Mirror of My Mind (first scene)

Mirror of My Mind

 (first ten pages unformatted)

A Screenplay

By

Jason W. Rist

FADE IN:

EXT. MCGINNIS HOUSE - DAY - EVENING

MARTIN (male, late 30s) and SERENA (female, seventeen), pull up in his

truck.

Her eyes are deep blue pools of emptiness.

Martin quickly sets up the wheelchair and then

yanks, wheelchair,

Serena and all up the front steps.

Storm clouds darken the horizon.

The dark, leaden clouds of a Texas 'blue norther'

loom behind the tiny farmhouse.

CUT TO:

Martin wheels Serena in to the living room; by the

couch.

He folds it out into a bed.

Then gingerly, lovingly places Serena in it.

He pulls up the covers and tucks then under her

chin.

He pecks her on the cheek.

MARTIN

Good night sweetie. I love you.

He sweeps back an errant strand of blonde hair and

wraps it over her ear.

All he gets back in return is a vacant stare.

He goes outside to the woodpile to get some more

wood for the fireplace.

Martin unloads a bundle of firewood by the

fireplace.

He places some of the logs on the grate and stokes

the coals to life.

He looks at Serena; sleeping, and goes upstairs.

When he reaches the top he SOBS.

ANGLE ON: Axe, stuck in a stump.

FADE TO:

DARLA (female, mid 30s) and Martin lay asleep in a post-coital

embrace.

She stirs as the lightning crashes and the rain

lashes against the windows and vinyl siding.

Her eyes open to the sound of the back screen door

BANGING against the side of the house.

She gets up and walks down to the kitchen.

She latches the screen door shut and closes the

back door.

ANGLE ON: Stump. The axe is missing.

Just as she is entering slumber, a CRACK of

thunder shakes her awake.

Martin stirs just a bit.

She looks over at him.

She rolls over on her back.

There, silhouetted by another huge lightning bolt

is a soaking wet Serena; axe held up high over her

head.

Darla REACTS.

Thunder RUMBLES.

DARLA

Whore. . .

An emotionless Serena brings the axe home with a

sickening, blood-splattering THUD.

She sinks the axe deep in Darla's cranium.

Martin springs to his feet.

The horror freezes him.

Serena, like an automaton, delivers several more

fatal blows.

The gore washes over Serena, Martin and the room.

Martin comes to his senses.

MARTIN

Serena! Stop. Oh, my God.

He starts for Serena but, slips in the widening

pool of blood.

He scrambles to her and yanks the axe from her

hands.

He pauses for a second to get his bearings;

absorbing

He gets the phone and DIALS 911.

CUT TO:

EXT. MCGINNIS HOUSE - DAY - DAWN

With a lead-gray sky overhead, a POLICE OFFICER

leads Serena, hands cuffed behind her back and

wearing a blank expression, to a police cruiser.

An ambulance spits gravel as it moves up the

driveway.

The siren WAILS.

Martin is interviewed by DETECTIVES.

The cruiser pulls away.

Serena just stares out the window of the cruiser.

Sleet PELTS the window.

FADE TO:

INT. DAYCARE CENTER

Serena, six, cotton blonde hair pulled back in a

ponytail, stares into the night through a frosted

window.

Sleet pellets TAP at the window.

She has multi-colored scratch paper fanned out,

haphazard, on the floor all around her.

ANGLE ON: DRAWING

One drawing has a red, two-story house with a

smoke-bellowing chimney.

A depiction of herself has her in swing.

It hangs from a huge tree in the front yard, her

dog is on her left, and her mommy and daddy are on

her right.

The sun is a golden crowned prince beaming its

happy face from the top, right corner.

The moon, on the left, is his princess girlfriend.

The phone RINGS.

A DAYCARE WORKER answers it.

DAYCARE WORKER(O.S.)

Hello? No. She's still here. Oh. I

understand, ma'am. Okay. Serena,

you're mom.

SERENA

Hi momma. I want to go home.

CANDICE, Serena's mother, is at a gas station

phone booth.

Sleet pellets TAP the phone booth glass.

CANDICE

I'm going to get daddy to come get

me. Then we will come and get you,

sweetie. Okay?

SERENA

Okay.

CANDICE

What the. . .Whuuu!

SERENA

What, mommy? Mommy?

There is the sound of CRUSHING METAL on the other

end.

Then, only DIAL TONE.

SERENA

Mommy.

SMASH CUT TO: