Short story by VictorM

(Author’s note: The following is a movie treatment. For those not familiar with the term, a movie treatment is a synopsis of a movie script, without the dialogue, camera angles, and other technical details. It’s usually done for the benefit of producers to give them, in a page or two, a general idea of the plot line. This particular treatment is for a short film.)


[OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, AT NIGHT]

We see the house from outside, the bedroom light going out and the usual sounds of a quiet night are heard. The camera moves in as if it was a person moving.

[BEDROOM]

A middle age couple is getting ready to go to bed. Their actions denote they hardly pay any attention to each other. Life together is just a routine.

They lay in bed, each at their end of the king size bed, as far apart from each other as they can be.

The husband is almost asleep and the wife hears a noise. She calls the husband who reacts as if this is common. He tells her it’s just the cat, go to sleep.

[KITCHEN AND STAIRS]

The camera makes it’s way up the stairs as if someone is walking up.

[BEDROOM]

Past the bedroom door, we see that a man dressed all in black enters the bedroom and approaches the wife. Slowly he reaches for her neck and begins to squeeze it. She opens her eyes and has problems breathing. The man in black tells her that she has to confess to her husband about the affair they had.

Sounding frantic, she wakes her husband up and with the man in black behind her (but seemingly invisible to the husband), she tells him about an affair she had and can’t live with herself anymore.

The husband becomes irate, calls her names, and storms out of the bedroom.

A close up shows a female removing the belt from the man’s pants that are lying on a chair.

[STAIRS]

The camera walks down following a pair of hands wrapping the belt once around a woman’s hands.

[STAIRS and KITCHEN]

The husband is sitting at the kitchen table drinking water. The woman comes from behind him and wraps the belt around his neck, choking him. As he has trouble breathing, the camera follows his eyes to reveal a younger woman, not the wife. She starts telling him what a hypocrite he is for not telling his wife about their affair.

[BEDROOM]

Husband walks in followed by the woman in black and confesses his affair to the wife. They both sit quietly on the edge of their side of the bed. Short dialogue shows they recognize they are wasting their lives and that the mistakes of the past shouldn’t ruin anymore of their future.

Both lay in bed staring at the ceiling, this time their bodies a little closer in bed than in the opening scene. The man and the woman in black both sit at the foot of the bed, neither having the energy that had in the beginning. The husband and wife’s hands slowly reach for each other and tenderly touch. With that, the man and woman in black fade and disappear from the scene (if that’s technically possible) or they can just get up and walk out of the room.

[OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, AT NIGHT]

A shot from outside the house shows the bedroom light going out and the usual sounds of a quiet night are heard.