ASKM Flashcards by Aaron Black

He didn’t even know why he’d come here tonight. When he got on the bus, he had no
destination. Just the restlessness. And the bus brought him here.” Okay. In the
beginning, he’s restless, wandering. I get that. (She puts down the book, scrolls on her
computer and reads the text there.) “The man swoops his hand through the restless fog.”

Woosh.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

JANE:
It’s too soon. Better to hold back
until she has passed the humped midsection of the walk, then close in. She’ll give a little scream, perhaps only a gasp, when he comes up beside her.”

“And he will say softly, ‘Hello’. Only hello.”

Hello.

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JANE

Did you pass out up there? On my ass every minute since you arrived, and now when
we’re close to the end? Gone! Someone could sneak in, while I’m all alone, and murder me in cold blood!

No one would ever know.

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JANE

Keep it together. I’m just going to keep going.
Because that’s all there is!

“His stride is long, his steps are quiet yet she hears / him.”

Open your mouth.

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FM
Oh, no. This is not about you or what happened to you.

JANE
No? I’m the one that has to meet with him - sit down at that desk with him again, face to face, in two days!

THE MAN
(Whispers.)

Let her go.

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JANE
That’s not how it goes. You’ve got murder mind.
FM
(Looking at the images.)
I do.

THE MAN
Where’s your murder mind, Jane?

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FM
Just like this.

JANE
Where I grew up / in the middle of nowhere.

FM
The middle of / nowhere.

(Whispering, shifting with the shadows.)

The middle of nowhere.

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JANE
She’s in charge here.

FM
Not in charge. I’m here to keep you focused.

JANE
She’s The Filmmaker.

Ooooh

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JANE
Writing one. I’m adapting a novel for the biggest / producer -

FM
Jane, really. Can we not get derailed here? We were on a roll.

THE MAN

In a hole.

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JANE
We? You were gone! I was down here! All alone! Then she showed up -

FM
Why?

JANE
To help me.

To die.

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Help / you? How?

WIB

Help?

To kill.

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WIB
I was afraid.

JANE
Of / the man!

Of me.

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FM: Those are the names of everyone’s bears!

WIB: Ow!

J:Don’t hurt her!

[Enter USC, cross SL, go upstairs, near stool.]

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J: She needs to get warm. Maybe a shot of / Mescal!

FM: Oh no.

[Take off overcoat.]

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JANE
That? That is the end. I’m sorry stop! We’re not there yet. I went back -

FM
We’re almost done Jane. All we have to do is -

JANE
I can’t do it.

You can.

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What do you mean?

Ahhh, come on.

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JANE

I can’t let him kill her.

THE MAN
You can’t take her away / from me.

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WIB

Let who kill who?

Whom. Let whom kill whom.
You’re at the end. She’s the last girl.

JANE/THE MAN

She’s more than that.

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JANE
Even though she’s the last one to die, she’s the first victim we meet in the novel. She
bookends the whole story! But we know so little about her. Who is she?

WIB
Me?

FM
Who cares?

JANE/THE MAN
I do.

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FM
Her murder is the one mistake the killer makes

I don’t make mistakes.

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FM
She’s how they finally catch him! The sand in his shoes, the dog hair on his suit!

I never make mistakes.

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JANE
Okay, okay! It was just a thought! We’ll keep it in the 40’s. We’ll keep the hat! It does
look great on you.

WIB
I get a lot of compliments.

Very nice.

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JANE

Have a seat. Over there.

FM
Sit. Heel.

Roll over. Play dead.

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WIB
I’m sorry.

FM
Agghhh! She’s lovely, she really is. But she can’t help you. /She has to die.

She has to die. Now.

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WIB What? JANE It’s alright. Don’t let her scare you. She really isn’t so bad, once you get used to her! Just sit there for a bit, collect yourself. Catch your breath. It gets a little overwhelming, doesn’t it, when you’re young and you feel like you always have to do as you’re told.

Be a good girl.

JANE (CONT'D) You don’t, you know. WIB Have to die? JANE Always have to / do as you’re told.

Do as you're told.

WIB That’s amazing! FM Downright spine chilling. WIB It would make a great movie! It’s such a creepy story.

It is.

WIB The way she takes us into the mind of that man -

JANE/THE MAN The Man / in a Hat.

WIB In a Hat! It’s like we’re / inside of him FM Inside the mind of the killer. WIB The killer?

Dorothy knows me well, as well as you do, Jane.

JANE Yes. WIB He’s got this, this -

Loneness.

FM Loneness. WIB Is that a word? JANE It's an old word.

Loneness.

WIB It’s creepy. JANE We’re inside his loneness at the beginning of the book, /

Searching.

JANE ...for something to fill his emptiness, when he spies the Woman in Brown, getting off the bus. He’s “drawing her on his mind ... WIB ... as on a piece of paper.” FM Oh, boy.

Yes. Every bit of her.

JANE And we don’t realize it yet, but he’s already raped and murdered five other women. One a month, for five months.

Every little piece of her.

FM And he hides it all with his suave veneer. He’s well-dressed, debonair, even. He dazzles with his charm. WIB He does?

I do. It’s easy.

JANE That’s how he sees them. But they’re not. Sure, they’re more than pretty, they’re smart, and they’re full of / full of - WIB They’re young, just starting out!

Shhh. / Little Mouse.

JANE And he’s dangerous! No matter how intelligent any of his victims are, they ignore their instincts, they tell themselves it’s fine. WIB It’s fine?

It’s fine.

FM He makes them feel like they know him, like they can trust him. He has the uncanny ability to seem normal, kind even. It’s become classic serial killer m.o.

Just being who they want me to be.

JANE And before they know what’s / happening -

It's too late.

JANE And they become just another gruesome news item. He thinks getting raped and strangled is the only exciting thing that will ever happen to them.

Isn’t it?

WIB That’s horrible! He really says that? JANE It’s the only time their picture will be in the paper.

Everyone gets a kick outta being in the paper.

FM (Laughing.) You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. THE MAN laughs. WIB Dorothy? JANE Sometimes I feel like I never left Kansas.

Click your heels, / Dorothy.

JANE And she needs me! I can, I don’t know, warn her somehow. WIB Warn me?

No fair.

JANE Okay, okay. (Pause.) But maybe. (Working it through.) I was writing - when he first sees her - in the book - there she is, being watched by this stranger.

Drawing her / on my mind.

JANE She reminds me of when I first got to LA, always having to ride the bus, always being / watched and -

Hunted.

FM Rewrite her? You can’t do that. If you’re going to stay true to Dorothy Hughes’ work, you can’t change her story! He has to come upon her, walking her dog on the beach - PROJECTION/SOUND: The Pacific Ocean swells in majestic, lonely waves and spills onto the dark sand.

I’ll get you my pretty -

WIB No!

- and your little dog, too!

JANE We’re not there yet! FM He rapes her / and then strangles her. WIB No!

Shhh. Shhh. Shhh.

JANE He doesn’t rape her

He doesn’t.

JANE She’s the only one he doesn’t rape.

The only one.

JANE I can’t believe you said that.

He just strangles her. And her little dog too.

WIB I don’t understand. JANE What? WIB How can you kill her if you feel she’s a part of you?

You know how. Don’t you?

WIB What? JANE I know how to kill.

Do you really?

FM Don’t say it! Here, you’ll like this one. (She holds Jane’s novel out to The Woman in Brown.) You can take it with you. When you go. WIB (Taking the book.) A Subtle Kind of Murder, by Jane Franklin. That’s you?

No, it’s not. / Not really.

FM We don’t need to go there. It’s / history! JANE It’s history! We always need to go there! It’s a honor to use her name. It allows me to write freely / go deeper -

Jane Franklin is a nobody. No one’s ever heard of her.

WIB A Subtle Kind of Murder? What does that even mean? How can murder be subtle?

Open your mouth.

JANE Did you? FM What? JANE I thought I heard -

Open your mouth.

FM Okay. Take a breath. Hydrogen. Helium./ JANE Hydrogen. Helium. Lithium. It’s not working

Open your mouth.

FM It’s not about suicide, actual physical death. JANE Right. The subtle kind of murder leaves you in a sort of tortured half-life... ...fighting shame and regret.

Open your mouth.

WIB “When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder ....” Jim Morrison. Who’s that? FM Jim Morrison. As in, The Doors? (Singing a riff.) “Break on through! / Break on through!”

“Break on through.”

FM And after her mom dies, she goes back to LA - ANE to exact revenge by killing / the man who -

The man who -

FM The 1990’s! WIB So, it’s science fiction?

More of a memoir, don’t you think?

JANE What? No, it’s / fiction! FM A best seller!

All your terrible memories strung out for everyone to see.

WIB I don’t know where to go. FM Go home. JANE She can’t go home. He’ll be there, waiting.

Exactly.

JANE I can’t. I / don’t - FM You have to. You’re so good at this, Jane. JANE At killing people?

Yes.

WIB: I think I just want... J: You just want... WIB: I just want to be lying in my bed, with all my bears!

[Pick up heavy bear. Put him in your lap. Wrap bear's legs around your head.]

WIB: ...Avocados! Land of - FM: Assholes! And traffic!

[Put bear down.]

I want to flesh her out, fill in the missing pieces! She’s small but willful - FM Miss Goody Two Shoes.

Cute as a button.

JANE When I was like you. And just when we start to get to know her and see that hopeful, bright green shining through and we think this time, maybe, she’s going to survive, thrive even, she gets killed!

Yes!

WIB Why murder? JANE I'm just trying to get to the heart of us.

The heart of you and me.

WIB That’s dark. FM We’re human.

We’re animals.

FM You wrestle with the reality that we live and die - JANE Sometimes gruesomely.

We all die.

FM Eventually. JANE But there’s so much fear and pain and damage in my writing.

You’ll go anywhere with me.

JANE Why is that? Why not write about hope and love / and FM Oh, please. You’d be bored to death Look the monster in the eye!

Can you see me?

JANE The monster. It is monstrous. FM It’s inside /all of us.

All of us. We work so well together.

JANE Everyone’s so eager to watch someone kill people, especially innocent young women. Strangle, mutilate, destroy them. We’re addicted! Why? FM Be glad it’s not you.

You’re lucky to be alive. Does it make you want revenge?

FM This script will open all kinds of doors to future projects and honor Dorothy Hughes’ work, if you finish it. You have to kill her to catch him. Isn’t that what you want to do?

Go ahead. Try it. Catch me if you can.

WIB This time, you don’t have to kill anyone. You can save her! JANE I don’t know if I can save you.

You can’t save her!

JANE I like the hat. (To FM.) You? WIB I love my hat.

I do, too.

WIB My mother gave it to me. She told me to dress the part of the person you want tobecome. FM Very smart.

The hat would make a nice souvenir.

Love her. Love me. FM This is not a love story. The Woman in Brown has to die!

It’s already written!

WIB You could change the story! I don’t want to die like that. Please!

She can’t change it!

WIB Oh, I love Bogie! FM They took Dorothy Hughes’ thriller and ... and ...

Go ahead, say it.

FM Threw it under the bus! The Hollywood / bus.

Eviscerated. Disemboweled.

WIB Mousy? JANE She just happens to remind him of a girl he was in love with during the war.

Who didn’t love him back.

WIB It’s just … I just - He’s the one who - he’s my boss. I just started working for him.

You did not.

FM This is getting to be too much. Jane, you’re conflating - JANE What?

And the plot thickens. So kill her already.

WIB Well, yes - JANE Mentioned what pretty eyes you have. More than -

So much more than pretty.

WIB Oh - FM Jane, you’re heading down a wormhole!

Three blind mice.

JANE Maybe that’s exactly where we need to go! FM No.

Three blind mice.

JANE That’s why she’s here! FM No.

See how they run.

JANE Has he asked you to stay late yet? THE WOMAN IN BROWN nods. FM No.

See how they run.

JANE And what happened? FM We don’t need to get into the / messy details.

They all ran after the farmer’s wife -

JANE We do! Don’t you see? He’s groomed her!

- who cut off their tails with a carving knife.

FM Of course I see! Do you think I’m blind?

Did you ever see such a sight in your life.

JANE You refuse to look at what happened -

As three blind mice.

FM I refuse to let what happened in the past / stop me [from realizing the future.] JANE Don’t you see?

Three blind mice.

WIB I think I’d like to go home now. My friends are going to meet me there. We’re having / a little party. JANE You can’t go anywhere now. It’s / too late.

Too late.

JANE Sit down. I’ll make you some tea. WIB But they’ll be waiting for me. JANE The only one waiting for you is -

Me.

JANE Stop him from killing. Over and over again.

Go ahead. Try.

JANE Uh huh. When we were young. FM Stupid. JANE Green. So green. It’s what the worm feeds on.

Hope.

WIB The worm?

THE MAN Doubt.

FM What worm?

Fear.

FM: Of course he wouldn't remember you. And he's really old now. You've already written a book about it. J: But I made it into a fiction, obscured the details so no one would recognize him. And I changed / my name.

[Cross downstairs. Stop on stairs themselves.]

JANE - destroys not only her career but strangles her voice, leaving her humiliated and vulnerable. Prey.

[From middle of stairs.] Prey.

J: Worse than that. Wounded prey. FM: This sounds a lot like / what happened to you.

[Cross upstairs and sit on stool.]

FM He won’t have a chance to destroy her career! She’ll be dead / by the time - JANE/WIB Ahh!

Shhh. Keep going. [Gloves out.]

FM (Fortified.) She has to die. As written. JANE Does she? FM She does! WIB La la la!

The sooner, the better. [Stand up.]

FM I know it’s hard. One of the hardest things you’ll do. But I’m telling you, if you keep going around and around with this, it will be the end of you. And you. Be quiet! It will be the end of all of us. WIB What?

[Gloves on.] Not me. Never me.

J: Hyrogen WIB: Helium. FM: Lithium. Beryllium.

[Take gloves off. Remain by stool.]

JANE Somebody’s got to do it. I need to - FM Okay. Now let’s get back to / the script.

The killing.

FM You climb into that wormhole, and we’re all lost. JANE So let’s get lost!

Doubt is so juicy.

WIB A worm. JANE Drilling deep into the folds -

Into / the green -

JANE - of me. And you. And you. FM I don’t have a worm.

No?

FM No!

Twisting.

JANE Writhing back on itself.

Eating a hole.

JANE Eating up your vibrancy. Taking away all of your dreams FM You’re going to drive us crazy!

Already have.

WIB Me too! It would be nice if, instead of killing me, you could give me a life. JANE The life every woman wants for herself.

You’re no good at happy stories, Jane.

WIB A life that shows how I was, how you were, how we all are, when we are young and just starting out. FM As a worm? We are not worms -

As a mouse.

FM Or mice. JANE We’re full of potential! Full of plans and high ideals. Look at her! She should be able to be anything she wants to be! What’s stopping her?

You’re so pretty.

JANE How ’bout / a smile?

A smile won’t kill you! [Wolf whistle.]

JANE No? You’ve become the tortured one. The worm has eaten through your green. It’s gnawing at your soul.

Hungry.

JANE Ravenous.

Devouring.

WIB Because, who cares about someone we know nothing about? Who cares if they live or die?

I / do.

FM Write the screenplay. Make the meeting. And then, next time, you can do whatever you want. JANE There might not be a next time.

There might not be a this time.

JANE A RUN-DOWN APARTMENT FULL OF ANTS! EARLY MORNING! The Woman in Brown sits at a flimsy card table - Remember that typewriter?! Carrying it up all those stairs! Weighed a fucking ton!

Focus …

JANE Okay, okay. (Typing.) CLOSE-UP of a title page: A Subtle Kind of Murder.

A Subtle Kind of Murder?

WIB I’m writing the screenplay of your book? JANE Why not? WIB Well, okay, but I do have my own screenplay I’ve been working on -

Oh. Really.

JANE You know, the way into something isn’t always a direct route. Sometimes, you have to circle around it, / walk the spiral.

Walk the spiral.

FM Go ahead then! Dizzy yourself out! / Walk the spiral. Jane Walk it yourself.

Break on through. Break on through. Break on through / to the other side.

FM Why don’t you have a seat. Here. Sit down. Be very quiet. Quiet as a mouse. JANE Warm up / little mouse.

Little mouse. Open your mouth. [Disappear behind wall.]

J: Oh, jeez. Ten years ago now. J: After I'd moved back from LA, she never understood why I just up and quit my job at the studio. I didn't have the heart to tell her - FM: A massive stroke.

[Back near the stool.]

WIB The birds. JANE It was a bit of a shock.

It always is.

FM No matter when it happens.

Always a shock.

WIB Mom. FM Mom.

Yeah. Mom.

JANE Mom loved police procedurals. She’d sit down at night and insist that I watch with her. I never lasted more than a few minutes. The victims were always / young women! FM More than pretty

[Stand. Black gloves on.] So much more than pretty.

JANE I love murder mysteries, but watching young women bound and gagged, mutilated and discarded at the dump, to be found by stray dogs before the earnest detectives get to them?

Toes slightly chewed.

JANE (CONT'D) Isn’t it time for a little - just one little, tiny / teensy weensy -

Go ahead maybe it’ll help.

JANE It’s like hallucinogenic. It’ll give you visions and shit.

It doesn’t.

JANE How could she get me to watch that with her and then turn to me when I was leaving home and say, “Good luck out there” -

In the big bad world.

FM “Always remember to / be a good girl.”

Be a good girl.

JANE I lie in bed at night in the mind of the killer.

I know.

JANE Maybe I should just show up at his office with a garrote. FM John Gaines is not worth going to jail JANE I have to find - FM What? JANE The truth - FM The truth / is

Open your mouth. [Disappear behind the wall.] [Crucial.]

JANE I have to find my way / to the center.

To the heart.

FM In a mansion in Malibu maybe. JANE Okay. Maybe. FM Okay. JANE The truth may be the best revenge.

[Back by stool. Take off gloves.]

WIB And I pull the exit cord! FM Uh huh. She's off the bus. JANE EXTERIOR. DESERTED STREET. MORNING. This is her stop. She's lost. She hesitates. The streets are empty. The shadowy vestibules of abandoned buildings seem haunted.

[Cross to top of stairs.] [Crucial.]

FM It’s fine. WIB/FM We’re fine!

It’s fine.

FM So let’s not talk about it. WIB Let’s get me away from -

Scurry, scurry. What’s the hurry?

FM I'm not going up there! JANE Well, I'm not going up there! WIB I'm definitely not going up there!

[Cross up by stool, light cigarette.]

JANE I didn’t. It just seemed like.... like that’s just... the way things work. FM It was. JANE It still is. But does it have to be?

I’ll play / him. [Cross downstairs.]

FM (As Gaines, very Humphrey Bogart.) Stretching his powerful arms high above his head. JANE You do that very well.

You do. [In doorway by this point.]

JANE He unzips his pants, and - FM Stop. JANE Forces you to -

Open your mouth. [Stand, if you're not already.]

FM THIS ISN’T PART OF THE SCREENPLAY! JANE Right. IT ISN’T! But it is.

It is.

JANE I didn’t really want to go there.

You had / to.

FM You did. I didn’t want to go there. WIB I didn’t want to -

I had no idea. / I’m sorry.

FM I’m trying to quit. WIB Me too.

Me, I’ll never quit.

WIB We need to know / how JANE/WIB to say - FM No.

No. No. / No. No.

WIB It wasn’t. JANE It isn’t our fault.

It isn’t.

FM All white cotton. WIB Pure. JANE Clean. Like they were going to shield me, protect me from harm. Or something.

Semper ubi sub ubi. Always wear underwear.

JANE Do you think that worked for her? Did she move through the world on a fucking cloud? With clean underwear? FM Probably / not. JANE Probably not.

BUT IT’S NOT POLITE TO TALK ABOUT IT.

WIB But, you said I can’ t go home, that he’d be waiting for me. JANE He is.

I am.

But / you promised!

You promised.

WIB I don’t want to die! FM Of course you don’t. WIB I’ve got my whole life ahead of me!

She has to die.

WIB “He saw the girl, as she was stepping off the bus. She couldn’t see him because he was no more than a figure in the fog and dark; she couldn’t know” …

“She couldn’t know”...

JANE Thank you! WIB I’m sorry! FM Just -

She’s afraid.

FM EXTERIOR. BUS STOP - WILSHIRE BLVD. CONTINUOUS. The door opens. As she exits the bus, a man - WIB In a hat?

Yes.

JANE I want her to be safe. FM She can’t be. Nobody is / completely safe.

Nobody. Ever.

JANE Of course you are. FM You will never lose her.

Make sure you catch me, Jane.

JANE “He knows now what he is going to do. He stands there quietly for a long time, waiting, remembering the night he had stood in the same place almost a month ago. The night he had pretended his hand was a plane swooping through the fog ….”

Woosh.

WIB (To Jane.) A terrier? JANE It licks The Man’s hand.

Hello.

WIB (To Jane.) That’s my dog, isn’t it. JANE The dog nuzzles his hand.

Hello, little fellow.

JANE The Man rises to greet her, brushing off the sand and his darkness. FM The sand in his shoes, the dog hair on his suit.

Hello.

FM CUT TO: EXTERIOR. BEACH. NIGHT. Dark water over cold sand.

“Fear wasn’t a jagged split of light cleaving you;”

FM “Fear was the fog, creeping about you,” FM “winding its tendrils about you,” WIB “seeping into your pores and flesh and bone.”

“Fear was a girl whispering a word over and again,”

JANE And again.

“a small word you refused to hear although the whisper was a scream in your ears,”

JANE “a dreadful scream”

“you could never forget.”

JANE “Fear was a girl whispering a word ….” WIB No. JANE No. FM No.

No.

JANE (Overlapping.) In the background, unfocused, blurry, lies the WOMAN IN BROWN, lifeless. WIB NO!

“Nothing had happened to her.

JANE/FM Nothing but death.”

“Nothing but death.”

The cold breath of danger whistled into the inmost crannies of his spirit... You couldn’t think of everything. When you were rushed. When you had run out of luck.” . . . . We’ll keep going.

Keep / going.

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