Will Come Home Screenplay

written by

Luren Elizabeth

Address
Phone
E-mail
EXT. FOREST - LATE AFTERNOON
A CATERPILLAR crawls from a larger leaf to a blade of grass
and then to another blade of grass, like a staircase -
descending. A bouncy motion occurs as it weighs on then lets
go of each leaf. Other smaller bugs are also moving within
the background, blurred.
FINGERS enter the scene and act as blades of grass in motion
as the CATERPILLAR continues its descent on the fingers. At
the same time, the hand moves upwards and lifts the
caterpillar to be level with a pair of eyes, past a mouth and
a nose. The caterpillar moves while the eyes blink.

A RUSTLING noise is heard from the background. ROSY's head

turns screen right, towards the sound, and she looks over her
shoulder in the distance. At the same time her hand lowers
with the CATERPILLAR.
Five DEER are in the foreground, along with various wild
plantlife. From slightly below, Rosy looks over her shoulder.
She stares and the air feels stagnant and unmoving. There is
a warm glow over eveything. ROSY looks intensely interested
with the large deer figures.
The DEER are walking. Rosy stands up clumsily and they
FLINCH.
There is a close-up of the DEER's hooves getting ready to
run.
ROSY's eyes light up and she walks closer and outstretches
her hand excitedly. From ROSY's perspective, the sunlight
behind the deer seems blinding. Things in view feel like they
are swimming around. There is the sound of something like
windchimes in the background (diegetic sound).
ROSY trips a little and does a falling walk. The DEER's
hooves go off like springs, in slow motion.
The DEER flee in the foreground, their hooves receding, while
ROSY is in the background mid-stumble.
As ROSY's hand moves through space, her MOM calls her name
from afar.
MOM
ROSY!! ROSY!! WHERE ARE YOU!?
Breifly, we see the CATERPILLAR from before. It is moving
through an indescript place that is a tube-like tunnel, with
crinkling walls and a round, smooth, tan path leading into
the distance. The light filters through. Here you can also
hear the MOM calling ROSY's name
 2.

MOM  (CONT'D)
ROSY! ROOSY!
ROSY stands up. Time has passed, and the sun is now setting.
ROSY stares off into space, a lost feeling on her face.
ROSY's face scrunches up tighter and tighter at each
iteration. This goes on for a long period of time, before
switching to the next scene.

EXT. FOREST EXTERIOR - TWILIGHT

There's the forest from outside with a small path giving the
forest in a cross-section. There is a hole in underbrush
leading into darkness.
ROSY emerges from this opening. The MOM is waiting outside.
The colors are more stark and cold, and the place feels like
it has more definition and less ethereal qualities.
MOM grabs Rosy's ROSY and ROSY looks down, seeming like she's
daydreaming and in another world. MOM grabs ROSY's hand and
begins scolding her as they walk to the right of the screen.
The camera zooms out to look at the tall trees as ROSY and
her mother walk by. As it zooms out the mom's voice grows
fainter and the words become hard to make out, as they
continue walking.

EXT. SMALL HOUSE - NIGHT

They start approaching a small house in a clearing. Outside

of it is a car with the lights on. The car is full of moving
boxes. The mom pulls the girl around the back to a hose and
washes off her feet, ankles, and hands with it, since they
have dirt on them.
MOM
Why don't you ever tie your shoes?
ROSY shrugs it off and looks away distantly.
Again, we see the CATERPILLAR from before, crawling through
the same never-ending tunnel, this time the tunnel is dark.
MOM (CONT'D)
We didn't even finish unpacking
before you ran off.
ROSY
Well, moving here wasn't my idea.
 3.

MOM
*sighs* Why don't you go inside and
sleep for now, I can do it myself.
MOM lets go of ROSY's shoelaces, and Rosy takes a wandering
path into the house.
ROSY begins walking inside while her mother begins unpacking
the car.

INT. SMALL HOUSE - NIGHT

ROSY walks down the hall and peeks into the rooms. In one
room she peeks into a small bathroom. She pauses for a
moment, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She wipes a
smudge off her face, and continues walking.
The next doorway ROSY peeks in and walks into, a small room
with an empty bunkbed and a window. On the walls of the
bottom bunk are pictures of a city and ROSY's friends, a
poster of a bird standing on a meat grinder, and an empty
postcard. There is a suitcase remaining on the bed, and ROSY
moves it aside and lays down on the bed. The springs creak
and ROSY bounces on the mattress slightly.
Her MOM enters the room, obviously struggling with a larger
box from the car and making exaggerated grunting sounds. ROSY
helps her place the box down, while her mom talks to her.
MOM
You should take the top bunk Rosy,
my back isn't good anymore.
ROSY is silent in response. She crawls into the bottom bunk
with her back facing her MOM, and closes her eyes.
ROSY
All my stuff is already down here.
Her MOM leaves to get more boxes.
ROSY stares at the wall and traces stains with her finger on
the edges.
ROSY looks up at the poster of the city on her wall, with big
eyes. A breeze from the window blows it up. ROSY goes a rips
a piece of tape from a roll on the table, and tapes the
corners of the poster down. Outside the window, we can see
MOM struggling to pick up another box from her car.
ROSY settles down to go to sleep. There is a close-up of
ROSY's arm as she rolls over onto her sleeve.
 4.

INT. SMALL HOUSE - 5AM

ROSY goes to bed, but wakes up in the night, nearing dawn, to
the sound of the WIND through the trees. She's never heard
such a sound before being so loud, but she has also never
lived in a forest.
ROSY gets up from her bed, and looks at the top bunk, where
her mother is sleeping.
ROSY goes into the bathroom and goes to brush her teeth,
turning on the faucet and picking up her toothbrush. Her
loose sleeve scrunches down as she raises her arm, and under
it is the crushed CATERPILLAR. ROSY had rolled over it in her
sleep.
She examines her arm closely, looking tired and dazed, while
the sound of the facet running continues in the background.
ROSY cradles her arm and runs it under the faucet, watching
the remains of the caterpillar wash down the drain.
ROSY stares intently, before being snapped out of the
psychosis by the loud sound of trees and windchimes. She
looks out the window, and then exits the bathroom.
ROSY creeps over to her jacket and slips it on, before
creeping out of the house. She treads slowly, trying very
hard for her MOM not to notice her leaving. However, the
creak of the door causes her mother to stir. ROSY doesn't
close the door fully, and after a while it begins creaking
open from the wind.

EXT. FOREST EXTERIOR - DAWN (STILL DARK)

Meanwhile, ROSY walks over to the same opening in the trees
where her mom stood and walks down the hill. It's still dark,
and hard to see. ROSY gingerly pulls aside a branch with
thorns, and enters the darkness of the woods.
First her foot goes in, then her hand, and then her whole
self seems to be pulled into the shadows of the leaves.
ROSY begins walking down the hill, but can't fully find her
footing. She finds it difficult to grasp the ground below her
without stumbling. She takes a step forward and, visible to
the audience, steps on her shoelace. When she puts her other
foot forward, she ends up tripping over her shoelaces and
tumbling down. At the bottom of the hill, we see her lying
down for a moment.
ROSY is as still as a dead person, and we look at her from
afar crumbled at the bottom of the hill.
 5.

Light flashes lightly and ethereal from the crest of the hill
reaching downward, and the scene changes.

INT. SMALL HOUSE - DAWN

Her mom is waking up and begins screaming ROSY's name. ROSY

does not respond. Her mom panics and scrambles off the bed,
but falls. She screams in pain and becomes confused seeing
that ROSY is not home, and the front door has swung open. The
mom's sight is unclear, and she sees a figure standing in the
doorway. She screams ROSY's name again.

EXT. FOREST - DAWN

ROSY is recovering from her fall, and looks up from where she
is lying. She sees a deer head from above and gasps. She
touches the deer head and it does not move. She continues
running her hand down the deer's fur, but then sees that the
deer's torso is rotting. She gasps in horror and scoots away
quickly.

INT. SMALL HOUSE - DAWN

Her mom is still panicking, breathing heavily. The figure in
the doorway, a deer, stares at her as she breathes. Her mom
begins pleading for help. The deer stares apathetically.

EXT. FOREST - DAWN

ROSY stands and stares at the body of the deer and feels
disgust as well as distress at the sight. Her body is numb as
the sun slowly rises on the scene. But her expression softens
as she spends more time here. She stares for a time before
trying to approach the body. The scene seems to glow.
As Rosy approaches the body, it seems to grow farther away.
We see images of Rosy approaching the deer intercut with
images of the deer's hooves winding up to spring away,
harkening back to the opening scene. As Rosy gets closer, at
an impossibly slow and rewinding speed, she reaches out her
hand. Her hand seems to skip back in time continuously.
Finally, some tension releases as the hand brushes through
the fur on the deer's back.
Rosy reaches into the deer's mouth and inspects the grooves
in the teeth, like a dentist.
She takes her hand out and moves down.
 6.

Upon inspection the deer's ribs are visible and the inside of
them is slightly hollow. Rosy, seemingly in a daze, runs her
fingers over the ribcage as well. Her finger runs over an
impossible number of ribs before reaching an end.

INT. SMALL HOUSE - DAWN

Rosy's mom continues to cry out her name at the figure in the
door.
MOM
Rosy! Rosy, come back!

EXT. FOREST - DAWN

Rosy lies down against the deers body in the grass. She
scoots into the deer and seems to enter the deer's ribcage,
fitting herself into the hollow of the body. Her arms and
legs fold close to her chest and she seems to be able to
scrunch her whole body further in. The ribs and flesh of the
deer begin to wrap around her like a blanket and she is
encased inside. By becoming the deer, she's alleviated her
guilt and fear and anger, and can live just to survive.
The deer stirs and moves it's tail and ears. It then lifts
its head up, in a sudden motion, before getting up and
swiftly fleeing the clearing. The camera lingers on the
clearing as the grass sways and light begins to filter a
little more into the space.

INT. FRONT DOOR OF SMALL HOUSE - DAWN

The deer stares at the mom screaming for Rosy in the doorway.
The deer contains Rosy. The mom's mouth moves, but doesn't
seem to be able to exit the house. From Mom's perspective, we
see her begging the deer to stay. From the deer's
perspective, we see the Mom's mouth moving but none of the
words reach past the doorway. The deer is unbothered. There's
only the rustling of trees and grass birds and nature noises.
The deer moves away slowly and unconcerned. It walks slowly
towards to forest and dissapears into it. It physically seems
to fade out of existence and loses opacity as it grows
further away, releasing ROSY.

INT. SMALL HOUSE HALLWAY - DAWN

ROSY runs around the corner of the hallway and runs to her
mom's side. She helps her mom up.
 7.

ROSY
Oh my god, mom, are you okay? What
was that noise, did you fall?
MOM
Honey, I...
ROSY
We need to call someone, you should
get in bed.
Rosy helps her mom into the bottom bunk of the bed, and pulls
the cover over her. Rosy calls someone, and talks on the
phone. Her mom reaches for Rosy and Rosy holds her hand. The
sound is all muffled and indistinct. Rosy ends the phone
call, and holds her mother's hand, kneeling by her bedside.
The camera is zooming out slowly so that we see the full
scene, with the window shining morning light through the
glass and dust particles lighting up and swimming in and out
of the light. The scene appears like a painting, with their
silhouettes very clear. We end here, with MOM heaving for
breath and back in pain, and ROSY holding her MOM's hand,
looking concerned but alleviated of her harsh feelings.