Abridged Too Far – Heavy Rain

Day: Saturday
Time: 11:30am
Weather: Sunny

Ethan awoke after having a lie-in – he draws pictures for a living and doesn’t actually need to get up with the rest of the world. He got out of bed in stages as Ethan was unable to move like normal humans. He went into the bathroom started to shave but was too rough-handed and ended up cutting himself so he gave up altogether. Half-beards were all the rage. He then turned on the shower put his hand under the water and turned it off again. He then put on what appeared to be a lime green pair of speedos, got dressed and went downstairs.

He received a note from his wife which read:

Get up you lazy bastard and do some work. Don’t forget it’s Shaun’s birthday party today.

Ethan went into his study and began to draw a house. He paused after each stroke; it was if he was waiting to be told what to do. He wasn’t a very good architect:

He then went into the kitchen, had a cup of coffee and a swig of orange juice before entering the living room to play with a toy car and put on Motorhead’s greatest hits. Then his wife and kids returned.

KIDS: Dad!

ETHAN: Go away.

WIFE: Ethan, take the shopping bags off me.

ETHAN: I have to do everything around here.

He grabbed one half of the bags before slowly taking the other half. He took a small step left and placed the bags on the kitchen side.

WIFE: Can you lay the table with my Mum’s very expensive china, please?

ETHAN: Whatever.

Ethan got out the china and threw it on the table before going outside to play with the kids. He picked up his eldest son, Jason, and threw him into the climbing frame and then he picked up his youngest son, Shaun, put him on his shoulders and tilted left and right before throwing him to the floor. They all went into the house to eat.

Later that day they all went to the mall. The mall was very busy – 8,975 people crammed into 5m2 of floor space. Jason wandered off and Ethan called for him despite the fact that he was right behind his son. Jason’s just ignorant. He finally stopped due to being cornered by a scary-ass clown that was selling balloons.

JASON: Buy me a red balloon. Now.

Ethan bought him the balloon. In the time in took Ethan to find his money Jason had wandered off again and was now outside the mall. Ethan spotted his red balloon and after spending half an hour wading through the crowd and walking in circles, Ethan finally managed to catch up with Jason, who was  now standing in the middle of the road with a car speeding toward him. Ethan leapt in front of the vehicle, grabbed Jason and took the full force of the oncoming car. He was unharmed but strangely Jason had died.

Ethan held the back of his head and chose to react with muted emotion.

2 YEARS LATER

Day: Monday
Time: 3:30pm
Weather: Shit

Ethan picked Shaun up from school and neither he nor Shaun said a word. He took him home and gave him a snack at 4:30pm, made him do homework at 6:00pm, gave him one slice of re-heated pizza at 7:00pm and then rocked the routine by making Shaun go to bed at 7:30pm.

SHAUN: But I go to bed at 8.

ETHAN: If you don’t go to bed I’ll push you in front of a car, too.

SHAUN: But I need my teddy.

ETHAN: Tough.

Shaun went to bed crying. Ethan then went a bit schitzo and found himself on Carnaby Street (it might mean something later) with an origami figure in his hand.

Day: Tuesday
Time: 1:00pm
Weather: Not bad. A little chilly

Ethan was lying on his shrink’s couch listening to reasons why he shouldn’t blame himself for Jason’s death but it was falling on deaf ears.

ETHAN: I black out and wake up with an origami figure in my hand and no recollection of why or where I’ve been.

SHRINK: You’re schitzo. Anyway, time’s up.

Day: Tuesday
Time: 4:15pm
Weather: Grey and miserable with a high chance of rain

Ethan had taken Shaun to the park so that they could sit on a bench and be miserable. Ethan tried to cheer Shaun up by flinging him off of a see-saw. This didn’t work so he pushed him on the swing, but he pushed so hard that Shaun fell off and landed in the mud. He then pushed Shaun so fast on the merry go round that he flew off into another mud puddle. To try and make up for this he bought Shaun some strawberry sweets.

SHAUN: STRAWBERRY? I fucking hate strawberry, you idiot. You can’t do anything…Oooo, a Carousel. Buy me a ticket.

Ethan had no choice but to comply As he watched Shaun go round he suddenly had another schitzo episode and woke up later that night back at Carnaby Street. He ran back to the park but Shaun was missing. He ran all the way home but Shaun wasn’t there either. Shaun was gone.

Day: Tuesday
Time: 8:15pm
Weather: Shit…again

Ethan sat in the Police station being questioned by Detective Blake regarding Shaun’s disappearance.

BLAKE: What time did you enter the park and what was Shaun wearing?

ETHAN: 4:15pm exactly and he had a beige on beige ensemble.

BLAKE: It took you 4 hours to report it? What were you doing?

ETHAN: I searched for him for at least half an hour and then I watched the latest episode of Lost before having some dinner and doing the washing. Could…The Origami Killer have taken him?

BLAKE: More than likely. We’ll keep looking over night.

Ethan got up and went to meet his ex-wife at the entrance of the station. She was very upset.

EX-WIFE: How could you lose Shaun? First Jason and now this! You are to blame. You.

Day: Wednesday
Time: 7:31am
Weather: Not as shit, but still shit

Ethan was at home. He hadn’t slept all night and now the Paps were outside waiting for him to appear. He was sat at the kitchen table and after about 10 minutes he finally noticed the envelope that was on his table. He opened it and there was a riddle:

There once was a man named Ethan,
Who receives some schitzo treatment,
He killed his son,
Lost the other one,
And now I have him trapped in a drain waiting for the rain to drown him.
All my love – The Origami Killer

Turns out the Origami Killer is crap at limericks.

Inside the envelope was also a locker ticket for Lexington Station luggage lockers. Ethan dodged the paparazzi and headed toward Lexington Station. Upon arriving he had a panic attack and started running around like a lunatic. He eventually found the lockers and, after opening his, he found a shoe box with several bits of origami, a gun and a phone.

He left the station and went to a Motel.

Day: Wednesday
Time: Around Brunch
Weather: It’s sunny…oh no it’s not, it’s still shit

In his motel room Ethan opened the shoe box and took out a Bear-shaped piece of paper. He unfolded it and found a message written on the paper:

How far would you go to save someone you love?

The origami also revealed a valet ticket and an address to a garage. Ethan left the motel. If he completed this task he would gain a portion of the address where Shaun could be found.

Day: Wednesday
Time: 11:03am
Weather: Raining quite heavy…who’d have thought

He arrived at the garage in question and handed a mechanic the valet ticket.

MECHANIC: Wow, that car’s been here for two years. What took you so long?

ETHAN: Look at me. Do I look like the type of person that wants to engage in conversation?

MECHANIC: Okay then. Take the service elevator down to the basement and find your car.

Ethan did just that. Inside the car was a Sat-Nav system which told him to drive the wrong way down the motorway. He headed off to his destination.

Ethan sat next to the motorway slip road contemplating whether or not to go ahead with this crazy plan. But after realising that having Shaun survive would give him an excuse to go and see children’s films at the cinema, he went for it.

He sped the wrong way down the motorway and his reactions were feline-like. He swerved, dodged, skidded and…er…swerved to his destination. On the final part he lost control and the car flew off the side of the road and ended upside down. And on fire.

He tried to escape but up was down and down was up; it took Ethan a while to realise this. A SIM card fell out of the glove box. Ethan took the SIM, climbed out of the car and headed back to the motel.

Day: Wednesday
Time: 3:15pm
Weather: What do you think?

Ethan was back at the motel resting on the balcony suffering from the crash. An attractive lady appeared and helped him into his room. She sat him on the bed and cleaned his wounds before introducing herself as Madison Paige.

Ethan didn’t want any company and told her to get lost. After she left he inserted the SIM into the phone and was given some numbers and letters towards Shaun’s location. He was then treated to a very artistic video of Shaun up to his chest in water.

Ethan opened the box and unfolded another piece of origami. This time the message read:

Must remember to get milk and eggs.

The origami also revealed an address.

Day: Wednesday
Time: 7:42pm
Weather: Still raining. On the plus side the chances of a hose pipe ban are decreasing

Ethan arrived at the location given to him and it turned out to be a power station. He managed to find his way inside a small room which contained a small metal door. The door led to a very claustrophobic tunnel filled with shattered glass. He spent the next 10 minutes crawling around very slowly trying to find a way out. He used matches to determine the direction of a breeze but this actually didn’t work as apparently the laws of nature didn’t apply to this tunnel.

He finally found the exit and ended up in an even smaller room containing a tube leading through the wall. He jumped down the tube.

ETHAN: Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The tube spat ethan out into a room full of active power cables and conduits. It looked dangerous but Ethan was up for the challenge.

He began a long game of human-size Extreme Cat’s Cradle. He suffered 3rd degree burns during the process but he emerged victorious and was rewarded with another SIM which revealed more of the address.

He left the power station.

Day: Not entirely sure
Time: Could be about 11:00pm
Weather: Oh, that’s definitely still shit.

Ethan laid passed out on the motel room floor. His front door was ajar and Madison Paige appeared and once again cleaned his wounds using the very well stocked medicine cabinet.

ETHAN: You again. Thanks for healing me but I have things to do.

MADISON: What things?

ETHAN: 2 years ago I lost my eldest son and now my youngest son has been kidnapped by the Origami Killer and I have been given dangerous trials to complete in order to find him alive. There is a possibility that I’m the Origami Killer as I keep having blackouts and waking with an origami figure in my hand.

MADISON: I know how you feel; I suffer from insomnia. I believe in you, Ethan…you complete me.

She left him alone and as soon as she was gone Ethan unfolded another origami. This time the message read:

What would you sacrifice to save someone you loved?…or something to that effect

Ethan headed out again.

Day: Thursday
Time: 7:47am
Weather: I’m beginning to think this takes place in Scotland

Arriving at a run down apartment building, Ethan found porcelain lizards lying around and to relieve some stress he went round and smashed them all. One of them contained a key. He used it to enter a burned-down apartment…the building was dilapidated but the door locks worked fine.

There was a small table with a chair, a meat cleaver sticking out of the wall and an electronic device on the table. Ethan activated the device.

COMPUTER: You have five minutes to either chop off your finger or pluck your eyebrows.

Ethan couldn’t go through the pain of plucking his eyebrows again so he immediately took the cleaver from the wall and chopped off his little finger. He screamed like a girl.

COMPUTER: Congratulations. Your reward is under the table.

Ethan grabbed another SIM and gained another clue as to Shaun’s location.

As he made his way out of the building Madison appeared again and informed him that the Police were outside waiting for him. They exited through a side window but were spotted by the cops anyway. Madison helped Ethan down into the Subway and they eventually evaded the rozzers.

Day: Thursday
Time: 11:15am
Weather: The sun is starting to shine a litte but it’s still pissing it down.

Ethan’s next trial lead him to a nice apartment for a change. His mission was to kill the owner of the property in order to gain the next part of the address. He knocked the door and as soon as the occupier answered he pulled a gun and forced his way in. But Ethan didn’t expect the man to produce a shotgun and start blowing holes in the wall.

Ethan was chased throughout the apartment dodging shot after shot…the man had an extremely rubbish aim; in this small a space, shooting someone with a double barrel shotgun should have been easy.

Ethan finally managed to knock the shotgun out of the man’s hand and now he had the upper…hand. The man begged for his life.

MAN: Please don’t kill me. I’m a father.

ETHAN: So am I, what do you want, a medal?

MAN: I own a puppy.

He showed Ethan a picture of the puppy.

ETHAN: Oh, okay. I’ll let you live, but only because I hate the thought of that puppy becoming an orphan.

Ethan left the flat and because he hadn’t completed the task he wasn’t given anymore information on Shaun’s whereabouts.

Day: Friday
Time: 6:24pm
Weather: I’m wet…so to speak

Ethan returned to the motel and was slightly upset that he didn’t gain any more information. Madison appeared again…she’s like some sort of homing pigeon.

ETHAN: I couldn’t do it and now it’s slightly harder to find Shaun.

MADISON: Oh, I’m sure you’ll find him.

ETHAN: I have to focus purely on finding Shaun.

Madison leaned in and put her open mouth over his nose…that’s her way of kissing.

ETHAN: I suppose Shaun would want me to be happy…

He kissed back and before they knew it they were having sex on the motel room floor.

They awoke some time later and Ethan had to get back to finding Shaun. He quietly got up, put his clothes back on and then found a note pad on the floor – it belonged to Madison. He read it and realised that Madison was in fact a journalist.

ETHAN: I am very upset. You tricked me into thinking you cared. I will never forgive you.

MADISON: I’m sorry. I am a journalist but I do care. Forgive me?

ETHAN: Oh, alright then.

MADISON: Good. I’ll go downstairs and get you something to drink.

Madison left the room and a few minutes later the phone in Ethan’s room began to ring. He answered.

MADISON: ETHAN, GET TO THE CHOPPER!

ETHAN: What?

MADISON: Police are here, you’d better leave.

Ethan grabbed the origami, phone and gun and was about to head out when all of a sudden the door burst open and armed Police entered. They ordered him to freeze but Ethan had other plans.

He bolted out of the back door and onto the balcony. He jumped onto another ledge and hauled himself onto the motel’s roof. The police were in pursuit.

They chased Ethan along the roof but he was managing to dodge everything perfectly until he finally ran out of places to run. He turned to find Detective Blake ready to make the arrest. Ethan had two choices:

• To take the risk and jump: Eat 7 crackers without a glass of water and then go to page 11
• To wimp out and get arrested: Spin around on the spot 10 times, run up the street and then go to page 6

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