Michael and Mona cuddle on the couch in the loft. The evening spent with shared secrets and reaffirmations temporarily quells the shadows, the demons. As they doze, the blue light of the television flows over and around them, creating allegorical cave shadows, dark representations of the real beings, against the wall by the drums. Mona’s breathing is even and untroubled, her head lying on Michael’s chest. Michael fights the tug of sleep, his head bouncing to an unheard rhythm. He snaps his head up one final time, eyes wide trying to shake off the drowsiness. Michael manages to flip the channel with the remote before his head falls one more time. His eyes shut. He breathes three…two…just a breath. Action.
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
Two CHILDREN are playing in the living room. They are incredibly bored. The usual cars and trucks hold no interest for them. Child #1 pushes a fire truck across the carpeted living area. Child #2 watches the truck roll along and hit a couch. Both of them sigh.
NARRATOR (O.S.): You kids bored?
Both of the children nod their heads.
NARRATOR (O.S.): Want to have some fun?
The children perk up and nod their heads enthusiastically.
NARRATOR (O.S.): Then it’s ORZO TIME!
A loud bang is heard and the room explodes in confetti. Circus music begins to play…the theme of the Orzo show. The children look around in disbelief and wonder. From behind the couch, two white-gloved hands pop out. One hand is holding an Orzo Action Figure. The other hand is holding a Dumpy Dan Action Figure.
NARRATOR (O.S.): How about some Orzo Action Figures?
The children leap up and run to the couch.
CHILDREN: Yay!
The children snatch up the Orzo figures and the white-gloved hands recede behind the couch. The children immediately begin playing with the figures on the floor. They push away the other toys in order to make room.
NARRATOR (O.S.): That’s right, folks, your kids can now have Orzo and Dumpy Dan right at home!
The children continue to play. From behind the couch Orzo rises up, a malicious grin on his face. The children have disappeared and Michael, fully grown, is playing with the action figures. He voices the figures as he acts out the action.
MIKEY (using an Orzo voice): Come here and I’ll show you the most wonderful things!
Michael answers himself in his normal voice.
MIKEY (CONT’D): I dunno, Mr. Orzo…my parents are waiting.
The real Orzo stands behind Michael placing the white gloved hands on his shoulders. Michael stiffens and the action figures fall from his hands to the floor.
ORZO: Awww…c’mon Mikey! What little boy doesn’t want to play with Orzo?
INT. INSERT PRODUCT SHOT - DAY
In a small insert shot, the Orzo and Dumpy Dan action figures are displayed dumped on the floor. The narrator voices over.
NARRATOR (O.S.): Orzo and Dumpy Dan are available wherever toys are sold.
Fade to black.
In the loft, Michael wakes up as if he has been shot. His head snaps up and he sucks in breath in one large gulp like surfacing in a pond. He looks around the room, panicking. Mona grunts and lolls her head from side to side but remains asleep on Michael’s chest. He shakes his head, regulates his breathing, and realizes it was a nightmare. Mona grumbles and gets more comfortable. Michael smiles and strokes her hair. He looks at the television cautiously, not knowing what he would see. You couldn’t be too sure nowadays. Michael is greeted with a local news show making the time around eleven o’clock.
Michael watches the generic local news room and a news anchor. It is as if the producers were in on the joke that is his life. Without warning, a graphic of Orzo appears next to the anchor’s head. Michael reaches for the remote and turns the volume up slightly, careful not to disturb Mona. The anchor warbles on.
“…the mastermind behind the release of the Orzo Series DVD, Dan Prescott, Jr, is missing.”
The graphic switches to Dan’s appearance on the Monty Reigns Show.
“Prescott was last seen at his office in Tempe. Police are baffled as to…”
Michael switches the channel, terrified of what has been happening around him. From the corner of his eye, he sees shadows in the room move and twitch. Michael’s attention is pulled to the side as a particularly long shadow moves across the wall. While Michael is turned away, a white-faced…thing appears briefly behind the TV and then disappears. Michael feels besieged on all sides as long, horror movie shadows fall across the couple and then move on.
Michael stands up and Mona, unbelievably still asleep, gently lies down. Michael looks around in horror and then back to the television. Michael switches the channels quickly, one after another. Every time he does, the room flashes as if he is switching their location. Michael finally lands on a channel and then stares at the television. He is unable to pull away. An old episode of the “true life” show American Crime, with your host, Bill Cutler, has just begun.
EXT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING - NIGHT
The American Crime logo flashes on the screen. BILL, the austere and incredibly serious host in his late-fifties, introduces the show.
BILL: Welcome back to American Crime where we continue our exposè on Reginald Bent. Orzo raped and murdered nine known victims. Each of the victims was a young boy that had visited the show as an enthusiastic audience member. The final victim, Michael Talbot, was saved from the jaws of death by a SWAT team and Orzo’s struggle to escape.
EXT. ORZO’S HOUSE - DAY
The house is abandoned. Slurs are painted on the side reading “Better off Dead” and “Pedophile Bastard.” The lawn is overgrown and the place unkempt. Even without its own sordid history, the neighborhood kids would avoid this dump like the plague.
BILL (V.O.): But Orzo had a dark side. This house in Phoenix played host to the most sinister of acts.
The adult Michael appears and walks around the lawn. He stares at the house, shivering, and hugs himself.
INT. BASEMENT - DAY
The adult Michael is chained to the wall.
BILL (V.O.): The brutality of what happened in that home may never be known.
Michael looks around, confused and scared. The doorway to the basement opens up and a figure blocks the light. Michael begins to shake his head, crying. He holds the sides of his head together like it might explode.
EXT. ORZO’S HOUSE - NIGHT
News footage of young Michael being taken out of the house, wrapped in a blanket. An ambulance is waiting. On a gurney, covered in black, the corpse of Orzo is rolled from the home. Michael begins screaming as he sees it. The police officers and paramedics try and calm him down.
The adult Michael wanders into the scene. He stares at his younger self. Younger Michael notices and looks directly at Michael.
YOUNG MIKEY: Help me.
Michael reaches out to his younger self. They nearly touch.
INT. RECORDING STUDIO - NIGHT
Michael is in the recording booth. He is playing his guitar, the same sweet, sad song as before. A large pane of glass separates the recording booth from the production booth. A large mixing board is lit and running.
A white-gloved hand turns a knob.
Michael’s hands cramp and a terrible, awful chord blares out. Michael looks down at his guitar and his hands; nothing like this has ever happened before.
The white-gloved hand clicks a button. Orzo’s face leans into the microphone used to speak to the recording area.
ORZO: What happened, Mikey? We’ll have to do it again. And again. And again until you get it right.
Michael looks up and turns toward the mixing area.
MIKEY: You’re not real.
Orzo leans into the microphone again.
ORZO: I’m as real as you make me, kiddo.
MIKEY: Get out of my head!
He leans in again.
ORZO: It was never your head I was interested in.
Michael’s face contorts in anger. He stands and lifts his guitar like a club.
MIKEY: You’re dead!
Orzo stands and does the creepy clown wave, just fingers, from behind the glass. Michael SCREAMS and charges the glass swinging his guitar. Cut.
EXT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING - NIGHT
Bill has turned to the camera. He is pointing at it, at you, the audience.
BILL: You hear me, Mikey? You can’t run away. Orzo will never die.
Michael is a statue, transfixed by the screen. Mona continues to sleep, oblivious to what is happening around her. Michael’s eyes grow wide and his hand trembles as he uses an incredible force of will to change the channel.
The screen flashes and, for a brief instant, what appears to be some kind of sporting event materializes on the screen. Michael’s hopes are dashed as the screen flips yet again. Bill is back, standing in front of the generic court house.
EXT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING - NIGHT
BILL: As long as you’re around, Orzo’s around, kiddo!
Michael changes the channel again, growing angrier. He tries to press his thumb through the remote, willing the change to take. The screen flashes. Orzo has taken Bill’s spot in front of the court house.
EXT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING - NIGHT
ORZO: Cause there’s a little piece of me inside you! Just a little bit…
Orzo laughs.
Michael’s body trembles. From fear, from anger, from desperation…all of it acting in collusion. He screams at the top of his lungs and, with a running start, rams his foot into the television screen. The crash startles Mona awake and she opens her eyes in time to see sparks and smoke wash over Michael’s leg. With a tug, Michael extricates his leg from the old set top and watches as it teeters and falls.
“Michael?”
Michael shakes the remaining glass from his foot and stands over the wreckage like a hunter over a recently slain bear. Mona cautiously comes up behind him.
“Jesus, Michael. What happened?”
Michael ignores her and continues to stare at the television set. He spits on the thing in contempt and screams again.
“I am sick of running from you!” he yells at the still-smoking machine. “Do you understand me? This is MY LIFE! In spite of you!”
At that moment, Michael’s cell phone rings. It is quickly followed by the house phone. Michael turns at the sounds, whipping his head around.
“THIS IS MY LIFE!”
Mona moves forward at that and takes Michael’s face in her hands. He looks Mona in the eyes, not really seeing anything but his pain. He pushes away and Mona stumbles onto the couch.
“Michael, baby?” she asks, only a little afraid. Michael sees her fear then and it helps to push the demons back a little. But only a little.
“This is my life…” he says, quietly. The phones continue to ring, unabated and unaware of anything but their own needs. Mona cries then and, rising, hugs Michael close.
“I know, baby.”
The phones’ maddening noise continues, the rhythm section of a new sound as the door to the apartment shakes—what sounds like forty people knocking on the door in rapid, staccato fashion. There are voices behind the door, needy voices. Michael and Mona look around the room trying to find an escape route, a way out…anything. The ringing stops but before they can breathe a sigh of relief, it starts again following the backbeat of the door knocks.
“Reporters,” Michael says.
Michael motions toward the window. He and Mona get it open and clamber onto the fire escape. They look down at the usually vacant alley to find it filled with news vans sporting large satellite dishes, journalists of all ethical stripes milling about and, of course, the average American rubberneckers. The groups of reporters crowd toward the door of the building, pushing and bustling as they fight for territory.
Mona hugs Michael close. “Shit,” she says. Michael can only nod.
“What’s the date?” he asks.
“The 29th.”
“Two days until the show,” he says. Mona already knows, of course, it just feels good to verbalize it. They sit and hug. “I hope we can make it that long.”
No sooner have the words left Michael’s mouth than a single, forward thinking reporter happens to look up toward the fire escape. Michael and Mona can see him point, hear him shout something and then, like lemmings, the rest of them turn en masse. A couple of the taller individuals actually jump, trying to pull down the escape but they are unsuccessful. Regardless, the reporters shout questions toward Michael, cameras turn their way with the powerful on-board lights playing over the couple on the fire escape.
The media sensation has begun.
Michael and Mona don’t move a muscle. They can make out words like “Orzo,” “Michael” and “Monty” but, thankfully, that is all. As far as the press knows, Michael thinks, he is a lonely, tortured musician with a horrible past that sits on fire escapes and wallows in melancholy. Michael laughs to himself. Irony.