#5X10 - Chinga
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
SCENE 1 (Car with Maine license plate # 384M 95 . MELISSA TURNER walks to the passenger side of the car and opens the door for her young daughter POLLY who is holding a large doll.)
MELISSA: Okay, sweetheart. We’re just going in for a few things. We won’t be long, okay. Polly? Mommy needs some groceries, okay?
(POLLY does not respond. MELISSA unbuckles the seatbelt and helps her out. As they enter the grocery store, an older woman, JANE FROELICH glares at them. MELISSA ignores her. POLLY looks back at her.)
(Inside the store, MELISSA wheels the cart quickly and nervously down the aisle. POLLY sits in the child seat of the cart with her doll. People watch them suspiciously. They pass by the butcher’s counter. DAVE, the butcher watches them pass.)
POLLY: I don’t like this store, Mommy.
MELISSA: We’re only going to be a minute.
POLLY: I want to go home.
(The doll’s eyes open.)
DOLL: (high-pitched creepy voice) Let’s have fun.
(As they pass the refrigerated section, MELISSA sees an image of DAVE in the glass. He has a knife through his right eye.)
DAVE’S IMAGE: Help, Melissa.
(MELISSA quickly wheels the cart to the front of the store. The cart has a bad wheel.)
MELISSA: (picking up POLLY) We’re going home, Polly. Please, don’t do this to Mommy.
(Nearby, there is the sound of breaking glass as a woman drops her basket and begins clawing at her eyes. MELISSA runs out of the store with POLLY as everyone in the store begins clawing at their eyes. DAVE comes out of the back of the store and sees what is happening. He suddenly claws at his eyes, then runs back to his phone and dials 911.)
DAVE: It’s Dave, down at the Super Saver. Send whoever you got on duty.
(Dave sees a fuzzy reflection of the doll in the metal door of a meat locker.)
DOLL’S IMAGE: I want to play.
(DAVE pulls out a knife as if to attack the doll, but then aims the knife at his own eye. He is struggling against himself, but the knife moves closer to his right eye. The camera cuts away just as we hear him scream. Doll is still reflected on locker, watching.)
Opening Credits
SCENE 2 (A convertible drives down a street in the small Maine harbor town. SCULLY pulls the convertible into a gas station, gets out and begins filling the tank <litres, not gallons>. She is wearing a Maine tourist T-shirt <The Way Life Should Be> and jeans and very cool shades. She hears her cell phone ringing. She gets the keys out of the ignition, opens the trunk of the car and pulls out her phone.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.
(MULDER is in the office rocking on the back of a chair, obviously very bored.) MULDER: (on phone) Hey, Scully, it’s me.
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Mulder, I thought we had an agreement. We were both going to take the weekend off.
MULDER: (on phone) Right, right. I know. But I - I just received some information about - about a case. A classic X-files --- classic. I wanted to share it with you.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I’m on vacation. The weather is clear. I’m looking forward to hitting the road and breathing in some of this fine New England air.
MULDER: (on phone) You didn’t rent a convertible, did you?
SCULLY: (on phone) Why?
MULDER: (on phone) Are you aware of the statistics of decapitation?
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I’m hanging up. I’m turning off my cell phone. I’m back in the office on Monday.
MULDER: (on phone) You shouldn’t talk and drive at the same time. Are you aware of the statistics ….? Hello?
(SCULLY has hung up. She drives the car into the grocery store lot, almost hitting MELISSA’S car as MELISSA speeds away. SCULLY looks slightly disgusted. Then she sees an OLD MAN staggering out of the store with bloody eyes. She gets out of the car.)
SCULLY: Sir … Sir, what happened?
OLD MAN: (disoriented) I .. I think we need a doctor.
(SCULLY walks into store. People are moaning and crying and have horribly scratched eyes)
STORE MANAGER: (in pain) Who are you?
SCULLY: I’m .. my name is Scully. I’m an FBI agent. What happened to you?
STORE MANAGER: I don’t know. But Dave, the butcher .. I think he’s dead.
(SCULLY goes to the back and looks at DAVE’S body, knife sticking out of his eye socket.)
SCENE 3 (X-Files office. Mulder is eating sunflower seeds and watching television. Lots of groaning and moaning from a male and a female voice. Empty video cassette box on MULDER’S desk reads "Alien Probe." Phone rings.)
MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Mulder, it’s me.
MULDER: (on phone) I thought you said you were on vacation.
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) I am. I’m up in Maine.
MULDER: (on phone) I thought you said you didn’t want to be disturbed. You wanted to get out of your head for a few days.
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) I don’t … I mean, I do. I …. (moaning from TV is loud) What are you watching, Mulder?
MULDER: (on phone) It’s the World’s Deadliest Swarms. (Fumbles with remote to stop the tape.) Um .. you said you were going to be unreachable. What’s going on?
SCULLY: (on phone) I, uh … I’m at a market here. I’m just trying to give the local PD a handle here.
MULDER: (on phone, voice) A handle on what?
(SCULLY is in store office watching security tape footage of people clawing at their eyes.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I’m not quite sure how to describe it, Mulder. I didn’t witness it myself but there seems to be some kind of an outbreak of people acting in a violent, involuntary way.
MULDER: (on phone) Towards who?
(MULDER switches off TV, which now shows man being attacked by bugs. Remember, tape has already been stopped.)
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Toward themselves.
MULDER: (on phone) Themselves?
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah. Beating at their faces, clawing at their eyes. One man is dead.
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Dead? How?
SCULLY: (on phone) Self-inflicted, it appears.
MULDER: (on phone) Huh … it sounds to me like that’s witchcraft or maybe some sorcery that you’re looking for there.
(Local PD Captain, JACK BONSAINT watches SCULLY strangely throughout conversation with MULDER.)
SCULLY: (on phone) No, I don’t think it’s witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion.
MULDER: (on phone) Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for.
SCULLY: (on phone) Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards ….
(MULDER is listening, spellbound.)
SCULLY: (on phone) … familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?
MULDER: (on phone) Scully …
SCULLY: (on phone) Yes?
MULDER: (on phone) Marry me.
SCULLY: (on phone) I was hoping for something a little more helpful.
MULDER: (on phone) Well, you know, short of looking for a lady wearing a pointy hat riding a broomstick, I think you pretty much got it covered there.
SCULLY: (on phone) Thanks anyway. (hangs up, looks at tape again) (to OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS) Who’s that woman right there?
BUDDY: Melissa Turner.
SCULLY: She’s the only one I’ve seen who looks unaffected.
BUDDY: What’s your point?
SCULLY: You might want to talk to her.
(SCULLY leaves the store office. Captain JACK BONSAINT follows her.)
BONSAINT: (smiling, very friendly) Ms. Scully … you staying in town?
SCULLY: Yes. I’m on vacation. Why?
BONSAINT: Well, what you said back there about Melissa Turner kind of put a spin on this whole business here today.
SCULLY: How’s that?
BONSAINT: Well, Melissa’s caused some stir. People here say she’s a witch.
SCULLY: Well, that’s not the first time for that accusation in these parts.