Media And Critic Screening (2)

…..

This is research, Bill tells himself. Just research.

But the critics, journalists, bloggers, and influencers are all watching, and for now, the audience can see the cracks beginning to show. Each glance, each subtle flinch betrays his internal conflict, a struggle between his fascination with Cobb and the gnawing realization of the darkness he is stepping into.

The scene ends with Bill trailing Cobb out of the apartment, the door closing softly behind them. The silence that follows is heavy, suffocating, leaving the audience braced for what's to come next.

….

During their fifth heist, Cobb escalates the stakes by targeting a luxurious penthouse.

Bill trails Cobb through the rooms, his moves as he absorbs every detail with growing discomfort.

It's in the study where Bill stumbles upon it - A photograph, framed delicately, of a woman.

She is beautiful but seemed haunted, her eyes distant, framed by soft waves of dark hair. She stands beside a man whose presence is as commanding as her silence is unsettling. There is a mystery in the air, a story that feels like it's been trapped in that single image, begging to be unraveled.

Cobb notices Bill's gaze lingering on the photo and lets out a low chuckle, one that carries a dark edge.

"Careful, Bill." He says, his voice casual but knowing. "These rich types will ruin you if you let them."

Bill doesn't respond immediately. His mind is consumed by the image, the woman's melancholy, her air of tragedy.

He nods mechanically, not really hearing Cobb anymore.

....

A few days later, the city pulses with its usual frenetic energy.

Bill, walking aimlessly through the streets, finds himself at a bar he has never been to before - a dimly lit, smoky place that reeks of whiskey and cigarettes.

His eyes scan the room, and then he sees her.

The Woman. The same haunting figure from the penthouse photo.

She is sitting at the end of the bar, nursing a drink, her beauty still untouched by the passage of time. Her gaze is fixed deeply on the glass before her.

Bill hesitates, then makes his way toward her, his heart racing. "Mind if I join you?"

She looks up, and for a moment, Bill feels like he has fallen into the photograph itself. The same distant sadness lingers in her eyes.

"I am Sarah." She says softly, her voice like velvet, but there is an edge of weariness to it. A classic femme fatale, Bill thinks, drawn to her magnetism, but also sensing the danger.

As the days pass, their meetings grow more frequent. At first, it's casual - just conversations, shared drinks, and fleeting glances.

But Bill notices the change in her, a growing distress that she tries to conceal behind her charming smile. The cracks are starting to show.

Then one night, in the same bar, Sarah leans in.

"I am in trouble, Bill." She confesses. "My ex... he is a nightclub owner, Blackstone. He is blackmailing me. He has photos - photos that could ruin me. If I don't get them back, everything I have worked for, everything I have built... it's gone."

The audience feels a mix of intrigue and foreboding as Sarah pleads with Bill for help retrieving the photos, appealing to his sense of justice and budding attachment to her.

Her soft-spoken words are like seduction, drawing both Bill and the viewers closer, making her seem like a victim worth saving.

And in that moment, as the smoke curls around them and the city buzzes outside, Bill is no longer an outsider in his own life.

He is a player in someone else's narrative.

He nods back.

Sarah smiles.

….

Cobb warns Bill against getting involved with Sarah. "She is trouble, mate. The kind that drags you down."

Despite the warning, Bill grows distant from Cobb, spending more time with Sarah.

And the audience sees a subtle shift in Bill.

His once-naive trust in Cobb falters as his growing attachment to Sarah takes center stage as he begins helping her plan the burglary.

Cobb appears supportive but still expresses his disagreement.

…..

Then comes the break-in.

The nightclub is a labyrinth of shadows and blaring music, and the camera follows Bill in tight, chaotic shots.

His hands are shaking as he works the lock, his breath ragged, each sound amplified by the tension. The countdown ticks in his mind, the seconds stretching, each one heavier than the last.

Then the alarm shatters the quiet, and it's like time itself freezes. The sound is deafening, and the adrenaline surges.

The world blurs as Bill's heartbeat races in his ears. His escape is a blur of adrenaline and panic - until Cobb, somehow, is there, pulling him to safety.

"I told you she was trouble." Cobb mutters, but Bill doesn't hear him.

His focus is on the box.

Inside, he finds more than just incriminating photos.

The cash.

Bundles of it.

And Sarah, shown as the smooth talker, convinces him. "He deserves it."

She says it so easily, and Bill, clouded by his feelings for her, doesn't hesitate.

It's his now.

....

Bill did not meet Sarah after that….

Though suspicious, caught in the infatuation, he ignores it.

However, many in the audience thought otherwise, and soon the tension boils over when police raid Bill's apartment.

The pounding on the door is thunderous, and Bill's protests are swallowed by the officers' commands, their hands rough as they drag him out.

The camera lingers on the stolen money, photos, and jewelry.

Then the other news hits him like a ton of bricks.

Blackstone's dead.

Murdered… on the same day Bill stole his safe.

The theater goes deathly silent, the weight of the revelation was unexpected, but their concern was mostly related to the inevitable.

And as they expected, Bill's world shatters at that moment.

He didn't know who the murderer was, but he knew he was too deep now, and it seemed like there was no way out for him.

….

The scene cuts back to the present, oppressive white of the interrogation room.

Bill's eyes are hollow, but he fights it. "I didn't do it. I don't know how I have the stuff..."

Then, slowly - bit by agonizing bit - the pieces of the puzzle begin to click together in his mind, each one landing like a heavy weight on his chest.

The flashbacks hit hard.

The time he met Cobb, innocently enough, at first.

The friendship that seemed real, a lifeline in a world of chaos. But now, with hindsight's sharp sting, Bill realizes the truth.

Cobb wasn't just his friend.

He was the mastermind, the puppet master pulling all the strings, making Bill a pawn without even realizing it.

Cobb's familiar face, the times he had invited Bill into his schemes, and each burglary they had carried out together - all of it fell into place.

The items Cobb had stolen, the ones Bill had seen with his own eyes, are now sitting in his apartment, damning him.

And then there is Sarah.

Was she also his plan from the beginning?

It all clicks.

She wasn't just a victim. She was part of it from the start - a player in Cobb's game, working him like a fiddle.

They had planned everything, leading Bill to steal the money, to get involved in the crime, ensuring he would be the perfect scapegoat for Blackstone's murder.

He had been set up from the beginning, a pawn in their game.

Bill slumps in his chair, the realization crashing down on him like a tidal wave.

He can't explain the evidence. He can't undo what's already been done.

And as the interrogator watches him, waiting for the confession, Bill's mind races, piecing together his betrayal.

"It was all a setup."

He wishes he could take it all back, but now, with the walls closing in, there is nothing left to do but face the consequences.

The audience, too, feels the sting.

They have watched Bill and Cobb, two characters so starkly opposite, navigate this twisted path. They have grown attached to them, despite their flaws and their darkness.

And now - this betrayal - it hits just as hard for them. The shattering of trust, the unraveling of everything Bill thought he knew.

And then the detective asks the question.

The question that stops everything.

"Who is Cobb?"

"Eh?" Bill blinks, confused, trying to process. "What do you mean, who is Cobb? He is with me every time."

The detective's face is unreadable, but his words are like ice. "There is no one with you during the burglary activities."

!!..what? A chill rushes through the theater.

The collective gasp is almost audible.

The scene fractures, the camera cutting between the interrogation room and flashes of past events - each one replayed with chilling clarity.

Every moment Bill remembers, every time he swears Cobb was there, is now distorted. The once-familiar face, the reassuring presence - gone?

The camera zooms in on Bill, frozen in his actions, executing each part of the plan alone.

There is no one with him. Not Cobb. Just him.

The space where Cobb, a partner, a friend, should have been is empty.

And now, the full weight of it crashes down on Bill - the man he thought he trusted, the friend he thought he had, was never there.

He has been alone all along!

The audience is paralyzed, caught in the revelation of the moment, as Bill's world unravels before their eyes.

What they thought was a labyrinth of lies, deceit, manipulation, and cruel betrayal is now revealed as something -

….far darker.

Bill's entire reality. His actions. His choices. His relationships - were all a mirage built on a fractured mind.

His eyes widen in horror as the truth crashes in - the words form on his lips, but they taste bitter, impossible to accept.

He realizes, with gut-wrenching clarity, that he is the architect of every crime, every misstep. His fractured psyche had created Cobb - the perfect scapegoat, an imaginary accomplice to carry the weight of his guilt.

But it's not Cobb. It never was.

As the surveillance footage flickers to life on the screen, the truth solidifies.

Every burglary, every step taken in the dark, was his.

It wasn't Cobb that planned, it wasn't Cobb that carried out the crimes - it was Bill, acting out the twisted role of someone else to justify his actions.

And then the truth hits like a freight train.

Bill. No, Cobb - was the one who killed Blackstone.

It wasn't some accident. It wasn't a mistake.

Bill's fractured identity had reached its breaking point, and when Blackstone caught him, the rage, the confusion, and the desperation all bled into the fatal act.

The camera replays the earlier moments, but this time, the perspective has shifted. The audience sees Bill talking to himself, caught in a conversation with Cobb, a persona he had created but never truly understood.

The chilling proof is impossible to ignore now.

Bill was never speaking to Cobb.

He was speaking to himself. His own mind split in two.

Every moment, every interaction, was nothing but a desperate attempt to escape his guilt.

….

The final blow lands as Bill's journal is shown in all its madness.

The same words, written in two different styles, each more frantic, more desperate than the last.

He had planted the evidence to implicate Cobb, believing that by creating this other identity, he could absolve himself of everything.

Bill's breakdown is agonizing, raw, and visceral.

The audience can't look away as he crumbles under the weight of his own unraveling mind. His cries echo through the room, but there is no one there to answer them, no one to take the blame.

The truth settles on him like a vice, suffocating him with its clarity.

And then, in the most chilling moment of all, Bill speaks the final line, his voice fractured, his soul bare.

"...I didn't follow them. I followed myself."

The words hang in the air, echoing through the theater, as the screen blacks out.

The audience is left in stunned silence, the weight of his confession reverberating long after the credits roll.

As the rest of the cast and crew scroll onto the screen, the haunting score plays softly, leaving the audience in quiet contemplation.

….and as the credits rolled on for a minute ....quietly.

Slowly the atmosphere shifted and the claps began.

Critics stood, exchanging genuine looks of enthusiasm that said - this was good. Really good.

Soon it turned into a huge applause rippling through the theater until it filled the space completely.

.

….

[To be continued…]

★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★

Author Note:

Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available to Free Members as well.

For additional content, please do support me and gain access to +10 more chapters.

–> p@treon.com/OrgoWriters