STRANDED

It's coming DOWN.

Snow accumulates inch by inch every other hour.

A typical nor'easter around these parts of New England. A frustrated man walks towards his car. His name is EDDIE, late twenties, black. Eddie leaves a construction site early in New Hampshire. Preparing himself to make that drive back home to Boston in these soon to be challenging conditions.

Eddie gets into his car still annoyed.

The Foreman from the site taps on his window. Eddie rolls it down.

The Foreman hands Eddie a card.

"This is my brother-in-law, give him a call anytime next week and he'll try to get you onto a new site." The Foreman said.

Eddie nods and replies "Thanks chief, I appreciate this."

"No problem kid. Get home safe." The Foreman said before he tapped Eddie's car and walked away.

Time passes on.

Eddie takes a detour to hop on I-95 south quick as he can before more of this snow falls. The detour is a bit longer but no traffic lights to slow him down.

It's also getting dark.

He drives up a secluded road as TWO CARS are stopped on the road with their doors opened pointed at each other. They block most of the street but just enough for him to drive around.

He stares. Seems weird.

Gently, he drives around and notices two men who were operating both of the two cars are dead from gunshot wounds. Near one of the men Eddie notices a LARGE ENVELOPE.

He stares at it for a good minute, hops out the car and snatches it. He returns inside and opens the envelope.

$20,000 in cash!

They also appear to be unmarked. Dirty money in every aspect.

Eddie jets back into his car and gets away fast as he can.

As Eddie drives down the highway, he takes a look at his gas meter. The needle passed empty miles ago and now ready to give out.

Good thing is he's already crossed the Massachusetts state line so he's halfway home.

Eddie grunts in aggravation looking at the meter.

He searches on his cell phone check for the nearest gas station and it's six miles away!

Damn sure won't make that.

He checks for nearest hotels and a small motel is just off the next exit in Salem.

With added weather conditions he's about forty minutes away from Boston. The Dorchester/Mattapan border to be specific. Eddie desperately wants to get home but he understands this is his best option. He exits and drives to the motel through the town.

He gets settled into the motel and places the envelope under the mattress. He cracks open a beer and devours a pizza brought inside from a nearby sub shop a few feet from the motel.

There's a state of unconcern with Eddie at this moment. Like that 20 grand was right on time. He's up to his neck in bills and debt so the relief is soothing.

Time grows deeper into the night.

Eddie in a beer and pizza food coma.

It's quiet..

calm..and then....

THE SHOWER TURNS ON.

Wakes Eddie up.

He gets up in hesitation. Grabs a beer bottle and heads towards the bathroom.

SLOW.

The bathroom door half open. Eddie leads with his left hand while gripping the beer bottle in his right.

He pushes the door all the way open and pulls the shower curtain back ready to strike!

Nothing there but a hot runny shower. He gazes in a "What the hell" look. He turns the shower off and returns to the bed. He lies down.

Silence.

Until again...the SHOWER!

Eddie jumps up pissed off this time like he's ready to fight. He heads to the bathroom but the shower turns off and on it's own now this time. He glances inside the bathroom mad confused.

The sound of the pizza box slapping against the floor travels.

SLAP!

Eddie returns to the room near the bed. Luckily the pizza box is emptied as he bodied the slices from earlier.

He places it back on the table.

Buggin' out at this point.

He wants to leave but can't.

Wants to smoke a blunt but no bud on him. He thinks to himself and digs inside his backpack.

Searching and searching...there it is.

A half pint of cognac he had in his bag. He opens the bottle and knocks back a good sip, or maybe two.

Lays down on the bed.

Even though he's on high alert, the more quite the room becomes the more tired he grows.

Eventually he doses off into a deep sleep.

PITCH BLACK.

Flashes of an exchange appear. It's the TWO CARS and the two dead men from the secluded road. The two exit their cars at the same time. Words are thrown back at each other.

Eddie stands in the middle of this observing the ordeal but he isn't there. Clearly he sees what's going on but it's like watching tv on mute. The two men become aggressive and shoot each other.

Eddie JUMPS up from the dream. Breathing heavily and sweating. Hysterical as ever. He has a minor panic attack.

This felt too damn real!

Astral projection in the past tense without even noticing.

He rushes to the bathroom and splashes himself with cold water. Splashing his face and keeping his head under the faucet for a moment. He goes so far to fill up the bowl and dunk his head inside.

Eddie returns from the bathroom.

He reaches for his cell phone and dials a number under "TALA". Eddie is good friends with Tala and her family. She's about ten years older but wise beyond her years.

The phone rings.

He waits.

"What's good Eddie?" Tala answered.

Eddie exhales in relief.

"You okay?" Tala asked.

Eddie responded "I don't know."

"Talk to me." Tala demanded.

"You still be on yah hocus pocus wave?" Eddie asked.

"It ain't a joke." Tala said.

"Yeah I'm hip, that's why I need you right now. I saw some shit I didn't want to in a dream and I'm staying at this ratchet ass motel in Salem because I'm outta gas and I gotta wait until the morning to dip. But that's not the problem...weird, crazy things keep happening in this motel. Shower going on and off. My pizza box flew off the table. Yo I'm going insane!"

Eddie stated.

"Did you at least finish the pizza?" Tala asked.

"Yo, I'm serious!" Eddie barked.

"Alright, alright, you're popping your cherry." Tala said.

Eddie goes silent in confusion.

Appalled.

"You have a gift Eddie." Tala told him.

"What?!" Eddie replied.

"Just look out for a package." Tala said.

"Have you looked outside lately? Where you at anyway." Eddie asked.

"In the hood. At the crib. Just lookout for it. You got responsibility now. I'll see you on Sunday, we throwing down. Later."

Tala ordered.

She hangs up.

Eddie more puzzled then before.

A sound from the bathroom catches his ear.

Eddie sighs in annoyance. He walks to the bathroom and opens the door.

IT'S A PACKAGE on the floor like it had been delivered from the postal service or Amazon.

Eddie shakes his head.

"That bitch is really crazy." He said to himself.

He grabbed the package and opened it. Inside was a little black notebook.

Eddie takes a seat at the table in the room and skims through the book. The exterior is in great condition as if it were brand new but the pages had a vintage feel to them like they date back centuries ago with fountain pen writing.

Written within the pages were different codes of conduct, spells, remedies, revelations of powers and the consequences if used improperly. It was like a bible for warlocks and witches.

Eddie can't believe his eyes.

In awe.

He's studying and processing the information impressively.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

Eddie gazes to the door.

"Who the fuck is that?" He says to himself.

He answers.

It's a man dressed in a maintenance uniform. We'll just call him the Maintenance Guy. A much older man.

"Can I help you?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah sorry I'm with the motel. Doing rounds to make sure everything's okay during the storm." The Maintenance Guy asked in a heavy North Shore accent.

Eddie thrown off. Something feels funny as hell.

"Yeah I'm all good here my dude, I just..." Eddie stops mid sentence and looks down.

The Maintenance Guy has a gun pointed at Eddie's stomach. A glock 9mm pistol to be exact.

"Where's the envelope?" He asked Eddie.

"I don't know what you talking bout." Eddie said standing tall.

He's had guns drawn on him before and realized if the guy wanted him dead, he'd be dead.

"You think I'm joking kid?!" The Maintenance Guy shouted.

SUDDENLY...

The notebook OPENS.

It FLIPS through pages. They both stand in shock baffled!

The Maintenance Guy slowly points the gun away from Eddie an places it just beneath his chin, above his Adam's apple. Pointed straight up so that when he fires the exit wound will be at the top of his head in the center.

The notebook keeps the gun pointed at himself.

Eddie glances at the notebook. He grabs his belongings and most importantly, the ENVELOPE. He pats the Maintenance Guy down and finds the keys to his truck. He grabs the notebook last and holds it up to the guy's face. Eddie makes him walk into the cold and snow.

He makes sure he stands there until he find's the guy's truck inside the parking lot.

He bounces into the guy's truck and pulls off.

Driving away until no longer in sight.

The Maintenance Guy snaps out of his temporary spell dazed and disorganized. Like who am I and how the hell did I get here. No recollection of his memory whatsoever.

Eddie drives down the road with the small black notebook and the envelope of the 20 grand on the passengers seat. He sets his eyes on the road with a slight grin.

A

grin

of

happiness.

THE END.