S1, E7 | Silence

“We’ve got three days to put together a plan and figure out what sticks” Victoria says, packing up most of their makeshift camp as Scarlett puts on a clean white shirt. “There’s not exactly much to talk about other than how to prevent it” Scarlett replies, turning to watch Victoria chuck the remainder of their camping equipment in the back of their truck. “We’ve got to figure out an escape plan” Victoria says, reminding Scarlett that the task of stopping a terrorist attack isn’t cut and dry.

“You said the Maldives last night, so I’ll trust that you know best when it comes to hide outs” Scarlett replies, staring at the truck for a moment before looking over to Victoria. “Are we sure this is even gonna work?” the unconvinced blonde asks, watching Victoria put the final pieces of painters tape over the ends of her truck. “If they’re looking for a silver Silverado, they won’t be looking for a black Silverado” Victoria replies, popping the lid off a can of black paint.

Handing Scarlett a brush, Victoria climbs into the truck bed and begins applying a coat of paint over the roof of the vehicle, applying careful strokes to the surface whilst Scarlett uses the brush to sponge the truck. “What the fuck are you doing, Scar?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett dab at the truck as if it were a cereal bowl. “I think I’m painting the truck?” Scarlett replies, what is meant to be her definitive response coming across much like a question, which she partially intended for.

Staring darts at her with a raised eyebrow to send her point home, Victoria watches Scarlett brush as if she were confident in what she were doing before continuing to her own efforts. “So what’s the agenda for today?” Scarlett asks, following along with Victoria suggesting they find somewhere in the far reaches of the forest to hunker down and safely return to the realm beyond.

Confused, Scarlett questions what more they need to know from the realm beyond that they don’t already know. “Well for a start, we’re back in the office building” Victoria replies, reminding Scarlett that they have yet to make it inside the double doors. “Already on top of that, I think we can stop this thing before it actually goes down” Victoria replies, stealing Scarlett’s attention from the task at hand like a moth watching a bug zapper power on for the first time.

“I don’t care if I should or shouldn’t be, but I’m afraid of how you think we’re going to stop terrorists from blowing up Baton Rouge” Scarlett responds, the manner in which she voices he concerns convincing Victoria that the idea is further ‘out there’ than most. “Listen, if we can find just one of the men in the van, we can follow him and collect whatever evidence we need to turn him into authorities.”

Her mouth slightly ajar, Scarlett dabs the tip of her brush with a small amount of paint and flicks it at Victoria, getting her right beside the eye. Looking to the blonde with her hands up, “What was that for?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett place her newly free hands on the unpainted portions of the hood. “Are we talking about the same authorities that currently have us wanted for murder?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria’s expression throw her a curveball.

“Why do you look like you know something you’re not telling me?” Scarlett jokes, watching Victoria look around the forest as if there were anyone out there to overhear them as the question remains needing an answer. “It was self defense against a corrupted police officer, and I’m pretty sure publicly acknowledging that is worth it if they can bust an act of domestic terror” Victoria replies, putting the nerves back in Scarlett almost as soon as she believed herself to be free from them.

Rolling her eyes and hanging her head as if it were a robe dangling from a clothesline, Scarlett tells Victoria that she doesn’t like the dance with fire they’re starting to play around with. “We’re not going to get burned as long as we give them exactly what they want” Victoria replies, promising Scarlett that there’s an out to be found, and they’re going to take it.

Returning to giving the truck a makeover, Victoria and Scarlett brace through the hot summer sun of Louisiana, shaded by the trees to the sound of the cool winds whipping through the branches. “Don’t worry” Victoria says, watching Scarlett look up to her with a look of well-hidden concern. “We’re not gonna spend the rest of our lives outrunning the law, Scar” Victoria says, watching the genuine smile of Scarlett lift the mood instantly, giving everything the feeling that it’ll be alright.

= Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards =

“I know, mom” Rachel says, apologizing to her family for not having returned, pacing around the Bensen’s living room and watching the newscast run down the information of her lifelong friend. “I will” Rachel replies, the concerns of her mother resonating through the phone as worried muffles, Rachel doing her best to make coherent sentences out of her mothers low quality phone.

Leaving Rachel to her conversation, Nora joins her husband near the front door as he surveys the front yard through the curtained-off window. “They’re still out there?” Nora asks, watching the sea of news vans and angered civilians causing an uproar directly outside of their front door. “I should go out there” Al says, his suggested efforts immediately being cast aside by his wife, who reminds him that he has no idea what their response to seeing him might be.

“They can’t shoot me because they think my daughter’s a murderer” Al begins, stopped by Nora when she informs him that they don’t need a reason to start casting stones. Putting his hands on her shoulders, Al tells Nora that they’ll need to address the media eventually. “The police are going around suggesting the officer had no hand in getting killed, and they’re dragging our daughter’s name through the mud. We can’t just let them do that.”

Understanding the place in his heart that Al is coming from, Nora tells him that there is a need to be concerned. “Our daughter, like it or not, is wanted for murdering a police officer. She became a runaway the day before. The public doesn’t care about detail, they care about what the headlines read” Nora says, acting as the voice of reason and finally making a compelling case. “I can’t just watch it happen” Al replies, watching his wife sink her head.

Relocating his hands from her shoulders to her head, Al presses his forehead against hers, assuring her that they need to do something before someone takes actions into their own hands. “Nora, I would not be able to live with myself if someone shot our daughter because the cops fed them lies and I just stood back and let it happen” Al says, giving his wife as kiss on the head before telling her to take Rachel and go upstairs.

Doing as instructed, Nora guides Rachel to the third floor, stopping at the top of the first set of stairs and looking back at her husband, who takes a few deep breaths before reaching for the doorknob. The sound of Nora taking in a deep breath draws him to glance towards his wife, flashing her a smile before giving her a subtle nod as she disappears around the corner, and he pulls the door open.

|

“Alright, let’s-” Scarlett begins, pausing as she and Vic enter the realm beyond expecting to return to the inside of the office, only to find themselves in an empty Baton Rouge street. “Where’s the office?” Scarlett asks, surveying the lay of the land and noticing the realm beyond entrenched by the starry night sky, but completely lacking any color. Neon signs are powered down, the street is vacant, and the city is engulfed in a pitch black nothingness.

“What kind of dumb fucking game is this shit?” Scarlett shouts, feeling the ground beneath her rumble as the sky is suddenly blanketed by bright red. At the end of the street, the beast explodes from beneath the asphalt, immediately making a break for the two girls. “Now what the fuck is this bullshit?” Scarlett shouts, throwing up a shield in front of herself and Vic, only for the best to swipe at the shield as if it were a fly, sending the girls flying backwards with a violent tenacity.

Scraping and dragging along the ground a few hundred yards back, the girls pick themselves up and watch the beast taking aim at them once again. Firing a few rounds off with her service weapon, Scarlett watches the dashes of energy bounce of the figures head, refusing to phase him in the slightest. “Fuck you!” Scarlett shouts, watching Vic pull a concrete pillar from it’s supportive place beneath a building’s front and shattering it over the figure’s head.

Stunning it for a moment as it drops to the ground in a thunderous heap, Vic attempts to send a shield ripping towards it, only to halt when the ground begins rumbling in a way foreign to the girls. Looking beside them, the girls notice the building, no longer finding support in the concrete pillar, toppling over and threatening to crash to the ground. Taking Scarlett by the hand, Vic pops out of existence for a brief second before returning with Scarlett a few yards away.

A safe distance from the collision, Vic and Scarlett watch the building collapse onto the beast, burying it beneath hundreds of tons of concrete and steel. Silently surveying the damage and watching a number of other, much smaller buildings crumble to the ground, Vic and Scarlett just wait for whatever comes next. Much to their surprise, what happens next is only a continuation of the fight they just had, as the beast emerges from beneath the rubble, taking aim at the girls once again.

Stood in place watching the beast storm towards them as Scarlett fires off one round after another, Vic comes up with a solution on the spot and puts it into effect. Grabbing Scarlett’s arm, Vic pops up directly behind the beast and grabs it’s leg, popping out of existence once more. Taking her chances, Vic returns all three to the farthest place she can sense existence in and lets go of the beast.

One final time, Vic returns to existence milliseconds later, standing beside Scarlett and watching the beast kamikaze off the edge of the realm beyond. All of these events having taken place within less than the blink of an eye, Scarlett rushes over to the edge, looking down into the pit of eternal darkness below. “How the- What the-” Scarlett asks, pointing back and forth between the edge of existence and her friend, now harboring a newly acquired ability to teleport.

“Are you gonna tell me how you figured that out or am I just supposed to guess?” Scarlett asks, Vic insisting she just had the instinct to try it and watch it payoff. “You’re getting used to this” Esotera says, emerging behind the girls and frightening Scarlett. “Stop scaring me!” Scarlett shouts, watching Esotera chuckle and toss her arms outwards before addressing Vic directly.

“When the realm starts getting comfortable with you, it lets you act on instinct the way you would in real life” Esotera says, informing Vic that the realm is beginning to trust her. “What about me?” Scarlett asks, placing her hands on her hips as Esotera glances at her, spending three seconds staring at her before brushing her off, returning to her conversation with Vic. “It seems like the realm has decided to reward you” Esotera says, disappearing as a van pulls up.

Slowing to a stop, the van’s doors open up, and from the van emerge four men of varying backgrounds, all dressed in normal, discreet civilian clothing. Unfortunately for the girls, the men lack any features on their face, instead sporting a soft covering of skin, much like the faceless figures found in the one hall in the office.

Unmoving, instead standing like statues, the men remain motionless as the girls scout them out, noticing one man unlike the rest. Behind the driver in the back of the van was a white man sporting a fast food uniform, barely helpful on it’s own, but crucially sporting a legible nametag. “Ryan” the nametag reads, immediately opening the flood gates for the girls to begin speculating to just what level this new information helps them.

“Well?” Scarlett asks, looking to Vic for her insight, only to find the girl finding interest in something other than the nametag. “Where are you going now?” Scarlett asks, tired of having to chase Vic around the realm beyond without knowledge of where they’re going to end up. This time, however, hits differently for Scarlett, as she watches Vic hit the jackpot as she rears the back of the van, reading off the fully legible license plate number.

“Does this answer your question?” Vic confidently says with a smile, turning to look at Scarlett before the shoe gets placed onto the other foot, with Scarlett finding interest elsewhere. Pulling the van doors open, Scarlett expects to find a buildup of explosives, only for the back of the van to offer the girls something much more intriguing. Inside the van is a long hallway stretching to a perfectly white room at the very end, completely shattering the laws of nature.

Tapping Scarlett on the arm, Victoria takes her sights away from the back of the van to their immediate surroundings, pointing out that they had been returned to the hall of the faceless figures inside the office. Gasping, Scarlett takes her hand away from the van doors, noticing them to have turned into the double doors at the back of the hall, and furthermore, to be completely open, with nothing impeding their progress.

Attempting to step inside, Vic holds Scarlett back, telling her not to take any step further. “Don’t try to stop me, Vic” Scarlett says, pausing once Vic says her gut is telling her that something about this isn’t trustworthy. “We’ve been blown up and almost crushed to death trying to get inside these doors, do you really think it would just stroll up to us on the side of the road, give us the answers we needed and leave it as easy as that?”

Biting her lip, not wanting to leave this opportunity to waste, but also knowing that Vic is the one with her instincts intact and not the other way around, Scarlett stands there with her foot still suspended in air. “We’re not done with our work yet, Scar” Vic says, taking Scarlett’s hand and leading her away from the double doors. Taking a couple cautious steps back, Scarlett and Vic watch the doors slowly close up, sealing it’s interior with a satisfying silence.

|

The roaring crowd growing timid, gradually turning into silence as Al steps onto the top step of his family’s home, asking the crowd to allow him to address their concerns. “I’m not gonna walk out here and tell you that I know everything about my daughter, because I’m sure that I don’t” Al opens, refusing to play into the face-saving notion he’s grown to hate situations like these play out beneath the banner of.

“But I’ll tell you that I know for a fact that my daughter isn’t a cold blooded murderer” Al continues, hearing the heckle of one man lost in the crowd calling his daughter a cop killer. Making it clear that he isn’t out to call the police liars, Al chooses to state that he will challenge the validity of the clip until his concerns are addressed.

“There are complete holes being left in that video that are not being addressed, like why the officer needed to remove the driver from the vehicle despite the stop being made as a wellfare check” Al begins, putting a damper on the crowd for the moment being. “Or why the driver wasn’t handcuffed despite being taken to the back of the car, or why the driver was removed in the first place, that the entire footage would clear up.”

Suddenly the mood of the crowd begins to shift, some still firmly on the side of his daughter’s guilt, whilst others begin to join the countless others challenging the nature of the action. “I grieve for the officers family, I truly do… But there is no way this edited-down version of the footage answers all of these questions or tells the full story. If these officers wish to call my daughter a killer, prove your point and release the full goddamn tapes!”

As the crowd begins talking amongst themselves, Al raises his finger to tack on an additional point, only for the crowd to hush at the sound of a rip through the air. Atop the stairs, Al looks on at the crowd, standing in the place he once stood before falling forward and collapsing to the bottom of the stairs. Screaming in horror, the crowd of civilians and news anchors begin hurrying off from where they came from.

At the bottom of the stairs, amongst the help of few selfless people from the crowd, Al lays in a growing pool of his own blood, dead from a gunshot wound at the hand of a member of the crowd he died addressing. Hearing the sound, Nora attempts to run out of the home as police arrive at the scene, with the selfless civilians attempting to tend to Al pushing Nora back into the home in the event of further shots being fired.

Within moments, patrol cars and an ambulance spill into the street, with doctors rushing to the aid of the man who died the instant the bullet ripped through his heart. Screaming as she is shoved back into the home, Nora calls for her husband, spotting the look of fear forever frozen on his face as Rachel stands there, traumatized.

|

“Found it!” a newly blonde Victoria whispers in the library cubicle beside a newly brunette Scarlett. “There’s a Ryan Seypore that works there in Hammond just outside Baton Rouge” Victoria says, fist-bumping Scarlett having found their ticket to freedom. In the truck, the girls lay out the plan and make sure to keep to it strictly, opting to park behind the restaurant in the employee parking lot.

Staring at the black van with the identical license plate to that of the men in the realm beyond, Scarlett and Victoria find their five hours of waiting to be worth it when their person of interest appears through the door. Tailing him for what feels like an eternity, the girls are led to Lettsworth, Louisiana at the northern border of the state, where the van takes a turn to an off-road portion of the road.

“Keep those headlights off” Scarlett says, bracing for whatever the pair are about to drive into as they take the turn to follow the van down the horror movie-like passageway into the unknown. The sound of the pebbles being reburied into the dirt below the Silverado’s tires keeping the girls from being perfectly stealthy, the air is only aided in noise by the roaring engine of the van just up ahead.

“Stop!” Scarlett says, patting Victoria’s hand as the car breaks in the middle of the pathway, watching the van drive off a few yards ahead, coming to a slow stop at the base of a decrepit barnyard. Emerging from the driver’s seat, Ryan walks into the barn and disappears into its interior, giving Scarlett and Victoria all that they need to play negotiator with the corrupted police department.

Throughout the rest of their sleepless night, the girls make various stops at random houses throughout Louisiana, ending their journey with one important stop in a quiet, tucked away suburban neighborhood. Slipping an envelope through the doorway, Scarlett returns to the truck and tells Victoria of them completing their cycle of deliveries. “I told you I had a plan” Victoria replies, fist bumping Scarlett as she proceeds to fasten her seatbelt.

As they continue driving, a momentary through the window of an all-night bank teller gives Scarlett a glimpse at a television screen. Unable to read the words of the banner on the newscast, Scarlett urges Victoria to pull into the ATM line just beside it, feeling like it is of some importance. “It’s probably just them shit talking us even more” Victoria replies, her attempt at denying Scarlett her weird request ending when she notices the puppy dog eyes.

Groaning at the unnecessary detour, Victoria strolls up to the ATM and presses random buttons to make it appear as though she were checking her account. Just past the ATM, Scarlett reads off the bottom of the banner and painfully whispers “no” to herself as the truth slaps her in the face like a vengeful backhand. Taking her eyes of the screen and reading the same text as Scarlett, Victoria looks over to the girl on the verge of completely breaking apart.

“Drive away” Scarlett says, Victoria trying to calm her down before Scarlett yells the same request, turning into an immediate demand. Putting the car in drive and parking off the road just beside a bridge, Victoria watches Scarlett burst out of the vehicle, only to immediately follow after her. “Scarlett, wait up!” Victoria shouts, catching up to the distraught girl with the fresh heartbreak and hugging her from behind as she drops to her knees.

“I’m so sorry, Scar” Victoria says, dropping to her knees behind Scarlett and wrapping her arms around her friend, unable to do anything to make matters better. Having to find out through the news that your father was shot to death trying to protect you is one horror in itself, but knowing that it was because of you is a completely different level of self-annihilation. Limp in her friends arms, Scarlett just drops her head and gasps for air through open weeping.

Knowing her apologies do nothing to help her devastated friend, Victoria puts her forehead to the back of Scarlett’s, trying to show her that she’s not alone in this, regardless of how it may feel right now. Pausing for a moment, Scarlett looks towards the sky and watches a shooting star dance across it, the nature of it seeming like a combination of antagonistic and nurturing.

“We have to go, Scarlett” Victoria says, understanding the pain her other half is feeling, but unable to waste a moment in returning to their camp before they’re seen. Pushing herself to her feet, Scarlett walks to the truck, lightly brushing off help from Victoria in favor of getting the job done on her own. Climbing into the vehicle, Scarlett shuts the passenger’s side door as Victoria climbs into the driver’s seat, turning the key in the ignition.

“Are we doing the right thing?” Scarlett asks, her tears still streaming, but the heavy guilt on her conscience moving aside long enough for the question to be asked. “What exactly are we doing?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett turn towards her and admit that she’s only growing less fond of the world by the day. “We’re running away from crooked cops who’ve made us the bad guys for stopping you from being raped!”

Laying out the situation in a straight line like that certainly puts things into perspective, but only further muddies the waters between what is truly right and wrong. “You heard it on the radio the other night, they didn’t show anyone what he tried to do to you…” Scarlett says, no longer looking at Victoria, instead grabbing at whatever straws there are to pull whilst she stares down at the floormat beneath her feet.

“... And my dad’s dead because of it” Scarlett says, again stopping as she clears her throat and wipes away the tears. Faintly, Scarlett caps off her question, though has very little strength to do so, her words coming out faint and hopeless, dainty due to the strong dread in the air. “Is giving them an out really the right thing to do?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria rub her shoulder and remind her that it’s the only option to save thousands of innocent lives.

“We can’t just go have a conversation with people about to blow up the capital city of Louisiana” Victoria says, her words at the start turning humorous as she goes along. “If there’s any stopping this, they’re the only ones that can help with that” Victoria says, not liking the circumstances, but understanding that doing the right thing has to come with consequences at times.

“Either way, the second we give over this evidence, we’re free to live our lives and not have to live every day in fear” Victoria says, placing her hand on Scarlett’s leg as the newly-brunette woman returns her warmth with a smile through the tears. Putting the car into drive, the girls return to their forest campsite and wait for the new day to approach, only a few short hours remaining until their judgment day begins.

|

“Good mornin’” Sheriff West says, walking over to his wife and giving her a kissing on the head. “A letter came for you in the mail” his wife says, returning to her sink as West rounds the table, finding a manilla envelope in the place of his plate. “Something from the precinct?” the wife asks, watching West shake his head, assuming such an envelope would be waiting for him at the station if that were the case.

Peeling the envelope open, West reaches inside to find another, smaller manilla envelope with handwriting in red ink on the front reading ‘Confidential.’ “I’ll be right back” West says, walking to the opposite end of the home and taking a seat behind his desk. Turning on the light directly beside the middle of the large wooden center, West tears open the manilla envelope and lets it’s contents fall out onto the table.

Contained within the manilla envelope are an aluminum cap, two pictures of a van beneath the midnight sky, the location of a cafe just outside of Louisiana, and a small list of demands. Directing West to attend that place outside of Baton Rouge jurisdiction, the note demands he attend alone, tell no one, and come with two plane tickets to Hawaii.

Signed by Scarlett and Victoria, the note tells the man that they will give him something much more important to his career in exchange for their freedom. Telling him not to be late and to come alone, the note signs off with West being reminded that the full dash cam footage does not need to released, and his deceased officer can remain innocent, thus wiping responsibility off of the precinct.

Swallowing a mouthful of his coffee, West leans back in his chair and picks up his cellphone, calling in sick to work. The officer on the other line being a close friend, West tells him he just needs to help his wife with some errands out of town, and he’ll be back in tomorrow. Convinced that he wants to hear what these two individuals have for him, West goes against his best instincts and opts to take them up on their word.

Walking out to the kitchen, West kisses his wife goodbye and states that he’d be back later in the evening. Walking out the door with the confidential information in his hand, West thinks about calling the station to ask for backup quietly, only to think better of it. Recalling the girls having been seen saving someone from a building collapse, West assumes them to be capable of more than they appear, and elects to do as told.