Act 1
There never was another young couple like James Cecil and Katie Brooks. After their chance encounter during their university days, the pair was next to inseparable. Katie’s awkward shyness yet extroverted passion seemed to almost compliment James’ silent, thoughtful demeanor. And he was in the army! A truly exciting thought for Katie. Studying for a Bach degree in Psychology was no easy task as it often gave way to long, lonely nights of research, pouring over countless textbooks of work about Freudian theory and Cognitive
Psychology; to see James returning from a tour certainly would be enough to uplift her mood and given his rich background with kind and loving parents, Michael and Beatrice Cecil; Katie knew that she had found someone special. Who knows where this relationship would end up, how long it would go on for if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of James’ dead body, buried in a shallow, snowy grave upon the outskirts of Toronto, Canada.
Following the events of a heated argument with James, Katie thinks back to the events of that night as the final month of the new year draws to a close. She thinks that she may have made a mistake in coming to the decision of their mutual break-up. After failing to call him; merely being greeted by a voicemail and receiving no confirmation whatsoever by a simple email or a message on social media, Katie decides to take matters into her own hands and confront James at a motel, just on the outskirts of the city. The atmosphere is lonely with not many customers coming in and out. A suspicious place for James to stay at. Though Katie was aware of James’ sudden bouts with PTSD flashes, she never suspected that it would be this bad. Driven to the motel by an old friend from her course, Henry Jones she finds her way into James’ motel room through the use of a secret key, hidden underneath the welcome mattress. Upon entering she is shocked to find the place ransacked and destroyed. Clearly whatever happened here seemed to strongly indicate that James had gotten himself into some serious trouble with the only proof of his existence being his military bag and dog-tag.
In a panicked state, Katie demands Henry to drive her over to the Cecil Estate, home to James’ parents to further inquire about his mysterious disappearance. Unbeknownst to her, when she arrives it is in the middle of a giant party to celebrate the latest anniversary of Michael and Beatrice Cecil. As Katie makes her way through the bustling crowd, she passes by many of the major players within this mystery, including the local Deputy police chief Phillip Grey. After having to deal with the antics of men and women living within their own world, she finally meets James’ mother Beatrice. From their interactions, it is very clear that Katie almost sees Beatrice as a second mother and has instilled a great amount of trust within her. Beatrice consoles her never-daughter and claims that James is on a military tour in the Middle-East. Something that Katie is does not know how to react to. After the party concludes, she is dropped off back home by Henry. She re-enters her simple, average suburban house to find a darkened living room with a mother suffering from leukemia zoning out in front of the television. After going up the stairs to her room, she falls upon the bed, allowing her fears and anxiety about James to slip away.
