2a: Dividing Interests

Manny wilts under the guile of the women. He reaches up and takes the offered money. all this talking reminded me. I never took my break for breakfast… Having said that, the guard stands and walks down the short corridor with the elevators. He puts a key in and pushes the button, before pulling his key and continuing down the hallway to a break room.

The women ride the elevator up to the 22nd floor, all of which belongs to the director. Exiting the elevator, they find themselves in a meticulously clean room. An exit stairwell is marked straight ahead and the door to Woodward’s apartment is to their left.

Daria finds the door locked.

The door feels cold, almost frigid. As Daria puts her ear up to its surface she feels the icy bite penetrate her ear in a sharp pain. For a brief moment, Daria hears waves crashing against a foreign shore and an overwhelming smell of ozone and charged air surrounding her.

She snaps back from the door, blinking. The door feels cool but otherwise normal. She knocks loudly and no response seems to come.

A silence permeates the entry hall. No response comes from the apartment after Amanda's shouting. The stark white furniture, the meticulously cared for plants, the sun streaming through a large bay window. All just seems so... blank.

Amanda remembers that Jared was working on musical scores for the film, which would imply he has a sound studio. Conceivably he could be in the sound studio and not able to hear the door. Amanda remembers hearing of Woodward’s PA Julia having free access to Jared’s apartment. Amanda has her contact details.

Daria picks up the coin. It has an intricate and beautiful pattern woven throughout its surface. In script around the perimeter of the coin it says, "Always be true to yourself" and on the other side a beautiful tree is shown flowering. It says "A clean mind stems from a clean body". On the outer edge is embossed over and over "3 years sober"

From the door, Daria sees a couple of closets to her right, open with film canisters and other supplies present, further into the room she can see a door that leads to an obvious sound room, but Daria can just make out some film strips laying on an exposed desk surface.

Julia disappeared to the left going through another door that Daria can’t quite make out where it leads.

Amanda and Daria move into the editing suite. Shortly, Julia returns from the private bathroom shaking her head. There's no sign of him. Looking at the desk, it seems an archaic way to make a movie. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Jared Woodward is his emphasis on using true film, despite the access to modern digital formats. Cannisters of film lie open all about the desk and several strands of it appear strewn about the floor and table. On top of the desk are large rewinding stands for running one piece of film through a project to a take up reel. Tools and implements are present to bond one portion of the strip to the next, although there is an exacto knife and evidence of Woodward splicing or editing specific scenes.

Positioned in the projector is a single frame that shows a woman with her eyes closed as if to the sun, wind blowing her hair back from her face. None of the women recognize the actress, but her delicate features seem to convey a beauty and confidence even from the still frame. There is something... wrong about her, though. Something that screams in the back of the women's minds that she is dangerous. As Daria, Amanda and Julia look at the bright image of the woman on the still screen, her eyes open in a snap. The film reel is not moving and yet the image changes as the women see into the infinite void contained within the space where her eyes should be. Pin pricks of light seem to constantly appear at the edges of her eyes only to be sucked into the vast blackness that sits at their center.Unconsciously all women find their minds fuzz and mouths open as blood begins to stream from their noses. In a flash the editing suite is gone. The oppressive silence of the sound room being replaced by roaring waves crashing against a foreign shore. A blasting wind seems to constantly buffet the women as they stand on broken black rocks. Around them on three sides are sheer, black smooth rocky faces that rise into stormy clouds overhead. In front of them the ground continues in a semicircle roughly 300 yards away, ending in an abrupt cliff. The cliff they stand on is pitched in such a way that below the current elevation can not be seen, but the crashing sounds of waves speaks to a violent sea attacking the base of the cliff face. All that can be seen is the gray stormy skies with clouds that billow and undulate in odd patterns, moving seemingly too quick to be natural. The air is charged with ozone and an electric energy that seems to buzz against exposed flesh, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Standing 100 yards away from the women, closer to the cliff is a woman dressed in a fine black silk gown facing away from them. The black fabric seems to be made of a black that defies description, something blacker than black. Something that rather than a color is the truest absence of color. As it blows in the raging wind small pin pricks of light seem to dance along it's length. The woman's jet black hair hangs straight in an odd defiance of the wind. Her hands are draped at her sides.

Kneeling in front of the woman and facing Daria, Amanda and Julia is Jared Woodward. He wears a track suit of white and is looking up at the woman with a face filled with awe and terror. The wind carries his words to the three women. Please... Spare me... I just need more time... It's almost finished... I'm not ready yet...

Both women take in the drastic change in their surroundings to varying effects.

Amanda’s natural skepticism shields her from the awful reality she is currently experiencing. As such she retains her faculties.

Daria finds herself wondering what kind of hallucinogenic drug she’s been exposed too. She feels her heart rate begin to rise as the panic begins to set in. The panic of losing control, of the uncleanliness of her body that will require months, years to expunge.

Julia yells at the top of her lungs, JARED! JARED, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Jared looks up his face going wild and terrified. He calls JULIA?! YOU CAN’T BE HERE! YOU NEED TO LEAVE!!!

Daria begins stumbling around on the cliff swiping and scratching to no effect. The drug is strong… too strong.

The woman in black turns toward Amanda, Daria and Julia. Her features are delicate and beautiful, save for her eyes. Where eyes should be, there is instead only voids. Looking within those voids, a black center can be seen. An engulfing hollow that seems to be sucking in pin pricks of light that appear at the edge of the woman’s eye sockets. She looks at the three women with a face blank of emotion, but the women soon sense something about her form. Something that speaks to an insatiable hunger.

From his kneeling position, Jared yells in a terrified burst. JULIA! RUN! THE CLIFF, JUMP!! The woman in black, almost impassively, reaches back with her left hand and touches Jared’s forehead. The man’s form… collapses… like a deflating balloon, leaving nothing but a skin bag that flops to the ground in a heap. The woman then begins a slow steady pace towards Amanda.

Julia screams NO! JARED… As she dashes forward to get to Jared.

The woman in black’s steady gait falters as she sees Daria running for the cliff. A primeval look of a predator who’s prey is escaping comes over her face and she darts after Daria, completely oblivious or totally unthreatened by Amanda’s weapon.

Julia sprints up to the remains of Jared Woodward. She lifts his now empty skin, her body spasming with gut wrenching sobs. She begins kissing Jared’s remains through her tears. Oh, Jared… Jared…

Daria jumps off the cliff face feeling her stomach turn as she fully comes to see the hundreds of foot drop leading to a tumultuous sea below. Clearing the lip, she is overwhelmed with a sense of built up static and ozone and then she begins to fall. True terror grips the woman as the large black rocks taking the beating from the sea approach too quick. Just as the woman is about to smash her face into the rocks she jolts.

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Daria lays with her face pressing against the stained carpet of the editing room suite. She lifts her head to find a pepperoni stuck to her cheek and being this close to the carpet, Daria is pretty sure the mess that Woodward had started in here.

Daria finds the editing suite empty. As she stands and looks around the room, she sees it much as it was, save for the images on the projected screen which seem to be moving independent of the mechanism running. In the scenes being displayed, Daria sees cuts to a knife making an incision, blood free flowing across black rocks, Amanda being approached by the woman in black, a sun being blocked progressively as the sun itself seems to be swallowed up by void. The images are disturbing and vivid.

Amanda’s bullet plunges into the woman in black’s head, hitting squarely and cutting deeply. The woman gives no indication of pain. Nor does she pause as she turns and begins stalking toward Amanda. As she moves, oily black tendrils begin protruding from the hole of Amanda’s bullet. They writhe and expand straining to reach the production assistant. The tendrils seem to be made of the same substance that could be seen through the woman’s eyes, a black void with pin pricks of light that seem to be continuously being devoured by the heart of the void.

Julia continues to bury her face in the skin of Jared Woodward.

Amanda runs for the cliff as the monstrosity pursues her. Just as Amanda is about to jump, one of the only black tendrils snaps out to entangle her.

Daria cuts the film reel with abandon, trying to find any specific frames of the woman in black and removing them. Idly she registers just how many frames seem to be focused on masses of blood. Plowing through, the producer hacks and cuts trying to get Amanda out.

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As Amanda leaps off of the cliff a spindly black tentacle swipes close enough to her head to feel a cold permeate through her skin and straight to her bones. As Amanda begins to fall she looks back over her shoulder at the giant monstrosity that was the woman in black. Where her body was now is a mass of writhing black tentacles undulating and pulsing to some cosmic beat.

The last thing Amanda sees over the lip of the cliff is the form of Julia Cortese, still sobbing and gently stroking the skin of Jared Woodward on the black basalt cliffs. Amanda feels an odd sense of vertigo as she opens her eyes on the floor of the editing suite.

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Daria feels an odd pulse of energy and the smell of ozone stinging her nostrils as she looks down to find Amanda on the floor, gasping for breath. At the same time, Daria hears a chime that draws her attention to Jared's laptop. An upload prompt to the Church's servers says "Upload Complete" with a green check mark.

Daria at least sees that the file uploaded is titled. "The Space Between - Final Cut".

Amanda is able to identify that a secure upload was made to the servers located at the Church headquarters.

She is also able to find a document of Jared’s notes on the film. The notes are badly organized and disjointed, making it difficult to read and understand.

Amanda begins trying to rearrange the document trying to make it make sense. She brazenly cuts and pastes text here and there trying to organize the thoughts and read some kind of thread permeating the text. Unfortunately at the end, she is left with a document severely altered and still unreadable.

Daria is able to piece together some points of information.

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Steele (Craig Steele a former actor and leader of the church) found the coup d'état, a literal state of Emptiness. Not metaphorical or metaphysical but a practical emptiness. To reach it one just needs to have everything emptied "into" what he calls the Hungry Void (footnote: Yvette Sommers- You are unable to find the foot note).

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My magnum opus will be to bring this emptiness to all who witness. The Space Between will be the catalyst to create a true change in this world. No more fighting, no more hunger, no more worries… only peace in the void.

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I can’t just show them Yvette. It’s like a frog in a frying pan. She scares people. She scared me. I need to reveal her slowly. Perhaps, the ritual Steele developed. It’s not as elegant as Yvette… but it would highlight all the failings of humanity in our brutality.

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Verity agreed. We will do it tonight. It’s a shame she couldn’t meet Yvette. I have to admit I am nervous and excited. I haven’t felt like this since… well since being immersed in Kubrick’s work. Maybe some day someone will say that about mine…

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It worked. She is here. She watches me always. I can’t sleep. If I stop she will be there to take it all away. I feel like a fool. I longed for this and now at the edge I can’t bear to take the last step. Oh God… what have I done?

Amand examines her weapon and finds one bullet missing.

The women make a quick exit of the director’s apartment. The stark silence of the living space as they close the door seems an ominous sign. Daria leads to the fire exit and takes them down and out onto the street. As the women come out onto the street they are surprised at how cold the air feels. Perhaps another polar vortex is colliding with the previous one but the air is definitely colder than when they went in the building.