FRANK HORROR Presents: SINNER'S MOON Episode 3 (of 7)

SINNER’S MOON    Episode 3 (of 7) - When three young women (longtime friends and roommates) learn that a famous Art-Metal band is coming to town, they make it their mission to meet and party with the band. But the mansion where the band is staying to record their upcoming album has a sordid occult past - a past that lingers still within its halls and haunts their dreams.

Runtime: 24:16 mins

***Warning: This podcast contains depictions of graphic violence, sexual situations, drug use, adult language and occult themes. Listener discretion is strongly advised.***

SINNER’S MOON is a 7- episode horror fiction podcast brought to you by FRANK HORROR.
www.FrankHorror.com

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Transcript

SINNER’S MOON Podcast Episode 3 - MONSTERS & VICTIMS

By

Frank Juchniewicz

Copyright: Frank Horror, LLC

2021

SINNER’S MOON PODCAST EPISODE 3 - MONSTERS & VICTIMS

SCENE 1: ACTING OUT

INT. GIRLS’ APARTMENT - NIGHT

NARRATOR

Holding it at arm’s length, Robin leads with the canister of mace as she moves into the hallway towards the clamor in the kitchen. Her thumb pressed against the compression trigger, her nerves standing on end, she rounds a corner to find all of the kitchen chairs pulled away from the table and shoved haphazardly next to the refrigerator. With the chairs cleared out of the way, the table seems bare and stark except for the figure perched on it. Barefoot and in her pajamas, Brianna stands in the dark atop the kitchen table with her back to Robin, seemingly oblivious to her roommate’s presence. She holds her arms out to her side, her hands curled as if clasping the hands of phantom people, as if she were a link in some imaginary human chain.

BRIANNA

(HALF-WHISPERING, HALF CHANTING IN A CONTINUOUS AND UNINTELLIGIBLE SING-SONG VOICE)

NARRATOR

In constant motion, Brianna sways her arms loosely, moving her feet across the tabletop in shuffle steps, mouthing something inaudible, something like a frantic sing-song lyric. It reminds Robin of Ring Around The Rosie, but this is something different altogether. Something that doesn’t feel right. Robin edges closer, lowering the mace spray, but keeping her thumb poised on the trigger button.

ROBIN

Brianna...

NARRATOR

Brianna turns, but not in response to Robin. The course of her dancing step leads her around the table’s edge so that she is partially facing Robin now. As Brianna rattles off the sing-song chant, the words come out muddied and mumbled. Her eyes are wide, but there is a vacancy behind them.

ROBIN

(MORE FORCEFULLY NOW)

Brianna.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 2.

NARRATOR

She stares off to a faraway point, past Robin who remains unseen and unheard. She’s asleep, Robin realizes. This is sleepwalking. Whatever dream Brianna is experiencing, she’s acting it out in real time. A dream of a playground game? It must be a game, because she’s smiling. But that smile that cuts across her face beneath those gaping, empty eyes raises gooseflesh on Robin’s arms.

ROBIN

Brianna, wake up. You’re dreaming.

NARRATOR

Robin inches closer. Brianna’s bare feet skirt dangerously close to the table’s edge, a hair’s distance from stepping off into thin air. Even with solid surface beneath her feet, her weight distribution towards the end of the table causes it to wobble slightly. If the table were to topple now, it would take Brianna down hard on an unforgiving tiled floor.

ROBIN

Brianna. Brianna, come down from there.

NARRATOR

She sets the mace down on the table and reaches up to take Brianna’s hand.

ROBIN

Come on down. It’s not safe.

BRIANNA

(ABRUPTLY HALTING HER SING-SONG CHANTING)

NARRATOR

Brianna’s hand grasps hers in return and she responds to the prompt, taking a giant step down from the table with Robin steadying her. On solid floor once again, Brianna stands face-to-face with Robin, holding her hand and staring blankly into her, still fast asleep and dreaming with her eyes open.

BRIANNA

(PARROTING ROBIN’S WORDS SOFTLY)

Come down...It’s not safe.

NARRATOR

Releasing Robin’s hand, Brianna pulls away to shuffle back down the hallway from where she came, slipping away into the open doorway of her bedroom. Robin remains rooted in place as the stillness of the apartment returns. She eyes the kitchen, the table a

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: | 3.


NARRATOR (cont’d)

stage for the unnerving nocturnal encounter. Gathering up the mace spray, Robin follows Brianna’s path back to her room and pauses in the doorway to check on her. She finds Brianna curled up on her side in bed with the blanket drawn up to her chin, sleeping peacefully as if her kitchen antics had never happened. Content now that the sleepwalking incident has come to an end, Robin sighs and pulls Brianna’s door shut before returning to her own bedroom. With her mind still alert and her nerves restless, sleep doesn’t come readily, and when it does it’s fractured and uneasy.

SCENE 2: MONSTERS & VICTIMS


INT. THORNE MANOR, BASEMENT - DAY


NARRATOR

Morning in Thorne Manor finds Everett in the basement. He sits shirtless and cross-legged on the cement floor, drawing deep breaths and opening himself to the vibrations and energies of the house.

SOUND: THE STEADY HIGH-PITCHED VIBRATIONS OF THREE TUNING FORKS. IN QUICK SUCCESSION ALL THREE GET SNUFFED.


THE TATTOOED WOMAN

You don’t need these tuning forks anymore. You are the tuning fork now.

EVERETT
There you are. I was looking for you.

(A BEAT)

EVERETT
What do I call you, by the way?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

You don’t. You don’t look for me. And you don’t call me; I call you... Baby Everett.

EVERETT
Why do you call me that? Why do you call me ’baby’?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN
Because I’m levels above where you are. I can see you.
All the way down there, and you look like an ant.

EVERETT
Is that right?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 4.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Mmmm-hmmm.

EVERETT

Show me. Show me, then.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

(LETTING OUT A MONOSYLLABIC LAUGH)

Ha!

(A BEAT)

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

(CALLING UPSTAIRS)

Dylan! Dylan, why don’t you come down here?!

SOUND: THE FLOORBOARDS ABOVE THEM CREAKING AS A SINGLE SET OF FOOTSTEPS APPROACHES THE BASEMENT DOOR.

EVERETT

What are you doing?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Showing you.

SOUND: THE BASEMENT DOOR CREAKS OPEN AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS AND FOOTSTEPS DESCEND THE STAIRCASE.

DYLAN

Hey.

EVERETT

Hey, what’s up?

DYLAN

I don’t know, man. I felt like I was coming down here for a reason, but... I don’t know. (FORCING A CHUCKLE)

Damn, it went right out of my mind. I’m sure I’ll think of it once I get back upstairs.

(A BEAT)

DYLAN

You meditating?

EVERETT

...Yeah.

DYLAN

Cool. All right, well...I won’t disturb you.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS ASCENDING THE STAIRS.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 5.

DYLAN

You want this door...?

EVERETT

Closed.

DYLAN

Right on.

SOUND: THE DOOR CLOSING. THE FLOORBOARDS ABOVE THEM CREAKING AS A SINGLE SET OF FOOTSTEPS LEADS OFF.

EVERETT

He didn’t even see you! How did you do that?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

In time. When you’re ready.

EVERETT

You did some things here with sex magick, didn’t you? You and Thorne and the other priestess.

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

We’re bringing the girls back tonight.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

I know. Don’t you think I see everything, hear everything that goes on within these walls? Even the thoughts that go unspoken. And there are some thoughts in this house . . .

EVERETT

What do you mean?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Let’s just say that before everything is said and done, you will face some opposition to your goal. Opposition from within.

EVERETT

What?! What are you talking about?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

I don’t like how Doug questioned you in front of the others. How he has planted those beginning seeds of dissent.

EVERETT

Doug? When?... No, no. He was just making sure we stayed on track with the music, that’s all. He’s cool. Don’t worry about him. I’ve known Doug for eleven years. He’s on board, trust me.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 6.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Factories of Ruin - who came up with that name?

EVERETT

Uh... I did.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

And who’s the leader of the band?

EVERETT

Well, Dylan and I were playing in another band right out of high school, but that band was... it was imploding, it was a mess. So I convinced him to peel off with me, start our own band. Then I found Doug. And Dylan brought in Keith.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Who writes the lyrics? Who booked the first big gig, and who landed your agent? Who’s the deciding voice in most of the decisions? Who conveys the vision that has guides Factories of Ruin to success?

(A BEAT)

EVERETT

Me...

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Who is the leader?

EVERETT

(WITH MORE CERTAINTY)

Me.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

And why would someone from within the ranks openly doubt their leader? Why would they chip away at and test that leader’s position, hmm? Could it be... maybe they’re not content with their place in the pecking order. Maybe they have designs on that role for themselves.

(A PAUSE)

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

But, then again . . . You’ve known him for eleven years. You know him better than I.

EVERETT

I handled it. I reminded him what we’re looking to achieve here and he stepped back in line. And if he steps out again, I will handle that, too. Doug’s cool, though. He knows he has it good here. I can count on him.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 7.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Okay. If you say so.

EVERETT

And don’t you worry about me. I’m solid. I’ll hold up my end of this. And the girls are coming back tonight. So we’ll intensify things - more ritual, more intent, more energy. Just like you want.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

Your sacrament has begun, baby Everett. Keep building towards its finale. Then your end of the bargain will be kept, and the keys to the power I promised will be yours.

EVERETT

Tell me what to do. With the girls, I mean. How does it...?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

You know. You already know what to do. You’ve thought about it. And thoughts lay the intent. Thoughts are nothing more than the groundwork for actions.

EVERETT

That’s what you want? You want me to...uh...?

THE TATTOOED WOMAN

I don’t want you to do anything. You do what you do. It’s in your nature. You see, baby Everett, there are only two types in this world: monsters and victims. You just have to ask yourself: which one are you? When you figure that out, all the rest begins to fall into place.

SCENE 3: I LIVE IN TWO SEPARATE

WORLDS

INT. ROBIN’S CAR - DAY

NARRATOR

Traffic crawls from one stoplight to the next while bicyclists whiz past and streams of young pedestrians take to the crosswalk heading towards the University. The waking world seems extra bright and frenetic, as if the dial has been turned up somehow. Driving through town with Brianna in the passenger seat, Robin feels removed from this hyperactive world - not a part of it. An outsider watching it tick by.

SOUND: CAR ENGINE RUNNING AS ROBIN DRIVES THROUGH TOWN

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 8.

BRIANNA

Thanks for the lift. You saved me an Uber fare, at least one way.

ROBIN

Yeah, no worries. Mr. Williamson’s my first client. He’s practically on the way, so...

(A BEAT)

ROBIN

So do you want to talk about it?

BRIANNA

Talk about what? I don’t remember anything.

(A BEAT)

BRIANNA

I mean, I used to sleepwalk but not since I was little.

ROBIN

It was freaky, Brianna. Like you were acting out a dream or something. Do you remember what you were dreaming?

BRIANNA

...No. And that’s the second night in a row, which is weird. I have always had vivid dreams, and I always remember them, or pieces of them anyway. I’ve talked about that. It’s like I live in two separate worlds - one while I’m awake and one while I’m asleep... And I get these strong feelings of deja vu at times. I don’t know if they’re connected. But then I think maybe sometimes... maybe I dream about things happening, and then they do. It’s like I’ve seen it and lived it before. Like maybe time works differently in dreams and sometimes I catch a glimpse of what will happen before it does.

(A BEAT)

BRIANNA

But in the moment, when that feeling of deja vu hits me and everything feels fuzzy and unreal, if I try to think about it too deeply I get this really eerie feeling and my mind stops itself, like I’m not supposed to be thinking about this.

ROBIN

(EXHALES)

I just got a chill.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 9.

BRIANNA

Yeah. Even now, just talking about it freaks me out.

ROBIN

I don’t normally remember my dreams, but I have the last two nights. And they’re kind of nightmares.

BRIANNA

This is good.

ROBIN

Huh?

BRIANNA

This spot, right here. Just pull over here, I’ll jump out.

ROBIN

Oh...

SOUND: SOUND OF THE CAR SLOWING AND COMING TO A STOP. THE ENGINE IDLES.

ROBIN

Are you going back with Christine tonight? Back to the mansion?

BRIANNA

Yeah. Why?

ROBIN

I don’t know.

SOUND: PASSENGER DOOR OPENING. STREET SOUNDS JUST OUTSIDE THE CAR.

BRIANNA

Have fun with the geezers. I’ll catch you later.

ROBIN

Yeah. Catch you later.

SOUND: PASSENGER DOOR CLOSING, THE CAR BLINKER CLICKING AND THE ENGINE SOUND RISING AS THE VEHICLE PULLS OFF.

SCENE 4: A SPREADING STAIN

10.

INT. WILLIAMSON HOUSE - DAY

ROBIN

Okay, Mr. Williamson . . . so I’ve go fresh sheets on the bed. The whites are folded and put away and I ran the vacuum through the first floor. Want me to vacuum upstairs?

MR. WILLIAMSON

Nah, I can’t make it up to the second floor no more so there’s no point in having you do that.

ROBIN

Are you sure? Its no trouble.

MR. WILLIAMSON

You’ve done enough, Robin. Why don’t you just sit with me for a bit and relax? I just enjoy your company every Tuesday and Friday, so much I can’t even tell you.

ROBIN

Awwww, Mr. Williamson! You’re my favorite client, but I won’t tell the others. That will be our secret.

MR. WILLIAMSON

So why don’t you have a seat. Why don’t you tell me what’s chewing at you.

ROBIN

Huh? What do you mean?

MR. WILLIAMSON

I may be an old soldier whose bones are frail, but there ain’t nothing wrong these old eyes. That’s the look my wife, Cecelia used to get. Meant something was stewing. Same look she had when our daughter, Kari got pregnant by accident the first time. Same look when I got hurt that one summer and couldn’t work. Could barely keep food on the table and a roof over our heads with money going out but none coming in. Same look when they gave Cecelia the diagnosis... Don’t make it through fifty-two years of marriage without recognizing that look. And now you got it, too - some kind of trouble chewing at you.

(A BEAT)

ROBIN

You’ve lived your whole life here in Ithaca, isn’t that right?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 11.

MR. WILLIAMSON

Other than the three years in-country. In Nam, that is.

ROBIN

What do you know about that house up on the cliffs? The one that was owned by a man named Thorne.

MR. WILLIAMSON

(HIS DEMEANOR DARKENING)

Why are you asking about that house?

ROBIN

You must remember when it was built. When Caleb Thorne moved into town.

MR. WILLIAMSON

’Course I remember. I was one of the folks hired on to to do the drywall on that house.

ROBIN

So you knew him, then. You knew Caleb Thorne.

MR. WILLIAMSON

Not really. I wouldn’t say that. I was just a subcontractor; Mr. Thorne wasn’t the type to bother himself by stooping so low as to talk to the help. Which was just fine with me. I’ve seen the way he was with the contractor - demanding and nasty. At first I thought that was on account of his money and him thinking he’s better than working-class folks. But it was more than that. You know when you catch a glimpse into some people and what you see inside them is a darkness, like a stain? Best way to describe it, I guess. Well he had that stain. Beautiful house, as I recall. So how can such a rotten person get to own such a beautiful place?

ROBIN

There are a lot of stories about the things that happened in that place over the years. Those two women who moved in with him, how the three of them were doing all kinds of weird rituals and stuff, trying to summon demons.

MR. WILLIAMSON

Oh yeah. Having met Thorne and those two women, having looked into their eyes, I don’t doubt a word of it.

ROBIN

You met them? The two women he called his priestesses?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 12.

MR. WILLIAMSON

Mmm-hmm. Not too long, in fact, before all three just up and vanished. Ten years after I worked on that house Thorne was building out an edition and I got hired back to do more work. Almost turned it down, but money is money, right? Gotta eat somehow... But after that second time, I don’t care how much money they put on the table, I would’ve never taken another job there again.

ROBIN

Why? What happened?

MR. WILLIAMSON

Not so much what happened, but how being there made me feel. I ain’t one to talk in terms of good and evil. I used to think all people were basically good but that they sometimes got pushed into doing bad things. I know now that ain’t the case. That second time back, you could see that darkness, that stain, had spread throughout Mr. Thorne. Throughout that property. And those two women, as beautiful as they were on the surface, deep down were filled with evil. All three of them and that house - nothing but evil underneath. Guess it was just a matter of time.

ROBIN

A matter of time before what?

MR. WILLIAMSON

Folks all wonder what happened to those three when they disappeared. Wondered where they went. But I know...

You mess around with evil things and that stain grows inside you until it becomes all you are: Evil. And eventually, the devil comes to claim his own.

(A BEAT)

MR. WILLIAMSON

Don’t go messing around with that house, you hear me?

SCENE 5: A NAGGING FEELING

INT. GIRLS’ APARTMENT - NIGHT

NARRATOR

Before her talk with Mr. Williamson, Robin called into doubt her own instincts that told her there was something very wrong about Thorne Manor. But his stark warning affirmed that she was not overreacting; she had not given her mind too much license to spin stories. The danger she sensed there was real, and she had no intentions of ever setting foot in that house again...

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: | 13.


NARRATOR (cont’d)

but her roommates, on the other hand. How could she convince them without sounding like an alarmist? She picked nervously at her fingernails while Christine and Brianna finished getting ready for their return to Thorne Manor.

BRIANNA
(FROM FURTHER OFF-MIC)
Eyebrow check.

CHRISTINE
(FROM FURTHER OFF-MIC)

Eyebrows on point, sister. You got your little lacy’s on under that?

BRIANNA
(FROMM FURTHER OFF-MIC)
Check, check.

SOUND: A RING OF KEYS JINGLING.


ROBIN

Hey guys... tell you what - why don’t we just make it a girls’ night. Maybe a couple of cocktails, go to the movies? My treat.

CHRISTINE

Uhhhh, raincheck. Tonight is ’Party With Rockstars’ Night. It’s not too late to jump back on this train, Robin.

ROBIN

Guys, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I just-- I’ve got a bad feeling.

CHRISTINE

I know. You’ve made that clear, "Mom." But we’re big girls now.

SOUND: FRONT DOOR OPENING. SOUNDS OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD JUST PAST THE DOORWAY.


ROBIN
Christine, I’m being serious.

CHRISTINE
So am I. You’re worse than her with the deja-vu crap.
At least she still knows how to have a good time.
(TO BRIANNA)
Right, Brianna?

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 14.

ROBIN

Let’s talk about that. I think that’s part of my concern: the deja-vu, the sleepwalking, the cats and just-- just everything lately. There’s something definitely wrong about all of this.

BRIANNA

It’s cool, Robin. Seriously. We’re fine. If things get weird we’ll leave.

CHRISTINE

You heard her... Goodnight, "Mom." Don’t wait up.

SOUND: TWO SETS OF HIGH HEELS STEPPING OUT ONTO THE PATIO AND THE FRONT DOOR CLOSING.

ROBIN

(SIGHS DEEPLY)

SCENE 6: YOU CAN’T HELP THEM

(ETHEREAL MUSIC OR DRONING TO CONVEY A SURREAL DREAM STATE)

NARRATOR

The focal point of all things now, the dreams invariably return to Thorne Manor. Beneath its flank of stone and mortar, it’s bones of drywall, cement and timber, the mansion breathes, its essence alive and pulsing with a sentient malevolence...

NARRATOR

Unable to resist its pull, the dreamer finds herself standing on the grounds at night beneath the same full moon that held the sky on their first night at the mansion. The same full moon returns to haunt every one of her dreams now. And beneath that moon, but still towering over the dreamer, the mansion stands like an obscene edifice, its windows filled with a stale yellow light, offering glimpses of the surreal scene playing out inside: Donning one of the wood-carved tribal masks, Everett Nicholas leads his bandmates along with Christine and Brianna in a naked procession. Hands linked together, they laugh and dance and cavort from room to room and the dreamer follows along outside, tracking their movements from window to window. Everett calls out words, short phrases,that the others parrot back, but the closed windows blunt the sound, rendering the words unintelligible. Like Ring-Around-The-Rosey, a child’s game. But this is no game. This is perversity, this is ritual and the dreamer’s roommates have been swept up unwittingly into a terrible danger. This is the same sing-song dance that Brianna acted out while

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: | 15.


NARRATOR (cont’d)

sleepwalking in the apartment. The dreamer shudders in terror, opens her mouth to call out a warning to her roommates, but her voice is lost to her.

NARRATOR

As the ritual unfolds, she tries desperately to scream for them but no sound comes. All she can do is watch helplessly from the window. A breeze on the back of her neck signals the arrival of someone right behind her, so close as to nearly touch her. The scent of perfume wafts over her, a warm breath soothes her ear, draws from her an involuntary sigh of arousal. Before she can turn around the unseen female leans in even closer, her whisper sensual yet alarming.

THE TATTOOED WOMAN
(WHISPERING)
You. Can’t. Help. Them.

NARRATOR

Cricket-song swells around her, a rising effigy to the evil being invoked within the mansion’s walls.

SOUND: CRICKET-SONG RISING, GROWING SHRILL, MERGING WITH RISING SOUND OF A CELL PHONE RINGING.


(TRANSITION TO...)

SCENE 7: COME GET ME


INT. GIRLS’ APARTMENT - NIGHT


SOUND: AS THE CRICKET SONG FADES DOWN IT MERGES AND BECOMES THE RISING SOUND OF A CELL PHONE RINGING.


NARRATOR

Yanked away from the dream by the ringing of her cell phone, Robin rolls over to grope for the phone on her nightstand, still emerging from the fog of sleep.

ROBIN
(GROANING SOFTLY)
Hello...?

BRIANNA
(UPSET)

Robin, thank God you answered. I tried calling a couple of times before you answered. I’m so sorry to wake you. I just...

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 16.

ROBIN

Brianna? What time is it?

BRIANNA

I’m really sorry. It’s late, I know. It’s just...

(A BEAT)

BRIANNA

Can you come get me?... I need help.

TO BE CONTINUED