Burnt

A MAN sits shackled to a bergère chair by heavy duty tape – ablaze – the flames crawl across the chairs occupant: STEPHAN SILVESTRE. His coarse muffled screams are masked by the same tape. 3 men watch the fire devour the chair and engulf STEPHAN. The elder of the 3 men, TERRY, attempts to cover his mouth with a handkerchief irritated by the smoke before gesturing for the other two to pick the briefcase up. TERRY leaves. A hand picks up a briefcase and allows a large lumbersome mobile phone that is resting on the top of the briefcase to fall off and clatter onto the floor. The 2 remaining men (PALMER and RAYNOR) walk casually away from the house with the briefcase; arrive back at the car where TERRY is already seated and drive away together… …kicking and thrashing, STEPHAN forces the chair over onto the wooden flooring, cracking the armrests. The fire lips towards his bound wrists - eventually melting the tape enough for him to crawl across the floor. The fire has engulfed more of the house: flames brim out in fists of orange into the night. Hours before, married couple JACK and EMILY are tenderly making love. The sex is sensual, full of kisses and caresses – there is, however, something ‘purposeful’ about the sex…After climaxing, JACK puts his finger in his mouth and rubs his finger across a chipped pre-molar. He pulls his tongue out with a small white fragment on the tip. The couple talk and laugh. EMILY spin’s JACK’s wedding band around his finger and spots the dents and marks. In the fire station, PETE, JACK and some other firemen on the ‘Red (night) Watch’ are routinely checking their equipment. JACK divulges to PETE his and EMILY’s want for a child and his frustration and worry at how long it is taking. The ALARM KLAXON suddenly sounds and the men are called out to a house fire/ The house from the opening scene is ablaze. All emergency services have arrived and so too has a news van. Flames and smoke curl from inside the house. The firemen struggle to tackle the blaze but soon beat the flames. With the fire dealt with, the smoke glides past and parts the way. A burnt and blistered right arm protrudes out of the partially destroyed wall, its finger tips appear partly melted revealing the bone beneath. The firemen cut the body free from the wall. JACK recognises it. It’s HIS face. He’s looking at HIS OWN DEAD BODY. His eyes flick quickly to the burnt cheek that exposes the teeth – he sees the chipped pre-molar! His watch. He pulls the wedding ring off the corpse. PETE grabs JACK hard and pulls him away from the body. JACK explains that his wedding ring is engraved with his and his wife’s initials with the date of their wedding inside. Back at the fire station, JACK and PETE talk about going back to STEPHAN SILVESTRE’s house at the end of their shift, in the early hours of the morning. The following morning, the FORENSIC CONSULTANT is explaining to CHIEF INSPECTOR WHEELER that the corpse will have to be identified by dental records and the only item(s) found on the body were two identical Polaroid photographs of a woman bound and gagged (one more damaged than the other). Meanwhile, JACK and PETE have gone back to the house and found the old mobile phone. JACK picks it up in the hope it has phone numbers of STEPHAN SILVESTRE’s relatives. Suddenly, the sound of a car door slamming echoes to them. They panic and decide the loft is the best place to hide! Meanwhile, downstairs, the two men (PALMER and RAYNOR) that caused the fire are stood still in the living room . They have returned for the mobile phone. Their boss, TERRY, had asked them to retrieve the briefcase thinking the phone would be inside. RAYNOR spots something unusual on the floor where the mobile phone was: scorch marks and a vague outline of the mobile. PALMER spots that the sink is newly wet. Suddenly, a low beeping noise radiates from upstairs. It’s PETE’s mobile phone battery! They ascend the stairs to investigate when the polystyrene on the loft door that JACK was holding snaps. PALMER begins shooting at and around the loft door whilst RAYNOR pulls his handgun out of his jacket. JACK jumps off the boards and through a bedroom ceiling. PETE follows. JACK and PETE leap out of the window onto the grass below. RAYNOR and PALMER are in hot pursuit. They soar into their cars and barrel away. The two cars continue in their chase at breakneck speeds. They swerve between lanes and drive in and out of other vehicles; overtaking and undertaking. RAYNOR and PALMER crash their car in a field. RAYNOR grabs the side of PALMER’s hair/head and smashes it into the glass shard, puncturing his neck – killing him. PETE’s bullet peppered car pulls into JACK’s drive, spluttering and clunking. They hide the car in the garage and attempt to explain to EMILY what had happened. They remove the sim-card and try it in their mobiles to no avail. Meanwhile, RAYNOR is stood in a payphone explaining to TERRY that the phone has gone, the car is crashed and that PALMER is dead. TERRY arranges another car for him to continue his work. Outside STEPHAN SILVESTRE’s house, POLICE CONSTABLES find boarded windows removed, tyre marks and bullet holes/shells. Whilst in a mobile phone shop, PETE enquires about the likelihood of checking the sim. Meanwhile, EMILY’s attention is caught by a news article playing on one of the devices. JACK searches the internet and types in QUANTICO into a search engine. EMILY realises that the fire they described to her is the incident being described on the news video: a relative of SILVESTRE is being interviewed; PETE recognises the house the relative is stood outside of! Meanwhile, RAYNOR has had PETE’s number plate traced. In MAY SUMMERS house, JACK and EMILY talk about STEPHAN SILVESTRE. MAY gives them a card and a pendant that he sent to her this very week. That night, JACK sneaks out back to the house with the card and pendant. Across the street to the house opposite, the head of a grey haired person sits with their back to us in an equally floral armchair. Motionless. RAYNOR stands by the front window, watching JACK and EMILY’s house. At STEPHAN SILVESTRE’s house, JACK revisits the card. Certain inscriptions surface to him. INSIDE CARD READS: ‘Dear Aunty May, I hope this letter greets you well. Please find enclosed an adoornment that I’d like you to keep close to your sole. Love STEPHAN.’ JACK begins searching the living room floor for deliberate holes that could possibly fit the ‘pendant key.’ He finds a small key hole and unlocks it. He enters a secret basement. He flicks the light back towards the floor and follows the dark reddish-brown trail to a large curved cuboid-like machine with a sweeping structure around it. As he moves the light across the machine, he notices that it appears to still be switched on. There are various dials and displays. Four of the displays/dials appears to read in coordinates. He turns a couple of the dials and the coordinates begin altering on the display. Another display reads 00000000000/_00/+01/10:00:00 He turns a dial and the display section that read +01 begins to increase until it reaches +31 then it resets to 00. JACK’s a little excited but equally nervous over this discovery. His mobile phone rings. He takes it out of his pocket and looks at the display: EMILY. He answers it but it isn’t EMILY. It’s RAYNOR! RAYNOR has gagged and bound EMILY. She is sat on a chair in the living room. PETE lays unconscious and battered on the floor of the hall with a broken console table and it’s scattered ornaments nearby. RAYNOR wants the mobile phone in return for his wife and arranges a swap at the Grand Hotel. RAYNOR takes a Polaroid photo of the bound and gagged EMILY, drops her in the boot of the car and burns PETE’s feet with boiling water from the kettle. JACK arrives home and takes PETE to the hospital. He has rung WHEELER who agrees to help. WHEELER receives a phone call from the FORENSIC CONSULTANT confirming the dead body is JACK’s. JACK gives him his photograph of EMILY; WHEELER shares his identical two. Minutes before the exchange, RAYNOR changes the venue to a car park building site. WHEELER has to pack his equipment up from the adjacent building. On arriving at the car park, JACK gives RAYNOR the mobile phone. He is about to shoot EMILY when JACK pulls out a ‘hand grenade.’ RAYNOR isn’t convinced he’s bluffing and decides not to risk his own life. JACK gets his wife back and speeds off in RAYNOR’s car. Foolishly, JACK throws the grenade at RAYNOR who discovers it was just a toy. A vicious chase ensures. RAYNOR eventually draws alongside their car and pulls his gun from out of his pocket and points it at the vehicle. He fires once. The driver’s window splinters as the bullet enters. JACK lurches forward and ducks his head down, almost hitting his face of the steering wheel. A feeling of relief briefly washes over him. He almost allows a smile to break onto his face. He turns to look at EMILY. The ‘almost smile’ is promptly lost and is replaced with shock, horror and disbelief. EMILY has been shot in the temple. Her blood decorates the passenger door. She sits lifelessly. Screaming, JACK drives recklessly to STEPHAN SILVESTRE’s house and jumps into the basement. He looks over the dials. JACK turns the display that reads 00000000000/_00/+01/10:00:00. He turns a dial and the display section that read +01 begins to increase. He turns the dials until it reaches a date from a couple of days ago. He is about to step into it when he glances at the other dials - the four displays/dials that appear to display coordinates. Coordinates/dials that he turned/altered the other night! Uncertainty and confusion fill his mind. If he turns the dials – changing the coordinate reading: does that lead him to transport himself back into the past and into the wall? Or by leaving the dials – leaving the coordinate readings as they are: does that lead him to transport himself back into the past and into the wall? He presses his finger into the ‘on’ switch. The machine hums. The humming becomes louder. The outside chamber closes and begins to spin. The spinning quickens and rapidly reaches the speed of light. The humming is strident. Motion blurs the room and the area warps. JACK is in the wall. He screams, shouts, cries and begins clawing at the wall from inside. A flaming bottle of white spirits crashes through the window and hits a large canvas painting and an oak sideboard; both catching fire. Screaming, STEPHAN SILVESTRE forcefully pulls his blistered arms free and crawls across the floor – burning, blistering, screaming! He pulls his pendant out from around his neck and unlocks the floor-door leading to his basement. JACK continues screaming and whaling. The three men casually pull away from the house. The sound of JACK screaming can still be heard. The fire has engulfed more of the house. As the car drives away a [small] explosion is heard in the house – shattering the windows of the living room allowing the flames to brim out.