UNTITLED

Written by

Trino Javier Segovia II

03.05.2018
INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

Shaggy house, dimly lit. A young man is smoking a cigarette

as he speaks on the phone. He’s leaning his shoulder into the
wall to keep him upright and awake. He hasn’t slept for two
days.

We’re eavesdropping in the middle of a conversation.

OSCAR
You know,... Sometimes I can’t take
it. I’m so tired and I just want to
sleep.

CUT TO:

INT. DARK ROOM - NIGHT

A young woman sits in a lofty chair while she cradles a short

glass of amber liquid in her right hand. She swishes it
gently as if she were trying to calm a newborn.

This room is lit only by a sophisticated lamp. Its light is

exclusive to the space directly beneath it. It illuminates
the young woman but we can only see the lower half of her
face while the ambient rhythm of her breathing soothes the
young man on the other end of the phone.

OSCAR
I remember that night... The moon
was full and bright but not...
Happy. It was glowing Red.

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

OSCAR
(He begins to cry)
It was angry... She was upset with
me that night.

The young man can hear the sound of metal clanking in the
distance. It will grow louder in the following second.

NINA
...Who was upset with you?

The -th sound at the end of her “with” was smooth like
velvet. There were the sounds of the young man sniffling and
stifling dramatic sounds from escaping his mouth and dragging
off his cigarette.
 2.

<BEAT>

CUT TO:

INT. DARK ROOM - NIGHT

The young woman is listening intently, she can hear the same
loud metal sounds in the background as they grow louder.

It’s a train passing by on it’s tracks.

NINA
(Quietly)
I can hear where you are.

The call ends with an abrupt click, whomever called her so

late at night didn’t feel the need to indulge her point.

She hangs up as well.

CUT TO: BLACK

ALL CREDITS AT TOP / TITLE

FADE IN:

INT. NINA’S HOUSE - EARLY MORNING

Nina takes a few minutes to get ready for her day. She
showers, gets dressed and tucks a pair brass knuckles into
her right jean pocket before she leaves.

CUT TO:

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS

She’s walking to a friend’s house in the most dimly lit time

of the morning. The city has yet to wake up.

After a few minutes of walking, she stops in front of a

pleasantly dormant and dimly lit home. Her eyes give the
house an unconcerned look and she walks toward it.

The front door isn’t on her mind, this particular house isn’t
either. Nina is anticipating a watchful eye upon the actual
house she will be visiting this morning so she chooses
caution before confidence and ducks through two and a half
blocks of houses and backyards before the back door of her
friend’s house is in front of her.
 3.

She’s craving a cigarette for breakfast and leans up against

the fence she just climbed over to light her cigarette. Now
she waits.

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

A young woman wakes up in the dark, she showers in the dark

and she gets dressed in the dark.

Her name is Celeste and she is hiding. She steps out of the
back door and Nina greets her.

NINA
(Eating)
Howdy neighbor.

Celeste is very startled.

<BEAT>

Nina hands over a cigarette and her lighter. Celeste accepts.

CELESTE
Damn it, Nina, we got a good thing
goin’ right now. People ain’t
supposed to know we live here.

NINA
(Smiling)
I’m startin’ to think you might not
trust me, Celé.

CELESTE
I trust you didn’t come through the
front yard.

NINA
Hey... That’s a start.

Celeste lights her cigarette.

CELESTE
Come on, let’s go.

She turns and climbs the same fence Nina scaled to get in.

NINA
Wait- Wha- You don’t even know
where I was goin’.
 4.

CELESTE
Shoot, this early in the mornin’
ain’t but one place open, girl.

CUT TO:

EXT. RESTAURANT - MORNING

Nina and Celeste are sitting at a table in the street-side

section of a restaurant so they can sip their drinks while
they smoke cigarettes. The sun has barely risen and there’s a
blue glow on this particular time of morning.

The two women have littered their table with empty Mimosa
glasses. We’ve entered on a moment of laughter that has just
crescendoed.

CELESTE
(Gently dabbing her eyes)
So-
(Still stifling laughter)
So why this early in the morning?
What was it about today that
seduced you so, that you would
think to sneak in my bedroom window
as you do?

Nina breathes a chuckle.

NINA
You haven’t been so easy so to get
a hold of, Celeste. One might begin
to think you been hidin’.

CELESTE
(While smoke billows from
her mouth)
Hiding? Nina Rae, is it simply the
pulp of this orange juice filin’
your tongue so sharp or would it be
the alcohol? I would hope your
tolerance for the sugar’s
succulence be mild than torrential.

The sun’s reach is inching closer while they speak. The

city’s folk are beginning to stir.

Nina’s smile begins to mirror her impatience. She drops her

cigarette but into the last sip of an abandoned mimosa on
their table.
 5.

NINA
You don’t return my calls and your
windows ain’t been lit goin’ on two
weeks now, girl.

CELESTE
(Irritated)
What an awfully delinquent hobby
you’ve occupied these last few
years.

NINA
Well, how else am I supposed to
find you? Playin’ cat and mouse
with my best friend wasn’t exactly
what I had in mind when I thought
I’d stop by your residence for a
few sweet tea and vodka pours them
two weeks ago.

Celeste licks the sweetness from her lips as she drags her
retro sunglasses from pinning her bangs back down to her
tipsy brown eyes.

CELESTE
It’s my dear brother.

NINA
Oscar.

CELESTE
Yes. He’s fallen into some foul
misfortune of his own doing, serves
him right. You associate with
certain types and your welcome may
wear sooner than you’d like.
Sooner’n it would ‘round us more
civilized folk. Alley cats and
rabid dogs ain’t fit for
friendship. This heat bakes serene
sanity clean from the mind.

She takes a drink of her sweet cocktail.

CELESTE (CONT’D)
Those people ain’t meant to be
trusted.

Nina also adjusts her sunglasses. The sun is in its morning

stride now, ravaging the cool and shaded streets and walls of
the city.

NINA
What people?
 6.

CELESTE
Oh, you know the type; they liken
themselves to Robin Hood.

NINA
Thieves?

CELESTE
(Winking)
And Robbers, all the same, Nina.
You are on a roll this mornin’.

They’re gathering themselves now and standing from their

table, ready to leave. Nina tucks a twenty and ten dollar
bill underneath one of her mimosa glasses.

CELESTE (CONT’D)
Surely that won’t pay for all our
drinks, sweet Nina.

Nina slings a small bag strap over her head and across her
chest.

NINA
It’s gratuity, amiga. My tab can
handle the extra weight of a few
drinks at dawn.

Celeste runs her fingers through her hair and arms herself
with a large purse on her forearm.

CELESTE
Just know that I’m not hiding from
you... I’m weaving a web.

The two share a hug and a farewell kiss on the cheek.

(V.O.) NINA
I couldn’t tell whether she was
lyin’ to me or lyin’ for me. One
thing was for certain... She is
lyin’.

Celeste saunters away down the block before eventually

turning. Nina watches her the whole way.

(V.O.) NINA (CONT’D)

Sometimes people think they’re
protecting you but really they’re
just too stubborn or too afraid to
ask for help...

Nina finishes what little is left of her last drink and sets
the glass down on the table.
 7.

(V.O.) NINA (CONT’D)

She told me she’s weaving a web.
Spiders sling silk for two reasons:
to ward off predators tryin’ to
sneak around...

She looks into the big windowpane of the restaurant and

primps herself. She lights another cigarette and takes one
last glance at herself as she exhales smoke slowly from her
nose.

(V.O.) NINA (CONT’D)

And to hunt.

She walks away, puts her earphones in and plays some music.
When she pulls her music player from her bag, her line of
sight is attracted to something on the ground. It’s dark. She
takes a step and one more toward it.

It was dropped beneath an old shell of a payphone box, it’s

still smoking. She reaches down and cherrypicks one black
cigarette butt from the company of four others. She studies
it and isn’t happy after she realizes who it belongs to and
the fact they were being watched the entire time.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET - DAY

She’s chasing him now, through a residential neighborhood.

She keeps her distance as he turns right onto a connecting
street. She is behind by one block and turns right onto the
connecting street parallel to his.

She runs full speed and slows down to listen to the

neighborhood dogs. She can narrow his location down to two
houses. She cuts through the block separating them and
emerges on the opposite sidewalk. The young man took a moment
to slow down and take a look behind him to check if anybody
was still chasing him, he’s caught by a powerful kick to the
gut and immediately drops to the ground.

NINA
(Catching her breath)
A ‘good morning’ would have
sufficed, Mikey. Or might your
infatuation have caught the best of
you?

Mikey, the young man she chased down, is now on the ground on
all fours as he dry-heaves from the pain.
 8.

<BEAT>

He can’t speak, he’s winded and tortured by the lingering

pain of Nina’s kick.

She kicks him once more in his ribs.

NINA
TALK! Watchin’ us drink all those
mimosas couldn’t have been easy for
a son of a lump like you,
‘specially when you have more-

She digs into his jean pockets as he tries to fight it.

Nina yanks a bag of white pills out and gives a satisfied

grunt.

NINA (CONT’D)
Much more important things to sniff
out, you mutt.

She plucks one pill out of the bag, drops it on the ground
and grinds it into the pavement with her shoe.

The desperate drug delinquent groans and moans in

helplessness as he watches his favorite hobby be pulverized
into dust.

NINA (CONT’D)
You’re losin’ money, Mikey.

She’s taking two out of the bag now.

The two lock eyes. She waits for him to come around. He
doesn’t, she shrugs and tosses them to her shoe.

MIKEY
Alright! Alright, alright, alright.

He sits up on the street as one and two cars move around

them, lights a cigarette with the same black paper filter as
the butts she found beneath the payphone.

They look at each other once more and he spills.

MIKEY (CONT’D)
You ever heard of UTech?

Nina was clearly confused.

FADE TO BLACK.
 9.

(V.O.) NINA
United Technologies, better known
as UTech.

FADE IN:

EXT. BUSINESS BUILDING - MORNING

We’re guided inside the building, up stairs, through

hallways, past secure doors.

(V.O.) NINA
When purchasin’ a home security
surveillance system, the customer
is instructed to set the damn thing
up over their own home WI-FI
network.

Finally, we enter a modern-style room with very bright grey-

tone colors. There’s a few cages with some wires running into
them.

Our sight follows these wires across the floor and into one
of the cages. Six or more black boxes with dim glowing lights
are inside.

(V.O.) NINA (CONT’D)

So they can, you know,
(Mockingly)
Check in on their dog while they’re
at work. You can even connect your
doorbell to these contraptions and
see who might be preachin’ the holy
word on a Saturday mornin’ or
deliverin’ a package needs signin’
for.