fade in:
A featureless space. Angel stands silent.
A blurred figure approaches her slowly… And stabs her in the chest several times.
She falls backwards, freefalling through space. The life slips from her… Her eyes close, she turns until she is cradling herself and she might be dead or sleeping.
Her fall continues until she lands in a bed.
Her eyes shock open…
cut to:
And she is awake in her bedroom. Our eyes readjust… She is in the same bed but the orientation of the room is normal - dream logic has stopped. She sits upright in the bed, drenched in sweat, breathing heavy.
angel (v.o.)
I knew that day I was going to die.
cut to:
Angel drinks coffee. Contemplates something.
angel (V.O.)
I knew because I was cursed. The women in my family - mother, aunt, grandmother, sister… They called it gifted. But I knew it was a curse. Dreams and visions that become real and the curse of being able to hear the random thoughts of everyone around you.
Angel opens a locked drawer out of frame. Puts something in her pocket, and leaves her apartment…
cut to:
Angel’s POV as she walks down the street… An ordinary Saturday, the crowds out shopping or strolling or meeting friends…
And she’s tapped into every single one of them…
She can hear their thoughts. A chorus of voices, neverending. Direct line into the subconscious of all around her. The random inner monologues of everyone around her.
We tune into the sound - the cacaphony of a million souls heard in our head like radio frequencies. Some distant, some warm, some whispered, some shouting…
cut to:
Angel sits at a park bench.
She looks at a child, rough looking. Standing alone in the streets.
child (v.o.)
I'm hungry I'm hungry where is it where why is it so cold at home I don't like the noise there why can't I have that I'm hungry.
Angel walks over to the child. Takes it by the hand. The child is stunned.
cut to:
Angel sits across the child as it demolishes a plate of food.
angel (v.o.)
How do you live the last day of your life in a right and proper way? Some days are supposed to be more important than others. It's going to be the year 2000 soon, and I've a feeling that after the sound and fury it's going to be a day like any other - people might wake up later than usual but they'll keep working and marrying and sleeping and divorcing and not noticing everything that flies by them, the intensity of life held within every stranger they pass. Today I know I'm going to die. And I know I don't have time to fulfill my appetites… So I'll just live it like any other day, except today I won't ignore the curse, I'll use it. I'll let it guide me and react.
Angel (V.O.)
I'll go home and fight my future.
cut to:
Elevator doors part, Angel is inside a lift.
Intuition: she stops, looks forward.
At the end of the hallway a man stands, sillohuetted against harsh sunlight. His face can't be made out.
Angel is charged with emotion… Heartbreaking relief coupled with terror.
He walks forward. He has an alien face. He pulls out a knife.
She stands defiant. Not moving. She’s been here before. Just like in her dream.
He draws his knife, ready to strike.
She draws a gun from her pocket and fires twice. Both shots go wide, graze concrete. He is completely unfazed, ready to charge forward.
Angel hesitates. She lowers the gun.
Do or die.
She raises it again, with overwhelming intensity. She taps into some secret, instinctual strength… Wicked in its ferocity.
She fires three more times, emptying the gun. Each shot finds their mark.
He falls to his knees, clutching his chest. He spills backwards over the stairs, rolling down. Blood pours out. She lowers the gun, still smoking.
Her eyes go to him. She's inside his head as the lights go out, as he dies a painful death. She feels it all, and we can see it in her face.
ANGEL (V.O.)
I died that day. Someone else's death. I felt it in my chest, a tightness, like when you hold back tears. The voices stopped then. And I knew: it was a curse. It was the curse of knowing. And fighting it doesn't make it any easier, knowing that the future cannot be known for certain, and all of us face that silence, that blackness… Someday.
END