Mask of Good

Sebastian arrives at a completely booked hotel but meets Lily, an unusually nice woman willing to share her room and stimulating conversation with him.

EXT. MOTEL - NIGHT

An attractive YOUNG WOMAN listens to OFF CAMERA voices going back and forth.

MAN 1 (O.C.)

No. What I’m trying to get you to understand is that that sign wasn’t lit when I drove up. So in the 40 seconds it took me to park and walk into this lobby, you suddenly decided there were no vacancies? 

MAN 2 (O.C.)

I’m sorry, sir. Having no vacancies wasn’t a decision...lighting the sign for it was. If we had something, I’d sell it to you. Right before you walked in, I sold what was basically a janitor’s closet with a mattress in it and if we had another one, I’d let you book it. But, there’s nothing. We’re overbooked. A convention or something for all the comic books. 

MAN 1 (O.C.)

There are barely cars in the lot, though. I don’t understand how you could be so booked when there’s no one here!

MAN 2 (O.C.)

I don’t know. Maybe they all car pooled here in the Batmobile. All I know is I don’t have any rooms.

A MAN walks out. He’s nicely dressed but his clothes look mangled from the day. He stops next to the young woman. He pulls out a phone. He’s trying to figure out his next move. 

The woman studies him. She spends a long while deciding what to say or if she should say anything at all. 

Finally:

WOMAN

He’s right. About the convention. There’s at least 30 of them here. All walking around with plastic swords and weird hair. It’s quite a sight.

MAN 1

I take it you’re not here for that.

WOMAN

No. I’m here often, though. This place is a lot smaller than it looks. It fills up quickly.

MAN 1

You wouldn’t happen to know where the next hotel is, would you?

WOMAN

Not really. Your phone looks pretty fancy. I’m sure it could tell you if you asked it nicely.

MAN 1

It did tell me but it looks wrong. It’s saying sixty miles from here.

WOMAN

Sounds about right, actually. This is a fucked stretch of city zoning.

 

MAN 1

God. I can’t drive another sixty miles tonight. I’ve been on the road for 14 hours.

 

WOMAN

Where ya going?

MAN 1

Evansville. For a job.

WOMAN

Ah. I go to Evansville sometimes for jobs. It’s nice there.

MAN 1

Oh yeah? What do you do?

WOMAN

You first.

MAN 1

I’m an architect. If I get this job, it’ll be the biggest project I’ve ever lead.

WOMAN

You don’t even have the job? They’re making you drive 14 hours to a job interview?

MAN 1

They offered to fly me out but I declined. But that has to mean I got the job, right? They wouldn’t pay for a plane ticket if they simply wanted to interview me. 

WOMAN

They could be reconsidering now since you didn’t take the flight.

Pause.

MAN 1

There’s a reason I declined it. I don’t like flying.

WOMAN

Me either but I would have flown.

MAN 1

The last plane I was on crashed.

WOMAN

No s**t.

MAN 1

Technically, it was more of a crash landing, I guess. No injuries or anything but still. No one plans for that when they get on a plane and I never want the possibility of going through that again so I drive now. 

 

WOMAN

That’s pretty wild. I’ve never met a crash landing survivor before.

MAN 1

Well, now you have. And his name is Sebastian.

 

WOMAN

Lily. 

SEBASTIAN

You never told me what your job was, Lily.

LILY

(coyly)

I do things. Mostly to men but on occasion, there are women...

SEBASTIAN

(getting it)

Ah. Oh. Gotcha.

LILY

You think completely differently of me now, don’t you?

SEBASTIAN

No! You do a lot of people a service. It’s the world’s oldest profession, right? And totally resession-proof.

 

Lily smiles at him. 

LILY

Okay, Sebastian. I don’t normally do this but you seem really nice and as long as you promise you’re not a weirdo or anything...I can let you stay in my room for the night.

SEBASTIAN

Oh. Wow. Hey, no weirdo-ness here. I swear. That’s really nice of you, Lily, thank you. Are you sure I wouldn’t interfere with business or anything?

LILY

Not at all. It’s probably gonna be a slow night anyway.

SEBASTIAN

If you truly don’t mind, I’d appreciate that a lot.

LILY

I don’t mind. Just don’t make me regret it.

INT. MOTEL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Sebastian enters behind Lily a little timidly. He’s got a small carry-on bag with him. He’s still a little unsure about what he’s walking into. The room is extremely lived in, though not messy, and personalized with things that suggest she’s been there for more than a few nights. 

LILY

That sofa is also a bed so you can crash there.

SEBASTIAN

You been here a while?

LILY

Yeah. I live here.

SEBASTIAN

(sympathetic)

Oh.

LILY

Don’t cry too hard for me. It’s a choice. It’s cheap and functional and in my line of work, it’s all I need.

He sits down on the sofabed.

SEBASTIAN

It’s...cozy.

LILY

It’s a shithole. Thank God my mother isn’t alive to see how I live though if she could criticize me from her grave, I’m sure she would have done so by now. Beer?

SEBASTIAN

Thanks but I don’t drink.

LILY

I think I have some pop in the fridge if that’s more your thing.

SEBASTIAN

No. I’m fine.

Beat.

LILY

You Mormon or something, Sebastian?

SEBASTIAN

(confused)

Am I Mormon?

LILY

Yeah.

SEBASTIAN

Why would you assume I was Mormon because I’m not thirsty?

LILY

You just come off very Mormon to me.

Sebastian is more impressed than anything.

SEBASTIAN

I wish I could be offended by that but I actually grew up Mormon.

LILY

I knew it. You felt very Mormon-y. I’m usually right about stuff like that.

SEBASTIAN

You would have been right about 13 years ago. I’m not Mormon anymore, really.

LILY

Huh. I didn’t know you could un-Mormon yourself.

SEBASTIAN

More or less.

LILY

Did you stop believing in God or something?

SEBASTIAN

No. I stopped believing in religion. I still believe in God.

LILY

Good. I was hoping that was the case.

SEBASTIAN

Why? Would being an atheist make you retract your offer?

LILY

Probably not but it makes me more comfortable. The way I see it, a person without beliefs has nothing to stop them from becoming a monster. It’s a scary thought but I have to think that way.

 

SEBASTIAN

Beliefs aren’t really what stop people from becoming monsters. I guess it helps to a certain extent but the line between good and evil is even thinner than that. It comes down to human decency and you don’t need a belief in any spiritual being to be decent. In fact, you could throw a million feathers in the air and hit a decent atheist before you’d ever hit a decent Christian. 

This is Lily’s kind of conversation. She sits on the coffee table in front of Sebastian.

LILY

Is that so?

SEBASTIAN

Yeah. Think about it. If you need the threat of eternal punishment to do good deeds, you’re not really a good person. You’re a bad a person who fears consequences and if the universe operates the way it’s supposed to, and most of the time it does, you should still get every s****y thing in life you deserve, no matter how much you go around wearing a mask of good.

LILY

Man oh man. How many inns have you been turned away from tonight, Mary?

SEBASTIAN

I’m sorry. I’m ranting. To a stranger in a motel at one in the morning. This is the exact reason I stopped drinking.

LILY

No. This is good! I don’t usually get intelligent conversation with my clients. 

SEBASTIAN

Just so we’re clear here, Lily, I don’t really have an interest in being a client of yours. 

LILY

Well, that’s too bad. So, do you think all Christians are bad people?

SEBASTIAN

No. Absolutely not but I do think some of them have it wrong without even realizing it. The genuinely  good people in the world that are Christians for the insurance policy it comes with--those people were mislead. At some point in their life, they were told that all their earthly goodness could still send them to Hell if they didn’t accept Christ into their hearts. That bothers me. I think those people should have enough faith in being good to know that there’s a place for them that’s not Hell once they die.

  

LILY

The’s no guarantees that the universe or karma or whatever is gonna get it right, though. I’ve seen plenty of good people get s**t that they didn’t deserve while they were alive. What if that applies to the afterlife as well?

SEBASTIAN

It doesn’t because the universe doesn’t screw over good people without purpose. It’s either giving you the tools to deal with something harsher in the future or it’s resetting you in the right direction before you get to the truly horrible s**t.  

LILY

So what’s your reason for believing in anything? Are you the good person with the insurance policy or the bad person afraid of consequence?

SEBASTIAN

I don’t fall into either. I believe because above everything, I see humanity as a miracle that no amount of evolution could ever explain or create. It is ugly and flawed, yes, but even those parts of it is awe-inspiring. If there’s ever a day where people ever stop amazing me, I’ll stop believing. Simple as that.

LILY

You wrote in your answer on a multiple choice test. You rebel, you.

SEBASTIAN

I don’t really see it that way. I’m sure there are people out there that think like me. I’m just waiting to meet them, I guess. 

LILY

You have a very fascinating set of beliefs, Sebastian.

Lily pulls out a gun from nearby and aims it point-blank at Sebastian’s forehead. 

 

SEBASTIAN

(too shocked to be scared)

Whoa! What the hell are you doing?

LILY

You’re about to get your brains blown out, Sebastian, and you may not even know why. You didn’t do a damn thing to deserve it but, then again, I don’t know what you’ve done in the past. Ultimately, I don’t know why this is about to happen to you either. I’m carrying out my role in your life. That’s all I’m sure of. Maybe your universe set this whole thing up as a consequence for something you’ve done and thought you got away with. But there is the possibility that this is a bad thing happening to a good person and if that’s your case, what’s gonna be your lesson learned from this? What’s gonna be your right direction?

SEBASTIAN

Is this some kind of joke?

Lily c***s the gun.

LILY

Bullets don’t have a sense of humor, I’m afraid.

SEBASTIAN

Hey, hey, hey, hey! F**k! C’mon! Is it money? You want money? I can get you money!

LILY

This isn’t about money, Sebastian. We already established this earlier.

SEBASTIAN

Tell me what I did! Did I upset you with something I said? I don’t know what comes out of my own mouth sometimes. That’s a problem I’ve had my entire life and I’m sorry. Please, let me just leave. I’ll stay gone. Forever. No one will ever have to know the last hour ever happened, just don’t do this, okay?

LILY

You didn’t say anything wrong and you don’t have to leave, Sebastian. I guess I’m just one of those s****y atheists.

She pulls the trigger. Sebastian’s lifeless body is blown back by the blast. His blood covers everything, including Lily. She crudely wipes off her face with her hands and stands up. 

CUT TO:BLACK