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Jekyll and Hyde themes

Jekyll and Hyde contains many different themes throughout and a way of adapting this story and turning it into my own futuristic interpretation was to use these themes as inspiration.

Good vs. evil is one of the novella’s biggest themes. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be viewed as an allegory (a story interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning) about the good and evil that exists in all men, the struggle of these two sides of human personality.

In the book, there is a notable battle between good and evil within Jekyll and it questions which is superior. As the book goes on, Hyde takes over and it could be argued that evil is stronger. However, Hyde ends up dead at the end of the story which could suggest a weakness of evil. The overall question is whether good and evil can be separated or if they are forever intertwined.

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/jekyll-and-hyde/themes#appearances-theme

https://exploringyourmind.com/jekyll-and-hyde-duality-between-good-evil/

Robert Stevenson always believed that humans had a good and an evil side, essentially existing in everyone. He suggests both versions live inside of us and that the evil one is always repressed by society, this was a thought that lead him to write The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

It is speculated that this duality is what makes us human as perfection doesn’t exist and therefore absolute kindness isn’t a real thing.

History, culture and religion have tried to show us what’s good and what’s evil. Religions as a whole they all define and defend good behaviour and believe in punishing bad behaviour, explaining the consequences of acting in one way or another.

The idea of goodness however is completely subjective and depends on the way the individual sees it. Aristotle believed the ultimate good is happiness since all other goods are intermediate whilst happiness is final.

One could not live without the other and the idea that they both coexist in humans is what Stevenson explored in his novel. Each individual grows in a society and adapt to he appropriate behaviours.

In my screenplay i have decided to explore this idea of good vs. evil. My first draft I couldn’t recognise enough links to the original set text and I felt like my story was lacking shape and meaning. I played off the idea of Doug using this crystal that turned corrupted his father for good, which fit into my story line quite well. Inevitably, Doug was trying to do the right thing all along and was trying to fit into what he thought was acceptable, but as Stevenson suggests “One could not exist without the other” and so the repression of Doug’s feelings unavoidably turned into something evil; the feelings towards how people treat him because of his father’s actions.

In the book, the battle between good and bad is internal, Jekyll feels remorse for the acts he committed as Hyde and good defeats evil by the end of the book as Hyde dies. This is where I had a clear idea of where I could incorporate this into my screenplay. Doug has faced battles of good vs. evil first hand with his father and wants to put it right by using this ‘evil’ crystal for good and to save the human race and by doing so Doug comes out on top and good wins.

It was essential that my plot had a transformation somewhere in it, due to the arc of the story and how humans are searching for a second planet to live on, the transformation is what makes that possible. This is also where the theme of Duality comes into play.

The themes of violence are prevalent throughout the book for example, Hyde trampling a young girl in the street, beating people to death and punching people in the face and as we learn, Hyde has no remorse for this. The sole reason for violence in the book is because Mr. Hyde finds it pleasurable. In my screenplay by using the themes of good vs. evil i felt that there needed to be a theme of violence. I thought about how I could portray this in a way where it wasn’t extremely violent but there were references to something violent happening. To give my story shape I decided to include a tragedy that happened in Doug’s life, which is where the flashbacks come into it. The idea being Doug’s father died at some point in his life due to the crystal which is why no one puts any trust into him. Doug is obsessed with trying to redeem his father by proving the crystal could be used for good.

The good vs. evil and violence themes fit well with each other in Jekyll and Hyde purely because it’s Jekyll trying to fight these feelings with the evil side of himself. In my screenplay i’ll be referencing the crystal to feelings of violence and it ultimately leads to the battle of good vs. evil, the crystal once being used for evil and corrupting people but Doug wants to prove that the good in us is far stronger and the object can be put to better use.

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Inspiration from other text

Due to the screenplay being only 1000 words, I was finding myself struggling to fit in dialogue while trying to show the character’s personality throughout. I remembered some of my earlier research when looking at screenplays and decided to look at Wall-E again.

I really liked the way the writers can describe Wall-E and give information about him without the character saying anything and only by doing and showing. I decided to conduct some more research on this film and the writers

“The humans of WALL-E are hardly even human at all; instead, the film’s most human character is a garbage truck on wheels. But WALL-E isn’t just so full of life due to the lack of humanity around him. Stanton’s film turns the last robot on Earth into a lovable hero we can identify with.” - https://screencrush.com/wall-e-pixar-10-years-later/

Screencrush says Wall-E is a robot version of the silent film stars, using his gestures and facial expressions to showcase his sweet and curious personality.

The first chunk of the film has very little dialogue and it seems to be influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. A lot of the success of using more action than dialogue is to with the character’s design for example his tear shaped eyes being able to convey emotions without words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTkenVTYyic

This video shows the film and parts of the script, which was very insightful when thinking about how my film would be animated also, which I would talk about in my reflective essay.

Wall-E doesn’t talk during the film but beeps, this is executed well in the script with parentheticals and define what he is saying underneath.

The ‘kiss’ scene is particularly interesting in showcasing Wall-E’s innocence and personality.

“WALL-E can’t believe his luck. Rests his head on her shoulder. Bliss.”

“A tiny ARC OF ELECTRICITY passes between them.

A “thank you” kiss”

“WALL-E’S METER spikes.

He floats circles in space.”

The way Wall-E reacts to certain situations is how the writer’s successfully show his personality, they dig into the innocence and it’s almost child-like. The way he reacts after the ‘kiss’ is important because it shows how Wall-E is shocked and reacts accordingly, the character didn’t expect something like that to happen which is down to his sweet personality.

https://sites.duke.edu/ambiguouslyhuman/2016/03/09/wall-e-reflection/

“For Wall-E, robotic behavior signals his death. During the course of the film he gets badly injured and Eve, his robot love interest, brings him back to Earth to repair from broken-down WALL-E parts. When Wall-E restarts, he acts completely robotic. He doesn’t communicate with Eve; he crushes the things she shows him from his collection as trash; he completely unconsciously goes about his programmed activity of trash disposal. We understand that he’s no longer Wall-E, who was defined by his individuality. Now he’s just another WALL-E unit. Of course, the film doesn’t actually kill off the main character; a spark from a departing “kiss” from Eve brings him back. His return is indicated by his quirks resurfacing: how he won’t let go of Eve’s hand and the angled way he holds his eyes.”

From the beginning of the script we see the Wall-E as human due to the personality he has developed so when this suddenly changes it acts as a ‘death’. This is due to having an entirely fleshed out character, which I think i need to expand on slightly to give it a similar impact.

https://www.raindance.org/writing-screenplays-without-dialogue/

Raindance gave some tips for maximising action and writing screenplays with no dialogue which i found really helpful, this will be useful when it comes to rewriting another draft.

Write the whole story down in a series of short, unintended paragraphs, properly cleaning up your writing.

Current practice is to describe each separate action that you would see on the screen with no more than three lines. Any longer than three lines and you should simplify the description and/or break to a new paragraph.

Ensure that each paragraph/action moment advances the story.

Start each separate location for your action with a three-part heading in CAPS: interior or exterior (INT. or EXT) – a very brief description of the location – (JACK’S KITCHEN) and whether the time is day or night (DAY/NIGHT.)

Visualise locations that quickly and dramatically set the stage for your story.

Conceive and describe your characters distinctively.

Write what your characters do, not what they say.

“No dialogue” does not mean “no sound”: The WHINE of an accelerating subway, a door SLAM, or a SIZZLING steak can be effective action-ingredients.

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Character outlines

Due to this project being connected to our character design project I had already developed Doug and Zusp, my main characters, and had a good feel of their personalities. These are some pages from the character bible for the design project in which it explains somewhat of a back story for each character. I felt this was needed in order to predict how my characters would act, within animation and specifically for my screenplay.

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7 Basic Plots and the Hero’s Journey

I realised I was struggling to come up with a solid story for my screenplay an felt all my ideas didn’t have much depth to them.

I started to look into the 7 basic plots to give me a rough guideline of what i should include in my screenplay and in what order.

When remembering these plots from last year, voyage and return stuck out to me the most as being relevant to my screenplay.

“By definition, a Hero’s Journey is always a success story: it is a story where the protagonist goes out into the unknown, faces challenging obstacles, and overcomes them.” https://storytelling.comnetwork.org/explore/171/the-voyage-and-return-a-framework-for-stories-about-learning

The story map for voyage and return is generally:

the first steps, doubts arise

initial excitement, uncertainty and unforeseen challenges

returns to safety, reflects on the experience and plans for the future

I knew the general idea of my story which consists of my main character travelling to space even though he is not allowed to, but coming up with what happens in and out of that plot.

The hero’s journey is along the lines of:

call to adventure

threshold guardian

challenges and tempations

abyss

transformation

atonement

return

Examples of voyage and return would include, the wizard of oz, alice in wonderland and the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

Voyage and return usually has the protagonist venture into the unknown and at first this new ‘world’ is exciting, they will then face challenges but overcome them.

This type of story arc communicates that there is value in failure and provides a framework to share stories of learning.

When thinking of these frameworks and the screenplays I have read I recalled a connection between them and Rick and Morty, I decided to look into how the writers of this show come up with their plots.

https://www.wired.com/2011/09/mf_harmon/

https://www.thefader.com/2017/07/25/rick-and-morty-dan-harmon-justin-roiland-season-3

Dan Harmon came up with an algorithm that distills a narrative into 8 steps

A character is in a zone of comfort

they want something

they enter an unfamiliar situation

adapt to it

get what they wanted

pay a heavy price for it

return to their familiar situation

they are changed

Harmon says these 8 steps contain the elements for a satisfying story and created it by watching movies to find the hidden structure.

It seems this process is a play on the hero’s journey. With my screenplay and story idea I think that these 8 steps will fit in quite well and help me be inspired by the writing of Rick and Morty.

My next steps for writing will be fleshing out my ideas with all of the frameworks i’ve came across that i think will fit well with my screenplay. I think they follow closely to what i was originally going to go with in terms of story arc and will help me broaden my ideas and keep the story moving and interesting.

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Outline

The year is 2055. Climate change is now a global emergency and earth has begun to collapse. The space station has set a mission to find Planet B, a planet for all human kind to evacuate to and rebuilt their lives.

A rocket ship lands from its second to last exploration having not found an inhabitable planet. The lead astronaut has disclosed the news to the Chief. Doug, a space cadet in training enters the room and begins to talk to the space Chief asking if he can join them on their next launch. Chief explain he hasn’t finished his training and it’s too much of a risk. Doug begins to plead his case and Alfred, the lead astronaut Maximus chimes in telling Doug he isn’t a good enough astronaut to assist them.

Doug is walking back to his room, feeling discouraged by Maximus’s words. He runs into a group of people and over hears them laughing about how he asked to go to space with them. Doug continues back to his room dejected and hopeless. He sits on his bed, looks outside and sees the barren landscape of what used to be full of life and nature which has fallen apart. A robot assistant pops out of the in wall compartment and begins talking to Doug about his schedule for the morning. Doug gets an idea and asks the assistant if the rocket has a holdall hatch. After hearing the answer Doug runs for the rocket ship and begins to tamper with the hatch control panel and returns to his room

The next day the rocket is ready for launch, the Chief explains the importance of this final trip to maximus and they board the rocket ship. Space cadet leader begins to take register for all space cadets and Doug is missing.

The rocket lands on planet Xena and the astronauts start to scope out the planet. Doug kicks open the hatch he was stowed away in and rolls out landing on the floor face first. He gets up and is jumping with joy that his plan worked. He begins to explore the planet to try and help and manages to find a cave. He walks up to the cave, falling down a hole and landing in an underground cavern. Doug brushes himself off and his surroundings are glowing and bright. He has found a crystal, he starts getting overwhelmed with excitement and picks a crystal up and puts it in his sample compartment pocket located on his spacesuit arm.

Doug attempts to find a way out of the cave and starts to feel faint. He begins to laugh uncontrollable as his body starts to tingle. He starts to float in the air and his limbs turn into liquid and reattach forming his hidden self, Zusp.

Zusp begins to scan the area and finds an escape route. He starts to track down the humans and plans to attack them. Not long after he finds the group of astronauts who are running all sorts of tests and begins to charge towards them. The astronauts notice and take cover when Zusp starts to shoot. The astronauts retaliate and end up shooting Zusp in the arm.

Zusp turns back into Doug and the astronauts are confused, they help Doug and bring him back to earth. Doug wakes up in the space stations hospital surrounded by the astronauts and the Chief asking him what happened.

A few weeks later, Doug is being awarded title of Mission Specialist and the Chief explains how Doug has saved the human race by finding a way to inhabit another planet. Doug is overwhelmed with happiness as his dream has finally come true.

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Beat Sheet

Beat sheet

Astronauts return from a mission having been unsuccessful in finding a planet B.

Doug asks to go on the next mission but is denied as he is too clumsy and too much of a risk- he has also not completed his cadet training for this reason

Doug hears people talking bad about him which motivates him to prove them wrong. He is tired of people being mean to him and undermining him all the time.

Doug tampers with the rocket ship so he can sneak into it during the next launch.

Doug lands on planet Xena and explores

Finds a crystal and puts it in his space suit to bring back.

The crystal starts to react and turns Doug into Zusp.

Doug’s sadness and pain transforms into hate and resentment towards humans for being mean.

Zusp begins to attack the astronauts and they fight back

Zusp gets shot and that causes him to turn back into Doug

Astronauts are confused and bring Doug back to Earth for medical attention

Doug wakes up at Earth, begins to tell the Chief what happened

Doug is promoted to Mission Specialist as he has found a way to inhabit a planet and the human race is saved from global warming.

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Looking at Screenplays

To begin my research I’ve started looking into some screenplays, both animated and live-action.

https://www.simplyscripts.com/genre/sci-fi-scripts.html

http://www.screenplaylists.com/top-sci-fi-screenplays

https://www.reddit.com/r/c132/comments/7uztbw/rick_and_morty_scripts_baby_every_episode_every/

The main ones I’m looking at are Star Wars and Rick and Morty. The reason I chose these were because they relate to the idea of my screenplay quite well.

I want my characters and the story to have a comedic style and they’re set in space, aspects of what these screenplays have.

In this screen play for rick and morty, it starts off in media res. I think this is a really interesting way to begin a screen play as it draws the reader in straight away, this is something i’m considering doing for the same effect.

http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Rick_and_Morty/Rick_and_Morty_1x05_-_Meeseeks_and_Destroy.pdf

“Morty closes his eyes and hits a button on the wall of the space station. A hatch opens up in the floor, and sucks the demonic versions of Beth and Summer into it (like the Ghost Busters trap), ripping their flesh off first in a disgusting display. It’s horrifying. Rick gets up, dusts himself off, and pulls a cartridge out of the floor. Rick shoots a portal against the wall, and walks into: “

I wanted to see how the writers took advantage of the animated medium and how they kept their descriptions and actions simple but to the point.

I noticed it they write actions as if they’re seeing them and narrating them as they’re watching. When reading through the scripts there isn’t a lot of description of the places and as told during the lectures they only write about what can be seen and is important to the viewer.

This was good to read through to help me think of how I was going to plan out my screenplay and how they stick to the story fully, it also gave me insight on how to format my screenplay.

https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html

On the other hand, the Star Wars screenplay was notably different. There was a lot of description compared to dialogue during the first few pages.

These descriptions are much more detailed than compared to Rick and Morty which uses a lot more simplistic language and descriptions, this is probably due to the genre of the two screenplays, although they are both sci-fi based, Rick and Morty is much more comedic in style than star wars which has a bit more of a serious feel to it; sentences  like “it was disgusting”/“it was gross” wouldn’t fit into the style of writing made for Star Wars, the simplistic adjectives give off a comedic effect which is perfect for the comedic screenplays.

Much more stretched out descriptions including a wide range of adjectives show the reader what’s really happening in greater detail, which gives it a greater significance. This could also be due to the fact it’s live action and if something bad happened during an attack for example and someone got hurt, the result of this is a lot more permanent than in an animated medium in which one episode a character could die, but be perfectly fine in the next.

https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Wall-E.html

http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/2001.txt

comparing another two screenplays, I have Wall-E and A Space Oddesy.

Wall-E was an interesting read as I had forgotten there is little to no dialogue during the beginning of the film as the main character doesn’t talk.

This screenplay was really interesting to read as it contains a lot of what the character is doing and shows his personality through that.

Wall-E opens his cooler.

         Newfound knickknacks.

         Pulls out the hubcap from his chest.

         Looks back at the TV.

         Mimics the dancers on the screen.

         Pretends the hubcap is a hat.

                   Continues to unpack:

         A spork.

         A Rubik's Cube (unsolved).

         A Zippo Lighter.

                   He presses a BUTTON by the rack of shelves.

         They rotate until an empty space appears.

         His new items are lovingly added to the shelf.

         The Zippo joins a pre-existing LIGHTER COLLECTION.

                   A new song, It Only Takes A Moment, plays on the video.

         Wall-E is drawn to it.

         Presses his "Record" button.

As shown here we begin to learn a bit about the main character. The way they describe his findings and how he unpacks them “lovingly” shows this character who is meant to be a robot to collect rubbish is doing something in a humane way. It shows to the reader that this character has developed feelings without the use of words.

The writers carry on doing this throughout the beginning of the movie which makes us relate to the character and it slowly shows us who he is.

His CHARGE METER chimes full.

         Solar panels fold away into hiding.

         Wall-E, now awake, collects his lunch cooler.

         Heads off to work.

         ...and accidentally runs over the cockroach.

         Horrified, Wall-E reverses.

                   Reveals the FLATTENED INSECT under his tread.

         The cockroach simply pops back to life.

         No biggie. Ready to go.

         Relieved, Wall-E resumes their commute.

This part of the screenplay shows that Wall-E isn’t like other robots, he has feelings and reacts like a human. It also shows how the character is empathetic and can feel emotions. The way they describe him being ‘horrified’ and ‘relieved’ makes the reader relate to the character on another level as he seems more human as they continue to read/watch.

This was really insightful to see the different ranges of methods when it comes to writing a screenplay and how each film showcases different techniques when it comes to dialogue, genre and what platform it will show on.

A Space Oddessy is quite similar in how there isn’t much dialogue during the beginning of the film, it’s mainly descriptions although this is specifically describing a flash back and is still limited to what the viewer can see.

This screenplay features a narrator, which isn’t something I’m thinking of including in mine but was interesting to see how to successfully include this aspect into a screenplay. It seems this is being used to explain what can’t be shown but is necessary information for the reader and viewer. I’ll keep this in mind when writing my screenplay incase I ever need it.

Reading a range of screenplays has broadened my knowledge and given me a lot of ideas of how to start planning for my own writing. I think I’m most inspired by Wall-E due to the way it shows personality through action really well and lets the audience know a lot about the characters in such a short time. Rick and Morty I like for the comedic value and style which i’m planning on having in my own screenplay, so it was good to see how a successful show coveys the comedy through their screenplay and how i would be able to incorporate that into my own.

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10 Finger Pitch

When researching into writing screenplays I found something called the 10 finger pitch. It’s an intuitive way to summarise the basic plot of a story. This is usually for a pitch but as our screenplays are only 1000 words, I thought it could work well for my screenplay.

Genre

Protagonist

Goal

Obstacle

Importance

Achieving the goal

Midpoint and change

the crisis

final confrontation

climax and resolution

Sci-fi

Doug, a middle age man and a space cadet. Extremely uncoordinated

To travel to space and become and fully fledged astronaut

No one will let him travel without completing his training

The climate crisis? Repression, duality?

Sneaks onto the space ship

Finds the crystal and transforms into Zusp

Fight between Zusp and astronauts

Everyone realises the wrong in their ways towards Doug

Doug is now a full astronaut and has also saved human kind.

I think this was a good way to get a start on my beat sheet and finalise an idea for my screenplay.

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Screenplay Formatting

https://www.finaldraft.com/learn/how-to-format-a-screenplay/

For the basics of a screenplay I already knew that they need to be written in 12-point courier font. I decided to research a little more about the details of what makes up a screenplay format so I can correctly apply it to my own.

Page margins from the top, right, left and bottom all need to be one inch.

The reason Courier font is used to estimate the screen time from the number of pages and it usually ends up being a minute per page.

The first page shouldn’t have a number, but following pages should have a number followed by a period about half an inch from the right top of the page.

The first line should be FADE IN, followed by a colon on a line by itself and the next line will follow with the scene.

Scene headings start at the beginning of each change of location or time. This is also called a slug line.

An example would be:

EXT. DOUG’S BEDROOM - DAY

-text or dialogue follows-

This is a typical scene heading and contains three essential pieces of information:

if the scene is located inside or outside

the location of the scene

the time of day

Scenes can be short and contain no dialogue at all but must have a description of what the characters are doing. Describe what you would see - act as the camera.

Action and Dialogue is what makes up a screenplay. Action extends to both margins, is single spaced and is a present tense description of what the reader sees.

Action should never explain what a character is thinking! what can’t be seen shouldn’t be included.

A spec script doesn’t include camera or editing directions.

Dialogue is centred on the page, above this is a character cue (name) which should be in all caps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZszextv6yE

I watched this video to familiarise myself with the basics of screenplay writing. Other than what was mentioned before, they had mentioned the use of parentheticals.

They also mentioned some interesting parts about action lines. The capitalisation of sounds can put emphasis on this when important, for example ‘RATTLING taxi’ would set the scene and show the taxi is quite old and makes a lot of noise. This can also be used when sounds are important to what happens, such as gunshots.

Parentheticals can be used to add details to what a character is doing while speaking by setting them in parentheses and with a margin further in to differentiate from the dialogue.

https://www.storysense.com/format/headings.htm

this website was also helpful in understanding the format of a screenplay and familiarising myself with this type of writing.

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Narrative strategies seminar

Narrative strategies; writing workshop

Write anything based on one of the following subjects: hidden killer

During the night there was a strange sound coming from the empty corridor. The house was unoccupied and I wasn’t exactly sure why I was here either. The surroundings were almost new to me in complete darkness. I walked slowly trying to find my way through the dark hollow corridor, sounds were coming from all around me and my thoughts were driving me insane as I began to assume the worst. I had no flash light, not even a phone to light up the way so I stopped in my tracks and began to think carefully about what to do next.

Why is a door a good story device?

Because of the mystery and what could be behind it- a ringing telephone, a letter or a locked door are good narrative devices because they provoke curiosity.

In this book doors are symbolic, the doors in chapter 1 connect the rooms of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde- the door has to be broken down for the mystery to be solved.

Stronger to use metaphors rather than similes.

Visualisation technique: write a story of a door

Upon approaching the sounds of gravel smother under the feet, crunching and rolling away as each footstep is taken. A small slope starting to become icy and more dangerous as the night gets colder followed my a shallow step up and the faint smell of clean laundry and white flowers. The door itself glistens in from the lamppost across the road and almost but not quite frozen snail trails are visible on the door as they sparkle from the frost consuming them. Dark and black with a dirty gold knocker in the upper centre just below two small square windows, not the most welcoming of scenes from the outside but in a strange way gives off a warm feeling. The roads are quiet.

Victorian slang:

Gas pipes

Mafficking

Mutton shunter

Enthuzimuzzy

Bags o mystery

Smiggins

Smother a parrot

Cop a mouse

Skilamalink

Afternoonified

Balloon juice

A beat in a story is something that moves the narrative forward, any action or event. Beat sheet.

Write this up on your blog:

Using the title ‘dr. Sawbones’ write an outline for a short animated film in which dr sawbones has to treat an unusual patient. Can be based on Stevenson’s or an entirely new character (contemporary or even futuristic) but the narrative should be original

Make notes on soundtrack and animated style or colour palette.

An outline is like a short story, full sentences and paragraphs but always in third person, present tense.

Write for clarity, no fancy language- try to think like a camera.

Not the same as a treatment. The outline is just for the writer, to help you visualise your story.

Doesn’t usually include dialogue.

This week: read or listen to chapters 2,3 and 4. Upload today’s writing session to the blog.

Introduction

Conflict/ trigger

Complications/ rising action

Climax/ turning point

Resolution/ falling action

Darkness was folding over the evening sky, the small surgery located down a dingy alley soon closing. Dr. Sawbones, the clean cut pale old man was sitting in his chair behind a broken desk with one leg shorter than the others, causing it to wobble every time he lent on it. Cigar smoke filled the room as the night fell.

A relatively lonely man dr. Sawbones, once upon a time one of the best surgeons in the country. Not many people trust him now, after his ego got the better of him and he unsuccessfully treated 10 patients and if they didn’t die, they wished they were dead.

He got up, walked over to the door and flipped over his ‘open’ sign when a strange figure appeared running from the distance. A dark cloak covered their face and body. He stood and watched as they approach the surgery. The hood covering their face, he stood in confusion and opened the door.

He opened his mouth about to speak but was stopped by the stranger pulling down their hood, his eyes widened and mouth opened so far it could have detached. A woman, but not an ordinary woman stood in front of him, begging him to help her. It wasn’t just one woman though and he had never witnessed anything like it. A woman with two heads, crying for help to detach them from each other.

Immediately selfish thoughts ran through his head, believing that this would be the redemption he needed. He welcomed them into the surgery and immediately sat down and told them he would be able to fix their deformity, and promises they will both survive. He brought the conjoined twins from the reception into a room containing a trolley of tools, unsanitary and speckled with hints of rust.

He laid them down on the table, muttering to himself and laughing which sounded almost sinister. He arranged the tools out on the trolley, removed the women’s clothes and injected them with an anaesthetic between their necks, he counted slowly down from 100 until the patients eyes were closed.

He slid on gloves and a white coat to protect his clothing, looked at the tools and picked out a saw. He examined the body and scored where he would begin to cut and without hesitation he began hacking in between the girl’s bodies, through the collar bones, and right down the middle of their ribs as he was laughing frantically. Pools of blood began to form and drip onto the floor.

Hours passed, the smell of iron and burnt flesh consumed the room as the doctor sat in the corner, a face with no expression and eyes that seemed to be in another world. He sat staring at the corpse now laying in the middle of the room, wondering what to do with himself. He realised there was no going back, he could no longer perform surgeries without purposefully tampering with the procedure.

He got up, went into the storage cupboard and grabbed a bottle of gasoline. He poured a trail throughout the surgery and lit a cigar, put his hat and jacket on and proceeded out the door but not before throwing a match to the ground. He limped into the darkness, not looking back once as the surgery became engulfed in flames.