PROLOGUE

  My lovely girlfriend

  (SAM is sitting at his streaming setup. Webcam on. Chat scrolling. He's mid-sentence.)

  SAM: —and that's why you should never trust a speedrunner who says "trust me bro." Anyway,

  SAM: Chat, I gotta go. Emily's coming over. Yes, that Emily. My girlfriend. The one you all spam "W" and "GREEN FLAG" whenever she appears.

  (He smiles at chat.)

  SAM: After 16 years of being a loser, I finally have a cute girl by my side. That's right, chat. Manifesting works.

  (He checks his phone.)

  SAM: Well tonight's the night.

  (Pause.)

  SAM: Not in a weird way, don't be weird. Just... a normal night with her. Just me with the beauty of the world.

  SAM: Why isn't she here yet? It's getting late.

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  (He glances at chat.)

  SAM: Yeah, yeah, "streamer fails to get girl" jokes.

  SAM: But, Strange. What's taking her so long.

  (He look his phone.)

  EMILY (text, 1 hour ago): Babe I'm leaving now, I promise! Traffic is being homophobic but I'm fighting it. See you there!

  SAM: (smiling like an idiot) That's my girl. But she sent this 1 hour ago. Where is she now?

  (The phone vibrates. Incoming call from Emily.)

  SAM: Hey! Chat, say hi to Emily.

  SAM: And don't forget to subscribe to my channel and follow the twitch…

  SAM: Anyways.

  (He turns phone toward the webcam, then back to ear.)

  SAM: You on your way?

  EMILY: Hey... I think I messed up a little bit.

  SAM: The homophobic TRAFFIC MADE YOU A HATER?

  EMILY: No! What are you even talking about? Anyway, there's a forest.

  SAM: Why is there a forest.

  EMILY: I took a shortcut. Google said it was faster.

  SAM: Emily, not on a day like this. You're saying such crazy stuff.

  EMILY: I know! But it looked fine on the map and then bam trees everywhere.

  SAM: Okay. Where are you exactly?

  EMILY: I don't know. My GPS literally just says "Good luck."

  SAM: That's not a location.

  EMILY: There's someone here.

  SAM: Someone... who?

  EMILY: She's wearing a cloak.

  SAM: Of course she is.

  WITCH: Love is such a fragile thing...

  SAM: Emily?

  EMILY: She's looking right at me.

  SAM: Okay listen. Are you in danger right now?

  (Pause.)

  EMILY: She just said "interesting."

  SAM: That's bad. That's very bad.

  SAM: Okay, do you have anything to protect yourself?

  EMILY: Wait, she's actually kind of nice? She smiled.

  SAM: Emily no.

  WITCH: Such a pretty soul.

  EMILY: Hi! Yeah I'm— Ahhhhhhhhh!

  SAM: EMILY! Emily!—

  (He stands up, knocking over his chair. Chat is going crazy.)

  SAM: Someone call, I don't know someone!

  EMILY: Hey. Still alive.

  SAM: Oh thank god. Don't scare me like that. I was gonna, uh— nothing. I'm fine.

  (He sits back down, runs hand through hair.)

  SAM: Chat's having a heart attack, by the way. You're stressing out 10,000 people right now.

  WITCH: A DEAL HAS BEEN MADE.

  SAM: HEY—who are you? What deal?

  SAM: I'm calling the police, okay?

  EMILY: Wait... why am I—

  (Call suddenly cuts.)

  (Silence.)

  SAM: ...Emily?

  (The room gets darker.)

  SAM: ... I have to—

  (BANG.)

  (screen goes black.)