Territory

 TERRITORY

An Adult Comic Book Script

PAGE 1

Panel 1

TEXT: "The police called it the work of a serial killer, even named the murderer The Shredder because of the way the body looked---its skin sliced and shredded in strips apparently by some sharp instrument. But Maureen Douglas knew better. It looked like the work of an animal because it was the work of an animal. And its instruments were claws and fangs."

ART: The dead, mangled body of a woman

Panel 2

ART: Maureen Douglas kneels down and examines the mutilated, naked body of a woman, but now its face and torso have been ripped and torn as if by some savage animal.

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 3

TEXT: "With gloved hands, Muffy spread the corpse's legs, checked around and inside its vulva. There were telltale signs of semen. Maureen sighed heavily and rose to her feet. This was the fourth body found in this condition in the last three months."

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 4

TEXT: "That this was the work of a werewolf, Maureen didn't doubt. That it was also the work of Weylin Stone, she knew for certain."

ART: Maureen's stern face looks distant, as if remembering something

Panel 5

TEXT: " The condition in which the bodies had been found told her that. They'd all had sex with Stone before he Changed and savagely slaughtered them."

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 6

TEXT: "Pleasure and pain. That was Stone's modus operandi."

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 7

TEXT: "It had been that way even before he became---what he was now."

ART: Maureen remembers Stone as a werewolf
 

PAGE 2

Panel 8

TEXT: They'd been in love three years ago and they recognized a need for each other. Maureen liked to receive pain, Stone more than gladly gave it. Not excessive pain, mind you. Just enough to make ordinary sex a little more interesting.

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 9

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 10

ART: Maureen is dressed as a provocative schoolgirl, facing right

Panel 11

ART: Maureen and Stone make love (Maureen riding Stone?)

Panel 12

ART: Maureen is dressed as a dominatrix, facing left

Panel 13

ART: Maureen on a cell phone

TEXT: But the murders—No, that wasn't right.

DIALOGUE: Maureen - "Yes, I'd like to report a murder..."

Panel 14

TEXT: Maureen had always found the bodies first. That hadn't been hard to do. She knew what Stone looked for in a woman, knew the places he liked to pick them up, and the places where he always took them. Yet he always managed to stay one step ahead of her. Until tonight. This new body was a fresh kill, which meant Stone would still be somewhere in the area. She searched the ground for prints and heard, in the distance, the wail of police sirens

PAGE 3

Panel 15

TEXT: She glanced up and around at the deserted warehouses that surrounded her. This was where Stone liked to bring the girls, this was where the bodies had been found---but never in a pattern that allowed the police to form some sort of prediction as to when or where he would strike again.

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 16

TEXT: Maureen never really understood how the Change had touched Stone. And it was after he Changed that they broke apart. He told her he never wanted to see her again.

ART: From the shadows of a warehouse, we see the wan features of Stone's face, pasty gray in the moonlight, his mouth stained with the blood of his last victim.

DIALOGUE: "Hello, Maureen,"

Panel 17

ART: Maureen and Stone facing each other

DIALOGUE: Maureen - "It's been a long time. I—had to see you again."

DIALOGUE: Stone - "Too long...Take your clothes off."

Panel 18 & 19

TEXT: Then the Change comes.

ART: Naked, Maureen morphs into a female werewolf lashing out at Stone

Panel 19

TEXT: Too late to stop it now. Talons slashing downwards, razor-sharp nails slicing flesh, shredding it, fangs digging into muscle and bone, chomping, ripping, tearing, screams of shock segueing to screeches of agony.

ART: (Artist's interpretation)

Panel 20

TEXT: Then, silence. Wolf reverting to human. Claws to long-nailed female fingers.

ART: Stone's mangled body lies on the street

Panel 21

ART: Maureen walks down the street away from us

DIALOGUE: Maureen - "Bastard! This is my hunting territory..."

- end -

[Written by Michael Woodhead, 2014]