Tresa.Mary@o*********m

A cold, eerie night. Huge pellets of rain batter the earth. Dark, towering clouds rumble above a dilapidated, smoking mess of rubble. Lightning blazes, showing movement under the debris. One by one, fragments of brick, stone and concrete roll off and a shaken man emerges from the rubble. He is 30’s something, compact, stocky and built to endure rough terrain. He is a soldier. He stumbles out from under the debris, dazed and confused.   SOLDIER – (looking around, searching) Papa? Ma? Dhruv? Keshika?   A loud clap of thunder ensues.   THE SHARMA’S RESIDENCE – FLASHBACK Vihaan Sharma, aged 12, plays his favourite military game “Rendezvous” at the PC while a sulky Keshika Sinha, aged 10, awaits her chance.   KESHIKA – That’s enough! My turn now!   VIHAAN – Just one more.   Onscreen, Vihaan’s “soldier” spit bullets at his enemy.   VIHAAN - (whoops) Yes! Gotcha! Sucker!   Keshika tries to push him off the chair.   KESHIKA – That’s enough! My turn!   VIHAAN - Hey! Stop! What’re you doing?   KESHIKA - (still pushing) Up! Get up!   Vihaan yanks her pleated hair. She howls in pain. He laughs hard. She gets angry and punches him. He punches her back! The fight is on!   KESHIKA - (punching him relentlessly) You’re going to lose this mission!   VIHAAN - (punching back) We’ll see, loser!   Vihaan’s mom pours into the room, infuriated at the scuffle.   MOM – What on earth! Stop it you two! Stop fighting! Vihaan! Get back! Not a finger on her! Back!   KESHIKA - Aunty! I’ve been waiting for a long time! He never lets me have a go at it!   MOM - What is this Vihaan? She’s younger to you! Why don’t you let her play?   VIHAAN - Ma! The last time I let her play she crashed this comp. Remember? And we had to get it repaired.   KESHIKA - I didn’t do anything! How dare you lie!!?   VIHAAN - (smirking) Hah! Yeah, right!   KESHIKA - Admit it, you don’t want me to play, that’s why you’re making up all these c**k and bull stories.   He simply laughs.   KESHIKA - (begins to cry) I hate you!   He laughs even more.   MOM – (sternly) Enough, Vihaan! And get up from that chair! Let her play now! See? You made her cry!   VIHAAN – But, mom…   MOM - No buts. Let her play, you can take turns in a while.   Now it’s Vihaan’s turn to sulk. He gets up from the chair, moves aside and watches Keshika hop on and play.   MOM - (to Vihaan) After some time you can play, ok darling? Don’t fight like this! Both of you are best buddies, aren’t you?   She gives her son a quick hug before leaving the room. As soon as she leaves, Vihaan resumes pushing Keshika off the chair.   KESHIKA - Aunty!   He claps her mouth shut.   VIHAAN - Shush! Shut up!   She bites his hand.   VIHAAN - (snaps it away) Owww!   KESHIKA - Youuuu!   She prepares to pounce on him, when… -- A LOUD CLAP OF THUNDER makes her jump onto him for protection instead.   KESHIKA - (trembling, crying) I’m scared!   Vihaan bellows with laughter.   The lightning grows brighter. The thunder gets LOUDER.   His mom can be heard saying: “kids, turn off the PC, the weather is a bit rough.”   But –   What greets them is a blinding light!   END OF FLASHBACK SCENE