The Gavel

Act 1 Part 1 : Intruder

"Good Morning California, I'm Kate Buckner with Channel 7 news. Police are still searching for 4 Santo Padre men who mysteriously vanished last weekend. 18 year old Franco Ramirez, 29 year old Victor Guzmàn, 22 year old Cairo Cruz, and 20 year old Hector Gonzalez were last seen at a Shell gas station in Charming. No other details at the moment."

Brooke stands over the sink scrubbing a stain from a dirty plate and fork. She finishes cleaning them and sets them on the countertop next to her, with the fork laying on top of the plate. Brooke grabs a Tupperware container filled with leftover pasta from the fridge. She uses her fork to scrape out a small portion of the pasta, and places it into the microwave. As she waits for her food to heat up, there's a knock at her door. Brooke power walks toward the front door to see who it is. She looks through her peephole and see's a young Hispanic man wearing a black hoodie.

Brooke : "Who is it?"

Man : "Maintenance."

Brooke unlatches the door and opens it.

Brooke : "Hi, Are you here about the leaky faucet?"

Man : "Yes, ma'am I'm Ezekiel Reyes, you can call me EZ."

Brooke : "I'm sorry I totally forgot, please come in."

As EZ enters Brooke's apartment, she hears her phone chime on the kitchen table.

Brooke : "Oh, just a sec."

Brooke walks toward the kitchen. EZ scans outside of the front door before closing it slowly and quietly. Brooke picks up her cellphone and it reads "Babe🐀🖤" Brooke's face lights up with joy. Before she could press the answer button she feels something hard, and cold touch the back of her head.

EZ : "Drop the phone."

Brooke immediately drops her cellphone out of her shaking hands and it clatters on the tile floor of the kitchen. EZ lower his black pistol, picks up her phone pocketing it, and pulls some rope from his back pocket. A frightened Brooke, sees the fork on her plate of pasta and lunges toward it. She picks up the fork and stabs EZ in his kneecap, and sprints toward the door but EZ pulls out the fork and recovers quickly, tackling her before she can make it to there. Brooke sobs uncontrollably as EZ ties her hands behind her back with the thick rope.

Brooke : "Please! Don't do this, Please! My husband has money! I can get him to pay you!"

EZ ignores Brooke and finishes tying her hands tightly, and strikes Brooke in the back of the head with the the butt of his pistol, knocking Brooke out.

EZ : "I'm sorry."

EZ puts on his hood and throws Brooke's unconscious body over his shoulder taking her outside, and gently laying her in the trunk of his white 1983 Monte Carlo. He gets in and speeds away, making a call as he drives.

EZ : "It's done, I'm on my way."

Bishop : "Good, be careful brother."

Bishop closes his flip phone, and walks towards a beaten, and bloody man thats on his knees, surrounded by 3 other men inside of a dimly lit warehouse.

Gas Station Clerk : "Pl- Please, I've t-told you everything you want to know."

Bishop : "Yeah, well I may have let you live if you weren't fucking in on it. Coco, finish it!

Gas Station Clerk : No pl-

Coco shoots the clerk in the head with his handgun, and stands over his corpse firing one last shot into the clerks head. Blood from the clerks wounds flows across the floor under Bishops boot as Bishop lights his cigar.

Bishop : "Gilly, get rid of the body. Coco you're with me, Creeper stay here and wait for EZ to get here with the girl."

Creeper : "What do we do with the girl when she gets here?"

Bishop : "Watch her, but don't hurt her. This is about leverage."

Creeper: "Copy that."

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HAPPY'S HOUSE

Happy : "Did you guys see the news this morning?"

Ratboy : "Yeah, talk about timing. How the fuck are
we gonna hit the shipment tonight with all this shit happening."

Montez : "Maybe we should call it off for now."

Quinn : "What for? The cops don't know shit, they don't even know if their all really dead. Only people who know are in this room. I say we stick to the plan."

Happy : "Quinn's right, we've been planning this for weeks. And this is the only time we'll have a shot at Chibs."

Ratboy : "I just think it's a bad time, man. There's too much heat on us."

Happy : "It's a risk we're gonna have to take, brother. Because if we don't we're all fuckin dead."

Ratboys cellphone rings.

Ratboy : "It's Brooke. I gotta take this, boys."

Ratboy walks outside of Happy's house, and answers his phone.

Ratboy : "Hey babe, whats up."

EZ : "If you ever wanna see her again, you need to hand Happy over to us."

Ratboy : "Who the fuck is this?! Where's Brooke!"

EZ : "You got 24 hours, after that she's dead."

Ratboy : "Hey!"

EZ : *click*

EZ texts Ratboy a picture of Brooke, tied up, unconscious, with silver duct tape over her mouth. Ratboy sits down on Happy's porch with his head in his hands and tears in his eyes. He hears someone turning the knob of the front door, and quickly wipes away his tears.

Happy : "You good, brother?"

Ratboy : "Oh y-yeah, I'm fine just my allergies kickin up ya know."

Happy : "Ok good, let's go get ready for tonight."

Ratboy : "I'll be right there."

Happy walks back inside. Ratboy looks down at his phone, analyzing the picture of Brooke with a worried expression on his face, which changes into an expression of determination.

Ratboy : "Just hold on, Brookie."