Beautiful Creatures

It's been the same dream every night for months now.

I can't ever see her face, but I know her.

Like I've known her all my life.

And it feels like something terrible is gonna happen when I reach her.

But at the same time, I'm not scared at all.

I want her...

...no matter what happens.

But I never get to her.

And then I die.

At first I was scared I was losing my mind.

Until I realized that would be no great loss.

I start junior year tomorrow, so insanity's inevitable.

What's worse is waking up every night...

...wanting someone I've never met...

...loving a girl who doesn't exist.

I've been stuck my whole life in Gatlin...

...South Carolina's least-famous middle-of-nowhere.

By the time we get a movie, it's already on DVD.

And our theater always gets the titles wrong.

We're too far away from Charleston to have a Starbucks. How sick is that?

We have 12 churches and one library...

...with more banned books than books to read.

Same damn families have lived here for generations.

They keep reenacting the Civil War like it's gonna turn out different.

Mama used to say there's only two kinds of people in Gatlin:

The ones too stupid to leave and the ones too stuck to move.

Dad can't leave his room since she died.

People said it was God's will.

I think it's the only way people ever get out of here.

I can understand why young men signed up for the Civil War.

Anything is better than a life standing still.

But I think even the dead stay in Gatlin.

Sometimes, it sounds crazy, but sometimes I imagine I'm one of them...

...fighting for the cause on Honey Hill near Greenbrier.

Ethan!

ETHAN". I imagine all kinds of things lately.

Sometimes...

...I'm Billy Pilgrim...

...from Vonnegut's banned book Slaughterhouse-Five.

"To be unstuck in time, in a constant state of stage fright...

...never knowing what part of my life I'd have to act in next."

I just love the sound of that.

Dad?

Dad?

I got breakfast.

Ugh. Is this what we're wearing our first day of school?

I'm a junior now, Amma. If I dress like I care, I lose credibility.

I thought you were getting a haircut.

- Who said that? - I did.

Pay attention to the days marked on these containers.

- Thanks, Amma. - You decide what colleges you applying to?

All of them, as long as they're a thousand miles away from here.

Amen to that.

- You go running last night? - Yeah.

- Help you sleep any? - I envy people in comas.

Your father come out at all?

No.

Lying lips are abomination to the Lord.

Now, when a wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish.

And the hope of unjust men perisheth.

Ow.

- You get away now! Go on! - Come on, I gotta take him to school!

- We have to finish these. Do them tonight. - Mom, you know what happens--

Wesley, where are you going without kissing your mother?

What is wrong with you, boy, eh?

Now, you be good.

- So is she a good kisser or what? - Shut up!

My mother has officially flown that extra bat-shit mile since Dad died.

She thinks the end of the world's coming because all these earthquakes in the news.

It's like, how does loving Jesus make that woman so crazy?

She damned Daddy to hell so many times, I bet he drank just so he'd get there quicker.

My dad is acting like old man Ravenwood. They're all bat-shit.

Hey, did you hear that new girl in our class is a Ravenwood?

I thought old man Ravenwood lived in that house all alone.

It's his niece from out of town. She moved here.

- Why would anyone move here? - I don't know.

It'll be the first Ravenwood anybody in Gatling's seen in almost 20 years.

How was your summer, sugar?

- Fine, Emily. And yours? - Wonderful.

Why didn't you go to the Labor Day Carnival? It was such a good time.

I wasn't up for it, heh.

I don't understand what's happened.

I know you don't. I'm sorry.

You said to give you the summer, and I did.

I didn't hear from you once, but I was a good girl.

I didn't call.

But I missed you.

Hey, no big deal, right?

How's about you and I go see a movie or something?

Just us. Oh, that would be just heaven. Heh.

Sure.

Everyone, take your seats.

Ethan, baby, I wish you'd quit reading those kind of books.

They're bad for your mind.

As a requirement of this course...

...you will need to select a topic for a term paper...

...based on materials covered in chapters 12 through 24.

Is that her? Must be. What is she wearing?

She looks like death eating a cracker.

Now, just take any seat, miss, uh, uh...?

Ravenwood. Isn't it?

Mama says nobody's seen old man Ravenwood leave that creepy house in years.

- Mama says he's a devil worshiper. Actually, it's Duchannes.

Well, uh, now, that's an out-and-out lie.

I happen to know for a fact that you're Macon Ravenwood's niece.

Well, bless your heart, sugar. You must have been first in your litter.

Ooh.

Mama says devil worshipers hate fresh air. Makes them choke.

Well, we all know what makes you choke.

That's enough, Mr. Lincoln.

- And that hat's gonna look nice on my cat. - He's such a fool!

This year, you will participate in the annual reenactment...

...of our glorious victory:

The Battle of Honey Hill.

Ethan?

The reenactment will be held on the day of the battle, December the 21st.

Even though that is the middle of Christmas Break...

...you will be expected to participate wholeheartedly.

[BOB DYLAN'S "SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES" PLAYING ON CAR RADIO]

Get sick, get well, hang around an ink well

Ring bell, hard to tell If anything is going to sell

Try hard

Are you nuts? You almost killed me!

What are you doing standing in the damn road?

I need help, genius!

- Forget it! - Wait, wait, wait!

I'm sorry! Look, get in!

This is a shortcut, nobody comes down this road. You'll drown--

- Is this old man Ravenwood's car? - You're one of them, aren't you?

What are you? The All-American jock star, prom king...

-"jock? - Look, can you insult me in the car?

It's getting a little Titanic out here.

You know, I never understood why Leo had to die in the end.

Why couldn't they take turns?

"You float on the wooden thing 10 minutes, I'll float on the thing 10 minutes."

She kept saying, "I'll never let you go, never," and then she lets him go!

If I get in the car, will there be more of this fascinating conversation?

Because I'd rather drown.

No, I got groceries back there.

I can't believe you told me the ending to Titanic.

- You've never seen it? - No.

You really are from out of town.

Hey.

Thanks.

You know where you're going?

Rarely.

Hey, I'm sorry about those clichés in class, but I'm not one of them.

"Clichés"?

Girls who once were human, but for whom absolute popularity has corrupted absolutely.

Hmm, bet you're real proud of yourself thinking that one up. You probably dated one of them.

- You cut Emily like a surgeon. - Years working with the bitch virus.

- No cure yet, huh? - We continue to research and hope.

- You been to a lot of schools? - Yeah.

- That must be nice. I've only ever lived here. - Must be nice.

So where y'all lived?

Pretty much every state that seceded from the Union.

Moved around since I was 4, after my parents died.

I only have my dad, my morn died last spring. How did it happen?

- Fire. - Car accident.

Ha, ha, that was a dead-end conversation on a road going nowhere.

I must have missed the exit to "fascinating," heh.

You, uh...

Bukowski? He--? He any good?

Define "good."

I can drive you to the house. This is fine.

No, I don't mind. - Look, I appreciate the ride...

...but I don't feel like being a haunted house attraction today.

No, I-- Now, that's fairly rude and not true at all.

Perhaps it's because we haven't been properly introduced.

I'm Ethan Wate, by the way.

- You're Ethan Wate? - Yeah.

Oh, my God, you mean Ethan Wate drove me home?

- You've heard of me? - No.

I like your charm necklace.

And-- And your tat, too. I mean, uh, also.

Thanks.

ETHAN". "Some people never go crazy.

What truly horrible lives they must live.

Boring damned people. All over the Earth.

Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show.

The Earth swarmed with them."

This man is a god.

It is the name of our Lord that brings salvation.

It is the name of Jesus that gives us authority over evil spirits.

- What's going on? - Here, just wait for it.

Protect us from the devil, as we feel him approaching.

As we feel him coming towards us...

- Been hitting the same spot every night. - Since when?

Since Lena Duchannes came to town. My mama heard she's from a mental institution.

She killed a boy on the train tracks in Atlanta.

Oh, bullshit. Bullshit.

Watch your tongue.

My mama said that her mother killed her father and just left town like that.

Shut your mouth, Emily.

Ethan Wate, may I speak with you for a moment?

Right now?

What is wrong with you?

I'm just sick of people in this town putting down someone they just don't know.