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by justin preece

Rated:

Genre: Horror User Review:

This is an extremely rough draft of a short, 10 page screenplay I am submitting to a college contest. I used Scriptbuddy to quickly write the rough draft. Please forgive some glaring plot holes, and of course, the horrible spelling and punctuation. I would like feedback on the basic story though. Thank you much.

THE MACABRE TALE OF LEONARD BLACK

INT. BLACK SCREEN - DAY

LEONARD (v.o.)
The world is ending. Such a pity,
such a relief. The world is ending
and all these people lie and lie.
When I dare not dream, I seem to
die for a moment that lasts an
aeon. And the world is ending. I
can sleep forever.

INT. GROCERY STORE - DAY

Walking the long narrow aisles of a dimly lit grocery store,
LEONARD BLACK eyes the products on the shelves which consist
of thousands of old jars, filled to the brim with either
black or white sludge. Every aisle and every shelf contains
the exact same thing.

Arriving at the back of the store, LEONARD eyes the dingy
top shelf. Glancing from black sludge to white, back and
forth. After a look of great thought passes across his long
narrow,melancholy face, and pale white eyes, LEONARD decides
on a jar of black sludge. Taking it from its spot on the
shelf, LEONARD walks back down the aisles to the front of
the store.

Setting his purchase on the counter, the CASHIER; an old man
who has no legs and appears to be blind, hits some buttons
on the old register, ringing up the price.

CASHIER
seven dollars, LEONARD.

Staring past LEONARD because of his loss of sight, the
CASHIER puts out his hand, waiting for the money. LEONARD
sets the seven dollars in his palm. In return the CASHIER
puts his purchase in a brown paper bag. Picking up the bag,
LEONARD shuffles towards the door.

Staring past LEONARD because of his loss of sight, the
CASHIER puts out in hand, waiting for the money. LEONARD
sets the seven dollars in his hand, picks up his jar of
sludge and heads for the door, waving as he exits.

ANGLE ON CASHIER

The CASHIER, with his blank stare from blindness looks right
at LEONARD and waves.

OUTSIDE

LEONARD walks down a desolate and ruined street of a small
town. In the distance machinery can be heard, its sound is
ever present. Walking and walking, LEONARD holds the brown
sack containing his grocery close to his chest.

Walking past a burned out building.
...past street in ruins.
...past dead rats and cats.
and arriving at an apartment building with the name,
HEAVENLY APARTMENTS, printed on the front. LEONARD enters.

HEAVENLY APARTMENTS

Coming inside, LEONARD walks across the lobby and towards
the elevator. A moaning can be heard from the black door in
the corner of the filthy lobby. LEONARD takes special care
to put as much distance between him and the door.

Entering the elevator, LEONARD presses the button for floor
seven. The doors don't shut, they only sit...finally they
close carrying LEONARD up, all the while the machines in the
distance can still be heard.

Stepping out of the elevator, LEONARD walks down the long,
red hallway, stopping at the last door, room twenty-six.

Puting his key in th keyhole, LEONARD fiddles with the
rusted door knob. Slowly he gets it to turn. Finally the
lock clicks and the door swings open, LEONARD stands infront
of the doorway.

A hand reaches out of the door, and pulls LEONARD in with
great force.
The door slams shut and the hallway is empty.

APARTMENT ROOM

MARTHA
Where the fuck have you been.
hhmmmmm?

LEONARD
Mothe..

MARTHA
It's MARTHA, don't you dare call
me mother you putrid little shit.

LEONARD
I was...

MARTHA
Shut up! Just shut up...is it
possible for you to do one thing
right hmmmmmm?! is it? IS IT!!!

MARTHA begins to swing at LEONARD, hitting him harder and
harder. Putting the grocery bag between him and MARTHA's
blows, she hits the bag and sends it sailing from LEONARDS
hand.

The bag falls to the floor and the jar of black sludge falls
out, shattering. The black goop sprays across the filthy red
carpet.

Staring with her eyes wide open MARTHA stares in horror.

MARTHA
Look what you've done to my
beautiful carpet, you...you...and
you got that horrible black
sludge. I told you to get white
you stupid shit.

LEONARD stares blankly at MARTHA.

LEONARD
I was go...

MARTHA
SHUT UP! Don't speak, don't speak,
DON'T YOU FUCKING SPEAK!!!

LEONARD stares, rage comes across is sad face.

MARTHA yells but LEONARD hears nothing, staring.Staring.
Shooting his hands up from his side, LEONARD clutches
MARTHAS head, rapping his long boney fingers around her.
MARTHA begins to convulse, a large smile comes across
LEONARDS face.

Foam begins flowing from MARTHAS mouth. Her moaning fills
the air. The CHILDREN stand back watching in horror. They
begin to cry as MARTHA falls to her knees.
The Children scream.
MARTHA moans.
LEONARD chuckles under his breath. The scene is quite
grotesque and comedic.

A man comes running in the room from an entry way leading to
the kitchen. Looking at the scene he stares in shock.

HOWARD
Goddammit! everybody SHUT THE HELL
UP...please.

LEONARD lets go of MARTHA. The CHILDREN silence immediatley.
LEONARD puts his hands to his sides.
Everyone stares at HOWARD.
Jumping from the floor, MARTHA runs towards him.

            MARTHA
He's a Monster, HOWARD.
      (Wraps her arms
       around HOWARD)
...Hug me.
      (On command HOWARD
       hugs her.)

LEONARD stares in silence.

CHILDREN
(Chanting)
Monster.Monster.Monster.

MARTHA
Hush, CHILDREN!

HOWARD
What the meaning of all this?

MARTHA buries her head in HOWARDS chest.

            MARTHA
He showed me those aweful things
again.
      (Looking at
       LEONARD)
LIES! All lies!

LEONARD
She..

MARTHA
I said shut up...SHUT UP! aahhhhh!

Running at LEONARD, MARTHA grabs him by the back of the neck
and drags him across the room to a door. Ripping it open,
she shoves him in. It is a closet. Slamming the door shut
darkness devours LEONARD. Pulling the light cord, an old
bulb flickers on, LEONARD stares into it, then is dies,
fading out quickly. In the darkness nothing can be seen. All
that is heard is the struggle LEONARD, thrashing about in
the cramped little closet. After a moment he gives up an

calms him-self. Taking heavy breaths.
In. Out. In. Out. He listens closley, LEONARD can here
MARTHA and HOWARD outside of the door. He listens closely.

MARTHA (O.S.)
He's gone to far this time.Put him
in the basement with that...thing
HOWARD. Put him there, put him
there...put him in his fucking
place.

HOWARD (O.S.)
You don't think that's a little
harsh?

MARTHA (O.S.)
No.

INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT

The door at the top of the old wooden stairs slowly opens
and a crack of light fills the dim stairway. Opening
farther, HOWARD stands, LEONARD at his side.

HOWARD
I'm really sorry, LEONARD...it's
what she wants.

LEONARD stares into HOWARDS eyes. HOWARD nudges him onto
the staircase and slowly closes the door.

LEONARD
Five years.

The door closes. LEONARD stand in the shadow. From the top
of the stairs, flickering can be seen, and the sound of fuzz
coming from a television. With apprehension, LEONARD creeps
down the stairs. Arriving at the last step, LEONARD peers
around the corner and there before him lays a ver deformed,
sad looking girl. She lays in her old ratty bed, staring
intently at a T.V. showing nothing but fuzz. Her head
twitches and she looks at LEONARD.

MAGGIE
Hi...what's your name?

LEONARD only stares at her twisted yellowing flesh and bent
and mutated bones and patches ofthick wirey hair.

LEONARD
...LEONARD...What's your name?

MAGGIE
My name is MAG..MAG..I'm MAGGIE.

LEONARD
Err...nice to meet you, MAGGIE.

LEONARD stands, awkward and unsure of what to do next.

MAGGIE
It's nice to have company.

LEONARD
How long have you been down here?

MAGGIE
Since forever.

LEONARD stares, while MAGGIE twitches and shakes in her bed.
She moans a bit and focuses her attention back to the
television. LEONARD looks around the small brick walled
room. Walking to a corner, he sits down, facing the wall.

LEONARD
(whisper)
Five years, stuck in my mind. Five
years.

Rocking back and forth, LEONARD lulls himself to sleep, his
head leaning up against the wall.

INT. FACTORY-DREAM - DAY

The machines line the walls. Gears spin, pistons pump, steam
shoots from the machines. Moving closer to the white wall
faster and faster towards the little black hole in the wall.
Closer to the blood dripping from the hole, closer and
closer. LEONARD arrives at the wall. He touches it, the wall
undulates, it has a pulse. He rubs it, digs his fingers into
the wall, the white wall made of flesh. Digging his hands in
deeper, blood pours from the wound in the wall. Digging with
his hand, ripping chunks of pink meat from the wall, covered
in blood. digging through to the other side. Beyond the wall
of flesh is an abyss, space, nothingness. Trying to climb
through...

LEONARD
(whisper)
Take me.

LEONARD is halted.

INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT

The door opens, a plate of discolored sludge hits the
ground, much of it splatters. The forks lands at LEONARDS
feet. He stares at the slop on the old metal plate.

ANGLE ON MAGGIE

MAGGIE eyes the plate, she stares intently. She sticks out
her tounge at wags at the mess. She begins to moan, and
groan. The sounds LEONARD would here passing the door
through the lobby.

MAGGIE
UUUHHHHHH!!!mmuuuuhhhhh...uuuuugh

LEONARD stands, bugged eyed.

LEONARD
SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up.

Snatching the plate off the ground, LEONARD rushes at
MAGGIE, he takes a handful of the slop and flings it at her
face. MAGGIE silences, a look of degradation passes over her
face while she trys to lick what she can from her face.
Feeling immediately sorry, LEONARD wipes what he can from
her.

Going back to pick up the spoon, he sits on the stool next
to MAGGIE. He begins to feed her.

LEONARD
Sorry.

Trying to lift her deformed arm, she just barely reaches it
to LEONARDS face, she runs a finger down his cheek. Her arm
quivers and falls back to the bed.

MAGGIE
It's alright.

LEONARD gives her another spoonful of the sludge.

MAGGIE
Take me away from here.

LEONARD
I can't, theres no way out.

MAGGIE
Please take me away...show me the
sunshine.

LEONARD
The sun doesnt shine any
longer...Five years and you will
have peace of mind...Five years
more.

MAGGIE
Take me away.

LEONARD
Take me away.

Setting the plate down, LEONARD walks back to the corner.

ANGLE ON MAGGIE

A tear trickles down MAGGIES yellowed cheek.

LEONARD sits with his back up against the corner. Staring
off into nothing LEONARD imagines. Travels the world in his
mind.

EXT. THE WORLD - DAY

Over Mountain. Past the trees. Under the flys. A dead and
bloody body. A pathetic family sits infront of a T.V.
Maggots burrow into a skull. A funeral parade on foot passes
through a gutted town. Buildings burn. Mass graves are
filled. People lay down and die. Maggots burrow. Flys buzz.
Maggots burrow.

INT. BASEMENT - DAY

FIVE YEARS LATER

At the top of the staircase, the door drifts open. A crack
of light hits the LEONARD. Looking up, he sees a silohette
of a man.

HOWARD
I'm sorry, LEONARD. I'm so
sorry...People are dead,
dying...MARTHAS dead. This planet
is really dying.

LEONARD only stares up at who he now realizes is HOWARD.

LEONARD
I could care less.

HOWARD stands for a moment, then walks off leaving the door
open. LEONARD eyes the open door, then looks away.

MAGGIE
LEONARD...LEONARD, you can take
me. Take me to see the sunshine.

LEONARD
There is nothing left, time is
stopping, the sun is fading, we
are dying.

MAGGIE twitches a little as she trys to spit out her words.

MAGGIE
Then let me watch the sun fade.

LEONARD stares at her, a tear trickles down his cheek, a
slight smile comes to his face.

            LEONARD
      (whisper)
You are a beautiful
mind...beautifully innocent.
      (To MAGGIE)
Only for you.

Going to MAGGIES bedside, LEONARD smiles, bends forward to
pick MAGGIE up. He starts lifting, and lifting. Pulling, her
skin is fused with the sheets, stuck to it, entwined in it,
melted to it. MAGGIE moans softly as her skin is ripped from
her bones, she smiles as she moans knowing she is on her way
to see the sun.

ANGLE ON LEONARD

LEONARD has a horrified look on his face, pulling, and she
is ripped away from the bed. In LEONARDS hands, MAGGIES
bones rattle. So weak they snap between hi fingers.
MAGGIE moans escalate.
SCREAMING, louder and louder.
LEONARD drops her in fright, she falls to the ground. The
sound of her bones shattering is all that can be heard.
MAGGIES mouth is open to scream but no sound comes out.
LEONARD stares. MAGGIES eyes bulge, bulge, bulge, roll back
into her head. Her mouth closes. Silence fills the room.
LEONARD stares.

CUT TO:

10.

The flesh wall is wide open, its wound moist, dripping
blood. The machines pump and turn, steam shoots from the
pistons. Closer and closer to the abyss beyond the wall made
flesh. Closer to the bloody fleshy hole. Closer.Closer.

CUT TO:

LEONARD walks away from the bloody mess of MAGGIE on the
floor. Towards her bedside table.

CUT TO:

Closer and closer to the pulsing, dripping, wound in the
flesh wall.

CUT TO:

LEONARD sits on the bed, the old rusted knife in his hand.
Sadness fills his face, another tears falls from his eye.

At the wall made flesh, crawling through, through, past the
wall of flesh.
Black.
Nothingness.
Oblivion.

Tracking across the basement from a top view. Slowly winding
across, looking down from the cieling.

LEONARD (V.O.)
For almost all of my life, I've
looked forward to death.
From perversion of my soul, to
misery of my mind, I have
experienced the downward spiral of
human degradation...

MAGGIE lay in a pool of blood, next to the bed is LEONARD,
laying face down, a pool of blood under each wrist.

LEONARD (cont'd)
and only now, with a smile on my
face, I beg to die. Let death
take my hand and guide me across
chaos, and past the
universe. Let it show me the
infinite abyss, or oblivion,
and let me stay there, to make my
place in the dirt.

The machines pump. The wall of flesh, moist and bleeding.
Beyond it; oblivion.

THE END

Feedback

From Bob	Date 4/11/2006
I know it's a macabre tale, but it was truly depressing and sick minded. I know thats what it's suppoesed to be like, but still. I can definetly tell this is a rough draft because of how it is written. It seems like you were more obseesed with the action then with anything else. Tone down the action and hit the spell check button.

From Cayleigh	Date 3/28/2005
I loved the setting and I loved Maggie. I'm a really big fan of the ring and Maggie kinda reminds me of her. Except for the whole being evil part. Hmmm...I have to ponder that for a while...)#

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