Chapter 1 (The Wrath of Francis)

Chapter 1 (The Wrath of Francis) is the first chapter of The Clearwood Murders: Episode I - The Wrath of Francis and the debut chapter of the overall Clearwood series. It was written by Donald Newton and was published on April 18, 2020.

Plot
The Francis Killer targets a surviving victim of the original Francis killer from many years ago.

Full Chapter
FADE IN:

EXT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - NIGHT

A nice sports car pulls into the driveway of the WAGNER HOUSE, which is in the middle of nowhere and is the only house around.

INT. SPORTS CAR

Driving the car is the handsome jock BENNY PIKE and his girlfriend HILLARY WAGNER (Both 17).

BENNY: Did you have a good time at the party?

HILLARY: I had fun. How about you?

BENNY: I had a blast.

HILLARY: Good. Thank you for driving me home.

BENNY: No problem.

Hillary opens the door and goes to get out before stopping herself to ask Benny a question.

HILLARY: Would you like to come in for a moment? My parents won't be home until after midnight.

Benny turns to her as he considers her offer.

INT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - LIVING ROOM

Benny and Hillary are making out on the couch in the living room. Things are getting hot and heavy as they proceed to remove some clothing. Not much; Jackets, sweaters, shoes, and socks. It's the beginning of something happening.

RING! Both Hillary and Benny are startled by the ringing coming from the large flat screen TV on the wall of the living room. They look at the TV to find -- A VIDEO CALL.

HILLARY: Seriously? Not now. Whoever it is that is calling me.

Hillary grabs the remote and presses a button to decline the video call. She turns back to her boyfriend and smiles at him.

HILLARY: Now where were we?

The two giggle as they continue making out. As they begin to remove more major clothing to get naked, we PAN AWAY from them to the main living room window. A shadow can be seen outside on the lawn, lurking around the house. Somebody is watching them from outside. But who is this mysterious peeper?

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - LIVING ROOM (LATER)

Hillary and Benny have just finished having sex and are now putting their clothes back on.

BENNY: How was it?

HILLARY: Not bad. Hurt a little. But it's my first time. So that was expected. How was it for you?

BENNY: Different from what I expected. But I loved it.

Hillary smiles and giggles over this. She has no regrets over her first time. Benny finishes putting his clothes on.

BENNY: I better get going before my parents start harassing me to get home.

HILLARY: Okay.

Benny and Hillary get up from the couch and walk over to the front door. Benny opens the door to step out. But he turns to give Hillary a kiss.

BENNY: Thank you for tonight.

HILLARY: Thank you for your patience.

BENNY: I love you, Hillary.

HILLARY: I love you, Benny.

They kiss each other one last time before Benny walks out. After he has left, Hillary shuts the door and locks it. She runs upstairs.

EXT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - NIGHT - SOMEONE'S POV

Through a mysterious person's POV, Benny walks from the front patio, through the cement walkway blocks, to his car in the driveway. As Benny searches for his keys, the mysterious person, therefore, our view gets closer and closer to him with his back towards us.

Through the window's reflection, Benny can see what appears to be a male human of some sort standing behind him. He turns around -- WHACK! Benny is knocked out by a baseball bat.

INT. BATHROOM

Outside the frosted glass door, we can see Hillary taking a hot shower. The frosted glass blurs out her naked body. After rinsing the soap off of her body, she turns the shower off. She opens the glass door just enough for her arm to reach out and grab her towel that is hanging by the shower. She takes the towel and pulls it into the shower with her. She wraps the towel around her upper body, covering her chest down to her torso, and steps out of the shower.

INT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - LIVING ROOM

Hillary comes downstairs now wearing a pinkish white t-shirt and pinkish red pajama bottoms. She jumps onto the couch and turns on the TV. She settles on watching a Dawson's Creek-like TV show but it appears to be more 80s than 90s. Suddenly, a VIDEO CALL is made to her TV. But this time, the caller is -- BENNY.

HILLARY: (confused) Why is Benny calling me now?

Hillary uses the remote to accept the call. The video call starts -- BENNY IS TIED TO A CHAIR. Hillary is confused and somewhat nervous about seeing her boyfriend bloodied up and tied to a chair.

HILLARY: What the hell is going on?

The camera turns away from Benny to -- HIS ATTACKER -- a person wearing the slowly decomposed face of a male human. That's right. It's the skin of a person. There is no hair. Just a bald head. The face is fading, dirty, and very dead skin of decomposition. It's a disgusting and terrifying image. But even worse -- Hillary recognizes the face. She is terrified over it.

HILLARY: (horrified) Francis?

Francis speaks to Hillary with a sinister voice. More sinister than Freddy Krueger or Ghostface. Almost Demon-like.

FRANCIS: Hello, Hillary. Remember me? Been a long time.

CUT TO:

FLASHBACK

A young HILLARY (7) is being cornered to a wall by THE REAL FRANCIS. Francis is very sinister looking despite being an average looking man. His demeanor says it all. He's a creeper and a murderer. Francis pulls out a large knife and wields at her, teasing her with it. Hillary is crying for her mommy and daddy.

CUT TO:

INT. WAGNER RESIDENCE - LIVING ROOM

Hillary is crying with terror. Old memories have struck her. She looks up to see the new (fake) Francis, who looks more terrifying than the real Francis.

FRANCIS: Francis may be dead. But his legacy lives on in me. I am now Francis. And I will continue what he started...starting with you.

Francis shoves the knife into the back of Benny's neck, going through the neck, and popping out of the front of his throat. Benny gasps in pain and chokes on his own blood. Hillary screams in horror over witnessing her boyfriend's murder. Francis pulls the knife out of Benny's neck. His head slumps down afterwards. Benny Pike is dead.

Francis turns the camera to reveal that he's in front of Hillary's house at the front yard, directly towards the main living room window. He can see Hillary watching TV. Realizing this, Hillary turns to the main living room window. However, she can only see her dead boyfriend's body tied to the chair. But NO FRANCIS. Where did he go? Hillary turns back to the TV.

The video keeps skipping and with each skip is a different shot of different locations of her house. This means that the video call is NOT FULLY LIVE. It's either pre-recorded or a delayed live video. Either way, Francis has timed this all perfectly to fuck with Hillary's mind. Suddenly, the video cuts to a LIVE FEED of HILLARY in the living room. But the view is shot from behind. Meaning, she is being filmed from behind.

Hillary spins around only to be -- STABBED IN THE CHEST. Hillary gasps in pain. She looks up at Francis in pure horror. It is now do we get our first full glimpse of Francis. He is a large man, standing at six-foot-seven, has muscles of a body builder, and has extremely broad shoulders. He looks unstoppable like a monster. He is wearing a dark brown trench coat, a black buttoned up shirt, black slacks, and black boots. Francis pulls the knife out of Hillary's chest and she drops to the floor.

Hillary coughs up blood as she grabs at her wound, which is leaking out a large amount of blood. Francis hovers over her and raises his knife up.

HILLARY: PLEASE! NO! NOOO!

Francis ignores her pleads and proceeds to stab her multiple times in the chest until she is silenced. Hillary Wagner, a survivor of the original Francis Killer, is dead.

Deaths

 * CD = Chapter Death (Deaths in the chapter)
 * SD = Story Death (Overall deaths in the story)

Trivia

 * Francis's appearance is based on Beta from The Walking Dead. Like Beta, he wears a large brown trench coat and wears the skin of a dead person.
 * Although, this is the first non Scream related story written by Donald Newton to be published, this opening chapter is very similar to the opening of Scream but with it's own twists to it.