331 - October 2, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Elizabeth Collins Stoddard] - There is terror in this night.

One boy will live through an experience so terrifying

that his mind will reel.

And for an instant,

his heart will stop beating.

♪♪

[wind whistling loudly]

[bat chittering]

- No!

No!

Get out--

No!

[chittering continues]

Help!

Help!

Help!

♪♪

[waves crashing] ♪♪

[David] Help!

Help!

Help!

- What is it? - It's David!

[David] - Help, help!

Help!

Help, help!

Help me, please!

Help!

- David?

- Help! - Where are you, David?

- Help! - What is it?

- What is it? - What's happened to you?

- Is-- Is it gone?

- What? Is what gone?

- The bat! - The bat?

- Yes! There was a bat in here.

It was gigantic and it attacked me!

- Attacked you? - Yes!

It flew right at me, it tried to k*ll me!

- David, there is no bat in this room.

- That's right, darling, look around.

There's nothing here.

- It-- It-- It was here!

It must have flown away.

- Now, be sensible, David.

How could a bat get into this room?

- It flew in, through the window.

- Through that window?

- Yes.

The window blew open

and I saw the bat out there watching me

and then it flew in.

- Look at this window, David.

- It isn't open.

- No, it's closed.

And it's bolted.

- It was open!

I saw the bat fly in here.

- Now, David.

- You don't believe me, do you?

- I'm trying to believe everything you tell me, son.

- But you don't.

Do you believe me, Aunt Elizabeth?

- Oh darling,

I know you were genuinely frightened by something but--

- Oh, you don't believe me either.

- David...

- Nobody believes me.

There was a bat in here!

There was!

I'm not lying, I'm not!

- We're not accusing you, David.

- Of course we're not.

- Leave me alone. Go away!

- You'd better call Dr. Woodard right away

and ask him to come up here.

- I think it's a good idea.

[whimpering] - Why are you calling a doctor?

I'm not sick.

- No, but...

He'll give you something to calm you down.

- Aunt Elizabeth, I'm not lying.

Why can't you believe that?

- I'm not accusing you of lying, David.

- But you don't believe me, do you?

- I believe that you were frightened

by something you saw.

But it was only your imagination.

- It wasn't my imagination.

The bat was here! It was!

- David, calm down.

- It was, it was!

- All right, I believe you.

- You do? - Yes, now calm down.

- The bat was here and I know why it was here.

- Why was it here?

- He sent it after me.

- He?

- Yes, Cousin Barnabas.

Cousin Barnabas hates me.

- Oh, David.

- He sent the bat because he wants me to die.

He wants me to die!

He wants me to die!

♪♪

♪♪

[wind whistling]

♪♪

[knocking]

- Roger! What a pleasant surprise.

- Hello, Barnabas.

May I speak with you for a moment?

- Of course. Come in.

Well, we've seen very little of each other lately.

How are you?

- Troubled, I'm afraid.

- Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that.

May I ask why?

- Oh, it's David.

- Oh.

Well, sit down.

- He's becoming more and more of a problem.

- Well, I know he's been behaving very strangely

since he ran away.

- Strange is hardly the word for it.

This evening, he imagined he was attacked by a bat.

- A bat? - That's what he said.

A bat was supposed to have gotten into his room

and flown at him.

- Well, perhaps something did get into his room.

- No, the window was closed and bolted.

Nothing could have gotten in the room.

- How curious.

- I would have thought he was lying

if he hadn't been so genuinely terrified.

It must have been some hallucination

that was quite real to him.

He was so upset that we had to call Doctor Woodard

and I'm going to suggest that he recommend a psychiatrist.

The boy obviously needs one.

- I'm terribly sorry to hear about this.

I wish there were something I could do to help.

- Oh, thank you, but there's nothing you can do.

It's our problem.

Oh, which reminds me,

I'm forgetting the reason for my visit.

I owe you an apology.

- An apology? For what?

- Didn't Miss Hoffman tell you?

She found David prowling around here this afternoon.

- Oh.

Why, yes.

Yes.

She did mention it.

- I've made him promise that it will never happen again.

I'll see to it that he keeps his promise this time.

- But how could he have gotten in here?

The front door was locked.

- Oh, I don't know.

David has a rare talent for being places he shouldn't be.

- What was he looking for?

- Oh, it's so absurd, I hesitate to tell you.

- Oh, please, I'd like to know.

- He thinks you've...

something hidden here.

- Something hidden?

- Yes, something strange and spooky, to use his own words.

[chuckling] - Such as?

- Oh, he has no idea.

He just imagines that you've some

great mystery in your basement.

- Why in my basement?

- Because he found the basement door locked.

This stimulated his imagination, so he is quite convinced

that you have some dark mystery in the basement.

Have you ever heard of such utter nonsense?

- Of course not.

But, there's nothing there but a lot of odds and ends.

- Well, of course there isn't.

- Well...

If I can show you myself, I would be quite glad to.

- I wouldn't dream of wasting my time or yours.

But I don't know what I'm going to do about David.

His fantasies are getting wilder and wilder.

Each day he comes up with something new.

Today, he announced that he'd had another visit

by his ghostly friend.

- Oh, his little friend, Sarah?

- Yes.

She appeared to him last night in the middle of the night,

which, of course, provoked his coming here this afternoon.

- Well...

What did that mean?

- She supposedly warned him to stay away from this house.

There's danger here for him, she said.

- That was...

Well, what else did she say?

- That was all she said, as far as I know.

- Of course, it...

It must have been a dream.

- Of course it was a dream.

He's had a succession of nightmares.

One of them was about you.

- About me? - Yes.

Don't laugh, but he dreamed

that he saw you rising out of a coffin.

[chuckles] - A coffin?

- Yes, the dream terrified him so he woke up screaming.

- Well, how could he possibly have dreamt

a thing like that about me?

- Why does he imagine any of these things?

None of them make sense.

- Roger...

may I make a suggestion?

- I'd welcome one.

- Have you ever thought of the idea

of sending him away for a while?

- Sending him away?

- Yes.

The legends of Collinwood seem to have affected his mind.

Perhaps he should be sent to a special school

where he would get special care and attention...

at least until these hallucinations are gone.

- Well, I would agree to it,

but Liz would never go along with it.

- Well, perhaps we should both speak to her.

- I'll mention it tonight, but I can predict her reaction.

She's very possessive where David is concerned.

- Perhaps we should try to convince her

that sending him away would be the best thing for David,

for... everyone involved.

♪♪

- I didn't imagine any of it.

- Settle down now, Davy.

- But I didn't.

There was a bat and it was huge.

And mean and terrible and ugly and it attacked me!

- Well, you're all right now, so just try to go to sleep, huh?

- I don't want to sleep.

- Now look, that pill I gave you

is gonna start to take effect any minute.

Don't fight it.

- I'm not lying.

I'm not lying.

- All right, Davy.

- I did see that bat.

And Sarah was here.

- Sarah?

- Yes, here in this room.

And she was real.

- When was she here?

- Last night.

- What did she say to you?

- Do you believe that she was here?

- Well, I think it's, uh...

possible that she was.

- Do you believe that there is a Sarah?

And that she is a ghost?

- I...

I'm not sure what I believe, Davy.

- Well, there is a Sarah and she is a ghost.

- Now, look.

You haven't answered my question.

What did she say to you?

- She warned me to stay away from the old house.

- From the old house.

- Yes, because there is something in there.

Some kind of danger.

- But what danger?

- I don't know. She wouldn't say.

- All she said was to stay away from the old house, huh?

- That's right.

- Did she say anything else?

- Well...

She told me something that surprised me a lot.

- Well, what was that?

- That Willie Loomis is innocent.

- Innocent? - Yes.

She told me that he didn't do anything

that he was supposed to have done.

- Well...

Then, who did?

- Well, I don't know.

She wouldn't exactly say.

- She wouldn't or...

or couldn't?

- Well, I'm not sure.

I think she knew but she just wouldn't tell me,

because Sarah seems to know almost everything.

- Yes, she does.

- Do you believe that she's right about Willie?

- I don't know.

- Well, she was right about Maggie Evans being alive.

- Yes, she was.

- I think she's right about Willie, too.

- She may be.

- I sort of liked Willie.

I don't really think he could do anything to hurt anyone.

- David, did-- Did she say anything else?

- No, she didn't.

She didn't stay long.

She never does.

- I see.

- I'm sort of sleepy.

- Well, relax then.

Time to go to sleep.

- Do you believe what I told you about Sarah?

- Come on, now.

Close your eyes and relax.

- Well, it is true.

It is true.

♪♪

- No, Roger.

- Won't you even considerate it, Liz?

- No.

- But we've got to think about the boy.

- I am thinking about David.

This is his home.

He'd be miserable if we sent him away to a special school.

- The legends of Collinwood are obviously affecting his mind.

- I admit that he's over imaginative.

- Over imaginative?

Is that what you call his fantasies

about being attacked by a bat?

- I'm as alarmed about that as you are.

- We've got to do something to help him!

- I agree, but sending him away is not the answer!

- Liz. - I refuse to argue about it, Roger.

He needs us now more than ever.

I will not send him away.

- All right, Liz, all right.

- Hello, Roger.

Mrs. Stoddard.

- How is he?

- He's, uh, sleeping now.

Physically, he's fine.

- And mentally?

- I'm not sure.

- Doctor, can you recommend a psychiatrist?

- A psychiatrist? - Yes, he needs one, Liz.

We've got to find out about these fantasies.

- If they are fantasies.

- Well, of course they're fantasies!

What else could they be?

- Again, I'm not sure.

- What are you hinting at?

- Roger, it's just possible,

barely possible that David isn't imagining these things

that have been happening to him.

- How is it possible?

- Well, I...

I can't explain what I mean.

All I can say is

that I find everything David tells me strange,

but interesting.

Extremely interesting!

♪♪

♪♪

[Sarah] - David?

David?

David, wake up!

- Sarah? - Hello.

- Is that really you?

- Of course it's me.

- Sarah, it is you!

I'm not dreaming.

- You're funny.

- Sarah, why are you here?

Why did you come?

- Because I'm mad at you.

- Mad at me?

Why?

- Because you did what I told you not to do.

You went to the old house,

and you shouldn't have.

- How-- How did you know that I went there?

- I just know.

- But Sarah, I had to go there.

You see, they didn't believe that you came to me last night.

And...

Well, I had to prove to them

that you had a reason for warning me

and that I'm not a liar.

- Well, don't go there again, David.

Stay away from the old house.

- Why?

- Because you'll get in trouble if you go there.

- Trouble?

What kind of trouble?

- Just trouble.

- What's in that house, Sarah?

- I can't tell you, David.

Danger is in there.

- Danger?

What kind of danger?

- Just stay away from the old house, David.

- Sarah, whatever is in that house is in the basement,

isn't it?

- Why do you say that?

- Because the basement door was locked

and it's never been locked before.

- Don't ever go near the basement, David, ever!

- Why?

- It's not safe.

- You mean there's something spooky down there?

- Maybe.

- What is it?

- I can't tell you, David.

And you ask too many questions!

- Well, Sarah.

I wish you'd answer more of my questions.

- Sometimes I'm not sure of the answers.

- You aren't?

- No.

I brought something for you.

- You did? - Yes!

Here.

- Is this for me?

- Yes.

It's a present. I want you to have it.

- Oh, Sarah, you don't have to give me presents.

- But this is a special one.

- Special?

- I want you to keep it with you always.

It'll keep you safe.

- Safe from what?

- Just safe.

- Sarah, I didn't know little girls played with toy soldiers.

- I don't.

- Well, then where did you get this?

- It used to belong to someone.

- Who?

- Someone who played with it a long time ago.

- Sarah, I promise I'll keep this.

- I want you to promise that you'll keep it

and not give it away.

- Yeah, I will keep it.

It's really keen, Sarah.

I want you to do me a favor.

I want you to stay right there

while I get my Aunt Elizabeth

so I can prove to her that--

that you really come here.

- I can't, David. I've got to go.

- Sarah, don't go.

- I have to.

- Sarah!

- Goodbye, David.

Goodbye.

- Sarah!

Sarah!

Sarah!

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪