The Bathroom out of Space

One of the assignments I most enjoyed in the otherwise quite awful intro to writing class at UVic was the screenplay segment. I’m happy enough with the result of that work that I will now be sharing it here. I’d like to try actually filming it sometime soon, though I’d have a lot to learn before I could try doing that.

Enjoy!

THE BATHROOM

OUT OF SPACE

Written By: S.v.S.

FADE IN

INT. BATHROOM – NIGHT

A household bathroom, small but fully equipped (combination bath and shower, TOILET, towel rack, and cabinet sink with a WALL MIRROR) dimly lit by some dying halogen bulbs. WATER DAMAGE encroaches across the space, and grows putrid in the dark corners. The air is stagnant, the ceiling vent coated in a thick layer of dust. There are NO WINDOWS, and only one DOOR made of peeling plywood and cardboard. WATER drips from the shower head intermittently.

DAVID (20s, male) is seated on the toilet, staring at a DISCORD MESSAGE on his PHONE.

DISCORD MESSAGE

Hey bud, you gonna make it to board game night tonight?

DAVID writes and deletes a few excuses, before responding simply.

DAVID

Not tonight, sorry.

The message doesn’t send, displaying in bold RED on BLACK. NO CONNECTION. He puts the PHONE down, finishes on the toilet, and stares into the MIRROR. DAVID is unkempt, tired, and LONELY.

DAVID retries sending the message, and receives a notice from his phone that he has LOST his internet CONNECTION and that the message will send when he reconnects. He checks to see if there are any connections available, and sees none.

DAVID (Muttured)

Fuckin-

He is interrupted by a SCRATCHING at the DOOR.

DAVID

Just a second!

SFX. Cat meows

He opens the door and a BLACK CAT bolts into the bathroom. It is also clearly unkempt, tired, and LONELY. It jumps on top of the toilet seat, and scratches at the lowered lid.

DAVID turns away from the door frame to look at the cat. As the door opens the BLACK VOID frames DAVID with crisp darkness.

DAVID

Do you belong to one of my roommates? I don’t think we’re allowed pets.

SFX. Cat meows again, dry and ragged.

The CAT is clearly THIRSTY.

DAVID turns the tap on, and a small trickle of cold WATER flows. The CAT quickly leaps up onto the counter and drinks feverishly.

DAVID

Thirsty boy, huh. I’ll leave you to that.

He turns to face the VOID, a vast expanse of pure darkness blacker than deepest space. DAVID stumbles back, clearly not expecting for his APARTMENT–let alone the rest of the WORLD–to be MISSING.

DAVID

What the fuck?

EXT. VOID

David is now framed by the dingy bathroom, which is like a beacon against the infinite VOID, a pinprick of light that refuses to be swallowed by the dark.

TITLE CARD

The door is sandwiched by two fragments of the title in a bold and simple font. THE BATHROOM | OUT OF SPACE

INT. BATHROOM – NIGHT

DAVID’S PHONE pings. He’s received a response.

DISCORD MESSAGE

That’s too bad man. It’s a good time but we wish you were here!

DAVID reconnected somehow. He carefully backs away from the edge of the floor, which extends only a foot past the door frame, and sits on the edge of the TUB. He types into his SEARCH BAR “spontaneous door to the void” but nothing loads. He has NO WIFI. He lifts his phone up and points it out towards the void. Checking for open networks, he sees one. LINKSYS has no bars, and is flickering in and out of service. As he inches forwards, the connection becomes more stable.

Only DAVID’S HAND crosses the threshold, and finally a one-bar connection is made. He tries his search again. No luck. Just an endlessly loading webpage. Other attempts to catch a stronger signal are slow to attempt due to the poor quality of his connection.

DAVID closes the door, and turns off the sink. The CAT is done drinking, and stares back at him.

DAVID

Did you do this? Are you gonna vanish into thin air and abandon me to the void? Little Cheshire fuck.

The CAT slow-blinks back at DAVID.

DAVID

I don’t trust you.

DAVID leans against the wall and slides to the FLOOR, putting his head in his hands and pulling his knees up to his chest. The CAT joins him on the floor and brushes against his legs with its tail. He reaches out to PET the CAT, and strokes its smooth fur neatly.

INT. BATHROOM – DAY

DAVID’S PHONE plays his morning ALARM. It’s 7am. He wakes up on the floor of the bathroom, CAT curled up on his chest. He stares at the GROSS dingy lower WALLS, and rises quickly, annoying the CAT. He opens the DOOR. Still VOID.

EXT. VOID

A HAIR BRUSH flies out the DOOR; it is thrown by DAVID and silently tumbling into the darkness, fading from view as it shrinks away from the DOOR.

INT. BATHROOM – DAY

DAVID is unhinged, his appearance even more bedraggled than before. He catches sight of himself in the MIRROR, and the state of the room around him. He slams the DOOR, puts the CAT in a BASKET OF HAND TOWELS on the top of the shelf, grabs CLEANING SUPPLIES, runs a HOT BATH, and begins restoring cleanliness.

DAVID is a flurry of manic action. He washes the walls and floor, polishes metal, scrubs the toilet, and washes clothes (hanging them to dry out across several racks.) Finally he takes careful attention to shaving his SHITTY FACIAL HAIR, using his roommates EXPENSIVE GROOMING KIT.

Once he is done, the room has transformed. It is spotless, still a little damp in spots, but all of the filth has been eradicated, and the CLUTTERED MESSES are now neatly sorted.

The CAT stretches from the resting spot and jumps to the floor, meowing indignantly at DAVID.

DAVID

What do you want, bud?

SFX. Cat meows.

The CAT bites at DAVID’S ANKLE.

DAVID

I’m hungry too, bud. We’ll just have to be patient, okay? We’re still connected to the rest of the world, somehow. We have light, and water. I can try using the WIFI again, see if I can reach out to someone who knows what has happened.

SFX. Cat meows.

DAVID

Okay, here’s the deal. I’m gonna open up this door, and if there’s still nothing out there– no. New deal, okay? I will get you the best fish money can buy, wagyu tuna, lasagna made by Gordon Ramsay, whatever you want. But in exchange, you promise to put us back where we belong. This has to be your fault, right? Okay, so you do your part, and I’ll open up the door.

EXT. VOID

DAVID (O.S)

FUCK!

INT. BATHROOM – DAY

DAVID

C’mon…

DAVID paces back and forth in the bathroom, and lingers on the towels. He takes a large TOWEL from the rack, winds it in his hands, and ties it to the shower curtain POLE.

The TOWEL stretches taught, at an angle. We reveal that the TOWEL is tied in sequence with all the other towels into a rope stretching out the door, anchoring DAVID as he leans outstretched holding his PHONE at arm’s length.

The PHONE has a clear signal, and he sends his search again. A YOUTUBE VIDEO is at the top of the feed, and he presses play. A young male narrator with a put-on dramatic voiceover speaks over images of doors with blackness behind them.

YOUTUBE VIDEO (V.O.)

The Void, an extradimensional space that swallows countless victims and spits out thousands of terrifying monsters.

The POLE is straining against the weight, creaking and flexing.

YOUTUBE VIDEO (V.O.)

This is the fourth video in the series investigating the stories of The Void, there’s a playlist in the description to start from the beginning. Remember to subs—

The VIDEO buffers, and DAVID stretches out just a little further, and skips forward in the VIDEO.

YOUTUBE VIDEO (V.O)

—one of only three survivors of The Void, escaped using his intelligence, craftiness, and most of all, hope. We know that he needed to get back to his wife and kids—

The POLE snaps free! DAVID is in free-fall, flailing weightlessly for a second. He suddenly stops, holding himself up by one desperate hand, and dropping his PHONE. The VIDEO continues playing as the sound fades away into the distance.

INT. BATHROOM – DAY

The POLE has wedged between the DOOR and WALL, catching itself on the surfaces and halting its movement. This motion has also swung the door closed. The CAT investigates the TOWEL with a few curious swings.

EXT. VOID

DAVID is climbing the rope, going up inch-by-inch, as the fabric slips down at nearly the same speed as he climbs. He’s getting no closer to the door yet.

INT. BATHROOM – DAY

The CAT continues to unravel the knot, and the TOWEL is seconds from slipping out from under the door. With one last slip, it’s gone. The SHOWER ROD rolls away from the door.

EXT. VOID

The TOWEL CHAIN flutters in near-total darkness, falling deeper into the dark. DAVID is not falling, though. 

DAVID is gripping the edge of the door-frame for his life, and desperately scrabbling to pull himself up. He kicks in the air, pulls hard, and lunges up, stretching an arm out for the door handle. He gets a grip, and puts a leg against the solid surface, levering the rest of his body up.

DAVID takes a second to catch his breath, and wipe his brow. He used every muscle in his body fueled by adrenaline-filled life-saving reserves that he does not normally have, and he is wiped out.

He takes a lingering glance down into the VOID, where his PHONE is still falling, a pinprick in the far distance. It is visible and audible only because there is no other source of light or sound around.

DAVID twists the HANDLE, but it does not open. He jiggles it- locked.

VOICE BEHIND THE DOOR (O.S)

Occupied!

DAVID knocks at the door.

VOICE BEHIND THE DOOR (O.S)

Just a second!

THE END.