Keep Breathing (2024) Movie Script
1
(Footsteps trotting)
(birds chirping)
(woman struggling) (man grunting)
Shut the fuck up, you cunt.
(man panting)
One fucking scream, and I'll kill you.
Okay?
(woman crying softly)
(man continues panting)
(man growls angrily) (woman crying)
(man panting)
Oh, yeah.
Nothing, you are fucking nothing to me.
Nothing.
Fuck.
(man grunting)
Fuck. (man cries out)
Fuck.
(man continues to cry out)
(woman continues crying softly)
(man continues panting)
(man crying)
I'm sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm so sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm nothing.
(man continues crying)
I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.
[Woman] What fuck the are you doing?
What the fuck are you doing?
Help!
Somebody help!
(woman panting)
It's okay, it's okay.
I'm gonna get you some help, it's okay.
(woman continues panting)
It's okay.
It's okay.
(woman crying softly)
Police and ambulance, please.
I don't know, I don't know,
There's a girl, she's been
attacked, please hurry!
I'm in Oakwood, I don't know
the street name, please hurry!
It's okay.
It's okay. (car tyres screeching)
(phone ringing distantly)
(people chatting faintly)
(door closes)
Marianne, you said you heard a crash
when your attacker fled.
From the description you gave us,
it seems he was hit by a
car as he ran across the road.
He was killed instantly.
He meant to do it.
Why do you say that?
Because he cried as he raped me,
and he said he was sorry.
What?
What is it?
What aren't you telling me?
I'm not the first?
He's done this before, hasn't he?
Tell me.
Yes.
Yes, he has.
There was another attack just before yours.
As if he'd been holding
it in for a long time...
then couldn't anymore.
Is she here, the other victim?
Marianne, you wait here for a moment,
and I'll be back in a minute, okay?
(phone ringing distantly)
(people chatting faintly)
(people continue chatting faintly)
[Marianne] There you go.
Thank you.
(door bell jingles)
Mr. Parker looks sweet on you.
I forgot to put the crime
books back on the shelf.
Oh no, that's fine, I'll do it.
(gentle piano music)
(books thud)
(gentle piano music continues)
(books thud)
You okay?
You look like you've seen a ghost.
(gentle piano music
continues) (Marianne panting)
(Marianne crying) (Marianne panting)
(water running)
(Marianne continues panting)
(water dripping)
You okay, Marianne?
(gentle piano music)
Are you sure you didn't come back too soon?
[Marianne] Yeah,
no, no, I'm fine, really.
It's only been a couple of weeks.
[Marianne] Just give me a minute.
Okay.
(gentle piano music continues)
(traffic humming)
(birds chirping)
(leaves rustling)
(leaves rustling)
(footsteps rustling)
(woman thuds)
Who are you?
Why are you following me?
Tell me, now.
That's his.
Isn't it?
(gentle piano music)
I wanted to see what you were like,
to see if there's a
reason that he picked us.
And?
What do you think?
There was no reason,
no thought.
We were just there.
(gentle piano music continues)
I even asked the police afterwards,
and he had no history of violence.
He never even got a speeding ticket.
He was married,
with kids,
a girl and a boy, and,
(gentle piano music continues)
it just came out of nowhere.
It's always there.
It's in them already.
It's part of them.
Men?
No.
I can't believe that.
We all have that potential.
The only difference is men
have the physical advantage.
They just take what they want.
(gentle piano music continues)
And what about women?
Women, they hurt differently.
(gentle piano music continues)
They hurt back.
(gentle piano music continues)
Sometimes, they hurt themselves.
Only when there's
no one else left to hurt.
(gentle piano music continues)
Why did you steal the knife?
I don't know.
I just,
I just needed to take something from him,
like he took something from me.
And was it enough?
I just have to get over this.
(Marianne sighs deeply)
You know...
I've just,
I've just felt like a
stranger in my own life
ever since this happened.
(gentle piano music continues)
Nothing's real,
and I need something.
I don't know what it is,
but I need something.
(gentle piano music continues)
I just need to keep breathing, and,
and keep getting up in the morning,
and then, maybe, I'll remember who I was.
Keep breathing,
It's a start.
(plate clinks)
Thank you.
You can't just hide and
hope that it all goes away.
Pretend it didn't happen.
It did happen,
to both of us.
I'm not gonna hide.
Yeah, I'm dressed like him.
But why?
Maybe I thought that by
wearing what he wore and
walking where he walked, that.
I'd be replacing him, wiping him out,
bad for good.
Maybe I just wanted to
inhabit him for a while.
See how he felt,
(soft jazz music)
or maybe I just like
them 'cause they're comfy.
(soft jazz music continues)
Well, I'd better be going,
but maybe we could stay in touch.
I'll be moving soon.
The lease is up on my
nurse's accommodation,
and to be honest, it's
probably a good thing.
It's literally just around the corner
from where it happened.
You're a nurse.
Well, I'm the opposite.
My housemate just told me she's leaving.
Apparently, she's freaked
out by the whole "rape thing".
I have to find someone
by the end of the month.
(birds chirping)
(dog barking)
This means a lot, Marianne,
and like I say, it's just for now
until I find a place on my own.
(papers fall)
(dog continues barking)
(footsteps trotting)
Neighbour?
A new one, I think.
(dog continues barking)
Thank you.
This looks lovely, thank you.
Aw, (laughs softly) I love cooking,
so this is my little welcome.
Cheers. (glasses clink)
Thank you.
I can't remember the last
time someone cooked for me.
I can't remember the
last time I cooked for me,
come to think of it.
Did you cook for your housemate?
It was Carol, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Oh, we were close,
and we met in a night
course at college last year,
and we just hit it off,
and she was looking for a place, and,
well, I'd just got out of
a difficult relationship,
so she was a good friend.
Sorry, (chuckles softly)
you seem to have a habit
of taking in waifs and strays,
and now you've got another.
But listen, I won't be
here for long, and I'll,
I'll pay half of everything, obviously.
It's just the bills.
There's no rent or mortgage,
the house is mine, so.
My dad left it to me when he died,
and anyway, you are doing
me just as much of a favour
as I am you.
You know, I feel less
anxious with company, so...
So, tell me about this relationship.
You said it was difficult.
We were together two years,
and at first, it was wonderful.
He was loving, caring,
you know, everything that
you can dream it can be.
But he changed.
It deteriorated over time.
He became controlling, cruel.
(gentle piano music)
He just changed as a person,
so, finally, one day he
just raised his hand, and...
and we knew it was over.
He moved out the next day.
It's always about control.
You know, what happened
to us, it wasn't about sex.
It was all about him
needing to feel power over us,
because he felt empty and useless inside.
I guess that's why I don't
like to get too connected
to people or places, you know?
I won't be controlled.
(Ella chuckles softly)
Ella doesn't play well with others.
I thought you said you were a nurse.
Yeah, a bank nurse,
so I go where I'm needed,
whether that's for a couple of days,
or three months, like I'm
doing now with the hospice
across from the park, Greystones,
but I don't know, in the
end, I always move on.
That sounds a bit lonely.
Solitary, I prefer to think.
I had,
I had a difficult childhood.
I was adopted.
My parents were therapists,
they were cold, "analytical workaholics."
(gentle piano music continues)
To this day, I don't know
why they wanted a child.
All I remember is that
they barely saw each other,
and when they did, there were just these
yawning chasms of
silence, filled with... dust.
(gentle piano music continues)
I don't know, I used to think
maybe they thought that by
caring for a child, you know,
bringing up another life,
that it might magically bring
some warmth into their lives.
Now, I think it was more
about the idea of a family.
You know, the happiness,
the togetherness they saw in others.
They tried to replicate
that like an experiment,
but it didn't work.
(gentle piano music continues)
I didn't fix anything.
(gentle piano music continues)
That must have been hard.
(gentle piano music continues)
Not as hard as when they
went away to conferences,
and left me with my grandfather.
You mean?
No, he didn't.
Yeah, (laughs softly) he tried.
(gentle piano music continues)
Very hard and very often.
Oh, my god, Ella.
I'm so sorry.
What happened?
What did you do?
What do all kids do?
I lived through it, somehow.
I suppose that's why I
prefer to be on my own.
(gentle jazz music continues)
Childhood shapes you, doesn't it?
And mine certainly did.
Cheers.
(leaves rustling) (birds chirping)
When I was a kid, my parents
would go on occasional hikes
in woods just like these.
(birds continue chirping)
They were the only times
I remember being happy.
They'd just walk on ahead of me,
like they'd forgotten I existed.
(birds continue chirping)
I made friends with solitude,
and I made a promise to myself
that I would never rely on other people.
(birds continue chirping)
I would walk my own path.
(birds continue chirping)
Listen, Ella, do you think
we can take a break soon?
This is a bit more than I was expecting
when we said, "Let's get out of the house."
There's a nice place just up ahead.
I just,
I just love it out here, don't you?
Yeah, it's nice.
I don't know why they
call it "the wild," though.
It seems so much more
civilised than back there,
in so-called "society."
(birds continue chirping)
There's no lies out here,
no secrets, no masks,
there's just predator and prey,
and each know the other.
(birds continue chirping)
There's kind of a beautiful clarity to it,
an honesty.
Don't you think?
(birds continue chirping)
We're the real animals.
Come on, this way.
Where are we going?
Why are you doing this?
It's like I said,
we either curl up and
die, or we fight back.
(gate clanks) (gate creaks)
(Marianne breathing heavily)
(door clicks open)
(door shuts)
(light switch clicks)
[Marianne] Somebody's been here.
Yeah, probably kids.
The tenants were evicted
a week before you were dragged in here.
I asked around.
So, it happened here.
What about you?
Are we gonna go for a trip down memory lane
where you were raped, too?
It wasn't a lane.
It was a field less than a mile from here.
There was a death on the ward.
My shift ran over, and
I missed the last bus...
by seconds.
I watched it pull away
just as I got to the stop.
(Ella exhales sharply)
So I decided to walk.
I just remember
an arm around my neck,
a hand over my mouth, and then, suddenly,
I'd been dragged over a
fence and onto the field.
There was a car,
and as it drove past, it
swept me with its headlights.
Through the bushes, I
could see the driver's face
looking towards us, you know,
trying to work out if he'd really just seen
a woman being dragged
off into the darkness.
For some reason,
it's always his face I see in my dreams.
If he'd just stopped.
As it happened, I looked around for help,
but all I could see were
white goalposts in the distance,
like ghosts,
just silent... watching...
and I remember thinking,
"Little kids play football here,"
"and they'll play here
again, running and laughing,"
"tomorrow and for years to come,"
"never..."
"never knowing that this is where I died."
But you didn't die.
Neither of us did.
No.
We lived.
So, fuck him.
(Ella exhales sharply)
Fuck him.
(Ella panting)
(birds chirping)
(sirens whining distantly)
(footsteps trotting)
(sirens' whining becomes louder)
What's going on?
Someone's being attacked, apparently,
in the woods,
and in broad daylight, too.
(sirens continue whining)
Do you think there's a
club they all belong to?
(faint gentle strings music)
Thanks.
Rapists: established the very first time
a man saw a woman, and thought,
"I can take what I want, and so I will."
Look, maybe we need to keep
an eye on our new neighbour.
Keep an eye on him,
what do you mean?
Well, I was asking
around about him today.
There's nothing like a corner shop
for good intel. (chuckles softly)
So, he's staying above the community centre
around the corner, and he's a
handyman there or something.
Apparently, he's an ex-soldier.
Look... maybe we should do something.
- Do what?
- I don't know.
Check him out.
Maybe, stop something from happening
before it happens to someone else.
But we don't know
that he's done anything.
I mean, just because he was
out running on the same night-
- Lurking, out of breath,
on the same street near the house
where you were raped, Marianne.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
We... we should just call the police.
And tell them what?
It's just circumstantial.
It wouldn't mean anything
to them, not like it does to us.
So?
Maybe one of us should drop by
the community centre tomorrow
and welcome him to the neighbourhood.
You know, see what he's like.
And by one of us, you mean me?
I think we can both agree,
I hardly come across as the
warm and fuzzy type, do I?
Not like you, you're-
- Nice, harmless?
Look, just say "Hello."
Trust your instincts.
(Marianne chuckles softly)
This is too weird.
Listen, it's probably nothing,
but don't you wish someone had warned you
before you went jogging down that street?
We will never get closure for
what happened to us, Marianne,
but maybe we can stop
another creep like him.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
We couldn't save ourselves,
but... maybe we can save others.
But we don't know
that there'll be others.
There'll always be others.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
(people chattering)
(people continue chattering)
(floor creaking)
(door tapping)
- Hello?
(faint rock music)
(rock music grows louder)
Hi, I'm Marianne, one of your neighbours.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush rustling)
My housemate, Ella, and
I just wanted to say hello,
and welcome you to the neighbourhood.
We're from around the corner, number 16.
(rock music continues)
I like your paintings.
Take one.
No, no, I couldn't.
Take one.
Don't take one.
I don't care.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush rustling)
Well, anyway, we just
wanted to say welcome.
(rock music continues)
Okay, bye then.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush continues rustling)
(birds chirping)
Do you believe in the greater good?
That doing something bad can be justified
if it prevents more harm,
and it protects others in the long run?
I suppose so, sometimes.
I guess it depends.
On what?
On the stakes,
and whether what you
were doing was worth it,
and if you could live with it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I love my job at the hospice, you know,
doing good to balance
out the bad in the world,
but it's not enough.
Sometimes, good people, they
need to stop reacting and act.
Take control.
How can it be enough
just to deal with the mess
bad people leave in the world,
poisoning everything around them?
(birds continue chirping)
Why let an infected limb kill you slowly...
when you could just cut it off?
(birds continue chirping)
Hi, I was just about to make a coffee.
Later.
There's something I want you to see.
Just let me get changed.
(leaves rustling)
(birds chirping)
(footsteps rustling)
(birds continue chirping)
What are we doing?
This is a crime scene.
Not anymore.
I saw the police cars this morning.
They've taken the tape down.
They're finished here.
Yeah, but why did you want to come here?
I don't understand.
I wanted to see.
(birds continue chirping)
I needed to see.
But, see what?
What we're dealing with.
It's been two weeks, and
the police have nothing.
(birds continue chirping)
Look: can you see?
What's that black stuff?
It's paint. Black paint.
He's covered her in black paint.
(birds continue chirping)
Marked her: as his. Look, I want to go.
One of the other nurses at my place,
her brother's in the force.
He heard that the victim's a young woman,
like, really young.
He told her that she lives
somewhere near here, maybe,
maybe just a few streets away from us.
(birds continue chirping)
What the hell are you doing?
Why do you care so much about this?
Why don't you?
This is where we live.
We just survived one monster...
(birds continue chirping)
and now, there's another.
(birds continue chirping)
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail] Sorry.
We're not in right now,
so please leave a message.
(voicemail tone beeps)
[Kate] Ella, this is
Kate from Greystones.
Can you call me back as
soon as you get this, please?
It's important.
Thank you. (voicemail beeps)
(birds chirping)
(birds continue chirping)
(wind chimes jingling)
(door clicks open)
Can I help you?
I hope so.
I'm looking for Grace.
Who are you?
Which newspaper?
(Ella chuckles softly)
I'm not a reporter.
I'm a victim,
like your daughter.
What do you want with Grace?
To help her,
to talk to her about what happened to her,
maybe stop it happening to someone else.
Absolutely not.
She's been through enough already.
I'm not letting some complete
stranger into our home
to make her relive it all over again.
(door thuds)
- Please.
She needs to talk to
someone who understands,
someone who's been through the same horror.
[Grace] It's all right.
Let her in.
[Mother] Grace, you're not ready -
- [Grace] Mum... I'll never be ready.
(birds continue chirping)
(wind chimes continue jingling)
[Man] You're gonna stay
here, every day and every night?
(door knocking rapidly)
- Hi, again.
- You keeping it, then?
- Yeah, it's a great painting.
- It's an old one.
Well, seeing that he's not gonna do it,
I'll introduce myself, shall I?
Richard, Richard Moss, Mossie to my mates,
like this dickhead here.
Marianne, I'm just a neighbour.
Ah, come to check him out eh?
Drawn to mean and moody loners, are you?
You've coming to the right place.
Maybe you can talk some sense into him,
'cause I'm having no luck.
I'm trying to offer him a job,
but apparently, he'd
rather be up here 24/7,
painting these monstrosities.
I think they're good.
Really good.
[Shaun] I'm not ready.
You'll never be ready, Shaun.
That's why you've just got to do it.
Jesus, do you think I was
ready when I came back?
I was as fucked up as you.
I saw the same shit you did.
And you think me talking
about how fucked up I am,
to another bunch of fucked
up people's gonna help them,
gonna help me?
Fuck yeah.
Mate, I bent over backwards
to get this chance for you.
Just fucking think about it.
You can make something good
come out of something bad, yeah?
Help other lads going
through the same thing as you.
Nothing can ever make
up for what I did. Ever.
All right, all right, just...
Just think about it, okay?
Okay.
But you still owe me, remember?
I'll find you somewhere to stay,
you keep coming to the the meetings.
That was the deal.
Yeah?
All right.
Don't keep torturing yourself, Shaun.
It doesn't matter how many times you
paint her shadow in these fucking pictures,
you'll never find peace
until you can start talking about it.
I'm glad you like the painting.
I do, I really do.
(man coughing distantly)
I've got something to do.
(traffic humming)
Hey, Ghost.
What'd I promise you when
we were out here together?
That you'd get me off the street.
And I'll do that.
(traffic humming)
Your friend seems nice. Mossie?
We were in Afghanistan together.
Now, he counsels people with PTSD,
and he got me this made-up
job in the community centre,
just so I'd have a roof over my head.
Is that what you were arguing about,
he wants you to join him helping people?
I'm no help to anyone.
(cane clicking) (soft haunting piano music)
So, you were attacked, too?
I was raped,
(soft haunting piano music continues)
but he's dead.
Is that why you're here?
You want some kind of justice,
even if it's on someone else's behalf?
(scoffs softly) That's
perceptive for someone so young.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I'm not young anymore.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He took that from you.
What else did he take?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I've seen the crime scene, the black paint.
Will you tell me what happened?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
There was no rape, just violence.
Pure, physical violence,
wanting me to know that he had the power
of life and death over me,
and that if he let me live it
was because he wanted to,
like a spider letting a
fly escape from its web,
because it can't be bothered to kill it,
wanting the fly to know,
because another fly will always come along.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I can tell you a secret,
something the police withheld,
something only the attacker would know.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
In the woods, I was walking my dog, Ruby,
she'd slipped her lead
and I was calling for her.
Suddenly, there he was:
a man, ahead of me on the
path, wearing a balaclava.
I remember thinking he must
have been running or something,
because he was breathing so heavily,
and then I realised... he
was trembling with excitement
about what he was about to do.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
And I remember taking
a faltering step back,
and he said, "Run,
and it'll be even worse."
"Even worse," he said,
and I remember thinking,
"Oh, God, this is gonna be bad."
"Really bad."
"This is gonna be something"
"that you're gonna have to live through,"
"something you have to survive."
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace breathing heavily)
He began with my stomach, my ribs,
(Grace sniffles)
controlled single punches,
each one more painful than the last.
I remember the sound
of the leather stretching
as he bunched his fists.
He saved the kicking for my back.
He wore steel-tipped boots.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(sniffles) Then, he took a break, sat down,
pulled out a flask of tea.
He didn't offer me any.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He saved my face for last.
There was no method,
no control,
not anymore.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
He was screaming with
effort as he destroyed me,
he reshaped me.
Remade me.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He was exhausted by the time he was done.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
But that's not the secret.
The secret came after.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
[Ella] Was it,
was it the paint?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace sighs shakily)
For a while, it was
like nothing else existed,
except for the need to just breathe,
to just find a breath,
(inhales slowly) and then another one,
just enough to stay alive, (voice breaking)
and every one an agony
beyond words, beyond,
beyond comprehension,
(Grace crying softly)
and then...
[Ella] And then, what?
(Grace breathing heavily)
What, what did he do?
Tell me!
I felt him pouring something
cold and wet on my back,
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(crying softly) and at first,
I thought it might have been petrol.
I thought he was gonna burn me alive.
A part of me wishes he had.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
But it wasn't petrol.
It was paint, black paint.
He was branding me,
marking me as his property.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
Then, I felt his hand and his finger,
and he was drawing something on my back...
and then he just walked away.
What did he write?
Come on!
It's like a poison.
You've got to cut into
the wound to let it out -
- It was a number: the number one.
He wrote the number one on my back.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
So, it was a message for the police,
for the press, for everyone.
You were just the first. Of many.
Yeah. I was just the first.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
(Grace sniffles)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Ella breathing heavily)
Look, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that this happened to you,
but I need to try and stop
him from doing this to others.
He's not your monster.
He's mine -
It's my life he took, not yours.
But he didn't take your life, did he?
You're still here!
This is not me.
I'm like a ghost, like a shell.
I feel like he showed me something:
some cruel and brutal
truth that made a mockery
of all my hopes, and my dreams,
and all the plans I had for myself.
You can't just accept that.
You have to fight back like I am!
If you let this beat you...
he may as well have killed you.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
You know what?
You might as well just
finish the job for him.
[Mother] - What the hell
do you think you're doing?
Get out.
Get out of my house now.
I was just... Get out now,
before I call the police.
(Ella exhales sharply)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(chair scrapes)
How was your friend, by the way?
The friend you went to visit?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, she's fine.
(soft piano music)
(birds chirping)
What's that?
Oh, it's one of Shaun's paintings.
He gave it to me this morning.
It's striking, isn't it?
He gave it to you?
(soft piano music continues)
You've been to see him again...?
Yeah, a friend of his was
there, actually, from the army,
they were in Afghanistan together,
saw some terrible things, I think.
Painting's a kind of
healing for him, maybe.
He's troubled, traumatised.
And dangerous.
(Ella breathing heavily)
Look, maybe this getting to
know him thing was a mistake.
I don't think so.
He seems kind, decent.
In fact, we're going for a walk tomorrow
near the hiking trail you took me on.
You can't be serious.
You, you barely know
the first thing about him,
and now you're off wandering
into the woods with him,
after that girl was
attacked... in the woods?!?
We're going in broad daylight.
There'll be people everywhere,
and it was you who wanted
me to get to know him
in the first place.
(soft piano music continues)
I'm sorry, Ella, I just don't feel it.
Shaun, he's just, he's just
damaged, trying to find peace.
He's no monster.
You're naive, Marianne.
Even after what's happened to you,
you still want to see the best in people.
Is that so bad?
I'm not going to let what one
messed up person did to me
poison me against the whole world.
Then, you're a fool.
(birds continue chirping)
(soft piano music continues)
Monsters are everywhere.
Well, maybe for you, but not for me.
People are good, even
when they're messed up,
in a hundred different ways,
and Shaun, he's no different.
I think I'm gonna have an early night.
(birds continue chirping)
(soft piano music continues)
It's nice here, isn't it?
I've been here a few times
with my housemate, Ella.
Have you been friends a long time?
About two weeks; we
hardly know each other.
She needed a place to stay, so...
You're kind.
You know, I've forgotten
it ever existed: kindness.
I've been in my own head for so long,
I'd forgotten that anything
good could still happen.
Because of the war.
(bird calling)
But now you're here,
and you're walking in the park... with me.
(Marianne laughs softly)
(birds chirping)
So, tell me about your friend, Ghost.
[Shaun] That was me
just a couple of months ago.
- You were homeless?
- For a while,
after I got back from Afghanistan.
I was a mess.
I couldn't deal with the world.
All I wanted to do was just disappear.
(birds continue chirping)
And now?
And now, I'm walking
in the park... with you.
(gentle piano music)
You sure you're okay to lock up?
(blows kiss) See ya.
(door bell jingles)
(door bell jingles)
Closing in five minutes, I'm afraid.
(gentle piano music continues)
(sirens whining)
(door bell jingles)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone vibrating)
Ella.
Are you still at the shop?
[Marianne] Yeah, I'm
just closing up, why?
Right, don't move, I'm heading there now.
(sirens continue whining)
[Marianne] But why, aren't you at work?
Uh, no, I switched with someone.
Listen, there's been
another one, literally just now.
- [Marianne] What do you mean?
- Another attack,
(sirens continue whining)
in the park, right behind
where your bookshop is.
Apparently, it was
interrupted or something,
but there's literally police
swarming around everywhere,
trying to find him.
Right, don't move.
I'm nearly there, okay?
(gentle piano music)
(sirens continue whining)
(floor creaking)
(knuckles tapping door)
Open up.
What?
I think there's someone in the shop.
(sirens continue whining)
- Did you see him?
- No.
I just heard the door.
Maybe Heather didn't close it properly.
What are you doing?
We should call the police.
No, not yet.
And tell them what, exactly?
That a customer might
have come into a shop?
Yeah, but why would he come here?
Why don't you ring your friend, Shaun?
He might know.
(gentle piano music continues)
(Marianne breathing heavily)
(door thuds)
(footsteps scuffling)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail] The person you are calling
is not available right now -
(glass shatters) (Marianne gasps softly)
(light clicking) (Marianne
breathing heavily)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone ringing)
Shh.
[Operator] Emergency,
which service do you require?
(light continues clicking)
(floor creaking)
(footsteps thudding rapidly)
(door bell jingles)
(light continues clicking)
(gentle piano music)
(door bell jingles) (traffic humming)
(door bell jingles)
[Ella] Gone.
What the hell are you doing with that?
Why didn't you want me to call the police?
Because you want to catch him, is that it?
Don't you realise how stupid that is?
Anything could have
happened to either of us.
But it didn't!
We don't even know who that was.
It could have been anyone.
It could have been kids,
and besides, are you sure
you want them to catch him?
(phone vibrating)
Is that Shaun?
You'd better answer it.
I know it's incredibly
difficult, but do you feel yet
that you're able to share with us?
It was so long ago...
but it still feels like it was yesterday,
but that it happened to someone else,
someone I used to know.
It's okay, Catherine.
Take your time.
I can cope with losing myself.
I deserve it.
After what I did.
(Catherine crying softly)
If only I'd been on time,
that drunk driver wouldn't have been there,
and she'd still be alive.
(Catherine continues crying)
My beautiful, beautiful daughter.
Thank you very much for sharing that.
It's not just soldiers
that suffer with PTSD.
Trauma's trauma.
It doesn't matter who or where you are,
it destroys just the same.
That's why we've gotta talk about it.
When we recognise
within ourselves our pain,
our anger, our doubts, fears,
in others... those memories, those traumas
lose a little bit of
their power every time.
It's like a sculpture,
you know, you're chipping
away at a big, ugly lump of rock
until you find something
good underneath the surface,
something that you
thought was lost forever,
but it is still there, I promise.
All right, before we wrap up,
has anybody got anything
they'd like to share?
Anyone else?
I know we've got a few new faces here.
Okay, well, I think...
[Shaun] Hi, everybody.
I'm Shaun.
[Group] Hi, Shaun.
I'm a veteran, two tours of Afghanistan,
2nd Battalion, Yorkshire regiment.
I've never really spoken
about my experiences
or shared them until now.
The first tour I joined up
with best friend, Johnny.
We went to school together
and grew up on the same street together.
We promised we'd have each other's backs.
We were out on patrol,
and we passed this rundown cafe,
and this young kid sat
there with these two old guys,
and when he noticed us,
he just stood up and made
his way over so fucking casually,
I'll never forget it,
right up to the window on Johnny's side,
and he grinned:
and I knew.
And I think Johnny did, too.
He had this flicker in his eyes,
fear, sadness,
disappointment,
that it could all end like this,
and then, there was
just this almighty boom.
I'd been blown across the road.
Johnny's body had shielded
me from most of the blast,
and now, there were
pieces of him all over me.
I was badly burned, scarred,
they had to pull bone
fragments from under my skin,
pieces of my best friend,
or what was left of him.
That should have been me driving that day.
That should have been me.
I still dream of that moment,
lying in the dirt, screaming,
trying to brush him off me,
but I'll never get clean.
I'll never get out from under it.
It's a stain on my fucking soul.
That was amazing... and brave.
I was texting you earlier.
Have you been here all evening?
Yeah, I helped him set up.
Was it important?
No.
Let me give you a lift.
I mean, you could come
back to my place for a coffee.
(both kissing softly)
- We don't have to.
- No, I want to,
but there's something I have to tell you.
If this is gonna be real,
I want it to be honest,
truthful, with no secrets.
Just tell me.
It sounds,
it sounds crazy now, like
a spell that's been broken,
but when I came to welcome you
to the neighbourhood that
day, that wasn't the real reason.
It was after the attack on that girl,
and you were a stranger,
that night out, out of breath,
and I can't explain it, erm...
Ella, she, we both,
we both thought that you might be...
Might be what?
Might be the one that did it?
So, your friend Ella
sends you around to check up on the suspect
and report back to her
whether I fit the bill
to be a fucking rapist?
- He wasn't a rapist.
- I don't care,
who fucking cares?
What matters is whatever this creep did,
you thought I could be fucking responsible.
(Shaun exhales sharply)
Unbelievable.
What a fucking idiot.
There's me, thinking there's
something there between us,
something good, something real,
and all this time,
you thought I could do something like that.
No, I didn't, not really,
at least not after the first
time that we really talked.
I could see that... [Shaun] What?
You could see what?
That you're in pain.
You don't cause it.
(Marianne's breathing heavily)
I know terrible things happened in the war,
and you blame yourself,
but I don't think you could
ever hurt someone deliberately.
There are things that you don't know.
- You got that right.
- No, no, I mean,
there's a reason that
me and Ella felt that way,
suspicious, paranoid, ready,
ready to jump to wild conclusions.
What possible reason could
the be to make you decide
that a total stranger,
an innocent stranger,
was a sex attacker?
Shaun, please,
(sniffles) this is horrible.
I can't, I can't say it, not yet.
Oh, but you can talk
about things I didn't do,
you and your great friend, Ella?
- Shaun, please.
- No, I want to hear it.
Tell me now -
- We were raped!
(Marianne sniffles)
Me and Ella, both of us.
(Marianne crying softly)
The same night, by the same man.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
That's how we met.
Who?
When?
(Marianne continues crying softly)
A couple of months ago.
The one who did it,
he died the same day,
but it still feels like yesterday to us,
especially for Ella.
She shows her pain, her anger.
I keep mine to myself.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
I realise now it could have
been any man that night,
and Ella would've leapt
to the same conclusions.
I was so weak, I would've
just gone along with it the same.
It just happened to be you.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
(Shaun kisses softly)
(both kissing softly)
(both breathing heavily)
(both continue kissing softly)
(both continue breathing heavily)
(both continue breathing heavily)
No, no.
Gently. Gently.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
(Marianne breathing heavily)
It's okay.
(both continue kissing softly)
Do they still hurt?
I don't really think about it.
I guess sometimes it just gets to a point,
and I need some kind of release.
Tell me about this.
What does it mean?
It's a regiment thing,
a tradition, band of brothers.
There's less of us now.
Is that why you paint?
Does it help?
We lost a lot of great lads,
great brothers.
That's why I keep seeing her.
Seeing who?
The girl,
the girl with dark eyes,
dressed all in black.
The girl in my paintings.
What happened to her?
You don't have to tell me.
My second tour:
Kandahar, Helmand Province,
we carried out an assault on this village,
it was a Taliban stronghold.
We were sent to clear houses.
Nothing left of the place,
and just a bullet-ridden
mess, moving house to house,
kicking doors in, dragging
families from their homes.
There were women and children screaming,
and crying everywhere.
I came to this last door, pale blue paint,
flaking, hanging from broken hinges,
and I kicked it in,
and there she was,
12, maybe 13, dressed all in black.
For what seemed like an eternity,
we just stood there,
not knowing what to do.
I shouted at her to get out,
and she didn't.
Instead, she just edged towards this table
and reached under a pile
of old clothes for something,
something that looked
like the barrel of a gun,
and I shouted at her,
I said, "Please, don't do it,"
but she ignored me, or
she didn't understand,
and that's when I shot her.
(Shaun sniffles softly)
She dropped like a rag doll.
I pulled the clothes away and
saw what she was reaching for.
It was a whistle. A tin whistle.
I shot that little girl over a toy.
You didn't know.
You did what you had to do,
what you were trained to do.
Marianne, I shot a child.
(Shaun crying softly)
I told her,
I fucking told her.
It's not your fault.
It is my fault.
If it wasn't for me, she'd still be alive.
Half her head was hanging out, Marianne.
(Shaun continues crying softly)
When I went back home,
sleeping rough on the streets,
she's there.
When I'm begging, trying
to find a doorway to sleep in,
she's there, with me all the time.
That second tour, why
the fuck did I go back?
I blame myself for Johnny,
and I go back for what?
(laughs incredulously) Find
some kind of redemption,
get killed like he did?
Pay back some type of guilty penance?
All I tried to do was make things better,
(snuffles softly) and I
made it a million times worse.
(Shaun crying softly)
I killed my best friend,
and then, I killed a fucking child.
How do you fix that, Marianne?
How do you fix that?
The only time I get away,
the only peace I ever feel
is when I paint, when I
put her on that canvas,
always at the fringes,
the edge of my vision,
like a ghost haunting
me, but she's out of here.
Not for long, just for a little
while she's out my head.
All I wanted to do was
just tell her that I'm sorry.
She knows; wherever she is,
she knows it wasn't your fault.
(Shaun crying)
She knows you didn't mean
it, and it wasn't your fault.
(Shaun continues crying)
It is my fault.
I know I can't take it back
or even make things better.
All I wanted to do was
just tell her that I'm sorry.
(sobbing) I'm sorry.
(Shaun continues crying)
I'm sorry.
(Shaun continues crying)
(birds chirping)
(door closes softly)
(Ella scoffs softly under breath)
(birds chirping)
(Marianne exhales slowly)
(man breathing heavily)
(man continues breathing heavily)
(birds continue chirping)
Good night?
He's innocent, and last night proved it.
I should never have listened to you.
You think you know him?
I do know him, and a hell of a lot better
than you might think.
Look, he's good, and kind, and broken,
just like us.
Just like us?
And it was you who pushed
us together, remember?
But it hasn't turned out the
way you wanted it to, has it?
He's not the monster
that you wanted him to be,
and all those suspicions
that we had about him,
that you had about him,
they were just fantasies.
Look, not all men are monsters, Ella.
Aren't they?
(scoffs) So now who's
living in a fantasy world?
Don't you get it?
They're all rapists.
It's in their fucking DNA,
looking and then waiting
for the next chance
to just take what they want,
just like him, our loving family man,
who wouldn't hurt a fly,
just like my grandfather:
"Come on, Ella, show me you love me."
"Come on, Ella. I'll show you how."
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail Recording]
Sorry, we're not in right now,
so please leave a message.
[Kate] Ella, this is Kate
again from Greystones.
It's urgent that you come and answer
some very serious questions
regarding your actions
in the weeks running up to your dismissal.
The police are now involved
and have some very
urgent questions of their own
that they want answers to.
This is a very serious situation, Ella.
You need to start telling
the truth before it's too late.
(voicemail message beeps)
When?
When were you fired?
Last week.
It's a joke.
They're trying to blame me
for their own stupid incompetence.
Some drugs went missing at work,
and they needed a scapegoat.
They're obviously calling in the police
to try and intimidate me,
but it's not gonna work.
I will never be a victim again.
But where have you been going?
What have you been doing?
Nothing.
Nowhere, just... around,
asking questions.
Questions? About what?
Oh, my God.
Why do I even need to ask?
For God's sake, Ella, you're obsessed.
You say you don't want to be a victim,
but don't you see?
Letting this take over your life,
it means he's still hurting
you, holding power over you,
even now, it is like
you're still in that field,
fighting for your life.
Not my life!
I am trying to stop these animals
from doing it to other people.
How can you not see that?
I'll tell you what, why don't
you ask Grace if I'm crazy,
trying to stop other
women from going through
- what we've been through.
- Grace?
Half beaten to death, daubed with paint
like she was his fucking property,
and then just left in the woods like trash.
Why don't you ask her if
I'm wrong to be obsessed?
Oh, my God, Grace, the girl in the woods?
Is that her name?
Please, Ella, please tell
me you didn't go and see her.
Well, someone had to.
Don't you see?
Someone who's been through
the same pain, the same fear,
someone who might understand a monster
a little bit better than
the police ever would.
We can make a difference, Marianne.
We have to.
Otherwise, what's the point?
- Of what?
- Of surviving!
(Ella breathing heavily)
You'll never understand.
It's beyond you to fight back.
I was wrong about you.
We were both wrong,
I think, terribly wrong.
I'm sorry, Ella, but
you're gonna have to find
a new place to live.
Don't worry, I'll be gone first thing.
Everyone knows three's a crowd.
(birds chirping)
I'm leaving it all behind: the war. Her.
I'm gonna do something
new; something brighter.
I've taken the job counselling;
only part-time, but...
Oh, Shaun, that's fantastic.
I'm so proud of you.
(both kiss softly)
And I've put my name
down for a flat, a real flat.
It's a start.
What's wrong?
I just found out Ella's been lying to me,
about her job, about all sorts of things.
I don't think I ever
really knew her at all.
(Marianne exhales heavily)
I told her to leave this morning.
It's probably for the best.
She's toxic, controlling.
You've been there before, right?
You need her out of your life.
Stay with me tonight.
(birds chirping)
(door knocking loudly)
Oh, my God, what's going on?
What's happening?
Sorry to meet again under
these circumstances, Marianne.
This is your house, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- And Ella Daniels,
she shares it with you, is that correct?
Well, she did, I asked her
to move out earlier today.
We have a warrant to search the premises.
What?
Search for what?
If you can just let us
in, please, Marianne.
I don't wanna break the door down.
And we'll start with Miss Daniel's room.
And you are?
Shaun McMillan,
I live around the corner.
We're together.
We have reasonable grounds to suspect
that a serious offence has taken place,
and that there is evidence in this property
that could help us in court.
A serious offence... committed by Ella?
But will you please tell
me what's happening?
Tell me about your friendship with Ella.
You know how we met.
She needed a place to
stay, so I offered her one.
[Detective Hatch] But then
you asked her to leave again.
Why?
It just wasn't working out.
She couldn't let it go.
- What couldn't she let go?
- Things happened to her
when she was young,
and then this; I just think
that she sees all men as-
- Got something.
Patient files.
Photocopied.
Well, let's see what else we can find.
Did she ever say that
she'd like to hurt them?
Men?
What's this to do with
any drugs going missing?
I only found out today
that she'd been fired
from the hospice weeks ago.
She said that they've
accused her of stealing drugs,
but there's more to
it, isn't there? All this...
I'm afraid so.
Some drugs did go missing
over a period of several weeks.
Small amounts,
that's why it wasn't noticed... before...
Before what?
Three elderly male
patients died at the hospice,
within a month of Ella
starting to work there.
The manager checked the schedules
and both the deaths
and the thefts correlate
with only Ella being on duty at the time.
You think she murdered people?
Poisoned them?
The autopsy showed the missing drugs
in lethal amounts in their systems.
If you can come down
to this station tomorrow,
we need to take some statements,
but right now we need to find her
before she hurts herself or anyone else.
She spoke to the girl that
was attacked in the woods.
The first girl, Grace.
Grace Gardner?
Why?
I don't know.
She wants justice, revenge
against men who hurt women.
She might go back to see her again.
Well, she'd be wasting her time.
Grace Gardner took
her own life this morning.
Her mother found the body.
(Marianne breathing heavily)
My God.
What have I done?
What do you mean, "What have you done?"
You put a roof over her head.
You tried to help someone out,
who'd been through the
same terrible things you had.
No,
I just thought she was damaged,
and full of anger, but...
instead of trying to help her,
I joined in with her, made it worse,
and all the time, she was
murdering innocent people.
You didn't kill those men, Marianne.
She did.
You can't ever know what's
going on in someone else's head.
She didn't want to be helped.
She planned what she was going to do,
whether she'd have met you or not.
Yeah, but she did meet me,
and I gave her a place to stay,
and that's why those poor
people at Greystones were killed,
because, because she was,
because she was nearby,
because it was convenient.
But they'll find her.
She's got nowhere to go.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
Except for the places
that made her who she is,
that hurt her, and haunt
her, and obsess her.
Like the tunnel or the woods,
she's obsessed with these new attacks.
You did tell the police
about her granddad, right?
Maybe, she's gone back home.
What happened to her
back then, it ruined her,
poisoned her soul... made
her a fuse waiting to be lit.
But that's not where the match was struck.
(traffic humming)
Shit, Marianne, she could bit anywhere.
No, she said it was close to the road.
A car went by as it was happening.
She said she saw the driver's face.
(vehicle humming)
There.
Oh, my God.
It's her.
(vehicle humming)
(vehicle turns off) (soft dramatic music)
[Shaun] I'm calling the police.
(seatbelt clicks)
What the hell are you doing?
Stay here.
She won't hurt me, but she might hurt you.
(car door thuds shut)
(Ella breathing heavily)
(craft knife clicking)
Ella, it's gonna be all right, I promise.
I tried your way,
of letting it out; bleeding
it to relieve the pressure.
It's not working.
It's deeper than blood for me.
(Ella panting)
It's in my bones.
I've forgotten who I was... before them.
But how can I keep being this?
(Ella continues panting)
I want to kill them all.
I want to kill myself, too, but I can't,
because that means they win,
and they can't win.
I won't let them.
There is nothing to win.
There's just getting better, getting help.
Come on.
Let us take you to the hospital.
You don't need this anymore.
Okay, okay.
Okay, keep it.
Keep it for now.
Come on, Ella.
Come with me.
That's right, nearly there.
(Ella crying softly)
(car approaches, driving by)
No, stop!
Please, stop!
It's okay, Ella, it's no-one.
Can't you see what's happening to me,
what he's doing to me?
Please, please,
Ella, - No, get off of me!
You're confused. (Ella panting heavily)
Why can't you see me?
Why can't you see me?
Help!
Rape, help!
(Marianne screams) (soft dramatic music)
No! (flesh squelches)
(Ella panting)
(stabbing sound)
(Shaun thuds)
- No!
- Stop, let go!
Just leave me alone!
Ella, Ella, Ella, please, please.
Ella, please, please.
(craft knife clatters)
(Marianne panting)
(siren whining)
Oh, God, Shaun, stay awake.
Please, just stay awake.
(Shaun grunting softly)
They're coming, they're coming, please,
stay with me.
(sirens continue whining)
Stay, stay with me.
(Shaun continues grunting)
(car humming)
Believe me, I've been about as far down
as you can imagine a human being can get.
Only a couple of months ago,
I thought my life was actually over,
but here I am, with you guys,
'cause I found the
courage to let people in,
people who believed in me,
believed I was worth saving.
It reminds me that life's precious,
and if we waste our lives,
we're doing disservice to the people
that never got the chance to live theirs.
(audience on TV applauding)
You okay?
Remember, we're going
to the doctor's tomorrow.
(dramatic news theme playing on TV)
[Newscaster] Good evening,
this is Yorkshire Tonight.
All three of us.
[Newscaster] And we're taking you back
to the breaking news
of another violent attack
in the peaceful suburb of Leeds,
now living in the grip of fear.
Brian Freeman reports.
[Brian] It was here in the
pretty Bluebell Wood in Leeds
that a dog-walker stumbled
upon the latest victim,
horrifically beaten and covered with paint,
the fifth in a series of
brutal and baffling attacks
by the assailant the media
have dubbed, "The Painter Man".
The first, and youngest victim,
16-year-old schoolgirl, Grace Gardner,
tragically took her own
life three months ago.
Her mother Jane, described how Grace
never recovered from her terrifying ordeal,
an ordeal that Grace, despite
having - - I want to go back.
[Brian]... a bright
future in front of her,
simply couldn't imagine
ever getting better.
It's time to let go,
for all of us.
(soft dramatic music)
(soft footsteps)
(soft dramatic music continues)
I knew you'd come back.
(soft dramatic music continues)
We ghosts always return
to the scenes of our deaths.
I'm not dead, Ella.
I'm saying goodbye,
leaving this place behind.
And I'm the reason you can.
I gave you the strength
to face what he did to you,
to us; to go on.
Maybe you're right.
Thank you, Ella.
I'm sorry you don't have the strength
to do the same for yourself,
to move past your anger,
and bitterness, and pain,
and find peace.
Can't you see?
You're the ghost: haunting yourself!
It's simpler for you, Marianne.
What happened to you, it was one brief,
terrible moment in your life.
You can recover.
For me, it was just a continuation
of a pattern started by my grandfather
and perpetuated by
every man I've ever known.
For me, my rape was final confirmation:
that there's no such thing as goodness,
or fairness, or right and wrong.
No one's gonna come and save us.
It's up to us to get justice for ourselves.
Is that what you were telling yourself
as you murdered your patients?
A bunch of helpless, bedridden old men,
who couldn't defend themselves?
They were animals,
just like my grandfather,
just like all of them.
I saw their medical records, Marianne.
Every single one of them had a history.
Child abusers, wife beaters, you name it.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe I am still in that dark, empty field,
fighting for my life.
Maybe I don't want to be saved.
This pain, this fire,
maybe it's all that's left
of that little seven-year-old girl,
who trusted an old man who was supposed
to protect her from monsters...
and ended up being
the worst one of them all.
You can find her again,
get that little girl back.
It's too late.
The die was cast the first time
that old man put his hands on me.
One day you'll see, Marianne.
The world is brutal, and it's cold.
My rage keeps me warm at night.
You were wrong with what you said before,
that no one's there to save us.
Shaun saved me... and I saved him.
We saved each other,
thanks to you.
(footsteps rustle softly; door closes)
(soft dramatic music)
(man crying softly)
(soft dramatic music continues)
(man continues crying softly)
No.
You're dead.
(soft dramatic music continues)
(man continues crying softly)
You're nothing.
(soft dramatic music continues)
You're nothing.
(man continues crying softly)
(soft dramatic music continues)
You okay?
Yeah.
(key turns in ignition)
(engine revs)
(car humming)
(haunting piano music)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(Footsteps trotting)
(birds chirping)
(woman struggling) (man grunting)
Shut the fuck up, you cunt.
(man panting)
One fucking scream, and I'll kill you.
Okay?
(woman crying softly)
(man continues panting)
(man growls angrily) (woman crying)
(man panting)
Oh, yeah.
Nothing, you are fucking nothing to me.
Nothing.
Fuck.
(man grunting)
Fuck. (man cries out)
Fuck.
(man continues to cry out)
(woman continues crying softly)
(man continues panting)
(man crying)
I'm sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm so sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm sorry.
(man continues crying)
I'm nothing.
(man continues crying)
I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.
[Woman] What fuck the are you doing?
What the fuck are you doing?
Help!
Somebody help!
(woman panting)
It's okay, it's okay.
I'm gonna get you some help, it's okay.
(woman continues panting)
It's okay.
It's okay.
(woman crying softly)
Police and ambulance, please.
I don't know, I don't know,
There's a girl, she's been
attacked, please hurry!
I'm in Oakwood, I don't know
the street name, please hurry!
It's okay.
It's okay. (car tyres screeching)
(phone ringing distantly)
(people chatting faintly)
(door closes)
Marianne, you said you heard a crash
when your attacker fled.
From the description you gave us,
it seems he was hit by a
car as he ran across the road.
He was killed instantly.
He meant to do it.
Why do you say that?
Because he cried as he raped me,
and he said he was sorry.
What?
What is it?
What aren't you telling me?
I'm not the first?
He's done this before, hasn't he?
Tell me.
Yes.
Yes, he has.
There was another attack just before yours.
As if he'd been holding
it in for a long time...
then couldn't anymore.
Is she here, the other victim?
Marianne, you wait here for a moment,
and I'll be back in a minute, okay?
(phone ringing distantly)
(people chatting faintly)
(people continue chatting faintly)
[Marianne] There you go.
Thank you.
(door bell jingles)
Mr. Parker looks sweet on you.
I forgot to put the crime
books back on the shelf.
Oh no, that's fine, I'll do it.
(gentle piano music)
(books thud)
(gentle piano music continues)
(books thud)
You okay?
You look like you've seen a ghost.
(gentle piano music
continues) (Marianne panting)
(Marianne crying) (Marianne panting)
(water running)
(Marianne continues panting)
(water dripping)
You okay, Marianne?
(gentle piano music)
Are you sure you didn't come back too soon?
[Marianne] Yeah,
no, no, I'm fine, really.
It's only been a couple of weeks.
[Marianne] Just give me a minute.
Okay.
(gentle piano music continues)
(traffic humming)
(birds chirping)
(leaves rustling)
(leaves rustling)
(footsteps rustling)
(woman thuds)
Who are you?
Why are you following me?
Tell me, now.
That's his.
Isn't it?
(gentle piano music)
I wanted to see what you were like,
to see if there's a
reason that he picked us.
And?
What do you think?
There was no reason,
no thought.
We were just there.
(gentle piano music continues)
I even asked the police afterwards,
and he had no history of violence.
He never even got a speeding ticket.
He was married,
with kids,
a girl and a boy, and,
(gentle piano music continues)
it just came out of nowhere.
It's always there.
It's in them already.
It's part of them.
Men?
No.
I can't believe that.
We all have that potential.
The only difference is men
have the physical advantage.
They just take what they want.
(gentle piano music continues)
And what about women?
Women, they hurt differently.
(gentle piano music continues)
They hurt back.
(gentle piano music continues)
Sometimes, they hurt themselves.
Only when there's
no one else left to hurt.
(gentle piano music continues)
Why did you steal the knife?
I don't know.
I just,
I just needed to take something from him,
like he took something from me.
And was it enough?
I just have to get over this.
(Marianne sighs deeply)
You know...
I've just,
I've just felt like a
stranger in my own life
ever since this happened.
(gentle piano music continues)
Nothing's real,
and I need something.
I don't know what it is,
but I need something.
(gentle piano music continues)
I just need to keep breathing, and,
and keep getting up in the morning,
and then, maybe, I'll remember who I was.
Keep breathing,
It's a start.
(plate clinks)
Thank you.
You can't just hide and
hope that it all goes away.
Pretend it didn't happen.
It did happen,
to both of us.
I'm not gonna hide.
Yeah, I'm dressed like him.
But why?
Maybe I thought that by
wearing what he wore and
walking where he walked, that.
I'd be replacing him, wiping him out,
bad for good.
Maybe I just wanted to
inhabit him for a while.
See how he felt,
(soft jazz music)
or maybe I just like
them 'cause they're comfy.
(soft jazz music continues)
Well, I'd better be going,
but maybe we could stay in touch.
I'll be moving soon.
The lease is up on my
nurse's accommodation,
and to be honest, it's
probably a good thing.
It's literally just around the corner
from where it happened.
You're a nurse.
Well, I'm the opposite.
My housemate just told me she's leaving.
Apparently, she's freaked
out by the whole "rape thing".
I have to find someone
by the end of the month.
(birds chirping)
(dog barking)
This means a lot, Marianne,
and like I say, it's just for now
until I find a place on my own.
(papers fall)
(dog continues barking)
(footsteps trotting)
Neighbour?
A new one, I think.
(dog continues barking)
Thank you.
This looks lovely, thank you.
Aw, (laughs softly) I love cooking,
so this is my little welcome.
Cheers. (glasses clink)
Thank you.
I can't remember the last
time someone cooked for me.
I can't remember the
last time I cooked for me,
come to think of it.
Did you cook for your housemate?
It was Carol, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Oh, we were close,
and we met in a night
course at college last year,
and we just hit it off,
and she was looking for a place, and,
well, I'd just got out of
a difficult relationship,
so she was a good friend.
Sorry, (chuckles softly)
you seem to have a habit
of taking in waifs and strays,
and now you've got another.
But listen, I won't be
here for long, and I'll,
I'll pay half of everything, obviously.
It's just the bills.
There's no rent or mortgage,
the house is mine, so.
My dad left it to me when he died,
and anyway, you are doing
me just as much of a favour
as I am you.
You know, I feel less
anxious with company, so...
So, tell me about this relationship.
You said it was difficult.
We were together two years,
and at first, it was wonderful.
He was loving, caring,
you know, everything that
you can dream it can be.
But he changed.
It deteriorated over time.
He became controlling, cruel.
(gentle piano music)
He just changed as a person,
so, finally, one day he
just raised his hand, and...
and we knew it was over.
He moved out the next day.
It's always about control.
You know, what happened
to us, it wasn't about sex.
It was all about him
needing to feel power over us,
because he felt empty and useless inside.
I guess that's why I don't
like to get too connected
to people or places, you know?
I won't be controlled.
(Ella chuckles softly)
Ella doesn't play well with others.
I thought you said you were a nurse.
Yeah, a bank nurse,
so I go where I'm needed,
whether that's for a couple of days,
or three months, like I'm
doing now with the hospice
across from the park, Greystones,
but I don't know, in the
end, I always move on.
That sounds a bit lonely.
Solitary, I prefer to think.
I had,
I had a difficult childhood.
I was adopted.
My parents were therapists,
they were cold, "analytical workaholics."
(gentle piano music continues)
To this day, I don't know
why they wanted a child.
All I remember is that
they barely saw each other,
and when they did, there were just these
yawning chasms of
silence, filled with... dust.
(gentle piano music continues)
I don't know, I used to think
maybe they thought that by
caring for a child, you know,
bringing up another life,
that it might magically bring
some warmth into their lives.
Now, I think it was more
about the idea of a family.
You know, the happiness,
the togetherness they saw in others.
They tried to replicate
that like an experiment,
but it didn't work.
(gentle piano music continues)
I didn't fix anything.
(gentle piano music continues)
That must have been hard.
(gentle piano music continues)
Not as hard as when they
went away to conferences,
and left me with my grandfather.
You mean?
No, he didn't.
Yeah, (laughs softly) he tried.
(gentle piano music continues)
Very hard and very often.
Oh, my god, Ella.
I'm so sorry.
What happened?
What did you do?
What do all kids do?
I lived through it, somehow.
I suppose that's why I
prefer to be on my own.
(gentle jazz music continues)
Childhood shapes you, doesn't it?
And mine certainly did.
Cheers.
(leaves rustling) (birds chirping)
When I was a kid, my parents
would go on occasional hikes
in woods just like these.
(birds continue chirping)
They were the only times
I remember being happy.
They'd just walk on ahead of me,
like they'd forgotten I existed.
(birds continue chirping)
I made friends with solitude,
and I made a promise to myself
that I would never rely on other people.
(birds continue chirping)
I would walk my own path.
(birds continue chirping)
Listen, Ella, do you think
we can take a break soon?
This is a bit more than I was expecting
when we said, "Let's get out of the house."
There's a nice place just up ahead.
I just,
I just love it out here, don't you?
Yeah, it's nice.
I don't know why they
call it "the wild," though.
It seems so much more
civilised than back there,
in so-called "society."
(birds continue chirping)
There's no lies out here,
no secrets, no masks,
there's just predator and prey,
and each know the other.
(birds continue chirping)
There's kind of a beautiful clarity to it,
an honesty.
Don't you think?
(birds continue chirping)
We're the real animals.
Come on, this way.
Where are we going?
Why are you doing this?
It's like I said,
we either curl up and
die, or we fight back.
(gate clanks) (gate creaks)
(Marianne breathing heavily)
(door clicks open)
(door shuts)
(light switch clicks)
[Marianne] Somebody's been here.
Yeah, probably kids.
The tenants were evicted
a week before you were dragged in here.
I asked around.
So, it happened here.
What about you?
Are we gonna go for a trip down memory lane
where you were raped, too?
It wasn't a lane.
It was a field less than a mile from here.
There was a death on the ward.
My shift ran over, and
I missed the last bus...
by seconds.
I watched it pull away
just as I got to the stop.
(Ella exhales sharply)
So I decided to walk.
I just remember
an arm around my neck,
a hand over my mouth, and then, suddenly,
I'd been dragged over a
fence and onto the field.
There was a car,
and as it drove past, it
swept me with its headlights.
Through the bushes, I
could see the driver's face
looking towards us, you know,
trying to work out if he'd really just seen
a woman being dragged
off into the darkness.
For some reason,
it's always his face I see in my dreams.
If he'd just stopped.
As it happened, I looked around for help,
but all I could see were
white goalposts in the distance,
like ghosts,
just silent... watching...
and I remember thinking,
"Little kids play football here,"
"and they'll play here
again, running and laughing,"
"tomorrow and for years to come,"
"never..."
"never knowing that this is where I died."
But you didn't die.
Neither of us did.
No.
We lived.
So, fuck him.
(Ella exhales sharply)
Fuck him.
(Ella panting)
(birds chirping)
(sirens whining distantly)
(footsteps trotting)
(sirens' whining becomes louder)
What's going on?
Someone's being attacked, apparently,
in the woods,
and in broad daylight, too.
(sirens continue whining)
Do you think there's a
club they all belong to?
(faint gentle strings music)
Thanks.
Rapists: established the very first time
a man saw a woman, and thought,
"I can take what I want, and so I will."
Look, maybe we need to keep
an eye on our new neighbour.
Keep an eye on him,
what do you mean?
Well, I was asking
around about him today.
There's nothing like a corner shop
for good intel. (chuckles softly)
So, he's staying above the community centre
around the corner, and he's a
handyman there or something.
Apparently, he's an ex-soldier.
Look... maybe we should do something.
- Do what?
- I don't know.
Check him out.
Maybe, stop something from happening
before it happens to someone else.
But we don't know
that he's done anything.
I mean, just because he was
out running on the same night-
- Lurking, out of breath,
on the same street near the house
where you were raped, Marianne.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
We... we should just call the police.
And tell them what?
It's just circumstantial.
It wouldn't mean anything
to them, not like it does to us.
So?
Maybe one of us should drop by
the community centre tomorrow
and welcome him to the neighbourhood.
You know, see what he's like.
And by one of us, you mean me?
I think we can both agree,
I hardly come across as the
warm and fuzzy type, do I?
Not like you, you're-
- Nice, harmless?
Look, just say "Hello."
Trust your instincts.
(Marianne chuckles softly)
This is too weird.
Listen, it's probably nothing,
but don't you wish someone had warned you
before you went jogging down that street?
We will never get closure for
what happened to us, Marianne,
but maybe we can stop
another creep like him.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
We couldn't save ourselves,
but... maybe we can save others.
But we don't know
that there'll be others.
There'll always be others.
(faint gentle strings music continues)
(people chattering)
(people continue chattering)
(floor creaking)
(door tapping)
- Hello?
(faint rock music)
(rock music grows louder)
Hi, I'm Marianne, one of your neighbours.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush rustling)
My housemate, Ella, and
I just wanted to say hello,
and welcome you to the neighbourhood.
We're from around the corner, number 16.
(rock music continues)
I like your paintings.
Take one.
No, no, I couldn't.
Take one.
Don't take one.
I don't care.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush rustling)
Well, anyway, we just
wanted to say welcome.
(rock music continues)
Okay, bye then.
(rock music continues)
(paint brush continues rustling)
(birds chirping)
Do you believe in the greater good?
That doing something bad can be justified
if it prevents more harm,
and it protects others in the long run?
I suppose so, sometimes.
I guess it depends.
On what?
On the stakes,
and whether what you
were doing was worth it,
and if you could live with it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I love my job at the hospice, you know,
doing good to balance
out the bad in the world,
but it's not enough.
Sometimes, good people, they
need to stop reacting and act.
Take control.
How can it be enough
just to deal with the mess
bad people leave in the world,
poisoning everything around them?
(birds continue chirping)
Why let an infected limb kill you slowly...
when you could just cut it off?
(birds continue chirping)
Hi, I was just about to make a coffee.
Later.
There's something I want you to see.
Just let me get changed.
(leaves rustling)
(birds chirping)
(footsteps rustling)
(birds continue chirping)
What are we doing?
This is a crime scene.
Not anymore.
I saw the police cars this morning.
They've taken the tape down.
They're finished here.
Yeah, but why did you want to come here?
I don't understand.
I wanted to see.
(birds continue chirping)
I needed to see.
But, see what?
What we're dealing with.
It's been two weeks, and
the police have nothing.
(birds continue chirping)
Look: can you see?
What's that black stuff?
It's paint. Black paint.
He's covered her in black paint.
(birds continue chirping)
Marked her: as his. Look, I want to go.
One of the other nurses at my place,
her brother's in the force.
He heard that the victim's a young woman,
like, really young.
He told her that she lives
somewhere near here, maybe,
maybe just a few streets away from us.
(birds continue chirping)
What the hell are you doing?
Why do you care so much about this?
Why don't you?
This is where we live.
We just survived one monster...
(birds continue chirping)
and now, there's another.
(birds continue chirping)
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail] Sorry.
We're not in right now,
so please leave a message.
(voicemail tone beeps)
[Kate] Ella, this is
Kate from Greystones.
Can you call me back as
soon as you get this, please?
It's important.
Thank you. (voicemail beeps)
(birds chirping)
(birds continue chirping)
(wind chimes jingling)
(door clicks open)
Can I help you?
I hope so.
I'm looking for Grace.
Who are you?
Which newspaper?
(Ella chuckles softly)
I'm not a reporter.
I'm a victim,
like your daughter.
What do you want with Grace?
To help her,
to talk to her about what happened to her,
maybe stop it happening to someone else.
Absolutely not.
She's been through enough already.
I'm not letting some complete
stranger into our home
to make her relive it all over again.
(door thuds)
- Please.
She needs to talk to
someone who understands,
someone who's been through the same horror.
[Grace] It's all right.
Let her in.
[Mother] Grace, you're not ready -
- [Grace] Mum... I'll never be ready.
(birds continue chirping)
(wind chimes continue jingling)
[Man] You're gonna stay
here, every day and every night?
(door knocking rapidly)
- Hi, again.
- You keeping it, then?
- Yeah, it's a great painting.
- It's an old one.
Well, seeing that he's not gonna do it,
I'll introduce myself, shall I?
Richard, Richard Moss, Mossie to my mates,
like this dickhead here.
Marianne, I'm just a neighbour.
Ah, come to check him out eh?
Drawn to mean and moody loners, are you?
You've coming to the right place.
Maybe you can talk some sense into him,
'cause I'm having no luck.
I'm trying to offer him a job,
but apparently, he'd
rather be up here 24/7,
painting these monstrosities.
I think they're good.
Really good.
[Shaun] I'm not ready.
You'll never be ready, Shaun.
That's why you've just got to do it.
Jesus, do you think I was
ready when I came back?
I was as fucked up as you.
I saw the same shit you did.
And you think me talking
about how fucked up I am,
to another bunch of fucked
up people's gonna help them,
gonna help me?
Fuck yeah.
Mate, I bent over backwards
to get this chance for you.
Just fucking think about it.
You can make something good
come out of something bad, yeah?
Help other lads going
through the same thing as you.
Nothing can ever make
up for what I did. Ever.
All right, all right, just...
Just think about it, okay?
Okay.
But you still owe me, remember?
I'll find you somewhere to stay,
you keep coming to the the meetings.
That was the deal.
Yeah?
All right.
Don't keep torturing yourself, Shaun.
It doesn't matter how many times you
paint her shadow in these fucking pictures,
you'll never find peace
until you can start talking about it.
I'm glad you like the painting.
I do, I really do.
(man coughing distantly)
I've got something to do.
(traffic humming)
Hey, Ghost.
What'd I promise you when
we were out here together?
That you'd get me off the street.
And I'll do that.
(traffic humming)
Your friend seems nice. Mossie?
We were in Afghanistan together.
Now, he counsels people with PTSD,
and he got me this made-up
job in the community centre,
just so I'd have a roof over my head.
Is that what you were arguing about,
he wants you to join him helping people?
I'm no help to anyone.
(cane clicking) (soft haunting piano music)
So, you were attacked, too?
I was raped,
(soft haunting piano music continues)
but he's dead.
Is that why you're here?
You want some kind of justice,
even if it's on someone else's behalf?
(scoffs softly) That's
perceptive for someone so young.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I'm not young anymore.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He took that from you.
What else did he take?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I've seen the crime scene, the black paint.
Will you tell me what happened?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
There was no rape, just violence.
Pure, physical violence,
wanting me to know that he had the power
of life and death over me,
and that if he let me live it
was because he wanted to,
like a spider letting a
fly escape from its web,
because it can't be bothered to kill it,
wanting the fly to know,
because another fly will always come along.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
I can tell you a secret,
something the police withheld,
something only the attacker would know.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
In the woods, I was walking my dog, Ruby,
she'd slipped her lead
and I was calling for her.
Suddenly, there he was:
a man, ahead of me on the
path, wearing a balaclava.
I remember thinking he must
have been running or something,
because he was breathing so heavily,
and then I realised... he
was trembling with excitement
about what he was about to do.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
And I remember taking
a faltering step back,
and he said, "Run,
and it'll be even worse."
"Even worse," he said,
and I remember thinking,
"Oh, God, this is gonna be bad."
"Really bad."
"This is gonna be something"
"that you're gonna have to live through,"
"something you have to survive."
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace breathing heavily)
He began with my stomach, my ribs,
(Grace sniffles)
controlled single punches,
each one more painful than the last.
I remember the sound
of the leather stretching
as he bunched his fists.
He saved the kicking for my back.
He wore steel-tipped boots.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(sniffles) Then, he took a break, sat down,
pulled out a flask of tea.
He didn't offer me any.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He saved my face for last.
There was no method,
no control,
not anymore.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
He was screaming with
effort as he destroyed me,
he reshaped me.
Remade me.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
He was exhausted by the time he was done.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
But that's not the secret.
The secret came after.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
[Ella] Was it,
was it the paint?
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace sighs shakily)
For a while, it was
like nothing else existed,
except for the need to just breathe,
to just find a breath,
(inhales slowly) and then another one,
just enough to stay alive, (voice breaking)
and every one an agony
beyond words, beyond,
beyond comprehension,
(Grace crying softly)
and then...
[Ella] And then, what?
(Grace breathing heavily)
What, what did he do?
Tell me!
I felt him pouring something
cold and wet on my back,
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(crying softly) and at first,
I thought it might have been petrol.
I thought he was gonna burn me alive.
A part of me wishes he had.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
But it wasn't petrol.
It was paint, black paint.
He was branding me,
marking me as his property.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
Then, I felt his hand and his finger,
and he was drawing something on my back...
and then he just walked away.
What did he write?
Come on!
It's like a poison.
You've got to cut into
the wound to let it out -
- It was a number: the number one.
He wrote the number one on my back.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
So, it was a message for the police,
for the press, for everyone.
You were just the first. Of many.
Yeah. I was just the first.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Grace continues breathing heavily)
(Grace sniffles)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(Ella breathing heavily)
Look, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that this happened to you,
but I need to try and stop
him from doing this to others.
He's not your monster.
He's mine -
It's my life he took, not yours.
But he didn't take your life, did he?
You're still here!
This is not me.
I'm like a ghost, like a shell.
I feel like he showed me something:
some cruel and brutal
truth that made a mockery
of all my hopes, and my dreams,
and all the plans I had for myself.
You can't just accept that.
You have to fight back like I am!
If you let this beat you...
he may as well have killed you.
(soft haunting piano music continues)
You know what?
You might as well just
finish the job for him.
[Mother] - What the hell
do you think you're doing?
Get out.
Get out of my house now.
I was just... Get out now,
before I call the police.
(Ella exhales sharply)
(soft haunting piano music continues)
(chair scrapes)
How was your friend, by the way?
The friend you went to visit?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, she's fine.
(soft piano music)
(birds chirping)
What's that?
Oh, it's one of Shaun's paintings.
He gave it to me this morning.
It's striking, isn't it?
He gave it to you?
(soft piano music continues)
You've been to see him again...?
Yeah, a friend of his was
there, actually, from the army,
they were in Afghanistan together,
saw some terrible things, I think.
Painting's a kind of
healing for him, maybe.
He's troubled, traumatised.
And dangerous.
(Ella breathing heavily)
Look, maybe this getting to
know him thing was a mistake.
I don't think so.
He seems kind, decent.
In fact, we're going for a walk tomorrow
near the hiking trail you took me on.
You can't be serious.
You, you barely know
the first thing about him,
and now you're off wandering
into the woods with him,
after that girl was
attacked... in the woods?!?
We're going in broad daylight.
There'll be people everywhere,
and it was you who wanted
me to get to know him
in the first place.
(soft piano music continues)
I'm sorry, Ella, I just don't feel it.
Shaun, he's just, he's just
damaged, trying to find peace.
He's no monster.
You're naive, Marianne.
Even after what's happened to you,
you still want to see the best in people.
Is that so bad?
I'm not going to let what one
messed up person did to me
poison me against the whole world.
Then, you're a fool.
(birds continue chirping)
(soft piano music continues)
Monsters are everywhere.
Well, maybe for you, but not for me.
People are good, even
when they're messed up,
in a hundred different ways,
and Shaun, he's no different.
I think I'm gonna have an early night.
(birds continue chirping)
(soft piano music continues)
It's nice here, isn't it?
I've been here a few times
with my housemate, Ella.
Have you been friends a long time?
About two weeks; we
hardly know each other.
She needed a place to stay, so...
You're kind.
You know, I've forgotten
it ever existed: kindness.
I've been in my own head for so long,
I'd forgotten that anything
good could still happen.
Because of the war.
(bird calling)
But now you're here,
and you're walking in the park... with me.
(Marianne laughs softly)
(birds chirping)
So, tell me about your friend, Ghost.
[Shaun] That was me
just a couple of months ago.
- You were homeless?
- For a while,
after I got back from Afghanistan.
I was a mess.
I couldn't deal with the world.
All I wanted to do was just disappear.
(birds continue chirping)
And now?
And now, I'm walking
in the park... with you.
(gentle piano music)
You sure you're okay to lock up?
(blows kiss) See ya.
(door bell jingles)
(door bell jingles)
Closing in five minutes, I'm afraid.
(gentle piano music continues)
(sirens whining)
(door bell jingles)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone vibrating)
Ella.
Are you still at the shop?
[Marianne] Yeah, I'm
just closing up, why?
Right, don't move, I'm heading there now.
(sirens continue whining)
[Marianne] But why, aren't you at work?
Uh, no, I switched with someone.
Listen, there's been
another one, literally just now.
- [Marianne] What do you mean?
- Another attack,
(sirens continue whining)
in the park, right behind
where your bookshop is.
Apparently, it was
interrupted or something,
but there's literally police
swarming around everywhere,
trying to find him.
Right, don't move.
I'm nearly there, okay?
(gentle piano music)
(sirens continue whining)
(floor creaking)
(knuckles tapping door)
Open up.
What?
I think there's someone in the shop.
(sirens continue whining)
- Did you see him?
- No.
I just heard the door.
Maybe Heather didn't close it properly.
What are you doing?
We should call the police.
No, not yet.
And tell them what, exactly?
That a customer might
have come into a shop?
Yeah, but why would he come here?
Why don't you ring your friend, Shaun?
He might know.
(gentle piano music continues)
(Marianne breathing heavily)
(door thuds)
(footsteps scuffling)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail] The person you are calling
is not available right now -
(glass shatters) (Marianne gasps softly)
(light clicking) (Marianne
breathing heavily)
(sirens continue whining)
(phone ringing)
Shh.
[Operator] Emergency,
which service do you require?
(light continues clicking)
(floor creaking)
(footsteps thudding rapidly)
(door bell jingles)
(light continues clicking)
(gentle piano music)
(door bell jingles) (traffic humming)
(door bell jingles)
[Ella] Gone.
What the hell are you doing with that?
Why didn't you want me to call the police?
Because you want to catch him, is that it?
Don't you realise how stupid that is?
Anything could have
happened to either of us.
But it didn't!
We don't even know who that was.
It could have been anyone.
It could have been kids,
and besides, are you sure
you want them to catch him?
(phone vibrating)
Is that Shaun?
You'd better answer it.
I know it's incredibly
difficult, but do you feel yet
that you're able to share with us?
It was so long ago...
but it still feels like it was yesterday,
but that it happened to someone else,
someone I used to know.
It's okay, Catherine.
Take your time.
I can cope with losing myself.
I deserve it.
After what I did.
(Catherine crying softly)
If only I'd been on time,
that drunk driver wouldn't have been there,
and she'd still be alive.
(Catherine continues crying)
My beautiful, beautiful daughter.
Thank you very much for sharing that.
It's not just soldiers
that suffer with PTSD.
Trauma's trauma.
It doesn't matter who or where you are,
it destroys just the same.
That's why we've gotta talk about it.
When we recognise
within ourselves our pain,
our anger, our doubts, fears,
in others... those memories, those traumas
lose a little bit of
their power every time.
It's like a sculpture,
you know, you're chipping
away at a big, ugly lump of rock
until you find something
good underneath the surface,
something that you
thought was lost forever,
but it is still there, I promise.
All right, before we wrap up,
has anybody got anything
they'd like to share?
Anyone else?
I know we've got a few new faces here.
Okay, well, I think...
[Shaun] Hi, everybody.
I'm Shaun.
[Group] Hi, Shaun.
I'm a veteran, two tours of Afghanistan,
2nd Battalion, Yorkshire regiment.
I've never really spoken
about my experiences
or shared them until now.
The first tour I joined up
with best friend, Johnny.
We went to school together
and grew up on the same street together.
We promised we'd have each other's backs.
We were out on patrol,
and we passed this rundown cafe,
and this young kid sat
there with these two old guys,
and when he noticed us,
he just stood up and made
his way over so fucking casually,
I'll never forget it,
right up to the window on Johnny's side,
and he grinned:
and I knew.
And I think Johnny did, too.
He had this flicker in his eyes,
fear, sadness,
disappointment,
that it could all end like this,
and then, there was
just this almighty boom.
I'd been blown across the road.
Johnny's body had shielded
me from most of the blast,
and now, there were
pieces of him all over me.
I was badly burned, scarred,
they had to pull bone
fragments from under my skin,
pieces of my best friend,
or what was left of him.
That should have been me driving that day.
That should have been me.
I still dream of that moment,
lying in the dirt, screaming,
trying to brush him off me,
but I'll never get clean.
I'll never get out from under it.
It's a stain on my fucking soul.
That was amazing... and brave.
I was texting you earlier.
Have you been here all evening?
Yeah, I helped him set up.
Was it important?
No.
Let me give you a lift.
I mean, you could come
back to my place for a coffee.
(both kissing softly)
- We don't have to.
- No, I want to,
but there's something I have to tell you.
If this is gonna be real,
I want it to be honest,
truthful, with no secrets.
Just tell me.
It sounds,
it sounds crazy now, like
a spell that's been broken,
but when I came to welcome you
to the neighbourhood that
day, that wasn't the real reason.
It was after the attack on that girl,
and you were a stranger,
that night out, out of breath,
and I can't explain it, erm...
Ella, she, we both,
we both thought that you might be...
Might be what?
Might be the one that did it?
So, your friend Ella
sends you around to check up on the suspect
and report back to her
whether I fit the bill
to be a fucking rapist?
- He wasn't a rapist.
- I don't care,
who fucking cares?
What matters is whatever this creep did,
you thought I could be fucking responsible.
(Shaun exhales sharply)
Unbelievable.
What a fucking idiot.
There's me, thinking there's
something there between us,
something good, something real,
and all this time,
you thought I could do something like that.
No, I didn't, not really,
at least not after the first
time that we really talked.
I could see that... [Shaun] What?
You could see what?
That you're in pain.
You don't cause it.
(Marianne's breathing heavily)
I know terrible things happened in the war,
and you blame yourself,
but I don't think you could
ever hurt someone deliberately.
There are things that you don't know.
- You got that right.
- No, no, I mean,
there's a reason that
me and Ella felt that way,
suspicious, paranoid, ready,
ready to jump to wild conclusions.
What possible reason could
the be to make you decide
that a total stranger,
an innocent stranger,
was a sex attacker?
Shaun, please,
(sniffles) this is horrible.
I can't, I can't say it, not yet.
Oh, but you can talk
about things I didn't do,
you and your great friend, Ella?
- Shaun, please.
- No, I want to hear it.
Tell me now -
- We were raped!
(Marianne sniffles)
Me and Ella, both of us.
(Marianne crying softly)
The same night, by the same man.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
That's how we met.
Who?
When?
(Marianne continues crying softly)
A couple of months ago.
The one who did it,
he died the same day,
but it still feels like yesterday to us,
especially for Ella.
She shows her pain, her anger.
I keep mine to myself.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
I realise now it could have
been any man that night,
and Ella would've leapt
to the same conclusions.
I was so weak, I would've
just gone along with it the same.
It just happened to be you.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
(Shaun kisses softly)
(both kissing softly)
(both breathing heavily)
(both continue kissing softly)
(both continue breathing heavily)
(both continue breathing heavily)
No, no.
Gently. Gently.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
(Marianne breathing heavily)
It's okay.
(both continue kissing softly)
Do they still hurt?
I don't really think about it.
I guess sometimes it just gets to a point,
and I need some kind of release.
Tell me about this.
What does it mean?
It's a regiment thing,
a tradition, band of brothers.
There's less of us now.
Is that why you paint?
Does it help?
We lost a lot of great lads,
great brothers.
That's why I keep seeing her.
Seeing who?
The girl,
the girl with dark eyes,
dressed all in black.
The girl in my paintings.
What happened to her?
You don't have to tell me.
My second tour:
Kandahar, Helmand Province,
we carried out an assault on this village,
it was a Taliban stronghold.
We were sent to clear houses.
Nothing left of the place,
and just a bullet-ridden
mess, moving house to house,
kicking doors in, dragging
families from their homes.
There were women and children screaming,
and crying everywhere.
I came to this last door, pale blue paint,
flaking, hanging from broken hinges,
and I kicked it in,
and there she was,
12, maybe 13, dressed all in black.
For what seemed like an eternity,
we just stood there,
not knowing what to do.
I shouted at her to get out,
and she didn't.
Instead, she just edged towards this table
and reached under a pile
of old clothes for something,
something that looked
like the barrel of a gun,
and I shouted at her,
I said, "Please, don't do it,"
but she ignored me, or
she didn't understand,
and that's when I shot her.
(Shaun sniffles softly)
She dropped like a rag doll.
I pulled the clothes away and
saw what she was reaching for.
It was a whistle. A tin whistle.
I shot that little girl over a toy.
You didn't know.
You did what you had to do,
what you were trained to do.
Marianne, I shot a child.
(Shaun crying softly)
I told her,
I fucking told her.
It's not your fault.
It is my fault.
If it wasn't for me, she'd still be alive.
Half her head was hanging out, Marianne.
(Shaun continues crying softly)
When I went back home,
sleeping rough on the streets,
she's there.
When I'm begging, trying
to find a doorway to sleep in,
she's there, with me all the time.
That second tour, why
the fuck did I go back?
I blame myself for Johnny,
and I go back for what?
(laughs incredulously) Find
some kind of redemption,
get killed like he did?
Pay back some type of guilty penance?
All I tried to do was make things better,
(snuffles softly) and I
made it a million times worse.
(Shaun crying softly)
I killed my best friend,
and then, I killed a fucking child.
How do you fix that, Marianne?
How do you fix that?
The only time I get away,
the only peace I ever feel
is when I paint, when I
put her on that canvas,
always at the fringes,
the edge of my vision,
like a ghost haunting
me, but she's out of here.
Not for long, just for a little
while she's out my head.
All I wanted to do was
just tell her that I'm sorry.
She knows; wherever she is,
she knows it wasn't your fault.
(Shaun crying)
She knows you didn't mean
it, and it wasn't your fault.
(Shaun continues crying)
It is my fault.
I know I can't take it back
or even make things better.
All I wanted to do was
just tell her that I'm sorry.
(sobbing) I'm sorry.
(Shaun continues crying)
I'm sorry.
(Shaun continues crying)
(birds chirping)
(door closes softly)
(Ella scoffs softly under breath)
(birds chirping)
(Marianne exhales slowly)
(man breathing heavily)
(man continues breathing heavily)
(birds continue chirping)
Good night?
He's innocent, and last night proved it.
I should never have listened to you.
You think you know him?
I do know him, and a hell of a lot better
than you might think.
Look, he's good, and kind, and broken,
just like us.
Just like us?
And it was you who pushed
us together, remember?
But it hasn't turned out the
way you wanted it to, has it?
He's not the monster
that you wanted him to be,
and all those suspicions
that we had about him,
that you had about him,
they were just fantasies.
Look, not all men are monsters, Ella.
Aren't they?
(scoffs) So now who's
living in a fantasy world?
Don't you get it?
They're all rapists.
It's in their fucking DNA,
looking and then waiting
for the next chance
to just take what they want,
just like him, our loving family man,
who wouldn't hurt a fly,
just like my grandfather:
"Come on, Ella, show me you love me."
"Come on, Ella. I'll show you how."
(phone ringing)
[Voicemail Recording]
Sorry, we're not in right now,
so please leave a message.
[Kate] Ella, this is Kate
again from Greystones.
It's urgent that you come and answer
some very serious questions
regarding your actions
in the weeks running up to your dismissal.
The police are now involved
and have some very
urgent questions of their own
that they want answers to.
This is a very serious situation, Ella.
You need to start telling
the truth before it's too late.
(voicemail message beeps)
When?
When were you fired?
Last week.
It's a joke.
They're trying to blame me
for their own stupid incompetence.
Some drugs went missing at work,
and they needed a scapegoat.
They're obviously calling in the police
to try and intimidate me,
but it's not gonna work.
I will never be a victim again.
But where have you been going?
What have you been doing?
Nothing.
Nowhere, just... around,
asking questions.
Questions? About what?
Oh, my God.
Why do I even need to ask?
For God's sake, Ella, you're obsessed.
You say you don't want to be a victim,
but don't you see?
Letting this take over your life,
it means he's still hurting
you, holding power over you,
even now, it is like
you're still in that field,
fighting for your life.
Not my life!
I am trying to stop these animals
from doing it to other people.
How can you not see that?
I'll tell you what, why don't
you ask Grace if I'm crazy,
trying to stop other
women from going through
- what we've been through.
- Grace?
Half beaten to death, daubed with paint
like she was his fucking property,
and then just left in the woods like trash.
Why don't you ask her if
I'm wrong to be obsessed?
Oh, my God, Grace, the girl in the woods?
Is that her name?
Please, Ella, please tell
me you didn't go and see her.
Well, someone had to.
Don't you see?
Someone who's been through
the same pain, the same fear,
someone who might understand a monster
a little bit better than
the police ever would.
We can make a difference, Marianne.
We have to.
Otherwise, what's the point?
- Of what?
- Of surviving!
(Ella breathing heavily)
You'll never understand.
It's beyond you to fight back.
I was wrong about you.
We were both wrong,
I think, terribly wrong.
I'm sorry, Ella, but
you're gonna have to find
a new place to live.
Don't worry, I'll be gone first thing.
Everyone knows three's a crowd.
(birds chirping)
I'm leaving it all behind: the war. Her.
I'm gonna do something
new; something brighter.
I've taken the job counselling;
only part-time, but...
Oh, Shaun, that's fantastic.
I'm so proud of you.
(both kiss softly)
And I've put my name
down for a flat, a real flat.
It's a start.
What's wrong?
I just found out Ella's been lying to me,
about her job, about all sorts of things.
I don't think I ever
really knew her at all.
(Marianne exhales heavily)
I told her to leave this morning.
It's probably for the best.
She's toxic, controlling.
You've been there before, right?
You need her out of your life.
Stay with me tonight.
(birds chirping)
(door knocking loudly)
Oh, my God, what's going on?
What's happening?
Sorry to meet again under
these circumstances, Marianne.
This is your house, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- And Ella Daniels,
she shares it with you, is that correct?
Well, she did, I asked her
to move out earlier today.
We have a warrant to search the premises.
What?
Search for what?
If you can just let us
in, please, Marianne.
I don't wanna break the door down.
And we'll start with Miss Daniel's room.
And you are?
Shaun McMillan,
I live around the corner.
We're together.
We have reasonable grounds to suspect
that a serious offence has taken place,
and that there is evidence in this property
that could help us in court.
A serious offence... committed by Ella?
But will you please tell
me what's happening?
Tell me about your friendship with Ella.
You know how we met.
She needed a place to
stay, so I offered her one.
[Detective Hatch] But then
you asked her to leave again.
Why?
It just wasn't working out.
She couldn't let it go.
- What couldn't she let go?
- Things happened to her
when she was young,
and then this; I just think
that she sees all men as-
- Got something.
Patient files.
Photocopied.
Well, let's see what else we can find.
Did she ever say that
she'd like to hurt them?
Men?
What's this to do with
any drugs going missing?
I only found out today
that she'd been fired
from the hospice weeks ago.
She said that they've
accused her of stealing drugs,
but there's more to
it, isn't there? All this...
I'm afraid so.
Some drugs did go missing
over a period of several weeks.
Small amounts,
that's why it wasn't noticed... before...
Before what?
Three elderly male
patients died at the hospice,
within a month of Ella
starting to work there.
The manager checked the schedules
and both the deaths
and the thefts correlate
with only Ella being on duty at the time.
You think she murdered people?
Poisoned them?
The autopsy showed the missing drugs
in lethal amounts in their systems.
If you can come down
to this station tomorrow,
we need to take some statements,
but right now we need to find her
before she hurts herself or anyone else.
She spoke to the girl that
was attacked in the woods.
The first girl, Grace.
Grace Gardner?
Why?
I don't know.
She wants justice, revenge
against men who hurt women.
She might go back to see her again.
Well, she'd be wasting her time.
Grace Gardner took
her own life this morning.
Her mother found the body.
(Marianne breathing heavily)
My God.
What have I done?
What do you mean, "What have you done?"
You put a roof over her head.
You tried to help someone out,
who'd been through the
same terrible things you had.
No,
I just thought she was damaged,
and full of anger, but...
instead of trying to help her,
I joined in with her, made it worse,
and all the time, she was
murdering innocent people.
You didn't kill those men, Marianne.
She did.
You can't ever know what's
going on in someone else's head.
She didn't want to be helped.
She planned what she was going to do,
whether she'd have met you or not.
Yeah, but she did meet me,
and I gave her a place to stay,
and that's why those poor
people at Greystones were killed,
because, because she was,
because she was nearby,
because it was convenient.
But they'll find her.
She's got nowhere to go.
(Marianne continues crying softly)
Except for the places
that made her who she is,
that hurt her, and haunt
her, and obsess her.
Like the tunnel or the woods,
she's obsessed with these new attacks.
You did tell the police
about her granddad, right?
Maybe, she's gone back home.
What happened to her
back then, it ruined her,
poisoned her soul... made
her a fuse waiting to be lit.
But that's not where the match was struck.
(traffic humming)
Shit, Marianne, she could bit anywhere.
No, she said it was close to the road.
A car went by as it was happening.
She said she saw the driver's face.
(vehicle humming)
There.
Oh, my God.
It's her.
(vehicle humming)
(vehicle turns off) (soft dramatic music)
[Shaun] I'm calling the police.
(seatbelt clicks)
What the hell are you doing?
Stay here.
She won't hurt me, but she might hurt you.
(car door thuds shut)
(Ella breathing heavily)
(craft knife clicking)
Ella, it's gonna be all right, I promise.
I tried your way,
of letting it out; bleeding
it to relieve the pressure.
It's not working.
It's deeper than blood for me.
(Ella panting)
It's in my bones.
I've forgotten who I was... before them.
But how can I keep being this?
(Ella continues panting)
I want to kill them all.
I want to kill myself, too, but I can't,
because that means they win,
and they can't win.
I won't let them.
There is nothing to win.
There's just getting better, getting help.
Come on.
Let us take you to the hospital.
You don't need this anymore.
Okay, okay.
Okay, keep it.
Keep it for now.
Come on, Ella.
Come with me.
That's right, nearly there.
(Ella crying softly)
(car approaches, driving by)
No, stop!
Please, stop!
It's okay, Ella, it's no-one.
Can't you see what's happening to me,
what he's doing to me?
Please, please,
Ella, - No, get off of me!
You're confused. (Ella panting heavily)
Why can't you see me?
Why can't you see me?
Help!
Rape, help!
(Marianne screams) (soft dramatic music)
No! (flesh squelches)
(Ella panting)
(stabbing sound)
(Shaun thuds)
- No!
- Stop, let go!
Just leave me alone!
Ella, Ella, Ella, please, please.
Ella, please, please.
(craft knife clatters)
(Marianne panting)
(siren whining)
Oh, God, Shaun, stay awake.
Please, just stay awake.
(Shaun grunting softly)
They're coming, they're coming, please,
stay with me.
(sirens continue whining)
Stay, stay with me.
(Shaun continues grunting)
(car humming)
Believe me, I've been about as far down
as you can imagine a human being can get.
Only a couple of months ago,
I thought my life was actually over,
but here I am, with you guys,
'cause I found the
courage to let people in,
people who believed in me,
believed I was worth saving.
It reminds me that life's precious,
and if we waste our lives,
we're doing disservice to the people
that never got the chance to live theirs.
(audience on TV applauding)
You okay?
Remember, we're going
to the doctor's tomorrow.
(dramatic news theme playing on TV)
[Newscaster] Good evening,
this is Yorkshire Tonight.
All three of us.
[Newscaster] And we're taking you back
to the breaking news
of another violent attack
in the peaceful suburb of Leeds,
now living in the grip of fear.
Brian Freeman reports.
[Brian] It was here in the
pretty Bluebell Wood in Leeds
that a dog-walker stumbled
upon the latest victim,
horrifically beaten and covered with paint,
the fifth in a series of
brutal and baffling attacks
by the assailant the media
have dubbed, "The Painter Man".
The first, and youngest victim,
16-year-old schoolgirl, Grace Gardner,
tragically took her own
life three months ago.
Her mother Jane, described how Grace
never recovered from her terrifying ordeal,
an ordeal that Grace, despite
having - - I want to go back.
[Brian]... a bright
future in front of her,
simply couldn't imagine
ever getting better.
It's time to let go,
for all of us.
(soft dramatic music)
(soft footsteps)
(soft dramatic music continues)
I knew you'd come back.
(soft dramatic music continues)
We ghosts always return
to the scenes of our deaths.
I'm not dead, Ella.
I'm saying goodbye,
leaving this place behind.
And I'm the reason you can.
I gave you the strength
to face what he did to you,
to us; to go on.
Maybe you're right.
Thank you, Ella.
I'm sorry you don't have the strength
to do the same for yourself,
to move past your anger,
and bitterness, and pain,
and find peace.
Can't you see?
You're the ghost: haunting yourself!
It's simpler for you, Marianne.
What happened to you, it was one brief,
terrible moment in your life.
You can recover.
For me, it was just a continuation
of a pattern started by my grandfather
and perpetuated by
every man I've ever known.
For me, my rape was final confirmation:
that there's no such thing as goodness,
or fairness, or right and wrong.
No one's gonna come and save us.
It's up to us to get justice for ourselves.
Is that what you were telling yourself
as you murdered your patients?
A bunch of helpless, bedridden old men,
who couldn't defend themselves?
They were animals,
just like my grandfather,
just like all of them.
I saw their medical records, Marianne.
Every single one of them had a history.
Child abusers, wife beaters, you name it.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe I am still in that dark, empty field,
fighting for my life.
Maybe I don't want to be saved.
This pain, this fire,
maybe it's all that's left
of that little seven-year-old girl,
who trusted an old man who was supposed
to protect her from monsters...
and ended up being
the worst one of them all.
You can find her again,
get that little girl back.
It's too late.
The die was cast the first time
that old man put his hands on me.
One day you'll see, Marianne.
The world is brutal, and it's cold.
My rage keeps me warm at night.
You were wrong with what you said before,
that no one's there to save us.
Shaun saved me... and I saved him.
We saved each other,
thanks to you.
(footsteps rustle softly; door closes)
(soft dramatic music)
(man crying softly)
(soft dramatic music continues)
(man continues crying softly)
No.
You're dead.
(soft dramatic music continues)
(man continues crying softly)
You're nothing.
(soft dramatic music continues)
You're nothing.
(man continues crying softly)
(soft dramatic music continues)
You okay?
Yeah.
(key turns in ignition)
(engine revs)
(car humming)
(haunting piano music)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)
(haunting piano music continues)