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I have updated my assignment and my story. This is a different story from the one which I have presented for my third assignment. Apologies guys you might need to read the synopsis again.

Blinded
Myth used: Saul’s transition to become Paul. He was a persecutor of Christians, until one day
God appeared before him and blinded him for three days. During his blindness, he saw
His wrong-doings and decided to change his way of life and belief.

Inspiration: My own personal experience.

Synopsis

Peter and Dave are brothers. They were inseparable. They would eat together, hang out together and do their work together. When they eat, Peter would always pick the food for Dave. When they study, Peter would always use objects which Dave can feel to illustrate certain points. When they play, Peter would always let Dave win, to give him his sense of pride and confidence. They were so close that Peter shared many things with Dave, and one day Peter passed Dave a glass bottle containing a note which he instructed him not to open until he was told to do so. They led an otherwise ordinary life.

Except, that is, Dave is blind.

However, Peter took little notice of that. To him, Dave is his brother, no matter what happens to him. He will still eat with him, do work with him and play with him until the end of the world.

Or so he thought.

It wasn’t long before things start to change. Due to his disability, Dave had to attend a separate school from Peter. He had to learn how to read with his fingers, groping around the textbook and using his sense of touch instead of his sense of sight. Despite his inability to see and observe the things around him, Dave did not become withdrawn to himself. Instead, he viewed the world with optimism. Because he was not blessed with his sense of sight, he was grateful for everything else that was his; his sense of touch, his parents, and above all, his brother.

Peter, on the other hand, changed for the worse. He took what he have for granted. Because he attended a normal school, he was exposed to people who did not have disability. And some of them were mean and obnoxious in their own way. When they went over to his house, they discovered that Peter has a blind brother. Gradually, over time, they began teasing Dave for his disability, mimicking his groping actions as he was looking for something and hiding his things so that he would have to grope around the room to look for it.

Peter resented this behaviours initially, but he did not want to feel like an outcast to his friends. He did not join in the teasing for his brother, instead he kept a distance from him, as if his condition is infectious. Slowly, a void grew between them, and Peter started spending lesser and lesser time with Dave. Dave felt the ramifications of his brother’s spoiled friends and how they have affected him. He tried pulling Peter away from them, emphasising on how they have changed him. Peter was no longer then man that he once was.

Where was the brother who promised to be by his side throughout his life?

Peter, instead of seeing enlightenment in his brother’s words, flew into rage. He ranted about how Dave was a burden to him. How he was a disgrace to him in front of his friends. And how he regretted ever calling Dave his brother. Dave was stunned. He stood on the spot for a long time, going over the words which Peter had said, long after he had walked away.

Something was broken between them. The bond, that brotherhood. It was gone.

However, it was not long before something tragic happened.

While Peter was hanging out with his gang of friends one night, he was knocked over by a car.

He survived the accident, but was crippled by it. He felt hopeless, despair and grief all washing over him at once. For the first time in his life, he felt that it was better to die than to live this way.

His friends all vanished at this, and he was left alone. All alone. Until Dave came and pulled him out of the darkness. It was a slow process, not just the healing of his leg, but also rekindling of the kinship between them. Dave would help Peter carry his bag on this way to school, and helped Peter around the house. It was awkward, to be the one who required assistance. The roles have reversed. It was Peter’s turn to receive help from Dave now, but Dave did not mind it one bit.

As the days passed, Peter saw what Dave was referring to when he asked him to stay away from his school friends; they were only there for him because of what he has for them; of his money and companionship. Not who he really was inside. Dave had seen what Peter had missed, even though he was blind; he saw the truthfulness of someone, he saw the value for who they really were, instead of their exterior appearance. Peter was truly grateful to Dave for opening his eyes for him. He was Peter once more.

Peter’s friends, however, resented as being pushed off the podium by his blind brother. They were still his friends, were they not? Their hatred was compound by their initial dislike for him and they decided to hatch a plot to put Dave in a hospital.

As Dave was walking home one night, he heard the sound a screeching car just meters away. It was waiting for him to turn up. But as he was blind, he could not see how fast the car the coming, and where it was headed. Instead he just stood there, hoping that the car would pass without hitting him. Suddenly, a heavy force slammed into him. Who was that? It felt like a bag of muscles had pushed him violently of the way. Dave crashed to the ground just an ear-splitting screech came from the car that just whooshed past him and collided, eerily, with a body.

David was walking around the garden, gently pushing his leg to walk an extra mile to hasten the recovery, when he heard the car coming. It looked way to familiar. When it burst into speed, David caught the figure in its headlights. It was Dave. Without hesitating a moment, he leapt into action. In a fraction of a second, he crossed over to the road and violently shoved Dave aside.

Just then, he injured leg gave way, and he fell helplessly to the ground. He turned and saw the driver’s shocked face as the car ate up the distance between them, he heard the brakes slam, but it was too late. All remembered with a flash of blinding white light.

When he came to, he was gasping for breath. The arms holding him were soft and smooth, like that of his brother’s. Through ragged breathe and half-blinded eyes, he glimpse a rough outline of his brother. He tried to reach out to him, but his arms wouldn’t move. Come on! Move it! He thought furiously, but they just flopped limply on the ground.

Between breathes, he whispered to Dave’s ear

“Open…Open the note I gave you”

And he was no more.

A few days after the incident, Dave found the note Peter has passed onto him. It was originally in the bottle which Peter had given him, but he had smashed it in rage during their previous argument.

With trembling hands, he asked his parents what it contained.

In between tears, their parents recited the note.

“Dear Dave, if I were to die one day, I would to give my eyes to you. You deserve to see this beautiful world much more than I do. Love, Peter”

3 acts structure.
First act:

Our hero Peter leads an ordinary life. He has a loving brother, and he gives the best of what he has to his brother.

Second act:

Peter was misled by his friends. They twist his opinion about his brother. Instead of seeing him as someone in need, he saw him as someone who is weighing him down. He affiliates lesser and lesser with his brother.

Third act:

Through his accident, Peter saw who the indispensable people in his life are. It was his brother who stuck to him through his darkest moments, whilst his friends kept their distance. Peter came out of his reverie and returned to his old self once more; the kind, caring and compassionate brother he was.

Plot twist:

Peter’s friends were jealous because Dave has taken Peter’s attention away from them. They plotted revenge. But Peter, having changed because of David, saw that happening and lost his life to save his brother.

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You are the beginning... of your end

You are the beginning… of your end

Synopsis

The Recrudesce

Inspiration: Predestination (movie)
Myth: Scientific myth of the chicken and egg, which comes first
Concept: Time travel, self-discovery and healing, Sacrifice.

Storyline.

Janice was born a righteous woman. Truthful and pure. She believes that one’s purpose in life is to do good for the people. Have courage and be kind. The only child of a war hero and a nurse, this family-instilled form of righteousness had been the core value of her life. Be it a stranger who was being bullied, or an old man crossing a particularly busy road, she has never hesitated to help.

One’s purpose in life is to do good for the people. Have courage and be kind.

However, even the most righteous person on earth are not immune from hustle and bustle of a busy working life. Worn out by the weary days of work, Janice slowly sink into a form of depression which she did not know about. Undeterred, she continued to press on.

However, something is bothering her. A nation-wide alarm has been sounded by a terrorist nicknamed the “fizzle bomber”. His campaign of terror has claimed many lives and is still at large. Authorities are baffled by his meticulous planning and strategies which he used to execute his act and his subsequent escape. 3 bombings later, they were nowhere close to solving the case. Clearly he had been planning for years. How did he get the equipments and resources to do it alone?

Janice, as with her usual self, felt her natural instinct tugging at her to help. Oddly, she seemed able to see some familiarity in the way the bombings were carried out, and the strategies as well. She would have done the exact same things if she were to carry out an act of terrorism, but how did she know? Was it possible that she and bomber are related? Or perhaps she was simply destined to be the one to catch the bomber and bring justice to this world? Janice convinced herself that it was the latter. All these while, her condition was getting worse.

That was when she met him.

Janice was drinking alone in a bar after work, when he approached quietly and slid onto a chair next to her. He struck up a casual conversation with her. It was so easy. He understands her predicament perfectly. Janice had never before in her life know of someone who knew her so well. In her drunken state, she began unravelling; she pour her heart out to the stranger whom she had just met for 2 hours, about her unspoken fears for the “fizzle bomber”, the troubles she had with her work life and finally, her family. Ever since the appearance of the “fizzle bomber”, her parents were shrouded in fear, as if something had reached out from the abyss and was threatening to drag them into its void.

The stranger calmly acknowledged all these, but surprised Janice by showing empathy for the bombers’ actions.

The bomber’s means justifies his ends, the stranger explained, you sacrifice a few to save many more. Janice’s heart leapt at this sentence. She had debated with herself over this for many years now, and had struggled to maintain her integrity, because there was truth in this.

How can a single human make the world a better place? You can. By rooting out the evil doers and punish them instead. This will save the majority.

Janice shook her head wildly at this thought, dismissing it as alcohol influence. There is no way she will let these dark thoughts grow on her. She felt tipsy, and sick. All she wanted to do was to go home and find safe haven in her own tiny rented apartment.

The next day, the media exploded with a flurry of activity; a video file was discovered at yet another bomb site. Death tolls continued to climb, calling for a national crisis. When the video was put on national broadcast, a masked figure appeared and addressed the nation in parables:

Oh be weary, sinners!
For when the night hits four,
Judgement awaits in the brightest places,
Across the nation you will seek,
But even with courage and kindness you will find defeat.

Somewhere deep in Janice’s mind, she knew that the bomber was calling out to her. Have courage, be kind. These values have guided her all her life. How could someone else outside her family know this? Beside her, even her parents were shocked by what they have just heard. A look of realisation had downed on their faces. But how Is this possible?

In slurred speech, his father spoke of a time when Janice’s mother was kidnapped by a stranger who wore the exact same mask as the one in the video. An uncanny coincidence, maybe. But the parable he had used was exactly the same one as the one he had told Janice’s father when he was looking for her mother. It was how they met and came to fall in love with each other.

Driven by more than just a desire to stop the “fizzle bomber” now, Janice had a real reason to unmask the unknown stranger. Too many mysteries was raised and he held the key to them all.

Putting her instincts to work, she quickly realised that the riddle was really straight forward. “Brightest place” simply indicate the time that the next attack is going to happen. “Across the nation” simply meant that it was take place at the exact centre of the country, based on geographical grids. This puts the attack at precisely 12 noon in a busy town area. “When the night hits four” meant that the attack with commence in a fortnight. Janice is ready for him.

She managed to locate him just as he was about to arm the bomb. With a shacking hand, she held up her weapon. It felt like a ton.

The stranger sensed her presence and stood up to meet her.

It was the same man whom she had met in the bar. Janice swallowed her shock and edged firmly closer to the man. She demanded to know the purpose for all his actions, and how could he have possibly made contacts with her parents, bring them to harm, forty years ago?

The man stood there and laughed.

“Because, dear Janice,” he smirked, “You are my beginning, and I am your end. You and I… are the same person”

The story flash forward to the future, where Janice had created James, the stranger, as an artificial intelligence which she meant to send back to the past to ensure her parent’s survival as she had made several enemies who wants her dead for her actions. As her depression grows ever stronger, she begin to think that is it hopeless to try and save the people. There were too many of them. She decided to punish those who brought disasters upon those who are helpless. She called her actions noble, but many condemned her for being immoral. How could she be the dictator of who lives and who dies? So created an AI to help her carry out her tasks.

The scene flashes back to the present, the stranger still staring fiercely at Janice.

“shoot me, and you will never be born.” He jeered.

Janice was truly lost now. Her months of pent up frustration stretched to a breaking point. She wanted it all to end so badly. But what about her? Was her existence all for nothing if she pulled the trigger?

The scene zooms out. A deafening sound of a gun shot was heard.

3 act structure

1) Hero living a normal life, questioning her moral values and meaning of her life. Janice was struggling with her own sense of righteousness and will to help other people.

2) Hero’s call for adventure. Janice encountered the fizzle bomber, who threatened to destroy everything she stood for.

3) Hero’s greatest challenge. Janice faced an unknown stranger who knows everything about her and understands her pains. He turns out to be the fizzle bomber. But soon he reveals that he is her future, and that she created him to ensure that she will be created as well.

Link to myth: Janice created her worst fears, but at the same time, the fears she had created also made sure that she was being created. There is no end to this story and everything happens as a direct consequence of another.