Four Short Films By Pat O'Sullivan

By Pat O'Sullivan

Four stories about spacemen, perverts, junkies, and werewolves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483585499

Book preview

Cthulhu

Cruising…for Brains!

by

Pat O'Sullivan

FADE IN:

INT. CAR - NIGHT

STEVE (Male, 34) sits motionless in his car, listening to the radio. His eyes glance at the clock radio. The time reads 3:54.

EXT. TRUCKSTOP PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER

The parking lot of your average roadside all night gas station/truck stop. Various trucks come and go about their business. A lone car (Steve’s) is parked off towards the back. It is soon joined by a second.

INT. CAR - CONTINUOUS

Steve turns to look as a car pulls up next to him. He pauses for a brief moment while he watches the DRIVER (male, nondescript) of the second car exit and head off towards the truck stop. Steve unbuckles his seat belt and exits the car.

EXT. TRUCKSTOP PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER

Steadycam shot as Steve follows the Driver through the parking lot to the truckstop’s restroom. Steve trails behind slightly and neither one speaks. When they reach the building the Driver unceremoniously opens the door and enters. Steve shoots a quick look towards the other cars at the fuel tanks before entering. No one seems to notice either of them. Steve gulps, unsure if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.

INT. TRUCKSTOP BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS

Steve enters the bathroom, a single cramped room with toilet and sink both visible. The Driver is digging through his fanny pack already as Steve walks in.

DRIVER

Steve?

STEVE

Uh, yeah.

DUDE

Hey man, nice to meet you. Lock the door behind you please?

Steve turns to lock the door behind then. When he turns back we cut to a two-shot of both guys standing in close proximity to one another, showing them only from the waist up. Steve turns around and he half stops in his tracks as his eyes are immediately drawn to something the Driver is holding in his hands just below the camera frame.

STEVE (V.O.)

The hunger is always there…

DRIVER

Look at that. Just like the picture

I sent you right?

STEVE (V.O.)

…just waiting to be recognized.

Steve swallows hard. Smiling, the Driver looks back and forth between what he’s holding and Steve. Steve licks his lips and slowly makes a move to reach for it.

DRIVER

You got the cash?

Steve snaps out of it.

STEVE

Oh, uh, sorry.

The Driver smiles, as Steve rummages through his pockets for the money.

DRIVER

It’s alright Steve, it’s alright.

Just business…

Steve hands the Driver a wad of money, he checks it quick, and then throws Steve back an object. Steve catches it and slumps to the floor against the wall. The Driver moves past towards the door and opens it, he stops and looks down at Steve before exiting.

DRIVER (CONT’D)

Nice meeting you dude. Email me.

Steve looks up at the Driver as he exits. Steve then looks down to what he’s holding in his hands.

STEVE (V.O.)

The fact that I’m sitting on the floor of a disgusting truck stop bathroom doesn’t bother me.

Steve raises his hands up into the frame holding a human brain, bloody and slimy and glistening with goo. He gives a brief pause before devouring it.

STEVE (V.O.)

In fact I think it makes me even enjoy this more.

Steve tears into the brain with one big CHOMP. The screen freezes on his face and the title Cruising…for Brains! splashes across the screen.

INT. CAR - NIGHT

Steve drives along looking very content. Music plays in the background as he lights a cigarette.

STEVE (V.O.)

Content. At peace. The only feeling more powerful than the hunger is the overwhelming sense of satisfaction when it’s sated. Belly full and muscles relaxing, these rides home are the moments when I experience true happiness. It’s not during the rushed, casual encounter with whoever I’m scoring off of in whatever seedy corner of the nighttime universe we choose to meet up, but after all that. The ride home while I bask in the glow. Chain smoking cigarettes while listening to classic rock. AM talk radio. Toll roads. Coast to Coast.

INT. CAR - EARLIER

Steve a few hours earlier, totally tense with directions in his hand, scrunched forward in his seat. He mumbles to himself as his eyes dart back and forth between the directions he’s holding and the ride ahead.

STEVE (V.O.)

Completely different than the car ride there. Taking some expressway you’re not familiar with into some far flung suburb you’ve never heard of, because the real deviants always seem to live out in the sticks. Eyes straining in the dark for some exit you’re convinced you passed 15 minutes ago.

(MORE)

STEVE (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Unfamiliar landmarks. Hastily scribbled directions on the back of old mail. Tension, exhaustion, fear, hunger…

Steve sees the exit he’s looking for and hurriedly steers the car across traffic towards it, cussing under his breath. Car horns blare at him in the background.

INT. CAR - PRESENT

Back to the present as Steve cruises along smoking his cigarette and listening to the radio.

STEVE (V.O.)

…all of that gone now. These next 40 minutes will be my life at its most serene. The road has grown familiar and my destination is known. Awash with satisfaction, I look forward to one of the best sleeps I’ve had since the last time I tasted another’s flesh. It’s just me and the night.

An alarm bell starts ringing…

INT. STEVE’S BEDROOM - DAY

We follow the sound of the alarm (clock) in the next scene. Steve lays in bed and his eyes shoot open to the sound.

STEVE (V.O.)

Except the morning always comes too soon.

INT. STEVE’S BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS

Steve steps out of the shower and begins to prep himself in the mirror.

STEVE (V.O.)

Those late nights always last too long, and those deep sleeps not long enough. You’ve still got to get up every morning and go to work, pretend to be someone you’re not. Pretend to have interests you don’t have. Hide the real ones that you do…

Steve picks a piece of brain matter from his teeth with floss.

INT. STEVE’S KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER

Steve eats breakfast while reading the news paper, sports section prominent.

STEVE (V.O.)

Morals and values you can’t possibly comprehend. You live in a world you’re supposed to feel a part of and connected to.

INT. EL TRAIN - LATER

Steve rides the El into work, looking out the window with his headphones on.

STEVE (V.O.)

And yet you don’t.

EXT. CHICAGO LOOP - DAY

Steve walks amongst a crowd of people as they stop at a cross walk, and waits before proceeding across the