THE GIRL CALLED ANNA

chapter 6

INT. THE GAP – TIME UNKNOWN

Everything is light and motion. Anna, Michael and Mara plunge through a tunnel spiraling with gold and shadow. Fleeting shards of time spin past them — cities in flames, oceans receding, faces flickering off and on like apparitions.

Anna touches and dips her hand into one of the images: her mother, smiling, holding the pendant. By the time she touches it, the heat dissipates.

MICHAEL

Anna! Hold on!

Golden current rips them down. The Rift’s hum is now a roar.

ELDER MARA

Don’t fight it! The Rift will bring you anywhere it remembers you!

ANNA

Where does it remember me?

ELDER MARA

To the heart of the covenant—where your mother sealed it!

Light swallows them whole.

INT. THE RIFT – CONTINUOUS

They hit solid ground — though “ground” is a deception. The very floor beneath them shimmers like liquid glass. The sky is bent in all directions, rivers of light and streaks of darkness wrapping around like veins.

Anna slowly rises. Her pendant—now cracked—glows faintly.

ANNA

This is…

ELDER MARA

The gap between beginning and the end. The Rift.

The air hums with whispers—thousands of them coiling over one another.

MICHAEL

It’s like standing inside a heartbeat.

ELDER MARA

It’s alive. All oaths still spoken here through history are in my nose.

Anna looks around. Forms shift within the light; familiar shapes comprised of memory. The outline of her mother shimmers and then disappears.

ANNA

She’s here. I can feel her.

ELDER MARA

Be careful. The Rift knows your longing. It will use it against you.

They walk forward. The ground beneath your feet can change, mountains crumbling to plains, rivers flowing backwards.

In the distance, there looms a huge structure—a THRONE OF SHADOW AND LIGHT, part-reduced-to-rubble, levitating in nothingness. Through it is a beam of golden light that travels off into infinity.

MICHAEL

That looks important.

ELDER MARA

The Core. There is where the covenant was sealed. Should the Shadow claim that Sitter first… all is lost.

ANNA

Then we get there first.

EXT. THE RIFT PLAINS – LATER

Into the changing landscape they go. Sometimes it is sand; sometimes stone or water holds their weight. Every sound echoes endlessly.

Michael pauses. His mark flares.

MICHAEL

He’s here.

The ground trembles. In the distance, black smoke billows and snakes skyward. The figure walks through it — THE DARK FIGURE, complete now, his red eyes piercing the mists.

DARK FIGURE

I said," Keeper... you can’t kill what you’re apart from.

Anna stands her ground.

ANNA

Maybe not. But what part I play is up to me.

DARK FIGURE

There is no choice. You are the Seal. You are me.

The words echo in her head, turning into whispering voices.

ANNA (whispering)

No… I’m not you.

The figure raises his hand. The Rift bends around them. A fissure opens in the earth and black fire streams forth.

ELDER MARA

Michael! The staff!

Michael tosses Mara her staff. She slams it into the ground, unleashing a wall of blue light. The shadow fire crashes upon it.

MICHAEL

We can’t hold him off here!

ELDER MARA

We would not be holding him—we’re binding him!

She starts to speak in an ancient language. Her staff’s runes whir outwards around The Dark Figure, creating a circle.

DARK FIGURE

Do you imagine that this dim light will confine me anew?

He raises both arms. The shadows ripple out, breaking pieces of the barrier.

ANNA

Mara! It’s breaking!

ELDER MARA

Then do what your blood has begun!” And that light is yours now – use it!

Anna fumbles with the cracked pendant, trying to press it together. The glow flares up, enveloping her hand in white fire.

She thrusts her palm forward. Outwards the light shoots and it merges with Mara’s circle. The shadows shriek.

DARK FIGURE

You’ll burn yourself to nothing!

ANNA

So I’m burning for something rather real!

The Rift is torn apart by an explosion.

INT. THE RIFT – MOMENTS LATER

Silence. The light and the dark collide in a cloud of dust. Anna reels, smoke drifting up from her hand. Michael catches her. Mara is on her knees, panting but alive.

The Dark Figure remains, slightly diminished—his shape flickered, frayed at Auguste Reyn’s edges.

DARK FIGURE

You think this hurts winning? You are the Seal. Every strike I receive, you share.

Anna looks down. Her arm bleeds gold light.

MICHAEL

Anna—stop, you’re killing yourself!

ANNA

If I stop, he wins.

DARK FIGURE

You can't shut up what was brought forth in the beginning. When your light decreases, I will reincarnate in the name of you.

He steps forward—and freezes.

Mara’s staff lights up, and becomes much brighter than before.

ELDER MARA

No… you’ll rise through mine.

She stabs the staff into her chest.

MICHAEL

Mara!

The light explodes and fans outward to rope into the Rift like arcs of lightning. The Shadowy Figure howls as he turns into ashes and smoke.

Anna stumbles toward her mentor.

ANNA

No! Why did you—

Mara grins feebly, and her body scatters into gold flecks.

ELDER MARA

For a covenant you need three… blood, bond and spirit.

(softly)

Now you have all three.

She completely fades out, leaving only her staff.

SILENCE

All that can be heard now is the hum from the Rift. The ground steadies. The rivers of shadow recede.

Michael kneels beside the staff.

MICHAEL

She… she really did it.

The first thing is that Anna’s pendant, while broken, begins to soak up what little light the staff has left. The fissures in that thing heal themselves.

ANNA

She gave all she had to finish the seal.

MICHAEL

Then it’s over.

Anna shakes her head.

ANNA

No. Not yet.

She gazes up at the looming Throne of Light—the Core. The golden beam still cuts through it, but twitches on and off.

ANNA (CONT’D)

If they don’t rewrite the covenant, the Rift will open again. Mara could stop him, but not the power imbalance.

MICHAEL

Then we go to the Core.

EXT. THE CORE – LATER

They approach the Throne. It hovers above a pool of gold that mirrors the whole sky. As they approach, the air thrums with memory — Sarah’s voice, Mara’s laughter, the cries of every Keeper who has gone before.

ANNA

It’s… beautiful.

MICHAEL

Or deadly. Not sure when it comes to divine stuff.

Anna steps into the pool. Those feet of her melt like water in the sunlight. The Throne trembles.

SARAH (V.O.)

My daughter…

Anna freezes. Her mother’s voice fills the air, clear and soft.

SARAH (V.O.)

You carry what we began. But it’s not light that saves the world —it’s the heart that chooses.

Anna’s eyes close, tears shining in her lashes.

ANNA

I choose to finish it.

She sets the necklace on the Throne. It illuminates and flares, sending light ripples across the Rift. The beam stabilizes.

Michael shields his eyes.

MICHAEL

Anna! What’s it doing?

ANNA

It’s rewriting the covenant—without death.

The light floods her body. Her veins flutter with gold flames. She hollers, not in pain, but in release.

There is a flash of images—Sarah closing the Rift, Mara’s sacrifice, Michael’s father, all the Keepers and Guardians who ever were. Their essence pours into her.

The Rift starts to close, sucking itself in like a closing wound.

A spark of light bursts through the Throne one last time.

EXT. HILL ABOVE THE CHURCH – DAY

Silence. The world breathes again. Sunlight pierces the thinning clouds.

Anna is stretched out on the grass, her eyes closed. Her pendant is now complete and hangs on her chest.

Michael kneels next to her and shakes her shoulder.

MICHAEL

Anna… hey. Come back.

Her eyes open — gold for an instant, then back to normal.

ANNA

Did we make it?

MICHAEL

I think so. The sky’s… actually blue again.

They turn toward the old church. Its steeple gleams faintly in sunbeams. Birds are circling it for the first time in years.

ANNA

She’s gone, isn’t she? Mara.

MICHAEL

Yeah. But she’s part of it now. So’s your mom.

Anna sits up, staring at the pendant.

ANNA

Then maybe that’s what the covenant was always meant to be — not control, but memory. A pledge, that we never forget the light, even when it’s gone.

Michael smiles faintly.

MICHAEL

I guess that makes you the new Keeper of the world.

ANNA

No. Just its witness.

A soft wind rises. The grass ripples. She hears their voices — Sara and Mara — faint and warm for a moment.

SARAH (V.O.)

Remember, Anna. We don’t own the light. We belong to it.

Anna closes her eyes.

ANNA

Then let it live.

FADE OUT.