INT: Claudette’s car-Night
Claudette, 23, drives home late at night. Where she resides alone after the death of both of her parents. The pain of their deaths remained with her. She exhales profoundly as she stares at the bright street lights that lined her street.
Claudette:
It’s been quite some time now since mom and dad died. It feels as if it were yesterday. Can things ever go back to normal? When will this emptiness subside? When will I be happy with my life?
As she’s parked in her driveway, a sense of loneliness crosses her. She puts her head in her hands and begins to cry. She quickly wipes the tears away.
INT: Claudette’s house-Night
Claudette walks into her house and throws herself back onto the couch and starts to space out while looking at the ceiling.
Narrator:
Three years ago, Claudette’s parents were found dead in the garage of the house. She has recurring nightmares of how her parents looked and that memory cannot be erased. Claudette, as the only child, felt such a heavy burden on herself.
INT: Attic
*Curiosity gets the best of her and she climbs up into the attic. Where old photographs and boxes full of memories remained. Claudette frantically starts looking through all of the boxes and albums.
Claudette: I need a sign, something that will lead me to the truth!
She spots a white envelope peeking through out of one of the boxes addressed to “daughter” from “mom”
Claudette reads the letter to herself:
“My sweet dear daughter Claudette,
There is more to our deaths than you think. I want to let you know that we were murdered because we knew things we weren’t supposed to know, and we involved ourselves with people we shouldn’t have. Your dad and I were spies for a very well-known world leader. Your dad and I couldn’t keep witnessing tragedies upon tragedies, we just couldn’t take it anymore. We decided to flee to the United States in search of better and at that point we found out I was pregnant. We needed better for you and for us. It had to come to a point, we knew that they would be after us and eventually find us. There could be nothing for us to do so we accepted our fate. We love you dearly and are so proud of you, Claudy”
Love, mom and dad”
*Claudette’s heart drops, she now knows the truth but it’s the uncomfortable one. She’s in utter shock because this whole time her parents weren’t who she thought they were. She’s relieved to have closure but she can’t shake the feeling of pain but still in her mind, they were the best parents anyone could ever have. They raised her to be the kind and loving person that she is today.
She starts to cry and all of the memories with her parents start flooding in. She can’t bear the pain she’s feeling at the moment. Although this is a tough truth to accept, she feels relieved.
*Claudette places the letter back where she found it.
Three days later…
INT: Bar-night
Claudette walks into a local bar. She sits down and looks around. At first she seems regretful of being there but then she reminds herself to relax and enjoy the night. She’s been in bed these past few days drowning herself in tears.
Claudette(internal):
Okay Claudette you got this, let’s unwind and let the world be yours for a moment.
*An hour later after ordering drinks upon drinks. Claudette is in a blurred state of mind.
A tall, dark haired, conventionally attractive man in his twenties walks in.
Stranger:
Is this seat taken beautiful?
Claudatte:
I don’t know, handsome? Are you interesting enough to keep the seat? She giggles
Stranger:
Ah I see, I got a jokester on my hands.
They continue talking and hit it off. Claudette’s mind is so fuzzy that her concept of time is skewed. She makes her way to the bathroom and when she comes back the stranger is gone. She shifts her blurry focus to the bar table and there she notices a piece of paper stating:
“I know”
Panic sets in, her heart racing a thousand miles per hour, and she clutches her chest. She rips the paper up, hysterically leaves in a hurry, and grabs a taxi.
One week later…
Claudette resumes her life as normal, or she at least pretends to. She tries to not let the incident at the bar bother her but she tosses and turns in her sleep. She decides that she needs more answers and she can’t pretend as if what happened had no meaning
EXT: Outside of bar-night
Claudette standing 10 feet away from the bar, preparing herself to walk in. Hoping that the stranger randomly appears.
And so she was right, mysterious Mr.handsome walks in, with that smug look on his face. Oh how she hates him.
INT: Inside-Bar
This time he walks up to Claudette and leans in close and whispers to her:
“I did it. Dear sweet little Claudy. Your parents paid for their actions and now you’re next.”
Claudette’s eyes widen and she heads to the door as fast as she could but she trips and twists her ankle. She gets up limping, writhing with pain, only to see that the man starts to run after her. Claudette is running for her life. She then remembers that a friend of hers lives nearby. Her luck is that her friend is up at these hours so once she gets to her poarch she starts pounding on the door.
INT: Ruby’s house-night
Ruby: Claudette! What’s going on? Are you okay? Let me take you upstairs.
Claudette:
(Panting)the man, … chasing me … my parents
Ruby: I’m calling the police.
Ruby wraps Claudette in a blanket and then she peaks outside her window, with no signs of the stranger.
The authorities arrive and they speak to both Claudette and Ruby. They conduct a search for the suspect but are unsuccessful. They interview frequent bar goers and those who were there when Claudette was there. They all said very similar things, saying that Claudette spent hours talking to herself to the point of being blackout drunk.
One month later…
Claudette was admitted into a psychiatric facility where she’s been in recovery for the last month. In the back of her mind she still believes that this man approached her and admitted to killing her parents and wanting to kill her too.
She is then put into a witness protection program where she is now living in a new place, at a new job, and under a different name.
Claudette’s story ends with her burning the letter as she wants to leave the past in the past and move on with life.
Rationale: My inspiration for this story comes from my interest in psychological thrillers and how many of them unfold into forbidden truths or plot twists. This story allowed for my creativity to shine and it gives a different perspective because not all stories end happily, in my opinion it’s repetitive. My initial concept was straightforward and sounded too flat. It was very vague and lacked concept. In the first version that I wrote, I ended the story abruptly by having the main character go to therapy and work out her issues. I decided to expand on that story and revamp it to have more depth, tension, and engagement with the audience. The main themes of my screenplay are identity, despair, and perseverance. The message I aimed to convey to the audience is how life has its unexpected turn and how the adaptability process to these newly found truths can take a while to recover from. Sometimes no matter how hurtful the truth is we need closure or live life in denial and remain in ignorance. My screenplay also explores the idea of self-sabotage and how the main character in her journey found solace in reckless behavior such as heavy drinking. This concept highlights how different people cope with their traumas and many end up hurting themselves in that process. When I was writing and structuring the screenplay, it wasn’t difficult or challenging to come up with ideas. Since this was a freestyle story, I felt more liberated writing the story how I wanted it to go and not being told how exactly it should be written. In my opinion, it is easier to write a story when it’s your own prompt than when you are being asked because it allows for people to show their imagination and there is room for uniqueness. I hope for my screenplay to make the audience follow a perspective that is different from theirs and I want them to see how some people go about their pain. I want them to have questions about this piece, I want to show them the discomfort of unsettling truths. I also want to show them the psychological aspect of all of this. I want it to be up to the audience to decide whether Claudette is just seeing things or if the events unfolded the way they did. I aim for my audience to feel empathy for the main character as they follow through with time in her life where it all comes crashing down.
