Moving Day

They say the only thing more stressful than moving, is dying… Nick Thurston is about to put that to the test. In a deserted sports bar, the ne’er-do-well gambler awaits judgement hour at the hands of mob enforcer Tommy Cozart. It’s time to settle up on a massive debt. Nick has been scrambling all morning, calling in favors, placing last minute bets, but to no avail. You can’t win with a losing hand. Then comes the tip, from the bartender, a moving job. One day’s work out at a remote mansion in the countryside for eccentric millionaire, Langley Blackthorne. Nick jumps at the chance, to put money in his pocket, get out of town, and put Judgement Day off for a little while longer. Arriving at the Blackthorne Estate, Nick is directed by the beautiful but aloof Emma Eaton, to the storage pods out front. Assisted by Hank Bullock, a local handyman, the two begin the arduous task, and are stunned by what they stumble upon inside. Packed away are a unique collection of treasures, antiques, and other impossibly rare curiosities. Paintings, sculptures, coin collections, seemingly priceless merchandise, all with a vaguely mystical, quasi-religious significance. Nick and Hank are at once tempted and confused. Who is Blackthorne? Are the items stolen? Are they even real? Hank mentions what little he knows, about Blackthorne, his cult-like company, Inspiratu Ltd., and their devoted recruits, including Emma. But the items inside continue to vex them as they toil. Sweating, struggling, to place all the objects inside within a precise location mapped out by Emma. Weary, and put-upon, a scheme is hatched. A small number of items can be lifted without Emma noticing. Hank’s uncle Travis, a pawnbroker one town over, can then examine the pieces and get them money. The moving job is complete, the men exhausted but not deterred from their impromptu heist. When Blackthorne himself shows up, and seems to know that items are missing, it sends Nick and Hank racing for the hills, and sets in motion a baffling series of calamitous events. After a high-speed chase, Nick runs afoul of Cozart, and ends up having to double back, forced to take shelter inside Blackthorne’s mansion during a raging thunderstorm. The coy Blackthorne continues to needle him, insisting that he return what he’s taken. Nick comes clean, about everything, including his past, a fixed baseball playoff game, which left him in debt, and sent his brother to prison. Blackthorne agrees to shelter him for now but insists upon showing Nick something else he has in storage… something that will force Nick to confront his demons, and question everything he thinks he knows about the fixed game conspiracy. But right before the truth comes out, Cozart arrives in the dead of night to take them all hostage. Nick finds himself caught up in a tense stand-off that will force him to gamble in a way that he’s never had to before. MOVING DAY Sooner or later, everything gets put in its place.