Vengeance

Cole looks Carmen in the eyes and brushes her hair out of her face.

COLE

Marry me.

Carmen is utterly surprised.

CARMEN

Are you serious?

COLE

Yeah. Marry me. See how certain I was when I said that? Didn’t even have to ‘think’ about it.

​

Carmen smiles.

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CARMEN

Okay, smart ass. Not all of us are so self-assured. I don’t know what to say. I mean I’m barely getting to the ‘I love you’ stage and you want me to marry you.  

COLE

What’s the matter? Do you not want to be with me forever?

CARMEN

Claro que sî. Of course I do. It’s just that, well, we’ve only been dating for three months.

COLE

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been holding off on asking you for the past two weeks.

Carmen sits up and looks at Cole.

CARMEN

Wait. You’ve known you’ve wanted to marry me for the past two weeks?! And you’re barely asking me now?

Cole is confused.

COLE

Whoa, what? First you have an issue with me proposing and now you have an issue with the fact that I didn’t propose sooner? I really don’t get you sometimes, C.

CARMEN

Well, if you’ve known all this time, I just don’t know why you didn’t say something sooner. That’s all.

COLE

And what exactly would you have said if I did?

CARMEN

I’d tell you I’d have to think about it. 

They both laugh. Cole places his cigarette in the ashtray on the nightstand and takes a drink from his glass of whiskey.

He TOSSES his lighter to the floor, grabs Carmen and rolls over on top of her. They begin to kiss. As he moves his mouth toward her neck, he lightly whispers “ I love you, too.”

Suddenly the bedroom door FLIES open. Three MASKED MEN, holding guns and dressed all in black, storm in. The FIRST MASKED MAN heads straight toward Cole, grabs him by the neck and throws him on the ground. He pins Cole down at the neck with his boot and shoves his gun into Cole’s face. 

The SECOND MASKED MAN points his gun at Carmen and gestures for her to stay still. Carmen freezes up in her confusion. The THIRD MASKED MAN points his gun at Cole. 

FIRST MASKED MAN

You fucked up, Cole.

Cole struggles to speak.

COLE

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

FIRST MASKED MAN

You know damn well what I’m talking about. You had a job to do and you blew it.

COLE

I did do the job. Things just got complicated.

FIRST MASKED MAN

Yeah, I fucking bet.

The first masked man cocks his gun.

FIRST MASKED MAN

Look, you piece of shit, the Boss knows and he ain’t happy. His instructions were VERY specific and you didn’t follow.

Carmen places both hands on her head, as she begins to rock back and forth. The adrenaline is rushing through her body as she begins to have intense flashbacks of memories she clearly doesn’t remember. We see quick cuts of a hand running over a line of weapons, Carmen doing one-armed pushups, Carmen shooting a sniper rifle from atop a building, Carmen sneaking up behind an unknown man and slicing his throat.

Carmen anxiously shakes her head in an attempt to remove these thoughts. The second masked man looks confused at her behavior. He lowers his gun and places his hand on Carmen’s shoulder in an attempt to “wake” her up.

​

SECOND MASKED MAN

Ay, what the fuck is wrong w...

Carmen instinctively grabs the second masked man’s arm and rotates it away from her body as she gets up and karate chops him in the neck, knocking him down instantly. She pauses in shock as if she doesn’t know what just happened. 

The third masked man rushes over and grabs Carmen by the hair as he hits her in the face with the barrel of his gun. She falls back down to the bed, almost rendered unconscious.

COLE

Don’t you fucking touch her!

Cole tries to get up to defend Carmen.

The first masked man presses his boot deeper into Cole’s neck as he stands up and kicks him in his side to keep him down. Cole gasps in pain.

THIRD MASKED MAN

Jesus Christ, how the fuck did that happen?

The third masked man leans down and gently slaps the second masked man to wake him up.

THIRD MASKED MAN

Hey, hey man, wake up. C’mon. 

The second masked man coughs in pain as he becomes conscious and gets up off the floor. A disoriented Carmen tries to get back up. The second masked man punches her in the face in anger.

SECOND MASKED MAN

Stay down, you fucking bitch!

The second masked man puts his gun in Carmen’s face as her blurry eyed vision looks over to the ground where Cole is. 

The first masked man leans back down and presses his gun deeper into Cole’s face.

FIRST MASKED MAN

You owe the Boss Man a debt. And I’m here to collect.

COLE

Look, I did what he asked. Just because I did things a little differently doesn’t mean I still didn’t do my job. What else does he want from me?

FIRST MASKED MAN

He wants your blood.

The first masked man shoots Cole in the face. A half-conscious Carmen tries to let out a scream as she attempts to get up. The second masked man grabs her by the hair and shoves his gun into her cheek.

SECOND MASKED MAN

Shut the fuck up and lie down!

The third masked man looks over and notices Cole’s LIGHTER. He picks it up, looks it over, and places it in his pocket.

Carmen cries out and tries to reach for Cole. The Second Masked Man holds her down and points his gun in her face. 

SECOND MASKED MAN

Calm your ass down or I’ll fucking shoot you in the face too!

Carmen lies back down, in shock and defeated, tears rolling down her face. The first masked man walks over to her and removes his mask. It’s Bobby.

BOBBY

Take a good look at my face. ‘Cause if you EVER tell anyone about what happened tonight, my face will be the LAST fucking thing you ever see in this world.

Bobby looks over at the second masked man.

BOBBY

Get her license. I don’t wanna take any chances.

The second masked man finds Carmen’s purse, grabs the driver’s license from her wallet and throws the wallet on the floor. Bobby puts his mask back on and the three men walk out of the bedroom. 

As soon as Carmen hears them walk out of the apartment, she pulls herself off the bed and crawls over to Coles’s lifeless body and sobs hysterically. Naked and covered in Cole’s blood, Carmen finally calms down after some time. She sits at the foot of the bed, in shock.

CUT TO:

EXT. COLE’S APARTMENT BUILDING-SAME NIGHT

The ambulance, police cars and neighbors overtake the front of the building as we watch the EMTs put Cole’s lifeless body into an ambulance car. Carmen is seen sitting inside the back of another ambulance, bandaged up and holding an ice pack to her swollen forehead, still in shock. 

CUT TO:

INT. CARMEN’S APARTMENT-LATER THAT SAME NIGHT

C/U of Carmen, the same look of shock on her face. Cole’s dried blood and her tears are still visible.  

CUT TO:

INT. CARMEN'S BEDROOM-CONTINUOUS

Carmen walks toward a fixture on the wall. She removes it to expose a keypad. She enters a code and the wall opens up. There is an entire room filled with weapons. Carmen walks in. 

INT. CARMEN’S WEAPON ROOM-CONTINUOUS

Carmen walks straight toward one of many drawers, opens it and pulls out a BLACK CASE. She presses her fingerprint onto the keypad and the case opens up. Inside are two custom made semi-automatic handguns. Carmen pulls one of the guns out of the case, grabs the magazine, inserts it into the handgun and cocks it.

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FADE OUT.