Castle Grayskull

#### Edgar Allen Poe Middle School

* The Keystones are at a football game. Derrick "Ricky" Lewis and Heather Jones are in the bleachers. Scarlet Blake & Jessie "JD" Davis are on the football team, the Edgar Allen Poe Middle School "Ravens."
* Ollie Wright notices Fred Ult (who sticks out because he drives a horse & buggy) wave to Ricky and insults Ricky calling him "Dicky". Ricky brushes him off.
* The game is lost due to the quarterback, Tom Hoffman's, inattention. In order to avoid being tackled, he's thrown the ball too soon and set up JD to be hit hard. JD's on the ground as the game ends.
* As Heather runs to JD's side, she's intercepted by the cheerleader, Peggy Swanson, who mocks her. Heather brushes her off.
* JD takes a lot of ribbing from the team for his failure to catch the ball. JD and Scarlet head to the locker rooms while Ricky and Heather wait outside for them.
* Heather hears a voice on the wind that says, "I was standing. You were there. Two worlds collided. Help. Help. Heather, help me."
* Heather and Ricky decide the voice is coming from her Walkman but assume they're being pranked. The voice repeats the message but always uses the name of the person listening.
* After JD and Scarlet join them, the voice begins to say "Castle Grayskull", and they take off on their bikes to the old Loop building that is colloquially referred to as Castle Grayskull. JD is somewhat reluctant.

#### On the Road to Castle Grayskull

* As they approach through a valley of densely packed trees, a fog rolls in and they can barely see one another. The kids get off their bikes and begin to push them. Ricky helps to guide them through the fog and maintain their direction.
* Heather sees Randall Flagg for the first time. He's got long hair, a denim jacket, jeans, and a black t-shirt. She's the only one who can see him and she recognizes him immediately from her books.
	+ *RF "Stay quiet, Heather, and I'll let you live."*
	+ *RF grabs Heather's handlebars. "Shhh. Heather, you're gonna be fine. You'll be fine." He looks at the others and shrugs, "Prices. Inflation's a bitch."*
	+ *H "Go away"*
	+ *RF "Why should I? You're where I live."*
	+ *H "You're not here"*
	+ *RF "Of course I am." He pinches the back of Heather's hand.*
	+ *H "Are you the Walking Man?"*
	+ *RF smiles, "Call me Randall"*
	+ *H "What do you want?"*
	+ *RF "Just three things."*
	+ *H "Three? My friends?"*
	+ *RF looks at Ricky, JD, and Scarlet*
	+ *H "No. No. No."*
* As he disappears into the mist, Heather asks JD if he's read the Stand. He hasn't read it. He's just finished "IT", and he's creeped out by the fog. Heather and JD are momentarily aligned that they should turn around. Heather shares with the other three that "an evil man wants to take you guys."
* The wind that brought the message earlier, blows the fog away. Heather sees Flagg exposed. He looks at Castle Grayskull and says, "Well that's not fair at all." Then he blows away like the mist. The Keystones hear the voice on the wind from earlier saying, "Help me, please."
* Scarlet, Ricky, and now Heather want to continue on the Castle Grayskull. JD wants to turn around. The four decide that they'll stick together.

#### Castle Grayskull

* The interior of Castle Grayskull is a catwalk. On the far side, they see a very thin and jaundiced Chief Rugen. The Keystones know that Rugen disappeared for a bit and was wanted for the murder of a local woman.
* Behind them another man has entered. He's in his seventies, with one blue eye and one brown eye, and a long grey beard. They know him as Mainstreet Jimmy, a local homeless man.
	+ *MJ "I can't believe… Friends. Friends. I knew you'd come."*
	+ *R "Hey, Jimmy"*
	+ *S "Hey!"*
	+ *H "Jimmy, were you calling us?"*
	+ *MJ "Oh no no. I can't keep my mind straight. You don't know me. Not yet."*
	+ *S "You ok, Jimmy?"*
	+ *MJ "You all need to get 'em out of here."*
	+ *H/JD "Who?"*
	+ *MJ "The ones that they're keeping."*
	+ *R "Who are they?"*
	+ *MJ indicating the hallways to the left and right "You all gotta go down there and be brave and get 'em out. You gotta turn the tide. Even the odds. Give us a fightin' chance. I can be in two places at once, but I know you can't. This place is a prison. Bad things come to Garret. Good things come too. They put 'em all here, the good things. You gotta free them. Can't keep my mind straight. Does that make sense?"*
	+ *JD "No"*
	+ *MJ "I don't know how to get y'all to trust me. You all have to help because you already have. Heather, Jesse gotta go down there. Scarlet, Ricky you all have to go down there." (pointing to different hallways.) "I'll stay here and make sure the Chief doesn't get you."*
	+ *JD "This is what I was afraid of."*
	+ *MJ "That's old Chief Rugen. He came up here after what happened last year."*
* The keystones discuss splitting up, but Mainstreet Jimmy encourages them, at one point saying in an aside, "That's what Ricky said before."
* JD mentions that Pennywise hangs out in sewers and places with water. "If what Heather says is true, why couldn't Pennywise also exist? I don't know. Written by the same person."
	+ *MJ "He's not here. Not yet."*
	+ *JD "You've seen him here before?"*
	+ *MJ "Yeah but it was summertime."*
	+ *MJ "Optimus Prime comes in a month. I think."*
* Jimmy looks at his wristwatch with a cracked face on it and tells them when they can meet back. JD pulls out a pocket watch to check. The watch has a picture of a blonde woman in it.
* The kids decide to go down the hallways with Jimmy guarding them against Rugen.
* They enter a large room with rushing silvery water that is lit by blue neon lights. The kids can see one another on the other catwalks but they cannot hear over the sound of the water. The air tastes metallic and coppery. It's unclear where the water is going because if it were to continue as it is, it would flow off the face of the cliff on which the building stands, but there is no such waterfall.
* On the right, Scarlet and Ricky find a machine that appears to be a combination of a combustion engine and computer, and is damp from the water. It is dark and beside it in a crystal vat is a vibrant glowing blue liquid, the same color as the lights above. Written in chalk on the floor in Ricky's handwriting are the words, "Start the machine. Make a key." below that written in Scarlet's handwriting is, "Bombs Away, Scarlet!"
* On the left, Heather and JD find two pits with bars over top of them with a thin open slot the size of a coin next to them.
	+ Van Halen is in one of them. VH is 13. She's dirty and has dark circles under her eyes. She asks, "Are you here to take me back to my tree?"
	+ In the other pit is Chris DeWitt. He is 14 years old, with one blue eye, and one brown eye.
* The blue lights above are pulsing faster and faster. Ricky turns a dial and pulls a lever on the machine and the blue liquid begins to pour into the machine. The machine bursts into a brilliant blue light. An opaque panel appears and comes down like a draw bridge. On the panel is a small blue glowing coin.
	+ *C: "We've gotta hurry. There's not much time before it resets."*
	+ *VH looking at JD: "I know you can catch it this time."*
* JD waves and yells to the other side "We need the key." Scarlet tucks the coin into her football makes eye contact with JD and tosses the ball to him. As she does this, she hears the voice of Optimus Prime (who she doesn't recognize yet) saying "Bombs Away!"
* Randall Flagg appears and begins to move toward JD. Heather runs at him and pushes him back. This time, the other Keystones also see Randall Flagg.
* As Scarlet tosses the ball and JD catches it. Ricky can see a wave of blue light approaching in the direction of the blue light pulse in the ceiling. Once Scarlet tosses the ball, Ricky pulls Scarlet down and ducks behind the machine.
* JD jams the coin into the slot and the cage doors open.
	+ *VH "Thank you"*
	+ *C "The reset is coming but we're free. Stay safe my friends. Go go!"*
	+ *VH hearing the song playing at the football game as they are overtaken by the blue light, "I LOVE this song!"*

#### Edgar Allen Poe Middle School

* The kids are back at the football game. The game plays out, but this time Scarlet gives Tom some discrete advice. Tom ignores it but is accidentally injured by the other quarterback, who promptly throws up. With the other quarterbacks out, Scarlet is put into play. They win the game by one point.
* JD is again knocked down, this time having caught the ball. Heather runs to him, encountering a Peggy Swanson on the way and dismissing her.
* Ricky, who has dismissed Ollie Wright's jabs, is up in the stands. He hears the voice of Van Halen on the wind "Thank you. Stay ready!"

## Characters

* Ollie Wright
* Fred Ult
* Tom Hoffman
* Peggy Swanson
* Randall Flagg
* Chief Rugen
* Mainstreet Jimmy
* Optimus Prime
* Pennywise
* Van Halen
* Chris DeWitt

## Locations

* Edgar Allen Poe Middle School
* The Loop
* Castle Grayskull