- 2 days ago
Poison of a Broken Love - New
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The man who hated me most in the world just died saving me.
00:04After my foster sister died, no one in the world hated me more than my brother.
00:09Hateful enough to send me to an underground auction, I got on my knees, pressed my forehead to the floor
00:14until it split.
00:15Zoe gave her kidney to save you. She died on that table because of you.
00:20So you spend the rest of your life paying for it.
00:23I reminded him I was his real sister, his blood.
00:27Then the gunman came. A bullet came straight for me.
00:30Marcus threw himself in front of it. He held me while the blood poured out of him.
00:36If there's a next life, I'd rather not have you as my sister. Zoe was enough.
00:42He died on my arms. I picked up a gun from the floor and pressed it to my temple.
00:49Then I woke up. White light, antiseptic.
00:51Grace! You held Zoe's hand over boiling water over a piece of candy?
00:55No blood on him. No bullet wounds. I knew this room. I knew this day.
01:00Five years ago. The day I burned Zoe. I'd come back.
01:03I know this day better than any other.
01:06That candy was the only thing I had left of the brother I used to know.
01:10The day our parents died, Marcus was 17 and I was 6.
01:14He pressed a butterscotch candy into my palm in the hospital waiting room.
01:18Don't cry. I've got you.
01:22I'll always take care of you.
01:23He was 17 with a whole family's worth of grief landing on him that day.
01:28Until Zoe stepped on it and crushed it into the floor.
01:31Now I'm lying in a hospital bed while Marcus stands over me, telling me exactly what kind of person I
01:38am.
01:38I've heard this speech before. Every word.
01:41Last time, I cried and argued and made everything worse.
01:44This time, I just wait.
01:46When he stops, I sit up and look at him.
01:49Really look.
01:50My throat tightens.
01:51There's also a dull, familiar ache spreading from my kidney outward.
01:56Like broken glass threading through every nerve.
01:59Of course.
02:00Last time, they found the kidney disease today.
02:03Without a transplant, I have two weeks. Maybe less.
02:06I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to her hand.
02:09I'm sorry. I won't fight you for him anymore.
02:12Neither of them says a word. I already know what happens if I stay.
02:16I already know how this ends.
02:18This time, I'm not going to let it.
02:21I reach for the kettle on the bedside table.
02:23The water is still boiling.
02:24Steam curling off the top.
02:25What are you doing?
02:26Zoe's voice is small and careful.
02:28She's watching me with those wide, innocent eyes she always uses when she wants something.
02:33I pour the boiling water over my right arm.
02:35My whole body shaking.
02:37But I don't make a sound.
02:39Is this enough?
02:40Does this make us even?
02:42What is wrong with you?
02:44Get a doctor!
02:45His grip is tight.
02:47Something moves in his face.
02:48Not quite concerned, but close.
02:50He still cares.
02:51That won't last.
02:52I think she's just trying to make you feel guilty.
02:55She doesn't have to do this to herself.
02:59Playing the victim won't fix anything.
03:00I don't know how I ended up with a sister like you.
03:03Whatever you say.
03:04He tells his assistant to take me and get my arm wrapped.
03:07Then he turns his back.
03:08I walk out of the room.
03:09I don't get my arm wrapped.
03:11There's no point.
03:11I have two weeks.
03:13I'm not spending them fighting.
03:14My room is at the far corner of the house.
03:17Big.
03:17Cold.
03:18Less a bedroom.
03:19More a place they put the things they didn't know what to do with.
03:22I pack light.
03:23A few clothes.
03:24Some cash.
03:24And the old photo album buried at the back of the closet.
03:28Our parents.
03:28I don't think Marcus has touched it in years.
03:31I'm zipping up the backpack when the door opens.
03:33Zoe leans against the frame.
03:35Left hand wrapped in gauze.
03:37You're really leaving?
03:38Cut Marcus some slack.
03:40He just loves me so much.
03:42Even if you're his blood, he trusts me more.
03:45You know that.
03:46I pick up the backpack.
03:47She steps in front of me.
03:49There's only room for one of us in this house.
03:51And it's not you.
03:52So do everyone a favor and go.
03:55In my first life, this is where I snapped.
03:58Gave her exactly what she needed.
04:00I step to the side to go around her.
04:02Her hand moves fast.
04:04She pulls a small paring knife from her pocket and drags it across her own left arm.
04:09Blood wells up immediately.
04:11What are you doing to me?
04:13I already apologized.
04:14Why are you still hurting me?
04:16Fast footsteps in the hallway.
04:18The door swings open.
04:19Marcus is standing there.
04:21He takes in the scene.
04:22Zoe's arm.
04:24The blood.
04:24The knife on the floor.
04:26Me with the backpack.
04:27Three seconds.
04:27He doesn't ask a single question.
04:29His hand comes up.
04:30The slap hits me so hard the wound tilts.
04:33My head snaps sideways.
04:34I taste blood.
04:35Two lifetimes.
04:36The first time he's ever hit me.
04:38I don't cry.
04:38I don't argue.
04:39I don't explain.
04:40I actually thought you might have changed.
04:43I was so stupid.
04:46What kind of person keeps hurting someone who saved their life?
04:48He believes it completely.
04:50That's the part that hurts most.
04:52Zoe is pressed against the wall.
04:53Crying beautifully.
04:55One hand over her mouth.
04:56Her eyes find mine for just a second.
04:58She almost smiled.
04:59I bend down and pick up the knife from the floor.
05:02Grace!
05:04What are you doing?
05:05I walk over and press the handle into his hand.
05:08You hate me that much?
05:09Then do something about it.
05:11I shove forward into the blade.
05:12The knife goes into my right shoulder.
05:15Grace.
05:16Marcus drops the knife like it burned him.
05:18But it's already in me.
05:19His face goes blank.
05:21My body starts sliding.
05:22Call an ambulance!
05:23Now!
05:23All the cold control gone from his voice.
05:26I let my cheek rest against his collarbone.
05:28He smells the same as I remember.
05:31My brother.
05:31I close my eyes.
05:33Hospital again.
05:34White ceiling.
05:35Stiff sheets.
05:35Shoulder stitched up.
05:37And underneath all of it, that deeper ache.
05:40My kidney.
05:41Voices outside the door.
05:42Tell me the truth.
05:43Marcus low and controlled.
05:45Did she cut you or did you cut yourself?
05:47Zoe crying.
05:48She's good at it.
05:48How can you even ask me that?
05:50Because Grace has never hurt herself before.
05:53Not like this.
05:54If I find out you lied to me, it will go very badly for you.
05:58I'm starting to doubt her.
05:59That never happened in my first life.
06:01But it doesn't change anything.
06:02The nurse checks my dressings and leaves.
06:04Then I pull out the ID.
06:06Slow.
06:06My shoulder and my side and my burned arm all competing for my attention.
06:10I get dressed in the blood-stained clothes.
06:13Shoulder the backpack.
06:14I look around the room once.
06:16Nothing here I need.
06:17Back stairwell.
06:18One step at a time.
06:19The shoulder bandage is already seeping through.
06:21I can feel it with every step.
06:22Nothing to be done.
06:23Side exit.
06:24Cold hits me like a wall.
06:26Northern winter and the wind is brutal.
06:29My burned arm screams.
06:30My kidney aches with every breath.
06:32I don't know exactly where I'm going, but I know I can't go back to that house.
06:36I make it two blocks before I hear the horn.
06:38Marcus's car pulls up alongside me.
06:40Window comes down.
06:42Get in.
06:42No room for argument.
06:43I'm fine.
06:44The bodyguard has me in the back seat before I finish.
06:47Door shut.
06:48Heat blasting.
06:48I press against the far window.
06:50Not going to wrap your arm?
06:51What's the angle now?
06:52Quiet for a second.
06:53Then I turn toward him.
06:55I'm moving out.
06:56I'll stay out of your life completely.
06:58He looks at me.
06:59Really looks like he's trying to find the trick in it.
07:02You don't have a dime that isn't from this family.
07:04You'd last a week.
07:05How long I last is my problem.
07:07I was wrong to fight for something that was never mine.
07:10Zoe saved my life.
07:12You loving her makes sense.
07:14I was the one in the way.
07:15Don't do that.
07:17Going all quiet.
07:17It's not like you.
07:18I look out the window.
07:19I'm just tired.
07:20That's all.
07:21The car turns through the estate gate.
07:23I go up to my room and pack things I'd already packed before Zoe interrupted me.
07:27Clothes, cash, the photo album.
07:29Zoe is waiting by my door when I come back out.
07:32Going somewhere?
07:32Move.
07:33She doesn't.
07:34She drops her voice instead.
07:35You already know there's no place for you here.
07:37Why drag it out?
07:38I step around her.
07:40She lets me go this time.
07:41Doesn't pull out a knife.
07:42Doesn't scream.
07:43She just watches me walk down the hallway with something satisfied in her eye.
07:48The wind is worse out here.
07:50Every step costs something.
07:51But I know where I'm going now.
07:53The cemetery is an hour west.
07:54The older section under a bare oak tree.
07:57I've made this walk before in my first life during the worst nights when the house felt
08:01like it was trying to swallow me whole.
08:03I know the way without thinking about it.
08:05By the time I get there, the snow has started again.
08:08Light and quiet, settling over everything.
08:10I find my parents' grave.
08:12I kneel down.
08:13Mom.
08:14Dad.
08:14I miss you so much.
08:16That's as far as I get before everything comes loose.
08:19I cry until I can't see.
08:21Two lifetimes of it.
08:22Emptying out on a frozen hillside in the middle of the night.
08:25I tell them about the hospital.
08:27The auction.
08:27The bullet Marcus took for me.
08:29His last words still in my ear.
08:31I tell them I came back already dying and didn't tell anyone.
08:35I'm so tired.
08:36I just wanted to stop.
08:38Nobody answers.
08:39I wrap my arms around the headstone, the way I used to lean against my mother when I
08:43was small.
08:44I'm not fighting anymore.
08:45I'm done.
08:46I'm going to give him the clean life he wanted.
08:49One sister, no problems, no me.
08:52I'm giving him back his life.
08:55And then I'm coming to find you.
08:57The snow falls quietly.
08:59My eyes get heavy.
09:00The cold stopped hurting a while ago.
09:02The shoulder, the burn, the kidney, all just went quiet one by one.
09:07What's left is just floating, weightless.
09:10I'm almost gone and I know it.
09:11Good.
09:12The world goes white at the edges.
09:14Two shapes in the light.
09:15My parents smiling, reaching toward me.
09:18I try to reach back.
09:20I tried to trace back.
09:24Grace!
09:26Too late, I think.
09:28I'm sorry.
09:29Light takes everything.
09:30I'll tell you what Marcus did after I left.
09:33He'd told himself I brought it on myself, that he wasn't going to feel bad about it.
09:38Then he went to the pharmacy anyway.
09:40He walked into my empty room and stood there until his brain caught up with what his eyes
09:45were telling him.
09:46Covers thrown back.
09:47IV pulled out.
09:49Bloody clothes gone.
09:50He tore the room apart.
09:52Bathroom.
09:53Closet.
09:53Under the bed.
09:56Where is my sister?
09:57Where is my sister?
09:58They pulled security footage.
10:00Back stairwell.
10:0120 minutes earlier.
10:02A small figure in a big coat.
10:05Walking low.
10:06Bleeding through her bandages.
10:07Gone.
10:08Where would she go?
10:10No friends.
10:11No colleagues.
10:12No one she trusted.
10:15Then it came to him.
10:18He ran every red light between the hospital and the cemetery.
10:22He found me against the headstone.
10:24Grace!
10:25Grace!
10:29Wake up, Grace.
10:31Wake up.
10:32I know I was wrong.
10:33Just wake up and yell at me.
10:34Do anything.
10:36Do anything.
10:39The family doctor arrived.
10:40Checked.
10:41She's been gone a while.
10:42Blood osse plus organ failure.
10:44Her body was already at its limit.
10:46What organ failure?
10:48She's 22!
10:50Her kidneys.
10:52End stage.
10:53She must have known for some time.
10:57She knew.
10:59Not a question.
11:00A realization.
11:02She came back already dying.
11:04That's what he kept turning over.
11:05She knew from day one.
11:07She looked at two weeks and chose not to spend them fighting.
11:11Not for the transplant.
11:12Not for him.
11:13Not for any of it.
11:14Just trying to make it easier for everyone else to let her go.
11:18She'd written it in the album.
11:19Setting you free.
11:20That's what she meant.
11:22He held me in the snow until they made him let go.
11:24Then he stood up and something shifted in his face.
11:27The grief was still there.
11:29But something else came in underneath.
11:36Marcus, I've been so worried.
11:39Did you find Grace?
11:40Is she okay?
11:41I found her.
11:45Oh, thank God.
11:46Is she...
11:47She's dead, Zoe.
11:49What do you mean?
11:50How...
11:50Go to the house.
11:51Living room.
11:52Don't go anywhere.
11:58Wait for me.
11:59I'll be back.
12:01He straightened up and walked out of the cemetery.
12:03He did not look like a man going home to grieve.
12:06Zoe was in the living room when he walked in.
12:08She'd touched up her face.
12:10Made sure the crying looked right.
12:14Marcus.
12:15His hair had gone gray overnight.
12:17Not streaks.
12:18Almost all of it.
12:19Root to tip.
12:20The black, just gone.
12:21He was 28 years old.
12:24The hallway camera outside Grace's room.
12:26I had my team pull the footage.
12:29His assistant brought in the tablet.
12:31He turned it toward her and pressed play.
12:33The audio caught everything,
12:35including what she'd said in a low voice
12:37just before she cut herself.
12:38There's only room for one of us in this house.
12:40And it's not you.
12:41So do everyone a favor and go.
12:45The silence after was very long.
12:48That's not...
12:50Don't.
12:52She tried for tears.
12:53They came, but slow.
12:55For the first time, Marcus looked at her face
12:57and didn't soften.
12:58I gave you everything.
13:00I made Grace's life miserable
13:02so you would never feel unwanted.
13:04And the whole time...
13:06He didn't speak again for a long time.
13:09Then he started digging.
13:11Every resource he had,
13:12Zoe's background,
13:13her father,
13:14the blood transfusion records
13:16from seven years back.
13:17The blood that saved my life
13:19when I was 15
13:19wasn't an accident.
13:21The debt Marcus had spent years treating
13:23like something he could never repay.
13:25All of it engineered.
13:26Zoe's father had been a gambler,
13:28owed the wrong people money.
13:29He'd heard through a contact at the hospital
13:31that a wealthy family's daughter
13:33had a rare blood type
13:34and was in critical condition.
13:35He coached Zoe,
13:36got her to the hospital
13:37at exactly the right time.
13:39He collected his payment
13:40and walked away.
13:41Six months later,
13:41he was dead.
13:42Car accident.
13:43The investigation closed fast.
13:45Marcus sat with the report
13:45for a long time.
13:47Then he laughed.
13:47His assistant said
13:48it was the most unsettling thing
13:49he'd ever heard.
13:50Not angry,
13:50not broken,
13:51just quiet and hollow
13:52like something had been confirmed
13:53that he never wanted confirmed.
13:55Every year,
13:57every time I looked at Grace
13:58like she was the problem,
14:00he closed the file.
14:04Where is Zoe?
14:08I didn't know.
14:10I swear I didn't know.
14:11If I had known,
14:12I would have told you.
14:13Please, you have to believe me.
14:14I love you.
14:15Your father arranged it.
14:16You knew.
14:17You walked into this family knowing.
14:19And then you spent seven years
14:21making sure Grace was too busy
14:22blaming herself to see clearly.
14:24She had one move left.
14:25I saved her life.
14:26You set up a situation
14:27and showed up with the solution.
14:29That's not saving someone.
14:30That's a con.
14:32You what were in calf store
14:33for the medical Eon.
14:37Without me,
14:38she would have died at 15.
14:39With the resources this family has,
14:40we would have found
14:41a compatible donor.
14:42It might have taken longer,
14:44but we would have found one.
14:47Everything goes to the police.
14:48The fraud,
14:49the evidence tampering,
14:51the deliberate self-injury,
14:52the false accusations,
14:53all of it.
14:54Zoe broke,
14:55not the pretty crying,
14:56something uglier
14:57and more real.
14:58He found the photo album.
15:00Still on the shelf
15:00where I'd left it,
15:01he opened it.
15:02He knew the first few pages,
15:03our parents,
15:04the four of us,
15:05holidays and birthdays,
15:06but he hadn't seen the back.
15:08I'd taped my own photos there,
15:09the ones I didn't think
15:11anyone wanted displayed,
15:12and on the back of each one,
15:13in my handwriting,
15:14a small note.
15:19In my handwriting,
15:20a small note.
15:22Marcus laughed today.
15:23I made him laugh.
15:25He got home late,
15:26but he brought me a piece of cake.
15:27He remembered.
15:28He called me from his work trip,
15:30just to check in,
15:31not because I needed anything.
15:33He just called.
15:35Then a gap of two years with nothing,
15:37and then the last page.
15:39One line written so hard,
15:41the pen almost went through.
15:43I'm setting you free.
15:44Marcus sat with the album
15:46open in his lap
15:46and didn't move for a long time.
15:49He found the candy.
15:50Small tin box
15:51at the back of her nightstand drawer.
15:53Locked.
15:53He had to ask someone to open it.
15:55A butterscotch candy.
15:56Wrapper yellowed,
15:57candy dark and crystallized.
15:59Long past edible.
16:01He picked it up.
16:01He knew this candy.
16:03Our parents' funeral.
16:04He was 17.
16:05I was six.
16:06I didn't understand
16:07what a funeral was
16:08or why everyone was crying.
16:10He had nothing to offer.
16:12Just one butterscotch candy
16:14from a bowl at someone's house.
16:16Don't cry, baby.
16:17I got you.
16:19I'll always take care of you.
16:20He was 17
16:21with a family to hold together.
16:23Of course it slipped his mind.
16:24He forgot it completely
16:25by the next month.
16:27Grace kept it for 16 years
16:29in a locked drawer,
16:30like something precious.
16:32He thought about the day
16:33Zoe stepped on him,
16:34the way Grace completely fell apart,
16:36crying and shaking
16:37over a piece of candy,
16:38the way he'd looked at her
16:40and thought,
16:41what is wrong with you?
16:42He closed his hand around it.
16:44The wrapper made a small,
16:45dry, crackling sound.
16:48I'm sorry.
16:49He sat on the floor
16:50of her bedroom
16:51for a long time after that,
16:53holding a ruined piece of candy,
16:55not able to do anything else.
16:57The medical records arrived
16:58three days after the funeral.
17:00Exam date,
17:00the day of the burn incident.
17:02Diagnosis,
17:03end-stage renal failure.
17:04Survival without transplant,
17:06two weeks maximum.
17:07She came back already knowing
17:09she was dying.
17:10Marcus read it once,
17:11then again.
17:12She knew from day one,
17:14kidney disease coming,
17:15Zoe dying on that table,
17:17him hating her
17:18for the rest of his life.
17:19And she looked at all of it
17:20and chose not to fight,
17:22not for the transplant,
17:23not for him,
17:24not for anything.
17:25She spent her last two weeks
17:26trying to clean up
17:27her own existence,
17:28make it easier for everyone
17:30to let her go,
17:31setting you free.
17:32He went back through
17:33every conversation
17:34from those last few days.
17:35Everything she said
17:36now read differently.
17:38I'm tired.
17:38It's my problem.
17:40I'm giving you back your life.
17:41She'd been saying goodbye for days.
17:43He hadn't heard a word of it.
17:45He sat down in the hallway
17:46outside her room
17:47and pressed the report
17:48against his chest.
17:49Come back,
17:50he said quietly.
17:51I'll do better.
17:52Just come back.
17:53The house answered with silence.
17:55It was the only answer it had.
17:57Three days after the funeral,
17:59he got sick.
18:00High fever,
18:01completely flattened.
18:02The doctor said exhaustion
18:03and grief arriving at once.
18:05He spent two days
18:06barely conscious.
18:07On the second night,
18:08he dreamed.
18:09The old house,
18:10before the estate.
18:11The backyard in summer,
18:12warm light and cut grass.
18:14And me, younger,
18:15maybe eight or nine,
18:17running toward him
18:17across the yard
18:18in a pink dress
18:19with my hair
18:20half out of its braids,
18:21both arms already reaching.
18:23You're home!
18:24Dream Marcus caught me,
18:25lifted me the way you do
18:27with a small child,
18:28automatically.
18:29I'm home,
18:29he said.
18:30I leaned my chin
18:31on his shoulder.
18:32You were gone too long.
18:33I know.
18:34I'm sorry.
18:35You have to stop doing that.
18:36I will.
18:37He felt my weight in his arms,
18:39small and solid
18:40and completely trusting.
18:41Promise,
18:42I said.
18:43He opened his mouth
18:44and I was gone.
18:45Not fading,
18:46just gone.
18:47Between one breath
18:48and the next.
18:48He woke up,
18:49pillow soaked,
18:51room dark.
18:51He pressed his hands
18:52over his face.
18:53I'm sorry I was gone too long,
18:55he said into the dark.
18:56No answer,
18:57just the empty house around him.
18:59He found the diary
19:00ten days after the funeral,
19:02hidden pocket
19:02in the old backpack.
19:04His assistant found it
19:05going through her things,
19:06small,
19:07worn,
19:07cover barely holding together.
19:09Marcus took it
19:10to the kitchen table
19:11and opened it alone.
19:12Early morning,
19:13house quiet.
19:14First entry,
19:15dated two weeks
19:16after our parents' funeral.
19:17A six-year-old's handwriting,
19:19big and wobbly.
19:20Marcus gave me candy
19:21and said he would
19:22take care of me.
19:23I am happy.
19:24He had to stop.
19:25He made himself keep going.
19:27She wrote about small things,
19:28him coming home on time,
19:30him remembering something
19:31she mentioned,
19:32him choosing to sit with her
19:33instead of going to his office.
19:35He read about Zoe's arrival,
19:37the way Grace tried
19:38to be fair about it,
19:39the way she eventually
19:39stopped trying.
19:41I think he loves her more.
19:42I don't know how
19:43to make that okay.
19:44I've been trying so hard
19:45to be good enough
19:46and I don't think
19:47good enough exists.
19:48I'm done trying
19:48to make him choose me.
19:50I don't think he can.
19:51Then, shorter entries,
19:53one line at a time.
19:54So tired.
19:55It doesn't matter,
19:56as long as he's okay.
19:57The last entry,
19:58dated the day
19:59of the burn incident.
20:00Marcus,
20:01I don't blame you,
20:02but if there's another life,
20:03I don't want to be
20:04your sister again.
20:05I'm too tired.
20:06He closed the diary.
20:07He sat at the table
20:08while the sun came up.
20:10He didn't move
20:10for a long time.
20:11A month after the funeral,
20:13Marcus stood
20:14in the winter garden.
20:15The old swing
20:16was still there.
20:17Chains rusted.
20:18Nobody had used it
20:19in years.
20:19He remembered
20:20pushing her on it.
20:21The way she'd lean back
20:22and kick her legs
20:24and demand to go higher.
20:25The way her laugh sounded.
20:27He'd pushed her
20:27for hours sometimes.
20:29Not because she asked.
20:30Because her laugh
20:31was the best sound
20:33in whatever space
20:34it was in.
20:35He didn't remember
20:35deciding to stop.
20:37It happened so gradually.
20:38Each small step
20:39seemed reasonable
20:40at the time.
20:41Zoe needs this.
20:42Grace will understand.
20:43Grace doesn't need
20:44as much.
20:45Grace is fine.
20:46She wasn't fine.
20:48She'd been falling apart
20:49for years
20:49and he'd looked right
20:51at it and told himself
20:52it was attitude.
20:53His assistant
20:54appeared at the door.
20:55The florist confirmed,
20:57fresh sunflowers
20:57every morning
20:58at the grave
20:59starting tomorrow.
21:00Good.
21:01How long do you want
21:01to continue?
21:02Until I can't anymore.
21:03The assistant
21:04went back inside.
21:05Marcus stayed in the garden.
21:07He'd been looking at
21:07Grace his entire adult life
21:09and seeing a problem
21:10to manage.
21:11He never stopped
21:12to look at what
21:13she was actually
21:14showing him.
21:15She was showing him
21:16the whole time
21:17that she just
21:18wanted him back.
21:19The swing moved
21:20slightly in the wind.
21:21He looked away.
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