" My name is Dwight stroud." "I'm a prisoner here, and I need to get out." " Good morning, it's a beautiful day outside." " Every day outside is beautiful." " Come on now, let's not start out the day being depressed." " Thought I'd get a jump start on it especially since it's so beautiful out there." " Doc tells me that every day you're here you're one day closer to being released." " Feels that way already." "Eh, look I'm sorry." "I don't mean to give you a hard time." "It's not your fault." "Cheer up." "I'm ready to be shrunk down to size." " How you feeling this morning?" " Don't you mean do I feel crazy like I'm supposed to?" " But you think you are crazy." " It was my attorney's bright idea." " You pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity." "The jury decided in your favor." " Some favor." "I'm not guilty by reason of innocence." " Innocent of what?" "You can't remember." " I was struck on the head, I," "I, I don't remember anything that happened that night." " So how do you know you were struck on the head?" "Then how do you know you don't deserve to be here?" "It's important for you to understand why you are here." " What's important for me is to get the hell outta here." "Now, just gimme the shot and let's get on with it." " It's only part of what might get you out of here some day." "If you know why you're here, that will help even more." " So tell me." " I do." "I tell you every time we meet, and you always forget every time you come back." "You forget lots of things, Dwight." " No." "Damn it." " I'm sorry, very sorry." "I don't mean to upset you." "You have a very good memory." "That's why I'm so concerned you can't remember, even though I tell you every week." "Look at me, Dwight." "I'll believe you went crazy," "I'll believe you're insane, just look me in the face and tell me so I can see it in your eyes." " I'm not crazy." " I wanna help you live again, Dwight." " Coming from you, that's really absurd." " Why?" "What is it you see when you look at me?" "When you look at me?" "Then tell me this, is what you see real?" " No." "Couldn't be." " Why is that?" " 'Cause if it was real, it'd be crazy." " Don't feel ashamed of your realization." "Be proud." "Knowledge is a powerful thing." " It's this place." "I see things here that are insane." "I try to ignore it as much as possible, just to go on living, but every day it gets worse, not better." "I gotta get out." " An unbalanced mind is like water, takes the shape of its environment." "Sameness and stability of this place is all that's holding you together." "Holding you together, holding you together." "That's better." "This hospital has had several remarkable recoveries." "There's real hope for you here." "There's real hope." " She always comes to me after I get done with my head-shrinking." "Almost like a reward." "I'm glad you're here." " Glad to be here." " I gotta get outta here." " Soon." " I don't know her name or her face." "All that matters is that she's beautiful and intelligent." "I can't really say if she's real or just more proof of my insanity." "She's my ideal woman, and I hope part of my future rather than my past." "She is my hope." " It's time." " Do I thank you?" " For what?" " Well, for treating me like a real person." " I will be there for you when you get out of here." "Always." " He's a friend of mine." "Sometimes, I'm the only one he'll talk to." "But, at times, he's inapproachable even to me." "Like the time when he pulled out one of his eyes." "Hey, Da Vinci, lookin' good!" " I told you to call me Van gogh." "Lookin' good is what you say to a drunk woman right before last call." " Yeah, like I remember what to say to a drunk woman." " So lend me your eye." "I'm a bit short." "And tell me somethin' I don't know about what I'm doin'." "Yeah." " Let's see." "Uh, maybe add a bird or two." " If you, if you insist." " Jesus." "Why'd you do that?" " I thought that's what you wanted." "Look, Dwight, you and I are the same." "Much of what we see is a cause rather than an effect of our illness." "That's why I took out my left eye." "I didn't like what it made me see and it was makin' me worse." "But there's danger in what we see." "This insane reality can look back and see us." " I, I don't see them." " I only paint what I see." "My paintings are like x-rays." " Yeah, or you're much fuckin' crazier than I am." "Hey, what are those things sticking' out their heads?" " That's ectoplasm rising' out of 'em." " Yeah, ectoplasm, yeah." "Can you explain that to me in, uh, non-psychobabble, please?" " Ectoplasm is a physical manifestation of spiritual matter." "It can escape from the body through any orifice." " Wow." "You're both a lot crazier than i am." " That is very interesting." "What do you call it?" " I haven't finished." " That's a very interesting title." " It's a stupid title." "There's no tellin' what it'll be about or what it'll be called when it's done." " While I despise poor choice in humor, your friend here has been doing much better and will be soon be ready for a monitored release." " What if I'd rather stay?" "Can, uh, Dwight go instead?" " Doesn't work that way." "It should motivate him to get better so you can both be outta here." "Fall, season of life." "Birds know it." "Oh, how sad." "Orderly." "Remove this, please." "I don't know what happened to its head, but I don't want it to disturb any of the patients." "Thank you." " I guess Van gogh's power over it is real." "I see so much stuff that can't be, that I guess I assume everything i see is just a delusion." "Do I have some X-ray type vision like his?" "I pestered Van gogh about all of this for weeks after that day." " No, I, I don't have the power over life or death." "My paintings show things as they really are or will be." " So if you paint the doctor dead," "I mean, if you're able to paint it, then it's, it's meant to be, right?" " So you really want me to help you escape, huh?" " Goddamn right I do." "I tell ya, when I look at him," "I see a dead man." " Then paint the picture." "I quit the day that bird died." "I don't want my paintings to be blood on my hands." "I'm through with that!" " Look, I can't, you know that." "Look, they say that you're leavin' tomorrow." "They say you're cured." " What do they know?" " Nothin', but what does that matter if you're free?" " Exactly!" " Maybe we were both crazy that day." "Maybe nothing we saw was real." "Look, do it as a farewell present for me." " One last crazy thing for old time's sake, huh?" " And when nothing happens, then I'll know and accept that I have to stay here." "My man Van gogh, thank you." "It's beautiful." "Now in an hour, I have the session with the doc." "That's when I want you to finish it." " What I saw was too horrible." " Nurse." "Somebody come quick!" "I'm sorry." "You should've stopped." " What I saw," "I saw more clearly than ever before, and the more clearly I saw it," "I felt my mind, not goin', but bein' taken." " I'm sorry, I shoulda known no good would come of this, we're insane." " Yes, we are." "And that makes us vulnerable." "We're weak, so we can be taken." "I thought if, if I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me, and I'd be safe." "Or, or maybe they wouldn't want a blind man's life." " I couldn't take much time to mourn my friend's final slip into total insanity." "No!" "His fate is what's waiting for me if I stay here to be cured." "So that's what you really look like." " What do you think you're doing, Dwight?" " I don't know." "Somethin' crazy I guess you'd say." " No." "Lookin' for my keys in that desk isn't crazy." "Luckily for both of us," "I was just coming back here to put them away." "You saw what an unbalanced mind did to your friend." "If you do this, whatever it is you're about to do," "you'll take that same step into the bottomless deep end." " More water analogies?" "Well, this water wants out of the glass." "You think you know everything about us here?" "Did you ever think that being insane allows us to see the true reality around us?" "That's what Van gogh believed." " Van gogh?" "You know, he let you call him that because the real Van gogh killed himself" "rather than live on and be insane." " I'm not gonna kill myself." " If you do this, you're as good as dead." " Woo!" "Is that you?" "I'm free now." "Don't be sad." "I'm so happy to find you." "Okay." "Okay, you got me." "Maybe Van gogh and the doc were right." "Maybe it's too much for me out here." "You, you won't believe what i just saw." "Was it something like this?" " Hey, help!" "Buddy, I don't know why I'm trying to save you." "Come on outta there." " No, stop it!" " What are you doin'?" " Stop it!" "No!" " What are you doin'?" "Get a grip." "You're free." "Got to get control of your imagination or you're not gonna last out here." "Gotta put the water back in the glass." "So who are you, huh, buddy?" "I couldn't remember anything about where I used to live." "I had nowhere else to go." "I figured a dead man's not going to come home for a good night's sleep, so" "I'll take his place." "Finally." "A break." "I had no intention of starting a life of crime, but I needed a head start on my new life." "Besides, I tried to save him." "I wasn't taking much in return." "You've done all right for yourself, Mr. Finch." "Too bad you can't take it with ya." " Coming up next, an asylum inmate is loose tonight." " We bought flooring for this room?" "We got flooring for this room free." "And this room was free, too." "It's on again." " Is it really you?" "Are you really here?" "I thought I saw you earlier tonight." " Hello, art." "Where'd you see me?" "In the bottom of a Martini glass?" "Or did you call out my name in passion, get kicked out of some slut's house, and have to come crawling back here to me?" " Um." "No," "I, uh, car was stolen." " Save it." " No, Ellen, I." "Ellen." "How do, how do I know?" "Your name is Ellen Finch." " By accident of marriage." " Aw, what the fuck?" "It's not me." "I know the alarm code." "I know her name's Ellen." " Stop staring at me." " Ellen, I just wanted you to know that I wasn't out drinking tonight or with anyone." " Well good." " I, I love you." " Not tonight you don't." "Since you haven't been out drinking," "I guess you can sleep in here." " To repeat the top story at this late hour, a manhunt for an escaped mental patient has ended." "The man was taken back to the hospital, and is in poor condition after being involved in a car accident." "The owner of the car is missing, but the return of the escaped man comes as a relief, as he was a danger to himself and others." " Ghouls, that's all those people are." "You should've known better than to turn it on before going to bed." "That stuff gives me nightmares." " Look, I don't wanna press my luck with you." "Maybe I should sleep on the couch tonight." " I'm not used to your being this perceptive." "Or sober." " You're insane to like me." "Wow, that's really funny because it's true." " I'm sure you'll make up for it by being extra drunk tomorrow." "Wanna turn the lights off?" " Ellen, I, uh, guess we've known each other a long time." "And, uh, I've done some bad things." "But I want you to know all that is over." " You're just gonna make me mad trying all that I'll change stuff again." " I just mean if, if we don't go on together," "I'm sorry to have let us down." " Now that I've never heard you say before." " Goodnight, Ellen." "Why did I say all that sappy stuff to her?" "If I'm incurably insane, why wouldn't I be incurably romantic?" "You're not the woman that came to visit me at the hospital." "Maybe these women are the fantasies that kept me alive in the asylum." "You're sure not the woman i saw at the cemetery." "She'd obviously been hurt by this Finch person that she thinks I am." "So I felt I owed her an apology." "Is that all I felt for her?" "I don't know." "How did I know her name and the code?" "The only thing I know for sure is that this is all crazy, but I was used to that." "I didn't even know what I'd wake up to." "But I know I wasn't afraid." " Can you get that?" " Yeah, sure." " Artemis Finch?" " Yeah." "Uh, if you say so." " We found your car burned down on the side of the road last night." "Care to explain that?" " So the car really was stolen last night?" " Yeah, see?" "And, uh, I guess whoever stole it, wrecked it." "Right?" "Come on in, I'll make you some coffee." "As far as I can tell, I'm still me." "But if everybody else says different, who am I to disagree?" " Come on, you'll be late." "They say there's going to be a crowd of over 100 this year." " Crowd for what?" " For you." "They say the mayor may even be there." " You know, I, I can never get these ties on straight." " Come on." "I have to get you there so I can get to my mom's." " What, you're not coming?" " You never wanted me there before." " Well maybe now it's different." " You're the one that seems different." " Okay." "So go out with your mom." "How 'bout next time, hmm?" " That seems more familiar." " She could definitely become my dream woman." "And Finch screwed this marriage up." "Well maybe I can fix that, if I or things don't get out of control again." "Well, if Finch is stuck with my old life, he's welcome to it." "I'd pity him, but I think he probably deserves it." "Well, I can't help that." "And I'll get just fine stayin' out here." "Doc and Van gogh were right." "It's completely insane out here." "But it's the kind of insanity" "I could get used to." " Sorry to have to do this, but it's time for our keynote speaker to step up here." "Please welcome Mr. Artemis Finch and his amazing success story." " Oh, is that for me?" " Thank you." " Oh, sure." "Good to see you." "Hi." " Yes." " Thank you." "Thank you very much." "Uh." "I, uh, don't know where to begin." " Well, you could begin talking about, uh, how you got out of the institution." " The institution?" "But I'm Artemis Finch." " Tell us how you get out and rebuilt your life." " Really?" "Okay." "That'll be easy." "Thought you wanted me to talk about something hard." "Really, it's, um, it's about goal-orientation." "Even in the hell of institutionalization," "I, I realized" "I had to have a, a dream, a goal that I could strive for." "Finch's speech just came to me as if it was out of my own memory." "His thoughts come to me actually better than my own." "I still have little memory of why I was locked up." "But it seems Finch was, like me, crazy at one point." "I'd certainly never met him at the hospital." "But it seems like Finch was one of the doctor's success stories." "If it'll work for me, it'll work for you." "Hi." "Thank you." "So glad you came out." "Thanks for buying my book." "I need the money, I could use the money." "You look wonderful tonight." "It's good to see ya." "You're good to go." "Thanks so much." "Yeah." " Mr. Finch, that was a great speech." "Even, even better than the one that changed my life a few years ago." "Um, I, I don't expect you to remember me, but, uh, my name's Oscar Werner." " Oscar." "Oscar wiener, how ya doin'?" "So what's up?" "Want me to speak for your group again?" " Well, uh, yes and no." "I'm with a volunteer outreach group." " Yeah, volunteer." "That, that's very noble, but I'm afraid I must limit myself to professional speaking engagements now." " Well, we have a tax deductible status" " Oscar, I, you ever have the opportunity to hire me, so to speak, I'd be more than happy to help ya out." "Uh, I just came in here to take a piss." "Here's one of my cards." "You aren't a very nice guy, are ya, Mr. Finch?" " Hey, Mr. wonderful." " You, Jackie, right?" " You ready to leave?" "What's that, a love letter?" " Hardly." "Let's go." "So you all talked out?" " Yeah, I guess so." "Nice of you to let me drive your car." " Where you driving to?" " I don't really know actually." "Maybe I've had too much to drink." "Which way is it to my house?" " Well you really wanna just go home?" " Yeah." "I'm afraid so." " Uh, well why don't we just swing by my place?" "I, I left my cell." "I need to check my voice mail." "Maybe get you some coffee and, um, sober you up?" " Sure." " And there's no parking on this street." "Just pull in the garage." " Can I help you?" " Are you Jackie?" " No, I know her, but I don't know you." " Let go of her!" " You're not Dwight." "Where does Jackie live?" " Next door." " Hello." " What the hell's that?" " Dad, what happened to mom?" " Nothing important." " That's my neighbor but he'd never hurt anyone." " Oh, he's gonna kill us next." "Are all the doors locked?" " Yes, no, I never bother locking the kitchen." " No, wait." " Wait for what?" " You're makin' a mess of things." "You'd better give yourself peacefully so no one else has to die." " Look, just don't hurt me." " That won't be possible." " Hey, I'm Artemis Finch, you don't wanna kill me." " No you're not, and yes, I do." "Where did you get that nasty little scar?" "Let me refresh your memory about it." "Just had to be sure you were really Dwight inside there." "Because as you can see, looks are deceiving." " I know you." "You're the morning guy." " Morning, it's a beautiful day outside." " Every day outside is beautiful." " Sorry for showin' off like that." "Just wanted to see your mind crack open." "These weapons, they're clumsy." "But the pain they give, it's worth the extra effort." " What are you really?" "And why are you trying to kill me?" " Mr. Finch, Mr. Finch." "Mr. Finch, rise and shine." "It's a bright new day." "Oh, it's you, Dwight." "Well, you can't fool anybody in here." "Ah, well, doesn't matter." "Good thing we nabbed Dwight." "As you can see, I need your face." "Give it to me!" " No!" " I thought I heard you scream." " This reopened wound is sensitive to all kinds of things." "Right now, I can sense through her touch just how much she hated this man Finch." "Thanks." " That was my favorite." "It hasn't worked in years." "When did you learn to-  it was something i knew long before we met." "I can take things apart pretty well." "But I'd rather put them back together." " Where are you taking me?" " I think I left the shower on." " I don't know about this." " Do you want me to stop?" "I'll just turn the water on, okay?" " What, you afraid I'll break it again?" " No, I fixed it for good this time." "I'm gonna fix everything." " It hasn't been like this since-  since before I was committed?" " No." "Even when you were at your-  craziest." " Yes." "Even then, when you were in the hospital, you were always sweet to me." "No, the doctors told me that you'd get better but I didn't believe them." "But you did." "It was wonderful." "Then when you came home, it was like something had changed." "Like you'd changed or something." " Well, I hope so, I was sane." " No." "Never mind." "This is the man I fell in love with." " If I'm good to Ellen, maybe she can save me from madness, and then I can, in turn, give her the love that Finch kept for himself or sold off in small pieces to others." "I thought this was all just some crazy accident, but maybe I deserve to take over his life." "Wait a minute, I fucking hate jogging." "God, you gotta be kiddin' me." "Oh yeah." "You can't go joggin' without these." "The night I escaped, I ran through here." "I wasn't sure if any of that was real." "I saw those faceless things somewhere around here." "Hmm, no sign of them now." "This is all crazy." "But I was used to that." "I wasn't afraid." "By living Finch's life, am I losing my own identity?" "No, I'm stronger than whatever he is." "I can fight off his habits." " That's dangerous you know." "There's dead leaves on the ground." "You could start a fire." " Yeah, sorry." "Those friends of yours?" " No, and neither are you." "Leave me alone." "Hey." "Maybe you can work this in." " Don't need it." "That's the past." " Oh yeah, that's right." "You only paint the future." "Who is that?" "I'm sorry, you're blind." "But, how can you paint if you can't see?" " Oh," "I can see." " You escaped the hospital." "But your insanity is the real trap." "One you can't escape." " Hey, uh, hey, I'm sorry about that." "I, I didn't mean to hurt your arm." " It wasn't bleeding before." " Hey, you know my mom used to say that pain is one way we know we're alive." " Yeah, you must have had a great childhood." " Yeah, from what I've seen in my business, yeah." " What business is that, chasing people?" " When necessary." "I'm a detective, Brent kesler." "You looked a little frightened back there, Mr. Finch." "I'm not that scary, am I?" " No, you're not." "Who hired you to follow me?" " I'm not supposed to say." " What if I paid you more than they are?" " Well, I reckon in this case it doesn't make any difference." "It's all your money anyway." " My money?" "My wife?" "Why would she do that?" " Mr. Finch, why do women hire detectives anyway?" "Hell, I cheat on my wife, i still do." "I'm more on your side than your wife." " So why'd you tackle me, blow your cover?" " You looked like you were freakin' out, havin' a breakdown or somethin'." "Like you were bein' chased by someone." " So you didn't see anyone chasing' me?" "You didn't see me talkin' to anybody?" " Nah, we spoke in the graveyard." "Since then, no one." "Look, your wife's filed for divorce, hired me to collect any damning information." "That's the only reason I'm here." " I doubt she'll want a divorce now." " Well that's up to her, isn't it?" " Why don't you come to my house?" "Hear for yourself." " Okay, it's true, all right?" "I did, I was thinking about it for a while." "You know, our lawyer told me that I should hire somebody and get information." " Okay, I believe you, and I believe our lawyer's a spineless cocksucker, and that she had nothin' to do with it, but I'm askin' you to tell him that." " That?" " That it's off." "That you don't wanna divorce me." "That he should just get hired by somebody else and fuck up their marriage!" " Are you ordering me to trust you again?" " No." "Yeah, I, no, that's not what I mean, I'm sorry." " Look, I'm part of the problem here." "And I'm not bein' hired to do that." "Mrs. Finch, call me, and you tell me either to pack it in or keep it up." "I'll do whatever you say." "I'm outta here." "Bye, y'all." " Look, I'm sorry to have put you in the middle of all that." " That approach isn't gonna work out, Mr. Finch." "I know that much about women." " I know, I don't know what came over me." "Of course, I knew what was coming over me." "It was Finch." "His personality reaching out from the hospital, jealously trying to wreck things and somehow switch identities with me again." "Please, I insist on it." "Now look." "There's some people I want you to check on at the psych ward." " Checkin' in on old friends?" " More like old enemies." "But that's what I want you to find out." " What's the name of this patient?" " First off, check up on a Dr. shaker." "See if he's still there." "And the patient's name is Finch, he's." "No." "Oh, I'm sorry, that's my name." "Stroud, Dwight stroud." "He was in the car accident the other night." "Dwight stroud." " Who, this one?" " Yeah." "There's another patient i want you to check up on, too." " Yeah, what's his name?" " Never mind." "I just found him." " I didn't think you liked art." " I don't." "I thought this would be different." " It's different all right." "I love this one actually." "It's beautiful." " I'm gonna see if I can work out a deal with the artist." " You don't have to do that." " No, no, no, no." "Lemme do this for you." "Wait here." "Well, well, Mr. Van gogh." " Van gogh?" " Actually, I used to call you Da Vinci just to irritate ya." " Yeah, now I remember." "Um, Dwight, right?" " You recognize me?" " Yes, now I do." " People out here think I'm somebody else." " Crazy, we're cured, not them, remember?" " Oh, hey, I have a piece of a painting" "I found that looks like one of yours." "I don't know, it's crazy out here sometimes." " You know what?" "I'll take that over what we had on the inside." "Listen, come here, I need to talk to you for a second, okay?" " Uh huh." " Listen, I realize now that I've recovered that my wild ideas in the hospital were just products of insanity." " People out here think I'm this other guy Finch." " Be careful with that kinda talk, friend." "The rewards that the real world has to offer are far more lasting and satisfying than any fantasies." " That's true, but the fantasies I have left are pretty frightening." " Just think of 'em as bad dreams." "The more awake you are to reality, the more they'll fade." " I don't know." " Don't feel guilty about bein' out here." "Guilt's what put us in there in the first place." "Now, if your delusions persist, get some therapy or new meds." " You believe in therapy now?" " What else got us out here?" "Listen, I gotta get back to my adoring' public and open their wallets as well as their minds." " Uh, can I see ya again?" " No, I don't think that's a good idea." "As a matter of fact, you have better friends here now." " Well, I found Dr. shaker and I didn't find Dr. shaker." " What do you mean?" " Well, one of the staff here explained that, uh," "Dr. shaker isn't a person, it's a, it's a room where they leave these patients after they've been medicated." "It's sort of a holding area where they, they keep 'em to make sure they don't have a negative reaction to the medication." "You know, like the shakes." " Dr. shaker." " They tell me patients call medication a trip to see Dr. shaker." " What's the room look like?" " Well, I guess there used to be a desk in here." "Stroud found a set of keys in the drawer and that sped his escape." "Well that's gone, so that won't happen anymore." " Keys from a desk?" "What else?" " Well, let's see." "On the far wall, they've got some pictures of, uh, hospital staff, from what I can see." "Old pictures." " Pictures of dead people?" " No, they look alive in the photos." " Oh no, I mean, from a long time ago." "They're probably dead now." " Probably." " No wonder shaker always looked dead to me." " What?" " Never mind." "Um, what about my painter friend?" " Oh, he got out, not like the stroud guy, he was cured." "Hey, look, uh, I'll call ya later." " Everything okay?" " It wasn't what I thought." "I mean, yeah, we're, we're okay." " He recovered enough to bring him back here from intensive care." "His mental wounds are now considered to be his most important." " Stroud was trying to escape?" " He's still trying." "As soon as he regained consciousness, he tried again, so we had to restrain him." " Can I talk to him?" " Talk at him's more like it." "I'd prefer you not get him started." " What do you mean?" " He'll just start ranting again about how he's not Dwight stroud, and it's a mistake, and how somebody on the outside stole his life and he shouldn't be in here, it's." " What is that called?" "Uh, disassociation." "What, what causes somethin' like that?" " Well lots of things can, though the theory in stroud's case is that he's trying to escape the guilt over what he did to end up in here." " What'd he do?" " Uh, I'm sorry, there's an emergency." "I've gotta go." " Hey, can I stay here?" " I'll just be a few minutes, but don't get him excited." " I'll be as dull as possible." " Why was I committed?" " Let's not talk about that." " No, really, help me remember so it won't happen again." " Well, your business collapsed and then you lost faith in yourself, and you got really depressed, and." " And?" " You got violent." " Did I hurt you?" " Not permanently." "You were more a danger to yourself." " And eventually I got better?" " No." "I think you were getting worse." "You were in a coma, and your kidneys started to fail." "Then it was almost like a miracle." " Almost." "Do me a favor." "If I ever mistreat you again, show me this." "It'll remind me of who i need to be for you." " I crawled out of the grave to be with you." " Bad dream?" " The worst." " I know where you are now, Dwight." "You thought you killed me but that was just a body I was using, just like you're using my body now." "I'm going to come over there and take it back." " No, anywhere but here." "I'll do whatever you say as long as Ellen isn't involved." " Now you're learning, Dwight." "Meet me outside the main library at midnight." " What are you doin'?" "I told you to stay home." " I thought you could use the help." " I'm sure, but it's not gonna be dangerous." " It's not gonna be dangerous?" "You've been different lately but I can still tell when you're lying." " I'm not, and you really need to go." " Come on, you make me drop you off in the middle of the night, and you won't even tell me why?" " Okay, look, this guy, he's another former mental patient." "He's shy, especially around women." "He thinks he's havin' some sort of relapse." "We're supposed to help support one another." " Like a husband and wife do?" "No, I'm not going." " Please trust me and leave." "Goddamn it!" " I'm sorry, honey." " I would never hurt you." " I'm so sorry, honey, I didn't mean to grab your bad arm." "Are you okay?" " It's okay, it's okay." "It's nothing, look, look, there's my friend." "Look, here's what you do, just drive around the block, and just check up on me." "If you see anything strange, call the police." " 'Kay, well stay where I can see you." " Finch!" " Hey, kesler," "I was supposed to meet somebody here at midnight." "I, I, I think they meant to kill me." " That would be me." " Kesler." " Not anymore." "The first time I tried to kill ya, this woulda slowed me down, but now." " He's in trouble." " Death is an ugly thing." "You were an accident." "Not part of the plan." " Who were you fighting with?" "He hurt you." "What he did, I can feel your pain." "I knew I had to get back." " I can't explain it in any rational way." "No police." "No, we can't get involved in this, okay?" "There was an innocent man killed tonight." "I think this whole thing was planned just to set me up!" " What just happened out there?" " I didn't know you smoked." " I got it from you." "Don't change the subject." "You know, when you first got sick and they put you away, my mom told me that it was a good thing 'cause your going crazy would eventually make me go to, and, you know, I told her off," "and I hung up the phone, but I don't understand what's going on." "I think I just helped you kill somebody out there, and what was that thing in the gully?" " You didn't see anything, you were too far away." " I'm sure you didn't want me to see it because from what little that i did see it wasn't even" " I told you to leave it alone!" "Now why don't you just get off my ass, woman?" "And I swear to god, if you ever mention your mother again." "I'm sorry." "Sorry." "I, I don't even smoke." "Come on, sit down." "You want a drink?" " Yes." "You know, the last couple days," "I felt more connected to you than I ever have, but to feel your pain, to know that you were in trouble, it's." " A painter friend of mine told me to feel love deeply was to be able to do that." "Empathy." " It's beyond anything normal." "You're not drinking either?" " No, I, i-  who are you?" " I'm your husband." "And I love-- - that's right, you are now." "I loved you before they put you away." "But, when you got out, well, you were kind of a bastard, like you were a second ago." "Mostly, though, you were just distant." "But you made money and we traveled." "I started collecting these everywhere we went." "I was hiding behind them." "Not like you noticed." "But you notice now." "It seems you see inside me, and I'm seeing." "Outside." "I see like I'm seeing through your eyes." "To your insanity." " No." " But you seem fine now." "Messing up is your disease." " No, no, you're just a little drunk." "It's all right." " No, I'm not drunk, I." "You drugged me?" " Look, look, I've taken these a million times." "You'll be fine, you'll just sleep a deep, quiet, dreamless sleep." " But I don't wanna sleep," "I wanna understand." " No, no, if you understood it you'd be as crazy as I was." "When you wake up in the morning, it will all be better." " Okay." " I don't know how, but I'm gonna make it all go away." "Get your hands off my wife." " She's Finch's wife, not yours." "You think she's starting to figure that out?" " Stop touching her!" " I'm not doing anything, Dwight, 'cause I'm not even here." " I know that." " But I am part of your personality." "I'm proof that you aren't Finch." "Or not yet." "Not inside here." "Anyway, why be so angry?" "You've assumed Finch's life and thoughts, and, as you see, that will make you into the lovable guy he was." " She deserves better than that." "What if Finch doesn't live?" " I'd barely call it living." "He's trapped in that damaged body at our favorite hospital." "To end that life, well," "I'd barely call it murder." "You thought those were my keys." " What matters is that they're hospital keys." "I'm gonna kill Finch." " Go ahead, you're good at that." "Don't worry about Ellen." "She's safer here with me than with you." "Only trouble is, I'm not here alone." " Home again, home again." "Why can't I remember what room i was in?" "Man, I'd kill for a cigarette." "I'll lose all of my own personality if I don't end this soon." "Trapped inside of what was my body is Finch's soul, I guess I'd call it, for lack of a better word." " Beasts without souls." "That's what insane people used to be called." "That's what made you so perfect to take over for us." " That's over now." "You'll die right where you are, and I'll stay in your body alive and sane." " Is that your plan?" "To live out your life as Artemis Finch?" " Yes, and I'll treat Ellen the way she should be treated." " Oh, and all the rest?" "You'll make a better Finch than i did, is that it?" "I hope it works out for ya." " How did I end up in your body?" " After the car wreck, when I was at the point of death." "You touched me." "No!" "Raping me of Finch's life, giving me your mindless asylum life in its stead." "We're sharing souls." "That can't continue." " No, it can't." "And you don't have long now by the looks of it." " Now, at the moment of death again," "I'll take Finch back." " You're helpless to do anything but die, Finch." " I'm not Finch." " Not, not Finch?" " Finch was a mindless vacuum, an empty insane mind that allowed me in to take his place." " He didn't recover?" " Oh no." "He's trapped in my remains now." " And where is that?" " You'll only find that out when it's too late." "I should thank you, Dwight." "I sent the detective and the other orderly out for you before, and they failed." "Now you've come to me." "A plague." "This body's dead." "But what of the soul?" " So shall you be here, freed from the demons of your mind that tormented you, and resting in peace until that judgment day when god shall reclaim you as his own, Dwight stroud." " Well, that's the end of me as far as the world is concerned." "Only I know that it's Finch who's being buried for good." "I never thought I'd be the only mourner at my own funeral." "Was she my sister?" "A friend?" "Maybe even a wife or daughter?" "I can't remember." "But it was harder to be happy about my supposed death knowing I'd left someone behind and alone." "The two worst things you can be." " I woke up feeling foggy." "I don't remember, did we have a fight or something?" " No, nothing like that." " I still feel groggy." "What's wrong with me?" " Not a thing." " Who are you now?" "Finch the cheat?" "The manipulator?" " He's dead." "I'll live his life my own way." " Dwight stroud's way?" "Then you still have to know why you went insane." " That doesn't matter." "It's different now." " Well, if you're sane now, why am I here?" " Who are you talking to?" "I thought I saw a shadow out there." " No, I was just talking in my sleep." "Where are you going?" " Bathroom." " Where are you going now?" " Relax, goin' to the kitchen to get somethin' to settle my stomach." "Ugh, it's too hard." "I'll have to use a knife to get the rest of it out." "It's for you, Dwight." "It's for you." "You left the ice cream out last night." "Melted all over." " Hello?" " Yeah, hello." " Is that you Mr. Finch?" " Yes, yes, sure." " Okay, great." "You're speaking to our company meeting today." " I am?" "Okay." " We wondered if you could be here a little later than we planned." " Uh, I can be there in an hour." " That was the old time." "How 'bout right after lunch, two pm." " Sure, great." "And that's my recipe for success." " That's very interesting, Mr. Finch." "But I had some questions about your accounting formula." "For market research." " Formula?" " I'd like you to just take us through some computations, one to one, like you did the last time you were here." " The last time." "You mean, the old days." "Right, um, sure." "Let me find a good example." "Here." "There we go." "Now." " Good recovery, Dwight." "Finch is dead now." "You're really on your own." "But I have faith in you." "Shh." " Right." "So here's an equation." "As you'd usually see it." " Is there anything wrong?" " We know math is." "Just a tool." "What you can do is use that to succeed." "Anyone can fudge around." "With numbers." "What do I have to do to be rid of you?" " Just become sane." "Sorry." "You know, though you weren't listening at your funeral," "I was." "Though it's commonly believed that when we die we go immediately to heaven or hell, that really doesn't happen until judgment day." "Till then, we're all trapped." " He's trapped in his body." "I'll, I'll destroy the body in the grave." "Is that the answer?" " Did you say destroy the body in the grave?" " No." "Slip of the tongue." "So if there are no other questions," "I'll be leaving." " Well, if he thinks I'm gonna pay good money for that load of double talk, he's completely out of his fucking mind." " Is it really you?" " Oh, I, look, I, I'm sorry what happened at the gallery." "I had to pretend I didn't know you so no one else would know." " Look, I understand you want to live your life free of the past, that's, that's all I wanna be able to do." "What's buried there beneath my name still haunts me." " I heard you died and came here to pay my respects." " I came here to destroy it in order to be free." "I see you over there, doc." "Don't worry, you can't see him." "He's only in my mind." " You're right, I'm not the one you have to worry about." " Hi, uh, this is Mrs. Finch again." "What time did you say my husband left?" " I don't know, hours ago?" "Look, I'm busy, I, I gotta go." " I see you standing there." "You've been standing here staring at me for over an hour." "Who are you, what do you want?" " If you love your husband, you'll follow me." "I'm Mrs. Dwight stroud." "I'll show you." "I'll be as gentle as possible." "What's yours will soon be mine." "As it should be." "This is where Dwight and I lived when we were first married." "The neighborhood wasn't great then but better than what's left of it now." " I don't believe you." " Really?" "I'll show you." " Gimme the pick." " Why do you need the lid off?" " You and I see things in the same way." "I need you to see it, too." "Gimme a hand." "Look down there." "Is that me?" " No." " Really?" "There must be no trace of him left." " That's not my husband." " Look closer." " What's the point?" "If you have the power to lead me here, you can probably make me see whatever you want." " Mm, but you can't dismiss your own feelings." "Haven't you noticed recently your husband's been kinder, more gentle lately?" "It's because he's not your husband." "He's mine." "Come with me upstairs and I'll prove it." "Dwight and I, we're not who you think we are." "We're fluid." "We can fill whatever body our emotions shape us into." "I need to empty you out." "So I can refill us." " He knows he's still not free." " Yeah, that's right, he doesn't know." "He doesn't know at all." " Goodbye, Dwight." "You won't see me anymore, you're beyond listening to me." "If you do get free of Finch, then you'll be truly alone because his personality is the only sanity you have left." " I saw you talkin' to him." "No sense pretending he's not real, he's in my mind." " Well I'm glad the pretense is over." "I'll tell you what I know." " I know you're not what you seem." "You tore your eyes out the night i escaped and now you have eyes." "When I saw you at the gallery, you acted like you didn't know me at first." "You look like Van gogh, just like I look like Finch, but who are you really?" " It's all true." "Only when we touch that i see you as Dwight." "Your soul in his body, his trapped in yours." "We see the real faces behind these masks." " If Finch's soul is trapped in my body, they both are destroyed, but I'm still crazy," "I'm still not free." " That's right, Dwight." "There's a big piece of the puzzle missing', and you're standin' on it." " I, I, I escaped." "But those faceless things i saw, they were real?" " Not only were they real, they still are." "We're still here." "Don't worry, Dwight, they're too stupid to do anything." "We're all waiting for judgment day." "Well, a few of us got tired of waiting." "Three of us saw you pathetic, mindless creatures up there and decided to live through you." "We ate away what was left of your souls or minds, if you prefer, and took over your live bodies as our own." "Finch was taken over first so they would leave the hospital." "Then it was your former wife turned to inhabit a life." "I took the painter." "You aren't free of what you knew as Finch because what you destroyed was just some dirty clothing that his soul had been wearin'." "You've driven him back into his own corpse." "They are glass." "I don't need eyes to see." " There's no spirit above this grave because it's trapped underneath." " What insane thing are you doin' now?" " Don't give me that insanity crap." "I believe what the real Van gogh told me." "That what I see is the real truth." "This is the body that took over Finch's life before me." "This is the source." "Whatever's left rotting under here," "I've got to destroy." "He can't escape me, there's nowhere else to go." " What makes you think I won't stop you?" " You would've stopped me a long time ago if you wanted to." "You're too selfish to care about anything but yourself and the life you stole from the real Van gogh," "the one who was my only true friend." "Unless you'd rather go back to your original body also." " You know me well enough, but don't think your desires are much different from mine." "You may not have to dig as deeply this time." " It's time we met face-to-face." "My true shape of what you knew as Finch." "I am the soul we are both sharing." " Dwight, it's that pain that connects you to your old life." "'Cause that's all our life was, pain." "It's the pain that forced you insane so you could forget it." "If you kill this thing, you can live that life again." " Ellen." "No, Ellen, get out!" " That's what happened before." "And that's what will happen again." "That's where you left me when you killed me." "You meant to kill yourself afterwards, but you went crazy before you could finish." " No." " Think of anything else you would force yourself to forget?" "Anything as horrible?" " No." "No, you're right." "I can never remember this life." " I know." "And that's why I forgave you." "Every single" "time I came to see you at the hospital." "I can never let you touch me or you'd remember all the pain." "It would destroy you before i could have you back." " That was all that kept me going." "It was good at first." "You were so good to me." "Please, please let Ellen go." " You can't love her." " Help!" " I came back from the dead to be with you." "I took over this body and I gave you Finch." "Back from the dead to be with you." "I made sure you got free." " We were no good for each other." "Look at where we ended up." " You'll kill her, Dwight." "Once you're free of Finch, you'll go insane again." " Since you want her body and not mine, this is how you did it, Dwight." "Switch with her at the moment of death." "That way, we can be together at least for a few moments." "So you see, you'll have me whether you want me or not." " No." "Not Ellen." " You'll have to kill me again, Dwight." "It's what you are and what you were." "But at least we'll be together for a few moments." "It will be beautiful." " Don't worry, my friend Van gogh had enough of his sad part in this world." "He wanted to end his life a lot more than you wanted to take it from him." " Well, I try to do justice with what he created." "Tell me what you think of this." "It's yours, to remind you of what you did to be free." " I want you to finish it." " It is finished." " No." "I want you to add my face to it." " Do you know what'll happen if I did that?" " I know what'll happen if you don't." "I know who I was now." "Who I am." "I'm Dwight stroud, a psychopathic killer." "And I know I'll kill Ellen eventually if I go on living." "But I want you to add one more thing to it first." " Don't touch him." "He's at the point of death." " No!" "No!" "What are you?" "Why would you let him do this?" " If you had touched him, you'd have found out." "He saved you from that and perhaps much worse." "The painting is yours." "He had me finish it to save you." "But it's not mine." "Dwight lived that painting." "And he signed it as his own."