Preservation

Sheltered: Reel Five

Fade in.

The scene is dark as nighttime continues to rule the screen, broken only by the occasional burst of lightning shining in through the house's many windows.

At the top of the basement staircase, Oberlin peers down at Dorothy who is trapped there with nowhere to run. The sporadic lighting continues to illuminate his features, giving him the look of a frightening boogie man in the night.

Dorothy looks up in horror, staying frozen in place.

The camera moves in on Oberlin until his image fills the screen. He is in shadow mostly, his features coming clear for a few brief seconds in time with the unpredictable lightning flashes. The image remains like this for the entirety of the following monologue.

"Do you recall the tale I'd told you of Lucious Gabriel and the village that suffered from mass hysteria?" he begins. "There's a part of it that always struck me as particularly tragic. During all the time that he spent in that cursed village, he had what some would consider to be an unlimited access to human suffering. All of those souls, drunk on delusion and fear, were ripe for the plucking. You see, over all these years of treating sick patients, I've discovered the most intoxicating substance known to man. Fear. Fear and pain. They are like a narcotic. Once you've tapped into them, truly learned how to bring pain and fear out of others, you've found a source of euphoria unlike anything else that exists in nature. The darker the fear, the deeper the pain, the sweeter the rush. Lucious Gabriel had found a source of pure, raw fear, enough to feed a connoisseur like myself for years. Yet he chose to cure the illness. To me, this is a tragedy, a missed opportunity to indulge in the greatest high imaginable. That's why I journeyed to that small village. I wanted to see if any of that raw, long-ago fear remained. Alas, it did not. The people there have moved on. I left only with the amulet I'd shown you, a memento of an opportune moment long lost. However, upon my return, it occurred to me that I had my own opportunity right here. The fear and pain of my patience would be my gateway to the high, and I was sure not to squander it as Lucious Gabriel had. One by one, I slowly began to poison them, stretching out the disease for as long as I could until they eventually succumbed to their ailments and dies. Not all, mind you. That would be bad for business. Just the ones who were old and infirm, like your mother was. People whose deaths wouldn't arouse suspicion. The high is always fleeting though. Death takes that away. Sometimes, a close proximity to the body prolongs the experience. Hence the individual you've discovered in the duffle bag. In order for it to work, though, I have to keep the corpse close, which is risky. But it's not enough. To see the high slip away is one of the most devastating things you can imagine. I've been searching for a way to prolong the experience. But the chance has never presented itself, not until I found you. Your condition has provided me with the perfect ingredients: A young girl, a quiet girl who can't leave, can't call for help. A girl trapped by her own delicious, glorious fear, enough to sustain the high indefinitely, an untapped, inexhaustible well of fear and pain all for the taking."

The monologue now over, the camera cuts back to Dorothy. Tears roll down her face as she continues to look up at her tormentor.

"Please," she begs. "Let me go."

"Go where?" Oberlin counters. "Don't you see? That's the point. You can't leave, and that's by your own volition. Not mine. Therefore, you will remain here and serve your purpose. Your fear, along with the bodies of the dead that I'm able to resurrect from their graves, will dwell in this house and help me to sustain the high. That is your place now. That is your fate."

Oberlin turns and walks away. Dorothy, still crying on the staircase, bows her head as we fade out.

We open again to a montage of various activities showing Oberlin's cruel treatment of Dorothy. Waxman's score sets the somber mood as each section of the montage plays out. The segments go as follows: