MIRROR IMAGE

INTERIOR of an apartment. LIGHT is streaming in through a NARROW window with frilly curtains that look DRAB. The light is throwing patterns on the floor. Highlighting patches where the hardwood floor has peeled off.

There is sofa-bed/couch in a corner UNMADE, some clothes heaped on it.

ARUNA walks into the room.

BACKGROUND: Sounds of a bathroom flush going off.

She heads for the UNMADE COUCH. Clearly, she has just come out of the bathroom.

She’s about five feet four inches tall with a pear-shaped figure. Her body language is INTENSE. Even half-asleep she seems like she’s ready to SPAR.

The corners of the room are dark. Full of unrevealed SECRETS.

ARUNA lies down on the pile of clothes and murmuring to herself settles down to sleep.

There is a slight sound of a CREAKY floorboard. And then NOTHING. But she continues to sleep, undisturbed.

INSIDE THE ROOM –

The camera pulls back to reveal the rest of the room. There’s a table and chair in OKAY condition. In another corner is the kitchen area, also as untidy as the rest of the room.

The CAMERA continues a slow tour past the open bathroom door with a frayed mat in the front. The walls of the room are an insipid shade of grey-blue.

And then it comes to a STOP in front of a MIRROR with a wrought iron border from where some trinkets and tassels are hanging.

There’s something a little odd about the MIRROR. As the camera moves past it something catches the eye.

The camera RETURNS and we see someone move away quickly. We barely catch a glimpse.

ARUNA moves and snores a bit in her sleep. The camera almost CREEPS up on her. She’s sleeping on her back, one hand thrown out and one hand resting on her chest. On the floor near out-stretched hand is her mobile phone. The light on it is flickering showing the time –

14:58 hrs

And then the phone RINGS. An abrupt staccato sound which comes in short, frequent bursts that seem to ERUPT from it.

At first, she barely stirs. Yet the CAMERA stays focussed on her RELENTLESSLY. She mumbles in her sleep. Gives a giggle.

The camera stays focussed.

The phone is still ringing.

And then her eyes OPEN. The slightly unfocussed look gives way to a look of comprehension. Her hand reaches towards the phone.

The PHONE is still ringing and just as ARUNA’s hand reaches for it and swipes on the answer icon SOMETHING reaches out and swats her finger away.

“Aaah”, she shouts in surprise and irritation.

The camera barely lingers on her angry expression and turns to FOCUS on the tall mirror. A barely visible SHADOW enters the mirror.

ARUNA turns around and goes back to sleep.

*********************************

NEXT DAY – Early morning. The same studio apartment.

ARUNA is up. She pulls back the curtains. They are old and a bit TATTERED.

Something falls out of the FOLDS of the curtains. It makes a tiny tinkling sound. She picks it up.

It’s a small Halloween mask, about two inches tall. There’s something strange about it. The eyes are not hollow spaces. It seems like they’re looking back.

Aruna gives out a tight little SCREAM and then walking to window she THROWS it out.

****************************************

RUBBISH DUMP

The Halloween MASK falls there. The camera moves CLOSER to it. And CLOSER. The MASK is just lying there, on the trash. And just as the camera is moving away from it, the eyes BLINK!