Warp 1

EXT. BENACHAR HOUSE – EVENING – ESTABLISHING

Fading orange light bathes the stone.

INT. BENACHAR HOUSE HALL – EVENING

Dark, dusty, wood panelled walls.  A dim light bulb glows overhead.  Packing boxes teeter.  Polly and Will shove a dainty, old table against a wall, below a clock.

SFX: screech of wooden furniture legs dragging across a hard floor.

Will clamps his hands to his ears.  Polly is incredulous.

WILL
That’s unbearable!

POLLY
Why are you here?

WILL
Helping.

The light goes off.  Will lunges clumsily.

SFX: dull thud of a packing box falling, clatter of spilled contents.

POLLY
No!

WILL
Please say you have a torch?

POLLY
I can tell you exactly where it is.

Will sighs.  Polly feels for the front door.

POLLY (CONT’D)
Why are you here?

WILL
You came back to my playground.  I’m seeing if you want–

SFX: click of front door opening.

EXT. BENACHAR HOUSE – EVENING – CONTINUOUS ACTION

Near darkness.  No porch shelter.  Polly steps out, wanders along the front of the house, peering at nothing.

POLLY
Playtime’s over.

Polly blunders around the side of the house into shrubs, retreats.  She creeps away from the house, wafting her hands at unseen obstacles, squints across the grass in the direction of the burn.  She sighs, turns back.

SFX: crackle of electricity shorting on damp wires.

INT. BENACHAR HOUSE HALL – EVENING

Will flourishes a lit pencil torch at the front doorway.  Polly stumbles in, squinting at the light, adorned with a shrub fragment.

WILL
I found this.  Where’s yours?

POLLY
I can’t find my car!  Or yours.  Or the cottage!

WILL
You didn’t look very hard.  You were only out there two seconds.

Polly knots her eyebrows.  The light bulb flickers on.

WILL (CONT’D)
Why are you wearing this?  I thought your father eradicated all the ghastly privet?

Will plucks the shrub fragment.  Polly gapes.  He glances at the clock: 7:50.

WILL (CONT’D)
Bother.  I told Vanessa I’d only be a couple of hours.

Will switches off the torch, drops it on the table.

POLLY
You’ve been some help.

WILL
I’m indispensible.

Will departs.  Polly freezes, gazing at the closed front door, biting her lips, her energy dissipating.