I Am The Night (Scene 3)

Scene 31

(We cut to John at the shop he works at. A part-time employee and badly paid, he still enjoys what he does. It’s a hoverboard and gadget shop which he helps runs four afternoons a week. It helps give him a distraction and he can play with ideas in his head, think about the day and try to improve on the next. John is surprisingly a man who would rather think then act upon anything, a reluctance to get involved in anything that could put him in dangerous places and situations. Metropolis is an easy place to get killed and to make enemies. A high murder rate and so many criminals run free that one wonders how desperate humanity must be to still want to stick in one clustered area with so much decadence and grime. The shop owner; Rafa a Spaniard who speaks very fluent English and is rather intelligent loves fixing and modifying gadgets, happy in his life, the bloated, braid haired mid 30’s wannabe-entrepreneur is a symbol of Metropolis himself. He waddles around, greedy but a fair man, likeable but also reputedly unscrupulous and a failed experiment of ‘the dream’. 2

He makes his way through the shop. No one is in yet, hasn’t been for a few hours and it’s reaching 10pm at night. Out of the shop window smog and dirt and many other forms of pollution can be seen as well as the constant barrage of the pod noises and the loud music played on the streets by gangs who would rather stab you then actually take your money. John is playing around with a hoverboard that is just new in. These trendy things are the latest thing to have. Easy travel, no pollution and variable to the extent that pods are. Very expensive though. He fiddles with a green one, with blue lightning striking the front and the underside of the board, the outline is black and from a few metres away would be very distinct. He smiles at himself and his temptation of wanting one.)3

John: (Smiling cheekily, looking at the hoverboard, sat on a chair next to the counter.) So how much?4

Rafa: How much to what John? How much is the hoverboard? How much to cost you entry to Vaudevilles? How much for a life? Given or taken? (Sighs)5

(Rafa waddles to the window of the shop and looks out. He see’s many things but we don’t. The outside world is blurred for the viewer.)6

John: What’s wrong Rafa?7

Rafa: (His face gently pressed against the window looking out.) The world my friend. The world had given me an opportunity and I failed to grasp it. Only those ruthless enough in life, can take what they stole to their deaths my friend. Yes, (he looks still) they surely can.8

John: (Smiling)n What are you on about Rafa? Sometimes you come out with this stuff and it freaks me out you know??9

Rafa: (Laughs quietly) Yes John, I’m just trying to remember the days before I made mistakes. The days when this place was a new-born, like a baby. When it was innocent. When….people had a choice in life.10

John: (Looking at Rafa) what do you mean?11

Rafa: This place John, (He holds his arms up and goes 90 degrees) needs someone who will stand up to the men in grey suits who get protection money….for what exactly? We need someone who will stand up to the mobs, who will shine a light in the faces of innocence and take us on a journey of redemption. This place John, this city my friend… needs someone who will save us all. 12

(John looks at him speechless with what he’s coming out with.)13

John: Pfft, well um… how much is the hoverboard again?14

Rafa: (Shakes his head) you don’t understand. It’s ok. (He walks away into the back area of the shop.) I’ll be fixing something in the back ok??15

John: No problem Rafa. (Shakes his head and laughs a little.)16

(Still no one comes into the shop. Time starts to fly by and all John does is sit there. He doesn’t think about getting his homework out and start writing up the essay for university. He just wants the world to pass him by. He hears Rafa fixing something; it’s making loud noises like metal scraping itself against metal. He grimaces at the noise, but still carries on staring at the shop door, hoping someone will come in. Communication to end his boredom.17

Then, whilst typing on the store computer wildly, to look at the latest Metropolis news his left arm starts quivering. He feels it gently rocking itself. John stops and sees his arm is twitching a little more violently. He keeps looking, in part amazement, because the only other time this ever happened was years ago. His fingers start tapping to themselves and he quickly grabs hold of his hand and squeezes the wrist, trying to cut off the blood momentarily between the prosthetic limb and his arm. It doesn’t work. Panicking slightly he sticks his hand in a pocket in his jeans and still feels the vibrations the hand is inviting on him.)18

John: (Shaking) Jesus… what’s going on?? 19

Rafa: You ok out there? (Shouting from the back.)20

John: Yeah, listen… can I go now?21

Rafa: Sure thing dude, see ya!22

(John stumbles out of the shop having bumped into shelves violently, wrecking displays and falling onto the floor twice. He holds onto the shop door, trying to push himself off it desperately. He feels so weak, the shudders have spread now and he can see that people are looking at him.23

Across the road is a small roundabout for the pod-cars. On it though is a gang of youths, all dressed alike in leather, with dark denim and exotically coloured hair. One of the youths is holding a radio from a few years back and they are all cheering the pods as they go past, insulting the timid police as they drive past, knowing they lost this area a long time ago. One of the youths keeps watching John as he stumbles and every now and again, limps away from the shop very slowly. He needs to get home, or get somewhere so he can find out what’s wrong. The youth whispers to another of the gang and soon four or five are watching him like eagles, ready for prey. 24

John feels eyes watching him, his dark hair is getting in the way of his vision, but he’s struggling for air as it is, so it doesn’t matter to him. He spots a dark alleyway, motions towards it and the gang are starting to get up slowly from the flowerbed wall they were sitting on. One of them spits on the floor and then rubs it into the ground with his dirty worn out shoe and clicks his fingers. They are ready.)25

Random: You ok buddy?? (A man comes up to John and tries to huddle him to a bench.)26

John: Yeah...I’m (coughing up green bile) I’m fine!27

(John carries on stumbling and stumbling. The man tries to get to him again.)28

Random: Buddy…you are far from… (As he looks over John, he is horrified when John looks at him aggressively, almost trying to warn him away. His eyes are glowing green, his mouth is drooling the green bile and his temples have visible veins in them, almost wanting to pop out. He waves him away and his warning has served the helpful passer-by well. The passer-by is freaked out and aghast, he walks away very quickly, looking intensely at John as he holds himself up against the brick wall corner of the alleyway.)29

John: Oh…my god. What’s happening to me? (He clutches his shaking chest, he can feel his heart wanting to burst out and he slaps his hand across it so it’ll stay in. He crashes into some bins, knocking the smelling rubbish onto the ground and gripping onto the walls for dear life.30

The five gang members are slowly stalking out John like Lions to a Gazelle. He can see them following him; he drops his glasses, broken. He doesn’t, he can’t and he is unable to pick them up. Cats make screeching and hissing noises at him as slowly, he starts to get closer to the dirty puddle ridden ground. He starts crawling, his knuckles seem to be bursting out of his hands, his face is wet with sweat, foaming at the mouth with the green bile. The camera is focusing on him; as he see’s the shadows follow him, they come even closer. He rests himself upon a pile of pallets and turns around slowly, confrontin g the youths.)31

John: What…what is it you want? (He gasps for breath) I saw you following me! 32

Youth: We want your credits, cards, phone and clothes. Give. (Holds a gun up) Now.33

(The youths surround him and as he looks around he see’s no viable exit, the only one being where he came from. They look menacing, all possibly about eighteen years old, some maybe two years younger. Streaks of black paint running across their faces, like a tribal war paint, the dark denims on, the leather jackets with rips and tears in them and the angry, young faces. The violence and ruthlessness can be seen in their faces. The camera shows this briefly, the eyes, like a ring of fire in them, give off that they are indeed serious.)34

John: (Ignoring what they said, possibly because of the state he is in.) He-lp…me, please!35

Youth: Help you?? (His face contorted, he bends down to John’s level and looks him square in the eyes.) Help you?? 36

John: (He points his finger in the direction they have just come from.) G-O…please!37

Youth gang: (Laugh)38

Youth: No, you have the wrong idea. You… (Raises his gun at Johns head) Help us…39

John: I can’t… (He knows what is going to happen; he kneels looking up at the pistol pointing right between his eyes.)40

Youth: Oh…you can, believe me, you can and you will. (They start laughing. Then as he turns away slightly he rushes the gun at John’s hand and shoots it off.)41

John: (Screaming in agony) D-arghh! Pfft! Arghh! (He starts crying, coughing up the bile and also fumbling with his other hand for the one just shot off. Blood is leaking all over the dirty cobbled floor as the wound just gushes open and his eyes widen in shock and disbelief. He then gets held straight back on his knees again.)42

Youth: Give… (Shoots other hand off mercilessly) the stuff we wanted, then (John is flailing about, no hands, even the prosthetic is lying on the floor, mutilated and unworkable now. The fingertips and the hand on his normal one are useless; hardly anything resembles his limbs anymore.) THEN….I wouldn’t have to do this! (The youths start laughing as he lets off four rounds into the chest of John, who arcs back in a deathly position, his body now ridiculously spewing blood….more rounds are shot off in the abdomen as the screaming becomes unbearable. Passer-bys can hear but shuffle on slowly, the noises with them forever, they know.)43

The Credits now huh? (He waves the pistol in front of the death-stricken face of John, who can no longer speak. He is covered in blood, wretching it out along with the green bile. He spits and goofs constantly, his brow wet with cold sweat and his lips turning more blue and purple every second. His eyes stare into the eyes of his killer and his accomplices and then he slumps. His head lolls onto his shoulder and the two holding him, throw his body back onto the wet, cold ground like a rag doll who has been savaged by dogs. The camera still focuses on John as they leave, spitting at him and satisfied with their stolen goods they are soon nowhere to be seen. *Eptesicus- Hans Zimmer*44

As the music starts to play, the camera closes in on the slumped and mutilated body. John lays there, slumped, the blood being washed down a drain from the heavy thunder and rain. His body parts that were shot off have gone cold, layered in different places of the alleyway; he lays there, lifeless, dead. Rats trundle past the body but not before sniffing at it and then trotting off. The lower class of people who live in Metropolis just walk past. Tramps and petty criminals search the body for anything else more valuable and the ordinary citizen turns a blind eye to the visible body of a young adult lying in the middle of an alleyway.) 45