Posted April 6, 2008
Shadows
by D. R. Hirschberg
Writers Guild of Ameria (WGA) Registry #1254578
FADE IN - In a dark and quiet house a clock on the wall reads 2:00-am. The house is lit with small night lights throughout casting dark gloomy shadows. An invisible presence passes through the walls from the living area to the bedroom where Susan is sleeping. Susan is in a dream state beginning to revel some of her past when her husband Bret was torched and brutally murdered. During Susan’s dream a faint beeping sound is heard in the room. The invisible presence takes on a shadow like silhouette and passes by Susan’s bed awakening her. Susan sits up frightened looking around as if she felt someone was there. Susan wipes the sweat from her face and turns to the other side of the bed. She sees her late spouse Bret’s picture on the night stand with his side of the bed empty. Susan gives a sigh and flops back down on the bed adjusting the pillow and squirming about to get conformable. Susan finally falls back asleep.
CUT TO - A car is parked outside on the street in front of Susan’s house with a man and a woman sitting in it. The woman is sitting in the back seat tied up. A second man is walking back to the car from the moonlit side yard. He’s relaying information about how he peeked through the windows to confirm Susan’s whereabouts but thinks he may have woke her. The man is thanked for the information and asked to quietly leave. The man says “Yes Victor”, gets in the car and drives off. - FADE OUT
CUT TO - Susan is awakened by her buzzing alarm with blaring music in the morning. She hits the off button and staggers out of bed stretching and rubbing her eyes. As Susan makes her way to the bathroom she turns on the TV to get the local morning news. A news flash comes up about a liquor store gambling sting that happened overnight. As Susan is walking to the bathroom she hears the name Victor Wade and turns around to see what’s going on. Just then the phone rings. A voice on the phone reveals that Susan’s friend Janet is being held captive and that Susan must meet at an old abandoned warehouse downtown. The voice threatens to kill Janet. Susan begins to question the voice but silence is heard, then dial-tone.
Susan frantically makes her way to the front door but two police officers are standing there and ring the bell. Susan comes to a stop and panics. She doesn't know what to do. The officers continue by wiggling the door handle and call out for Susan. She looks back and forth then turns and goes out the back door.
As Susan makes her way though the backyard gate she is abruptly cut off and taken captive by the two men from the car earlier that morning. Susan is hit over the head and is unconscious, put in the car and driven away. The police continue to knock on the front door unaware of what just happened. - FADE OUT
FADE IN - Susan slowly awakens with a bloody head and face in an old warehouse with her friend Janet who is unconscious. Both are tied up back to back as well as gagged. The men that apprehended them are in the next room. One is playing cards while the other is whittling a stick. The phone rings and the man playing cards answers. He tells the caller that Susan and her friend are here. Silence is heard. The man begins to explain “...but Janet led them to Susan’s whereabouts.” He hangs up the phone, turns off the TV and leaves the building pissed.
Susan hears a faint beeping sound then sees a moving shadow out of the corner of her eye. Her vision is impaired with dripping blood so she squeezes her eyes hard to clear some of it out. When she looks up, she sees the shadow move the other way. This time Susan is sure she’s not seeing things. The second man in the other room hears the commotion and comes in to see what’s going on. When he looks around he also sees the shadow. This scares the man and he falls backward onto an old table flipping it upside down, impaling himself right through the heart from his back by the table leg.
Susan is able to rock the chairs back and forth enabling herself and Janet to fall over next to the dead man. This wakes Janet and they both work to get the knife from the impaled man. They eventually free themeless and stumble to the next room. As Susan peeks her head out the door to see if it’s clear to exit, Janet is keeping an eye on their backs. Janet sees a shadow moving toward them so she pushes Susan out the door frightened. They make a run for it.
During the remainder of the night Susan and Janet find refuge in a dumpster cove behind a business miles away from the old warehouse. When they gather into the back corner Janet asks Susan what’s going on. Susan begins to explain that those men work for Victor Wade who she owes money to from past gambling debts. Janet interrupts with wanting to know more about that shadow thing. Susan doesn't have an answer other than she remembers seeing it the night before but passed it off as nothing. Susan begins to question her friend Janet about why she led Victors men to her house. Janet gives a sigh and tells Susan that she had no choice. Victors men threatened to torture and kill her and her family. Susan feels sorry for Janet and tells her not to worry because this is the least of their problems right now. Susan gives Janet a hug and the two of them fall asleep exhausted shortly after. - FADE OUT
DREAM - Susan awakens into another dream state about her husband Bret and the night he was murdered. An unidentified man picks up a phone and calls someone. He tells the person on the other end that he wants his money. The man raises the gun to Bret’s head. Bret’s arms are tied together in front of him with his wrist watch beeping. He’s shaking in anguish. The man, wearing a gold watch pulls the trigger.
CUT TO - Susan and Janet are abruptly woken by the loud sound of a garbage truck picking up the dumpster in their cove. They jump to their feet and scramble out of the cove squinting their eyes in the bright morning light. Janet sees that Susan is badly injured so they walk over to the corner gas station and go into the restroom to clean up. Just as the door closes, a cop car drives by faintly in the distance. Janet asks Susan why she has gotten caught up in this mess. Susan doesn't have an answer and stays quiet. Janet mentions that Susan’s constant legal trouble, drugs, gambling and stealing has got to stop. Susan agrees that she struggles but that’s the way it has always worked out for her. “It’s just a string of bad luck” Susan says. Janet finishes cleaning up Susan’s head.
They walk outside only to be apprehended by the police. The police take them to the nearest hospital to have Susan’s head examined. During the examination the police ask Susan why she was running. Susan told them that she saw her photo on the news and thought she was in serious trouble. The police go on about how they only wanted to talk with Susan about Victor Wade. Victor Wade is the mastermind behind the illegal gambling at the liquor store. The police go on about how the undercover gambling sting didn’t include Susan this time. They only wanted to talk with Susan in case she knew anything. Susan felt relieved but still worries about Wade.
Susan and Janet were finally released from the hospital early the next morning with an officer to escort them home. Susan didn’t tell the police about Victor in fear that she would be further questioned for her involvement with the local thug. Susan, Janet, and one police officer head off to Susan’s house. Once they arrived at Susan’s house Janet insists on staying with Susan to make sure her head injury was okay.
As the police officer walks Susan and Janet up to the front door the officer is shot in the head by Victor’s man standing on the side of the house. The man comes out of the shadows forcing Susan and Janet into the home. Upon entering Susan’s house they are confronted by Victor Wade who was waiting for them. The man abruptly pushes Susan and Janet over to Victor and sits them down.
Victor begins by questioning them about the death of the man who was holding them at the warehouse. Susan tells Victor that it was an accident and that the man fell backwards impaling himself. Victor laughs, turns and nods to his man. The man shoots Susan in the leg. Victor yells hysterically “Is that accident?”. Victor tells Susan that he’s going to ask her one more time to explain the death of his man. Susan begins to tell him the same story but adds that he was startled by a shadow presence and fell backwards onto the table impaling himself. Victor in a furious rage grabs the gun from his man and holds it up to Janet’s chest. We see Victor is wearing a gold watch. Just then Victor shoots Janet three times in the chest killing her instantly. Susan frantically screams in anguish while Victor laughs at her. During this a faint beeping sound is heard.
Just then Victor sees a shadow pass by. He asks his man if he saw it. The man looks around and shrugs his shoulders. Again it passes by in another direction this time it stops in front of Victor. Victor freaks out and begins to shoot at it. As the shadow frantically moves past Victor’s man, Victor shoots his man while trying to kill this thing. The man falls to the floor. Victor turns his back on Susan while tracking the shadow. Susan picks up the gun from the dead man and aims it at Victors head. When Victor turns around Susan is shaking in rage and barley able to stand with her injured leg. Victor continues to hold his gun steadily toward Susan and won’t back down. - FADE OUT.
BLACK SCREEN - All is silent ...one gun shot is heard.
FADE IN - Victor is lifeless on the floor. Susan is still standing in the same spot with her gun held up and arm extended toward Victor. She slowly lowers the gun to her side then drops it onto the floor exhausted. The shadow moves slowly by each body as if it’s inspecting them then turns and comes to Susan. As it approaches Susan the same faint beeping sound is heard from her dreams. Susan gets an overwhelming feeling that this must be Bret and the beeping sound is from the wrist watch she gave him. She speaks out to the shadow and tells him she will be okay now and thanks him for helping. Susan goes on that she is going to make things better for herself now and apologizes for the wrong doing’s. The shadow backs away from Susan acknowledging her apology. Then turns headed toward the camera creating the FADE OUT.
THE END
CREDITS ROLL
CUT TO - The man laying on the floor awakens and begins to quietly stand up. Susan is still watching Bret exit with her back to the man. The man pull a knife from his boot, raises his hand and throws it toward Susan. Just as the knife sinks into Susan’s back the scene goes black.
---