Publication #5

Bland

(It’s a cold winter night in New York. Inside a local police station you see a man in cuffs being taken to an interrogation room. The room is filled with smoke, cigarette smoke coming from a dirty ashtray. Two metal chairs cross each other at the mid section of the room. You can tell that this room has not been dusted in awhile. The blank canvas of the walls brings a slight tension in the air to a boil. You can hear footsteps…)

(A burly police officer enters the room with a young lankey teen. The officer places him on one of the cold metal chairs and takes a seat opposite of him.)

Police Station - Scene one

FADE TO:

Officer: (yelling) Wake up Mr. Smith!

____ Smith: (disoriented) Let me guess, I’m in custody?

Officer: (affirmative) Would you like to tell me what the hell happened tonight?

____ Smith: I don’t remember...

Officer: Where were you at 9:00 am?

INSERT - Newspaper

Article of a young boy getting killed. His limp body was hung on a meat cleaver.

QUICK CUT:

____ Smith: Um, I think I was at the bar, There was a basketball game going on so that was the main thing I was focusing on.

Officer: Was there anybody with you?

____ Smith: Yeah I was with some of my homies.

(The police officer’s walkie-talkie went off. Something about a comatose patient.)

Officer: (Commanding) Stay here I will be right back.

____ Smith (V.O.): (Under his breath) It’s not like I have anywhere else to go....dumbass....

(The officer bolted out of the bland room. ____ Smith stood up and immediately hit his head on a pipe in the ceiling.)

TIME CUT:

…Ten...Nine...Eight...Seven...Six…Five...Four...Three...Two...One…

Mental Hospital - Scene two

Officer: (yelling) Wake up Mr. Smith!

(The aged man named Smith awoke in a hospital room. It looked very bland.)

____ Smith: (groggy) What’s going on…?

(Nobody answered. In the corner of the room there was a record player playing “Turkish March” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Every Time it reached a certain line on the record it would restart.)

Doctor: Hello Mr. Smith, how are we doing today?

(The voice seems to come from outside the room.)

____ Smith: Who is there? Hello?

Doctor: There seems to still be no response. We will have to try later.

B___ Smith: What're you talking about? I’m right here!

(You can hear footsteps walking away from the room.)

Bl__ Smith: (frantic) Wait come back! I need to know what’s going on!

Bla__ Smith: This can’t be happening!

(The man stands up and starts pounding on the wall with the strength of a mighty bison.)

Blan_ Smith: Get me outta here! I haven’t seen the world yet.

Bland Smith: Please...

New york - Scene three

INT. - Montage

(Tv’s around the world, in bars, and storefronts relay the same news story)

Reporter: You join me live today at Greyson Memorial hospital where a crazed man named Bland Smith has commited suicide after he went insane…

CUT TO:

(CONT’D). - Boroughs of the big apple

Random Person #1: It’s unbelievable that he was able to do this. How can a man do this in a hospital. It’s so sad.

Random Person #2: I’m glad he is gone. Less scum of the earth. Praise the almighty lord!

Random Person #3: How can we trust our hospitals, our government, If this is gonna happen. All of this could've been avoided if he would have gone to the looney bin...

EXT.

Reporter: We have just received news that he was not a patient at all. He was a...murderer…

FADE OUT: