#caleb scott

The Black Room Movie Clip - Leave Us Alone (2017)

Caleb Scott was, arguably, the most innocent and kindhearted person among you all.

It was, admittedly, misleading of me to say that “Everyone is hear for a reason”. But that was intentional. With the death of Caleb Scott, it is worth explaining that this reason is not necessarily punishment.

I have been around for a very, very long time. I have existed in all times and I have existed in all spaces. You are all here to revive the soul of humanity to save it from the brink of destruction. You are all here to become legends.

In recent years, humanity has become increasingly focused on the truth, and finding the factual nature of things. I believe this to be irrelevant. Long ago, people led their lives governed by superstitions. When the superstitions began to collide and conflict with each other, instead of finding their own moralities through the stories, people began to fight over which of their superstitions were factually correct.

By killing you, I will create a number of factual myths. Indisputable parables that the other dense, selfish humans can use to guide their lives. There is something that can be learned from all of you, and all of your lives.

There is more to say and to clarify, but I do not wish to continue on the subject, as I would prefer to spend this time speaking of Caleb Scott. To connect the two trains of thought, the death of Caleb Scott can be interpreted as having the “reason” of leading to me telling you my intentions.

The other “reason”, for both you and for the people of Earth, was to teach a lesson of perceived unfairness in the way of the world. As I mentioned earlier, Caleb Scott was a kind soul. He cared deeply about other people and animals. He would truly stop at nothing to help them. He was so tolerant that he accepted my statement of “reason”s as punishment for himself. Yet I killed him, because good people die. Bad things happen to good people. The world is cruel, and needs no reason to be so.

Compare the Biblical tale of Job. Whether or not it is true is irrelevant to the lesson being told, but humanity is hurting themselves by being more concerned over its factual basis. The story of Caleb Scott is true. It really happened. Caleb Scott was a real person, and his death really happened.

You may disagree with my methods and my motives, but I am as the world is: I am a force of nature. My morality is impossible for humans to comprehend. If you think I am wrong, remember that I have no reason to be right. I simply am, and I suggest you acclimate yourselves to the idea.

Fortuna’s voice fades, and Nerissa’s heart sinks. She closed her eyes when the gun went off, and is finally opening them again. She stares at the floor.

Her reasoning was wrong. She saw an innocent man, no, a boy, under pressure and perceived him as dangerous. She killed him. For a few seconds, she even felt justified, almost good about it. She cannot bear to lift her head, to look at what she has done.

“Where did his body go?”

Nerissa hears Freddie’s question and raises her head. Fortuna is standing in the middle of the circle once again, but Caleb’s chair is empty. There is no blood or lingering smell of gunpowder. There is no trace that anything happened at all.

“Around 31.1 degrees latitude and -104.8 degrees longitude.” Fortuna answers, “West Texas. He is most definitely dead.”

“I didn’t understand a damn word of that monologue.” Ophelia raises her eyebrows, completely undisturbed by the missing body.

Rosario answers Ophelia, despite the fact that she didn’t really ask a question. “Much of the point was that we can’t understand her. It is in our nature to try and put things into fact rather than feeling, and she is too abstract a concept for us to understand in that way.”

“An abstract concept? That’s gotta be rough.” Ophelia laughs. Otto makes a small noise of disgust at her attitude.

Fortuna ignores them and turns to Nerissa, who is still staring at her blankly.

“And you. I am not going to tell you that killing Caleb Scott was the right thing to do. It was murder led by impulse and skewed judgement. But it was also, in my way of seeing things, not the wrong thing to do.”

Nerissa nods slowly in understanding, visibly regretful and ashamed.

“The aggressive behavior Caleb Scott exhibited that led you to judge him was caused by fear. He had a very intense attachment to his pet mourning dove, Olivia. He felt he needed to survive to take care of it.”

That makes her feel even worse. The poor boy just wanted to make sure his pet bird was fine. A dove. A symbol of peace, and yet an extremely common and easily overlooked animal. There were millions, if not billions, of mourning doves on earth, but Caleb wanted to make sure his was happy.

“Nerissa Tomaras, you are now Olivia’s rightful owner. As you killed the innocent Caleb Scott, you are responsible for the things he left behind. The things you hurt by killing him.”

“I accept.” Her voice cracks as she speaks for the first time since the gun went off.

Fortuna smiles. She looks individually at the five people in the circle, all showing slightly different emotions. The human emotions she believes in.

Caleb opens his eyes to bright, bright light.

He instinctively shuts them tightly. The first thing that comes to his mind is that this is the light of death: the light they always talk about in books and movies. He was just shot, after all, and he is definitely not in the Roulette room anymore.

But soon he begins to feel his surroundings. He is laying on his back on dirt: fine, sandy dirt, tightly packed. Eventually he opens his eyes again. He can barely move his head, but he sees a few things. A bright, clear blue sky. The tip of what appears to be a saguaro cactus. Fortuna’s face, as she is apparently standing over him and looking down.

He sees some birds in the sky.

“Where am I?” Caleb chokes out. He doesn’t feel a bullet wound anywhere, but his entire body is very weak. There is pain, but it is spread out, a dull ache.

“Around 31.1 degrees latitude and -104.8 degrees longitude.” Fortuna’s voice is calm and strangely comforting. “West Texas.”

He is silent. Talking takes a lot of effort. He’s so tired.

“You are not dying of a gunshot wound, if you were wondering. The bullet does not necessarily exist. It is more of a symbol of death than anything else.”

The strange woman breaks her eye contact with Caleb, apparently shifting her gaze to the desert horizon that he cannot see.

“I had planned to give everyone their ideal death, you see. The death they wish for deep in their hearts. But you’re young. You haven’t thought very long on such things. So I tried to give you something I think you’ll like.”

Caleb grins weakly. For some reason, he isn’t very upset anymore. He’s watching the birds overhead. They’re very calming.

“You are dying of exhaustion. Fatigue. In a few minutes, your brain will simply shut down, followed shortly by the rest of your body.”

He understands how that matches what he’s feeling. It certainly isn’t a pleasant experience, but it isn’t the worst. He is just tired. Very, very tired. He aches all over, but is comforted by a feeling that it will end when he sleeps.

The birds are closer. They’re turkey vultures, circling ahead and slowly descending. They seem to pay no mind to Fortuna. He hears a very faint shuffle of feathers, a vulture landing next to him. He closes his eyes.

He feels a peck on his face, from the side opposite of the vulture he just heard. Next to his eye, below his temple. It isn’t a vulture. It’s much softer, more familiar. His smile widens a bit. It’s Olivia.

But that reminds Caleb of why he didn’t want to die in the first place. Here he is, so calm and ready, but he forgot all about Olivia. Who will take care of her? He wishes he could pet her, but his arms are too weak. Too tired to make any noise, he starts to silently cry.

Olivia coos softly in his ear. It’s a short, talkative coo, rather than the distinctive calls mourning doves send to each other. But it isn’t a distressed coo at all. It is normal, calm, and friendly. She is saying goodbye.

“Don’t worry. Nerissa will feel quite bad for killing you. She’ll take care of Olivia. Good care. You don’t have to worry about her, Caleb Scott. You can die now.”

Caleb snivels and whispers a “thanks”. His eyes are still closed, but he can feel that Fortuna is gone now, as is Olivia.

Only the vultures are left, waiting respectfully and patiently. Slowly but surely, Caleb’s pain fades, his thoughts fade.

The Roulette takes place in the room behind the manager’s office.

While most residents initially thought it was an apartment for Carla, that is not the case. It is one room. The carpet and walls are dark blue, and the entire ceiling is covered in a frosted glass pane, behind which is an even but notably dim source of incandescent light.

In the center of the room, there are six chairs in a wide circle. They are all elegantly molded wood with gold-leafed frames, with a dark blue velvet seat cushion and tapestried back cushion. The tapestry of each chair is different: they are all blue in background, but each is decorated with an elegant gold and stylized number. The number “1” is on the far right of the circle, and they ascend clockwise.

Fortuna is standing in the center of the circle of chairs, the atmosphere making her dress glow as if standing under a black light.  She still has the same unsettling gaze and smile, much more sinister than Carla’s. There is something wrong with her eyes.

Caleb, Ophelia, Rosario, Nerissa, Freddie, and Otto slowly file into the room and sit on the numbered chairs, none of them forgetting the order in which they were announced. As Fortuna said, that would be their turn in the Roulette, and the Roulette is a life-or-death situation. They all sit slightly differently: some lean back more than others, some with legs crossed and some with a wider, more comfortable position. All of the participants have their feet planted firmly on the floor, with the exception of Caleb, who is curled up in his chair, hugging his legs to his chest.

Fortuna reaches into a fold in her dress and pulls out a polished antique silver revolver with a dark wooden handle. Its shine glares against the gold in the room. She hands it over to Caleb, who takes it from her slowly, his hands shaking. He knows guns are heavy, but he didn’t know one would be this heavy with only one bullet in it. For a good few seconds, all he can do is stare at it.

When he looks up, Fortuna is gone. The rest of the circle is staring at him, most of them extremely anxious. The gun is still trembling with his hands. Caleb’s eyes dart back and forth. Aside from the fact that he made a truce with Ophelia and knows he can’t shoot himself for Olivia’s sake, he isn’t sure who he is going to point it at. How can he be expected to potentially kill another person?

Fortuna’s words ring in his ears: “Everyone is here for a reason.”

These aren’t normal people, according to her. Caleb doesn’t consider himself a necessarily bad person, but he knows he’s broken a fair number of laws and rules in his life. Perhaps one of those minor indiscretions seriously hurt someone, and that’s why he is here now. But none of these other people, to his knowledge, need to take care of someone like Olivia. He doesn’t need to feel bad. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, pointing the gun at the first place his arm leads him. He pulls the trigger.

Click.

Caleb gives a sigh of relief and opens his eyes again. The gun was pointed at [Nerissa]. He doesn’t know her very well, but the gun didn’t fire, so he doesn’t have to worry about it right now.

Nerissa, on the other hand, looks absolutely devastated.

“Wh-why me?!”

He passes the gun to his left, to Ophelia. “I just picked you at random. It isn’t you in particular.” He pauses, furrowing his eyebrows. “But you heard what she said. We’re all here for a reason! I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you’ve done.”  

Ophelia looks at the gun, considerably more amused than she should be. Most eyes in the circle are on her, but Caleb and Nerissa are more interested in their debate.

“I… I didn’t do anything! Not to deserve this, at least.” Nerissa looks on the verge of tears.

“I don’t think I deserve this, either, but everyone’s done something wrong!” He feels terrible. His mind is coming up with anything it possibly can to defend himself. “We don’t have to agree with this method of punishment, but that’s clearly what it is, and we don’t have a choice but to go along with it!”

“Calm down.” It’s Otto speaking this time. He’s obviously very uncomfortable, hands balled up in fists on his lap, but his voice is monotone. “We all have to point the gun at someone. Give the each other a break.”

“But I… but I!” A couple tears are starting to fall down Nerissa’s cheeks. She stares at her hands, and is only interrupted by another

Click.

She looks up. Ophelia is bemusedly pointing the gun at [her]. Especially now that it didn’t fire, the older woman looks like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

“You too?! Why did you point it at me, too?!”

Ophelia shrugs. “Bandwagon.”

Nerissa’s jaw drops, her face the picture of abject desperation and horror. She is crying now, but not making any sounds but a few choking noises.

Ophelia passes the gun to Rosario, who looks at Nerissa with a look of deep concern. They can’t bear to shoot it at her, especially not this third time. They look around the room. Caleb has his face buried in his knees again, and Ophelia is leaned back comfortably in her chair. Nerissa is silently crying next to them, and next to her is Freddie, who is looking at Rosario with desperation. Otto is trying to look at the wall ahead of him, but his body language tells them he’s just as upset as the rest.

They look again at Ophelia, the only person in the circle who seems calm. But there’s something about that calm that’s threatening, and they can’t point it at her, either. With a gulp, Rosario raises the gun to [their own head]. They worry for a brief second about their trembling hand, and if that could lead to a slow and painful death, but remember what Fortuna said about the gun being deadly no matter what. They take a deep breath and pull the trigger.

Click.

Rosario exhales deeply. They gently tap Nerissa on the shoulder, and she sniffs up some of her tears, a bit calmed by the fact that the gun is now in her hands.

Nerissa takes the gun and her gaze automatically focuses in on the two people who have made an enemy of her: Caleb and Ophelia. The longer she holds the weapon, the more her tears fade and her mind clears. Caleb is still hiding his face, and Ophelia is looking at her with a bemused expression, without a care in the world.

Before the Roulette began, Nerissa had no idea who she could possibly shoot. But now it is clear to her that any of these people could be capable of firing a gun at an innocent person, and these two certainly are. She needs to fire the gun so people in the future Roulettes are safer, so they don’t have people so dangerous threatening their lives multiple times in a row.

But there are two of them, and she can only fire the gun at one. She needs to weigh which is the most dangerous.

Her mind turns to Ophelia first. The woman rarely leaves her apartment, and she hasn’t been very personable to anyone but Caleb. She’s sitting here in this grim situation like it’s nothing, almost mocking everyone else in the room. She is definitely not to be trusted.

But, Nerissa thinks, it’s fairly obvious that she isn’t to be trusted. No one would trust her. In future Roulettes, many people will probably try to shoot her. Caleb, on the other hand, is the picture of innocence. Nerissa doesn’t know much about him, but she knows he’s young and loves animals. In future Roulettes, that might make him less likely to get shot.

Now that she thinks about it, she doesn’t know the terms of Caleb and Ophelia’s friendship. Perhaps he even manipulated her with his supposed innocence? She did seem to shoot at Nerissa because of Caleb’s decision to do so. And Caleb even admitted that he had done some things wrong. Nerissa has no idea what those could be, and they may be severe.

She’s made up her mind. She needs to use the betrayal Caleb has given her against him, as who knows the next time someone will have the heart to point the gun at him. As she has been silent for some time now, [Caleb] lifts his head, just as Nerissa pulls the trigger.

[Caleb] [Upset] 

Caleb sits on the floor of his living room, knees curled up to his chest. Olivia, his dove, keeps tilting her head, staring at Caleb with concerned little eyes. He normally talks to Olivia, but has been here like this all morning, completely silent. 

Caleb hasn’t really been given reason to believe what Fortuna says is true, but she is obviously quite powerful. He also hasn’t been given a reason not to believe her. On Friday, he’ll probably have to shoot a gun at someone. A gunthat might be loaded. He might kill someone. And someone might kill him. What will happen to Olivia then? 

Olivia is clearly starting to get a bit upset, making stressed, harsh coos. Caleb opens her cage and starts to stroke the dove to calm her down. He can’t leave her alone. 

[Ophelia] [Talk to Caleb] 

Ophelia knocks on Caleb’s door. She hasn’t seen him all day, and from the little she knows about him, she’s a little worried with how he might be taking the Roulette news. 

There’s no response. 

“Caleb?”

After a few more seconds, she hears a “Miss Ophelia?” from behind the door.

She sighs in relief. “Please, just Ophelia is fine. Are you doing alright in there?”

Caleb says “I’m fine”, but she can barely hear it. 

“It’s the Roulette, isn’t it? Zany stuff.” 

“Yeah. I guess I’m kinda freaked out by it.” There’s a nervous laugh. Caleb’s voice sounds a little closer to the door now. After a a few seconds of silence, he continues. “Hey… you… you wouldn’t shoot me, would you?” 

“Me?!” Ophelia chuckles, “Of course not! Why would you even ask that!” 

She’s lying, more or less. He probably wouldn’t be her first pick, but she certainly wouldn’t make any promises. 

“Sorry! Like I said, I’m a little stressed.” Caleb clearly believes her though. His voice sounds a little calmer. “I won’t shoot you either, then.” 

“It’s a deal.” It isn’t a deal, really, but the kid seems nice enough. She won’t shoot him unless he’s acting super weird on the day of the roulette. 

12 [Ophelia] -> 16 [Caleb] [Positive]