Prompt

No people in the initial frame, no music, no narration. Scene 1 — the dark room, lit from the door Change scene to the massive attic storeroom from inside, looking toward the far end. No ceiling liOmit ght. The only light is a warm spill from the open doorway behind camera, a bright rectangle on the floorboards that dies out after a few steps. The rest of the room stays dark. High rafters. Floor going far back. Sightlines broken: boxes, sheeted furniture, trunks, shelves, hanging canvas, a water heater, old chairs piled in a corner. Gaps between the piles. Dust in the doorway light. Nothing moves except dust. Scene 2 — Owen in the doorway Change scene to Owen Hale in the doorway, facing into the room. Jamie Hale Adult man, grey t-shirt, dark jeans, barefoot. He stands on the threshold, one hand on the doorframe, body half in the hall light, half in the dark. Shoulders tight. He looks ahead into the room, not at the camera. The living-room light is behind him. The attic floor in front of him is the bright spill from Scene 1, then black. He steps in, slow, one bare foot onto the floorboards, then the other. Hand leaves the doorframe last. Scene 3 — the room, several angles 3a. Change scene to a wide from the far back of the attic, looking toward the doorway. Owen is a figure in the lit doorway, grey shirt, the huge dark room between him and camera. Boxes and sheeted furniture sit in the foreground, blocking parts of him. Hiding spots in the gaps. 3b. Change scene to a low angle down an aisle of boxes. The aisle runs deep. Shelves on one side, a sheeted wardrobe on the other. The doorway light does not reach the end of the aisle. Empty gaps. A place a person could stand and not be seen. 3c. Change scene to a high angle from the rafters. The room is a maze of piles and canvas. Owen still near the door, just inside. Dark corners everywhere the light from the door cannot go. Scene 4 — window open, curtains Change scene to the far window, standing ajar. The sash is up. Night outside, dark trees or roof beyond. A curtain on the window, moving, blown in by the wind, lifting and falling. Night air. The wooden frame tapping against the stop, irregular, soft. No face in the window. The curtain keeps moving. Scene 5 — he tries the light, it stays off Change scene to Owen just inside the door, medium, his left side to camera. He looks around once, then turns to the wall on his right, next to the doorframe. His right hand finds a switch plate, old, painted over. He flicks the switch up. Nothing. He flicks it down, then up again. The room stays dark. The only light is still the spill from the doorway. His face concerned, jaw tight. His hand stays on the switch a beat, then drops. Scene 6 — phone, flashlight on Change scene to his hands at his waist, close. He pulls his phone from his right jeans pocket, wakes it, thumb on the flashlight control. The flashlight kicks on, hard white, the beam jumping across the floor, then steadying. Change scene to his face, phone up at chest height, the beam throwing light up under his chin. He looks into the room, concerned, and starts to sweep the light. Scene 7 — the beam finds a smashed china pot Change scene to the floor, from his point of view, the flashlight beam traveling, then stopping on a smashed china pot. White porcelain, a floral pattern, broken into several large pieces and a of shards on the dusty floorboards, a few feet into the room, off the main aisle, next to a of boxes. The beam holds on it. No one else in frame. The break looks recent: sharp edges, a dust, not buried.

Tags

• #18+