Eek and Marvin

My friend, Brian Kistler, (a talented animator and illustrator check out his artwork here) and I decided we wanted to write a graphic novel. He had the idea of a child discovering a monster in a well. So I wrote a 20-page short story/script that we would base it on. What I wrote was a bit long for a graphic novel and in my efforts to edit it down, I've actually ended up expanding it into something much larger.

Anyway, after the jump is the original story. Hope you enjoy.



Eek and Marvin.

Eek is a kid. Smaller than the other kids in his class. He’s younger too. The teacher is explaining something about advanced math. Eek is fascinated by it. The numbers and graphs float around him. A large, grumpy kid next to him grabs Eek’s imaginary graph and throws it to the ground.

The teacher speaks, “I’m going to pass back your tests from Wednesday.” He moves down the aisles, handing out the test results to the students. “With so many of you struggling, I was going to curve the grade.” He arrives at Eek’s desk, “But someone managed to get a perfect score.” The teacher pats Eek’s head.

Every student is turned and glaring at Eek.

LATER

Eek is in the Library getting a stack of books. He fumbles and drops them. He starts picking them up and another set of hands is helping him. They belong to Glenda Gartrel, the prettiest girl in the school.
“You really like Jules Verne, huh?” She says.
“Uhh…” Eek blushes brightly. His jaw is on the floor.
“I like him too. If you like science fiction, you should read Bradbury.” She hands him his books.
“Okay,” he says. She smiles to him and he smiles back and she waves,
“see you later!” Eek watches her go, smiling like a fool.
“I love Bradbury…” he manages to whisper.

LATER
Eek is walking along the sidewalk on a cool autumn day. He’s reading Journey to the Center of the Earth “Hey, Geek!” Eek’s head lowers, picks up the pace. “I said, hey Geek!” Eek stops.
“My name is Eek,” he whispers.
Behind Eek is a huge kid. He towers over Eek. This is Bruno. “You say something, geek?”
“No…”
Behind Bruno is a pack of kids, all of them are older and taller than Eek. One of them is a girl.
“Leave him alone, Bruno!” Says the girl. Eek smiles when he sees her. Glenda Gartrel, the prettiest girl in school.
“We’re just talking, Glenda!” Bruno puts an arm around Eek and musses his hair. “we’re buddies.”
“He’s just a little kid,” Glenda says. Kinda hurts Eek to hear that. Bruno shoves Eek into the arms of one of his cohorts and walks to Glenda.
“We’re having fun, babe. That’s all. Me and my little buddy here. Why don’t you go home? I’ll call you later.”
“Don’t hurt him, Bruno.”
“Hurt him?! Why, I’d ha! Glenda, baby, c’mon.” Bruno kisses Glenda. “I’ll talk to you later.” Glenda looks from Bruno to Eek and back and shuffles off in a huff.
Bruno walks back to Eek, puts an arm on his shoulder. “C’mon geek. We’re gonna play a game.”
“I need to go home… I’ve got a lot of homework,” Eek says.
“You hear that guys? He’s got a lot of homework! Big ol’ brain a yours and you wanna go do more homework. C’mon,” Bruno leads Eek down the road.  Bruno notices the book Eek’s holding and grins. “The game’s called…”

Bruno and his gang have taken Eek to a well on the edge of town. “Journey to the center of the earth?” Eek asks. He looks down the well that seems to go on forever into blackness. The well has a rope and a bucket attached.
“Yeah, buddy. Here’s how we play. You get into the bucket and we lower you down.”
“I don’t want to go down there”
“You’ll be fine,” Bruno says. He puts Eek into the bucket. “Here’s a flashlight.” Eek tries turning the flashlight on.
“It doesn’t work.”
“Here are the batteries,” Bruno extends a hand with the batteries. Eek goes to grab them when, “Whoops!” The batteries fall down deep into the well. Eek starts to panic.
“No! No! I don’t want to play! I have to go do homework!” Bruno chuckles and nods to his cohorts who turn a crank, lowering the bucket into the well. And Eek goes Down. Down. Down.

IN THE DARKNESS
The bottom of the well expands into a large cave sort of thing. There’s no water, though.
At the bottom of the well, Eek fumbles in the dark until he hears something. “Hello?” Eek says. “Guys! I think something is down here!” He shouts up, and hears only laughter that fades and grows further away. He hears the noise again. “Is someone here? Hello? I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to be here. My friends sent me down here… I think they may have left…”

A voice in the darkness responds, “Don’t sound much like friends at all.” Eeks eyes go wide. Terror. “You shouldn’t be down here, kid. Monsters live down here.” Eek looks back up to the opening of the well.
“Monsters live up there, too.” Eek says. “Probably more of them. Did your friends send you down here, too?” A beat of silence.
“Kinda.”
Eek starts groping around on the floor, looking for batteries.
“Are they coming back for you?”
“I hope not.”
“You wanna be down here forever?”
“What are you looking for?”
“My friends gave me a flashlight, but they threw the batteries down here. I can’t see really well. Have you seen them?”
“I’ll help you look.”
“I don’t think my friends are coming back,” Eek says.
“They sound like bad friends.”
“Yeah, I guess they’re not really my friends at all. My friends are really…” Eek pauses and thinks: Captain Nemo. Phileas Fogg. Ishmael. “Well, they’re on submarines and whaling ships, I guess.”
“Are they always on submarines?”
“Kinda.”
“Here they are.” The batteries roll towards Eek, who finds them at his feet.
“Thanks! Do you wanna be my friend?” Eek picks them up and puts the batteries into the flashlight.
“Really? Yeah, sure. I‘ll be your friend.”
 “My name’s Eek. What’s your name?” Eek turns on the flashlight, illuminating the vast cave at the bottom of the well. And finally there, in the light is,
“Marvin…”
Marvin is a little wary of the light. “Aren’t you going to scream?” Marvin asks. Eek shakes his head.
“No, why?”
“I dunno. People usually scream.”
“Well, I’m not going to.” Eek looks up the bucket-rope. He grabs onto the rope and tries to climb up. It’s a struggle and he falls back down. “It’s getting dark…”
“Yeah.”
“I need to get home.”
“Oh, okay. I understand.”
“Do you know of any other way out of here?”
“Sure. This way.”
Marvin takes him down a path into this cave system. The walls are covered in paintings Marvin has done. Marvin says, “You can turn the flashlight off if you want. I know this place by heart.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“There’s no one here but you and me.”
“Yeah… Did you paint these?”
“Yeah.”
“I like them. They’re really good. I draw sometimes, but I’m better at math.” Eek leaves the flashlight on. “Do you live here?”
“Yeah.”
Eek stops walking and cocks his head, puzzled, “Why? There’s no one here.”
“Yeah. C’mon, kid.”
“Your friends put you here and now you live here? Why didn’t you go home?”
“This is home. There’s… There’s no other place. I tried to live in town but like I said, people usually scream when they see me.”
“Why?”
“Cause I look… I don’t look normal. So they scream and they call me names. Then something happened. Something bad.” Marvin thinks back to a young girl lying in a street. She’s not moving. “It’s easier for people to point fingers at something they don’t understand.” Marvin thinks about the anger of the village. The torches. Pitchforks. Mob. “People can hate so easily if they decide that you’re different. They can turn cruel if they get the idea you don’t belong there.”
“Yeah…”

They arrive at an opening, the cave lets out into a  hilly field by the woods at the edge of town. Eek says, “I gotta get home. My mom might be making meatloaf. You want to come have meatloaf?” Marvin smiles and gets excited at the invitation, but looks at the town and remembers the villagers and the torches. His smile droops and he shakes his head. “Maybe some other time, buddy,” Marvin says.
“Oh… okay. Sure. See you, Marvin!”
“See ya…”
Eek runs home and Marvin disappears back into the shadows of the cave. He bumps into something, holds it up- a book. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

At home, Eek runs into the house. “Mom?” He gets into the kitchen. “Oh, hey, mom,” Eek says to a note on the fridge. The note reads, “Meatloaf dinner is in the freezer. Do your homework and brush your teeth before bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Love, Mom.”
“Thanks! Love you too, mom!” Eek says, opening the freezer.

LATER, Eek is doing his homework in front of the TV. Big ol’ calculus book that’s almost bigger than he is. There’s a noise. Eek looks around. “Mom?” No response. The noise again, a clink. Small pebble on the window. Eek goes to the window and looks out. Down below is Glenda, Bruno’s girlfriend.
“Hey, Eek. You okay?”
“Glenda? What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to say… I didn’t know they were going to do that today. I think that it was really mean of them.”
“It’s okay. I’m alright. They were just having fun.”
“It was mean. They always do stuff like that and I… Anyway. I’m glad you’re okay. See you at school. Goodnight, Eek.” And Glenda leaves. Eek watches her leave, enamored.

In front of Bruno’s house, Bruno passes a car parked on the lawn. He gets home, slams the door behind him. “Mom? Dad? Anyone home?” He shouts.
A voice shouts back, “How many times have I told you, don’t slam the God damn door!?” In the living room the TV is on. Whiskey on the coffee table. Stubble-faced father, Burt.
“Sorry, dad.”
“What took you so long to get home?”
“I was playing with my friends?”
“The hell were you playing for? You’re fourteen. When I was your age, I had a job at the mill.”
“Me and the guys, we were having some fun with this new kid. He’s a couple grades below and in our math class.”
“Sounds like a smart kid. Bet he makes his father really happy.” Bruno looks down, kinda ashamed. Hurt.
“Well, remember when Uncle Phil told me about the time you put him down the old well and you kept laughing and laughing as he was telling it? Well me and the guys put this new kid down the well!”
Burt’s eyes are anger. “You did what?!” Burt yells. He gets up.
Bruno cowers. “We were just having fun, like you and Uncle Phil used to. I thought it would be funny.”
“You put a boy down the old well?”
“Yeah, but it-”
“The hell were you thinking? Is he okay?”
“Yeah, I guess-”
“Top drawer. Now.”
“Dad, I just wanted-”
“Top drawer. Left side. Belt. Go.”
Bruno goes to fetch the belt.

THE NEXT DAY, MORNING. Eek walks into the kitchen. “Morning, mom,” Eek says to the note on the fridge, “Pop tarts are in the cupboard. Love you, Mom.” Eek stands on a chair to reach the pop-tarts.

Then, Eek is at the CAVE. He goes in. “Marvin? Marvin you home?” Eek shines his flashlight around. Finds Marvin painting.
“What’re you doing here?”
“I thought I’d come say hi before school. I brought you a pop-tart.” Hands him the poptart.
“Thanks, buddy.”
“Whatcha painting?”
“It’s the Nautilus. I um… You dropped this yesterday.” Marvin hands Eek 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. “I hope you don’t mind, I read it.”
“Did you like it? It’s my favorite! The part with the Giant Squid!”
“That’s the part I’m painting!”
“Here,” Eek says. And hands the book back to him. “Keep it! I’ve read it a million times.”
“But it’s your favorite.”
“It still will be. But now it can be your favorite too.”
“Thanks.”
“I gotta get to school, but I’ll see you later!”
“Later…”
Eek runs off.

SCHOOL. Eek sits at his desk, reading around the world in 80 days. A massive fist slams down on the desktop. Eek looks up. Bruno above him in the stratosphere, Black eye.
“Today. After school. You’re dead.”  GULP. Bruno walks to his desk behind Eek. Eek stares at the clock. TICK TOCK. He can’t focus on the teacher or the board. He looks at the window. A red balloon is caught on a branch. Wind picks up, the Balloon is loosed from the tree and flies away. Eek sighs.

Bell rings.

Eek runs down the street. He looks around constantly. Running through a woody thicket, jumping over logs, going through a meadow.
“Gotcha!” Hand grabs him by the scruff of his neck.
“What’d I do?!” Eek squeals.
“Shut up!” Bruno says, cracking his knuckles. Eek winces, closing his eyes. “Open your eyes!” Eek peeks through one open eye. He sees the Well on the hill a bit away.
“Help!” Eek shouts.
“No one is going to help you.”

In the cave, Marvin is painting a Squid on the side of the Nautilus. He hears Eek calling for help and rushes up the rope and out of the well. To see:
Bruno lands a solid blow right across Eek’s face. Eek falls down. Bruno follows him down and swings. Marvin charges Bruno and knocks him off of Eek!
“Leave my friend alone!” Marvin’s voice booms and echoes. Bruno’s face is shock.
“Monster!” He shouts, “The freak and the monster are friends!” Eek is crying, but trying to hold it back.
“Get out of here. Now!” Marvin shouts.
“ Weirdos! You two should just stay in that well! Hah!”
“Go!” Marvin shouts and it reminds Bruno of his father before a beating and shakes him. He flees.
Marvin turns to see Eek, tears streaming, fists clenched.
“Why? What did I do to him?” Eek says. “I just want to be left alone. Why won’t he just leave me alone?”
Marvin shakes his head. “Guys like him have trouble…”
Bruno arrives at home. Door slams behind him. “…We don’t always get to see what it is...”
Bruno’s father, Burt, storms in. Bruno puts his hands up, apologetically. “…And they try to keep it hidden…”
Burt, points at a grass stain on Bruno’s shirt. Bruno shrugs, shakes his head. “…But they take their anger from their trouble…”
Burt backhands Bruno across the face. “…And they put it on someone else. They feel out of control…”

BACK AT THE WELL, Eek and Marvin sit next to each other. “ so they try to take control from someone else,” Marvin says.
“It’s not fair,” Eek says.
“Nope. It’s not.”
“Marvin?”
“Hmm?”
“Can we always be fair? Can we try to be fair to each other?”
“We can try.” Marvin puts his arm on Eek’s shoulder.

AT BURT/BRUNO’S Bruno is on the ground, huddled fetal from his father. “Dad, stop! It’s not my fault! It was that freak kid and the monster!” Burt relents.
“What did you say?”
“That monster! The one you blamed for Sophie’s death to cover—”
“Shut your damn mouth! The monster that killed Sophie did this?”
“Yeah, that freak kid I was telling you about yesterday is friends with it. They hang out at the abandoned well.” Burt takes a pull of whiskey.
“Well, we can’t just let that menace be… That old well has a second entrance, a cave on another hill. If we can seal that cave, we can trap him in there!”

LATER, Eek is sitting alone against the Well on the grass, reading. “Heya, Eek,” Glenda says as she walks up. “Been looking for ya.” Eek sets his book down.
“Really? Looking for me?”
“Yeah. Heard about what Bruno did. I dunno what’s wrong with him, but he’s been a real jerk lately.” She sits down next to Eek.
“Yeah.” Eek wipes some blood from his swollen lips.
“Oh my God, did he do that?”
“Yeah…”
“Well I didn’t come here to apologize for him. He can’t do that himself, I’m not gonna do it for him anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I heard what he did I broke up with him. He told me what happened and it was unreal. I couldn’t believe him. It was like suddenly a thick fog cleared in my mind and I could see him for the jerk he really is.”
“So you’re single, then?”
“Of course! I couldn’t keep dating him. What kind of a person beats up a little kid?”
“Little kid…”
“I mean, he’s so much bigger and older than you—” Eek leans over and kisses her cheek. Glenda is wide-eyed with surprise and turns to him.
“I love Bradbury and you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Will you be my girlfriend?” She blushes.
“Oh, Eek that’s really sweet. You’re a special guy. I don’t think I really want a boyfriend right now though.”
“Oh… Okay. That’s okay. I understand.” Eek is a little crestfallen. Then he looks down at his hand and notices that Glenda is holding it. He smiles like crazy.

“Hey, Eek! Come check out the painting!” Marvin shouts from inside the well.
“Who was that, Eek?” Glenda asks.
“Oh, that’s Marvin,” Eek says as Marvin climbs up and over the well.
“Hi, I’m Marvin!” Marvin introduces himself. Glenda Screams.
“No, no! Don’t scream,” Eek says. Marvin looks worried and a little ashamed. “Glenda, It’s okay. He’s not a bad guy. He’s my friend.”
“I know who he is!” Glenda shouts, “I was only eight, but I remember the day that Sophie died.”
“What?” Eek is confused.
“That wasn’t me! I didn’t do that!”
“What wasn’t you?”
“This… This thing… This Monster killed my sister.”
The memories come back to her: Her sister, the girl that was lying in the street in Marvin’s early flashback, dancing. Twirling carefree and then in the street. “He smashed her! He hit her so hard it broke all her ribs.”
“I would never do that!”
“When the people in town found out what happened, they got together and drove him out!”
“Is that true, Marvin? Is that why you live in the well?”
“I had nothing to do with that! Eek, I would never hurt someone.”
“You hurt Bruno…”
“Because he was attacking my friend! Eek, you’re my friend. You understand, they just blamed me because I was different!”
“Because you’re a monster!” Glenda shouts
“I’m not!” Marvin starts to cry, but holds it back.
“C’mon, Eek. Let’s get out of here.” Glenda takes Eek by the hand and leads him away. Eek looks back.
“Wait…” Eek whispers.  Marvin climbs down into the well behind them. His sobs echoing in the well-shaft.
“Did you say something, Eek?”
“Nothing.”

On their way to Eek’s house, they see a group of people in the street. Torches. Pitchforks. “What’s that?” Eek asks. The mob is lead by Burt. All of Bruno’s bully friends march down the street. Dozens of people all moving together. Eek realizes what’s happening. “I have to go,” he says. He pulls away from her, but her hand is tight on his.
“Eek, it’s for the best.”
“The best for who?”
“It’s dangerous.
“He’s not violent.”
“It’s not a person.”
“He’s my friend.”
“He’s a monster.”
Eek points at the mob. “That’s the monster.” He pulls his hand from hers and runs. Down the street, away from the city to the edge of town where he runs through the field, the mob closing in. He gets to the Well.
“Marvin! Marvin, where are you?!” He shouts down.
“Go away!”
“Marvin! Come up here!”
“Let’s try to be fair to each other! That’s what you said!”
“Marvin, I’m sorry. I was wrong! But you have to go! You’ve got to run. There’s a mob coming.”
Eek slides down the rope into the well.
“They’re coming here?” Marvin is next to the finished painting of the Nautilus.
“Yeah. You finished the painting… Is that you and me fighting the giant squid?” Eek smiles, enchanted by the painting.
“But this is my home… Where do I go?”
“I’m sorry, Marvin. This is all my fault. It’s not fair that they’re doing this.”
“No, Eek. It’s not your fault. This is the way things have always been. You must run, take the exit through the cave. I’ll go up the well and see how far they are. I’ll meet you at the exit and we can say good-bye.”
Marvin goes up the well as Eek runs into the cave. Marvin sees the torches in the distance and runs for the cave entrance.

At the cave entrance, Bruno and his gang swing pick axes at the loose rock supporting the ceiling.
“So we’re gonna trap the monster in there?” One of them says.
“Exactly,” says Bruno.
“And then what do you we do?”
“I dunno,” Says Bruno.
“Do you think they’ll kill it?”
“Probably,” says Bruno.
“I heard it killed Glenda’s sister.”
“Of course it did! What else could have killed her? Crushed all her ribs, smashed her apart. It’s a monster!”
“Did anyone see it kill her?”
“Shut your damn mouth,” says Bruno. The ceiling of the cave collapses.

The mob arrives and circles the well. “We know you’re in there, monster!” shouts Burt. “You’re trapped and surrounded! Come out now or we’ll smoke you out!”
The mob stands, listening. No response.
“Alright,” Burt shouts, “pour it in!” Mob members pour kerosene down into the well. “Good! Now… Light it up!”
A couple of people drop their torches down into the well and flames go way into the sky.

IN THE DARKNESS
Eek searches for the cave’s exit. He can’t find it. “Marvin?! Marvin where are you? I can’t find the exit!”

AT THE COLLAPSE
Marvin hears Eek shouting. “Eek! The cave collapsed!” Marvin goes to move a rock. It won’t budge. Even he isn’t strong enough.
“Marvin! I can see… there’s a light down here now.”
“Hang on, Eek! I’m coming to get you!”
  “Okay!” Eek says and starts to cough.

Marvin sprints back to the well. He sees the mob surrounding and the warm glow of the flames below. He lets out a shout and runs through the crowd. He dives into the well. People scream, shocked. Marvin lands in the well with a thud and a roar. He dashes out of the fire down the cave and finds Eek, huddled on the ground. Eek coughs.
“C’mon, buddy.” Marvin scoops Eek up and puts him on his shoulder. He runs back, through the fire. He climbs the wall of the well, digging his fist into the rock, clambering up the wall with one hand still holding Eek the entire way.
Marvin bursts out of the well again and the crowd is shocked. Marvin glares at them and they make a space.
“He’s got a kid with him!” Someone shouts.
He lays Eek down on the ground.
“C’mon Eek!” Marvin says. “C’mon!” Marvin nudges Eek, shakes him lightly. “Someone do something!”
“He did it again! He’s killed another kid,” says Burt.
“Eek! Please, wake up. Wake up, Eek…” Someone from the crowd steps forward and kneels down next to Eek. They check his pulse. Marvin looks at them with hopeful eyes but they shake their head. Tears are already down Marvin’s face.
“Eek was the only person that took a moment to know me before screaming and running. He was the kindest boy and you… You just…” Marvin’s fists clench. “But Eek made me realize something in the time I knew him. That sometimes, when things are out of our control, we lash out against others to pretend like we’ve got control. But I refuse to do that. Eek was better than that and so am I.”

“How many kids are we gonna let this monster take from us before we finally decide enough is enough,” Burt shouts.
“No, dad,” says Bruno.
“Shut up, boy,” Says Burt. “Let’s put an end to this here and now!” Burt hefts his pitchfork.
“No! This is all your fault, Dad. All of this! You’re the reason Eek’s dead. You’re the reason Sophie’s dead. Not him!”
Burt backhands Bruno, who falls to the ground. A murmur rises in the crowd.
“What’s he mean, Burt?” someone asks.
“Nothin, he’s just smartin off like the fool son he is.”
“I’m not smartin off. I’m telling the damn truth. My dad was drunk as hell that night. He was driving back from the liquor store. I was there with him. I saw Sophie in the street. I saw her eyes look at me and then I heard the brakes, but it was too late.”

“That’s bull-” Shouts Burt.
“Looks like we’ve got our monster right here.” Someone says. The crowd tightens around Burt. Marvin walks away, his head hung low in despair.

END