and

HE WAKES IN HIS BEDROOM

tears flooding down his face. A dream. Still upset, still grieving, he gets up and looks for Dom.

INT. HOUSE - night

Asher moves down the hall to the room where Dom would be sleeping. He opens the door. The bed has been slept in, but Dom is not there. He moves downstairs to

THE KITCHEN

But Dom is not there either. Then Asher hears a strange, haunting sound - distant, carried by the wind. He moves to the window and sees only moonlight. He opens the window and hears it more clearly: bagpipes. Asher lights a candle and throws open the door. Wind rushes in, blowing out the candle. Yet he hears the pipes, louder in the wind.

EXT. BOYD house - night

Asher is barefoot and in only his night shirt, but the sound of the pipes is growing louder. He moves through the moonlight, drawn to - the graveyard. He stops as he realizess this, then forces himself on.

EXT. GRAVEYARD - night

 
Asher moves to the top of the hill where his ancestors are buried, and discovers a haunting scene: two dozen men, the people of his neighborhood, are gathered--and 
among them, bagpipers. The pipes wail an ancient Scottish dirge, a tune of grief and redemption, a melody known to us as “Amazing Grace.”

Uncle Dom has heard them and walked out too; he stands at the fringes of the torchlight, still holding the massive broadsword. He glances down, noticing Asher as the boy moves up beside him. Asher whispers...
 
ASHER

What are they doing?
 
DOM
Saying goodbye in their own way--

playing outlawed tunes on

outlawed pipes.
 
The people file by the graveside, each whispering his own private prayer. Dom whispers, half to Asher, and half to himself...
 
DOM
Your Daddy and I, we saw our own 
families buried like this, dead from 
fighting the Raejaevilleans.
 
Asher takes the sword from his uncle, and tries to lift it. Slowly, Dom takes the sword back.
 

DOM
First learn to use this.

He taps Asher on the temple with the tip of his finger.

DOM
Then I will teach you to use
this.

With an expert’s easy fluidity, he lifts the huge sword. It glistens in the torchlight. The music plays, the notes hanging in the air, swirling in the breeze as if rising towards the stars...

EXT. BOYD farm - day

Asher and his uncle ride off in a farm wagon. Asher has a bundle of clothes in his lap, and glances at his uncle as if afraid of his disapproval if he looks back. But he does glance back just once, to see the deserted house.