Pareidolia - Second Draft

PAREIDOLIA - Second Draft

INT - BEDROOM - DAWN

ARTHUR lays in bed, awake. Silence...

Suddenly, an alarm sounds and ARTHUR instantly turns over to turn it off.  He lies there, still for a minute, eventually grunting and reluctantly getting up.

He enters and emerges from the shower, brushes his teeth, dresses, eats breakfast (not actually eating anything), puts on his shoes, catches the train, walks to college and slumps down in a toilet cubicle.

ARTHUR sits there for a minute on the toilet seat, dark rings under his eyes with and an exhausted expression upon his face. He takes out his music. Silence. An alert from his phone buzzes and ARTHUR retrieves it from his pocket. He has a text from a friend; Andrew. It reads;

'Hey man. You wanna come hang out when you get into college?'

He reads the message quickly, ignores it and puts his phone back in his pocket. He flushes the toilet and when he gets up to leave, a small black box is visible in the back of the frame. ARTHUR doesn't notice.

INT - CORRIDOR - DAY

ARTHUR walks down a long corridor to his first lesson of the day. As he waits outside the classroom door, with music playing through his earphones, he notices a small black box sat opposite the classroom on a wall. He is clearly suspicious but returns to his music at least once before eventually going over to investigate. He walks over, picks it up, revealing just an all black box. Just a box. Just black. A girl walks into the classroom.


ARTHUR snaps out of it and follows them in. The box remains on the wall.

Some time passes, and ARTHUR emerges, still exhausted and tired, from his lesson. He puts in his earphones and walks away down the corridor,  not noticing the small black box still on the wall.

INT - LOCKER HALLWAY - DAY

ARTHUR lazily walks up to his locker, drops his bag down on the floor and retrieves a key out of one of the pockets. He uses the key to unlock a padlock on his locker door, then getting books out of his bag to put inside. He goes to put the books in but stops. Another small, black box sits silently inside his otherwise empty locker, with a cracked mirror on the locker door. ARTHUR just stares for a moment, then picks it up more slowly this time, studying it. Again, he checks around him to see if anyone is watching. He drops the box on the floor, puts his books in his locker etc. and leaves.

INT - HOME - EVENING

ARTHUR arrives home, practically throwing off his shoes and taking off his bag. He goes to the kitchen to get a drink and finds a note left for him;

'Hi boy, there's some dinner in the fridge for you tonight, won't be back till tomorrow. Don't forget to empty your lunchbox xxx.'

ARTHUR takes a sip of his drink, puts it down and goes to his bag. He removes the regular items, lunch box, water bottle etc. He reaches in and pauses. He pulls out something. Another one. Another small, black box. ARTHUR looks at it for a moment. He laughs. He becomes confused and worried.


He looks at it closer, takes it over to the bin and pauses. He considers what he is doing but eventually drops the box in the bin, takes a breath and goes to sit on the sofa in the dark living room.





He sits in the living room for a while, drinking a beverage and flicking through the channels, but when he finally picks something to watch he slurps the last of his drink, realising theres none left.




ARTHUR goes to the kitchen to make a new drink, but he stops, completely stunned. The small black box sits on the countertop. ARTHUR really begins to worry.





He goes to the windows and looks out of them and checks all the doors are locked. All he can see is the dark night. He goes back to the kitchen and stares at the box. He retrieves his phone from his pocket and goes to text Andrew. Just before he's about to start typing, he stops, realising how ridiculous he may sound. ARTHUR puts his phone back in his pocket and just stands there.




Eventually, he goes over to the box to investigate it thoroughly. He feels it, bangs it on the countertop and shakes it, realising it is impenetrable an therefore there cannot be anything secret about it. No secret inside, no hidden message. Just a black box.





He decides to take it into the living room with him. He watches TV for a while and then goes to bed, resting the box beside his bed. He looks at it, thinking.





INT - HOME - THE NEXT MORNING

ARTHUR lays in bed awake. Silence...



Suddenly, an alarm sounds and ARTHUR instantly turns over to turn it off. He looks to the box and pauses, it isn't there anymore. He sits up and pinches his arm, checking if he is really awake. He breathes a sigh of relief, and nods to himself.





He enters and emerges from the shower, brushes his teeth, dresses, eats breakfast (not actually eating anything), puts on his shoes, catches the train, walks to college and walks to his first class of the day.


He walks along feeling relatively normal, just listening to his music. But, as he gets closer to the classroom door. He sees it near the classroom. Not in the same place, but near. He stops and stares at it, slightly frustrated. He goes into the classroom, following the same girl.



Time passes, as he lives the classroom and walks down the corridor he sees it yet again, in a different place. This time he doesn't even stop, he just carries on.





EXT - COURTYARD - DAY





ARTHUR walks through the courtyard, spotting someone waving to him, its Andrew. He looks at him, and then sees the small black box near but behind him on the floor. He just shakes his head in denial and anger and carries on walking. Andrew is confused and concerned.





INT - LOCKER HALLWAY - DAY





ARTHUR walks up to his locker again, clearly effected by what has happened to him. In a frustrated and disturbed manner, he takes off his bag, gets out his locker key and goes to open the locker, He unlocks it but as he begins to open the door, he hears a rustling of objects from within. ARTHUR pauses. He breaths and yanks the door open. Small black boxes, loads of them, come pouring out. A locker full of dark cubes creates a loud black sea of noise and terror comes crashing down on ARTHUR. He moves boxes out of the way, trying to find something purposeful amongst them. He starts throwing then aside and freaking out. ARTHUR is broken.

He breathes heavily, looking around him to see people not noticing. He looks down to the mess of black cubes, then back to them. He looks down despairingly, tears in his eyes. People walk past. ARTHUR slumps down to the floor.

FADE OUT.

INT - CLASSROOM - DAY

FADE IN.

The rings under ARTHUR'S eyes are darker. He is a mess. He is tired, mentally unstable and unable to learn properly. He notices the same girl from earlier looking at him from across the classroom, obviously concerned as he looks unwell. He looks at her. She smiles. He smiles back. When the lesson ends and people begin to pack there things, she waves to him. He looks to her. She gestures to him if he wants to go and get a drink. He is surprised, but smiles and nods. They walk out of the lesson talking.

The two walk away down the corridor, talking and having a good conversation. The small black box is revealed on the very edge of a low table, and as they walk into the distance, the box falls into a bin.

THE END