The Dark Side

 Hello! Dreamstar at your service! This is my first-ever story written in a screenplay format, so please have patience if you spot any punctuation mistakes. 😅

The Dark Side

Screenplay

by

Dreamstar

INT. THE COTTAGE BENEATH THE STARS - EVENING

Sky rapidly DARKENS, but the LIGHT inside the little COTTAGE

remains the same.

INSIDE the cottage, a man SPEAKS with convincing politeness to the

woman across the table.

He is tall, thin, and dark brown hair falls around his sallow face.

He wears a DARK RED CLOAK the color of blood. He is STORM.

STORM

Have you ever realized that joy can be just as destructive as anger?

The woman answers him with equal courtesy, her blue eyes gleaming

and her head cocking slightly to one side. AYLA.

AYLA

Are you suggesting that I should wallow in sadness, rather than hunt

down the man who killed my family? Bit late for that, isn’t it?

The amount of sincere grace in the room is infinitesimal.

Fire dances across the speakers’ faces.

Ayla’s eyes momentarily look like they have

cat-like slits for pupils.

AYLA (CONT’D)

Enlighten me: How is joy as destructive as anger?

STORM

Just as anger blinds, joy prevents someone from seeing the downside

of something. If they refuse to see the bad, they will find that the

world around them has collapsed, for the joyful person did not heed

those who were in need of saving from bad things.

Ayla TENSES, and her eyes DARKEN.

AYLA

Fascinating. But it’s a pity that neither joy nor anger will help

you now.

And with that, she POUNCES, KNOCKING OVER the spindle-legged wooden

table and chairs.

Storm is not caught off guard. He ROLLS OVER so Ayla OVERBALANCES.

He doesn’t want to hurt his former friend.

AYLA

Why--why did you kill everyone who ever showed me kindness?

Were you really driven that far from spite?!

She aims several more blows at him.

Storm KICKS her, sending her

tumbling out of the cottage. The STARS have just begun to form

above the BATTLING duo.

STORM

I was desperate for someone in the world to care about me. I’m not justifying

what I did, it was heartless, selfish, but know that

no one ever cared about me. Or even noticed me. So yes, I was

driven by spite. But how do you

think that feels?

AYLA

How should I know how it feels? I’ve only felt like that for three

days!

She succeeds in injuring Storm by PUNCHING him hard in the MOUTH.

Blood and spit POURS down his chin, but Storm is FIGHTING BACK.

Ayla now has a very bad nosebleed and several small WOUNDS up her

arms.

STORM

You don’t know the power of blinded revenge, Ayla! It’s enough to

destroy a person from the inside! You need to learn to control

your anger, because I don’t want you to go too!

AYLA

Don’t you dare try to teach me about control, you callous narcissist!

If you can kill off my entire kin, why should you care what happens

to me?

Storm starts to speak, but falters.

Ayla UNSHEATHES a silver pair of SWORDS and starts slashing them

at Storm. He takes out a BROADSWORD and begins deflecting the

attacks.

STORM

Is it being a narcissist to try to find some way out of the

darkness? Is it at the height of narcissism to want someone in the

world to care that you're alive?

AYLA

No, but does that justify killing off your former best friend’s

entire family?

Ayla manages to make Storm fall to the ground.

His SWORD clatters to the grassy earth.

Ayla kicks it behind her.

Storm

(groaning)

Well, what are you going to do now that you’ve seen the most

vulnerable side of me?

AYLA

What do you think I’m going to do?

STORM

(Laughing weakly)
Let me go and become my friend again?

Ayla’s face becomes stony. Her silvery-white hair seems to glow in

the light of the full moon above her. But she does not strike.

They stare at each other, a betrayer at the mercy of a formerly

close friend.

AYLA

(Quietly)

I don’t want to kill you, Storm. I don’t know what I want anymore.

All I know is that I am alone in this dark, cruel world I call home,

and that nobody will ever care about either of us again.

Storm looks like he might cry.

STORM

(Softly)

I care.

AYLA

If you cared, you wouldn’t hurt the people you knew I cared about.

STORM

(Steadily)

But if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be crying right now.

His tears glisten like shards of diamonds.

Suddenly Ayla’s eyes burn, and she’s crying too.

And now Ayla and Storm have both collapsed, Ayla’s face in her

hands,

Storm’s eyes tightly closed, tears pouring down their faces.

Storm opens his eyes. Ayla is gone. All that she has left behind is

a thin trail of blood and tears.

Storm rises to his feet, then hears sobs coming from above him.

The trail of blood leads up an ancient mossy oak tree, a red stain

on rough bark.

Without pausing to think, Storm starts to scale the tree, leaving

his own blood streaming down it.

Finally he reaches the top.

STORM

(Panting)

Ayla?

She doesn’t answer him.

Ayla is sitting on a protruding branch placed at the ideal point

for stargazing.

She’s crying, and stroking a black cat curled in her lap.

Storm approaches her cautiously.

The cat hisses up at him, its green eyes fixed on Storm's gray ones.

Ayla looks around at the sound of the hiss.

Storm awkwardly starts to move forwards on the branch.

Ayla resolutely turns away from him, sniffling and wiping her eyes.

No words are spoken.

Determined, Storm continues to pick his way along the branch until

he’s sitting right beside Ayla.

Her cat eyes Storm reproachfully, but simply curls its long tail

around Ayla’s arms.

Storm puts his hand on Ayla’s shoulder. To his surprise, she doesn’t

draw away. But she doesn’t move closer either.

And so they sit there, Storm’s arm around Ayla’s shoulders as she

gradually stops crying beneath a galaxy of twinkling stars.

See you around!

--Dreamstar