Lab Journal Entry #20

[matril]

"Discovery"

Int., Tori’s childhood bedroom. She is adjusting the camera, but before she sits down, ELI enters the room.

ELI
Hey.

TORI
(Not looking at him.) Hi.

ELI
I wanted to apologize. (Shuffles feet) I know I wasn’t supportive of you when we were seeing Justine. I guess I just can’t imagine what good it can do, trying to take her delusions seriously.

TORI
(Shakes her head) They’re not delusions.

ELI
Okay. I know you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I thought you’d be the last person to – to believe in Bigfoot.

TORI
(Miserably) Trust me. I have good reason to believe her.

ELI
I want to trust you, Tori! But you’re not giving me anything to work with. What do you know that I don’t? (Pauses) What happened while I was in Europe?

TORI flinches but remains silent

ELI
Please. (Reaches out to her) Don’t shut me out. You’re hurting. I want to help. But I can’t unless I know –

TORI
(Bursts out, startling Eli) I can’t tell you. Not now. I’m not ready. (While ELI hesitates, she snatches up the camera. VO) I’m going for a walk. I – I need to be alone for a little while. I’ll be back before dinnertime.

(Cut) Ext., Woods. Behind the camera, TORI walks through the trees, to a clearing, and stops.

TORI
(VO) That’s where it happened. The ravine is just beyond the clearing. (Chokes) I can’t believe William is gone. I keep imagining he’ll come running out from behind that pine tree, laughing in that ridiculous cackle he always had.

I wonder what he would think if he knew his sister had created the instrument of his murder. I’m sure he’d hate me. They all would. I hate myself, don’t I? Hopelessly myopic, plunging forward with my work without a single thought of the possible consequences. And then running in terror from my own creation.

Why didn’t it come after me? Why William?

An innocent child is dead, and an innocent girl is locked up in a psych ward – maybe to spend the rest of her life there, struggling to convince people that she really saw what she saw. There’s no justice in the world. If anyone should have died at that monster’s hand, it should have been me.

A shadowy movement catches TORI’s eye, and she swirls the camera around. Something is moving through the trees with incredible speed. She begins to pursue it, holding the camera carelessly. There are occasional tantalizing glimpses, but she never quite reaches it. Finally she stops.

TORI
(VO, out of breath) I – I can’t catch it.

(Cut) I don’t know. Maybe I only imagined it –

Startled camera movement, then slowly panning down and focusing on a packet resting at the base of a nearby tree. It is labeled, in flowing handwriting, For Tori, my Maker.