A dark and grungy downtown alley slowly fills with the crunching sound of heels as JAMIE (30’s, tearfully smeared makeup and hair, a shimmering dress on) tears down the alley, trailed by HANNAH (30’s, beautiful).

Jamie, wait! Slow down.

Jamie dials on her phone, it goes to a man’s voicemail.

It’s Jack, you know what to do.

Beep.

I fucking hate you. Why won’t you call me back? Did it all just mean NOTHING to you? I was so good to you! I did everything for us! For our relationship!

She sits on the phone, crying. Hangs up. Hannah catches up and gives her a big hug.

Jamie, it’s going to be okay honey. You need to focus on yourself for a while. Your own happiness. Loving Jamie for Jamie.

No. Noooooo. I don’t want that.

A voice on her phone interrupts them.

You have arrived at your destination.

There’s nothing there it seems like.

Jamie. Where are we? This isn’t that crazy rumor you found online, is it?

Jamie pulls back a little and makes delirious eye contact with Hannah.

No. Jamie. Come on. Even if it was true, you don’t mean it right? You don’t want to sell your soul to some demon just for Jack? He’s... he’s just some guy.

To this Jamie pulls back, angry. But before she can tear into her friend the alarm on her phone goes off. It’s 11:11 at night. She turns it off.

Come on. Let’s go get ice cream or something.

Hannah grabs Jamies hand, but freezes as she sees a door. Plain, but it wasn’t there before... There’s a faint glow of crimson around the edges..

It’s Real.

Hannah is gobsmacked. Jamie makes a bolt for the door.

Jamie no! Wait!

Hannah follows Jamie over to the door. Jamie tries it but Hannah beats her there.

Jamie this is crazy!

Jack is the only one who is ever going to really understand me. To love me. I miss him and I will do anything to be together again. Anything.

But what about me? What about your friends? Are you going to just give up everything for one douchebag who doesn’t even want you anymore.

Jamie SHOVES her friend back and onto the pavement. Hannah is stunned. Jamie snarls the shrill metallic door open with strength and turns to Hannah.

I’m sorry!

Jamie, it doesn’t have to be like this. Wai--

But Jamie is committed, and steps through the door.

Jamie, a mess, stands on a murky grey concrete floor and peers around. She straightens herself out a bit before calling out.

H-Hello?

Her words echo into the hollow space and we see a single small red thread on the floor that Jamie unwittingly steps on as she comes into the darkened room.

Am I in the right place?

We hear what might be the sound of a single leaf drop.

I was told there’d be someone here I could make a deal with...

She takes another step into the room, both feet now on the thread. The door SLAMS shut. Jamie YALPS. Gasps. Flailingly grabs the handle. Jiggles it. Nothing. She’s still. Listening to her breathing.

In one darkened corner a red pile of two or three leaves rustles like wind buffeting a tree in autumn.

Jamie breathes hard. We can hear her ragged breath, almost sticky sounding and raspy, like after sobbing too much.

The Red leaves in the corner have multiplied... they rustle again. A small pile.

Jamie peers into the gloomy, dark room.

Are -- you -- here?

The Red leaves in the corner are large enough to take form, they’re a coiled and piled rust red pile.

Yes.

The pile elongates and twists into the form of a human dressed in effulgent red draped cloth. It shivers and shakes in a mesmerizing twist of crimson. Leaves falling off of it.

W--What are you?

I am not as you anticipated?

Jamie freezes in place and looks at the figure in awe.

The RED MASS is a tall and slender woman, covered in Red satin, silk, and glossy cloth. The billowing cloth drapes around her skin and flows onto the floor. On her face a smiling, kind eyed, but otherwise featureless red mask.

Sit. We have lots to talk about.

Suddenly a table with two chairs is drug into the center of the room from nowhere with tiny red strings.

Jamie shakes her head in disbelief. She sits and puts her hands on the table in awe.

I-- I want.

You feel comfort, correct? By this table?

Jamie, startled awake, looks down at it like a dog cocking it’s head and rubs her hands over the grooves in it.

This... This is my mom’s kitchen table.

Jamie looks up at the dimly lit crimson mass and really takes it in for the first time.

(with some derision)

What? What are you?

You know what I am. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.

I guess I didn’t believe this was real.

Red, motionless, lets that statement fall flat.

I guess... I guess-- I thought you’d be scarier.

The demon takes a red gloved hand and touches the mask.

Would you like that?

Jamie recoils. There’s a skittering sound of leaves, as if the demon is releasing a small chuckle.

No. I’m good. I’m good.

The red shape relaxes its hands and gestures to the side. They sit.

So, You must know why I’m here.

To exchange. For Inhabitation. You want to be desired.

Yes. That. I want to be the most desirable woman in the whole world and I’m willing to let you... Ride along... Inside.

You want to be desired. To be beautiful. To have all the love from everyone you’ve ever deserved.

Yes, I-- You see Jack--

She begins to cry, and the Red madam reaches her hand across the table in a most unnaturally elongated manner to catch a tear on her red gloved hand.

It can be done.

It can?

Jamie, unnerved, retreats, and the red one takes back its hand and resumes its stoic pose, unbreathing.

I can give my power, my beauty, to you. You will become the most desirable of all. No one will be able to resist your charm.

Beat. The Red thing is solid as a rock, pointed directly at Jamie, who squirms after a long silence.

But?

But there is a cost. Let me show it to you.

The red thing claps. It sounds like thunder hitting a tree branch. Jamie winces instinctively, closing her eyes.

After a moment, she opens them to see sitting on the table a gooey homemade cinnamon roll.

Jamie peers at it quizzically. Then looks up at the Red thing with incredulity.

A cinnamon roll?

After a beat.

Do you prefer some other pleasure? Do you find something more... Desirable?

I-- This is just like my mom used to make it. Exactly as I remember it! I haven’t had one of these in years... Of course I want it. I just thought...

The red thing sits, unmoving.

Please, enjoy it.

I-- I really can’t. This doesn’t feel right. Plus.. They’re so messy and I’m..

She gestures at her own clothing, but then realizes just how disheveled she appears. Tries to straighten herself out feeling the shame.

The treat sits. The Red thing is unmoved.

Don’t you feel how much you desire it? How can you resist it?

Jamie blushes and cowers.

I mean, of course I want it. I do. It looks just like Mom’s..

Jamie squirms in the chair. Surely this is a trap of some sort.

Yes. Consume it.

Beat. The cinnamon roll drips with icing. Otherworldly deliciousness.

On the floor, we see red threads ‘sewing’ the table to the floor, slowly.

Jamie leans away from the roll, as if it were disgusting.

Don’t you want the whole world to desire you? Just like you want this Cinnamon Roll?

Yes.

The threads on the floor start to crawl up Jamie’s shoes, then her feet, imperceptibly.

Then feel what it feels like to relent to it. The ecstatic release of giving in.

The sounds of a large rushing wind fills the room for a moment. The Red thing bristles.

Consume it. We have been gentle with you but we will not wait forever. NOW. CONSUME.

Jamie gestures to calm the Red thing, and pulls the plate toward herself with a small scrape.

The wind recedes, and Jamie picks up the gooey cinnamon bun, liquid sugar on her fingers.

With one last look over at the Red thing, She sinks her teeth into it and her eyes light up!

This... this is so good. It’s unreal. I.. I’ve never had a cinnamon roll this good.

Correct.

Jamie relaxes a bit and continues in the cinnamon bun. Maybe she’s gotten this whole thing wrong.

As she gleefully munches, the Red thing soaks it in silently, unnervingly still.

Suddenly A CRASHING PLATE startles Jamie, and in the corner, a broken plate is there. A plate that looks identical to the one sitting before Jamie...

What? What’s that?

Desire. True Desire...

Jamie looks back at the Red demon as it leans forward.

Do you understand?

I-- I don’t. Look, What’s going on here? I thought that I would pay some sort of price?

A scuttling shuffling sound emanates from the red figure. What must approximate as a laugh. It’s slightly unnerving.

So what price do you think I should exact? For the desire of the whole world?

Jamie shifts in her chair. The cinnamon bun drips sugar in her hands, which have small tendrils of thread creeping onto them as she’s entranced by this cinnamon roll.

How about the last bite?

Jamie slowly takes the last bite of the roll viscerally enjoying it. She licks sugar off her fingers.

The red thing lifts its hands and claps again.

Another cinnamon roll appears on the plate in front of Jamie. She considers it, then pushes it away.

Then what will it be like? When you take over? Is it like torture or something? Gonna make my flesh burn forever?

My dear, it is like a dream. A liminal space holds and comforts you. It is like sleeping. A dull and slightly saccharine thing.

And I’ll be in control?

You won’t know any different my dear except that We do whatever it is we will to do. As the inhabiter it is our right to do as we do. We will be inside you. Within you. With you. Always. But it will be as you have asked for. You will be desired by all.

Jamie pulls the second roll over and sinks her fingers into it. Playing with it.

Please. Enjoy it.

Jamie takes both hands this time and grabs the roll. Icing oozing out of it and onto her hands.

Ugh, they’re so messy but so damn good.

She licks her fingers and looks around. She sees another plate with another roll and grabs it, starts in on that one too.

What do you mean ‘you’ll be within always’? Explain it.

The Red things laughs a scuttling laugh.

She stands up angrily and throws the plate off the table.

Talk dammit.

The red thing leans back and gestures to the room around it. It’s red garment billowing, wind whooshing. The threads also now flowing from Jamie, behind her to the door.

Suddenly in the space we see ANOTHER Jamie! She’s slightly different, different clothes, different hair. She stands up and takes the plate with the cinnamon roll on it and SMASHES it on the ground.

I will NEVER call you my MOTHER EVER AGAIN. I HATE YOU AND WISH YOU WERE DEAD.

Jamie sits and watches this other Jamie, horrified.

H-- How do you know about that?

You said that. You wish you could undo that. Yes?

The red thing holds up it’s fingers to snap.

Can you do that? H-- How much?

A whooshing guffaw as the Red thing shifts.

She-- She died. That was the last thing I said to her and then she was gone. I would give anything--

Oh? And what about these? Do you want to undo them? Take them all back?

All around the room there’s a ton of OTHER JAMIE’s. Each saying something to another invisible person all at once.

Alright dad, don’t worry so much!

Tom is such a loser he won’t even notice.

One Jamie just picks up a red solo cup and chugs it, walks off.

Never talk to me again. EVER!

I’ll text you later I’m gonna go do some weird witchy shit to get my man back.

We see one Jamie turn and throw Hannah to the ground at the door!

I’m Sorry!

Jamie is overwhelmed by seeing all of her goodbyes. Good. Bad. Unexceptional.

The Red thing cackles and shakes.

Wait, that just happened!

Before you entered my web...

Why are you showing me all these?

Now do you understand it? The TRUE NATURE of DESIRE?

The Red thing stands and shoves the chair back. As it stands up we see it’s on EIGHT different legs like a SPIDER.

Jamie my sweet, the true nature of burning desire is REGRET. Lack. It is when you are bereft and broken open from what is missing in your life.

The Red thing towers over Jamie.

Just like you are. Right. Now. Only full of DESIRE and REGRET. And PAIN.

I-- I shouldn’t have come here.

Jamie stands up and backs away slowly, and only now notices the strands of thread starting to form on her body, she yanks on them and sees that now she’s connected into the room!

There is NO DEAL TO BE MADE. As soon as you opened the door I took control. I am already your INHABITANT. I am ALREADY INSIDE YOU.

No...

The Red thing makes a sopping wet lip licking sound.

No! Make it STOP. LET ME OUT. I DON’T WANT THIS ANYMORE. I WANT OUT. I NEVER AGREED--

A PILE of GOOEY MOLTEN SUGARY CINNAMON BUNS fall from the sky and cover the room in a gooey coating of icing.

But you DID.

The threads are now wrapping around Jamie’s arms and legs, forcing her into a semi-cocooned state. Her voice is muffled now as the threads wind and wind around her.

JAMIE looks back at the door. Ominous. It glows and the light shapes and moves behind the outline of it impossibly fast, like a VHS on fast forward.

You want to leave?

Jamie, covered in icing, moves across the floor, slipping and sliding, and over to the door, that she tries in vain to open.

Jamie turns to the demon in horror. It stands, trailing crimson robes covering one side of the room. They seem to move and seek the edges of the space, billowing.

I congratulate you. On being the most desirable person on earth. Enjoy your emptiness.

Jamie SCREAMS

The door behind Jamie slowly grows in intensity. Glowing more and more.

The red demon removes its mask in a FLASH of bright red light which THROWS Jamie across the room and into the door, pressing her against it as if it were a trick room.

She moans and leans over, opens the doorknob which FLINGS open the door as gravity in the room is now emptying everything inside it downward towards the door which is suddenly the bottom of the room. Gloopy, sticky, cinnamon rolls fling through the door.

Jamie takes one last look at the Red demon, whose face is HER OWN.

Too bad you didn’t desire YOURSELF.

She releases her grip on the door frame and falls down into a black abyss as the door is SLAMMED shut.

Black Screen.

Jamie Screams--

The scream morphs into a howling laugh, as Jamie is holding court, champagne in hand, at a fancy hollywood hotshot party. She’s wearing the red dress from the Red Thing.

A man comes up to her and puts his hand on her arm. He’s dashing.

Oh my god Jamie? You look - different.

I know.

There’s a red glint in her eye. In the background is Hannah, alone, laughing with a girlfriend. She looks over at Jamie.

Do you know her?

Hannah sighs and puts her drink down.

No. But I did once.

Jamie looks over in their direction, vacantly, and doesn’t even notice Hannah.