OC&C/Plot

## Prelude

In a foreboding prologue, Jacob Delsin stares out the window from a high-rise apartment in midtown Manhattan, overlooking the city lights and neon-signs below as the morning sun looms just beyond the horizon. Jacob notes the eerie-yet-calming silence at this hour from the “city that never sleeps” and contrasts it to the overwhelming feeling of guilt and regret running through his head. Jacob turns back to the bed, where he is drawn back in by the strange pale woman sitting there.

## Whispers In The Shadow

The story begins in the early morning of December 18th, 2018. Jacob spends his night at Gordon's, a local biker-owned dive bar in central Brooklyn, hustling a high stakes tournament of ten-ball pool against local pimp/loan shark Simon MacGregor. As the final game narrows to a close win for both parties, Jacob takes a final shot and wins the game, much to Simon’s dismay, as Jacob takes the money, he gives back half to Simon and retires over to his usual spot at the front bar to resume his night of solitary alcohol consumption and dissociation from reality, he’s greeted by the usual bartender, Jennifer Antonelli, who congratulates and boasts about Jacob’s defeat against MacGregor, as well as lightly hitting on him. The two have been casually involved with one another for several months at this point, but Jacob remains indifferent to her flirtation, simply wanting to enjoy his drink. However, Jacob is disrupted when his eye takes notice of a new face, a solitary young girl sitting alone at a booth removed from the crowd of regulars, and - more importantly - staring right back at him. Jennifer takes notice of this as well, and much to Jacob’s surprise, encourages him to make the first move.

Hesitantly, Jacob approaches the strange woman, who reveals herself to be an escort, yet one who apparently has some notion of who Jacob is. The two engage in some sarcastic yet rather vitriolic banter, insulting Jacob for his disheveled appearance, while Jacob assumes the girl to be one of Simon’s call girls and remarks distastefully upon her occupation, the woman crosses a line when she takes notice of Jacob’s wedding ring, and assumes if he’s willing to flirt with strange girls at bars that he’s either cheating or still wears it from a divorce. Jacob decides to pump the breaks, and instead suggests the two start over from the beginning, Jacob drunkenly gestures for a handshake as he introduces himself, and the girl introduces herself as Julia Harrison, bypassing his handshake and stealing his drink, she downs it with ease to both his surprise and chagrin. Jacob peddles back and begins talking her up and flirting, Jacob admits that Julia has finally managed to catch his interest and make the night interesting and offers to buy Julia for a night as she clearly had intended. She agrees, impressed by the reversal of power that had just occurred. The couple decide to leave the bar and return to Jacob’s apartment a few blocks down.

After a short walk through the cold, they arrive, and Jacob allows her to warm up, while the two continue to chat and consume a few lines of cocaine, finally, after much flirtation, Jacob finally presses on her prices and her limits, to which her only request is that he doesn’t go easy on her. Immediately, the two become intimate, with the otherwise accommodating Jacob suddenly and roughly taking charge, much to her surprise and delight. Jacob eventually helps comfort her as she reels physically, grabbing a pillow for her head and handing her a smoke and lighting it.

## Last Exit To Brooklyn

In his slumber, Jacob recalls a memory from years prior. Staring down the sights of a rifle in rural Virginia, Jacob fires at several ranged targets and is complimented on his handling and marksmanship by his soon to be brother-in-law Derek Rainford, while the rest of the family stand back at the house for a sunny midsummer barbecue. Derek takes the rifle and takes aim at the few remaining targets, while Jacob observes his fiancé, Sophia Procter, playing with her three-year-old niece Amelia, and questions for the first time in his life: the possibility of having children. Sophia’s mother, Brenda, calls out to Jacob and Derek, informing them that the food is almost ready, and the two retire from shooting and head back to the house.

Eager to socialize and feast, the family quickly gathers together at a large outdoor table. Present are Sophia’s parents, Brenda Rainford and Harper Procter, her elder brothers Derek and Stephen Rainford, sister-in-law Elisa, their daughter Amelia, aunt Connie Rainford and her uncle Bobby Gibson. The family sits and talks about incidents and work, neighbors, friends, and life-in-general, most of the conversations are vague or technical, with Stephen being a security attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, Derek quickly becoming a well-respected member of the Central Intelligence Agency, and many others in the family holding other jobs in the federal government (Harper working in the Department Of State, and another uncle mentioned as being a [Maryland] senator). The family particularly, but respectably, becomes interested and conversational towards Jacob, who has been relatively quiet and had much less to say about his work and social life than everybody else. Jacob shies away from the details of his upbringing and youth years, but admits to his personal struggles and a lackluster education. Jacob manages to steer the conversation towards his and Sophia’s meeting and relationship and how she had improved him for the better. While Harper is slightly critical, Brenda and Bobby are quick and easy to step in and defend Jacob, welcoming him in as part of their family now and seeing him as a clean slate to work with. Sophia, likewise, steps in, sensing Jacob’s anxiety and discomfort, and defensively speaks at length about his positive attributes and shares some of their memories. Jacob smiles.

The following morning, Jacob awakens. He looks over to find that Julia has gone, and while confused, thinks little of her disappearance - that is - until he realizes that the money that he had paid her still remains sitting on the nightstand. Confused, Jacob gets up and quickly takes notice that certain things in his apartment are just slightly out of place. He realizes that all of his belongings have been sifted through, but, strangely enough, nothing has been stolen. Jacob only then takes notice of the time and quickly redresses in the same clothes from the night prior, and heads out of his apartment. As he leaves, he’s encountered in the hallways by one of his neighbors, Ms. Goldfarb, an elderly woman who reprimands him for the noise he and Julia had made overnight, while she’s not particularly intimidating or aggressive about it, she threatens to call the police should it happen again, and Jacob reassures her that it won’t. Jacob leaves and heads out down the street, and quickly drops into a Seattle’s Best, where he grabs two cups of coffee and a sandwich. Jacob makes his way to the nearby Hoyt Street station, where he hands the sandwich to an elderly homeless man, Hank Clemons, who he encounters playing the harmonica and quickly chats with while Jacob waits for the subway, Hank chats about the weather and crosswords, Jacob offers to let Hank stay at his apartment to escape the cold, claiming it wouldn’t be a hassle, but Hank politely refuses, stating that either the system can fix itself or he can fix himself, but that he’d rather die than leech on the backs of others.

On the train, Jacob is haunted by strange details that make him think about Julia, including a newspaper headline detailing a string of unsolved “black widow” murders as well as the general feeling of being watched and followed. He gets off in midtown, a block down from [Times Square], and approaches a street vendor cart, where he greets his friend, Pablo Fuentes and hands him the second coffee. Pablo scolds Jacob for arriving fifteen minutes before he gets off, but graciously accepts the coffee and jokes about moving to the west coast to escape the winter cold and enjoy the coffee. Jacob nods to having a “busy night” and Pablo applauds his friend for finally getting laid. Jacob takes notice of another newspaper regarding the string of murders, and decides to read through it while Pablo deals with a few aggravating tourist customers. The article reveals to Jacob how twelve men, all seemingly unassociated aside from their financial status, had been found dead in their apartments and various hotel rooms. The police had collected DNA samples, prints and security camera footage, but while unable to identify the killer -- were able to confirm that the deaths were indeed attributed to the same person, likely using multiple identities and luring the victims from late night bars and street corners.

At night, Jacob returns to Gordon’s to drink away his worries and paranoia, but upon arrival, he finds the bar strangely closed early, doors locked, but the interior lights still on, confused, Jacob sneaks around to the back alley and enters the venue through a small window in the restroom, exiting only to find the usual bouncer has been rendered unconscious. Hearing the sound of voices in the back room, Jacob cautiously approaches and finds the bartender, Jen, tied to a chair, being assaulted and interrogated by several strange men. Visibly outnumbered and rusty in his fighting skills, Jacob is anxious and hesitant to intervene, but upon witnessing one of the men make moves to assault her, does so anyway and bursts into the room, quickly disarming one of the men, taking his gun and using him as both leverage and a protective shield, one of the others responds rashly, shooting but missing Jacob and killing his hostage instead, Jacob fires back, killing the shooter, while a third escapes, alive but injured.

Immediately, Jacob rushes to help Jen, who is reasonably shaken up and traumatized from the experience. Jen informs Jacob that she needs to call a number, which she struggles to remember but has pinned to the wall behind the bar. Jacob helps, within a few short minutes, patched members of the Hades Legion Motorcycle Club arrive to her aid. Helping to take care of Jen and clean up the scene, they examine the bodies, quickly coming to the conclusion that the assailants in question were professionals, and not just random street thugs. One of the bikers initially assumes that they could belong to one of the Five Families, judging by their attire, but their identification efforts are contradicted with every guess and they are ultimately unable to identify who the lackeys belonged to, but acknowledging this attack as the start of a very bloody street war. Jen worryingly informs him that they were looking for Julia and warns him to keep his head low and stay safe, before giving him an address and number to contact if he feels endangered.

## Bright Lights

Jacob returns to his apartment and begins to gather his money and a few personal belongings into a suitcase, including a picture of his wife and the number given to him by Jen. Jacob then hides the suitcase behind a loose wall panel on the first floor. He leaves the apartment building only to find a black limousine outside, with several armed men who confirm his identity and insistently escort him across the river to Lower Manhattan, where he is taken to a five-star restaurant located on the upper floors of One World Trade Center and meets Michael Sacchitello.

Michael presents hospitality to Jacob, offering him a drink and a slice of steak, Jacob is hesitant but takes up the offer. Sacchitello shows some immediate interest in Jacob, taking notice of the fact that he is absent from nearly every national database prior to 2017, as if he simply didn’t exist, Jacob retorts by saying that some people simply don't want to be found. Jacob is politely probed for information about his limited knowledge of Julia, which he learns is one of many aliases used by May Lawson. Sacchitello attempts to portray himself as a sympathetic victim, a simple good-willed entrepreneur and family man who has lost many of his close friends to May as an unhinged serial killer, but when it’s deduced that Jacob knows nothing, he is instead bribed in exchange for his silence, which immediately rubs the then-accommodating Jacob the wrong way. Michael informs him that the goons that attacked Jen were out of line and he is willing to look past their murder. Even though he desires a return to normality and acknowledges the power differential between them, Jacob, having nothing to lose, denies the peace offering. Michael with hostility checks again if he’s aware of the possible consequences, Jacob confirms. Michael, respecting his gutsiness and conviction, lets him walk... for now.

At a subway payphone, Jacob makes a call to Pablo, light on the details and in search of a safe place to stay. Pablo and his family are welcoming and warmly hospitable, but Jacob becomes restless and over the next two days begins his own investigation and search for May Lawson. Jacob first reaches out to Simon, who he finds drinking at a different bar, Simon is initially hostile and upon questioning, inquires that if Jacob was so desperate for a fuck he could simply pay a visit to Jennifer instead of harassing him, and implies their fling as being responsible for the bar’s temporary closure. After talking with several of Simon’s sex workers for any clue of May’s identity or location, Jacob is tipped off to a possible match who works at a secretive membership-only high-end strip club run by the East Village Vice Kings, which he accesses with the help of Pablo’s sister Eva, who reveals she had previously worked at the club as a dancer to support herself, much to her brother’s dismay. Eva gives Jacob her old membership card, a discreet gold card, which is designated by a membership number instead of a name, though she warns him that it had been a while since she had used it and it could be expired.

Jacob arrives at the strip club, he passes the card to the doorman who swipes it through a machine, the membership card initially declines, but the doorman rubs the card against his shirt and retries, this time the card is accepted. The doorman laughs, remarking that Jacob should always clean his cards after cutting coke with them and clears him for entry. Upon entering, Jacob immediately heads to the bar and orders a drink, surveying the club for signs of May’s whereabouts, he takes immediate notice of the “staff only” room, and after downing his drink, proceeds to enter, where he is hounded by the staff bouncer, Jacob pays him off to get access backstage. He searches through the staff lineup and set times posted on the wall, but doesn’t see May’s name listed for the main stage or any of the separate VIP rooms. Jacob remembers that she is likely using an alias, and begins searching the VIP rooms one by one, where he finds multiple dancers fellating, edging, rimming, and otherwise “privately performing” for older white men in business suits.

He continues down the hall to the last VIP room which is marked as “unoccupied” and, upon entering, is instructed to “get comfortable” by a familiar voice, after a brief moment, he turns to conveniently find a small thin pale woman in white lingerie step out from behind a nearby curtain, he immediately recognizes her as May in a white wig, having been performing under the stage name “Willow De Luna”. Jacob approaches her, but she immediately recognizes him, and competently attacks him thinking he’s a Sacchitello goon. Jacob is luckily able to redirect most of her attacks and pins her on the couch where he attempts to explain that he came not to harm her but seeking answers. Just then, real Sacchitello mobsters enter the club looking for May, having followed Jacob. The immediate shouting and tension between the unruly goons and the EVVK members alerts the two and sets off a gunfight between the two factions in the main hall, which Jacob and May use as a distraction to escape out the back to May’s van. Once in the clear, May and Jacob confront one another about their intentions.

## Lazarus

Jacob offers to help May in her fight and offer protection, but she rejects his help. May instead drives Jacob back to his apartment building only for the duo to find it ablaze, Jacob hastily rushes into the inferno to retrieve the suitcase and ends up saving an Goldfarb and a dog in the process, after witnessing the act of heroism, May reluctantly allows Jacob to stay with her and takes him back to her hideout, an old waterfront warehouse in Hunters Point, Queens.

Scouting for information on Anthony Sacchitello's whereabouts, the two learn that he and his friends frequent the high-end late-night café, Avery Island. Jacob and May arrive to the establishment, and notice one of Anthony's friends, Matthew Roberts, head to the washrooms at the back. Jacob and May each order a coffee with the barista and have a brief and hushed exchange on how to handle Roberts. The duo begin to head to the back of the café in pursuit, but are halted, when Jacob is noticed by one of the café's patrons who calls out to him.

Jacob would remain vague and sheltered on the details of his life since departing Seattle, while keenly listening to Emily recount her newfound life as a fashion mogul and high-end design celebrity. As they part ways, Emily kisses Jacob one last time “for old times sake”, finally recognizing him as *Justin Miller* and wishing him "the best possible Christmas".

Jacob regroups with May and the two share a cigarette, Jacob asks if she managed to get any information out of Roberts, May sighs that the info is both good and bad, she explains that they now know his location: Anthony and his friends are planning to attend an event at a nightclub called Lazarus later that evening, but that the club and it's event won't be easy to get into without pulling some strings.

## The Same Deep Water As You

Jacob and May arrive at the apartment complex, per the note, which May snarkily jokes is in even worse condition than Jacob’s own apartment post-fire. After heading upstairs, Jacob sighs heavily before knocking on the door of an apartment, after a short minute, the door is answered by a particularly obese and unhygienic NEET. Jacob asks if Quint is around, and the NEET nods, allowing them into the apartment and directs them to the third room on their left. Jacob and May follow through and knock on the aforementioned door, to be greeted by Quint Schraeder, a rather disheveled boy in a dirty and oversized *Nine Inch Nails* sweater who recognizes Jacob and lets him and May enter into his room without so much as a question. Quint’s room is a disorganized mess of harvested computer parts, dirty clothes, sex toys, pinned documents and various sci-fi posters.

Quint proceeds to sit on his bed cross-legged and takes a hit from his bong, while Jacob lights a cigarette anxiously paces around the room and May stands in the corner uncomfortably. Jacob takes notice of a VHS tape entitled ‘JustOneKind’ and questions Quint on how he had managed to obtain it, while Quint simply responds by wishing he had the whole collection, before turning to May and blankly asking if she wants to have a threesome. Embarrassed, Jacob immediately switches the note of conversation, inquiring that they were sent by Kevin and had obtained a memory card with essential data on it. Quint takes the card and opens a nearby laptop, plugging the card in, discovering it to be locked behind several layers of security, which he can easily bypass in an hour or so. Quint questions the origin of the card, and Jacob informs him that they’ve been hunted by the Sacchitello family and associates for the past week and that the card in question was obtained off of what was left of the patriarch’s son.

Quint immediately rushes over to his desktop and opens a chat window. Jacob questions whether the laptop’s location can be traced, but Quint informs him that as far as anyone knows from the GPS tracking, the laptop is in [Azerbaijan], and the data on the laptop is automatically wiped with each usage so there’s no personal data to be obtained even in the event of a security breach. Quint connects with several others in the chat room and using coded language, calls for an emergency meeting. May, concerned, questions who Quint is talking to, and he informs her and Jacob that they aren’t the only ones trying to take down the Sacchitello family, noting that the head of the family, Michael, has his hands and money in almost every corner of government. Quint

## Under The Milky Way

With Lyla successfully able to recover the groups data from the warehouse, Travis and the rest of the Legion members agree that after such a close call, it’s not a particularly safe idea for Jacob and May to stick around in the highly populated and surveilled city, at least not until Travis can personally confirm the safety of several of their local safehouses from any potential Sacchitello spies. Thus, Jacob and May make plans to take refuge out of state, heading to Connecticut.

The two are personally escorted out of the city on bike by Travis and crew, who set them up, coincidentally, at a local love motel and inform them to keep a low profile.

That evening, Jacob and May take a stroll through the snowy downtown streets of, grabbing a cup of cocoa and candy cane, and enjoy the vibrant Christmas decorations, lights, and festivities taking place at the nearby park, the two converse with an elderly local and his dog, and slow dance on the makeshift ice rink to *Frank Sinatra*, where they share a kiss. The two return to the motel, where they immediately wrestle each other onto the bed while undressing each other and making out.

## True Faith

Jacob awakes in the morning to extremely loud knocking at the motel room door, the sound startles him and May awake. May, completely naked, nearly falls out of the bed at the noise and is petrified, Jacob is unable to determine who the people at the door are from the window and quickly scrambles to put on his clothes and grab his gun, holstering it in his underwear. After yet another loud series of knocks, Jacob answers the door to find only an elderly lady and young boy, carrying with them cleaning products and a laundry basket of clean sheets, offering room service. Jacob exhales with notable relief and kindly declines the offer, informing them to come back in a few hours. Jacob closes the door, only now noticing that he hadn’t put out the “do not disturb” door tag and sighs at his stupidity.

## The Mephistopheles of New York City

Jacob enters the church, it is a cavernous well-decorated and well-lit building, yet seemingly desolate and empty, he slowly paces his way down the corridor, running his hand along the oak benches and admiring the architecture. At that moment, a priest exits his quarters and is surprised to see Jacob, kindly offering his support and commenting that not very many people come in this late at night, but as the priest approaches Jacob, he stops dead in his tracks and recognizes Jacob from the news reports. Jacob stresses that he’s not looking for trouble and just wants to try and find some form of forgiveness. The priest offers Jacob to join him in the confession booth, but Jacob questions if they can simply sit in the main hall and the priest nods in agreement.

The priest lightheartedly confides to Jacob in secrecy that although he’s read pretty much all of the modern translated holy texts, he personally thinks a good portion of it is bullshit written for the socio-political pressures of the time, the priest clarifies that he still personally believes in God and Heaven, but suggests that hundreds of people come to listen to him not because they care for the scripture but because they’re all just trying to find guidance, hope, something to have faith in and suggests that Jacob try to find that for himself, noting “that something” doesn’t even have to be a spiritual/supernatural deity, but that anything can be “God” for him.

## Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Jacob stares out the window from the apartment, overlooking the city lights and neon-signs below as the morning sun looms just beyond the horizon. Jacob notes the eerie-yet-calming silence at this hour from the “city that never sleeps” and contrasts it to the overwhelming feeling of guilt and regret running through his head. Jacob turns back to the bed, where he is drawn back in by May sitting there.