A reluctant driver attempts to help a bound victim escape his town’s annual harvest sacrifice, only for their desperate flight to reveal that the hope of escape may have been part of the ritual all along.
GENRE:
Thriller
Topics:
Town Festival,
Debt
Constraints
Setting is only in a car
One, Once A Year
14 September 2026
Settings:
Modern Day, A small town in the middle of nowhere, USA.
Narrative:
Linear,
Unreliable Narrator.
Themes:
Ethical Dilemmas, Moral Relativism, Grief, Despair, Hope.
CONTENTS:
Synopsis, Settings, Narrative, Themes, Development and Insider Information, Script Pages.
SYNOPSIS
A reluctant driver transports a bound victim through a seemingly charming small town preparing for its annual harvest festival. As he explains the debt that has forced him into the role, a sudden change of plan offers the victim a chance to escape — and the driver’s family a chance to flee the town’s dark traditions.
But when the car mysteriously breaks down and the victim is forced to run for freedom, hope begins to take hold. Unbeknownst to them, the escape has been carefully manufactured.
In a town where one sacrifice is required each year to guarantee a bountiful harvest, even hope can be part of the ritual.
Writer's journal
This was planned over a few days, written in 3 hours, and edited, uploaded and poster made in another 2. The exercise is meant to be quick. I really enjoyed this one, the twist ending came out of no where, I was struggling with how to end it, and I was talking it through out loud and BAM. It got me. If you re-read it once you know the ending, you can still see it as the driver not actually wanting to do this, you can still read the apologies and the small talk as him psychologically dealing with it.
