RELENTLESS

EXT. VENICE BEACH BUNGALOW - NIGHT

A neon sign in the front window advertises "Psychic Reader". Below the neon, there's a printed sign, "Closed." Rain mists down around the small stucco house. Ragged birds of paradise lead to a porch.

On the steps, this warm, wet Los Angeles night, JOHNNY ROSS and KAREN SHAW, locked in an embrace, kissing, ravenous.

KAREN
Don't stop.

Johnny rubs his hands up and down the length of Karen's body. She wears a vibrant red dress that only minimally conceals a lush, sexy body. Simmering with a seductive sexuality, she's a young forty, but forty all the same, despite the youthful dress, long blonde hair.

Johnny's mid-twenties, attractive, but edgy around the eyes, like there's something he has to look out for, he's just not sure what it is. His jeans and tee shirt are splattered with paint, paint rims his fingernails, there's a streak of paint in his unruly hair.

Johnny takes a step toward the porch. Karen grabs him, holds him tight, like she's afraid to let go, even to take a single step.

JOHNNY
It's raining...

Karen doesn't seem to hear him. She guides his hands beneath her skirt. Johnny yields. He kisses her lips, neck, shoulders. The rain pounds down now, soaking them. For a moment, they don't even notice.

KAREN
Shit. It really is rainin'.

Water sluicing down his face, Johnny laughs.

JOHNNY
You're the psychic. Why didn't
you see this storm coming?

Clumsy, more than a little drunk, Karen yanks a key ring from a small purse dangling on her shoulder.

KAREN
Never said it was an exact fuckin' science.

The keys slip through her fingers, drop somewhere on the ground.

KAREN
Uh-oh.

Unsteady, she bends down, searching through the bushes. She stumbles, drops to her knees. Johnny crouches beside her. Karen turns to him, laughs.

JOHNNY
Why don't you let me...

KAREN
Oh, I'll let you alright.

She draws his face to hers, kissing him. Johnny can't resist.

Kneeling on wet grass Karen and Johnny paw each other, avid, soaked through. Karen falls back, laughing. She throws her arms out.

KAREN
Go 'head. Take me...right here.

Johnny laughs.

JOHNNY
You're nuts.

Karen, pulling him down on top of her.

KAREN
There's a surprise.

A flash of lightening, Karen's keys glint, bright, right next to Karen's hand. She snags them, dangles them in front of Johnny.

KAREN
Look what I got.

Johnny gets to his feet, lifts Karen along with him.

JOHNNY
C'mon.

Karen's hands slide from his grasp and she falls back down, keys slapping in the mud. Laughing so hard she's crying, Karen grabs for them.

But instead of the keys, she grasps a WOMAN'S HAND. White, swollen, it rises out of the soil. The fingers twitch.

FEMALE VOICE V.O.
(piercing scream)
Don't kill me!

Karen chokes on her laugh, color drains from her face. Her hand snaps back, although nothing but the keys are lying on the ground. She bends forward, face down in the wet grass, as if struck.

KAREN
God, no!

Bewildered, Johnny kneels beside her, lifts her face. Karen sobs, her body shaking.

JOHNNY
Hey. Hey, hey, hey. What's goin' on?

KAREN
I keep seeing something awful, Johnny.
And I can't make it go away.

Karen clutches his shirt, touches his face with her muddy fingers.

KAREN
(beseechingly)
Make it fuckin' go away...

The rain pounds down furiously. He holds her.

   top