Watch this dark circle spiral
(All scripted dialogue is subjectively written)
I.
A businessman (early 30s) is rushing through waves of people on a busy city street. He witnesses another gentleman being shot, but cannot see the shooter. He rushes to his aid.
BUSINESSMAN: SOMEBODY HELP!
He tries to stop the blood with his coat but obviously doesn't know what he's doing. The stranger looks like he's trying to mouth something but it's unintelligible to the audience.
BUSINESSMAN: IS ANYBODY WATCHING THIS? SOMEBODY HELP HIM!
The public ignore him and barge past. He shakes someone and screams into their face for help, briefly making eye contact, but they carry on walking as though he hasn't even touched them. He rushes back to the stranger, desperately apologising as he tries to stop the bleeding. He dies in his arms.
CUT TO BLACK.
II.
FADE IN TO A DISTORTED MONTAGE (2 MINUTES APPROX): PSYCHOLOGIST TALKING, PATIENTS IN AN ASYLUM, BUSINESSMAN BEING FORCED TO TAKE TABLET AND STRAPPED TO A BED. Ambient sounds - talking, laughing, screaming.
PSYCHOLOGIST: What I'm trying to tell you is that you're living in a delusion/why would/killed for no apparent reason?/your mind has created a world in which you have a normal life/suffering from a psychosis/the bleeding man never existed - you know this.
BUSINESSMAN: I saw it happen!/anybody listening to me?
PATIENT: Losing your mind? Man I can relate/dreamt up I was somebody important/details are blurry now/I can't go back out there/consumed by sin.
BUSINESSMAN: Might not be true/got to get out of here/peace of mind.
PATIENT: Better here than Madici/do you want to spend your last minutes as a cat?/I can't go back.
BUSINESSMAN: I don't remember/what's my real name/I understand/the CHNO building?
PSYCHOLOGIST: Drastic improvements/appears to be accepting his condition.
FADE TO BLACK.
III.
Blackness suddenly cuts to a shot of the psychologist smiling from his desk.
PSYCHOLOGIST: ...and do you remember where you live?
BUSINESSMAN: Over on Restaurant Street.
PSYCHOLOGIST: Your memory's improved drastically.
BUSINESSMAN: Not really...I still can't remember where Restaurant Street is.
PSYCHOLOGIST: It's relatively near your work.
The businessman gives the psychologist a blank look, who responds with a chuckle.
PSYCHOLOGIST: ...the CHNO building,
He stands up and walks towards the seated Businessman, who stands at his approach.
PSYCHOLOGIST: Go home and get some rest. Your manager's expecting you at your desk on Monday. If you still feel faint, give me a call and I'll arrange for you to come here and have a couple more days rest - fully paid of course.
FADE TO BLACK.
IV.
The businessman comes out of the CHNO building with a pile of files under his arm and walks down the street. It is obvious that some time has passed - his appearance has improved drastically. After looking towards his usual route home, he notices the person he shook in the "delusion" walking down an unused alleyway (cue flashback if needed). He hurries down the alleyway and loses them after pushing out onto a busy street. Ambient noise becomes distressing and busy as he starts to recognise his surroundings, but his nervouse breathing quickens and can now be heard above everything else. He rushes from street to street, eventually coming to the same street at the beginning of the short. The ambient noise makes way for silence. He walks over to the spot where the stranger was shot but finds nothing. He goes to turn away but a crowd of people surge into him, making him drop his files. He bends down to pick them up and notices something on the floor. A look of horror dawns on his face as the music starts to get frantic and the camera cuts to what is now obviously blood in the pavement crack.
A bullet rips through his body. A member of the crowd runs up to help stop the bleeding, screaming for help, but the other people carry on walking as if he isn't even there.
CUT TO BLACK. WHITE WRITING APPEARS.
"Shutting their eyes, they burn the books/of truth and brand them sophistry/"This verse", they spit from haunted lips/"is treason dressed as prophecy" - from "Infernal Madici", T. Grayson.