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The Hour of the Wolf; Erica...?
Topic Started: Dec 13 2015, 08:44 AM (31 Views)
Jon A
[The sounds of playing card being shuffled and dealt, accompanies Erica Toughill's voice-over...]

“The hour of the wolf... between three and four...”

“The time between night and dawn, just before the light comes...”

“The time when the power of the demons is at its height...”

“The hour when most people died and most children were born...”

“Between three and four... the nightmares come for you...”


[Inside Erica Toughill's new, cavernous dressing room. A lone figure sits on the floor facing the corner, doubled over on the marble floor beneath a mirror that has been cracked into a spider-web pattern. Her face is buried into her palms, softly sobbing to herself, a pack of cards in her hands. The large octopus tattoo on her shoulder reveals who this is. A woman sings “Destination” by Barry Adamson softly to herself.]

“I wanna live on the easy side
I sold my soul and bought it back online
There was a time when I could love a Tesla gun
I take a call and then I take a ride...”

[Or maybe not: another woman appears in the reflection of the cracked mirror. She has a green, translucent “Welcome to Las Vegas” visor, pink-tinted shades, and gold-tipped cigarette holder clamped between her teeth; she's also wearing a life-vest for reasons known only to her.]

DUKE: Buy the ticket, take the ride, my dear. No sympathy for the devil—keep that in mind.

[The woman with the octopus tattoo removes the top card from the deck and tosses it to the ground: the Queen of Spades.]

DUKE: The mad old Queen of Spades: the woman on fire. She's walks tall, kicks ass, speaks Arabic, loves music and knows that she's from a long line of truth seekers, lovers, and warriors. A woman on the move, and just sick enough to be totally confident.

[She sighs and lowers the cigarette holder from her mouth.]

DUKE: I was supposed to keep you safe, wasn't I? To be the real truth seeker; to find the nut of the situation to understand why you do what you do. That is, after all, the point of this whole bent assignment. I remember in 2010 when I first came on the scene. I'd seemed you were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. It looked for minute like the meek would inherit the earth, and there was this sense that the savage, atavistic world of women's professional wrestling would be yours for the taking.

[There is a sadness in Duke's voice.]

DUKE: Now, five years later, you can stand on a tall building in Pittsburgh and look north toward the Great Lakes where you spawned from. And with the right kind of eye, you can see the high water mark where the wave broke... and rolled back...

[Duke lowers her head, picks up her antique medical bag filled with god-knows-what and disappears into the darkness of the reflection.]

[The woman is still sobbing. She takes another card from the pack and tosses it to the black marble floor. The Queen of Diamonds.]

“I need some loving; gonna go get me some
And shine my pretty light on everyone
But I hit retaliate
When they got to me
And then I woke in a scary bed
The twist of fate you'll never escape!
The worst neighborhood is the one right inside of your head”

[Erica Vargas, singing “Whispering Streets” by Barry Adamson struts into the cracked reflection in her slinky black catsuit, expensive sunglasses over her face and a potent cocktail in her fist.]

VARGAS: Well, well, well. Time for the panther to crash the party. That is what the Queen of Diamonds does, after all—am I right? The woman in the wind. Do a little overtime, act a little volatile, and be that extroverted, wild, jet-setting, glamorous party girl you always fantasized about being. Drive your classic American muscle car from one place to another, raise a little hell, and look fantastic doing so.

[Vargas takes a large, slow sip of her drink.]

VARGAS: At least... that's the way it went in your mind. I couldn't be that for you. I let you out, and as a result, got fined well over one-tenth of my annual income. And now, you've gotta work with the one that did this to you—to us.

[With a look of self-disgust, she downs the remainder of the drink.]

VARGAS: Stay strong, babe. Lord knows I couldn't do it for you...

[With one hand on her hip, Vargas sashays into the darkness of the reflection.]

[With trembling hands, the woman deals a third card. The Queen of Clubs. A quivering, soft and nervous voice sings “Can't Get Loose” in the darkness.]

“Did you just hear what I just heard?
Or have I simply gone berserk?
'Cause in the shade there's someone
Laughing at my whimsical intentions to be free

Two burning minds that don't agree
One praying, hoping desperately
While in the shades there's someone
Wallowing in what I know will never happen now”

[In the cracked reflection, Erica Toughill appears in her black singlet and Converse hightops. She looks tired and careworn, arms crossed her abdomen nervously.]

TOUGHILL: Hi. That's supposed to be me, right? The “real” one, right? That's my nickname after all—the one I've had for years. The Queen of Clubs; the woman of the earth. The silent stones that absorb eons of punishment and never complain, and the warm life-giving earth that tries to sustain what it can, no matter how many people pollute and poison her! But as her plates shift... she CRACKS! Her calm exterior explodes into violence! She spews magma, destroying innocent lives for no reason! I'm not all goodness and light, and people don't understand that!

[She crouches down beside the woman sobbing beside the mirror.]

TOUGHILL: And I hate you. I've always hated you. And I know you hate me. We hold each other back.

[Erica Toughill puts her hand on the exposed back of the weeping woman. She pulls out her phone. The time on the lock screen says “3:58 am.”]

TOUGHILL: Between three and four. The time between night and dawn, just before the light comes... The time when the power of the demons is at its height... The hour when most people died and most children were born... Between three and four... the nightmares come for you... The Hour of the Octopus.

[Toughill rubs her eyes in exhaustion.]

TOUGHILL: Erica has to tag with Andrea Kristian... I say... Nobody should tag with Andrea Kristian. That's who Taylor and Anderson will face. Nobody with Andrea Kristian...

[Toughill buries her face in her palms, revealing that she has been alone in the dressing room the whole time. She looks at her reflection in the mirror and fidgets with the pack of cards in her hand.]

TOUGHILL: I can't keep hiding you. I can't keep hating you. And I can't keep pretending that I'm the “real” Erica. One last card to deal... it's almost four... The woman in the deep blue sea...

[Pan to the floor, where another card is tossed: the Queen of Hearts. Erica resumes sobbing, but as it gets louder...]

[...She hasn't been sobbing at all, but rather laughing the whole time.]
Edited by Jon A, Dec 13 2015, 08:45 AM.
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