BLACKOUT I: THE HOUR - by Femzywrotethis

(A single bulb hangs over a metal table. SAM sits, hands folded. DETECTIVE MORROW stands just outside the light.) MORROW:Close your eyes. Tell me what you see. SAM: (eyes shut)Blood. All over the floor. MORROW:What else? SAM:A knife. It looks like someone tried to wipe it clean and stopped halfway. MORROW:Sam. Look at me. (He doesn't.) I need something we don't already have. In an hour I have to walk into a room full of people who've already made up their minds about you. The only thing that changes that is whatever's still in your head. So think. SAM:I've been thinking for six hours. There's nothing left to think. Just the same door, the same room, the same brother on the same floor, every time I shut my eyes. I still don't know if I opened that door myself, or if I was already inside when it happened. MORROW:One hour, Sam. After that it's out of my hands. (MORROW exits. The light narrows around SAM.) SAM: (quiet)Okay. Start at the door. Before the door. That morning. (Light shifts, warmer. DANIEL enters, already moving.) DANIEL:Sam. Painkillers. Please tell me we have some. SAM:We don't. Haven't for a week. You've been drinking every night for a week. Not sure that's healthy either. DANIEL:Shut up. Sleeping with the same girl every night isn't healthy but look at you, alive. (A beat too long. SAM's jaw tightens.) SAM: (quieter)That's not (He stops himself.) What time's your shift? DANIEL:Hour from now. You? SAM:Leaving right now, actually. (He grabs his keys. Pauses at the door.) SAM:Hey. Daniel. DANIEL:What? SAM:Nothing. Forget it. (He leaves. Light fades on DANIEL, still standing there.) SAM: (back in the present)I almost said something that morning. I've gone over it a hundred times and I still don't know what it was going to be. Work was normal. Got home around 5:30. That's when I knew something was off. Front door open. Daniel's car still in the driveway, exactly where he'd left it that morning. I called his name. No answer. Went upstairs. His room, empty, bed made. Bathroom door half shut. I said his name again. Then something hit me from behind. Next thing I know I'm on the floor and so is he. Blood everywhere. The knife between us. And somewhere in that gap, between getting hit and opening my eyes, I heard voices. Couldn't make out the words. Just the sound of them. I haven't told Morrow that part. Because one of those voices sounded like mine. (Silence. Blackout.) TO BE CONTINUED......

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