The tunnels below the woods.
The distant sound of holy music.
It’s pitch black.
Tony comes to.
He crawls.
He bumps into Mikey, who wakes with a fright.
Tony Michael?
Mikey Yes.
Tony Are you okay?
Mikey I don’t know.
Tony Hang on. I just –
He finds his torch. Turns it on.
There.
Mikey Where are we?
Tony …
The Burrels. They’re real.
Mikey What?
Tony Tunnels. Below the woods. They’re much deeper than I thought.
Mikey Right.
Tony No wonder no one’s ever found them. No one’s been here for over nine hundred years.
Mikey So … we’re …
Hello?
Hello!
Tony Michael. Are you okay?
Mikey Yeah. I just.
I’m not good in small spaces.
I don’t –
Oh God.
Please.
Get me out.
Get me out!
He looks at his phone.
Mikey There’s no signal.
There’s nothing.
He starts hyperventilating.
Towards the end when Tony’s mum wasn’t much there.
But sometimes would rise up like she was coming up for air.
Seeing where she was and how she was and this was the same sound she made.
Losing control.
And so Tony knows.
He knows what to do.
Tony holds Mikey, firm.
Tony It’s okay. Breathe, Mum. Just breathe.
Mikey calms a little.
Mikey We need to get out.
Tony Okay. We will. But first. We just need to calm down.
Pause as Mikey calms a little more. Still on edge.
‘Under the earth was Agathus laid. Into the tunnels below did her followers go.’
Mikey What?
Tony It’s the only recorded mention of the tunnels.
The Liber Eliensis.
…
Book One.
…
Page 12.
…
Paragraph 3.
Mikey What were they for?
Tony To escape. The madness. You see, the Danes had arrived.
Mikey The Vikings?
Tony … Sort of.
‘This year eight hundred and sixty-five. The heathens made great slaughter with the North Folk. And did burn the corn and sleep with their horses.’
Mikey Don’t stop.
Tony What?
Mikey Just keep talking.
I don’t care if it’s boring.
Tony Thanks.
Mikey Please. It helps.
Tony I can’t.
I mean –
Mikey looks. Waiting.
I’m not very good at …
Mikey You’re fine.
Tony Okay. Well, once …
Mikey That works.
Tony A terrible curse fell upon the land of the East Angles.
That’s us.
Mikey I’m not stupid.
Tony The Danes were raping and pillaging the land. But that wasn’t all. Crops had failed. The Bishops started to say God had left. And looked about for someone to blame. For years the nuns around Little Bevan had lived quietly. But some said their ways were odd. Against God. Rumours spread that in the dead of night they worshipped the moon. Soon it was decided by the men in Rome they must be disbanded. Their treasures handed over to the Vatican. And that would’ve been that. Except for one amongst them who said no.
And strangely Tony feels this ease.
For the first time in his life. He stops worrying about getting it all right.
About the details.
He tells Mikey about St Agathus.
The story of St Agathus takes over.
In shadow and with music.
We see the Vikings arrive. The land swarmed.
The Pope in Rome turn his back.
St Agathus herself with her sword.
Her escape. Into the woods.
And then her disappearance into the earth below.
It’s really beautiful. It comes to an end. They are alone again.
Mikey That was good.
Tony Well, it was a very truncated version. Almost embarrassingly simplistic. I mean, to have any real sense of –
Thanks.
Better?
Mikey Yeah.
Tony Come on then.
The two move off.