1
Run!
Keep running!
Run!
No!
Something on your mind, Anton?
Excellent, thank god.
You have no idea how
important this memorandum is.
It is essential to the
future of this company.
You must tell me
how you found it.
No big deal.
With the evidence at hand.
Hmm, you may look like a,
an overgrown
adolescent, but you have
something special.
A drink to celebrate?
Just the check, please.
Of course.
Next time, negotiate the
price before taking the job.
Mr. Keith.
Now that you have the memo,
what do you intend
to do with it?
I see you have deduced
some other things.
But perhaps you should
concern yourself
with deducing the
things you are paid
to deduce.
What do you say?
However,
I won't mention
it to my friends.
I like you, Anton, your father
would have been very proud.
Why Lah so broke, huh?
Don't know, crap pay, maybe.
I'll bank this today,
you'll get your cut
in three this time, this
time, I'm only get 10% out
of 600 fucking ringgit?
Hey, how am I gonna promote you
from trainee to partner if
you cannot nego, huh, bodo?
Hey, I forgot, okay?
Geez.
- Is this it?
- What?
You know, being a PI,
I'd always imagined it to be...
More glamorous, hmm?
Grow up, there's no job in
the world that doesn't suck.
What's that?
Violet Horizons by Joseph Tone.
What else did he write?
Chaos is my Order,
Sultan Street Serenade.
You know, if it
wasn't for this guy,
I'd be flipping burgers by now.
This work, in real life,
the femme fatal is a 250
pound auntie with frizzy hair,
and she wants you
to find her cute
and harmless little poodle.
Cute and harmless.
Hey, tomorrow I'm off,
remember that training job
in Sentul, you
think you're ready
to guard the keys to my little
kingdom, in the meantime?
Hey, my secondary
number, in case,
if you get into any
shit, which you won't,
if you follow my
instructions, right, right?
Seriously, bro.
This job is as boring
as any other job.
Can't be as boring as
house sitting your shit hole.
Hey, shit, man.
Oh.
Look.
The turkey is in the oven.
Mm.
Perks of the job, boy.
From across many
oceans, the seeker came.
As time wore on, the
seeker forgot his quest,
and sought a new riddle,
which led him to the land beyond
the Kingdom of Plain Sight.
In the Kingdom of the Hidden,
he found happiness at
last with the princess.
And the princess bore a child.
But the walls separating the
child's two worlds was thin.
So the Hidden Ones
watched, waiting
for the wall to crumble.
This all you got so far?
For now.
Still, I'm impressed
you located this one.
Midnight Marshal number one,
a true collector's
item, well done.
The trick is to notice
something others often miss.
And have you noticed something?
Have you read this?
The Lathe of Heaven, it's
about an ordinary man
who discovers he has
extraordinary powers
to alter reality
with his dreams.
I prefer a mystery.
Detective novels for
the novel detective.
I quite enjoy science fiction.
But fantasy, now, there's
my favorite genre.
Wizards, dragons, and
magic, stuff like that?
There's so much
more to fantasy than
that fanboy claptrap.
Ah.
Yes, classic game book
of your genre persuasion.
Back in the day, it was
quite popular in a series,
it's forgotten now.
This copy may well be the
last one in existence.
Any other leads?
Well, I'm working on
picking up more clues.
Just make sure you don't
pick up any misleading ones,
not everything is as they seem.
No author, no publishing house?
That's odd.
A child's fearful dream of
falling is praised as a gift
to learn to fly the next night.
A long time ago, I lived,
worked, and married here,
but things didn't work out.
Your husband was
also a foreigner?
No, he was a local.
Like I said,
we divorced, I left,
my company moved
me to Thailand, but
we had a child,
a daughter.
Every month, I'd send
her money, but I,
I never visited
until last year.
To see your daughter?
No, to find her, she
went missing, Mr. Shaw,
for a year, and the police here?
They made no
progress whatsoever.
My boss, Mr. Dan Hamzi,
he's the one you should...
But he's not here, is he?
You are.
I usually find things,
Mrs. Numan, not people.
Do you know any reason why
she'd want to disappear?
No.
In fact, I don't know
anything about my daughter.
You see, Lamya, she
had difficulties
in communicating with
others, until she found a way
to express herself
through her canvas.
I found out about this
exhibit on the internet,
marking the one year anniversary
of her disappearance.
This is where you can begin.
What if she's dead?
Then at least I'll have a
body to bury, and to mourn.
Please, just look at her.
As you can see,
I can pay very handsomely.
Oh, and one more thing.
Please be discreet, I'm on
a visitor's visa, and, well.
You know.
Absolutely.
It seems strange, I don't
know how or why she chose me.
I'm not even a
licensed private eye.
But there felt
a deeper meaning.
Not that it mattered,
for the amount
of coin this lady was
willing to pony up,
I'd find her
daughter, her brother,
her mother, and her ancestors.
Hell of a time
for you to bug me.
It's important, do
you remember Lamya Shahruddin?
Yeah, I remember that case.
What can I say, sometimes
people just disappear.
Like me?
What do you want, Anton?
I need a favor.
You still got friends
in the police?
What do I look like?
I need some
info from Missing Persons.
Oi, you're not gonna do
something stupid, right?
It's for research,
you know me, nosy as hell.
So can you help me?
Why should I, because
of you, I lost my mark.
No, you haven't, I
saw a woman walk out
with a guy to that hotel,
your marks, correct?
I saw him spinning a room key,
and I caught the first
two digits, six and one.
Now, that hotel only
has three digit rooms,
and 610 to 619 run
across the east facade,
with the windows facing out.
You should have a good
vantage point from the roof
of this building, if they
don't shut the curtains.
Did you renegotiate
your pay with Keith?
Dan, help me out here, please.
Fine.
But no funny stuff, hmm?
Don't try to play the
hero, or some shit.
Oi.
Feeling stuffy much?
The suit makes the man, kiddo.
I'll just give that a tug there.
There you go, nothing
fancy, like a Windsor knot.
Never trust a man
with a Windsor knot.
You know who said that?
You don't like super
spies, why not?
Detectives are better, like you.
But we both solve crimes.
Come on, he's a terribly spy.
Why is he a terrible spy?
He tells everyone who he is.
Well, he tells them who
he is, but not what he does.
You wanna know what
real detectives do?
Spy on people,
to get information.
And that's it?
That's the real world, kiddo.
So what do spies
do in the real world?
If we knew that,
they wouldn't be very
good spies, would they?
I'll worry about the real
world once I'm grown up.
Come on, finish your
shake, we'll be late
for the memorial.
Weapon of choice.
Ammo of choice.
Slug, not buckshot.
More stopping power.
Less spread, less mess.
Take a man's head clean off.
Explain again why you're here?
Lamya's mother
asked me to help find her.
I am Lamya's mother.
Since she was 13.
Strange.
That harpy never
gave a shit before.
You're a private investigator?
Yes, I am.
My late husband,
during the Senoi Praaq,
fighting commies
during the emergency.
- Was he...
- Senoi, sure.
Not that it helped.
They're the masters
of lucid dreaming.
Right.
Whatever that means, something
to do with controlling dreams
to overcome nightmares?
A child's
fearful dream of falling
is praised as a gift to
learn to fly the next night.
John Hassell.
Are you of indigenous descent?
Part of me is.
Ah.
Which tribe?
The oldest.
We never connected, me and her.
She always had this
look about her.
You know, especially after
her old man passed on.
We never forced
her to do anything,
figured if she was doing
something she loved,
she would open up,
but no.
She just disappeared into
her own private world.
Even more.
Did she have any
friends at the university,
men and the likes?
Secretive was Lamya's
middle name, Detective.
So.
We don't know what
she got up to outside,
girls will be girls.
Maybe this will help, this
is her poetry and prose book.
It was her way out.
Maybe it will show you
which way she went.
On the streets of Primrose Hill,
autumn was almost
at end to make way
for the harsh
realities of winter.
Here, in my room, at my dorms,
I can only imagine how beautiful
those brown dying leaves
must look as they
float to the ground.
Outside my window, the
clouds mark the coming
of the monsoon, of darker times.
Could this be an omen, it's
only my first year here
in college, but it's
nothing like how I imagined.
There's no sense
of community here,
and I doubt there ever
will, not at home,
not here, not anywhere.
I only have one refuge,
my dreams.
Look at me.
What do you see?
I see my dream.
Am I real?
Yes.
Then I'm no dream.
It sure feels like one.
Yet you believe it's real.
I believe what I see.
How can you believe in someone
that you don't know?
I've always known you.
And I, you.
I know everything I
need to know about her,
but I still had no
idea where she was.
I only had one feasible lead.
She's been missing for
more than a year now.
So are 1,000 other people,
you're looking
for them, as well?
Her parents hired
me to find her.
And what have you found
out, Mr. Detective man?
You, her best
friend, her only friend.
We were classmates, I
don't think we were pals.
Did she date?
No.
She was a good girl.
But that didn't stop guys
from lusting after her.
Like who?
My dance professor.
- He tried it on?
- Definitely did.
He even set up a special
tutorial for her, anyway,
she ditched his class as
soon as he revealed his hand.
About a week after, before
she vanished, actually.
- And do you think he...
- Maybe.
But 60 alibis said
that the turd was
in tutorial the whole day,
police questioned him,
cleared him.
Cops ask the wrong questions.
You know, you look
kind of familiar.
Have we met?
If we did,
it'll come back to me.
No.
It's about Lamya.
Make it quick, I have a
staff meeting to attend.
At this hour?
It is night school, you fool.
I understand Lamya spoke
to you in many occasions,
do you think she ran away?
And if so,
what was she running from?
What else?
Reality.
My dear man, I'm surprised
she didn't do it sooner.
The poor child, and
if she found someone
to share her delusion,
then I wouldn't be surprised
if she ran off with him.
Unfortunately, it wasn't you.
What?
Or did you only want to?
Did she turn you down,
laugh in your face?
What are you insinuating?
Not me.
This.
My source informs me that she
regularly handed you this book
to evaluate her writing talents.
Professor,
Professor, Professor?
Enough.
She wanted out, didn't
she, she wanted out
from whatever shit
stick you got her into,
but you couldn't let that
happen, so you killed her.
It wasn't me, it was them.
Oh, fuck.
You don't understand.
Nobody understands your
stupid mind, stupid, stupid.
Calm down.
I thought I could join
them, compose my own world,
open the gateway with my own
craft, but I wasn't worthy.
I wasn't worthy.
You don't get it, do
you, they denied me, me!
What did they deny you?
Is it you, you pissant?
What makes you more
worthy than me?
A learned man!
A learned man, who's wasted
in this fucking shit hole,
and they wouldn't let
me finish their story?
I ask you again, is it you?
Cloud walker, she
was a cloud walker.
The door to a kingdom, the door.
It was there, it was
there in her journal,
- I tried to crack...
- Crack what?
The combination,
combination to her kingdom.
Kingdom, the fuck
are you talking about?
Unlock the sequence,
and the doors open,
the doorway to her dreams, dream
teller, storyteller,
but they stopped me.
Who?
The Hidden Ones, they guard
the doors against trespassers.
Trespassers like you.
Fucker.
Could I really die,
could I re-dream it?
How was I rewriting
the game book?
If you think the art teacher
is a person of interest,
go to page 26.
I had to find Lamya.
You know,
you seem awfully familiar.
How so?
I can't quite place it,
I can just smell it, you know?
Sweet scent of virginity.
I'm sorry?
That's just it, the both
of you are exactly alike,
like two aliens who've landed
here from some foreign planet,
and you're just trying to
find your space in this world,
which is so, well, alien to you.
Kind of like Superman,
but without the babies.
Do you believe
in fate, Ms. Kahn?
No, I believe in wants,
desires, fantasies.
Much like what Lamya did,
and we all have the need
to express ourselves.
What do you desire most, Anton?
Ms. Kahn, please.
Fine.
Did she date?
We were roomies, not buddies,
but there was definitely
someone interested in her.
Our art professor, he paid
particular attention to her.
Yeah, he was the kind
of guy who would say,
the younger the fiddle,
the tighter its strings,
if you know what I mean.
He made a move?
Yes, all the way
to setting up a special
tutorial just for her.
Believe me, she ran like the
wind the moment she found out.
That was the week before
she disappeared, actually.
I'm sorry, that number is busy.
Please leave a message
after the tone.
Dan, help me.
The game book had changed
everything somehow.
As the story changed in my
mind, it changed in reality.
If this even is reality.
Hey, are you nuts,
meeting me here?
I could blow my operation.
You got it?
Do you know what
that fucking cost me?
Oh, shit, no.
What?
No, no!
This is not her.
It's the only Lamya
Shahruddin case there is.
I'm not losing my
mind, this is not her.
What's going on?
The body,
the body was just there.
And I had this tarot
card in my hand, it's
with me somewhere.
Okay.
The book, the book,
it's in the office.
I'll show you what happened.
They're gonna kill me,
they're gonna fucking kill me.
I know it's a setup,
but I have no choice.
They have her.
They have her.
Who's they?
The bastards that took me, I,
I know it's them, I see their
fucking faces every night
- in my dreams.
- Oh, okay, okay.
Calm down, let's
start from the top.
How did this happen?
This, this woman.
She asked me to
find her daughter.
What do you mean, asked?
You're not even licensed,
you were just supposed
to hold the fort, not
fucking do my job.
Anton,
are you taking your medicine?
Anton, go home.
You don't believe me, do you?
Come on, let's go.
You think this is
a fucking delusion?
I know you're
fucking delusional!
Now, go the fuck home.
Fuck it.
Anton.
I can't blow this case.
You're off your meds.
Tomorrow, tomorrow we'll
go see the doctor, and
take some, okay?
Okay, we'll, we'll deal
with this tomorrow.
Mr. Keith, did you send someone
to my office a few days ago?
Who is this?
The guy you ripped
off because you could.
Anton, how could I ever forget?
Do you know a Louise Numan?
Can't say that
I do, what is this about?
You're not her.
Is Ms. Shahruddin here?
Shahruddin, they
moved, last year.
What?
Look, you go outside,
I give you the address.
Oi!
I'm a detective.
You've got to have
experience, a track record,
what do you have, huh?
Imagination?
Why did you become a cop?
Because of you, my bro.
Remember the first day that
we ran into each other?
It felt good to be a hero.
I wanted to help
other kids, too,
and when I met your
dad, it sealed the deal.
How did you and Anton
meet again after 30 years?
He found me, and the
kid has his dad's talents,
even as his mind
is falling apart.
All his life, he couldn't
remember what happened back then.
Pieces came back to
him in his dreams.
He came back here
looking for answers.
Since his dad died, I
was the only anchor left
for him to the event.
Then why did you quit?
Reality.
It's complicated, listen,
politics, oh, you know what?
I wanted to do my own thing.
Same here.
He was sinking deeper
into his childhood persona.
Okay, fine.
I'm gonna take you
on as my assistant.
No, no, no, no, no,
stop, stop, stop,
not an assistant, intern.
You help me out,
follow my orders.
If you don't fuck up.
Are you fucking serious?
Don't get too excited,
this is just a dry run.
If you fuck up, ch.
Understand?
Okay, okay, okay, okay,
relax, relax, relax.
The job gave him focus, maybe
doing basic investigative work
could lead him back
to his real self.
He was working.
I thought he was.
Dan, help me.
My mind was unraveling.
It felt like if I
could just find Lamya,
I might also find myself,
understand what happened to me
when I was a kid, unlock my
memories, but I had nothing.
Maybe one thing.
Why is this happening to me?
Isn't this what you wanted?
Mystery, murder,
lust?
Everything you ever imagined,
everything you ever
needed to love.
You thought it wasn't
going to be a bumpy ride.
Every protagonist needs
to be antagonized.
You're writing the story, Anton,
we just pick up the pieces,
put them into place.
But if you're strong enough
to see it through the
way you want it to,
you'll make it.
No!
Run!
Run!
Run, run!
No, no!
You, my pet.
What do you want?
To stop you!
No kid should wield
that much power.
But we'll fix you,
we'll fix you fine.
Where is Lamya?
Yes, of course,
hook, line, and sinker,
he took the bait, jail bait.
You boys are so fucking
predictable.
But why?
Why do you need her so much,
when we have each other?
So.
Do you want to play?
Or run away into your book,
little boy?
So you want to play?
Or run away to your
book, little boy?
Kid never want to
stop playing, huh?
I should have killed you
when I had the chance.
I should have ripped you
into a million pieces
when I had the chance.
Play time's over, boy.
It took a while.
But who's counting,
when the one who
got away is back
in my loving arms.
You see,
boys will be boys.
Ah, do you know how
much damage you've done?
How much I've got to set right?
But we set her right, didn't we?
Stay away from
him, take me instead.
You're not my type.
She's mine, then.
That bitch took it for you, you!
So you could run!
It's all your fault
she's like this.
But it's good.
It's good we found each other.
Now, I've got
another use for you.
Another use for you.
You'll be needing this
for what comes next.
See, pretty little girls
aren't the only bait.
An old acquaintance owes
me a pound of flesh,
and I always collect my due.
Khalid!
Your turn to do the honors.
You're supposed to be dead.
Only in one version, kiddo.
You see what kind of a
shit storm you get into
when you don't stick
to your old man?
You're the one who
didn't stick around.
But I paid a price for my
sins, you were that price.
Tonight, we fix everything.
She paid a price, too.
For me.
Alone again,
without even a person
to share this silence with.
I would have thought that
would have been the way
for the rest of my
time in this world,
another existence floating
amongst the living,
until fate brought
me to my destiny.
The more I saw him,
the more I realized
how similar we were,
two people awake in a
world full of dreamers.
It's not use.
He's already marked you.
Who is he?
A devourer of dreams.
And who are you?
The one who makes them.
Then who am I?
Isn't it obvious?
You, you've come to take...
Take you away from here.
Shh, it's all right.
Shh.
It's all right, it's all right.
But,
what about?
It's not a dream without him.
If you go now,
they will stop you.
When will I see him again?
He'll join you eventually.
You'll come for him, too?
When he's ready.
There's something
I have to do first.
These pages are for you.
One day,
I hope you'll find them,
and join me
on a threshold to
a new beginning.
I will wait for you.
This is it,
isn't it?
What?
You,
we have to slay the beast
forever.
But we won, right?
Bastard!
A lot can happen
in one page, girl.
Bleed for me, my pet.
Bleed for me.
Slay the beast.
How long has he been missing?
Almost a week.
Don't blame yourself,
the man wasn't stable.
You think I don't know that?
But I took him
on, I had no right
to send him away
when he needed me.
Too busy chasing
influential socialites.
You need help finding him?
You offering?
Cash.
And perhaps a little intel.
Do you believe in
fate, Mr. Hamzi,
and life coming full circle?
Bring him home.
Violet Horizons, by Joseph Tone.
You know, if it
wasn't for this guy,
I'd be flipping burgers by now.
This is not her!
It's the only Lamya
Shahruddin case there is.
I'm not losing
my mind, this is not her.
Our eyes locked as
we prepared to die.
There was no turning back,
no escape, only surrender.
I could feel my lifeblood
warming the cold, hard concrete.
We may have been worlds
apart, but as we lay there
in the same place where it all
began, all those years ago,
we were meant to walk
the clouds together.
Barely conscious, I rested
in her arms as she struggled
to speak her last words.
Slay the beast.
It's okay.
It doesn't hurt.
Not anymore.
Anton.
What do you see?