The Last House on the Left

"The Last House on the Left" is the 4th episode of Sweet Escape.

Summary
The fugitive's car breaks down unexpectedly when the young Joe takes a turn driving it. They're forced to find help from a seemingly abandoned farmhouse, but things don't go they way they'd like. In flashbacks, we see the story of Joe and a young girl named Catherine.

Plot
In a flashback, Joe Carpenter is seen exiting his school and walking onto the playground for the lunch break. He walks around the grounds, alone, looking at all the groups of friends playing together. He sighs with sadness discretely, but then shrugs this off and sighs with frustration. Now annoyed, he his way to a blonde eight year old girl, who is sat by herself on a bench underneath a tree crying. He sits beside her and asks why she’s crying, but she ignores him and shuffles away. “Why are you crying?” he repeats, slightly louder. She doesn’t reply, she just keeps on crying. He stands up from the bench and towers over the young girl “I asked you a question!” he yells angrily. The little girl continues to ignore him and keeps on crying. Frustrated, he shoves her, causing her to look up at him with fear. “You gonna answer me now?” he asks. The frightened little girl simply stands up and begins to walk off, wiping away her tears. “Hey!” he yells angrily, grabbing her shoulder and stopping her from leaving. “Let go of me” she says meekly. “Oh now you talk to me?! I was trying to be nice!” he growls. “Please leave me alone” she says innocently, trying to escape his grasp. “I’ll let you go when you frickin’ answer my question you…you idiot! Why were you crying!?” he asks, becoming more and more frustrated. “I d-don’t want to talk about it” she sniffs through her tears. She manages to release herself from his clutch and begins to walk away quickly, but Joe has none of it. “Hey! Don’t walk away from me!” he yells as he runs towards her and pushes her to the ground. She lets out a roar of pain as the skin on her arms is scraped off by the gravel. At first Joe is in shock at the sight of blood, but then smiles, feeling empowered. Noticing some of the girl’s friends coming over to help her, Joe decides to make a dash for it before he’s caught. However, the moment he turns around he bumps into a tall figure towering over him with crossed arms. “Principal Hall…” he says guiltily, knowing his attack was just witnessed. “My office, now.” Principal Hall says angrily before walking back inside; Joe following shortly behind.

Back in the present, Joe is sat in the driver’s seat nervously driving the car, unable to keep in a straight line. Rena tries to coach the young boy, telling him to remain calm and stay focused on the road. Joe continues to drive, but when he’s unable to keep in a straight line, he gets frustrated and slams on the brake…or what he thinks is the brakes. The car suddenly picks up rapid speed, terrifying Joe so much he hides behind his hands. Rena instantly jumps in and grabs the steering wheel before managing to slam on the brakes. When the car stops, everyone is panting nervously so Joe turns to them and timidly says “Sorry…”. Rena signals for Joe to get out of the driver’s seat and then he takes over driving. The group continue driving and finally arrive in the state of Texas, as indicated by a sign. A few minutes after arriving in Texas, Joe asks if they can pull over for a quick break. Rena obliges and pulls onto the side of the road. The young boy gets out, finds a small bush to stand behind, and pees.

Meanwhile, in the secret base that Valentina is in, the woman herself walks down a large corridor; the walls and floor are a beautiful pure white. Dressed in a black suit, Valentina struts down the hall until she reaches a door guarded by an armed man. Without speaking to the man, Valentina pulls out an identification card, showing it to him. “Miss Morales” he nods, opening the door for her. She walks inside the room, revealing a large computer. She switches it on and is instantly connected to a video call with two men. They’re also dressed in suits. “Miss Morales, how are you today?” one of them asks, not really interested in her response. Val doesn’t reply, she just smiles at them. “How can we help you?” the second man asks, so Valentina explains that the group are travelling on Route 66 and recently arrived in Texas. “I want you to keep track of them, follow them, observe their activity and report back to me. I want to make sure Joshua Bennett has completed his task” she adds. “We shan’t disappoint” the first man assures his boss. “Matt. Noah” she says, dismissing them. The monitors turn to black and then Val smiles to herself before rubbing her necklace, a golden chain with the letter “M” on it. The same necklace that Joanna found in her home the night Sebastian was murdered.

Back on Route 66, the group have started to drive again. Joe has taken the wheel as he feels a bit more confident and calm than before. Soon enough, Rena feels confident enough to let Joe drive on his own, so moves to the back of the van to talk with other people. A foul smell suddenly overwhelms the van and everyone groans in disgust as they realize Rocky has pooped all over himself. They all turn their attention to the dog, leaving a grossed out Joe to drive the car on his own. When a small dirt road leading off of the main road appears ahead, he figures it’ll be harmless fun to explore, so begins to drive down it. Nobody notices that he’s taken a different turn. After managing to clean up to poop, the adults don’t even notice that they’re on a different road because everything looks the same… That is except the road they’re on leads straight to an old fashioned farm house that looks like it has seen better days. “What is this?” Josh asks Joe, confused. Joe explains that he thought it’d be fun to take a quick detour, causing Josh to sigh with frustration and explain that they’re on a tight schedule. He tells Joe to turn the car back around, so the young boy agrees, however, as he goes to turn, the engine cuts out. “Great…” Ben sighs. “It won’t start” Joe explains as he tries to get the van going. Josh and Ali leave the car and lift up the hood to investigate and when the former looks inside, he kicks the van in frustration. He explains to the rest of the group that the engine is falling apart and it could take a good few hours to fix. “Why don’t we ask whoever lives here for help? Maybe they can call a mechanic” Liz suggests. As the group talk about the engine, Mary realizes this is her one chance to escape from them so she sneakily steps further and further away, disappearing in to the trees. Josh tells Liz to go to the house, which is a few hundred meters away, with Ben and Joe so they can ask for help. They agree, although some aren’t as willing as others, and begin to head towards the house, leaving Josh and Ali to fix the engine. A short distance away, Joe, Ben and Liz walk towards the desolate farm house, becoming more and more nervous as they approach its mouldy walls. The cockerel shaped wind vane on the top of the house slowly spins in the gentle breeze of the air, creaking as it moves slightly, sending shivers down the spines of the trio. They look around for signs of life, but all they can see are dried up crops, rusting tools and vehicles…and a shiny new axe wedged into the stump of a tree trunk. They approach the door and Liz cautiously knocks on it. After a few moments of waiting, a man answers, greeting them simply with a smile. Meanwhile, Mary is still walking through the trees. As she gets further and further away from the van, she begins to pick up more and more speed. She then smiles once she realises that she’s free from them, but her smile soon turns into a look of pure fear when a man grabs her from behind, covering her mouth so she cannot scream. As she kicks, struggles and tries to scream, he drags her away, even further from the van.

In a flashback, Joe is sat in the office of Principal Hall with his arms crossed as he looks down at his feet nervously. The little girl is sat just outside the office, having a quick talk with the principal. When he’s finished talking to her, he enters his office and makes his way to his desk. “Well…where exactly do we start…?” he wonders awkwardly, Joe merely shrugs at the principal. “Well, perhaps you can tell me what happened between you and Catherine” the principal suggests. Joe explains that he was trying to be nice to the little girl but she was rude and verbally abusive to him and when she got physical he defended himself. “You felt the need to defend yourself against an eight year old girl?” the principal asks. “I don’t take no chances sir, I treat everybody as my equal and I treat them the way they treat me” the kid explains. “Ah, I see” the principal says sarcastically. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Principal Hall decides to break the news. “Look, here’s the thing. Catherine is going through a rough time at the moment” he explains. “Look, we all have our problems! That doesn’t give you the right to be a major d-bag!” Joe snarls. “Mind your tongue!!” the principal screams, slamming his fist on the desk. “I do not care for your pre-pubescent problems! So you haven’t got any hair in places that the other boys do, big woop! Catherine recently lost her parents in a tragic accident and she is going through her stages of grieving. She is a poor little girl who has lost everything in her life and people like you are not making it any easier for her”. “People like me?” Joe asks, offended. “Carpenter, you’re a bully. You’re nothing but a bully who picks on those weaker than them to make themselves feel better” the principal explains. Joe is shocked. “And if I found out you’ve been bothering Catherine again, you will be expelled from this school faster than you can spell expelled!” the principal says in a threatening tone. Joe is left in shock. “Do you understand?” he asks, Joe nods. “You may leave now” Principal Hall tells the student, who does as instructed. He walks out of the office and walks past the injured Catherine, who is having her arms attended to by a nurse. He doesn’t say a word to her and she doesn’t even acknowledge him. Once he makes it around the corner, he stops and smiles, happy with this knowledge he discovered about Catherine.

Back in the present, Joe, Ben and Liz have entered the stranger’s house. They walk into the living room and the man offers them a seat on his sofa and they oblige thankfully. The man offers his guests some tea, so Liz stands up and offers to make it, but he tells her it’s alright and he’ll do it. “Oh, well thank you” Liz says, sitting down. “No worries. Oh, and the phone is over there,” he says, pointing at his home phone, “Miss…?” he inquires. “Rachel Matheson” she replies instantly. “Nice to meet you Rachel, I’m James” the man smiles before moving into the kitchen. Ben walks up to the phone and then looks through the yellow pages to find a mechanic’s number. When he finds one he dials it and waits for an answer, but he doesn’t get one. “The fucking phone doesn’t have any signal” he grunts. “Try another number” Joe suggests, annoying Ben, who insists it won’t work…but he tries anyway. He tries three different numbers for mechanics and none of them work. “Stupid piece of shit technology” he moans, slamming the phone down into its holder. With that, James returns to the living room with a tray of tea prepared for his guests. Having overheard the bang, he asks if everything is alright, but Liz explains that his phone seems to be broken. “Oh, right, sorry, that phone hasn’t been working for quite some time. Try that one” he says, pointing at another home phone at the other side of the room. Ben, Liz and Joe take a sip from their teacup before Liz walks towards the second phone and begins dialling a number. “No, this isn’t working either” she tells him. James looks stumped. “Well boy howdy, I don’t understand what’s going on” he shrugs. A shuddering sight soon catches Joe’s eye. He notices that the wires on both of his phones have been cut, disallowing any use of them. He stands up quickly and nervously states that they should get back to the car since they can’t call a mechanic, but James tells him not to be silly and finish his tea. Liz notices the concern in the young boy’s face and realizes something isn’t right, so agrees with him, insisting that they should leave. As they all head to the door, Ben stops for a moment as he gets an odd feeling. “What’s wrong?” Liz asks. Ben shakes his head and tells her he’s fine, but as he begins walking again, he collapses to the floor unconscious. Soon Liz begins to feel drowsy and then she falls to the floor and then finally Joe begins to feel drowsy. As he drops to the floor and drifts out of consciousness, he looks at the teacups and realizes he’s been drugged. He then drowsily watched as a blurred figure of James slowly walks towards him and stands atop of him. Blackness.

Back in a flashback, Catherine is seen sat in the cafeteria eating food with her friends. Joe is sat a short distance away, alone, watching her with angry eyes. As she stands up to collect more food, he sneaks past her chair and drops pudding on the seat, so when she returns, she sits in it and ruins her dress. A few days later, the same thing happens, except this time, she sits down on a thumbtack. When she sits on the pin she jumps up, howling in pain. The whole school turn their attention to the girl who begins crying and they all laugh at her. Joe smiles with victory. The next week, Catherine walks up to her locker and opens, causing a heap of dirt to fall out and on top of her head. Again, the whole school turn and begin laughing at her. A few days after the dirt incident, Catherine cautiously approaches her locker, not wanting to have a face full of dirt again. She opens it and is relieved to find there is no dirt inside, but something even more horrible lies within. She picks up a small photo that had been placed inside and burst out crying. She drops the photo on the floor and runs away to cry. We see that the photo is a picture of Catherine’s parents photo shopped to look like zombies. Joe smiles yet again. These cruel pranks continue on and on for a couple of weeks until it becomes clear who is in charge of them… and Joe ends up being expelled from the school by Principal Hall.

At first there is darkness and then there is a dim light glowing in the corner from a small table lamp. Joe uncomfortable opens his sore eyes and finds himself tied to a chair in what appears to be the basement of the house. He looks to his left and sees Liz and then to his right, seeing Ben. They’re both already awake and gagged, struggling to escape from the chair they’re tied to. They look at each other with fear and continue wiggling about. They suddenly stop and freeze with horror as they hear footsteps come down the creaky stairs. James enters the basement and stands before his victims, smiling creepily at them. He looks Ben dead in the eyes and then licks his lips. Disgusted, Ben manages to move his gag out of his mouth and spit in his captors face. James wipes the spit off with his hand and then smiles at Ben before licking it gleefully. Ben gives James a look of pure repulsion. The captor leaps forward and kicks Ben in the chest, knocking him to the floor, before moving on to the next victim. He stands head on with Joe and crouched forward to be level to his face. The gross man leans forward and begins sniffing the child, causing Joe to cry uncontrollably. All the other two can do is watch as James tortures his captives. He kicks Joe in the chest too, knocking him over, before moving to his final victim, Liz. “Oh. You’ll do” he drools, grabbing her and knocking her to the floor. As she’s still tied to the chair, he pulls down her trousers and raises her shirt, revealing her breasts. Ben begins to struggle even harder to break free and help the girl, but he’s unable to escape so watches helplessly as the fat gross man thrusts his penis into her vagina viciously. He thrusts awkwardly into her, as she’s lying on the floor and sat on the chair, but manages to satisfy himself enough to the point of ejaculation. Liz can’t help but cry through her gag. James stands up and carelessly shows off his penis dripping with sperm. Joe and Ben look away with pure disgust and Liz turns her head away from them, ashamed and in pure shock. “That was good” he smiles simply, “But I think I can do better. Tighter” he says, turning to Joe. The child’s eyes widen with horror.

Meanwhile, outside the house, it’s starting to get dark as Josh and Ali work on the engine. As they bicker over how to fix it, Rena approaches them both and points out that the trio have been inside the house for a while and suggests somebody going to check on them. Ali puts down her tools and offers to go, but as she sets off walking, Josh realizes something. “Where’s Mary?” he asks. Ali, Rena and Joanna look around the area and see no sign of the girl. “Son of a bitch” Josh huffs, “She’s done a sweet escape there” Joanna laughs. Unamused, Josh tells the fat black woman that this is serious and they need to find Mary. A stressed out Josh tells Ali to go check the house and tells Joanna and Rena to go and find Mary. “Make sure you find her” he states very clearly. The three people go and do their things, leaving a frustrated Josh to fix the engine. He sighs. A short while later, Ali knocks on the front door of the house numerous times, but she gets no answer. “Hello?” she yells, hoping for a response. “Liz? Ben? Joe?” she shouts, but she doesn’t get a response. After knocking a final time, she decides to enter the house. She carefully steps inside and looks around to see if she can see anybody. She makes her way into the living area and sees the tea set laid out, but there’s no sign of anybody. She scratches her head “Hello?” she calls out again. Meanwhile, down in the basement, as James is about to shove his cock into Joe’s asshole, he hears the floorboards above him creaking. He pulls up his pants and then pulls out a pocket knife before heading back upstairs. Joe, Ben and Liz are left on the floor, tied to the chairs in agony, both emotional and physical. Back in the living room, Ali continues to look around and she suddenly gasps when a hand grabs her from behind, placing a knife to her throat. “What’re you doing in my house, missy?” he whispers threateningly. Ali nervously explains that her car broke down and her friends came to phone a mechanic but she hasn’t seen them in a while. “Oh…you’re with them” he realizes, throwing her to the ground. He smiles at the pretty girl on the floor before him and licks his lips before proceeding to pull down his pants. Bang. Ali pulls out her gun and shoots him in the chest. He falls to the ground dead. She stands up, dusts herself off and then towers over his body before shooting him five more times, including in the head and penis. Unfazed, the blonde continues her search for her friends and she eventually finds the basement. She rushes down and is horrified to see her friends tied up on the floor. She unties Liz and asks her what happened, but the ginger screams at the top of her lungs and charges out of the house, avoiding contact with anyone. She proceeds to untie Joe and Ben and then asks them what happened. Joe bursts out crying and Ben simply shakes his head, indicating that something horrible happened. Ali looks towards the stairs that Liz ran up and it suddenly occurs to her what happened.

In a flashback, Joe is sat in his bedroom playing violent video games when there is a sudden knock at the door. When nobody answers the door, it knocks again, but even louder. “Mom, get that!” Joe yells, annoyed that he is being interrupted during his gaming time. His mother doesn’t respond or answer the door, so it knocks again; this time aggressively and followed by “Police! Answer the door!”. Confused, Joe heads downstairs and opens the door to an officer. Officer Balk. “Are you Joseph Carpenter?” Balk asks the child. A puzzled Joe confirms his identity and is instantly handcuffed by the officer. “Joseph Carpenter you are arrested for the battery of an eight year old girl. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…” the officer explains, telling Joe his rights. However, the young child takes in none of this information as he’s in complete and utter shock. A tear falls from his eye. Meanwhile, in the hospital, we are shown Catherine lying in a bed. Her face is badly bruised and scratched and her arms and legs are full of cuts. She sleeps peacefully with all the lifesaving equipment around and connected to her.

Back in the present, everybody except Mary is gathered around the van, which Josh has managed to fix. Liz is sat inside the van, curled in a foetal position, crying to herself quietly. Rocky limps towards her and lies beside her, keeping her company. Outside, the group are just left in an awkward silence, but Josh decides he must break it to discuss the Mary issue. “What are we going to do about her…she’s long gone” he states. Rena explains that he couldn’t find any trace of her or any track, so guessing where she went to will be impossible. “What if that man got her” Joe supposes timidly. “I searched the house, I saw no sign of her” Ali explains. “I says we just leave her. Bitch didn’t even wanna be rescued anyway” Joanna adds, which Ben agrees to. Josh angrily tells the black woman that they can’t and won’t leave without her. “Why do you even care so much?” a confused Ben wonders. “Because I need her!” Josh shouts. Joanna points behind Josh, towards the direction of the trees “Well there she is” she shrugs. The shocked group turn to see Mary walking towards them. “Where have you been?!” Ali asks, but Mary doesn’t reply. “Mary…?” she asks, confused. They notice the girls face and that it appears to be highly disturbed. Then then look slightly lower and see that her hands are covered in blood. And it’s not her blood.