Hope Falls Season 2 - Eagle Valley (13 page)

"Someone else must be involved in this."

"But who the hell could that be? I thought there WAS no one else involved."

"There is always someone else involved in a game of double crossing." Howard said. "That is a cardinal rule Sophie, in game playing." He paused so the words would have an effect. "Never forget that."

"Yes Howard." She sucked in a breath. He could hear her light a cigarette. "So what do we do now?"

"For now YOU do nothing. Keep them in the house. Betty was supposed to guard the outside, so I don't know how you're gonna do it, but keep them in the house. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Howard."

"And don't kill them. People are paying for this, remember. This is a business matter, not a personal vendetta."

"Yes, Howard." She sounded meek now, tired.

"I'm coming down there. Someone is playing with us. I want to know who. You are not to move from that house, do you understand me."

"Yes."

"Good bye, Sophie. I will see you soon." He hung the phone up

Howard sat back and lit a cigar in contemplation. His brown hair was graying. He felt tired. But he would see this through.

Someone was screwing him. He wanted to find out who. Personally.

[THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO SOPHIE FLIPPING HER CELL PHONE SHUT AND SLIPPING IT IN HER PURSE. EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT HER. SHE SMILES AND PUTS HER HANDS ON HER HIPS.]

"What?" She said.

Derrick spoke first. "So you're Howard's lackey now are you?"

Sophie smiled wider. "Figured it out did you?"

"Sophie, how COULD you?" Cleo asked. "How could you do this to us? After what happened? To Miriam? To…" Cleo was about to say Susan, but couldn't bring herself to. A tear slid down her cheek.

"I have my reasons."

"Yeah?" Madder said. "Like what?"

"Oh, like you have a say here, just shut up." She cocked the gun in Madder's direction. "You have no say here."

"Sophie." Cleo said softly. "Why?"

"What about what happened to me?" Sophie whispered.

INT: THE DARK CAGE

Susan had now spent an unknown amount of time in her prison. Her mysterious captor had not returned. She had no idea how long she had been in the cage. There was only the little bit of light that fell into her cage to see by. There were no windows and no indication of whether or not it was light or dark outside.

Susan made a noise deep in her throat that sounded like a growl. Whoever this guy was, he had pissed her off and she would make him regret it. Howard couldn't send his goons after her and not expect a fight.

She looked around her prison. She had to think of a way out of here. She was about to get up and see if the lock on the cage would break when she heard the door to the room open and close.

Her captor had returned. In his hand was a bundle of white pages tied together with a red ribbon. Susan saw the ribbon first. It looked like blood in the darkness. "Let me out of here." Susan said. "Do you hear me? Let me out."

"What's the matter, Susan?" The voice said. It's electronic sound gave no hint of gender, the voice was modified. Susan knew this was Howard, that he was toying with her. No one else could be that sick, no one else could have butchered Marian. "You don't want reading material?" the pages were flung in to the cage through the bars and they landed at her feet. They hit the metal floor with a soft sound. There were fewer pages than she had thought. She looked at the first one.

More script pages.

"I thought you might want to have some entertainment." Her captor said. "Happy reading."

* * *

INT: HALLIWELL KITCHEN,
EAGLE VALLEY
NEW MEXICO

[SUSAN reaches toward the blue pages with a shaking hand. She clutches them to her chest, quickly, as if they might burn her. She looks around the kitchen, it's walls feeling as if they were moving slowly inward.]

SUSAN: Who left these here?

[Silence greets her. SUSAN tires speaking again]

SUSAN: Hello?

[She puts a hand to her throat, her nightgown low cut, revealing the shadow of cleavage]

SUSAN: Won't someone answer me?

[Dark laughter comes from the shadows around her]

SUSAN: Please, is someone there?

[THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO THE DARK SHADOWS OF THE KITCHEN AND WE SEE CLEO STEP OUT OF THE DARKNESS. SHE IS YOUNG AND HAPPY AGAIN. THE WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THIS CHEERFULL FACE WILL BE JARRING.]

CLEO: Come and sit down Susan. I have something to tell you.

SUSAN: Mother? Mother what are you talking about?

CLEO: Do you know the story of
Hope
Falls
? It's a very pretty place, filled with very pretty people. But these pretty people do ugly things, lot's of nasty things my daughter.

[The smile on Cleo's face get's wider, as if she is talking of apple pie, resting on the kitchen sill. Susan regards her mother with wide-open eyes.]

SUSAN: Mother? [there is shock on her face]

CLEO: Oh, yes, terrible things. Come, I will tell you.

Chapter Twenty Nine

INT: THE DARK CAGE

Susan could not believe what she had just read. Her hands were shaking and she felt short of breath.

Her mother had started talking about this, about how she had gotten intertwined in the
Hope
Falls
tangled web. She remembered the conversation now, what her mother had said.

FLASH! "What the hell do you mean, my contract was owned by
Hope
Falls
?"

Cleo looked down at the kitchen table, her hands clutching her Mai Tai. "I never knew how to tell you…it was so hard, you see. We were paying for your acting classes and your education. We had to find a way to do it, to…" A tear slid down Cleo's cheek and she clutched a hand to her mouth. She took a deep steadying breath and continued.

"…We had to find a way to do it, to survive. Every penny we had was going into your education. You wanted to be an actress so badly, Susan; I remember that day you told me you wanted to do that; we were watching a movie on television and you said you wanted to do that."

Susan looked at her mother as if she were a different person, someone she didn't know. Who was this woman? Her mother was cold and distant; her mother was different. All her life, her mother had been different. Sensed things. It had set them apart; Susan never believed in what she couldn't see. Right now, her mother was hurting. "What happened, Mother?"

"We were at an audition. You were eighteen. Your father and I were approached by Howard Kowalski."

At the sound of his name, Susan felt a chill go up her spine. "That man had nothing to do with me until Miriam."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is." Susan spat the words at her mother.

"Darling girl, you have to listen to me. Did you not wonder how you shot to stardom so quickly? Why you never had any trouble getting a part in anything? Why all the soap opera's wanted to cast you and offer you parts?"

Susan stared at her mother, shocked. She felt as if she had been slapped. She had assumed that she had gotten the work because she was a good actress. And now, her mother was telling her…

"What are you saying, Mother."

"You had a contract. Different than Miriam's. But you had a contract."

Susan felt her skin pale. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned in closer to her mother. There was fury there. "What. Are. You. Saying. Mother."

"You didn't have to stay in one show, like Miriam." Cleo said. The walls had tumbled and Cleo's outer hard shell was crumbling. "I don't know what to say." Cleo said.

"I'll tell you what to friggin say!" Susan yelled. "YOU CAN START AT THE FREAKING BEGINNING!" Susan's temper had finally hit the breaking point. She grabbed her mother by the throat of her gown and hauled her to her feet. "You can start at the beginning." Susan whispered.

FLASH!

Susan felt a tear slide down her cheek. Her and Miriam were the same. They both had the same fate. But why would her captor tell her anything about this? How did her captor know about Howard and about her contract when Susan didn't even know what was going on?

She had a feeling that her captor was trying to prepare her for something, something monumental; that her life would change forever is she read on. Well, she though, my life can't get any more weird than it is already. She steeled herself and continued to read the script pages. There was only one page left and Susan couldn't help but think that this page held some secret she had been searching for.

* * *

[THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO THE DARK SHADOWS OF THE KITCHEN AND WE SEE CLEO STEP OUT OF THE DARKNESS. SHE IS YOUNG AND HAPPY AGAIN. THE WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THIS CHEERFULL FACE WILL BE JARRING.]

CLEO: Come and sit down Susan. I have something to tell you.

SUSAN: Mother? Mother what are you talking about?

CLEO: Do you know the story of
Hope
Falls
? It's a very pretty place, filled with very pretty people. But these pretty people do ugly things, lot's of nasty things my daughter.

[The smile on Cleo's face get's wider, as if she is talking of apple pie, resting on the kitchen sill. Susan regards her mother with wide-open eyes.]

SUSAN: Mother? [there is shock on her face]

CLEO: Oh, yes, terrible things. Come, I will tell you.

[SUSAN sits down beside her mother and watches as her mother pours tea from a pot into two mugs. CLEO takes a sip and looks at her daughter with eyes that are bright with tears]

CLEO: You wanted to be an actress, my darling girl, a diva, a soap star. You got your wish though, didn't you? We made sure that you got your wish. [she stops momentarily as her eyes adjust to years gone by] We were at an audition on your eighteenth birthday. You were incredible, Susan, you really were. [she smiles again, showing teeth] But after your audition is when your life really started. Howard Kowalski came to us and offered you a job.

SUSAN: In Hope Falls?

CLEO: Oh no, darling, he already had enough pretty people in that place. It's a very pretty place. Everyone always dies there when they are the most beautiful. They are a sacrifice to Sex, darling. [she laughs] Oh, don't look so shocked darling daughter. Howard told us from the beginning what would happen; that you would die.

SUSAN: Mother, what do you mean?

CLEO: He had enough people in
Hope
Falls
at the time, so your lifetime contract was different, the first of a new breed where the actress or actor could be hired out to any show, but his or her fate would be the same.

[SUSAN looks as if a light has gone off in her head.]

SUSAN: You knew that they would kill me? That they would put me in my own snuff film?

CLEO: We didn't believe him, darling daughter. But the money he was offering was monumental, huge, amazing. We couldn't turn it down. Why do you think you have so much money at your disposal, even now? Howard provided well for us.

SUSAN: But you're here now, you came to make sure I was safe. And all this time, it was you and my father that placed me here.

CLEO: We never thought he would make good on his promise. Who kills people on film? We had no idea that he was serious. When we watched one actress die after another on various soaps, your father and I knew that he was serious, that he would take you away from us. Your father went to talk to them.