Zeros 2 Heroes - The People's Publisher

PAGE ONE: (Seven Panels):

Panel 1: Mid-shot of BLAKE pacing in his apartment, currently facing right (west). It is early evening, with dying light peeking through the narrow slats of BLAKE's miniblinds at a sharp angle. BLAKE is in a ragged T-shirt and comfortable jeans, looking agitated. In his left hand is his cordless phone.

BLAKE:
No...

CSR (phone, overlapping):
Sir...

BLAKE:
NO! Look, I just talked to your claims department five minutes ago, they sent me to talk to you--

Panel 2: BLAKE paces the other direction, revealing some of his boxes and the whiteboards with his various attempts at death on them.

BLAKE: --why would I be calling--

CSR (phone, overlapping): Sir...Sir!

BLAKE: --What?!

Panel 3: BLAKE runs his right hand through his hair, obviously angry. He holds the phone in front of him, shouting into the receiver.

CSR (phone): I'm going to have to transfer you--

BLAKE (Overlapping): No--

CSR (phone): --to my supervisor--

BLAKE (Overlapping): --NO--

CSR (phone): --Please hold.

BLAKE (furious): --NO!

Panel 4: BLAKE's face is red, forearm taut with tension, hand clenched around the cordless phone in a claw. He knocks the earpiece against his forehead in frustration.

PHONE (music): --Tall and tan and young and lovely--

Panel 5: Returning the phone to his ear, he grabs a dry-erase marker from the bottom of the whiteboard.

PHONE (music): --The girl from Ipanema goes walking, and when she passes--

Panel 6: Close on the whiteboard, BLAKE is writing in blue ink "CUSTOMER SERVICE?" The marker is just over the period on the question mark.

PHONE (music): --Each one she passes goes... AH--

Panel 7: Title panel across bottom of page, "BLAKE UNDYING" subtitled "Chapter Two - Circles"

PAGE TWO: (Four Panels)

Panel 8: BLAKE cradles the phone on his right shoulder, pulls a cigarette out of a crumpled pack with his mouth.

CAP: My name is Blake Carson.

CAP: I am twenty-six years old, have a shitty job dispensing customer service to idiots.

Panel 9: BLAKE lights the cigarette with a zippo, eyes closed, head tilted in the direction of the phone, one hand cupping the other.

CAP: I am a failed journalist, with no career, no girlfriend and no prospects.

Panel 10. Half page panel. Overhead shot of BLAKE sitting down in his lounging chair, his head draped over the headrest. His brown hair fans out around his head like a sloppy halo. His eyes look tired, heavily lidded, fixed on a point above the panel. The lit cigarette dangles limply from his left hand as he blows smoke skyward.

CAP: Nineteen days ago I killed myself.

Panel 11: Narrow offset panel at bottom of page overlapping the bottom of panel 8 slightly. Shot from behind BLAKE facing the whiteboards, piles of reference books, and scribbled notes pasted to the walls.Random box piles are visible in the right foreground.

CAP: I've been trying to keep myself busy since then. It helps me avoid thinking about it.

PAGE THREE: (Seven Panels)

Panel 12: Wide panel. Shot facing towards the north, a couch and television visible in the background against the raw brick wall. BLAKE leans forward in the chair his left forearm resting on his thigh. He is facing east, turning slightly to his right to look at a whiteboard off-panel. The leftmost board is just visible on an angle on the right side of the panel. The phone is in his right hand, against his left ear. The cigarette still in his right hand, dangles from his fingers, smoke curling up around him.

CAP: I wanted to keep this journal to explain my actions. Not that I feel the need to justify myself--

CAP: --I just don't want anyone else to feel responsible for my choices...

CAP: ...Assuming I succeed, of course.

Panel 13-15 getting progressively narrower, with larger black space between. Panel 16, the last on the row, is as large as 13.

Panel 13: View towards the east, BLAKE moving south between the chair and the kitchen table, snagging the beer that is on the table in his right hand as he goes by. He has his left hand on the phone now, the cigarette in the corner of his mouth. Mounds of boxes in the background, and the edge of a whiteboard.

CAP: I'd try to explain myself directly...

Panel 14: View of BLAKE from the outside of the apartment, peering out over the city to the south. He has hooked the slats of the miniblind with the index finger of his right hand, the remaining fingers still curled around the beer. Shadows slant diagonally to the right of the panel.

CAP: ...Try to make them understand.

Panel 15: Shot pulls back, showing the squalid neighborhood that BLAKE lives in. BLAKE can not be seen in the window, save for the wedged open blackness in the midst of the miniblinds. His building looks like an industrial block that has been converted for living. His apartment is on the southwest corner of the block, fifth floor. Huddled buildings compete for the last remnants of daylight.

CAP: But seriously...

Panel 16. CASSIE is curled up on a bench by a window, dressed in white. One leg is pulled up under the other, a bare foot peeking out beyond her flowing white pants. Her blond hair shines in the dying day. It cascades around her shoulders, framing her face which is turned down towards at the phone cradled in her hands. She isn't looking at it directly, instead staring off into space. Even in simplicity, she is beautiful.

CAP: ...who would listen?

Panel 17. BLAKE stands by the window, his right hand still resting on the blinds. He is staring at the phone in his left hand, looking at the call display.

SFX: Beep! Beep!

CAP: Everyone knows that there's nothing more painful--

Panel 18. Close on call display, which reads "CALL TO: OUROBOROS LIFE" in the backlit LCD. Below this the display reads "INCOMING CALL: CASSIE"

CAP: --than re-opening old wounds.

PAGE FOUR: (Eight Panels)

Panel 19. The panel depicts a white bordered faded photograph of a white house with tall bushes to the left and right of the frame. In the center, a middle aged couple stand on either side of a ten year old BLAKE. The father is about six-foot-two and solidly built. He has a mustache, and well trimmed hair, graying slightly from its usual dark brown. He wears a grey suit and black tie over a white dress shirt, but somehow the way he carries himself he almost looks military even in civilian clothes, as though forty years earlier he had posed in the same way in front of his spitfire. The mother is roughly five-foot-eight, has black curly hair cut to just above shoulder length, and glasses. She wears a violet blouse and dark slacks. While she is round-faced and smiling, the father looks serious without being severe. She rests one hand on the shoulder of BLAKE, who looks atypically happy. He has curly light brown hair, looking like a refugee from a Duran Duran concert. He wears a dress shirt and pants which look too big for him. The scene is idyllic and impossible, like they just got out of church on a Sunday morning.
CAP: I had a normal childhood-
CAP: -Whatever that is these days-

Panel 20. Shot of BLAKE aged seventeen, opening his high school locker. The locker doors are sickly metallic blue, identical, and stretch off into the background. BLAKE can be seen wearing an ugly green and brown knit sweater. His hair is now cut to virtually the same style as his father's had been in panel 19, now dark brown. His skin has a number of zits on it, and he appears to be sweating. He looks down at his lock, oblivious to the people around him.
CAP (between 20-21) Went to public school

Panel 21. Narrower panel showing the same scene as panel 20. BLAKE's face is crushed sideways against his locker door, held there by a large hand. The hand belongs to an arm wearing a blue and white letterman jacket. BLAKE's eyes are closed, face smushed until his lips part in a baboon pucker.

SFX: CLANG

Panel 22. As 20, BLAKE has his locker open now and is getting books. The locker door is plastered with notes, schedules, and a square mirror at head level. BLAKE's jaw clenches as he struggles to compose himself, but his face is red with angry embarrassment. In the background, the Letterman jacket can only be seen from behind, his right arm over a girl's shoulder, his left arm waving nonchalantly over his head at BLAKE. To the girlfriend's right, past her extremely large hair, another blonde Letterman jacket looks at his friend, laughing at his nerd wrangling.

CAP: That was fun.

Panel 23. Long panel showing a collage of various typical scenes from High School. On the left, BLAKE passing notes to a brunette girl with glasses, attractive in that awkward teenage kind of way. Next, the two of them on a porch standing close and kissing. Next BLAKE walking into the foreground in the school hallway, in the back to the left, the same girl with some other guy.

CAP: I went through the normal teenage bullshit. Wrote some shitty poetry. Brooded.

CAP: Went out with some girls, got my heart broken.

CAP: Meh.

Panel 24. BLAKE is wearing a tux, his mother is adjusting his tie, looking proud. She is greying now, her glasses thicker, but still beams as though she had not a care in the world. BLAKE's hair is slightly longer, but still the same out of style cut. He grits his teeth and bears his mother's fussing stoically. His father looks on, his hair and mustache an iron gray. He now wears glasses as well, and though still stern, the corners of his mouth are turned up in slight amusement.
CAP: Ended up going to my prom stag...
CAP (overlaps 25): ...but I lucked out and was seated next to a girl from my class who came with her parents, so I didn't look like a total loser in the yearbook.

Panel 25: Similar to panel 19, white bordered photograph angled as though it was thrown on the page over the other panels. The photo shows the grad dinner, BLAKE sits next to a hot asian girl in a red velvet dress. They lean together slightly for the photo. For all appearances, it is though they came together and would remember this night forever.

Panel 26. BLAKE and random friends raising a glass in a toast. They are in various states of formal attire, obviously completely shitfaced.

CAP: All in all, pretty normal.

PAGE FIVE: (Four Panels)

Panel 27. 2/3 page panel. CASSIE is center-frame in all her glory, walking through Washington Square Park with some texts clutched to her chest. She wears a grey knit sweater with an over sized floppy collar, her blonde hair blows slightly in the breeze. It is early fall, and the leaves have just started to change, setting off the color of her hair and eyes. She is laughing with her brunette friend who is so ignored by BLAKE that she is half off-panel to the left, and washed out in color. To the right in the background, BLAKE looks back at her, stunned. He wears a mid length brown fall jacket, and has a black backpack over his right shoulder.

CAP: That all changed when I saw Cassie.

CAP: It was like I hadn't seen color until that moment.

CAP: I always thought that those "love-at-first-sight" people were idiots.

Panel 28. Tall thin panel that half overlaps panel 27, obscuring the inconsequential brunette's legs. BLAKE's profile on the left looking at CASSIE and her friend from behind, walking into the distance.

CAP: Shows what I know.

Panel 29. BLAKE with some forms handing them to some functionary behind a desk. Behind BLAKE is the profile of someone else waiting in line, just as in the background there are two other lines to similar terminals.

CAP: It took forever to change my classes...

Panel 30. Close up on a course description from the NYU course catalog, the course title and however much fits in the panel visible.

"Foundations of Journalism
V54.0501 No prerequisites. For the Journalism major and the prospective Journalism major. Also for Public Policy and Law and Society students. Offered only in the Fall term.
This is Journalism's gateway course, a lecture centered on articles and primary historical documents that have had profound impact on the course of American Journalism as practiced today. In addition, recitation sections will meet once a week for further discussion of the readings and the writing of a series of essays designed to assess students' understanding of important journalistic concepts and practices, as well as their potential as writers and reporters preparing for leadership in the field"

CAP: ...Just so I could meet her.

PAGE SIX: (Five Panels)

Panel 31. Wide panel of a lecture theater, looking down a row at an angle. CASSIE in the foreground to the right of the panel, the end of a pen in her mouth looking intently forward. Looking past her, BLAKE is visible a few rows above and to the left.. While everyone else looks forward or is taking notes, he has eyes only for her, a wistful expression on his face.

CAP: It was a while before the opportunity to talk to her came up, so I waited patiently.

CAP: Its amazing how success defines the difference between "romantic" and "stalking"..

Panel 32. Interior of a coffee shop. CASSIE sits at a table near the window, her notes open on the table in front of her. On the left BLAKE is pointing to the chair across from her.

CAP: I don't even remember what half-assed excuse I used to start the conversation.

Panel 33. CASSIE looks up and smiles at BLAKE radiantly, gestures at the chair with an open hand as if to say "take a seat".

CAP: But I'll never forget that smile.

Panel 34. BLAKE has his coat off and is leaning forward slightly in his chair with his left arm resting on the edge of the table. His right hand reaches over his other arm to rest idly on the steaming cup of coffee in front of him. CASSIE's books are now closed, and pushed to the side of the table to make room for coffee. She leans back, laughing out loud with eyes closed. A bemused smile plays across BLAKE's face.

CAP: Luckily I can be charming when the mood is right...

Panel 35. BLAKE's position unchanged, but his eyes are wide. The smile is long gone. Leaning over CASSIE's right shoulder is her boyfriend, wearing khakis and a dress shirt. He exudes success and confidence. One arm rests across CASSIE's shoulders, casually asserting his territory, the other reaches past her to extend a hand towards BLAKE in greeting. CASSIE leans back, speaking to him while pointing in BLAKE's general direction.

CAP: ...Even though my timing is awful.

 

PAGE SEVEN:(Six Panels)

Panel 36. Wide panel, CASSIE is in the background to the right, leaning on a free-standing railing on a long set of stairs leading into one of the campus buildings. Her boyfriend stands next to her on the right, looking at Blake with a hint of challenge. She smiles and waves at BLAKE. In the foreground to the left BLAKE, waves back half-heartedly.

CAP: Turns out Fate plays a mean game of "Gotcha last"

CAP: But I wasn't about to give up that easily.

Panel 37. CASSIE and BLAKE sit on opposite sides of a table, with two other students in between. Coffee cups and notes are everywhere. BLAKE stabs a finger down at the book in front of him, glaring at the other two confidently. To the immediate right, a curly haired man with glasses is staring at his notes looking rattled, one hand in his hair (Could pass for a young Woody Allen). To his right is a redheaded woman who appears to be arguing with BLAKE and losing. One hand is out palm up over her books, the other points at BLAKE exasperatedly. CASSIE sits directly opposite BLAKE, her hands folded under her chin, staring at him intently.

CAP: Over the course of the year our friendship grew. We worked together on a few papers.

CAP: It turned out that I actually enjoyed my accidental career choice.

Panel 38. Over the shoulder shot of CASSIE looking at BLAKE in foreground silhouette. Her eyes are just visible over the rim of her coffee, weighing him.

CAP: I didn't know it at the time, but that was when she first began to notice me.

Panel 39. Reverse view. BLAKE has stood up over the table, and is indicating a page of notes in front of the Woody Allen impersonator, the text he was referring to, still open in his right hand. He addresses both of the other members of the table. They look chastened.

CAP: She thought I was brilliant.

Panel 40. As 38. CASSIE smiles at BLAKE, mockingly offering up a golf clap at his performance.

CAP: She said that she fell in love with my passion.

Panel 41. As 39. BLAKE offers an exaggerated bow, returning the smile.

CAP: Truth is, I just don't like to lose.

PAGE EIGHT: (Five Panels)

Panel 42. CASSIE and BLAKE at the rear of a pack of actual journalists. CASSIE has her camera up, aiming through the throng of raised hands and microphones. BLAKE cranes his neck to see through the mass. He scribbles notes on a tiny pad that is only barely visible.

CAP: I took every opportunity I could to work with her.

CAP: Not just because of how I felt about her.

Panel 43. CASSIE, holding up a shot of a man being led by police down the steps of the courthouse, his hands are up to cover his face, showing the handcuffs prominently. She holds the picture by the top two corners in front of her, looking smug.

CAP: She was also very good.

Panel 44. CASSIE hugs BLAKE smiling through her sadness. In the background, her boyfriend looks on, his expression unreadable, his eyes lost in his glasses' reflection.

CAP: She said that after our first-year finals was when it really hit her.

Panel 45. BLAKE in the foreground walking towards us down the street. In the background, CASSIE is led to a taxi by her boyfriend. She looks over the taxi door at BLAKE.

CAP: That she would miss my humor, and my intensity.

Panel 46. Wide panel. In the foreground, CASSIE watches BLAKE walk away down the street, in the distance.

CAP: That she would miss me.

PAGE NINE: (Eight Panels)

Panel 47. As Panel 37, except now CASSIE looks at her boyfriend over her cup of coffee. He is oblivious, reading the business section of the paper. They are at a kitchen table, morning light trickling down the concrete canyon outside the window. Her expression is pensive.

CAP: We didn't talk much over the summer.

Panel 48. Same apartment, dimly lit. To the right, CASSIE is putting on earrings to go out. She is wearing a simple (yet elegant) black outfit, almost a cocktail dress. She is looking at her boyfriend who is only visible by the light of his laptop, the reflection of which obscures his glasses entirely. Her expression is neutral, his is vacant.

CAP: We got together for coffee a few times.

Panel 49. As 32, an almost identical scene, except it is night outside. The indirect lighting makes a nice earthy atmosphere. CASSIE is again laughing on the right, one hand to her chest. This time she maintains eye contact with BLAKE, who has virtually the same expression on his face. She has a cocktail, he has a bottle of beer. His attire is reasonably nice, but semi-formal at best. His effort seems not to be lost on her.

CAP: Nothing special. Just for a few laughs in one of our regular spots...

Panel 50. Identical to panel 48, CASSIE stands in the doorway, light falling around her into the dark apartment. Her boyfriend has not moved from the laptop. Her expression frowns slightly.

CAP: ...But I wouldn't have traded those nights for anything.

Panel 51. BLAKE stands in his apartment door, looking confused yet pleasantly surprised.

CAP: I'm not sure what it was that I said that summer...

Panel 52. Reverse angle. CASSIE stands in his hallway, searching his eyes intently, eyes welling with tears.

CAP: ...but somehow, she was mine.

Panel 53. BLAKE puts a hand on her face and kisses her deeply. The world stops for a moment.

CAP: She was everything that I'd ever dreamed of.

Panel 54. Long shot of CASSIE and BLAKE in the hallway, still kissing, his arms now wrapped around her.

CAP: How could it have all gone so wrong?

PAGE TEN: (Four Panels)

Panel 55. ½ page. Similar to Panel 27, except it is CASSIE & BLAKE in the foreground. It is again fall in Washington Square Park. BLAKE now wears his signature long woolen/felt coat. He looks down at CASSIE with a look of contentment, an easy smile playing about his lips. CASSIE has both arms wrapped around his left arm, leaning into him as they walk.

CAP: I started my second year of college full of unbridled optimism.

CAP: I was in love, I was in classes that I excelled at...

CAP: My future was bright.

Panel 56. Close on CASSIE peering over camera, looking cheeky. With one hand she beckons "come here" towards the reader.

CAP: Cassie's talent behind the camera caught the eye of her professor.

Panel 57. CASSIE in profile in foreground, BLAKE on the street walking towards her. Cars and buildings are indistinct in the background.

SFX: Click

CAP: At his urging, she took more courses in photojournalism.

Panel 58. Laid over the corner of the page is CASSIE's photo of BLAKE in black and white, reproducing the famous Dennis Stock photo of James Dean in Times Square.

CAP: I swear that she could find the beauty in a scrapheap.

PAGE ELEVEN: (Six Panels)

Panel 59. Wide panel, CASSIE developing pictures in a dark room. She is hanging wet prints from a line, looking at them with a critical eye. A clothespin hangs from her full lips, while she affixes the other one to her still dripping print, hair clipped back out of her face.

CAP: It wasn't long before her major shifted from Journalism to Photography.

CAP: It was what she was meant to do.

Panel 60. Wide Panel, as panel 31. The seat that CASSIE occupied in 31 is in the foreground, and noticeably empty. BLAKE sits in the background, with his hand raised. Unlike 31, he faces forward like the other students. Beside him, a few seats over is the Woody Allen clone, looking stressed. His position is such that he could have also been in 31, but is only visible now that CASSIE is not present.

CAP: Her talent was obvious, and I was happy for her...

CAP: ...Even though the classes always seemed a little empty without her.

Panel 61. As 32, again daytime. A pile of books sits to BLAKE's left on the table. He looks slightly more haggard than before, his hair grown out further and beginning to take on the familiar style. CASSIE, leans back in her chair with her camera in front of her aimed at BLAKE, her face wistful though BLAKE cannot see it. BLAKE is preoccupied, looking down into his steaming coffee.

CAP: It was rough for a while, but we always managed to work it out.

Panel 62. BLAKE in a shirt and tie, behind a desk mounded with paper and files. It appears to be jammed into the corner of a back room, the walls and lighting bathing the entire area in an unearthly pale blue glow. Many filing cabinets line the wall next to him. A computer is on his desk, on which he is typing with his right hand, gesturing with a file in his left, at the same time cradling a phone on his left shoulder, frustration plain upon his face.

CAP: That summer I did my internship at the New York Daily News.

Panel 63. Long shot of a wedding party spread out to the left and right in front of a chapel's doors, groomsmen and bridesmaids angle outwards on the stairs. In the center at ground level is CASSIE, identifiable only by her long blond hair.

CAP: Cassie got a job taking wedding photos.

Panel 64. CASSIE and BLAKE moving. CASSIE has her hair tied up behind a handkerchief, and is wearing a ratty blue shirt, obviously one of BLAKE's. She is unpacking a box filled with glassware that is sitting on the counter in front of her. BLAKE is moving towards the left of the panel, carrying another box. He has stopped and turned his head to the right to steal a kiss from CASSIE.

CAP: We got a place together, and tried to lead a normal life.

PAGE TWELVE: (Eight Panels)

Panel 65. Interior of the dark apartment. In the background, BLAKE stands in the doorway of the apartment silhouetted in the hallway light, one hand still on the doorknob. The light from BLAKE's entry reveals a place setting in the immediate foreground, and two extinguished candles that appear to have burned down about halfway.

CAP: Maybe that was a mistake.

Panel 66. BLAKE has turned on a nearby freestanding lamp, and stands with coat on, still with his hand on the knob of the lamp. He looks down at the table, sees the place settings, and a note on the table on the side nearest him.

CAP: Meeting deadlines and staying ahead of the other interns made for long hours.

Panel 67. Close on the note that BLAKE is holding in his hand. It is handwritten, and reads "Blake, Tried to wait up but I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I made us dinner, yours is in the fridge. I Love You, baby. Happy anniversary, XO Cassie."

CAP: Sometimes, too long.

Panel 68. Close on CASSIE in bed on her side, facing the viewer. In the background, BLAKE is standing in the bedroom door looking in on CASSIE. Faint light falls across her face in the foreground, showing her to be peacefully asleep.

CAP: In hindsight, it wasn't worth it.

Panel 69. Side view of BLAKE on the balcony, smoking a cigarette. He looks to the left of the panel (west), leaning on the railing wearily.

CAP: I don't like to think of those times.

CAP: Of what could have been different.

Panel 70. BLAKE in foreground on the right, cigarette to his mouth. In the background behind him, CASSIE is silhouetted in the bedroom door on the far side of the apartment.

CAP: The truth was that the job was getting to me.

Panel 71. CASSIE has opened the sliding door behind BLAKE, who turns to look at her over his shoulder. He appears surprised and remorseful. She is wearing a green-blue silk nightie that comes down to her upper thigh (very sexy). Her expression is unreadable, but the hint of a pout suggests disappointment.

CAP: All the ugliness in the world...

Panel 72. CASSIE moves up to stand next to BLAKE, resting her head on his shoulder and looking out over the city below. BLAKE closes his eyes, and kisses her on the top of the head, putting one hand over hers on his bicep.

CAP: She was the only beauty in my life.

PAGE THIRTEEN: (Nine panels)

Panel 73. In the darkroom, CASSIE is hanging a black & white photo of an eight year old girl who is looking down at a butterfly that has alighted upon her hand. She has straight hair, tucked over one ear, and is studying the insect with the gravity of a lepidopterist.

CAP: She was able to see the hidden beauty in our day to day life.

Panel 74. BLAKE sits at his desk, his head down on his keyboard, both hands buried in the hair at the back of his head. On the screen is visible the headline "ACCUSED MOLESTER KILLS FAMILY, SELF." Just to the right of his head, a crime scene photo can be seen of a tiny form under a white sheet stained with blood.

CAP: I couldn't bear to tell her about all the things they don't print in the paper.

Panel 75. CASSIE and BLAKE arguing. It isn't obvious who started the fight, or who is winning, only that both are screaming at the other, and that neither one appears ready to back down.

CAP: It was inevitable that tensions would erupt.

Panel 76. BLAKE reads the Daily News at his desk, the front page reads "SERIAL RAPIST CLAIMS 18th VICTIM"

CAP: They say that the definition of insanity...

Panel 77. CASSIE and BLAKE fighting again, different clothes. He throws his hands in the air, and she points at him accusingly. A lit cigarette is between his fingers, above his head, ashing randomly.

CAP: ...Is doing the same thing over and over...

Panel 78. CASSIE and BLAKE having sex in the shower. He buries his face in her neck, her face is turned towards the viewer, eyes closed, mouth open. Her back is against the shower wall, and right hand is pressed against the glass door. His left hand holds up her right thigh.

CAP: ...and expecting different results.

Panel 79. BLAKE adjusting his coat as if he had just put it on, his jaw clenched in anger. To the left, CASSIE has one hand on the door as if to prevent him from leaving, shouting at him.

CAP: I loved her with everything I was.

Panel 80. CASSIE on the couch, undoing BLAKE's shirt. He struggles to take his coat off behind him, while kissing her. In the foreground on the table, the newspaper reads: "28 DEAD IN HIGH SCHOOL MASSACRE"

CAP: But our worlds were just so different.
Panel 81. BLAKE spooning with CASSIE in bed, naked. She is asleep, his eyes are open, brow furrowed as though considering. He has one arm over her, across her stomach. CASSIE's left arm rests on his, her hand on his wrist.

CAP: We were just going in circles.

PAGE FOURTEEN: (Five Panels)

Panel 82. BLAKE and CASSIE kissing at the airport, tears streaming down her face. She has both arms around his neck, and he crushes her to him. It is simultaneously passionate and frantic.

CAP: Near the end of summer, Cassie was offered the opportunity to finish her degree in Paris.

Panel 83. Close on BLAKE and CASSIE, with their foreheads resting on each other, both of their eyes closed. CASSIE is still crying. BLAKE's face struggles with his emotions.

CAP: She would have been foolish not to take it.

Panel 84. BLAKE in silhouette before tall windows at the airport. In the distance a plane traces an arc across the sky.

CAP: For a lot of reasons.

Panel 85. BLAKE smoking at his desk while he works, the light of the computer the only illumination in the room. His face seems hollow, and unshaven. Hair is now the familiar long unwieldy style.

CAP: It only got worse when she was gone.

Panel 86. Computer screen shows headline "MOTHER OD'S, BABY STARVES TO DEATH by Blake Carson" the rest of the screen is blank, the cursor ticking away patiently.

CAP: Without her to take it all away...

Panel 87. As Panel 65, but the table is entirely barren.

CAP: I just felt hollow inside.

PAGE FIFTEEN:

Panel 88. ½ page. As 32. CASSIE and BLAKE sitting in the coffee shop again, her hair and clothing taking on a more sophisticated and yet generally simple style. Her hair is pinned back slightly, coming over her left shoulder in a single wave. BLAKE looks as though he has been through a war. His hair is a study of disarray.

CAP: It was eight months before I would see her again.
CAP: When she got back, we tried to carry on as though nothing was different..
CAP: ...but to me it felt as though I had been left behind. Like we were following separate paths now.

Panel 89. CASSIE and BLAKE packing boxes. Both look exhausted.

CAP: She was barely back a month when she accepted a job with a magazine in Chicago.

Panel 90. Close on BLAKE and CASSIE in front of a wall of boxes in a moving van. BLAKE's right hand is on CASSIE's cheek, her eyes are again overwhelmed with tears.

CAP: I didn't offer to go with her.

Panel 91. Pull back. BLAKE kisses CASSIE, and they embrace for the last time.

CAP: Four months later, it would be over.

PAGE SIXTEEN: (Eight Panels)

Panel 92. BLAKE walking past full length mirror in the hall. The mirror is broken, reflecting him kaleidoscopically. His right hand is bandaged and bloody, holding a tumbler of an amber liquid that he raises to his lips.

CAP: I didn't handle the breakup very well.

Panel 93 BLAKE on his balcony, hurling a stack of texts and binders into space like a discus. Looseleaf flies everywhere as one binder flies apart.

CAP: Never finished my degree.

Panel 94. Picture of BLAKE leaning across a desk in an office, looking simultaneously angry and smug. His left hand supports his weight, while his right flips an unseen person the finger. On the door behind him, the word "EDITOR" can be seen in reverse on the window.

CAP: Bounced from job to job.

CAP: Apparently I have an attitude problem.

Panel 95. BLAKE from behind on his couch, watching CNN on the television. Images of the Iraq war are everywhere. The crawl at the bottom of the screen reads "FRIENDLY FIRE INCIDENT CLAIMS FOUR"

CAP: And all around me the world went to shit.

Panel 96. Mockup of celebrity gossip magazine. Main portion of page shows a blurry photo of two people in a car with dark glasses on. The headline reads, "BRAD & JEN AN ITEM AGAIN?" In the lower left corner, there's a picture of Elvis with the caption "NEW TELL ALL BOOK CLAIMS ELVIS WAS GAY!"

CAP: I did a few months at the National Infiltrator.
CAP: At least they don't have delusions of legitimacy.

Panel 97. Grey haired overweight man shaking BLAKE's hand with one hand, and handing over an envelope with the other. The Man looks pleased with himself. You can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes. Blake looks broken and disgusted with himself and the transaction.

CAP: The sad thing that I was actually good at that job...
CAP: Not having any self-worth helped.

Panel 98. As 95. Television now shows the Jerry Springer show. There is a random fight erupting on the screen. The caption at the bottom reads "MOM, I'M HAVING MY DAD'S BABY". BLAKE has stood, and is walking out of panel in silhouette towards the left.

CAP: I quit the week that we ran the same story as Jerry Springer.

CAP: Even I have standards.

PAGE SEVENTEEN: (Eight Panels)

Panel 99. ¾ overhead view of BLAKE in a cubicle amongst numerous others. He has his head in his hands, and a headset on.

CAP: Three months ago I started working at SyncGrove doing customer service.

CAP: It was there that I realized that we as a species are fucking doomed.

Panel 100. Wide panel. Side view of BLAKE in his tub, his wrist slashed open bleeding freely down his arm and onto the floor.

CAP: I couldn't take it anymore. There was nothing left for me.

Panel 101. Inset panel. Tight on BLAKE's unfocused closing eyes.

Panel 102. Inset panel, as 101, but fully closed.

Panel 103. Dark panel, with caption in white.

CAP: I was tired of fighting.

Panel 104. Close on BLAKE's face from above, pale and slack.

Panel 105. As 104, BLAKE wakes up, eyes wide and panicked.

SFX: GASP

Panel 106. Side view as 100. BLAKE is examining his wrist and finds it whole. Blood is still everywhere. His face is blank with confusion, mouth agape.

CAP: Gotcha last.

PAGE EIGHTEEN: (Ten panels)

Panel 107. Wide panel. Close on BLAKE's wrists side by side, covered in blood but seemingly unwounded. In the background can be seen water tinged red, and BLAKE's legs, showing that he is still in the tub.

CAP: I knew I hadn't dreamed it, there was blood everywhere.
CAP: I remember the pain, the feeling of the razor separating my flesh.

Panel 108. As 107, except one hand rubs water on the other wrist, revealing that there is no sign of wound or scar.

CAP: But my wounds were gone, like it never happened.

Panel 108. BLAKE slashes his wrist again with a razor blade.

CAP: I had no idea why this was happening to me...

Panels 109-111. Tiny panels showing the wound closing up before his eyes.
CAP: ...but I wasn't about to give up that easily.

Panel 112. BLAKE has a gun in his mouth. He is sitting on his bed in a white bathrobe.

CAP: I kept thinking, this is going to hurt.

Panel 113. As 112, BLAKE has fallen back on the bed, blood gushed out of his mouth all over the front of his robe, brains and blood all over the wall behind him.

CAP: ...but I do it anyway...

Panel 114. As 112, BLAKE's mouth, neck, and shirt are covered in blood, and he is massaging the back of his head with a pained look in his face.

CAP: ...maybe this time will be different.

PAGE NINETEEN: (Ten Panels)

Panel 115. BLAKE stands on the edge of a subway platform, looking down the tunnel towards the viewer.

CAP: I don't know why this is happening to me.

CAP: Its like some kind of sick joke.

Panel 116. View from behind BLAKE as he is in the process of leaning out over the edge and falling towards the tracks.

CAP: Every time I think, this is going to hurt.

Panel 117. A subway blurs past the station, apparently hitting BLAKE in midair. No evidence of what happened to him can be seen.

CAP: But I do it anyway.

Panel 118. BLAKE stands on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, swaying unsteadily in the wind. He looks down at the water with grim resolution.

CAP: This is going to hurt.

Panel 119. The bridge in silhouette against the sky. The tiny figure of BLAKE can be seen hurling off the side of one of its support towers.

CAP: But I do it anyway.

Panel 120. BLAKE is in an empty lot by the Hudson river, lighting a stick of dynamite with his cigarette. The dynamite's fuse sparks like a sparkler.

CAP: They say that the definition of insanity...

Panel 121. Pull back over the river, the explosion can be seen reflected in the water, and mushrooms up high into the sky.

CAP: ...Is doing the same thing over and over...

Panel 122. Identical to Panel 18. Close on call display, which reads "CALL TO: OUROBOROS LIFE" in the backlit LCD. Below this the display reads "INCOMING CALL: CASSIE"

CAP: ...and expecting different results.

Panel 123. Identical to Panel 17. BLAKE stands by the window, his right hand still resting on the blinds. He is staring at the phone in his left hand, looking at the call display.

CAP: This is going to hurt.

Panel 124. BLAKE answers the phone, a look of hesitation on his face.

BLAKE:
Hello?

CAP: But I do it anyway.

PAGE TWENTY: (Eight Panels)
Panel 125. There is no response from the phone, BLAKE stands in the same position, waiting.

Panel 126. BLAKE closes his eyes at the sound of her voice. Even as much as he's longed to hear it, it still hurts.

CASSIE (phone): ...Hello Blake. It's Cassidy.

Panel 127. BLAKE moves away from the window, towards the chair by the whiteboards. He tries to sound nonchalant, and fails miserably.

BLAKE: Cassie? Well, twice in as many weeks. To what do I owe the pleasure.

Panel 128. BLAKE hits himself in the forehead with the top of his fist at his own stupidity, his face wincing at how forced his words sounded.

CASSIE (phone): ...

Panel 129. BLAKE sits in the chair, one hand stroking his temple.

CASSIE (phone): ... Blake, I just wanted to call and apologize for the other day.

Panel 130. BLAKE is unsure of how to respond.

CASSIE (phone): I didn't mean to get angry at you, I just...

CASSIE (phone): ...when the police called, I didn't know what to think.

Panel 131. BLAKE looks chastened, looks down slightly.

BLAKE: I didn't mean to worry you, Cassie.

Panel 132. BLAKE winces slightly.

CASSIE (phone): It's not your fault. It's their mistake.

PAGE TWENTY-ONE: (Six Panels)

Panel 133. CASSIE still sits by her window, the light almost entirely faded from the sky. It is obvious that the conversation is awkward and hard for her. She stares up into space, her eyes looking as though she might cry.

CASSIE: I also wanted to say that I'm sorry I haven't returned your phone calls.

CASSIE: Things have just been so hectic with the move back I haven't really had a moment to myself.

Panel 134. BLAKE checks his watch, and looks upset.

CASSIE (phone): I would have eventually, even without the scare.

Panel 135. BLAKE looks genuinely pained.

Panel 136. BLAKE opens his mouth to talk.

Panel 137. CASSIE wipes at her eyes with one hand.

BLAKE (phone): ...I... I missed you, Cassie.

CASSIE (pained): ...Blake...

Panel 138. Looks at his watch in angry futility.

BLAKE: Its alright Cassie, I understand. Look, I have to leave for work now or I'm going to be late, but I'd like to continue this conversation later.

PAGE TWENTY-TWO: (Six Panels)

Panel 139. CASSIE has closed her eyes, tears threatening to spill over.

BLAKE (phone): Maybe we could get a coffee and talk about things sometime?

Panel 140. BLAKE dares to look mildly hopeful.

CASSIE (phone): ...

Panel 141. BLAKE's expression falters.

CASSIE (phone): ...I don't think that's such a good idea right now, Blake.

Panel 142. BLAKE's face is engulfed with shadow as his head drops slightly.

Panel 143. CASSIE has raised one hand to her face to wipe her eyes.

BLAKE (phone): ... I understand, I suppose. Anyhow, I really do have to go. If you change your mind, call me. Alright?

CASSIE (weakly): ...Alright.

Panel 144. CASSIE has pulled up both her knees against her chest, and she is hugging them with one hand, holding the phone out with the other. She buries her face in her knees.

BLAKE (phone): Alright, good night Cassie.

SFX: *click*

Panel 145. Pull back. Cassie drops the phone, and begins to sob.

(Continued in Chapter 3 - "Nikki")