Thread: Rotting Heart (working title)- warning: extreme violence and swearing

Hi, below are the first 10 pages of a script I wrote a couple months ago. I would like to develop it into a fumetti and eventually a film, but both these projects are a lot of effort and I'd like to know that the script is worth it so constructive feedback is greatly appreciated.

It's set in the small, fictional town of Monty's Bay on the East Coast of South Africa and was inspired by a series of corpses that were discovered in a sugar field a couple of years ago.

I know my formatting probably sucks- I used Word and then posted it into this devil messaging thing, which pushed everything out again. I do have Celtx now (yay!) and will use it to polish the final version.

Bombs away.

Rotting Heart

Scene 1- Exterior-Sugar Cane Fields- Afternoon

Through the shaky lens of the digital camera, a sweaty, middle aged man stands in front of a dense field of bright green sugar cane and a bright blue, cloudless sky.

He chews gum and squints against the sun.

The man holding the camera struggles to focus on him and as he zooms out, we see that the man is wearing a khaki SAPS uniform.

CAMERA MAN
Shouldn’t we go with them?

The cop makes a face and shakes his head.

OLD COP
Wait for the dog.

The camera man plays with the settings on the camera for a while, zooming in and out of the cop, changing the focus and the colouring while he speaks to him, clearly bored.

CAMERA MAN
Lived here long?

OLD COP
About six years.

CAMERA MAN
You like it?

OLD COP
Ja, sure. It’s lekker.

CAMERA MAN
Bit hot though....

OLD COP
What?

CAMERA MAN
The weather. It’s a bit hot- like, as opposed to Joburg I mean.

OLD COP
Joburg’s a shithole.

CAMERA MAN
You don’t like Joburg?

There is movement in the reeds behind the cop, the camera man focuses in on it as the cop continues talking.

OLD COP
It’s quiet here. After 10 years of dealing with night after night of people shooting each other, robbing each other, fucking each other and beating the shit out of each other... I like quiet.

Another police officer emerges from the sugar cane field.

OLD COP
Find anything?

The second cop shakes his head and turns to look behind him.

OLD COP
Where’s Riley?

YOUNG COP
He was right behind me.

They both turn back into the field, the camera man follows at their heels, losing them both momentarily behind the wall of green sugar cane.

The older cop whistles and calls the dog’s name. There is a rustling movement through the reeds towards them. The older cop smiles in relief.

OLD COP
(at the camera man)
You see, Monty’s Bay just doesn’t have the crime that Joburg does.

Some way away, they see the sheep dog making their way towards closer with something dirty and hairy in its mouth.

The camera man tries to zoom in.

CAMERA MAN
What’s that in his mouth?

The dog gets closer and drops his prize on the ground in front of the men.

The camera man focuses on the rotten, eyeless head of a young woman.

The younger cop turns to heave and the older cop just stares straight down at it.

The dog sits back on his haunches, tongue lolling and tail wagging.

OLD COP
Fuck.

Scene 2- Cassie’s House- Interior- Day

RICK, an attractive man in his late 20’s stares down into a single drawer filled with underwear.

From the waist up, he is dressed in a suit and tie, from the waist down he is completely naked.

He stands in a small, cluttered bedroom, the rest of his clothes strewn across the unmade bed.

RICK
Fuck.

CASSIE, a pretty young woman, also in her late twenties, appears wearing a summery dress. She combes her still wet hair as she emerges from the en suite bathroom.

CASSIE
What?

RICK
I don’t have any clean socks.

Cassie looks irritated.

CASSIE
Why don’t you wear a pair of mine?
(under her breath)
...or do your own laundry.

RICK
I’ll just wear yesterday’s.

CASSIE
Are you serious?

Rick starts shakimg out an old sock, Cassie looks at him, lip curled in disgust.

CASSIE
Whatever.

RICK
Hey… what do you think?

Cassie turns around again, her patience worn thin.

Rick stands, still half-dressed and holds up two ties in different shades of blue.

She stares at Rick for a moment and then points between them.

CASSIE
The blue one.

She heads back into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her as Rick analyses both ties again.

Scene 2.2- Cassie’s Car- Interior- Morning

Cassie and Rick travel together in their modest hatchback.

Cassie drives while Rick sits in the passenger seat.

CASSIE
So dirty socks are better than women’s socks?

RICK
If we, touch wood, get into an accident today- would you rather have the paramedics thinking that your boyfriend has questionable grooming habits, or that he likes wearing ladies undies?

CASSIE
Socks aren’t ‘undies’.

RICK
They’re like undies for feet- watch it!

Cassie quickly swerves to avoid a gaping crater in the barely tarred road.

She then rights the car, slightly shaken. Her shock quickly turns to anger.

CASSIE
The roads here are really shitty.

RICK
At least there’s not much traffic.

CASSIE
Not if you don’t count the dogs and goats and the potholes…

RICK
Ok. Jesus. I’ll drive tomorrow.

They continue the drive in silence.


Scene 3- Classroom- Interior-Morning

A very simple, small classroom is packed with at least 15, mostly black adolescents all gathered around a desk at the back, laughing and talking noisily as they look at something on another student’s cell phone.

Cassie races up to the door of the classroom.

She composes herself for a second outside.

THOMAS, the head teacher, a conservatively handsome man in his mid 30’s, walks past her and gives her a charitable smile.

THOMAS
Good luck. They’re always the worst on Fridays.

Cassie smiles back.

CASSIE
Thanks, Tom.

She calmly enters the class.

CASSIE
Good morning everyone!

The students don’t greet her back, but look at her curiously, reluctantly settling into their seats, still talking.

Cassie sets her things down on her desk and removes a dog-eared book from her bag.

Cassie grabs a garish textbook from her table at the front of the class and holds it aloft next to the one from her own bag.

CASSIE
Ok guys, so you know Fridays are comprehension days, I can’t do anything about that, but I can give you a choice between, Mr.Dickens.

She presents the cover of the textbook, which reads, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

The students moan simultaneously.

CASSIE
or Mr Lovecraft....

She presents her own book, titled ‘Collected Short Stories from HP Lovecraft’

After some chatting, a student raises her hand. She chews on the end of a long, bright pink pencil.

LINDI
Which one’s better?

CASSIE
Well, it’s pretty subjective, I mean, according to some circles-

LINDI
Which one’s shorter?

She holds out the Lovecraft book.

CASSIE
This one.

Scene 3- Classroom- Interior-Morning

Cassie sits on her table in front of the class, her arm laden with homework sheets. The students argue between them.

RUDE BOY
Musides killed Kalos, that’s why Kalos turned into a tree and killed him back.
Revenge and shit, man.

LINDI
Kalos didn’t ‘turn’ into a tree-

CASSIE
Ok, settle down, it’s almost home-time and I just want to hand these out....

LINDI
Teacher?

CASSIE
Yes, Lindi.

LINDI
Do you think it’s good when writers leave an ending so you don’t know what’s going on?

Cassie pauses in her activity of handing out the exercise sheets.


She smiles at Lindi, happy to hear what seems like a genuinely interested question.

CASSIE
I think it can be. Why Lindi, you thinking of becoming a writer?

LINDI
Hell no.
I’m going to be in the movies.

Lindi sits back in her seat defiantly, spinning the bright pink pencil in her fingers like a miniature baton.

RUDE BOY
Porn movies!

The whole class erupts with laughter, with the exception of Cassie and Lindi.

Lindi snarls at the boy and launches her pencil at the boy, who deflects the projectile with his hand, never stopping his laughter.

Cassie gives the boy a death-stare before turning back to the girl and rolling her eyes.

The bell rings suddenly and the class instantly gets up and starts leaving the class.

CASSIE
Wait! Don’t leave without your.... homework.

Cassie realises that she has lost them and resigns herself.

LINDI
Better luck next time, Miss Russell.

Scene 4- Teacher’s Room- Interior- Afternoon

The teacher’s lounge is a crowded, windowless room. A plastic garden table, surrounded by too many chairs sits in the centre.

The table is flanked by a basic coffee and tea station on one side and on the other, a notice board overflowing with posters, schedules and notes which have been tacked one on top of the other in a vertical mountain of paper.

All of thre mismatched chairs around the snall table have been filled and the teachers sit elbow to elbow as they eat.

All take turns looking at and commenting on each other’s lunches.

TEACHER 1
Why don’t you just tell her you don’t like piccalilli?

TEACHER 2
I can’t believe you’re putting sugar on that -

TEACHER 3
It’s going pretty good- the first day or two was hell, but I feel like I’ve lost some weight already.

Cassie stares into her bright, plastic lunch tin at the two innocuous halves of sandwhich nestled inside.

She closes it again without touching them.

THOMAS
You don’t look impressed. Want to trade?

CASSIE
No thanks, just not hungry.

She smiles back at him and then, embarrased, tries to rejoin the conversation next to her.

Scene 5- Road- Exterior- Afternoon

Cassie’s car, a bright blue Ford Fiesta, veers violently off the battered road.

She opens the driver’s door and throws up before closing the door and starting the car again.

Scene 6- Cassie’s Car- Interior- Late Afternoon

Cassie drives while Rick talks.

They pass through a heavily wooded area. The setting sun behind the trees casts long shadows across the pockmarked road.

RICK
I mean, we’ve got a long way to go still, but I feel like the presentation gave them something to think about.

CASSIE
That’s great, babe.

Rick turns to look at her.

RICK
You ok?

CASSIE
I threw up.

RICK
Like right now? Like in your mouth?

CASSIE
No, earlier today. I had to pull over.

RICK
Something you ate?

CASSIE
I couldn’t eat either...

RICK
Maybe it’s a bug- you should call the doctor.

CASSIE
Look, I could just be crazy, but I was thinking, Rick, remember our first night in the house? All of our stuff was still in boxes and we were feeling....

RICK
I remember.

They pause and share a secretive smile.

RICK
Shit. Do you think you’re pregnant?

CASSIE
Well, I was just thinking...I mean.... would that be the worst thing?

RICK
Not the worst thing, no.

CASSIE
But still pretty bad. Ok.

RICK
Cas, Cassie, come on, don’t get like that.

CASSIE
I just feel sometimes, Rick, like you-

A goat casually trots into the road.

RICK
Cassie!

Rick tries to grab the wheel, they veer off the road and hurtle through the underbrush before slamming into a tree hard.

And what happened next?

Ah ha! You're already in suspense!

Although, to be serious, I suppose an accompanying synopsis would be a good idea.... hmmm. Will post ASAP!

Sooooo.... here is a little (not so little) synopsis of the whole story. There is a much shorter logline as well for easy reading

Genre

Mystery/ Horror

Logline:

A psychic teacher helps a sceptical cop catch a serial killer.

Synopsis:

Cassie and her husband Rick have just moved to the small Eastern Coast town of Monty’s Bay, an area lush in vegetation, but notorious for its poverty and the resultant lack of infrastructure and roads. Unbeknownst to them, a woman has just been discovered dead in one of the sprawling sugar cane fields in the area. Her body has been horribly mutilated.

Cassie works here as an English teacher at a local school. One day, on the way home from work, Cassie reveals to Rick that she thinks she might be pregnant. Shortly after the confession, their car veers off the road and Rick is killed. Cassie slips into a coma for the next couple of months and loses the baby.

When Cassie awakes in the hospital, a doctor tells her what has happened. Alone in a strange town and having lost her child and 2 months of her life, she goes looking through the hospital for some way to numb her pain and end her life. She finds an elderly patient’s medication, but is stopped by a nurse. As soon as the nurse lays her hand on Cassie though, Cassie slips into a trance and has a vision of the nurse killing and robbing another patient.

A police officer, Eddie, and an official cameraman, Lucky, arrive at the hospital to investigate the nurse and interview Cassie. The officer and Cassie dislike each other immediately. He does not believe her story about the vision. She touches him and sees something from his past, which she asks him about. Unsettled, he leaves.

Cassie meets with the head teacher from her school, Tom. He brings a card signed by all of her students and comforts her at the hospital and reveals that he has separated from his wife. As Cassie, now healed, prepares to go home, Eddie returns and asks him to help her find the killer of the girl found in the field. She refuses. He forces her to take a keepsake of the girl home with her.

When Cassie gets to her old home, she is haunted by memories and spends a day drinking and burning her husband’s clothing in fire on her lawn. In finding more items to burn, she find’s the girl’s necklace and touches it, having a vision of the girl’s terrible last few minutes. She discerns from what she sees that her killer has taken more than just one life.

Eddie and his team go looking in the field and locate a lot more bodies. En route, he shows Lucky how to tell the time using a shadow on the ground. Cassie tries to provide more clues about the killer based on the personal effects of the girls that she touches in turn. She never sees the killer’s face, just a bright light.

After she has told him all she can, Eddie is unimpressed, both by what she has told him and by her overall ‘victim’ demeanour and challenges her to attack him with a pen. She does, eventually, but is interrupted by Lucky.

In the meantime, Tom arranges a teaching assistant position at the school and private lessons at her home so that Cassie can teach again. After he comes to get her from the police station, Cassie touches him and realises the attraction he has towards her. They start an affair.

Eddie and the coroner look at each of the bodies in turn, trying to work out what the unrelated girls all have in common and what pattern the killer is following. They realise that the one thing the young girls have in common was that they were all unemployed and would all be either still in school or habitual visitors of the local unemployment office.

Eddie and Lucky go to see Tom and Cassie at the school. They bring them in for questioning. Eddie interrogates Tom, clearly just because he doesn’t like him. He finally admits that they have already arrested a man who was exposing himself outside the unemployment office. Tom and Cassie leave together. Tom drops Cassie off at home, but doesn’t join her.

Cassie waits for her students outside her home for a private lesson. After waiting for one particularly disruptive student, she gives up and begins the lesson without her. A knock on the door turns out not to be the tardy pupil, but rather Eddie, coming to tell her that the student has been murdered, proving their assumptions about their current suspect incorrect. He hands her the student’s pink pencil, which she had been famous for.

Once again, Cassie sits in the station and struggles to see something of her student’s last moments. She sees nothing. Eddie shows her some sympathy and asks Lucky to take her home. Lucky agrees.

Eddie and the coroner go through the footage of the crime scenes methodically, the coroner mocks Lucky’s technique based on the fact that his shadow is in one of the shots. Eddie deduces from the shadow that the footage on the tape was taken hours before the body was officially discovered.

Back in her home, Cassie lays her hand on Lucky and realises that he is the killer she has been trying to find. She tries to stay calm and not let Lucky know that she knows. Lucky suggests that he takes her to the sugarcane field so that she can see if she ‘sees’ anything that can help the police. Cassie initially resists, but Lucky becomes aggressive and she agrees.

When Eddie gets to Cassie’s house, they have already left. Cassie has left a message scrawled on her kitchen wall with the pink pencil though and Eddie races to the field.
Lucky chases Cassie through the field and eventually catches her. He mounts his camera on a folding tripod. The camera’s bright light is identical to the one in Cassie’s visions. He wants to record her last moments as he kills her.

Eddie arrives at the sugarcane field and runs towards the light. Halfway there, he trips over a bloodied body. A figure lurches towards him from the darkness and he shoots, eliciting a loud, female scream. He looks at the bloodied figure next to him and sees that it is Lucky, his eyes gouged out. He approaches Cassie, who he has just shot and sees the blood covered pencil gripped in her hand- used as a weapon as he had encouraged her to. He helps her out of the field as more police cars arrive.

The end.

Ok, so the saying goes that faint heart never won fair lady. I don't want any fair ladies, but some feedback would rock... so here's the next 10 pages. The plot sickens...

*

Scene 7- Hospital- Interior- Morning
*
Cassie’s vision is blurred and the pained sound of a woman moaning can be heard.

As she pries her eyes open, she sees where she is and realises that the moaning woman is her.

A stern looking nurse stares down at her, checking her pulse, not looking at her.*

Cassie opens her mouth wider to try speak, but her chapped lips crack and bleed and the sound is little more than mewling.

She closes her eyes again.

When she opens her eyes again, some time has clearly passed and the nurse has returned with a doctor.

DOCTOR
Miss Russell. Nice to see you… awake.

Cassie licks her lips to speak. Her voice is a sore croak.

CASSIE
How long...?

DOCTOR
You’ve been with us for three months, Miss Russell. You’re a very lucky young lady. Most people in a coma for that long don’t wake up again-

CASSIE
Rick?

The doctor looks from Cassie to the Nurse, then down at his clipboard, before looking back at her.

DOCTOR
I’m sorry, he didn’t make it out of the crash. Neither did your pregnancy.

CASSIE
Baby?

DOCTOR
I think it’s best to call it the 'pregnancy'.

Cassie’s eyes start pouring tears down either side of her face and she starts hyperventilating.

DOCTOR
You’ve been through a lot and there are still lots of tests to run to make sure you’re all better before we can start things like physical therapy or... other therapy.

The doctor smiles gently at Cassie while she shakes with rage and grief in her sick bed and the nurse looks on impassively.

DOCTOR
But Sister Amelia is here to take care of you now and we both just really want you to focus on getting better. I want you to take care of yourself. Can we do that?

Cassie continues to shake.

The doctor smiles. The nurse does not.


Scene 8.1 - Hospital- Interior- Night


Cassie wheels herself through the dark corridors of the hospital.

She stops to peer in carefully at each lit doorway.

She sees one patient hooked up to a number of pipes and machines, alone in her room.

She pulls up next to the woman, looks at her.
*

CASSIE
Sorry about this. I’m sure you’d do the same... you know.... if you could....

She pulls the woman’s bag into her lap and starts rifling through it. She finds a slim pen knife and puts it on the bed next to the woman.

CASSIE
Ok, not bad....*

She then takes out a big bottle of pills and looks almost delighted.

CASSIE
Oh, much, much better.
Thanks, lady, I guess I’ll see you on the other side.

She replaces the bag and starts to turn the wheel chair around with the bottle of pills nestled in her lap.

As she does, she turns right into the gaze of the nurse.

SISTER AMELIA
What are you doing up?

CASSIE
I was just ... ah.... visiting my friend here.
She gently pats the woman on the hand.

SISTER AMELIA
You’re not supposed to be out of bed.

CASSIE
I know. I’m sorry. I’ll go back.

Cassie starts wheeling herself out of the room, past the nurse, but the nurse reaches down to Cassie’s lap for the pill bottle.

SISTER AMELIA
And what’s this?

Cassie grabs the woman’s arm to stop her and almost immediately blacks out.


Scene 8.2-Hospital- Interior- Morning

Cassie wakes up, lying on her back in a hospital bed, different to her own.

Cassie tries to move, but is completely paralysed.

She sees the nurse enter the room and come towards her.

CASSIE
Hi, morning. Um....I can’t move, I don’t know...

Sister Amelia pays less attention to her than usual.

CASSIE
Sister Amelia? Look, I’m sorry for being out of bed last night, but something’s not right. I can’t move and-

Sister Amelia picks up Cassie’s forearm and quickly removes a gold chain bracelet before letting her arm flop back down on to the bed.

Cassie looks at the bracelet, surprised.

CASSIE
That’s not mine…

Sister Amelia bends down, picks up a handbag and starts going through it.

CASSIE
Hey! What the fuck are you doing?

Sister Amelia opens the purse and takes the cash out and a couple of other items before dropping the whole bag on the floor and kicking it aside.

She then reaches behind Cassie and grabs a pillow.

Cassie has one final moment of lucidity, in which she screams, before the pillow is smashed down into her face.


*
Scene 8.3- Hospital- Interior- Night*
*
Cassie is suddenly aware that she is still screaming, but now she is back in the wheel chair in a stranger’s hospital room with her hand wrapped around the nurse’s arm.*

Sister Amelia looks terrified and tries to pull out of Cassie’s grasp.

Doctors and more nurses have come to see what the problem is.

One doctor pulls out a syringe and jabs Cassie, who rambles incoherently.*

CASSIE
She... Killed.... Her.

Cassie glares at the nurse for a long moment.

She abruptly throws up and then passes out.

*
Scene 9.1- Hospital- Interior- Day

Cassie is seen through the lens of a handheld camera.*

She lies in bed, trying to open her eyes.

She senses movement to her right and catches a fright, pulling to the other side of the bed.

A man in his late thirties sits next to her, this is EDDIE.

A much younger, much more casual man sits next to him, with a handy cam in one hand, this is LUCKY
*

CASSIE
Who the fuck are you?

EDDIE
(to Lucky)
A charmer.

(deadpan)
Well, hello there. I’m detective Edward Stenton, this is Lucky Maropa, our resident camera...person.... and we’re with the SAPS.

I would like to ask you some questions about Sister Amelia.

CASSIE
She was stealing...

EDDIE
We know that... now. Thanks to you we managed to locate several items reported stolen by the families of her victims. What we'd like to know is how you know.

Cassie stares at Eddie and then at Lucky.

She gestures at the camera.

CASSIE
What’s that for?
EDDIE
Just so that we keep everything on record.
*
CASSIE
I don’t know how I know. It was like... I don’t know. Like I went out of my body for a moment and I saw her in another place and time and she was-

EDDIE
I’m going to stop you right there. You went out of your body?

LUCKY
Sounds like astro-travel....

EDDIE
*Are you telling me you saw Sister Amelia in a ‘vision’?

CASSIE
I don’t know what else to call it.*

EDDIE
Bullshit?

Cassie is taken aback.

EDDIE
What would you say if I told you that you and Sister Amelia were in on this together and you got tired of the gig. I’m mean, you’ve been in this hospital a long time.

CASSIE
In a fucking coma, you asshole.

EDDIE
Well then, maybe you framed her cos she didn’t bring you the right meds.... one thing I don’t believe is that you just started hearing voices and-

CASSIE
I think you should leave.

Eddie leans in close.

EDDIE
I think you need to start telling the truth...

CASSIE
Piss off.

Cassie turns her head away from the men.

Eddie reaches across the bed and takes her wrist, turning it gently to reveal the puncture marks on her inner elbow.

EDDIE
Nice needlework.

Cassie looks from her arm to Eddie and slumps against the pillows behind her head.
Eddie suddenly lets go of her.

Eddie and Lucky look at one another, shocked.

LUCKY
Dude, I think you killed her.

*
*
Scene 9.2- River Bank- Exterior- Day


Cassie floats in a river, moving slowly thorugh the water. Over the flow of the current, she can hear hysterical screaming.

She is suddenly pulled by the arm towards the river bank.

The impassive faces of the rescue workers staring down at her are starkly contrasted with the distraught face of a teenage boy.

He pushes his way through the workers, leans over and opens his mouth to speak to her.

*
Scene 9- Hospital- Interior- Night
*
Eddie leans over Cassie and checks her pulse.

EDDIE
Knock knock…

He stands up and looks closely at Cassie.

Lucky leans over from the other side of the bed.

Cassie suddenly comes to and starts coughing heavily in Eddie’s face.

Eddie sits down again and wipes his face.

Lucky repositions the camera and tries not to laugh.

CASSIE
Who’s the girl in the water?

Eddie suddenly goes pale.

He silently gets up and starts making his way out of the room.

EDDIE
*Lucky, get your stuff, we're leaving.

Eddie stalks out of the room.

Lucky starts packing up his camera.

LUCKY
Hey, I’m sorry about him. Lots of women I know have had visions before. Real visions. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re lying.

Cassie forces something like a smile.

A knock on the door interrupts Lucky as he is about to say something else.

Cassie and Lucky both look at the doorway and see Thomas standing there, waiting.


*
Scene 10- Hospital- Exterior- Day


Cassie and Thomas sit underneath a large, twisted looking tree behind the hospital. She carries a walking stick.

THOMAS
I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner

CASSIE
I wasn’t really expecting you to.

THOMAS
The students miss you. Lindi especially.

Cassie laughs.

THOMAS
The teachers miss you too.

CASSIE
All of them?
*
THOMAS
Yeah… all of them.

They sit in silence while one of them tries to figure out what to say.

THOMAS
Do you think you’ll come back to the school?

CASSIE
I don’t know. Maybe.

THOMAS
Maybe you could take some extra lessons in the meantime you know? Ease back into it… How’s this place treating you?

Cassie smiles a little and then shrugs.

CASSIE
Tell me about you. How’s your family doing?

THOMAS
Uh… ok. Yeah, they’re ok.

Cassie stares at Thomas, sensing there ‘s more he wants to say.
*

THOMAS
Christine’s staying with her mom at the moment. I mean, we’ve had rough patches before but… I’m sure you don’t want to hear this.

Cassie smiles awkwardly.

She moves her fingers towards his, but then stops herself.

THOMAS
Cas, the important thing is that you know that I’m- we’re- here for you, whatever you need.

Thomas reaches into his jacket and takes out a card, which has been signed many times inside.
Cassie looks at the card and gets teary eyed.

Thomas hugs her.

She pulls away and goes back to looking at the card, she beams at him and he starts pointing out the different signatures.
*
*
Scene 11- Hospital- Interior- Day

Cassie stands up on her own, looking far more healed than before.

She tosses a few items into a tog bag, stopping to look at the card again.

Suddenly an arm reaches past her and grabs the bag.

Cassie spins around, terrified and comes face to face with Eddie.*

CASSIE
What the fuck? Are you fucking crazy?

EDDIE
(pointing at her)
Pot.
(pointing at himself)
Kettle.

CASSIE
What are you doing with my bag?

EDDIE
It’s a going away present... and a chance to prove you shouldn’t stay in this hospital… or one with softer walls and leather bracelets on the beds.

Eddie removes a thin chain from his pocket, he holds it up.

CASSIE
What do you want?

EDDIE
The girl who this belonged to was found last week in a sugarcane field. The killer beat, strangled, raped her and cut her up so that not even her mother would have known her. I’ve seen some fucked up shit in my time, but not like this.*I want you to help me find the bastard that did this. If you can…


CASSIE
Even if I could-

EDDIE
You have my number.

Eddie drops the chain into the tog bag and then drops the bag.

Cassie grabs the bag back.

CASSIE
Asshole.

She looks into the bag, considering placing her hand inside to dig it out, but can’t force herself to do it our of fear of touching it.

She looks up again and Eddie is gone.

*

Ok, so the saying goes that faint heart never won fair lady. I don't want any fair ladies, but some feedback would rock... so here's the next 10 pages. The plot sickens...

*

Scene 7- Hospital- Interior- Morning
*
Cassie’s vision is blurred and the pained sound of a woman moaning can be heard.

As she pries her eyes open, she sees where she is and realises that the moaning woman is her.

A stern looking nurse stares down at her, checking her pulse, not looking at her.*

Cassie opens her mouth wider to try speak, but her chapped lips crack and bleed and the sound is little more than mewling.

She closes her eyes again.

When she opens her eyes again, some time has clearly passed and the nurse has returned with a doctor.

DOCTOR
Miss Russell. Nice to see you… awake.

Cassie licks her lips to speak. Her voice is a sore croak.

CASSIE
How long...?

DOCTOR
You’ve been with us for three months, Miss Russell. You’re a very lucky young lady. Most people in a coma for that long don’t wake up again-

CASSIE
Rick?

The doctor looks from Cassie to the Nurse, then down at his clipboard, before looking back at her.

DOCTOR
I’m sorry, he didn’t make it out of the crash. Neither did your pregnancy.

CASSIE
Baby?

DOCTOR
I think it’s best to call it the 'pregnancy'.

Cassie’s eyes start pouring tears down either side of her face and she starts hyperventilating.

DOCTOR
You’ve been through a lot and there are still lots of tests to run to make sure you’re all better before we can start things like physical therapy or... other therapy.

The doctor smiles gently at Cassie while she shakes with rage and grief in her sick bed and the nurse looks on impassively.

DOCTOR
But Sister Amelia is here to take care of you now and we both just really want you to focus on getting better. I want you to take care of yourself. Can we do that?

Cassie continues to shake.

The doctor smiles. The nurse does not.


Scene 8.1 - Hospital- Interior- Night


Cassie wheels herself through the dark corridors of the hospital.

She stops to peer in carefully at each lit doorway.

She sees one patient hooked up to a number of pipes and machines, alone in her room.

She pulls up next to the woman, looks at her.

CASSIE
Sorry about this. I’m sure you’d do the same... you know.... if you could....

She pulls the woman’s bag into her lap and starts rifling through it. She finds a slim pen knife and puts it on the bed next to the woman.

CASSIE
Ok, not bad....*

She then takes out a big bottle of pills and looks almost delighted.

CASSIE
Oh, much, much better.

Thanks, lady, I guess I’ll see you on the other side.

She replaces the bag and starts to turn the wheel chair around with the bottle of pills nestled in her lap.

As she does, she turns right into the gaze of the nurse.

SISTER AMELIA
What are you doing up?

CASSIE
I was just ... ah.... visiting my friend here.
She gently pats the woman on the hand.

SISTER AMELIA
You’re not supposed to be out of bed.

CASSIE
I know. I’m sorry. I’ll go back.

Cassie starts wheeling herself out of the room, past the nurse, but the nurse reaches down to Cassie’s lap for the pill bottle.

SISTER AMELIA
And what’s this?

Cassie grabs the woman’s arm to stop her and almost immediately blacks out.


Scene 8.2-Hospital- Interior- Morning

Cassie wakes up, lying on her back in a hospital bed, different to her own.

Cassie tries to move, but is completely paralysed.

She sees the nurse enter the room and come towards her.

CASSIE
Hi, morning. Um....I can’t move, I don’t know...

Sister Amelia pays less attention to her than usual.

CASSIE
Sister Amelia? Look, I’m sorry for being out of bed last night, but something’s not right. I can’t move and-

Sister Amelia picks up Cassie’s forearm and quickly removes a gold chain bracelet before letting her arm flop back down on to the bed.

Cassie looks at the bracelet, surprised.

CASSIE
That’s not mine…

Sister Amelia bends down, picks up a handbag and starts going through it.

CASSIE
Hey! What the fuck are you doing?

Sister Amelia opens the purse and takes the cash out and a couple of other items before dropping the whole bag on the floor and kicking it aside.

She then reaches behind Cassie and grabs a pillow.

Cassie has one final moment of lucidity, in which she screams, before the pillow is smashed down into her face.


*
Scene 8.3- Hospital- Interior- Night*
*
Cassie is suddenly aware that she is still screaming, but now she is back in the wheel chair in a stranger’s hospital room with her hand wrapped around the nurse’s arm.*

Sister Amelia looks terrified and tries to pull out of Cassie’s grasp.

Doctors and more nurses have come to see what the problem is.

One doctor pulls out a syringe and jabs Cassie, who rambles incoherently.*

CASSIE
She... Killed.... Her.

Cassie glares at the nurse for a long moment.

She abruptly throws up and then passes out.

*
Scene 9.1- Hospital- Interior- Day

Cassie is seen through the lens of a handheld camera.*

She lies in bed, trying to open her eyes.

She senses movement to her right and catches a fright, pulling to the other side of the bed.

A man in his late thirties sits next to her, this is EDDIE.

A much younger, much more casual man sits next to him, with a handy cam in one hand, this is LUCKY
*

CASSIE
Who the fuck are you?

EDDIE
(to Lucky)
A charmer.

(deadpan)
Well, hello there. I’m detective Edward Stenton, this is Lucky Maropa, our resident camera...person.... and we’re with the SAPS.

I would like to ask you some questions about Sister Amelia.

CASSIE
She was stealing...

EDDIE
We know that... now. Thanks to you we managed to locate several items reported stolen by the families of her victims. What we'd like to know is how you know.

Cassie stares at Eddie and then at Lucky.

She gestures at the camera.

CASSIE
What’s that for?
EDDIE
Just so that we keep everything on record.
*
CASSIE
I don’t know how I know. It was like... I don’t know. Like I went out of my body for a moment and I saw her in another place and time and she was-

EDDIE
I’m going to stop you right there. You went out of your body?

LUCKY
Sounds like astro-travel....

EDDIE
*Are you telling me you saw Sister Amelia in a ‘vision’?

CASSIE
I don’t know what else to call it.*

EDDIE
Bullshit?

Cassie is taken aback.

EDDIE
What would you say if I told you that you and Sister Amelia were in on this together and you got tired of the gig. I’m mean, you’ve been in this hospital a long time.

CASSIE
In a fucking coma, you asshole.

EDDIE
Well then, maybe you framed her cos she didn’t bring you the right meds.... one thing I don’t believe is that you just started hearing voices and-

CASSIE
I think you should leave.

Eddie leans in close.

EDDIE
I think you need to start telling the truth...

CASSIE
Piss off.

Cassie turns her head away from the men.

Eddie reaches across the bed and takes her wrist, turning it gently to reveal the puncture marks on her inner elbow.

EDDIE
Nice needlework.

Cassie looks from her arm to Eddie and slumps against the pillows behind her head.
Eddie suddenly lets go of her.

Eddie and Lucky look at one another, shocked.

LUCKY
Dude, I think you killed her.

*
*
Scene 9.2- River Bank- Exterior- Day


Cassie floats in a river, moving slowly thorugh the water. Over the flow of the current, she can hear hysterical screaming.

She is suddenly pulled by the arm towards the river bank.

The impassive faces of the rescue workers staring down at her are starkly contrasted with the distraught face of a teenage boy.

He pushes his way through the workers, leans over and opens his mouth to speak to her.

*
Scene 9- Hospital- Interior- Night
*
Eddie leans over Cassie and checks her pulse.

EDDIE
Knock knock…

He stands up and looks closely at Cassie.

Lucky leans over from the other side of the bed.

Cassie suddenly comes to and starts coughing heavily in Eddie’s face.

Eddie sits down again and wipes his face.

Lucky repositions the camera and tries not to laugh.

CASSIE
Who’s the girl in the water?

Eddie suddenly goes pale.

He silently gets up and starts making his way out of the room.

EDDIE
*Lucky, get your stuff, we're leaving.

Eddie stalks out of the room.

Lucky starts packing up his camera.

LUCKY
Hey, I’m sorry about him. Lots of women I know have had visions before. Real visions. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re lying.

Cassie forces something like a smile.

A knock on the door interrupts Lucky as he is about to say something else.

Cassie and Lucky both look at the doorway and see Thomas standing there, waiting.


*
Scene 10- Hospital- Exterior- Day


Cassie and Thomas sit underneath a large, twisted looking tree behind the hospital. She carries a walking stick.

THOMAS
I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner

CASSIE
I wasn’t really expecting you to.

THOMAS
The students miss you. Lindi especially.

Cassie laughs.

THOMAS
The teachers miss you too.

CASSIE
All of them?
*
THOMAS
Yeah… all of them.

They sit in silence while one of them tries to figure out what to say.

THOMAS
Do you think you’ll come back to the school?

CASSIE
I don’t know. Maybe.

THOMAS
Maybe you could take some extra lessons in the meantime you know? Ease back into it… How’s this place treating you?

Cassie smiles a little and then shrugs.

CASSIE
Tell me about you. How’s your family doing?

THOMAS
Uh… ok. Yeah, they’re ok.

Cassie stares at Thomas, sensing there ‘s more he wants to say.
*

THOMAS
Christine’s staying with her mom at the moment. I mean, we’ve had rough patches before but… I’m sure you don’t want to hear this.

Cassie smiles awkwardly.

She moves her fingers towards his, but then stops herself.

THOMAS
Cas, the important thing is that you know that I’m- we’re- here for you, whatever you need.

Thomas reaches into his jacket and takes out a card, which has been signed many times inside.
Cassie looks at the card and gets teary eyed.

Thomas hugs her.

She pulls away and goes back to looking at the card, she beams at him and he starts pointing out the different signatures.
*
*
Scene 11- Hospital- Interior- Day

Cassie stands up on her own, looking far more healed than before.

She tosses a few items into a tog bag, stopping to look at the card again.

Suddenly an arm reaches past her and grabs the bag.

Cassie spins around, terrified and comes face to face with Eddie.*

CASSIE
What the fuck? Are you fucking crazy?

EDDIE
(pointing at her)
Pot.
(pointing at himself)
Kettle.

CASSIE
What are you doing with my bag?

EDDIE
It’s a going away present... and a chance to prove you shouldn’t stay in this hospital… or one with softer walls and leather bracelets on the beds.

Eddie removes a thin chain from his pocket, he holds it up.

CASSIE
What do you want?

EDDIE
The girl who this belonged to was found last week in a sugarcane field. The killer beat, strangled, raped her and cut her up so that not even her mother would have known her. I’ve seen some fucked up shit in my time, but not like this.*I want you to help me find the bastard that did this. If you can…


CASSIE
Even if I could-

EDDIE
You have my number.

Eddie drops the chain into the tog bag and then drops the bag.

Cassie grabs the bag back.

CASSIE
Asshole.

She looks into the bag, considering placing her hand inside to dig it out, but can’t force herself to do it our of fear of touching it.

She looks up again and Eddie is gone.

*