Disclaimer: Yes, I know how screenplays are to be formatted but
this is as close as I could get considering the amount of extra time I
have vs. messing around with HTML.
EXT. FIELD - DAY
It’s raining, grey, and cold. A small group of American soldiers are
moving across a field in single file. Using mine detectors and hand
probes, they move across the field slowly, one step at a time. Moisture
drips from their rain gear as they methodically search for unexploded ordnances.
A sign in the b.g. is written in both English and German. It warns
of the dangers of dud grenades.
Several 5 ton dumptrucks and a HUMMV are parked along side the adjacent muddy road. The COMPANY COMMANDER and two PLATOON LEADERS are looking over a map that’s been placed over the hood of the HUMMV. The driver, a Private, is sitting inside the vehicle. He’s glad to be out of the rain. Sometimes the Army really sucks. The Company Commander is tracing his finger on the map. One of the Lieutenants is drinking a fresh cup of coffee from his canteen cup. Everyone looks exhausted; nerves are on edge.
He traces his finger along markings made on the map.
The Second Engineer nods; he knows what to do. The Combat Engineer steps forward, and with the mine detector sweeps the area in front of him as he walks away. The Second Engineer uses his fingers to uncover the mud from whatever the detector had found.
The ground is a mud-pit and it’s hard to tell what the object is but
it doesn’t seem to be that big. The soldier meticulously rubs the muck
away, it’s not a dud grenade. It’s disc-shaped about the size of a silver
dollar attached to a chain and he picks it up-- carefully--wiping it with
his fingers. Gold glints through the mud. It’s a gold medallion--an ancient
portrayal of St. George slaying the dragon.
EXT. FIELD - DAY
The same medallion, it’s gleaming in the sun and the depiction of St. George is much clearer now; he’s on horseback skewering a dragon with his lance. It shimmers as the VIEW WIDENS TO REVEAL that it’s worn by a young man astride a galloping horse. He’s about twenty-two years old and is elegantly dressed in 17th century costume.
The young man is PRINCE ULRICH, the ruler of the Klingenburg region. He is of medium build and fair complexion. He’s not too tough looking--he appears as a dandy, a bit foppish. His shoulder length blonde hair is curled, uncovered, shining in the sun. His fashionably elegant attire is covered with decoraive accessories.
The Prince who is accompanied by a large group of HORSE SOLDIERS and unlike the Prince they look tough as nails. Three of these men are his KNIGHTS. Armed with wheellock pistols and sabers, they’re wearing breast armor and large plumed hats. The other horsemen are armored cavalrymen. They are wearing distinctive winged helmets which are perforated with small heart-shaped holes which whistle in the wind.
They pass three Foot Soldiers crouched around a small fire set by a huge oak tree. They’re roasting what appears to be a CAT. The horsemen take little notice as they gallop towards the walled city of Essenbach
EXT. CITY ENTRANCE - DAY
The Prince and his entourage approach the front gates of Essenbach, a small village on the Main river. A GUARD is leaning on his lance, performing an astounding feat--he is asleep while standing. An IRRITATED SERGEANT quickly approaches the dozing guard and slaps him with his hat.
EXT. ESSENBACH - DAY
As they pass the through the entrance of the city, the horses’ hooves CLOP loudly on the cobblestone street. They canter by the villagers and the faces of the peasants reflect the ravages of war and famine. The Prince smirks as he watches a fat village woman scrape the mud off her feet in a doorway.
The villagers watch the horsemen. Accompanying the Prince are his Knights. The FIRST KNIGHT, is dashing--a man in his early thirties--he is wearing an armor breast-piece with a red sash tied around his left arm. He looks as though he stepped out of a Van Dyke painting, his dark locks flowing down his back. His beard is finely trimmed. The First Knight notices that the Prince is mumbling to himself.
The Prince laughs and they canter past several legless veterans who are laying in the gutters drinking red wine. The rats seem to be the only animals left in town and even some of them have become meals. The men pass a cottage within the city wall.
SMACK! An overbearing woman is beating the crap out of a fifteen-year-old boy with a wooden spoon.
She strikes TOBIAS on the side of the face with the spoon.
Tobias attempts to crawl away from the woman, protecting his head with his hands but her thick arm swings at him in three swift strokes knocking the back of his knuckles with a loud CRACK. She kicks him as he lies curled on the floor
The FATHER, a thin bearded man, pokes his head into the room.
She turns and strikes him again. Tobias is whimpering.
Tobias has crawled to the corner of this simple, bleak room. The dirt floor is covered with straw, the walls are of a cracked mortar.
The mother looks over at her husband and calls towards the room behind him.
There is a rustling from the adjacent room and the sound of steps. A young girl appears at the doorway. She’s fifteen. A bird’s nest of thin blonde braids and colorless ribbons frame her pale but luminent features. She is Tobias’ twin sister.
All eyes are on Tobias.
The woman approaches the boy. Her hand clenching the spoon.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Tobias can’t sleep. His face is swollen and feels it with his hands. Lucrecia enters the room and begins to prepare herself for bed. The moonlight peaks through the broken slats of the wooden shutters. There is a dove outside the bedroom window illuminated by the moon. It begins to coo. Lucrecia, dressed in a white robe, looks ghost-like as she crawls into her bed across the room.
Lucrecia does not answer. She settles into her bed.
Tobias hears his father mumble something but it’s indistinguishable. He listens a little closer.
Wilhelm is leaning against the wall before Gretchen. She is sitting on the bed.
Gretchen motions for her husband to approach; as he does she playfully places her hand on his belt buckle, holding him in front of her. She looks up.
Wilhelm is standing in front of his wife with his hands on his hips, looking down at her.
She playfully pouts her lips.
INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Tobias rolls to his back and stares at the ceiling.
Flames of great intensity whip around the silhouette of a woman strapped to a post. Wooden planks CRACKLE and POP as her body is engulfed by the fire. She begins to moan.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Tobias snaps out of this lucid nightmare. Outside his window, a dove TAPS on the shuddered window twice, then struts away. Tobias can HEAR his father MOAN from the other room.
INT. BEDROOM - DAY
The mother’s large frame fills the doorway.
She walks in slapping Lucrecia’s exposed foot.
As she leaves, the twins roll out of bed. Tobias’ face is black and blue and swollen. He’s glaring at his sister.
Lucrecia hikes up her nightgown and sits on the chamberpot. She looks at her brother.
Urine HISSES beneath her.
Lucrecia stands, dumps the pot out the window.
The kitchen of the cottage is a little smoky. There are two cedar tables--one for preparing the meals and one for the family to sit. An assortment of wooden cooking utensils hang along the sooty walls. Wooden and ceramic dishware are stored on the shelves. There is a fire burning. Gretchen had reheated a pot of yesterday’s onion soup.
The twins sit at the table that’s next to the window. Gretchen pours soup from the same wooden spoon that she beat Tobias with.
Lucrecia looks at her brother and he smirks at her. They drink the soup and Tobias looks outside. He can see his father sharpening his ax on a grindstone. The father looks up and for a moment father and son lock eyes... he then continues sharpening the ax.
EXT. ESSENBACH - DAY
The father shouldered his ax and watches the twins as they walk in front of him. Lucrecia has leather straps slung on her back; the straps will be used for strapping together the firewood. Tobias has a small hatchet strapped to his belt and in his hand he has a sword length stick. Tobias runs in front of his sister, swinging the stick wildly in the air.
Tobias fights an imaginary foe. He thrusts his sword at several armored men... who turn into rats that scurry down an alley behind some refuge. LAUGHTER snaps him out of his fantasy.
The laughter is emanating from two drunk veterans. They’re stretched out in the alleyway, inebriated from an endless drinking binge. One of the men is missing both legs from the knees down, the second man is missing an arm.
The father and Lucrecia pass.
The men are in hysterics. They drink some more. Tobias is a little unsettled. He backs away and catches up to his father and sister.
EXT. CITY GATE - DAY
The threesome are passing the city gate. A group of musketeers are loitering around the guardhouse as one wrenches the neck of a chicken. As Lucrecia passes by, one man sniffs the air like a dog picking up her scent. The soldiers find this amusing. Lucrecia looks on as though she didn’t notice. The father ignores the soldiers. Tobias is unaware of the sexual threat.
Tobias is still swinging his stick and he takes a shot at Lucrecia as he runs by.
She glares at him but he keeps running down the path that follows the Main river. The road snakes north, to the right, away from the river and towards the forest. There is a wood mill where several men are working, chopping elongated stakes for fence posts. Tobias observes the sharpened ends.
And it is here by the river that there is a great grove of trees and
within these trees there is a great oak. Lucrecia notices that there
are about a hundred soldiers, some on horseback, grouped around this ancient
tree. She is at a distance where it is a little unclear to what they
are doing, and she remembers...
... how she and her brother used to play on the tree as children. Tobias is climbing the tree just above Lucrecia. They are nine years old.
They continue to climb. The view of the village and the river is splendid from this height. Lucrecia looks down and sees her flesh mother approaching the tree. The mother doesn’t see them.
... and the ribbons in Lucrecia’s braids resemble the flowers that her mother wore. Lucrecia stands where her mother once stood--but instead of children in the tree to look up to, the bodies of thirty men are hanging from the thick branches.
The Prince and his horsemen are mounted and are overseeing the mass execution of mutinous troops. A man, stripped half naked, is being forced up a makeshift ladder. He’s having difficulty stepping up the ladder because his hands are bound. He turns toward the Prince.
A musketeer with a slung wheelock on his back places a gunny sack over the condemned man’s head. He’s only part way up the ladder. Another SOLDIER slaps the condemned man’s buttocks with his sword.
The men laugh. The condemned man climbs one step at a time. Now it’s even more difficult. This is amusing to the soldiers but the Prince is distracted by the three figures that approach. The father carries the ax on his shoulder--the twins follow behind him.
The father looks up at the Prince. He respects the Prince’s position of authority.
Wilhelm thinks a little. Perhaps his plan will really work.
The hooded man finally made it to the top of the ladder. A soldier who is straddling a large branch places a noose around the man’s neck. The twins watch.
The First Knight smiles slightly, but he’s not really amused. A soldier pulls the ladder away and the mercenary falls, his neck SNAPS and his legs are kicking for a moment.
The sergeant empties a pair of dice from the bag into his hand. He understands--he’s
done this before.
She takes the dice from sergeant. Soldiers in the background collect money from one another as they place bets on who the chosen one will be.
Lucrecia looks at the first man and rolls the dice.
Lucrecia feels sickened--she doesn’t respond to the Prince.
The father walks the path, the twins in tow. Tobias still has his stick and he swats at some bushes.
EXT. THE FOREST - DAY
The path snakes into the woods. It’s a long walk since many of
the smaller trees have been cut by the edge of the forest. It becomes
darker since the large trees cut off the light. It also has become
cloudy and it looks like rain. The father follows behind Lucrecia.
He notices her braids and the ribbons in her hair.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. COTTAGE - DAY
He slaps her hard against the side of her head, knocking a ribbon from her hair...
... which look so much like the ribbons in Lucrecia’s hair. She tries so hard to look like her mother. The father smiles as he begins to hum softly and he squeezes the handle of the ax.
It begins to drizzle as they travel up a hill and deep into the woods. The father motions where he is going to begin cutting.
And as he cuts, he watches the children as they gather wood for him. His face twists as he formulates a plan on how he’s going to murder his children.
The twins work together without speaking. They gather large branches which Tobias trims with his hatchet.
Tobias keeps an eye on his father.
The father sits down to take a break.
He throws an empty deerskin water bag to Tobias.
And Tobias slows and stops. He looks back at Lucrecia and she smiles again. Her face mirrors his. She is his twin.
Lucrecia’s eyes widen. Tobias has never defied his father like this before.
Tobias runs up and pries the ax loose freeing his sister.
The twins run, panicked, deep into the woods. The father, clutching
his split open face, attempts to pursue the twins yet the pain overwhelms
him. He remains in the b.g. cursing and yelling.
© Copyright 1997 Bryan Bailey