Happily Never After?

The assignment is to write an alternate ending to a novel, movie, short story, poem, etc. What else can I say but make it damn good!

I decided to make an alternate ending to  “The Shadow” which is a script for The Death Triangle episode starring Orson Welles. This script was written in December of 1937. I like how the script gives very vivid descriptions on what is happening, what is being heard, etc. These very vivd descriptions are incorporated into the script and give the reader a sense of what it is like to be there. I found it very creepy how The Shadow was dictating Dr. Evans. The Shadow was used in multiple ways. The Shadow was a character in the episode, but The Shadow is also a figurative way of denoting something is there. In a way (though it’s a different form) it’s kind of like a hostage situation. I found it very creepy how at the end the script stated that “the shadow knows…”. Creepy! The plot/story line was all over the place and it seemed to be very twisted, like the other story I read.

 

This excerpt is from the script The Death Triangle from “The Shadow”

I begin my alternate ending after this excerpt.

Manservant: He doesn’t appear to be, I haven’t seen him in a few.

Margot: Oh, that’s incredibly odd.

Manservant: I’d say the same

Margot: Well, I guess I’ll go looking for him.

*As Margot exits the home, she sees his car leave the driveway, headed north at a high speed*

*Margot needs to catch up, so she jumps in a car that she found on the street. The keys were conveniently inside and she is scared because her neighbor is the owner and they aren’t on good terms*

Margot comes in contact with THE SHADOW.

She gets super scared.

THE SHADOW overtakes Margot and holds her hostage.

The Shadow: If Dr. Evans comes to save you I will kill you both.

Margot: No, please. Just kill me.

The Shadow: I will kill both of you and then everyone else who comes in contact with me.

Margot: No, take me and call it quits.

The Shadow: Not going to happen, but wishful thinking.

*Dubrille and Corvet go out on a search for Margot and Dr. Evans who are nowhere to be found*

Dubrille: Where do you think we will find them?

Corvet: I haven’t a clue. Let’s check the house.

Dubrille: I doubt they are there.

Corvet: If we can find one of them there is hope in finding the other.

Dubrille: Let’s start there.

*Dubrille and Corvet go to the house and nobody is in sight, not even the servant*

*THE SHADOW kills both of them*

*Margot is freaking out, THE SHADOW continues to threaten her*

*THE SHADOW kills Dr. Evans and then makes Margot live with him forever*

 

I wanted to change the ending and give it a similar, but different twist because that is how I felt about the reading as a whole. I felt that it was very twisted. I decided to have THE SHADOW kill Corvet, Dubrille, and Dr. Evans making it a Death Triangle, but in a different way. Three people are killed and they whole ending is sketchy, but The Shadow lives on. The mysterious shadow lives on.