The Other Bedroom | Screenplay (Excerpt)
Dramatis Personae
Ava - female, 23, traumatized/haunted visual arts / art history student with flashbacks to ‘haunted’ house she grew up in. Believes the demon she grew up with is still following her. Signature style of illustration will facilitate narrative passages throughout episodes.
Vonnie - female, 29, Trinidadian stage-manager and student therapist searching for a subject for her Masters thesis and accreditation. Will intermittently use Trini vernacular, but published versions will be proofread and advised by editor from Trinidad & Tobago.
Brandon - male, 22, drag performer and university student majoring in dance and queer lit. Preferably non-white casting.
Note: when “Ill. interlude” is seen, this refers to Ava’s illustration style interspersed with collage-sculpture to visually narrate a block of text. When seen, it continues cutting back and forth between speaker at the discretion of director and editor until the next person speaks or the scene ends.
THE OTHER BEDROOM - EP. 1 Scene 1
Fade in:
INT. HAUNTED HOME, DINING ROOM (FLASHBACK A.1) - DUSK
Close-up on CHILD’s hand pressing opisometer to island coastline on antique map. Sound of radio feedback.
CHILD
I can do it myself.
Dissolve to:
Back of CHILD’s head looking up to see empty doorway to kitchen. Cut back to her hand and focus on the opisometer when a knife lands point first in the centre of the map, an inch into table beneath from force of impact. Indistinct but deafening roars/groaning similar to the creaks of branches in a hurricane are heard, and a looming, oily mass coagulates in kitchen.
CHILD
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…
CHILD closes crying eyes and hand around opisometer, frozen in her chair, breathing panicked, before peeking. Knife is gone, but radioactive mass is now across table. Chair is thrown against wall and knife comes down near where her hand is. Opisometer falls from the table as she screams and throws herself from table to the floor, cowering underneath.
CHILD
I’m sorry, please don’t, I’m sorry—
The mass melts between chair legs and burns her hands, forcing her to crawl out the other side. The raging roars grow worse as she runs down the hallway to her room.
CHILD
I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay…
She opens a sliding pine door to her closet and barricades herself inside between hanging clothes, turning to feel along the sides of the closet and trying to find escape.
CHILD
Where is it? It was here—I’m okay—it was here…
A violent kick against the door makes her cower and crawl to the the furthest corner of the closet, but knife blade hacks halfway into the door.
CHILD
I’m sorry. Please. You’re right. I don’t know how to do anything—I’m stupid—you’re right, I’m stupid—I’m sorry…
Phrases repeat in darkness as we dissolve to:
FEMALE STUDENT (O.S)
What do you mean?
EXT. UNIVERSITY CAMPUS - DAYTIME
A young couple stands on a pathway by tree. Male is ahead, unnerved, female looks at camera lens disturbed and concerned.
FEMALE STUDENT
You’re not stupid. Hey. (to MALE STUDENT) Should we call someone?
AVA sits against tree, glazed over and scratching left arm with languid rhythm as if hypnotized. Her eyes come into focus as MALE STUDENT takes reluctant step forward.
MALE STUDENT
It could be day drugs.
AVA
What—why are you talking to me?
FEMALE STUDENT
Your… arm’s all red.
Exposed, AVA looks down to see scratches. Unclenches left hand to see red crescent moons in palm almost bleeding.
AVA
Get the fuck away from me.
MALE STUDENT
Wow. So glad we’re making ourselves late.
He takes FEMALE STUDENT by shoulder as AVA remembers she’s late too and gathers things, struggling to feet. FEMALE STUDENT hurt and bewildered as she watches AVA leave.
MALE STUDENT
Drugs are for nighttime. Have a great day.
Cut to AVA running to class, triggered, humiliated, regretting her response but trapped in Flight-mode.
AVA
I’m sorry, I’m so stupid, I’m sorry, I’m stupid, you’re right, I’m stupid, I’m so sorry…
Dissolve to:
INT. GAY BAR - NIGHT
POV from private table in a nook; AVA watches queen on stage. Sounds of her running merge with sounds of performance. VONNIE is working though checklist, and snaps to get AVA’s attention.
VONNIE
Do you consent to that?
AVA
Sorry. I’m so stupid. What was that one?
VONNIE
You’re not stupid. Waiting for Bran to go up?
AVA
He’s just dancing tonight, not one of our segments. I like to freak out for him in the front row to get people going.
VONNIE
I know. Security always asks if they gotta keep an eye on you.
AVA
What? But I’ve helped them with a bride trying to get on stage—
VONNIE
Trust me, security don’t need your help with those. These bachelorettes are a regular workplace hazard.
AVA
I wish that was my job. Throwing inconsiderate people out.
VONNIE
Your demon’s an angry one, eh?
AVA
It’s like… you know how it feels when you try to push two magnets together at the wrong pole? Anger hurts like that in my head. Even if there’s no good reason. Anyone who feels comfortable with themselves. Who acts like they belong. Or even speaks nicely to me (flash to FEMALE STUDENT’s hurt expression). The disgust I feel is too powerful. Disproportionate.
VONNIE
(taking notes) That tracks on a normal trauma profile.
AVA
No, but—look, I’m honoured you wanted to talk to me again. But I’m wasting your time with this. Therapy doesn’t break curses.
VONNIE
You let me tell you what’s a waste of my time. I’m putting up with that idiot Tan stage-managing tonight and he don’t know how the queens like their cues.
AVA
You have the best job. I’m really sorry I’m making you—
VONNIE
I hunted you down after Bran’s show, didn’t I?
AVA
I’m glad I have oddity value at least.
VONNIE
(refocuses on clipboard) Some of the work in this process requires physical exertion, guided regression, and exposure to triggering stimuli. Notice will be given at session outset, but practitioner is not accountable for any medical fees, blah blah… you can read it before signing… do you understand and consent?
AVA
That sounds kind of cool.
VONNIE
It’ll get worse before it gets better. Do you consent?
AVA nods, trying not to be a waste of time. VONNIE checks box.
Dissolve back to:
EXT. CAMPUS
AVA runs fully panicked to class through stone arches. The door she’s running for gently closes most of the way as T.A. is speaking to a class. Defeated, trembling, AVA digs her fingernails from right hand into left wrist as she sinks down against the wall. We see her from directly above, neck veins popping as she silently screams at the ceiling before hiding face in hands. Shaking, she gets a pen and notebook from bag and forces herself to listen closely to take notes on what can be heard through the crack in the door. VINCENT approaches leisurely, looking at phone before seeing her.
VINCENT
Hey. Ava? Amy?
AVA keeps face down so he won’t see tears and expression.
VINCENT
Why you out here agin?
AVA
You should go in. I’m fine.
VINCENT
Oh, did she start? (cranes to look) Meh, she’s barely started. Talking about the reading. Let’s go in.
AVA
Go ahead.
VINCENT
She doesn’t mind. Look, if you don’t go in, who’s she going to call on? No one else says anything when she asks shit.
AVA
(taking notes) Now’s your chance.
VINCENT
You don’t need an invitation. Just act sorry. You can sneak in—
AVA
No, YOU can. I can’t.
VINCENT straightens up, similar expression to FEMALE STUDENT.
Dissolve back to:
INT. GAY BAR; AVA’s note-taking dissolves into Vonnie’s notes.
VONNIE
“…too… polluted?” You said polluted?
AVA
I was a bitch to everyone who tried to help. I always am. It’s like… I’m mad at them that they won’t treat me like what I am. I’d just contaminate that class if I went in.
VONNIE
Because of your “demon”. He got a name?
AVA
No, not him but the one that follows me now says the same things but she’s different somehow. Like she’s from the same house—
VONNIE
This new one’s a woman?
AVA
I wouldn’t call her new. It’s more like she’s always been there but now that I’m out of that house she’s taken over for him.
(disturbance as a wailing bride is half-dragged by security back to her reserved table to despair under helium balloons. VONNIE rises to rearrange nearby stanchions to cordon off their booth)
VONNIE
She has a demon too. Very loud shoulder-demon. Yours got a name?
AVA
It’s stupid. Naming her is bad idea. But I’ve been calling her Harrow in my head. Because she’s harrowing. (pause) It’s dumb.
VONNIE
(close-up on ‘Harrow’ written in notebook) Naming is never dumb. If you name the ‘demon’ it can’t sneak up on you so easy. It’s harder to slip when we can identify a pattern.
AVA
(bemused) Oh. I never… you’re right. I always though naming something gave it power and invited it in—
VONNIE
Gives YOU power. (closes notebook) So, I’ve written a custom agreement. Basically it says that you’ll receive twelve sessions, free of charge, in exchange for your name and details being used in my Master’s thesis. You’ll only be contacted if my prof has to verify details that seem hard to believe.
AVA
I mean, it’s a demon. No one’s going to believe.
VONNIE
After the first twelve, I’m available at a sliding scale until I’m licensed, which should be sometime next year.
AVA
Sounds great. I’m just… do you think I’m delusional? I’m afraid that I’ll—I don’t know—scare you off. That’s what it does. Scares off anyone I get close to.
VONNIE
You wouldn’t believe the shit I’ve—
AVA
It eats people. (Ill. interlude) It ate my parents so slowly. It digested them for years. It’s way more fucked up than I’ve said yet. I feel like I should have a checklist too so you know how ugly it is inside me. I’m afraid of polluting you too.
VONNE
Oh. Should I go talk to Miss Why-Don’t-the-Queens-Like-Me, make her my master’s thesis? You’re both security risks but I’d rather study and write about your ‘fucked up’ than hers.
As VONNIE packs up, AVA regards crescent moons still visible on back of hand. VONNIE slides copy of agreement across table.
AVA
Aren’t you going to tell me I better not fall in love with you?
She means it as a joke but doesn’t say it confidently enough to get the timing right. VONNIE glances at stage, and back.
VONNIE
What did Bran tell you about me?
AVA
Nothing. Sorry. Isn’t that what they say, you know? “Don’t fall in love with me, kid.”
VONNIE
You’ll think you are sometimes. White gyals always think they’re falling in love with me. But it’s none of my business.
AVA
Sorry, I was joking. Just nervous.
VONNIE
It’s better we talk about that ahead of time. There aren’t enough words in English for all the kinds of deep closeness people will feel in a healing process. It’s why you have sexy nurse outfits over here for Halloween. You’ll feel like I’m the only one who gets you at certain points in this. Don’t be ashamed of it. But we’re too conditioned to think it’s eros every time we feel close to someone.
AVA
Like when guys say ‘no homo’.
VONNIE
She got it. There’s no drug that gets you higher than feeling known and understood, even the drugs I give you. It’ll pass.
AVA
Wait. You’re going to give me drugs…?
VONNIE
We’re far away from that. I can’t have it in the agreement. But MDMA and 4FA were originally synthesized for veterans with PTSD who didn’t wanna open up. They used it in couple therapy too.
AVA
You’re shitting me.
VONNIE
I do not. These old couples who don’t get real with each other for fifteen fuckin’ years— they microdose a little M and all of a sudden they’re holding each other’s hands expressing they needs and asking “Why didn’t we just TALK to each other sooner?”
AVA
(laughing) But isn’t it sorta unnatural? I don’t want to sound ignorant. It just seems like if you’re trying to solve a… a trauma tangle that you wouldn’t want to rely on outside stimuli? Like, wouldn’t you want to stay grounded in what’s real?
VONNIE
You don’t sound ignorant. But let me tell you what’s unnatural.
(AVA clams up, leans forward)
VONNIE
You say your… demon, he tell you your worthless? He built a shame structure in you. (Ill. interludes) Shame don’t come from the earth. It come from the crazy shit that man comes up with on his ugly own. From his ugly ideas of what you should be. The demon you’re describing to me doesn’t sound like any spirit my ajee dealt with. He sounds like a man who hates women.
AVA
But I wasn’t a woman, I was a kid.
VONNIE
The man who hates women don’t see ‘kid’, he see a bitch who gonna make him feel worthless someday. He gotta make you feel worthless first. And the shame structure he built in you, that’s unnatural.
AVA
I’m not trying to sound like a priss. It’s just that I haven’t done party drugs before and I’d be worried about dependency?
VONNIE
Good. But these trust-fund babies (nods to wailing BRIDE) using it to party are abusing a sacred substance.
AVA
Sacred.
VONNIE
Imagine your mind has a dimmer switch that’s always lowered. (O.S, ill. interlude of neurons) You can’t see how trauma connects to your behaviour. You take a little slow-release 4FA maybe and the lights… rise. You see the connections. And you remember when you come down. You remember what you saw in the slipstream. But I say when it’s time.
BRANDON strolls up, heels, lacefront, and costume in a bag with his boy clothes on and full face of make-up.
BRANDON
When what’s time? It’s time to GO. I’m so hungry.
AVA
Want me to get an Uber?
BRANDON
I’ll get your burger.
AVA
Okay. I don’t get reception down here. Meet you outside?
BRANDON
Sure. I just have to tell Miss Vonnie about Tan.
AVA collects things and stands from booth, shaking out leg.
AVA
Gross. Leg’s asleep. (holds out hand) Thank you so much for tracking me down again. I’m just so—
VONNIE
Don’t go on again, you’re helping me too. See you next Tuesday.
BRANDON
See-you-Nnnext-Tttuesday…
AVA exits, hobbling as leg wakes up.
BRANDON
Security’s going to think she’s wasted walking like that.
VONNIE
Who cares, she’s leaving. Not their problem.
BRANDON
(expectantly) So?
VONNIE
You weren’t joking. Too much yolk in that egg.
BRANDON
I know. She’s the best. I mean, she’s also kinda the worst.
VONNIE
You ever see her demon in your apartment?
BRANDON
Oh yeah, they’re called house centipedes. They crawl up from hell and they live off my screams.
VONNIE
How long has she been talking about it?
BRANDON
I mean, I always assumed she was being figurative or something.
VONNIE
She is. She don’t know that she is.
Dissolve to:
INT. AVA’S APARTMENT
She and BRANDON enter dropping fast food bag on table.
BRANDON
No, let’s in your room, mine has the ugly-ass overhead light.
AVA
An Ikea lamp costs $17. I don’t know how you expect to seduce someone under overhead lights.
BRANDON
Babe, I’m not romancing any ladies who need soft light. “Oh my make-up looks bad like this, ew, my tummy”… We just kill the lights and go. Or don’t kill them and go.
AVA
How anti-septic.
BRANDON
Nah. You’d have to breath through your mouth.
AVA
Charming.(picking up fast-food) I still want to eat this though.
Dissolve to:
AVA’S BEDROOM, a cheaply elegant sultan’s palace of glowing string lights and swaths of gauze draping ceiling. They eat.
AVA
There’s nothing that scares me as much as it does. It’s swum around inside me since I was a kid. (Ill. interlude) It knows its way around in there. It got fat on my terror, my shame, its made of the same stuff as I am. There’s no way to keep it out or track it, hold it up to the light. Harrow is made from me, and she can hurt me worse than anything outside me can, you know? Like a virus that mutated from my own DNA. No—I’m not being fatalistic, ’cause it works just like a disease. I’d rather she just stabbed me and got it over with. Better than slowly starving to death inside myself while she gorges on me. She wants me all for herself. I know you want to help, but Harrow knows that too. She’s already fucked with your life when you missed class to take me to the hospital. She knows how to drive you away. And she will.
BRANDON
Look, we figured out you need… smarter help than I can give. Like, someone trained. A therapist or an exorcist. I was dumb to think I could fix it by putting you in drag. It’s just that that’s what worked for me, you know? You talked about the closet so much I thought maybe our closets were similar? But when friends have anxiety attacks you take them to the hospital, ya know? Shit balances itself out. Even if I can’t… cure you or stop this thing haunting you I’ll still be here.
AVA
I don’t want it to poison your life too though—
BRANDON
I poison myself every Thursday with $3 shots of Fireball old guys tip me with instead of a bill, I’d like to see your Harrow poison me so bad I can’t shake it off with a coffee and breakfast sandwich, okay? Like, she can try.
AVA
(wiping away tears) Ew. Breakfast sandwiches from where? Not the McDonalds by your studio, please…
BRANDON
Like I said, I’m not easily poisoned.
AVA
(pause) An exorcist. I don’t hate that idea.
BRANDON
I know a queen who’d be so fucking down.
(fade through gauze to both sharing a vape and watching “The Exorcist” on laptop, BRANDON on phone and AVA very invested)
BRANDON
It’s just unChristian that they won’t deliver after 3 a.m.
AVA
“The demon is a liar. He will”—Bran!- “lie to”… this is the part: “He will mix lies with the truth to attack”, YES. That’s what I mean, it knows how to use enough truth to make lies seem so natural and harder to identify.
BRANDON
(burps) I think I’ve dated Harrow.
AVA
Actually, yeah. (talking over movie) Shady boyfriends use these tactics with my friends. To make them feel crazy for having normal emotions. Think they learn it from demons?
BRANDON
I would not be fucking surprised. Too bad they don’t learn how to eat ass from them demons too. Lotta time to practice in Hell. (pause) Can you send Harrow to my room next time?
AVA
That’s what you said abut Luke.
BRANDON
Except he hasn’t been here in—- what? Did he break your heart?
AVA
Not really. He didn’t actively break anything. I have a fragile heart and threw it at him, hard. Of course it broke, you know? You can’t be like “Hey, brick wall, how dare you smash that antique I threw at you.”
(keening scratch silences laughter, changes atmosphere in room)
BRANDON
What the shit was that?
AVA
You heard it too?
BRANDON
Okay, but what the SHIT was that?
(AVA stands, facing closet)
BRANDON
Um, um, um, okay. Did something fall over in your closet?
AVA shakes head, body tense. Smaller scratches continue.
BRANDON
(filming on phone) Don’t tell me we have rats.
AVA
Turn off the movie. I can’t hear what she’s saying.
BRANDON
The fuck you say?
AVA smacks laptop shut while BRANDON films her. She plucks bundle of dried snapdragons from where they’re hung them around edge of closet, kneeling at closed door.
AVA
These always looked like baby bird skulls to me. I like to think they become winter homes for the ghosts of bird hatchlings who didn't make it through their first spring, or never hatched.
BRANDON
Precious. You better not open that door. I’m too high to deal with a rat right now.
AVA squeaks door open a little and places the bundle of dried snapdragons inside. She closes it and listens.
AVA
I think it’s stopped for now.
BRANDON
Sooo we’re sleeping in my room tonight. You don’t have a bed frame, you are not sleeping on this floor with a rat in there.
(They exit. Crack of light illuminates inside of closet. A small, ghostly hand snatches the snapdragons out of light)
INT. THERAPY ROOM - DAY
Softly lit, plants, music, controlled environment for regression therapy, etc. VONNIE places cushion under AVA’s knees on mat.
VONNIE
So you couldn’t hear nothing but Max von Sidow on the video?
AVA
Bran remembers hearing the scratches but…
(Cut to hurried morning routine in APARTMENT with BRANDON half-out the door with ballet bag and iced coffee)
BRANDON
Look, I’m not saying it didn’t sound weird but I was still kinda drunk. And high. And tired from the show. And like, we were watching The freaking Exorcist so… shall I keep going?
(Cut back to THERAPY ROOM and AVA’s sullen expression)
AVA
I mean, it’s fine. This isn’t about proving it’s real to anyone. It’s just, no one’s ever heard the scratching but me before.
VONNIE
I’m gonna put my hand on your stomach. If you’re tense, don’t try too hard to relax. Tell me about the tension.
AVA
It’s… scared.
VONNIE
What part of you is scared?
AVA
Um… my stomach?
VONNIE
Does it know you’re in a safe place right now?
AVA
No. It never feels safe. Even here?
VONNIE
How old would you say that part is, that feels scared?
AVA
Um. I’m not sure. I never thought about it. I guess… seven?
VONNIE
Can you tell her we’re in a safe place? Let her look around.
AVA
She’s always scared of being stabbed. Even here.
VONNIE
‘Cause of that knife you told me about at the bar?
AVA
Yes. I can’t remember a night when I wasn’t scared the demon would stab me in my sleep.
VONNIE
Weird way for a demon to operate, isn’t it?
AVA
I know. I have a theory about that, though.
VONNIE
Breathe deep, and on your exhale, let yourself believe just a little that you’re safe here. There’s no knives in this room.
AVA
…do you want to hear my theory?
VONNIE
I want you to breathe consciously as you tell me. Let a little tension go on each exhale.
AVA
People think I’m being dramatic when I talk about curses. I’m not. I’m not talking about like a pretty, poetic curse like the one on Odette in Swan Lake.
(a stylized flashback begins with both childhood drawings and AVA’s adult illustration style, jumping between THERAPY ROOM and CHILDHOOD BEDROOM as she draws the story of the curse)
AVA
Saint Thomas of Canterbury put a curse on my family almost a thousand years ago.
VONNIE
(laughs) Oh… you’re serious.
(Excerpt end. To read rest of scene or further screenplay, please contact me)