Hope Falls Season 2 - Eagle Valley

by Jamieson Wolf

  It was an art form, really. That was what other people didn't understand. They didn't comprehend that even in death, sex was life's greatest pleasure. That moment, when caught on camera, was worth millions.

  And there were people who would pay dearly for the pleasure of seeing someone die in that brief moment of euphoria. That was how Hope Falls had started. He had been the manipulator of many people, many times, and each time, they seemed to get more stupid.

  "Well, it's about…one of the…hostages."

  "Spit it out." Howard barked "Didn't I tell you not to show them any fear? Why are you calling, Sophie?" Howard sighed. He could feel her wither, even over the telephone. She was afraid of him. As well she should be.

  "Susan is missing."

  Howard was silent for a moment before he responded. The silence was deathening. "What do you mean missing?"

  "I mean just what I said. I got all of them, even that Erin chick. But someone got to Betty before me."

  Howard's heart stopped. "What do you mean, Betty?"

  "What do you mean what do I mean, Betty? She's dead, Howard, someone shot her. I was gonna take her out, so there'd be no one left to watch, but dead. Her head's been shot in."

  Howard was silent for a long time before he said: "Betty wasn't part of the deal."

  "Yeah, but I didn't do it Howard." Sophie's voice was beginning to rise. "I mean I heard them screaming and she's gone, okay, gone!" Her voice was shrill now. "I'm tired, I freaking hurt and I haven't bathed in two days! I'm tired Howard!"

  "Calm yourself." He barked. "Have some class for frig sakes."

  "I'm all classed out Howard." She sighed. "What's going on here? Where is Susan? Who shot Betty?"

  "Someone else must be involved in this."

  "But who the hell could that be? I thought there WAS no one else involved."

  "There is always someone else involved in a game of double crossing." Howard said. "That is a cardinal rule Sophie, in game playing." He paused so the words would have an effect. "Never forget that."

  "Yes Howard." She sucked in a breath. He could hear her light a cigarette. "So what do we do now?"

  "For now YOU do nothing. Keep them in the house. Betty was supposed to guard the outside, so I don't know how you're gonna do it, but keep them in the house. Do you understand me?"

  "Yes Howard."

  "And don't kill them. People are paying for this, remember. This is a business matter, not a personal vendetta."

  "Yes, Howard." She sounded meek now, tired.

  "I'm coming down there. Someone is playing with us. I want to know who. You are not to move from that house, do you understand me."

  "Yes."

  "Good bye, Sophie. I will see you soon." He hung the phone up

  Howard sat back and lit a cigar in contemplation. His brown hair was graying. He felt tired. But he would see this through.

  Someone was screwing him. He wanted to find out who. Personally.

  [THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO SOPHIE FLIPPING HER CELL PHONE SHUT AND SLIPPING IT IN HER PURSE. EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT HER. SHE SMILES AND PUTS HER HANDS ON HER HIPS.]

  "What?" She said.

  Derrick spoke first. "So you're Howard's lackey now are you?"

  Sophie smiled wider. "Figured it out did you?"

  "Sophie, how COULD you?" Cleo asked. "How could you do this to us? After what happened? To Miriam? To…" Cleo was about to say Susan, but couldn't bring herself to. A tear slid down her cheek.

  "I have my reasons."

  "Yeah?" Madder said. "Like what?"

  "Oh, like you have a say here, just shut up." She cocked the gun in Madder's direction. "You have no say here."

  "Sophie." Cleo said softly. "Why?"

  "What about what happened to me?" Sophie whispered.

  INT: THE DARK CAGE

  Susan had now spent an unknown amount of time in her prison. Her mysterious captor had not returned. She had no idea how long she had been in the cage. There was only the little bit of light that fell into her cage to see by. There were no windows and no indication of whether or not it was light or dark outside.

  Susan made a noise deep in her throat that sounded like a growl. Whoever this guy was, he had pissed her off and she would make him regret it. Howard couldn't send his goons after her and not expect a fight.

  She looked around her prison. She had to think of a way out of here. She was about to get up and see if the lock on the cage would break when she heard the door to the room open and close.

  Her captor had returned. In his hand was a bundle of white pages tied together with a red ribbon. Susan saw the ribbon first. It looked like blood in the darkness. "Let me out of here." Susan said. "Do you hear me? Let me out."

  "What's the matter, Susan?" The voice said. It's electronic sound gave no hint of gender, the voice was modified. Susan knew this was Howard, that he was toying with her. No one else could be that sick, no one else could have butchered Marian. "You don't want reading material?" the pages were flung in to the cage through the bars and they landed at her feet. They hit the metal floor with a soft sound. There were fewer pages than she had thought. She looked at the first one.

  More script pages.

  "I thought you might want to have some entertainment." Her captor said. "Happy reading."

  * * *

  INT: HALLIWELL KITCHEN, EAGLE VALLEY NEW MEXICO

  [SUSAN reaches toward the blue pages with a shaking hand. She clutches them to her chest, quickly, as if they might burn her. She looks around the kitchen, it's walls feeling as if they were moving slowly inward.]

  SUSAN: Who left these here?

  [Silence greets her. SUSAN tires speaking again]

  SUSAN: Hello?

  [She puts a hand to her throat, her nightgown low cut, revealing the shadow of cleavage]

  SUSAN: Won't someone answer me?

  [Dark laughter comes from the shadows around her]

  SUSAN: Please, is someone there?

  [THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO THE DARK SHADOWS OF THE KITCHEN AND WE SEE CLEO STEP OUT OF THE DARKNESS. SHE IS YOUNG AND HAPPY AGAIN. THE WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THIS CHEERFULL FACE WILL BE JARRING.]

  CLEO: Come and sit down Susan. I have something to tell you.

  SUSAN: Mother? Mother what are you talking about?

  CLEO: Do you know the story of Hope Falls? It's a very pretty place, filled with very pretty people. But these pretty people do ugly things, lot's of nasty things my daughter.

  [The smile on Cleo's face get's wider, as if she is talking of apple pie, resting on the kitchen sill. Susan regards her mother with wide-open eyes.]

  SUSAN: Mother? [there is shock on her face]

  CLEO: Oh, yes, terrible things. Come, I will tell you.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  INT: THE DARK CAGE

  Susan could not believe what she had just read. Her hands were shaking and she felt short of breath.

  Her mother had started talking about this, about how she had gotten intertwined in the Hope Falls tangled web. She remembered the conversation now, what her mother had said.

  FLASH! "What the hell do you mean, my contract was owned by Hope Falls?"

  Cleo looked down at the kitchen table, her hands clutching her Mai Tai. "I never knew how to tell you…it was so hard, you see. We were paying for your acting classes and your education. We had to find a way to do it, to…" A tear slid down Cleo's cheek and she clutched a hand to her mouth. She took a deep steadying breath and continued.

  "…We had to find a way to do it, to survive. Every penny we had was going into your education. You wanted to be an actress so badly, Susan; I remember that day you told me you wanted to do that; we were watching a movie on television and you said you wanted to do that."

  Susan looked at her mother as if she were a different person, someone she didn't know. Who was this woman? Her mother was cold and distant; her mother was different. All her life, her mother had been different. Sensed things. It had set them apart; Susan never believed in what she could
n't see. Right now, her mother was hurting. "What happened, Mother?"

  "We were at an audition. You were eighteen. Your father and I were approached by Howard Kowalski."

  At the sound of his name, Susan felt a chill go up her spine. "That man had nothing to do with me until Miriam."

  "That's not true."

  "Yes it is." Susan spat the words at her mother.

  "Darling girl, you have to listen to me. Did you not wonder how you shot to stardom so quickly? Why you never had any trouble getting a part in anything? Why all the soap opera's wanted to cast you and offer you parts?"

  Susan stared at her mother, shocked. She felt as if she had been slapped. She had assumed that she had gotten the work because she was a good actress. And now, her mother was telling her…

  "What are you saying, Mother."

  "You had a contract. Different than Miriam's. But you had a contract."

  Susan felt her skin pale. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned in closer to her mother. There was fury there. "What. Are. You. Saying. Mother."

  "You didn't have to stay in one show, like Miriam." Cleo said. The walls had tumbled and Cleo's outer hard shell was crumbling. "I don't know what to say." Cleo said.

  "I'll tell you what to friggin say!" Susan yelled. "YOU CAN START AT THE FREAKING BEGINNING!" Susan's temper had finally hit the breaking point. She grabbed her mother by the throat of her gown and hauled her to her feet. "You can start at the beginning." Susan whispered.

  FLASH!

  Susan felt a tear slide down her cheek. Her and Miriam were the same. They both had the same fate. But why would her captor tell her anything about this? How did her captor know about Howard and about her contract when Susan didn't even know what was going on?

  She had a feeling that her captor was trying to prepare her for something, something monumental; that her life would change forever is she read on. Well, she though, my life can't get any more weird than it is already. She steeled herself and continued to read the script pages. There was only one page left and Susan couldn't help but think that this page held some secret she had been searching for.

  * * *

  [THE CAMERA SWITCHES TO THE DARK SHADOWS OF THE KITCHEN AND WE SEE CLEO STEP OUT OF THE DARKNESS. SHE IS YOUNG AND HAPPY AGAIN. THE WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THIS CHEERFULL FACE WILL BE JARRING.]

  CLEO: Come and sit down Susan. I have something to tell you.

  SUSAN: Mother? Mother what are you talking about?

  CLEO: Do you know the story of Hope Falls? It's a very pretty place, filled with very pretty people. But these pretty people do ugly things, lot's of nasty things my daughter.

  [The smile on Cleo's face get's wider, as if she is talking of apple pie, resting on the kitchen sill. Susan regards her mother with wide-open eyes.]

  SUSAN: Mother? [there is shock on her face]

  CLEO: Oh, yes, terrible things. Come, I will tell you.

  [SUSAN sits down beside her mother and watches as her mother pours tea from a pot into two mugs. CLEO takes a sip and looks at her daughter with eyes that are bright with tears]

  CLEO: You wanted to be an actress, my darling girl, a diva, a soap star. You got your wish though, didn't you? We made sure that you got your wish. [she stops momentarily as her eyes adjust to years gone by] We were at an audition on your eighteenth birthday. You were incredible, Susan, you really were. [she smiles again, showing teeth] But after your audition is when your life really started. Howard Kowalski came to us and offered you a job.

  SUSAN: In Hope Falls?

  CLEO: Oh no, darling, he already had enough pretty people in that place. It's a very pretty place. Everyone always dies there when they are the most beautiful. They are a sacrifice to Sex, darling. [she laughs] Oh, don't look so shocked darling daughter. Howard told us from the beginning what would happen; that you would die.

  SUSAN: Mother, what do you mean?

  CLEO: He had enough people in Hope Falls at the time, so your lifetime contract was different, the first of a new breed where the actress or actor could be hired out to any show, but his or her fate would be the same.

  [SUSAN looks as if a light has gone off in her head.]

  SUSAN: You knew that they would kill me? That they would put me in my own snuff film?

  CLEO: We didn't believe him, darling daughter. But the money he was offering was monumental, huge, amazing. We couldn't turn it down. Why do you think you have so much money at your disposal, even now? Howard provided well for us.

  SUSAN: But you're here now, you came to make sure I was safe. And all this time, it was you and my father that placed me here.

  CLEO: We never thought he would make good on his promise. Who kills people on film? We had no idea that he was serious. When we watched one actress die after another on various soaps, your father and I knew that he was serious, that he would take you away from us. Your father went to talk to them.

  SUSAN: Daddy? But…

  CLEO: Yes, darling, the crash. The night the car blew up. I escaped, but your father didn't have my luck. He wanted Howard to revoke your contract; we did love you, darling, but money was stronger than parental love at the time. Your father died because he tried to save you.

  SUSAN: Why did you wait so long to find me?

  CLEO: Because I knew that Howard was always watching, I knew I was in danger. But then when I heard about Miriam, I knew I had to find you, darling daughter. Don't you see? It was all done for you, we did everything for you. Hope Falls is a pretty place. Even if the beautiful die young. Howard finds and kills anyone who leaves, tries to leave. Sometimes he kills just to remind others that he is serious, that he is deadly. Now that you know the truth, my daughter, what are you going to do? You know the truth now. May it set you free….

  * * *

  Susan stared down at the pages with renewed anger. Her parents had sold her to Howard. Her parents had signed her own death warrant. And now they were all sitting ducks. If she was in here, chances were that there was trouble inside the house in Eagle Valley.

  Susan knew that the people she loved were in danger. The strange thing was that she didn't feel any hate towards her parents. She tried, god knows she tried. But she couldn't hate them. She mourned again for her father and wondered if she would ever see her mother again.

  She looked at the bars around her and screamed with frustration. Who was keeping her here? She pulled at her hair with frustration and felt something small fall from her hair and fall to the floor of her cage with a soft click.

  What was that? Susan got on her knees and felt around the floor like a blind woman. Then she felt it. She grabbed it and held the object in the small ray of light that fell inside her cage.

  It was a bobby pin.

  Chapter Thirty

  INT: EAGLE VALLEY: Living Room

  Derrick spoke first. "So you're Howard's lackey now are you?"

  Sophie smiled wider. "Figured it out did you?"

  "Sophie, how COULD you?" Cleo asked. "How could you do this to us? After what happened? To Miriam? To…" Cleo was about to say Susan, but couldn't bring herself to. A tear slid down her cheek.

  "I have my reasons."

  "Yeah?" Madder said. "Like what?"

  "Oh, like you have a say here, just shut up." She cocked the gun in Madder's direction. "You have no say here."

  "Sophie." Cleo said softly. "Why?"

  "What about what happened to me?" Sophie whispered.

  Derrick looked at her as if he didn't hear her correctly. "What do you mean, what happened to you?"

  "WHAT?!" Sophie looked outraged. "YOU LET ME DIE!" She screamed. "You left me there to rot and bleed to death! If it weren't for Howard finding me, if it weren't for Dragon's Cove, I would still be dead!"

  "What's Dragon's Cove?" Erin asked softly.

  "It's where I went to get better. It's where Howard saved me."

  "Sophie…" Derrick looked at her pleadingly. "You were dead. They slit your throat, don't you remember?"

  FLASH!

  Walking
down the hallway towards the back of the house, she took a cigarette from out of her purse and headed out the back door of the small farmhouse. She knew she shouldn't smoke, but to hell with it.

  Stopping for a moment, she turned and went back inside, pouring herself a glass of wine. If she was going to relax, she was going to do it right. The whole day had been weird. She was starting to feel as if she were right into the middle of a soap opera. Sophie knew from reading Oprah that drama was not good for a healthy life style. She wished that it would all stop soon.

  She walked out into the tall sunflowers that grew on the edge of the yard. They reached towards the sky and it's early dawn grayness. She inhaled and exhaled, enjoying the play of the smoke in front of her. She took a sip of her wine and smiled. It was the last thing she did before she died.

  It was done in a flash. A knife blade across the throat, her own blood running down her front. She saw the blood running down her shirtfront and tried to scream but could only gurgle.

  She gaped, not making a sound. Looking down she saw that blood had collected in the curve of her wineglass, staining her wine to a nice rose color.

  The last thing she thought, before she fell backward into someone's strong, hard arms, was that she was finally getting her wish. She smiled. FLASH! Sophie clutched at her head as if it hurt. "WE HAD THIS CONVERSATION!" She screamed. She shook her head from side to side, as if to clear it. "I KNOW what happened! I…"

  "You're not sure, are you, Sophie?" Cleo asked softly. "You're not sure what happened. Don't you remember dying?

  "Howard is just using you to get the job done from the inside." Madder said.

  Erin looked over at Madder and, even though she may be dying, she admired how strong he still looked, how handsome. "He's using you, Sophie." Erin said softly. "This is all a game to him and we're the pieces."

  "I SAID SHUT UP!" Sophie screamed. She clutched her head in her hands and tore at her hair. "None of you cared about me, none of you went back to get me."