The Middle of Nowhere

MIDNIGHT

Black out.

Completely black, surrounded by darkness.

Ria, mid 20’s, runs for her life. She can’t see anything, nothing exists without light. It’s just her and the sound of her heavy breathing. With every foot forward the heavier her breathing gets, she lets out a scream.

RIA

AHHHH

Frustrated, thoughts of doubt begin to bleed into her mind, what am I doing? She thinks to herself,

Where am I running to? Is he still chasing me from behind? I can’t see anything! AM I GOING BLIND?”

In the far distance, a small shining dot of light. She can hardly tell if it’s anything at all, or just a figment of her imagination. She keeps on running, like a moth to a flame, it’s the only thing she can see. The light begins to get bigger in size. She’s getting closer! But what is it? Hope and fear, the conflict, the battle between light and darkness. What would you choose to believe?

RIA

“Keep on running, KEEP ON KEEPING ON”, she screams.

With every foot forward.

Closer and closer.

Suddenly light, bright white.

Cut to:

EXT-LIGHT POLE-NIGHT

White out.

The colour of the white texture begins to slightly change.

CAMERA, zoomed in extra close to her face that we only see her skin reflecting the White light.

CAMERA, slowly zooms back and pans out.

Her entire face is slowly revealed. She is standing underneath a Light Pole, looking directly up towards the light, with her eyes closed. Holding her breath, completely still, taking it all in.

Her eyes OPEN. She takes a huge gasp of air in, holds it, and then let’s it out. Desperately trying to catch her breath, exhausted, she bends over with her hands on her knees and breathes in and out.

She looks down at the pavement while her breath begins to slow down. She looks slightly up, a chair, inviting her to sit down.

She feels better, stands up straight and glances around her surroundings, darkness everywhere. The only existing light source is currently directly above her. She tilts her head back up at the light, so bright, so beautiful. Moths and bugs, life, swarm around the light. The darkness can’t touch her anymore, even when she closes her eyes, It’s incredibly bright.

Cut to:

INT-RIA’S HOUSE- LIVING AREA-DAY

Kinah and Ena, Ria’s older sisters, have both just asked Ria to give them something that only belongs to her. The three of them sit on a couch. Ria in the middle, Kinah to her left, and Ena on the right.

Ria nervously rambles on about the question that Kinah just asked her.

RIA

I don’t think it’s really appropriate about how... this thing that you’re asking-

KINAH

Listen, liste-

RIA

-OR if he would even be okay with what you’re trying to propose her-

KINAH

-LISTEN... Hunny, sorry if it came off as a question, but we’re not asking...we’re letting you know, either you get your man to give us his seed, or Ena and myself will take it from him. It doesn’t matter to us, we’re asking nicely, for now.

RIA

Are you Seriou-

KINAH

Yes, we’re very serious. That’s what we want. Tell him to put it in this cup and keep it refrigerated until tomorrow night, and then I’ll come and grab it. I’ll call you and you can just leave it outside and we don’t have to talk about this anymore.

Kinah hands Ria a plastic cup with a lid screwed on at the top.

RIA

But why?

KINAH

You know why. It’s very obvious, is it not?

RIA

...

Cut to:

EXT-LIGHT POLE-NIGHT

Ria, still standing under the Light Pole with her eyes closed. In her mind it feels as if she is in the brightest place on earth. This is not the truth, she is surrounded and captured by darkness, she opens her eyes. Frustrated and exhausted she collapses in the chair in front of her. Placing her elbows on her knees, her face falls into her hands. She slowly lifts her head up while her fingers pull down on her face. Letting out a loud moan of emotion.

At that exact moment, the colour of the light slowly changes to Red.

She realizes what she’s done, beginning to panic, and jumps up and on to her feet.

RIA

“Oh Shit, NO. Not red, yellow... YELLOW”

We hear a loud sound of a revving engine in the far distance, we see a small red dot, moving towards her direction. It’s a car with a bright red halo of light around it. The same car that picked her up last time, she knows this, it’s on its way over here. Standing completely still, she can hear it coming, The car gets closer and closer.

Big inhalation, in. And, exhale, out.

She sits down on the chair, closes her eyes. She thinks of the colour yellow until she see’s it in her mind. The sound of the vehicle continues getting louder and louder. She thinks yellow.

Camera, moves in close, the sound of the vehicle begins to soften and the red light shining down on her gradually changes to a warm yellow.

She opens her eyes.

The car, now with a yellow/orange Halo, slowly pulls up and stops right in front of her. The door automatically opens up, surrounded by an orange fog, as she stands up. knowing that this is her ride, still scared and hesitant of what could happen next, she gets in.

Cut to:

INT-KITCHEN DINING TABLE-NIGHT

Sitting at the kitchen dining table, Vik (30’s), writes in his notebook. Focused on getting a certain amount of writing done by the end of the day.

Ria, who has just finished cooking, begins setting the table. Vik notices and sets his book to the side. He helps Ria set the table, and quickly gets back to his writing. Ria serves food for him and herself, and sits down in the chair directly in front of him.

VIK

Your sister Kinah called, she said she wanted something? She’s on her way over to come pick something up?

RIA

... Oh yeah, why did she call you ab-

The doorbell rings, Buzz.

Ria gets startled, completely freezes, blankly stares at Vik.

CAMERA stays on Ria.

VIK

What?

The doorbell rings again, BUZZ.

VIK

What’s wrong? It’s probably just Kinah, you want me to answer the door?

We hear the door swing open, Kinah and Ena welcome themselves in.

KINAH/ENA

Hi! Hey! Hello!

Kinah and Ena come into the kitchen approaching Vik from behind. Both sit on the table next to Vik facing towards Ria.

VIK

Hey, how are you two doing? I’m not sure if we have enough for all of us, but I’m sure we can manage.

Vik goes right back to his work, trying to formulate his thoughts and ideas onto the page.

Kinah and Ena both wrap themselves around Vik, he doesn’t seem to mind, he’s so into his writing he hasn’t even touched his food yet. Kinah looks at Ria the entire time, she holds Vik’s arm even tighter.

Ria, looking at Vik, Thinking to herself, “is he okay with this?”

KINAH

Hey Ria, how are you? You never answered your phone when I called earlier today, so I had to bother Vik and let him know that we were coming by to pick something up.

Vik, busy writing, doesn’t notice the tension between the ladies.

Kinah puts her hand on Vik’s shoulder, Ena does the same from the other side.

KINAH

Do you have something for us? or do we have to take it?

Their nails dig into Vik’s arms and shoulder, Ena blows into Vik’s ear. Distraught, he looks up at Ena and pulls his arm away. In complete shock as to what is happening, he is surprised Ria is not upset and hasn’t said anything.

VIK

What the fuck is going on here? RIA? What is this?

Kinah and Ena have their claws deep inside of Vik, he’s beginning to become restless.

RIA

You tell me, are you okay with this? Tell me, what are you thinking?

VIK

I am not obligated to tell you every single thought and idea that I have in my head.

RIA

That’s not your decision to make, I need to know what you’re thinking.

VIK

Are you kidding? You have no right whatsoever!

RIA

I need to know what’s going on in your mind in order to truly know how I feel because you CHANGE SO DAMN MUCH!

VIK

And so do YOU! And so will our Children... is this what you’ll do to them?

RIA

Wait...what?

VIK

YOU WANT MY THOUHTS? YOU WANT ALL MY ENERGY AND CONTROL OVER MY MIND??

RIA

...

VIK

YES OR NO?

RIA

YES, Give it to ME!

KINAH

Give it to me!

ENA

No, Give it to me!

Close up on his face, it looks heavier, a lot of weight and pressure has built up.

He throws Kinah and Ena off of him, then stands up and pushes the table forward. Ria falls back, hitting her head smack on the kitchen floor, a sharp ringing sound begins to play. She closes her eyes, holding her head, an overwhelming amount of pain shoots through her head. The ringing gets more intense, she wishes it would stop, it won’t stop.

VIK doesn’t look back, he storms out of the kitchen, runs down the stairs and into the basement. He won’t allow anyone to have that kind of power and control over him. NO matter what.

A large closet with wooden doors is at the end of the hallway in the basement. Vik pulls open the closet doors, rips the clothes off the hangers, pushing and throwing them to the side. Finally, he gets his hands on the wall, slides and props it open, revealing the main gas pipe line of the house. With all of his force, he yanks on the pipe, pulling it out of the wall. It swings back and hits him in the face with a loud hissing sound. Gas shoots out of the mouth of the pipe. He falls back, knowing very well what he has just done, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gold lighter. The hissing sound of the pipe gets louder. He sits up, looking at the lighter in his hand, then looks up at the hissing gas pipe line.

Cut to:

INT-YELLOW/ORANGE CAR-RIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE

Ria sits in the back seat, behind the passenger side, we don’ t see the driver. We can’t.

Silent, nervous, she doesn’t know what to say or how to act.

DRIVER

Where was it that you wanted to go again?

RIA

... I don’t know the address, but i know where it is. Just keep following this road for now, and I'll let you know when I recognize the exit that we have to take.

DRIVER

So you don’t know where you’re going?

RIA

I do, but I just don’t know exactly where it is... (Pause)

DRIVER

...So how was the red car that you took beforehand?

RIA

...(Pause)

She looks up at him, she knows him from somewhere, the voice, the conversation.

DRIVER

I don’t understand why everyone seems to think the colour would make a difference. Colours represent whatever you want them to. It’s the same ride, it just feels different... Regardless, life’s a gamble.

RIA

Will you actually take me the whole way this time? Not somewhere else? Or will you leave me stranded halfway there or something.

DRIVER

Look Ma’am, you don’t have any say in this. This ride takes you far as you’re supposed to go. You end up where you end up, and then you figure it out. You don’t even know where you’re going, If you were able to provide me with an exact location, then maybe I could let you know how close I can get you to the place you SO desperately want to get to.

RIA

...(Pause)

DRIVER

I’ll tell you what, I’m taking the next exit, but before I do that, I’m going to pull over and let you out.

Don’t worry, at least the sun is coming up, you won’t be left running in the dark this time

She sits back, defeated, there is truly nothing she can do than to ride it out and see what happens.

The sun, slowly creeps up behind the mountains in the far distance.

She thinks to herself “He is right, it’s not scary anymore. it’s getting brighter, and beautiful.

it’ll probably be a good run through that field, out towards the mountains.”

She stares out at the sky, passed the field, behind the mountains.

“I wonder how far I could run for?”

She glances over at him remembering, “He was fast in the beginning, I’ll have to jump out and run as soon as he stops the car.”

Cut to:

Ria, Running for her life, through the field and towards the sunrise.

THE END