SINNER’S MOON Podcast Episode 2 - THE TATTOOED WOMAN

By

Frank Juchniewicz

2021 Frank Horror

SINNER’S MOON PODCAST EPISODE 2 - THE TATTOOED WOMAN

SCENE 1: A MULTITUDE OF CATS

INT. THORNE MANOR, BEDROOM - NIGHT

SOUND: FADE IN ON A MAN SNORING

NARRATOR:

It’s the kind of restless slumber she experiences whenever she finds herself sleeping in an unfamiliar place - repeatedly bobbing back up to the surface, awakening briefly before dozing again, but never diving deep enough to dream. In one of those waking moments, Robin comes to find herself lying nude in a strange bed next to a snoring man - a celebrity; a musician in a famous band whose albums she buys, whose concerts she’s attended, whose songs she has sung along with in the car. In that fuzzy gap between sleep and the waking world, Robin briefly wonders: Is this real? Or is this all a dream?

But as the haze clears her memories of the night return. This is, indeed, real. She came to Thorne Manor with her friends and roommates, Christine and Brianna, to meet and party with the art-metal band, Factories of Ruin. This old mansion perched atop the cliffs of Cayuga Lake has a notorious history steeped in the occult - a history that has drawn the band here to record their new album within its walls.

Robin rises from the bed, careful not to wake her slumbering companion. Her eyes trace the lines of his body - Dylan Lynch, the lead guitarist. His scent lingers on her, a testament to their night of carnal pleasure. On bare feet she pads across the floor to a large window with its heavy, purple curtains drawn wide to reveal the mansion’s grounds from this second-floor vantage point. Above her, the vista of a sober, black sky freckled with with stars. Resting low in that sky, feeling almost close enough to touch (should she open the window and reach for it) the full moon radiates its cold and brilliant dominion over the night. “A Sinners Moon” - that’s what Everett called it.

ROBIN

(HALF WHISPERING, HALF SINGING)

It sees you when you’re sleeping . . . It knows when you’re awake . . . It knows if you’ve been bad or good . . .

NARRATOR

A chill winds its way through her. What caused that line from a children’s Christmas song to spring into the forefront of her mind? She realizes she’s spoken

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: | 2.


NARRATOR (cont’d)

the words aloud and turns to see if this woke Dylan, but the steady rhythm of his snoring continues unabated. Beneath the moon’s pale light a multitude of sinewy shadows slink their way across the yard and converge below. The shadows belong to cats - dozens of cats of all kinds and colors. As if they knew of her presence, the cats gather to sit in the well-groomed grass and stare up at Robin through the window. Their collective gaze hints at an unsettling intelligence and a unified sense of purpose - a purpose that feels unwholesome. Her natural unease of felines multiplies now, mushrooming into a full-blown dread. From where did all of these cats come, why are they gathering like this here, and what could they possibly want? Crossing herself with her arms, Robin covers her nudity from their gazes and retreats from the window.

SOUND: SLOWLY FADING SNORING UNTIL IT’S GONE BEFORE THE ABOVE PASSAGE CONCLUDES


DYLAN
Hey. You’re awake.

ROBIN
(A SMALL CATCH OF HER BREATH)
Does the owner keep cats here on the grounds?

DYLAN
Huh?

ROBIN
Cats. Are there cats here?

DYLAN
No. No pets.

(A BEAT)

ROBIN
Come see this.

SOUND: THE BEDSPRINGS CREAK AS DYLAN CLIMBS OUT OF BED AND SHUFFLES BAREFOOT OVER TO THE WINDOW


DYLAN
What the hell? Look at all of them!

(A BEAT)

DYLAN
What do they want?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 3.

ROBIN

This feels like a dream. Doesn’t it?... How is this not a dream?

SCENE 2: DOWN HERE IN THE DARK

INT. THORNE MANOR, BEDROOM - NIGHT

NARRATOR

Elsewhere in the mansion, Everett stirs, awoken by the sound of whispers.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett... Everett...

NARRATOR

He scans the darkened room, but finds only Christine fast asleep in the bed beside him.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett...

NARRATOR

The whispers carry like diffused clouds floating throughout the mansion’s halls, simultaneously sounding as if they are right in his ear but at the same time emanating from some other room entirely. But where?

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett...

SOUND: CREAK OF BED SPRINGS AND BARE FOOTSTEPS ON THE FLOOR

NARRATOR

Leaving the bed and a sleeping Christine behind, Everett tiptoes through the hallways following the trail of whispers in search of their origin.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett...

NARRATOR

This leads him down the grand staircase to the first floor. He crosses wide swaths of moonlight projecting through the windows and onto the hardwood floors in pursuit of the voice that leads him to the basement door - a door he had left closed and latched, but yet now stands wide open.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett...

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 4.

NARRATOR

The basement stairs tilt downwards into a murky abyss of black. It is from the darkness below,daunting and oppressive, that the whispers beckon.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Everett...

NARRATOR

Without hesitation, he descends the staircase.

SOUND: THE GROAN OF CREAKY STAIRS

NARRATOR

The open door behind him allows enough moonlight to trickle down and paint the floor just beyond the edge of the stairs, but beyond that point only darkness remains. As his eyes struggle to focus on the room around him, something moves. Stepping towards him and into the edge of the light, a pale female figure with raven-black hair. Young and breathtakingly beautiful, her nude body is a canvas upon which a sweeping, chaotic dance takes place - a dance between her bare flesh and the stain of black tattoo ink. Ink and flesh, each in turn retreating and advancing, covering her in a sharp contrast of black and light patterns. Everett recognizes her. However impossible it may be, this woman is one of Caleb Thorne’s two priestesses. A tattooed woman who lived here decades ago, consorting with Caleb Thorne in the most lascivious and wicked occult practices. How could this be anything but a dream, he thinks, but something tells him differently. He moves towards her, extending his hand, but with a wry smile the Tattooed Woman retreats, melting back into the darkness.

TATTOOED WOMAN

(GIGGLES)

NARRATOR

Everett rushes forward, following the sound of her laughter, but then her voice suddenly shifts direction, to his left.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Careful. You have no idea what you may stumble into down here in the dark.

NARRATOR

Disoriented, he regroups in the safety of the light at the bottom of the steps. His eyes scan the basement for her, but she remains hidden. A game of cat and mouse.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 5.

EVERETT

I know you.

TATTOOED WOMAN

And I know you, Everett Nicholas. You see only the darkness now. Can you find you me in it?

NARRATOR

He ignores her challenge, staying put at the bottom of the stairs.

EVERETT

Why don’t you come out, so I can see you?

TATTOOED WOMAN

You would like that, wouldn’t you? I’m not even decent, you dirty, dirty boy.

EVERETT

You and Caleb and the other priestess - you’ve been missing... for a long time. For decades.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Not missing. We’re just not where you can find us. But

I found you, didn’t I?

(ECHOING WHISPER)

Everett...

EVERETT

Are you a ghost?

TATTOOED WOMAN

(LAUGHS)

Why would you think that?

EVERETT

They declared you dead. All three of you. And yet, here you are. You haven’t aged a day from what I could see.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Life, death. What a limiting way to view existence. Yes, there is life and there is death, but there are many, many things in between.

EVERETT

Come out. I want to see you.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Aren’t you afraid, little Everett? Maybe you should be. Maybe you should be running right now. I’ll even give you a head-start... to the count of three.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 6.

EVERETT

What happened to you and the others? You opened a doorway, didn’t you?

TATTOOED WOMAN

Questions, questions, baby Everett. You are so ripe with questions. But I have a question for you.

NARRATOR

She comes to him now, moving with the fluid elegance of molten glass, revealing herself completely in her nakedness. Despite her raw sensuality, the glint in her eye and her threatening smirk signal just how dangerous she really is. Excitement and dread and lust all churn within Everett, each vying for primacy. And as she leans in close, her scent envelops him, fills him with sex and death.

TATTOOED WOMAN

(WHISPERS)

I have come a long way and through a great deal of difficulty to get here. I know you hunger for something, Everett Nicholas. I can feel your hunger like and ache inside of you. It drew me to you. So tell me, what is it that you came here for? What do you seek?

EVERETT

My band. I came for my band.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Tell me more.

EVERETT

We want to push the boundaries. We want our music to shake people, to wake them up to the truth. We want to create art like no one has ever experienced before. Rip away the blinders of the masses and show them the truth of the universe.

TATTOOED WOMAN

(LAUGHS)

Is that so? You talk about truths, all while you lie to yourself. But you can’t lie to me, baby Everett.

EVERETT

Whatdo you mean? That’s not a lie.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Oh, what altruism, then. You speak of giving a gift of a true awakening to the masses - how very generous of you! Something like that so precious, so coveted, you’ll just hand away... Uh-uh,I know what you really

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: | 7.


TATTOOED WOMAN (cont’d)

want. You do want those things: the cold truth of the universe, the existential terror of knowing what lies at the heart of it, but you don’t want to give that knowledge away. You want it all to yourself... (WHISPERS)
...and I can give it to you.

EVERETT
How? Tell me how.

TATTOOED WOMAN

Oh, baby Everett. I’ll do more than tell you. I will show you.


NARRATOR

In the still of the night, after Robin and Dylan return to their bed, when all the house is lost to sleep, a profane offer is made in the basement - a pact which Everett enters without hesitation. No one stirs as he creeps up the stairs and slips back into bed beside Christine. Outside, the cats meow their approval and abandon their congregation to stalk the trees along the far edges of the cliff-side property.

SCENE 3: BUZZKILL


INT. CHRISTINE’S CAR - DAY


NARRATOR

Morning hits like a right hook, driving its sunshine and fury in through the windows of their eyes and scouring the back of their skulls. With brainbuzzing hangovers, the girls hold the sides of their heads and smile awkwardly as they thank their hosts for a fun night. Careful not to overstay their welcomes, Robin, Christine and Brianna take their leave of Thorne Manor to return home, rumpled and ragged but with an exciting story to show for it.

SOUND: HUM OF A CAR ENGINE


ROBIN

I can’t get past those cats. It was freaking weird. Did you see them?

BRIANNA
I didn’t. I must have slept through that.

ROBIN

Dylan saw them, too. He said the owner doesn’t have any cats. He had no idea where they all came from.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 8.

BRIANNA

Weird. There is something spooky about that place. I don’t remember my dreams. I mean, I’m a very vivid dreamer and I always remember my dreams in the morning. But I don’t remember them last night at all.

CHRISTINE

Oooh, that’s all very spooky. But... Hello! We slept with Factories of Ruin! I feel like that’s getting lost here. How about a little recognition for making that happen?

BRIANNA

That was fun, yes. Thank you, Christine.

ROBIN

Yeah, thanks... That being said, I’m perfectly fine not setting foot in that house again.

CHRISTINE

What do you mean?

(A BEAT)

CHRISTINE

Because you saw some cats in the yard? Because Brianna didn’t remember her dreams? No offense, Brianna, but we did some coke. That might have something to do with it.

ROBIN

I didn’t do any coke.

CHRISTINE

Oh, I’m aware.

ROBIN

What’s that supposed to mean?

CHRISTINE

Nothing.

ROBIN

If I’m such a buzzkill, why did you invite me?

CHRISTINE

Don’t be like that. It’s fine, I... I just want them to think we’re cool enough to invite back.

ROBIN

(INCREDULOUS)

You think they’re going to invite us back?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 9.

CHRISTINE

You don’t?

ROBIN

Christine, they can have any girl they want. We were just warm bodies for them while they’re in town.

CHRISTINE

But they swore us to secrecy about them being here. They don’t want it getting out that they’re here. Which means there won’t be a bunch of fangirls and fanboys all over the place. No competition. We can be their girls.

ROBIN

They probably forgot our names the moment we walked out the door. And when their album is finished they pick up and leave town, back to their superstar worlds. You know the lifestyle. This was a fun night for all, but it means nothing.

CHRISTINE

You don’t know that.

(A BEAT)

ROBIN

Oh, Christine. You’re going to get your heart broken here.

CHRISTINE

So hold up - you’re saying you wouldn’t go back if they asked you?

(SILENCE)

CHRISTINE

(TO BRIANNA)

What about you?

BRIANNA

What about me?

CHRISTINE

Would you go back?

BRIANNA

Yeah sure,I’d go back. You know, if they wanted us to. But Robin’s probably right... We’ll probably never hear from them again.

SOUND: THE CONTINUOUS DRONE OF THE ENGINE TRAILS OFF

10.

SCENE 4: THE HOUSE IS WAKING UP

INT. THORNE MANOR, DAY

DYLAN

I’m telling you, man, it was freaky as hell.

KEITH

A bunch of cats!

DYLAN

Yeah, a bunch of cats. I’ve never seen anything like it.

KEITH

I don’t know, maybe. Maybe they smelled some tuna. What were you two doing up there?

(DOUG AND KEITH LAUGH)

DYLAN

Piss off, Keith. You’re not funny.

KEITH

(STILL LAUGHING)

Yes, I am.

DYLAN

No dude, you’re vile.

DOUG

So you saw some cats in the yard...

DYLAN

I didn’t just see “some cats in the yard.” There were a dozen of them, at least. And they were all sitting right down in the grass below the window, all of them looking up at us. It was creepy, is what it was.

EVERETT

I believe it. I do. Those cats - whether they were neighbors’ pets or strays, or both - they congregated here for a reason. They were drawn here by something...

KEITH

Yeah, tuna.

DYLAN

Say that one more time, I dare you...

DOUG

What about you, Everett? You’re the "occult expert" - you experience anything like that here?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 11.

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

No. Nothing like that. It’s still early, but it’s a sign that all the things we’re doing here are working. So I say we keep doing them; we bring the girls back for more. I think maybe their energy added something to the mix.

KEITH

Yeah, and about that ... how come I don’t get a girl? How come I’m the odd man out here? Tell me how that’s fair.

DYLAN

Do the math, man. There’s three of them and four of us. I know we’re pretty close and all when we’re on the road, but you’re dirty. I’m not doubling up with you.

DOUG

What’s the point of us being here, anyway? If we’re just here to play Ouija board and chase tail we could be doing that at home.

EVERETT

That’s not why we’re here, Doug. That’s just the means to the ends.

DOUG

Well, remind me about the ends.

EVERETT

This house was built to channel energy. Think of it like a battery, and all the rituals and experimentation that Caleb Thorne and his followers performed here, that juiced the battery up. And now here it is just sitting here, this battery supercharged with potential energy waiting to be tapped. Occult energy. That’s where we come in. We invoke that energy, we channel it into the new music. Elevate our art to a whole new level - sacred and the profane.

DYLAN

Sounds very Faustian. That’s some next level shit.

DOUG

Well, I mean... when you put it like that...

EVERETT

I can’t stress enough how important ritual is here. From now on we need to incorporate it into everything we do: in our music, in our sex, everything. We are invoking energies. So be prepared to see more signs

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 12.

EVERETT (cont’d)

like what Dylan saw last night. Be prepared for things to get weird. Just take my lead.

DYLAN

Like an acid trip, man. And Everett is like the shaman spirit guide.

EVERETT

Follow me, boys. It’ll be a wild ride. I promise.

SCENE 5: BACK TO REALITY

NARRATOR

For the rest of the day the girls occupy themselves with a return to normalcy. Brianna hits the town for shopping and errands; Christine makes pancakes and watches back-to-back reality TV; Robin indulges in a hot shower, lingering beneath the water’s steady stream far longer than necessary. After this, she retires to her room to study only to find herself distracted and thinking about the subtle schism that seems to be forming between the three roommates. Then again, she could be overreacting. She can’t quite place her finger on why she feels this way, nor does she have the energy right now to engage them about her concern; they all seem satisfied with their own space and doing their own thing at the moment.

Meanwhile, at Thorne Manor, Everett and his bandmates remain cohesive, working together on perfecting and recording a new song. The chords peal off the guitar strings, measured but furious. Bass and drums pound and resonate. Everett’s voice, scratchy and raw weaves through the music with a desperate nimbleness that marks the pinnacle of his performance as a vocalist. The band is tight. Their marathon recording session, one of their best and the new song has teeth.

As night falls they celebrate in the afterglow of their achievement by cutting fresh lines of coke atop the coffee table. Everett wanders off from the group, descending into the basement. He purposely keeps the lights off in order to simulate the conditions of his meeting with the Tattooed Woman on the previous night.

SCENE 6: I GOT ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE IN THE DARK BEFORE I REALIZED MY MISTAKE

13.

INT. THORNE MANOR, NIGHT

SOUND: A LONE SET OF FOOTSTEPS DESCENDING THE BASEMENT STEPS

EVERETT

Are you down here?

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

I can feel it happening, just like you said... Our music, it was... inspired. The world is starting to look different to me, like something inside is shifting

- my perception.

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

I want to know more. Please... Show yourself. I’ll do what you said. I’ll do whatever you want. Let me be your pupil.

NARRATOR

As he paces the basement floor in search of The Tattooed Woman, he pauses before a stack of standing shelves nestled against the far wall. Rust dulls the old metal frame and the shelves hold a scattered heap of tools and garden utensils, all of which are buried beneath a blanket of dust that must have taken decades to collect. On the floor propped against the side of the shelving he finds a wooden-handled ax. Everett picks up the ax and measures the heft of it in his hands. An image flashes into his mind: The living room area on the first floor of the mansion with its sizable stone fireplace built into its wall. On the wall above the hearth hang a series of three wood-carved African tribal masks, their mouths cut upwards into a fanged grimace. He imagines how the would glimmer with ferocity in the orange-cast glow of a raging fire beneath them. He imagines this very ax he held had been wielded by Caleb Thorne himself to chop wood used to feed that fire. Standing here holding the ax, he feels very close to Thorne, and it fills him with a dark glee. The notion enters his mind that this ax blade may have tasted more than just wood. Had it been used to take a sacrifice - animal, perhaps?... Or human?

SOUND: DOOR CREAKING OPEN AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS. THE CRISP CLICK OF A LIGHT SWITCH.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 14.

DOUG

(FURTHER AWAY AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS) Hey, Everett? Is that you down there, man?

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

Yeah. Doug, it’s me. I was just, uh, looking for something.

DOUG

In the dark?

EVERETT

(FORCING A CHUCKLE)

I thought the switch was down here at the bottom of the stairs for some reason. I got all the way down here in the dark before I realized my mistake.

DOUG

Well we’re about to christen that bottle of French beaujolais. You in?

EVERETT

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m in.

SOUND: EVERETT QUICLY ASCENDING THE BASEMENT STEPS.

SOUND: THE DISTANT AND MUFFLED SOUND OF THE BAND LAUGHING, TALKING IN CELEBRATION UPSTAIRS

(FADE THE SOUND OUT)

SCENE 7: IT COMES IN THE NIGHT

(INT. GIRLS’ APARTMENT - NIGHT)

NARRATOR

Weary from the excitement of the night prior, each of the girls turns in early that evening, but a bout of insomnia frustrates Robin. She tosses and turns in a futile effort to get comfortable but, as is the case when these episodes occur, she knows there’s little she can do to quiet her mind and find the solace of sleep. So her thoughts retrace the events at Thorne manor: partying with rock stars in a cliff-side mansion, sleeping with the lead guitarist from one of her favorite bands - on its face it sounds like an epic experience that would evoke envy in any of her peers...

but then there were the cats, the unsettling aura of the mansion, and Everett’s fascination with its dark history. On the whole, the experience left her feeling ‘haunted’. And the notion that Christine and Brianna

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 15.

NARRATOR (cont’d)

intended to return to the manor bothers her in a way

that she can’t quite comprehend. Not yet, anyway.

SOUND: DISTANT, MUFFLED SOUND OF A DOORKNOB TURNING.

NARRATOR

A sound within the apartment catches Robin’s attention

- one of the other bedroom doors opening. A glance at the clock reveals it’s after 2AM. She holds her breath, straining to hear the footsteps on the padded carpet.

SOUND: BARE FEET SHUFFLING ON CARPET APPROACHING.

NARRATOR

Anticipating the footsteps tracking past her room and heading towards the bathroom, she’s surprised instead to hear them come to a halt just outside her door.

SOUND: SILENCE. NO FOOTSTEPS.

NARRATOR

Robin sits up in her bed, frowning, straining to see through the murky gloom. Could that be Christine or Brianna lingering in the hallway just outside her room? From the crack beneath the door she can see no trace of light. What are they doing,she wonders, just standing there in the dark? Her imagination quickly spirals, her pulse quickening. Robin watches the doorknob, waiting, anticipating for it to start turning, dread rising within her. Her heart pounds in her ears, a thunderous drumbeat against the wall of silence before her - she wants to shatter that silence and yell out to whoever lurks just outside her door, but stifles that urge and waits as the moments crawl by.

The knob does not turn. The door does not swing open. Instead, the footsteps recede, finally, moving off now towards the living room and kitchen, leaving Robin wide-eyed and breathing heavy in her bed.

SOUND: SOFT, SHUFFLING FOOOTSTEPS TRAILING AWAY.

SOUND: ROBIN BREATHING HEAVY, THEN GETTING CONTROL OF HER BREATH.

ROBIN

(WHISPERING)

What the hell?

NARRATOR

She remains perfectly still, so as not to trigger the groan of the bed springs,and listens intently at the sound of activity coming from the kitchen now.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 16.

SOUND: A CHAIR SLIDES ACROSS THE TILE FLOOR. THEN ANOTHER, THEN THE SOUND OF THE TABLE SKIDDING A SHORT DISTANCE.

NARRATOR

Her gaze returns to the crack at the bottom of her door; if any lights in the common area of the apartment have been turned on she would be able to see a faint but telltale glow beneath her door. Not a single light does she see.

SOUND: SOMETHING GETTING BUMPED IN THE KITCHEN. A THUMP OF SOMETHING CLANGING TO THE FLOOR AND ROLLING.

NARRATOR

A sudden commotion startles her as kitchen chairs are dragged across the floor. And a realization blooms: What if whoever is moving around in the dark out there isn’t one her roommates? What if this intruder is here for some malevolent purpose? A fresh wave of panic ripples through her. Just a few years back there had been a couple of violent rapes on the college campus - violent enough to leave one of the girls hospitalized and both of the victims undoubtedly scarred for life in ways that weren’t readily visible. It wasn’t until several months later that the police finally caught and arrested the rapist (who turned out to be another student living in an off-campus fraternity). But in the midst of that scare, Robin’s father had given her mace spray and a rape whistle, urging her to carry both items at all times. Although she didn’t bother with the whistle, she did keep the mace in her purse. And one day, while driving and blindly rummaging through her purse in search off her phone, Robin accidentally discharged the mace - that’s how she discovered the hard way just how effective and debilitating mace spray could be. Intending to venture out into the apartment towards the source of the noise, Robin reaches to withdraw the spray from her purse.

SOUND: DIGGING THROUGH HER PURSE PAST LOOSE KEYS, MAKEUP ITEMS, KNICKKNACKS.

NARRATOR

Armed now, she rallies her courage behind the small canister she clutches and tiptoes for the door. A dark tide pulls at her imagination, threatening to carry it away into a nightmare terrain of all the what-if’s that could be moving around in the kitchen. She struggles to keep it at bay, to soothe herself by imagining a point in the future when she and her roommates retell the story and have a good laugh at the expense of her overreaction. But right now the fear is too fresh as she slowly turns the doorknob and eases her bedroom

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

 CONTINUED: | 17.

NARRATOR (cont’d)

door open. One last breath to steady herself, her eyes probing the darkness as she steps forth into the hallway...

TO BE CONTINUED