Trapped inside a reconstructed memory, a guilt-ridden young woman must uncover the truth about her brother’s death before a manipulative doctor permanently rewrites her past, and the insect-like entity attached to her brother escapes with her.
*Andrea and Jack* follows Andrea Refuge, an eighteen-year-old trapped inside a reconstructed memory of the Colorado town where her brother died. Andrea believes she killed Jack, but when he appears alive and begins recalling moments she did not consciously place inside the reconstruction, she realizes that someone may have altered her past. Dr. Philip Evilton pressures Andrea to accept his version of Jack’s death before it becomes permanently embedded in her mind. As living black roots and insect-wing patterns invade the memory, Andrea discovers that an unknown entity killed Jack—and that Philip cannot bury the truth without her consent. The screenplay explores grief, guilt, sibling loyalty, memory manipulation, and the struggle to reclaim control of one’s own story. What makes it unique is its central rule: psychological control requires Andrea’s emotional consent. The story combines an intimate brother-sister relationship with surreal memory horror and a distinctive mythology of insect-like entities hiding inside traumatic memories. It works as a self-contained short while serving as a proof of concept for the larger *Andrea’s World* franchise across film, television, and video games.
**FADE IN:**BLACK.
ANDREA REFUGE fights for breath somewhere in the darkness.
Fast. Shallow. Almost gone.
BEEP.
Silence.
BEEP.
A longer silence.
BEEP.
A green MEDICAL MONITOR pulses in the darkness.
An ELECTRONIC HUM builds beneath the BEEPS.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
Every mind builds a place to hide what it cannot survive.
A beat.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
Yours built an entire town around what you refused to remember.
Her next breath catches.
The HUM deepens.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
You came here because you believe you killed Jack.
Andrea’s breathing stops.
Then returns, sharper than before.
Her hand closes around something in the darkness.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
I can take you back. But once the memory settles, what you believe becomes permanent.
A long beat.
Andrea forces herself to breathe.
ANDREA
Take me back.
SCRATCH.
Something drags beneath the floor.
The monitor tone stretches. Distorts. Becomes the HOWL OF WIND.
**EXT. INCEPTION HEIGHTS WELCOME SIGN - DAY**
Snow consumes everything.
No sky. No road. No way out.
A DARK SHAPE emerges through the storm: a STREETLIGHT.
The wind DIES.
Absolute silence.
A blade of sunlight cuts through the storm.
It reveals a weathered sign:
INCEPTION HEIGHTS, COLORADO.
The WIND SLAMS BACK.
ANDREA REFUGE (18), athletic, SLAMS into the snow, dropped from the sky.
For one heartbeat, the depression beneath her resembles a hospital mattress. The wind wipes it away.
Her fist is locked around a HUNTING KNIFE.
Andrea GASPS, the same breath she began in the darkness.
Tire tracks cross the road, then vanish halfway through.
Andrea touches the back of her neck.
A tender puncture beneath her fingertips.
She flinches.
Andrea presses the tip of the knife into her palm.
The blade BREAKS SKIN.
A bead of BLOOD forms. She wipes it against the snow.
Red. Physical.
The blood begins to sink through the snow.
Something BLACK snakes beneath it.
The snow closes over both.
The blood is gone.
Andrea examines her palm.
The cut remains. The blood does not.
Andrea cuts the same place again.
Nothing.
ANDREA
You changed the rules.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
No. You did. The moment you decided this wasn’t real.
Andrea backs away from the streetlight, searching for the road that vanished.
The bulb FLICKERS.
A CIRCULAR SURGICAL LAMP hangs directly above Andrea.
Andrea freezes beneath it.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
Stay with me.
A FOOTSTEP crunches behind her.
Andrea spins.
Nobody.
Another FOOTSTEP, from across the road.
Andrea turns toward it.
One final FOOTSTEP.
JACK REFUGE (18) stands where the road was empty a heartbeat ago.
Andrea’s knife slips from her fingers.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Snow collects in Jack’s hair.
Passes through him.
SWEAT beads across his face despite the cold.
Andrea knows him instantly.
The shape of his face. The way he stands. The little scar above his eyebrow.
For one unguarded moment, she almost goes to him.
Then the guilt hits.
JACK
You remembered me.
Andrea forgets to breathe.
ANDREA
Jack?
His name nearly breaks her.
She takes one involuntary step toward him.
A flash of memory:
JACK’S BODY. HIS NECK BENT. ANDREA’S BLOODY HANDS.
ANDREA
No. I killed you.
JACK
Is that what you remember or what he gave you?
ANDREA
Don’t move.
Without taking her eyes off Jack, Andrea crouches and retrieves the knife.
She approaches, studying his eyes. His mouth. His posture.
She wants him to be real. That frightens her more than anything.
ANDREA
What are you?
JACK
You know who I am.
ANDREA
I know who I want you to be.
The storm SHIFTS direction.
Jack FLICKERS, translucent for one disorienting instant.
Andrea grips the knife and fixes on his face.
Jack becomes solid again.
BLACK TATTOOS flicker across Jack’s arms, tangled roots that briefly form the veined pattern of an insect wing.
Then the pattern breaks apart and moves beneath his skin.
ANDREA
You didn’t have those.
JACK
Didn’t I?
ANDREA
When we were kids, what did you find under my bed?
JACK
Nothing.
A faint SCRATCHING rises beneath the wind.
Jack turns toward the sound.
JACK
It was inside the wall.
Andrea goes still.
ANDREA
I never told you about the wall.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
You opened it. He followed you inside.
ANDREA
Or you sent him there.
JACK
Stop answering him.
ANDREA
You can hear him?
JACK
Only when you let him through.
Andrea looks toward the highway, her last visible way out.
ANDREA
None of this is real.
The highway FOLDS into the storm.
A wall of white swallows the road ahead.
Their footprints end against it.
BLINK.
Jack lies DEAD in the road.
Neck bent at an impossible angle.
Andrea stands over him, her hands covered in blood.
BLINK.
Jack is alive again.
Andrea stumbles back.
His neck is straight. Unbroken.
ANDREA
I remember killing you.
JACK
No. You remember finding me dead.
Andrea absorbs the distinction.
JACK
That isn’t the same thing.
Philip’s voice cuts through the wind.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
Stay with what you remember, Andrea. Don’t let him revise it for you.
JACK
Don’t let him finish it for you.
Andrea presses a hand into the white.
Her fingers sink through.
STATIC ERUPTS.
Andrea RIPS her hand back.
ANDREA
We’re getting out.
Andrea reaches for Jack’s hand.
Her fingers pass through his.
Philip’s voice presses against her thoughts.
Andrea shuts him out. She studies the scar above Jack’s eyebrow. Remembers him checking beneath her bed. Remembers holding his hand.
PHILIP EVILTON (V.O.)
Let go of him, Andrea.
Andrea reaches again.
Her fingers close around Jack’s hand.
Solid.
Andrea grips tighter.
Jack stares at their joined hands. He felt that.
Jack taps his thumb twice against Andrea’s palm.
Andrea’s composure nearly breaks.
ANDREA
You remember that.
Jack looks down at his hand.
JACK
My hand does.
Hand in hand, they step into the white.
The storm swallows them.
Shapes emerge through the snow.
Houses.
**EXT. INCEPTION HEIGHTS STREET - DAY**
Andrea leads Jack through the silent neighborhood. Dark houses. Empty driveways.
JACK
You pretended to be asleep.
Andrea stops.
JACK
Whenever I crawled under your bed after a nightmare.
Andrea turns to him.
This isn’t recognition. It frightens her.
ANDREA
I wasn’t thinking about that.
JACK
I was.
A beat.
JACK
Mom thought I was protecting you.
A fragile smile.
JACK
I didn’t want her to know I was scared, too.
Andrea’s suspicion gives way, just slightly.
The tattoo around Jack’s throat CONTRACTS like a living noose.
Jack claws at it, fighting for breath.
**EXT. REFUGE HOUSE - DAY**
The Refuge house waits at the end of the road, red brick, black shutters, every window dark. Bent trees claw at the roof.
Thick BROWN ROOTS buckle the sidewalk beneath the trees.
Beneath them, thinner BLACK ROOTS crawl against the natural grain, toward the house.
Andrea stops.
The porch light FLICKERS.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Andrea freezes.
The light pulses in time with the medical monitor.
ANDREA
Home.
The word strikes Jack like an electrical current.
He convulses. Recognition SNAPS across his face.
JACK
It wasn’t there until you said home.
Jack’s body LURCHES toward the house.
He digs in his heels, fighting it.
JACK
Andrea, I’m not doing this.
RADIO STATIC tears from his throat. Beneath it, another voice strains to get out.
Andrea raises the knife toward the black vein tightening beneath Jack’s skin.
ANDREA
Something inside you knows this house.
The downstairs KITCHEN window lights up.
Jack stares at the window, terrified.
JACK
Not the house. Something that happened in that kitchen.
The front door swings open.
Jack steps toward it.
He fights the next step. His body takes it anyway.
Andrea grabs him.
Movement upstairs.
PHILIP EVILTON (40s), immaculate in a tailored suit, watches from an upstairs window.
Andrea looks directly at him.
Philip is gone.
His reflection remains in the glass.
Jack cannot take his eyes off Philip’s reflection.
JACK
Don’t let him wake you.
Andrea studies him.
JACK
If you wake up believing him, his version becomes the truth.
Andrea looks from Jack to the kitchen window.
She lowers the knife.
ANDREA
Then I don’t wake up until I decide for myself.
The SNOW stops.
Every flake hangs motionless in the air.
Jack looks toward the glowing kitchen window.
The suspended snow turns BLACK.
The knife dissolves from Andrea’s hand as the reconstruction pulls her deeper.
**INT. REFUGE HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT - MEMORY**
BLACK AND WHITE. Fragmented. Impossible.
A cereal bowl lies shattered across the tile.
Jack lies motionless on the floor. His eyes stare at the ceiling. His neck bends at an impossible angle.
Andrea lunges toward Jack.
Philip steps into her path.
Andrea tries to shoulder past Philip.
ANDREA
Move.
PHILIP
Touch him, and the memory closes.
ANDREA
With me as his killer.
PHILIP
If that’s what you still believe.
Andrea starts toward Jack.
The kitchen SHUDDERS.
Jack’s broken neck turns farther toward her.
Andrea stops.
The room becomes still.
PHILIP
There. You felt it settle.
ANDREA
You’re forcing it.
PHILIP
I stopped you from making it permanent.
Andrea looks at Jack’s body.
ANDREA
Then wake me up.
Philip moves toward her.
For the first time, the procedure-room HUM intrudes upon the kitchen.
PHILIP
Say you accept what happened here.
Andrea turns on him.
ANDREA
That’s what you need.
PHILIP
It’s what you came here to remember.
ANDREA
No. It’s what you need me to believe.
The HUM dies.
Philip studies her, concealing his frustration.
PHILIP
As long as Jack stays dead in your memory, whatever found him stays buried with him. If you bring him back, I lose the only containment you ever gave me.
A beat.
PHILIP
Wake now, and I can preserve what you’ve recovered.
Andrea looks past him to Jack.
ANDREA
You mean preserve this version.
PHILIP
The version you chose.
A hair-thin BLACK ROOT pushes through the grout behind Andrea.
Philip sees it.
He quietly places his shoe over it before Andrea notices.
Andrea steps closer to Jack.
ANDREA
What happens to him?
Philip doesn’t answer.
Andrea notices.
ANDREA
You don’t know.
BLACK ROOTS spread beneath Jack’s body.
They divide into SIX JOINTED LENGTHS. Between them, the veined outline of enormous folded wings flickers across the tile.
The same pattern ignites beneath Jack’s tattoos.
Philip sees the connection.
His composure slips.
PHILIP
Step away from him.
ANDREA
Those aren’t mine.
The jointed roots split the tile.
The black-and-white kitchen DISTORTS around them.
Philip retreats as the roots coil around Jack.
ANDREA
And they aren’t yours.
Jack strains against the roots.
JACK
’Drea...
Andrea reaches past Philip.
The roots drag Jack beyond her fingertips.
ANDREA
Stop them.
PHILIP
Wake up.
Jack’s hand closes around one of the jointed roots.
He looks at Andrea.
His free hand opens.
His thumb taps twice against his palm.
Andrea’s breath catches.
Instead of tearing the root away, Jack pulls it tighter around himself.
The kitchen SHUDDERS.
ANDREA
Jack, what are you doing?
JACK
Making it show us.
Jack drives the root against the tattoo beneath his skin.
The insect-wing pattern FLARES.
A violent MEMORY FLASH:
ANDREA REACHING FOR JACK.
SOMETHING BLACK BETWEEN THEM.
Gone.
Jack nearly collapses, but keeps his grip on the root.
JACK
Don’t let him close it.
Andrea looks from Jack to Philip.
ANDREA
Take me deeper.
PHILIP
Whatever is attached to him will follow.
ANDREA
Then disconnect it.
PHILIP
I can’t.
That admission hangs between them.
ANDREA
You can’t control it.
PHILIP
Neither can you.
ANDREA
But you still need my permission.
Philip says nothing.
The six jointed roots fold tighter around Jack.
ANDREA
Say it.
PHILIP
Yes.
ANDREA
I accept that I may remember it wrong. I don’t accept your version as the truth.
The roots around Jack go still.
Philip hasn’t moved.
BEEP.
The kitchen FLASHES COLOR.
A FRACTION OF A SECOND:
Jack lies on the floor.
Andrea lunges toward him.
Her hands never touch his body.
Something BLACK coils around Jack’s body.
His neck is still unbroken.
Andrea reaches toward the black presence.
Jack looks at her.
Terrified.
BEEP.
The black coil CONSTRICTS.
Jack’s neck SNAPS.
Andrea recoils.
ANDREA
I never touched you.
The image TREMBLES, resisting her.
Andrea forces herself to keep looking.
ANDREA
I didn’t break your neck.
She looks directly at the black presence surrounding Jack.
ANDREA
I was trying to save you.
The black-and-white image begins to BLEED INTO COLOR.
BEEP.
BLACK AND WHITE.
Jack is gone.
The roots RACE across the walls.
They recoil from Andrea and burrow out of sight.
Andrea SNATCHES the final BLACK TENDRIL before it can disappear.
It curls once around her wrist.
It is not holding her.
From somewhere inside the walls:
JACK (V.O.)
’Drea...
Andrea turns toward his voice.
The tendril pulls gently in the same direction.
BEEP.
PHILIP (V.O.)
Andrea? I have what we need.
Andrea looks down at her fist.
PHILIP (V.O.)
Let go of Jack and wake up.
A second, thinner tendril slips beneath Andrea’s sleeve.
She doesn’t see it.
JACK (V.O.)
Don’t let go.
Andrea tightens her fist around the first tendril.
Her thumb taps twice against it.
ANDREA
Not yet.
Inside the walls, the BLACK ROOTS pulse in the rhythm of beating wings.
BEEP.
PHILIP (V.O.)
Andrea?
Silence.
**THE END**