Published to MIT MTA (password available upon request) December 2021. Co-written with 2 other authors.
Crossroads
CHARACTERS:
Brynn Sterling
Niko Sterling
Sarina Hong
Radio Announcer
Nurse
Scene(1): INT. BRYNN’S APARTMENT, AROUND MIDNIGHT. SARINA HAS JUST FINISHED CRYING.
SARINA
Brynn… Brynn, that’s… you know that’s…
BRYNN
Crazy? I know, I know, I just… ‘Rina, I can’t… I promise you, I’m telling the truth. Let me help you.
SARINA
Brynn, I -- you’re a lot of things, but you’ve never, ever lied to me. I just… you understand that…
BRYNN
You need to get to Seattle tonight, right? There’s no way you can find a cross country flight this late at night, but, if you trust me, my brother and I can get you there in two hours. It’s -- it’s freaky and traumatizing, I’m not gonna lie, but we’ve been using it for years and years and --
SARINA
Okay. Okay, I just -- I -- yeah. I trust you, Brynn. I’ll do it.
FX: CHAIR SQUEAKING BACK AS SARINA STANDS UP
I’m -- I’m gonna go clean up my… all of this.
BRYNN
Hey, Rina? I love you.
SARINA
I love you too.
FX: A HUG.
I don’t know what I’d do without you.
FX: SARINA WALKING AWAY, DOOR CLOSING. A SOB ESCAPES BEFORE THE DOOR SHUTS
BRYNN
...okay. Shit. Try school. He’s always there late.
FX: SMARTPHONE TAPS, PHONE RINGING.
NIKO
[RECORDED VOICE] Hi, you’ve reached Mr. Niko Sterling at South Creek High. I teach History II, AP US History, Honors Chemistry, AP Chemistry, and am the advisor for the Drama and Robotics clubs. Please leave your name, number, your child’s name, and your question, and I’ll get right back to you.
FX: VOICEMAIL BEEP
BRYNN
Niko, I’m not a parent, pick up the phone. I know it’s like 2 AM but I -- I told our secret.
Scene(2): EXT NEAR DONKIN’, ABOUT AN HOUR LATER
FX: CRICKETS OUTSIDE, BUSY NEW YORK STREET NOISES
SARINA
It opens up at Donkin Donuts?
BRYNN
In the woods a few blocks that way. He should be here soon --.
FX: CAR DRIVES UP
BRYNN
Go wait inside while I talk to him.
SARINA
Okay. Good luck.
BRYNN
I won’t need it. I’m sure he’ll listen.
FX: DONKIN DOOR OPENING. CAR DOOR OPENING, BRYNN RUNNING UP TO THE CAR
BRYNN
Nicky, I --
NIKO
Brynn, you better have a reeeeeal good reason for betraying my goddamn trust. And don’t you dare just say “it’s love!”
BRYNN
Niko, I’m sorry, [NIKO SCOFFS] I mean it!
NIKO
Sure.
BRYNN
Do you want me to explain myself or not, asswipe?
NIKO
...go ahead.
BRYNN
Okay, so, I was at a tech bro happy hour with Sarina. We decided to ditch all the crypto evangelists around midnight so she drove me home, and we were about to watch Chopped and make out when she got a call and -- and she started sobbing -- her Auntie in Seattle got in a car crash. Might not make it to the morning and -- and she was so upset and -- I told her since -- since she couldn’t find a flight until morning -- I told her everything, okay? Maybe that was stupid --
NIKO
Damn right it was. You’ve known her for, what, three months?
BRYNN
Oh, fuck you! You’re being SO selfish! You’ve always been selfish about this! We have this power to help people and you won’t even entertain the idea!
NIKO
Because... it’s dangerous! People could get hurt.
BRYNN
We’ve never gotten hurt.
NIKO
Exactly, we. You and me. Maybe we’re just lucky.
BRYNN
That’s a weak-ass argument, and you know it. You just don’t like Sarina, and you don’t care about her or our relationship or --
NIKO
You’re putting words in my mouth.
BRYNN
Then have some goddamn empathy! I know I shouldn’t have offered without asking, but I also didn’t have to tell you at all, Niko, and I did. I’m sorry. Maybe it’s only been three months but Sarina matters so much to me. I kept imagining if it was me and you were dying and I couldn’t do anything and -- I just -- Please.
NIKO
[LONG PAUSE] Alright, fine.
FX: FABRIC RUSTLING AS BRYNN HUGS HER BROTHER.
BRYNN
Thank you thank you thank you -- !
FX: HE PUSHES HER AWAY
NIKO
I just… whatever. Where’s she?
FX: BRYNN RUNNING, DONKIN FRONT DOOR OPENING
BRYNN
[DISTANTLY] He said yes!
FX: RUNNING, A HUG, CAR DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING, CAR STARTING UP
SARINA
Niko, I can’t thank you enough. I-- uh -- I bought you a donut? [NIKO GRUNTS]
Scene(3): INT, NIKO’S CAR
FX: CAR DRIVING ON A DIRT ROAD NOISES. THERE’S AN UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE, THEN A CLICK AS NIKO TURNS ON THE RADIO
RADIO ANNOUNCER
If you’re hearing this, you’re officially up past your bedtime! Up next we’ve got a track that will melt your socks off by Mercury Dirigible.
FX: DAD ROCK SONG ON THE RADIO. BRYNN SNICKERS
BRYNN
[EATING A DONUT] Since when do you listen to Dad Rock?
NIKO
Since when do you betray our secret?
BRYNN
[FINISHES THE DONUT] Oh, come on, Nicky.
FX: THINGS START TO SHIFT OUTSIDE. THE SOUND OF THE CAR ENGINE RAISES IN PITCH. THE MUSIC ON THE RADIO STARTS TO BECOME MORE UNSETTLING. BRYNN AND NIKO DON’T SEEM TO NOTICE
SARINA
Uh… Brynn? ...Niko?
BRYNN
How’s our ol’ high school? Your answering machine didn’t mention PE, are you still teaching that?
SARINA
What -- what is wrong with the sky?
FX: HORRIFYING SCREECH
RADIO ANNOUNCER
(overlapping) Thanks for listening to the dying heart of the skycloud demons. Up next is a purple piece of garbage nonsense grip grop twenty nine forth and froth a a a a a
NIKO
Ugh, yeah, I am. Gotta update that. Are you still doing your hocus pocus magic programming?
BRYNN
Hey, rude, I’m manipulating data in the deep net cloud to --
FX: MORE JUST FRANKLY UPSETTING NOISES
SARINA
The -- the trees -- they -- the --
NIKO
Brynn, none of those are real words.
SARINA
GUYS.
FX: DISTANT SOUND OF SOMETHING HUGE FALLING
NIKO
Oh. Sarina… right. Uh. Welcome to the Crossroads.
FX: CLICK AS NIKO TURNS OFF THE RADIO
SARINA
I… what the hell?! What the HELL is this?!
NIKO
Did you not give her the rundown?!
BRYNN
I gave her the cliffnotes.
SARINA
Your “cliffnotes” sure left a lot out! I -- I --
NIKO
Okay, okay, let’s calm down and just -- start with a few ground rules. One, we don’t leave this road. Two, we stay in the car. Three --
FX: DOG(?) BARKING
BRYNN
Cordelia!
FX: CAR DOOR OPENING. NIKO SLAMMING ON THE BRAKES AS BRYNN LEAVES THE CAR, COOING FOR THE “DOG”
NIKO
Aaaand that’s how you don’t leave the car. Fantastic! Love that. Way to keep your girlfriend calm, Brynn.
FX: SLOPPY “DOG” KISSES AND BRYNN LAUGHING
BRYNN
Of course I wouldn’t forget you, girl! How are you? How are you? I have snacks! You like prongles, don’t you, don’t you?
FX: “DOG” EATING PRONGLES, BRYNN PLAYING WITH “DOG” NOISES
SARINA
Hey, Niko? Don’t take this out on Brynn. This is my fault --
NIKO
It’s fine.
SARINA
It’s not though, is it? Brynn is the most selfless person I know, and I can tell she felt horrible about --
NIKO
Don’t try and explain my own sister to me. I know her better than you ever will.
Scene(4): INT CAR. THE RADIO IS BACK ON THE WEIRD, UNSETTLING MUSIC
SARINA
So… Brynn said you found this place as kids?
BRYNN
Oh yeah, we’ve been going in and out of the Crossroads for years. We discovered it when I was nine, and Niko was… six?
NIKO
Seven.
BRYNN
Seven. Growing up in Seattle, there were some woods near our house with a bike trail and a stream - a treasure trove for two kids too curious for their own good.
NIKO
Your own good.
BRYNN
Hey, hey -- no, you’re right. One day, while playing tag, I slipped down the embankment.
NIKO
All I wanted to do was save you, but I was, you know, seven, so I just tripped and fell after you.
BRYNN
One minute we’re both sliding, Niko screaming my name, and then there’s a weird noise and then we’re in a cave with black gunk dripping down the walls and otherworldly wails echoing around us. We were kids so we didn’t really clock how weird that was; we just spent hours exploring and playing.
NIKO
After the excitement wore off, we realized there was no exit…
FX: DISTORTED MOUNTAIN LION SCREAM AND NOISE/INDUSTRIAL MUSIC
…Of all things, I was terrified we’d get in trouble for missing dinner. But once we realized this, we just fell back out. The transition in and out… it just kind of happens. We just sort of… think about needing it and we can get into the Crossroads.
BRYNN
We were sooo scared we’d be in trouble for being gone so long, but when we got home, it had only been 20 minutes. Extra playtime! We kept going back to the embankment for years.
SARINA
And your parents never caught you?
NIKO
Never found out. The more we used the Crossroads, the more it opened up for us - the cave got deeper, longer, the hellspawn moved in [DISTORTED BAT SCREECH] We loved all of it. We named it the Crossroads, and we made a pact to keep it secret from anyone else. [BEAT OF SILENCE]
BRYNN
The road came after I moved to New York. It’d only been a few weeks but I missed Niko so much. One day I’m getting a donut and I see these woods a few blocks away, so I’m like, why the hell not, just like we used to, and - [SNAPS FINGERS] - I’m in the Crossroads. An overgrown but clear road stretched out before me. I follow it and I come out on Niko’s lawn.
NIKO
This road brings us anywhere within about a hundred miles of Donkin in New York and the embankment in Seattle.
SARINA
What about all the other roads in here? Where do they lead?
BRYNN
I don’t know; we’ve only tried another road once-
NIKO
-and we NEVER will again.
BRYNN
We ended up in a pond outside Albuquerque-
NIKO
-and it took WEEKS to get the pond scum smell out of the carpet-
BRYNN
-not to mention having to push the car out -
NIKO
-if we came out just 5 feet forward we wouldn’t have been able to get out at all -
BRYNN
- and I got into a fight with a duck-
NIKO
[SNORTS OUT A LAUGH] And you lost.
BRYNN
[LAUGHING] It was vicious!
SARINA
[HOLDING BACK A LAUGH] Oh hon’...
NIKO
If you thought the duck was bad, imagine what one of those could do.
FX: DISTORTED ELK BUGLE
SARINA
Has anything ever attacked you in here?!
BRYNN
No no no, never! But, you know, having a car door between you and the wolves with no skin and black pits of ichor for eyes is still nice.
NIKO
We just got used to the demons.
FX: DISTORTED HYENA LAUGH
SARINA
...Is that so?
NIKO
Don’t get us wrong, it’s still horrifying, it’s just the SURPRISE that wears off after a while.
BRYNN
At this point I’d be more scared if I saw a regular squirrel in here.
BRYNN AND NIKO
What’s it plotting? [THEY LAUGH AT THE INSIDE JOKE. NIKO STOPS A BIT EARLIER THAN BRYNN.]
SARINA
I could NEVER get used to this. Like, a cactus, with a human face, and are those…?
BRYNN
A waterfall of spiders coming out of its mouth? Yeah.
SARINA
I think I’m going to be sick.
NIKO
There’s a bag of plastic bags under the seat.
BRYNN
She’s not gonna puke Nicky, geez. Sarina’s willing to risk life and sanity to hold her Auntie’s hand one last time. She’s a badass.
SARINA
Brynn, love, that’s sweet, but… I don’t feel brave. I’m terrified. It’s just that the alternative to this is worse. My parents were never around; it was Auntie who raised me. She taught me how to ride a bike, cheered me on at every piano recital, helped me pick out my prom dress… She was the only one who was there for me when I cried, the only one who made me feel like I was worth something. Moving across the country for work was so hard, but she looked me in the eyes and told me she was so proud of me and -- and I -- I guess it’s just that sometimes you bond with someone on a level you can’t understand, a connection thicker than water, thicker than blood, thicker than…
NIKO
...the mundane confines of our world.
BRYNN
The inadequate words we use to describe it.
SARINA
The arbitrary limits of time and space.
NIKO
Yeah, I… we know the feeling.
SARINA
This place, the Crossroads, I think it’s powered by love.
FX: NIKO SNORTS A LAUGH, SOUND OF HIM BEING SMACKED
SARINA
I know it sounds cheesy, but -- what else is strong enough to tether you two across the country? Across dimensions? It’s like -- Auntie gave me a hamster when I was little, and when it died I was so heartbroken. I know it was just a hamster, but I cried and cried and Auntie took me in her lap and told me, “Grief is love with nowhere to go”. I’m still connected to that hamster I loved, that I STILL love, and I know I’ll still be connected to Auntie if she... Sorry, I’m not making any sense-
NIKO
No, I get it. We spend our lives forging threads that tie us to other people. They don’t disappear just because of something like death, distance, time. Maybe people like us are better at finding these threads. This road gets more defined the more we use it, and when we haven’t seen each other for a while it gets overgrown. As the bond gets stronger, the road itself does too.
FX: BUMPY ROAD
BRYNN
Ugh, can you drive steadier? We’re bumping all over the place.
NIKO
We are literally going in a straight line, what more can I do? Exiting is always rough.
SARINA
What? But -- the road isn’t bumpy at all. You -- are you two shaking?
BRYNN
Why aren’t you -- ?
Scene(5): EXT. EXITING PORTAL. SOUND ABRUPTLY RETURNS TO “NORMAL” AND MUSIC BECOMES DAD ROCK AGAIN
NIKO
Everyone good? Don’t worry about what we -- Sarina -- like I said, exiting is always rough. [TAKES BEAT] Look at that -- the hospital’s straight ahead.
SARINA
I -- huh?! We’re actually here. I -- If there’s anything I can do to repay you-
BRYNN
There’s no need, hon’. Go. Be with her.
SARINA
Right, okay, you’re right. [DOOR OPENING, CLOSING, WINDOW ROLLING DOWN] I’ll text you. I love you.
BRYNN
Love you too.
FX: CAR DRIVING AWAY, RADIO FURTHER AND FURTHER AWAY. CLOSER, BUT STILL AT A DISTANCE, SOUND OF STATIC/CRACKLE OF ELECTRICITY.
Scene(6): EXT. CAR DRIVING.
BRYNN
Did you see her face when she saw the hospital?
NIKO
Mmmm…
BRYNN
It was nice, wasn’t it? Like, we really helped her out.
NIKO
Mmm.
BRYNN
...and that was a good thing, wasn’t it?
NIKO
Of course it was. But Brynn, the shaking --
BRYNN
I’m sure it was nothing, she’s fine!
NIKO
[AT THE SAME TIME] Brynn, I need you to understand --
BRYNN
[AT THE SAME TIME] Sarina is just really something, isn’t she? [CONTINUING] She barely even freaked out at all that and… what she had to say? About bonds, life, death… she’s just… incredible. She’s the most important thing to ever happen to me, I think.
NIKO
What? Brynn, no, we need to talk about —
BRYNN
Like… I… I’m so happy I can share this with her; that I don’t need to keep any part of me a secret. And, hey! We could come by your school now and play Scrabble and drink on the weekends and -- and it’ll be so much easier and cheaper to introduce her to Mom and Dad, and she could -- she could really be a part of our family. [SILENCE] You alright?
NIKO
Huh? What? Yeah, of course. I’m glad she makes you happy, Brynn.
BRYNN
Me too. Oh, what were you saying?
NIKO
...It was nothing.
Scene(7): INT. HOSPITAL. MUZAK IS PLAYING
NURSE
Can I help you, miss?
SARINA
Yes, hello, I’m looking for my aunt, she was in a car crash, last name Hong- [MUSIC SWITCHES TO PORTAL RADIO, LOUDER] Hong… Jang-mi…
FX: OTHER HOSPITAL NOISES FADE. NURSE RESPONSE IS MUFFLED BY STATIC AS MUSIC SWELLS
FX: MUSIC CUTS SUDDENLY, RETURNING TO THE SOFT MUZAK AND HOSPITAL NOISES
NURSE
Are you alright, dear?
SARINA
Y-yes. Yes! Sorry just… I thought I heard… It’s fine.