Lab Journal Entry #39

[matril]

"Trail"

Ext., Parking lot, evening. Camera is focused shakily on the weeds growing at the outskirts.

TORI (VO)
It’s taunting me.

It could easily keep itself out of reach. It’s faster, more resourceful, more accustomed to living a life on the outskirts. It could be halfway around the globe by now. But it’s staying tantalizingly close – dropping hints – leaving a trail on purpose.

Zoom in on chalk writing on the pavement. TF, WRETCHED MAKER

TORI
Sometimes it’s anonymous messages in my email. Sometimes it leaves notes under the door to my motel room while I’m sleeping. By the time I find them, it’s already long gone.

It doesn’t want to kill me, not outright. It wants to make me despair, to slowly drain me of all my strength and hope until I’m nothing but a shell.

(Turns camera to show haggard face) It’s probably working. I don’t care. As long as I find it before I die.

(Camera facing outward again, TORI slowly walking) I’m not in desperate straits just yet, at least in terms of food and other expenses. I had the foresight to empty my bank accounts before the wedding. I’ve been paying for everything with cash so nothing can be traced back to me. I use a different wi-fi every time I go online. I never stay anywhere for more than a day.

I think it’s headed north. We’ve already crossed the border into Canada. I managed to sneak through without a passport or birth certificate, but I don’t know if I’d able to get back.

That’s not a concern. I don’t expect to ever go back home again.