SOUTHLAND TALES SOUTHLAND TALES SOUTHLAND TALES The Complete Saga A NOVEL BY: Richard Kelly & T/James Reagan SOUTHLAND TALES A RiverVerse Novel. First Edition: July 4th, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Richard Kelly Copyright © 2018 Darko Entertainment Copyright © 2018 by Tom Reagan The characters, names, companies, locations, brands, bands, establishments, and events contained in this novel are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the authors. The entirety of this novel is a work of fiction. Opening Quote: Compliments of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan ©2001 Films Also Available by Richard Kelly: Donnie Darko Southland Tales The Box Novels Also Available by T/James Reagan: Famous For Nothing Empire Waste Leeds House Lovetrust Beach House Burning https://www.amazon.com/t-james- reagan/e/B00GMKD3CY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1? qid=1527297598&sr=8-1 Contact T/James Reagan at: [email protected] SOUTHLAND TALES Table Of Contents 0 – Screening – 1 I - Two Roads Diverge – June 29th 2008 - 3 II – Fingerprints – June 30th 2008 - 77 III – The Mechanicals – July 1st 2008 - 135 IV - Temptation Waits- July 2nd 2008 - 201 V - Memory Gospel- July 3rd 2008 - 274 VI - Wave of Mutilation – July 4th 2008 - 374 SOUTHLAND TALES Dear Reader, I've adapted Richard Kelly's Southland Tales into a novel. This feels like the next step. Richard shot the film, and wrote a prequel narrative in graphic novel form, then the comics were adapted into a prequel screenplay, which I took and added to the original Cannes cut of Southland Tales, resulting in this novel. If you're already confused, turn back now. The manuscript you're about to read is the entire Southland saga. This novel is 100% free. If you paid money for it, someone ripped you off. If you'd like to support me, my novels are available on Amazon, here. If you're a publisher who wants to publish some of my unreleased novels, my two most recent manuscripts are a fiction novel about the 2016 election, and a fiction novel about the contemporary tube-site era porn industry. I also have a twelve episode sci-fi TV series fully written. If you're a filmmaker who would like their too-big-for-the-theater vision novelized, I'm your man. If you're Shane Carruth, this is me formally asking if I can adapt A Topiary as my next project. If you're some dickhead lawyer who's going to try to sue me over this novel that I'm making absolutely no cash on, go ahead, I dare you. I live in Newark. What do you expect to win from me in court? My Southland Tales Blu-Ray that I bought from Blockbuster a decade ago? Just like teen horniness, my adaption of Richard's work isn't a crime. If you're one of the nine thousand streaming services desperate for TV show ideas, I think this novel could easily be adapted into a great season of television, and I think Richard Kelly is the director who could do it for you. The world needs more Richard Kelly in it. It's time for his return. This novelization was a labor of love, and it addresses all of the penetrating issues facing society today- issues like abortion, terrorism, crime, poverty, social reform, quantum teleportation, teen horniness, and war. I hope it makes you laugh, and makes you think. This is the way the saga ends, not with a director's cut, but with a novel. XOXO T/JAMES REAGAN SOUTHLAND TALES “Who am I really?” “No one quite knows who or what they are. The memories you have and the role you were assigned are burdens you have to carry. It doesn't matter if they're real or not- that's never the point. There's no such thing in the world as absolute reality. Most of what they call real is actually fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is.” “Then what am I supposed to believe in? What am I going to leave behind when I'm through?” “We can tell other people about having faith- what we had faith in- what we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have... that decides the future.” ~M.G.S..2 2001 SOUTHLAND TALES SOUTHLAND TALES 1 Nulla- Screening. “Everything is dark, and the air has an electricity to it. You might be with someone you love, or maybe you’ve just met the person next to you, but either way, there are expectations. A blast of light suddenly shatters the calm, then an eardrum-rattling rumble seems to vibrate the walls. The first bits of information are fed to you, and pretty early on, you get a feeling about what the future holds. This is how it starts. This is why, in 2008, we still go to the movies- for this experience. What we're about to watch on this laptop screen right here, to the left of my high powered rifle, is how the world ends. I know it's not polite to talk during a film, but this is a special situation. You and I will have a conversation because, you're right, we do need each other. At first, when you recognized me, and climbed up here to ask me for an autograph, I wanted to shoot you, but now that you're here, and this screen is showing us how it all unfolds, I need you next to me. We can take breaks. We don't have to spend every minute binge- watching this screen. I'm sure at some point we'll go down to the Mariasol and get a beer, but no matter what, we'll return here, and you'll sit with me, and you'll pay attention. I already know what we're going to see, but that doesn't make me feel very good. It's not a nice feeling, knowing. Imagine walking into your local multiplex to watch the first showing of a film you've been anticipating for years, then once the lights go down and the screen begins to flicker, what you're presented with is, frame-for- frame, word-for-word, something you've already seen. That's how I feel right now; I'm repeat-viewing life as it happens. Since you were so anxious to meet me, I'll give you the connection you were searching for. You're going to sit with me, on this turret, and we'll watch a movie unfold. I need you to do this, because, together, we must change the ending. 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