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DESTINY OF THE MARKED
"The Marked, Part 1"
TEASER
FADE IN:
1 EXT. PLACER SPRINGS - SEKUL HOUSE - DAY 1
A bright sunny day. Quiet. Peaceful.
A gentle breeze blows through the trees of a rural/suburban neighborhood. Acres separate the houses.
CAMERA PUSHES IN towards the SEKUL FAMILY HOME, a BROWN TWO- STORY HOUSE (4758 Russet Grove Dr.), nestled among large oak trees.
Brown grass sprouts up between the patches of earth in the front yard. Wind chimes hang among smaller tree saplings, singing sporadically. A twisted cement walkway leads up to the front door.
CAMERA SLOWLY PUSHES TOWARDS THE FRONT DOOR, IN RHYTHM WITH THE SOUNDS OF THE PEACEFUL SETTING.
OVERLAPPING SOUND OF A TICKING CLOCK ECHOES (OFF SCREEN) AS WE SMASH CUT TO:
2 INT. SEKUL HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS 2
A CLOCK, slowly TICKING. Segmented sunlight peeks into the room, cascading across the wall.
WHAM! An out-of-focus BODY slams into a wall in the background. The clock teeters off the wall, crashing with a PIERCING METALLIC SOUND. The body collapses to the ground next to it.
ESTELLE "E" SEKUL, 19, falls face down, unmoving. Her long wavy brown hair tousled and tangled around her. The BROKEN CLOCK sprawled beside her. The HAND tics a few more times before it STOPS, leaving only SILENCE.
WIDE SHOT/ DOLLY: THE LIVING ROOM IS TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN, DESTROYED. FURNITURE KNOCKED OVER, STUFFING COMING OUT, TEARS RIPPED DOWN THE SIDES. FALLEN PICTURES, CRACKED, COVERED IN SMEARS OF BLOOD. ESTELLE’S BLOOD.
ANGLE: RACK-FOCUS TO ESTELLE’S HAND, COMPLETELY STILL. BRUISED, DIRTY AND BLOODY.
It twitches to life.
Estelle hoists herself up. Her piercing hazel eyes flash with determination, masking the fear, as she makes eye contact with the
A low GURGLING RUMBLE and UNEVEN FOOTSTEPS grow closer.
The Assailant stands in the opposite corner of the room at the top of the small set of stairs leading into the living room. The SUNLIGHT beaming through the windows of the house, blinding E as she looks up at the SILHOUETTE of the Assailant’s body.
It slumps in Estelle’s direction, with inhuman movements, legs bending in odd directions.
E struggles to rise. Pain runs through her like fire, but panic keeps her moving. Blood soaks through her clothes, a majority of it on her right side.
E cradles the injured right arm as she attempts to stand. A sharp pain in her left leg sends her back to the ground. Then, E sees it...
A FAINT BLUE GLOW from beneath an overturned chair. Hope springs into her face and she crawls towards it.
REVERSE INSERT SHOT: E’S HAND REACHING UNDERNEATH CHAIR. CAMERA PANS BACK TO REVEAL THE SOURCE OF THE GLOWING: A SMALL STONE PENDANT, BROKEN, CRACKED, AND PULSING FAINTLY.
THUMPING SOUNDS alert her. ESTELLE WHIPS AROUND quickly towards her attacker. They continue to stumble closer. E turns back, fumbling for her prize more frantic than before.
INSERT SHOT: ESTELLE’S BEATEN HAND COMES INTO FRAME, FUMBLING, BEFORE CLASPING AROUND THE LUMINESCENT STONE.
A look of relief washes over E as she brings the stone out. She unclasps her hand and sees the stone’s SHATTERED surface. The light from within the stone dies before her.
E’s expression falls. Her grip falters and the stone falls to the ground with a loud THUD. The SOUND ECHOES in the silence as E stares blankly at it.
ESTELLE (labored, panic) No. Nonononono...
E grabs the fallen stone, turning it over in her hand, tapping it hard with her finger.
ESTELLE (CONT’D) Come on, you stupid piece of-
A SHADOW CASCADES over her. A DROP of sickly yellow "MUCOUSY GUNK" splashes on the floor next to her. An unnaturally hanging arm slumps into FRAME.
The Assailant clenches the drooping arm tightly, the skin flopping, sagging in all the wrong places, folding around their grasp.
They SHOVE the arm back into place with a MOIST CRACKING SOUND.
Estelle cringes away. E’s turned gaze falls to her FAMILY’S FRAMED BROKEN PORTRAIT on the ground. (In Photo: Estelle (5), her Mother, Brother (8) and Father, some 14 years ago, happier times).
The glass is CRACKED, and splayed around the picture. E’s gaze narrows on the LARGEST, SHARPEST piece of GLASS.
Cracking noises come from the Assailant’s arm as a black stinger begins to protrude through the skin of it’s sagging wrist.
ASSAILANT POV SHOT: THE VISION IS BLURRY WITH FOREIGN, ALMOST ANIMALISTIC COLORING (LIKE A CAT’S NIGHT VISION). IT TENSES, ABOUT TO STRIKE.
E launches herself forward on hands and knees, just as the Assailant goes for her. It misses.
E’s swollen (probably broken) hand shakes as she forces it to wrap around the glass. She takes a breath, readying herself for what she must do next.
STAB! Estelle stops as the air escapes her lungs.
The Assailant made it’s move first. The shard of glass DROPS from E’s hand as she goes rigid from the painful shock.
PAN UP: FROM ESTELLE’S STUNNED FACE, UP TO THE CREATURE STANDING ABOVE HER TO REVEAL... THEIR ARM EXTENDED OUT, THE STINGER-TYPE-BONE EJECTED FROM THE WRIST. THE SKIN OF THE HUMANOID HAND FLAPS USELESSLY AROUND THE PROTRUDING STINGER EMBEDDED INTO E’S UPPER BACK.
The Assailant TWISTS the stinger in further. E WHIMPERS as the pain intensifies.
Estelle’s gaze is frozen in place on the family photo before her.
E’S POV INSERT SHOT: THE IMAGE OF HER MOTHER IS FRAGMENTED BY THE BROKEN GLASS.
Oozing puss falls from E’s wound down onto the family portrait. The ooze STEAMS. It’s POISON.
The Assailant emits guttural RATTLING SOUNDS, waiting for it’s prey to fall, but E continues to hold on. It YANKS out the stinger, dripping blood and ooze.
With her last remaining strength, E grasps up on a chair and pulls herself up to her knees, trying to continue on. The poison is working too quickly and she can’t fight her body shutting down. Her limbs go limp and she collapses back to the ground.
E’s DYING FACE lands right next to the image of her Mother’s smiling one. A horrible contrast.
ESTELLE (V.O.) (CONT’D) My Mother had a favorite saying... "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take..."
Estelle, strains to look back at the Assailant one last time.
ESTELLE (V.O.) (CONT’D) "...But by the moments that take our breath away."
E’S POV: THE WORLD AROUND HER DARKENS, HIDING THE ASSAILANT’S FULL FACE (YET AGAIN)!
E’S POV CONTINUED IN CLOSE UPS OF THE ASSAILANT’S FACE (EYES, HAIR, MOUTH). SOMETHING IS FAMILIAR...BUT SO WRONG.
ON E. HER REACTION TO THE ASSAILANT IS NO LONGER FEAR, BUT HEARTBREAK. E SLIPS INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND WHITES OUT.
DIP TO WHITE TO:
- MONTAGE - VARIOUS
Scenes of events of the story that will happen to this point, like a mini teaser within the teaser, of what is to come (teaser-inception, if you will).
SMASH CUT ALL FOLLOWING CLIPS TOGETHER. Quite literally, E’s life is FLASHING before her EYES.
- EXT. ESTELLE’S GROTTO - NIGHT - A WHITE LIGHT illuminates within a stone archway blurring to:
- EXT. FOREST RAVINE - NIGHT - A CRASH, in the woods, E struggling to open the BACK DOOR of a CRUSHED AMBULANCE.
- EXT. FOREST RAVINE - CONTINUED - Smoky WRAITHS swarm around the crash site as BLUE CLAD HOODED MAN fights them off. OTHERS dressed the same, fight as well.
- EXT. FOREST RAVINE - CONTINUED - E’s POV: The blurred face of a young man (LIAM to be introduced in episode 2), stands over E, concerned, as the image pulses to BLACK.
- EXT. WHITE TREE FOREST - NIGHT - A GHOST of a young girl with long hair and ancient celtic-like clothing stares intensely at camera. Beckoning us to come closer, wisps of her smoky form swirling around her in a menacing fashion. An archway above her. Light exploding from inside.
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT - E’s Mother, Ellen Sekul, in the hospital, hooked up to IVs and deathly pale. Flowers in a vase die and begin to fall.
- INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - NIGHT - Jensen (E’s Brother, 23, stocky, athletic, brown eyes and auburn hair) collapsing against the wall in the hospital in emotional turmoil. Heartbroken.
- INT. HOSPITAL - BATHROOM - DAY - E stares into a mirror of her mother’s ICU room, looking broken inside. The mirror CRACKS. A black wraith creature SCREAMS in the reflection.
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT - A dead petal falls to the ground.
FADE TO WHITE:
END OF MONTAGE.
UPON WHITE SCREEN - VOICE OVER.
ESTELLE (V.O.) I don’t think these are the moments she meant...
GENTLE FADE BACK TO:
- INT. SEKUL HOME - CONTINUED
Dead SILENCE as Estelle’s eyes GLAZE over. Her body still.
ESTELLE V.O. But these are the ones that happened.
HIGH ANGLE: THE CREATURE STANDING OVER E, THE FAMILY PORTRAIT IS COVERED WITH E’S BODY EXCEPT FOR THE SMILING PICTURE OF HER MOTHER, LOOKING UP... AT A DEMON VERSION OF HERSELF.
CLOSE UP SHOT: THE DEMON’S EYES AGAIN, LEERING.
The eyes have a blood-colored ring that overflows into the brown irises The skin around the eye sockets sits oddly and lumpy against the bone underneath.
The stolen skin of her Mother, has become disheveled in the fight, but the creature no longer cares about keeping up appearances. They have their prey.
The creature bends down closer, the RATTLING breathing continues.
INSERT: THE ASHEN COLORED MARK ON THE CREATURE’S ARM.
The MARK OF DESTINY is a broken circle with a jagged line in the middle, with a birthmark texture (not made of ink).
CU ZOOM: ESTELLE’S FACE AS THE LIGHT FINALLY LEAVES HER EYES AS SHE STARES BLANKLY AT THE WORLD CONTINUING TO...
FINISHING TITLE SHOT: CAMERA ZOOMS IN AS THE "MARK OF DESTINY" FADES UP FROM INSIDE E’S PUPIL, THEN COMPLETES THE FROM AS E FADES AWAY TO BLACK. THE TITLE FADES IN.
"DESTINY OF THE MARKED"
END OF TEASER