OUTWITTED
“Don’t worry, Jett. I won’t. I just needed to taste it is all. It’s been hard trying to kick the habit,” says Arnie with his thick, southern drawl, while removing the cherry flavored cigar from his mouth. He places it in his t-shirt pocket. “Last one,” he says gently patting it.
“Getta move on it, Arnie. You’re too slow. That guy will be here any minute to pick this stuff up.” Jett pushes a box filled with gunpowder across the table toward his best friend of twenty-five years.
“You
know, I think Leanne is trying to have me killed,” says Arnie. He removes a toothpick from the same pocket and picks at his teeth.
“I’d probably
wanna kill you too, Arnie.”
“Whose
side are you on, Jett? She left me.
She left me for a younger man.”
He throws the toothpick down onto the table.
“Come on,
Arnie. You know she’s ruthless and vengeful. I’d watch my back if I were you, more now than ever, since you wiped her clean in
that bad divorce of yours.”
“Oh, I plan too.”
“There’s
no proof she’s with someone else. Have
you seen her with another dude?”
“No, but Rosco said his name’s Dean.”
“Rosco? Look, you can’t believe anything he
says. Everything that comes out of his
mouth is a lie. Now,
finish the last of that up. I’m going to
see if that guy’s here yet. I’ll be back shortly.”
Jett walks
out of the room and goes upstairs. As
Jett enters the kitchen, he looks through the glass, storm door noticing a young man dressed as a
fireman standing on the porch. He smiles throwing his hand up at Jett.
“Can I
help you?” Jett asks approaching the
door.
“Yeah, I’m
here to see Jett about an extinguisher,” he responds.
Now,
that’s what I wanted to hear!”
As Jett
unlocks the door and lets him in, he hands Jett an envelope filled with
cash. Jett quickly counts it and smiles.
“Thank
you. Now, let’s tend to business,” says
Jett stuffing the envelope into his back pocket.
“Where’s
your partner?”
“Arnie’s
waiting for us downstairs. Follow me.”
As Jett
turns around and starts to walk ahead, the man removes a piece of nylon rope
from his pocket, wraps it around Jett’s neck and strangles
him to death.
“Looks
like I’ll be tending to business alone. I’ve
just got to finish up by killing your buddy, Arnie since he’s
the real reason I came,” says the
man, while retrieving the envelope from Jett. He slides the rope back into his pocket and continues
downstairs. “Hello? Anyone here?”
Arnie
walks out of the room holding the gunpowder.
“Can I help you?” He glances up
the stairway searching for Jett.
“Looking
for your friend? Well, he’s not
coming. He’s upstairs…dead!”
“What the?
Jett’s dead? Who are you? Wait a minute! You’re Dean!”
“Yes, I
am, you sorry, good for nothing hillbilly, you got that right. I’m Dean and you’re a
dead man like your buddy upstairs!” Dean says taking a step toward him.
“Stay
right where you are! Don’t come any
closer or I’ll blow this place to bits!”
As Arnie
holds the gunpowder box tight against his chest, powder starts to leak from
beneath it.
“No you
won’t, Arnie. Leanne said you’re all
talk and no action. That’s why she likes
me so much.”
Arnie
runs back into the room, slams the door and locks it.
“Arnie,
we both know you’re not going to blow up the joint! You don’t have the guts,” says Dean, slamming his body weight against the door.
Just as
he breaks through and enters, he observes Arnie still holding the box and…smoking a cigar! The room is filled with
boxes marked fireworks and explosives.
As he takes a step toward Arnie, he steps on a powdery substance. A trail of gunpowder leads from the door toward the explosives. Arnie drops the empty box down onto the floor
and removes the cigar from his mouth.
“Arnie, don’t
be stupid!”
Dean”
“Okay,
okay! I’m really sorry, Arnie. Please don’t do it!” Dean begs.
“I’ve nothing
left. Everything I love’s gone,” says
Arnie lowering his head. A tear runs down his cheek and drops down into the gunpowder.
As Dean
turns around, attempting to escape, Arnie flicks his cherry cigar into the gunpowder.
* * *
A couple
of years later an expensive, new home resides on the property. A wealthy realtor
purchased Jett’s property a year prior and had a home
built for his lovely, new wife.
“Well,
honey, how do you like your new home?”
He asks.
“I love
it, Gary! It’s perfect!” His wife says gently kissing him on the
cheek.
“Not too
big?”
“No, I
love a home with lots of room to roam.
I’ve been looking forward to this.”
She says.
“Glad to
hear it. Ready to turn in for the night,
my lady?”
“Yep,
sure am!” She says.
Gary
wraps his arm around her, pulling her close, as they walk down the hallway
toward the bedroom. Shortly
after falling asleep, the woman is awakened as someone continuously whispers her name.
“Who’s
there?” She asks frantically.
“You know
who. I don’t haveta tell ya,” says a
darkened silhouette standing at the foot of her bed accompanied by another bound in chains.
“Oh, no, you’ve got to be kidding me! Arnie, is that you?”
“Yes, it is! I’m not going to let you do it…Leanne,” says
Arnie, as the chained silhouette standing beside him moans.
“Do what? What do you think I’m going to do?” She asks.
“Don’t think
Jett and I haven’t figured out your plan for Dean, here,” he says grabbing onto the chains binding the guy next to him,
rattling them.
“Dean? Is that really you? How did you know I’d come back, Arnie? Let him go or else!” She
threatens.
“Your
threats are no good here, Leanne. You
can’t kill a dead man. No thanks to you,
Jett and I can never leave this place, since we died
here. If you stay here, Jett and I will
haunt you for eternity.”
“Is that
so? Are you threatening me, now, Arnie?”
“No, not at
all, Leanne. Since your lover, Dean,
here can’t leave this place either, I figured it wouldn’t be long before you would figure out a
way to come back and reunite.”
“Well,
I’m bringing Dean back and I’m going to use this guy here to do it,” says
Leanne pointing Gary as he sleeps.
“That’s
the only reason you married him, you lyin user!”
She
smiles. “You’ve got that right. Wow, Arnie, I’m actually impressed.”
“You know, Leanne, you’re actually the one
responsible for Dean’s death. You shouldn’t have sent him to try and take me out. You underestimated me.”
“Shut up,
Arnie! Just shut up!” She tightens her hands into fists.
“You’ll
never get Dean back. Not if Jett and I
can help it.”
“You sure
about that? You sound so confident.” She glances around. “Where’s your buddy, Jett? Oh, Jett,
where are you?”
“The only way you’re going to get Dean
back is if that guy lying next to you agrees to allow himself to be possessed by Dean and I don’t think
he’ll go for it,” says Arnie rattling the chains again, smiling.
“Well,
this may come as a shock to you, but, he already agreed.”
“That’s impossible! You’re lying!
Why would he do that?”
“Shocking, isn’t it? As we both
know, I couldn’t afford to purchase Jett’s property because you wiped me clean.
Eventually, it was sold. So, I
went on a mission to find out who the purchaser was and low and behold it was a handsome
realtor…Gary, here. I knew all I had to
do was get him to fall in love with me." She smiles wickedly and crosses her arms. "Here's the big kicker! Gary knows I'm in love with Dean." She smiles, "I was honest with him about that from the start.
We made an agreement. I told him I’d marry him if he agreed to help me release Dean’s
spirit and in doing so, it would put my mind at ease.
I would no longer have to worry about Dean and I would be able to focus
on him and our marriage.”
“But, you
weren’t completely honest Gary. You
deceived him. You left out the most important part about him being possessed by Dean for
the rest of his life once he helps release his spirit.”
“I’ll do
whatever it takes to bring Dean back…anything!
Now, release him from those chains Arnie!”
“Or what? You can’t hurt me anymore. I’m a ghost!”
“Or, I will kill Gary while he sleeps!”
“If you
do, you won’t be able to bring Dean back.”
“That
wouldn’t stop me you idiot! I would just
use someone else to do it! I’m only
going to say it one last time. Release Dean or Gary is a dead man!”
“One day
you’ll pay for what you’ve done, Leanne,” says Arnie, as he unchains the dark silhouette next to him. The chains quickly fall to the floor.
Leanne nudges
Gary on the shoulder. “Gary, wake up! I found Dean!
He’s here in this room right now!
Now, allow his spirit into your body!
Welcome him in. Say it, Gary!”
Gary sits
up wearing a strange look on his face.
“Hurry,
Gary, before it’s too late!”
“Okay,
okay, Leanne. I welcome you and allow
you to come in,” says Gary gazing upon the unchained spirit.
Leanne
leans down by Gary’s face. “Dean, are
you there? Dean, answer me! Please!”
Gary’s
eyes open. “I’m here.”
She sobs,
grabbing and kissing him, as he sits up in bed kicking off the covers.
“Is it
really you? I’ve missed you so much,” she
says caressing the side of Gary’s face.
He gets
out of bed and walks out of the room. As
he disappears from view, Leanne calls after him, but he doesn’t answer. She gets out of bed, puts on her robe and
walks down the hall, picking up on a faint scent resembling the
smell of a lit match. Immediately, she
smells an entirely different smell…a familiar smell. A smell more familiar than any smell she’s
ever known. She anxiously
runs toward it, panicked, gasping for air, until she reaches the entrance to the kitchen. She
peeks in and discovers Gary’s body sitting at the kitchen table smoking a cigar! She inhales sniffing the familiar smell.
“Dean,
honey, I think you’ve been a ghost for too long. Arnie’s got you smoking his cherry cigars.”
“You
know, Leanne, not long ago, I met a realtor, who bought me these cherry cigars. I told him, if he didn’t find you, convince you to marry
him and build your new home here, I would haunt him for the rest of his life. At first, he didn’t believe me. But, eventually he was very much persuaded.
So, he also went on a mission, found you
first, convinced you that he was in love with you,
married you and built your new home here.
I couldn’t convince him to kill you so, I made another agreement with him. That agreement was for me to be permitted to temporarily possess him, so that I could kill you,
using his body to do so. He wouldn’t remember a thing because I would be in complete control
then. After doing this, he would have his life back. He wouldn't have to worry about looking over his shoulder or being awakened by us at night, you know, like we did you, and low and behold, Gary
agreed!”
“Oh
no! Arnie! It’s you!
What have you done? And, what
have you done with Dean?”
“Don’t worry,
Jett and I took care of him. Oh, and I
thought you’d like to know, that was Jett in the bedroom pretending to be me.”
Enraged,
she screams and runs into the kitchen toward Arnie. Her long fingers spread out like eagle claws ready to rip him apart. As she approaches him, he jumps up from the
table and punches her in the face, knocking her out cold. “Now, I
can’t have you dying here, Leanne, because if you did, we would never be rid of
you. And, I don’t think Jett and I could handle you for eternity. So, I’m going to have to take you somewhere else and finish you off!” He casually finishes his cherry cigar, picks
her up, throws her over his shoulder and carries her out of the
house.
Written by Payton Kane, Screenwriter
about.me.com/pkscreenwriter
Payton Kane Screenwriter/instagram
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