Trapped

Grace Adams, (mid 30’s), is a self-involved, award winning freelance photographer.
She resides in a modern, luxury Manhattan condominium where she keeps
everything clean and orderly at all times. She believes she has it all ---money, talent,
fame, superiority, and most of all, her exaggerated outwardly appearance that create
an impression for all to see. When she receives an invitation to a prestigious award
ceremony in her honor, it becomes the highlight of her life. This is sure proof that all
eyes will be on her. The news is so exciting that she forces herself to pay her
parents, Larry and Geraldine, a visit in a not-so-clean area in Queens. Grace arrives
one day before the ceremony and tells her parents the details of the award she’s to
receive. In turn, Grace’s parents remind her of their long awaited two-week cruise
that they are leaving for in a few days.
Grace’s perfect world takes a sudden change as she pays a visit to her parents on the
morning of their departure. She places her purse, car keys and cell phone on the
coffee table as she help her parents pack luggage in the taxi cab that awaits them.
Larry sends her in once more to retrieve an old pile of books that’s prompt against
the steel basement door to keep from closing. Mistakenly, Grace goes down into the
basement to search for the pile of books because she’s aware that books against the
basement door haven’t been removed since she was a child. Larry can no longer
wait so he comes in to retrieve the books himself, not realizing Grace is in the
basement. The heavy steel door suddenly slams shut then locks in place from the
outside. Larry makes a mental note to fix it when he returns. He exits.
Before long, Grace realizes that she’s trapped in her parent’s unsanitized, dingy
basement. She is trapped without a phone or food. As she wanders the basement,
she tries to stay in control believing that she won’t be stuck for long. “Oh, God, don’t
let no one see me this way”. She hears the sounds of mice scuffling in a nearby
corner. Panic starts to set in as she thinks back to the day her cousin dangled a dead
mouse in her face when she was young. Grace begins shaking as she watches the
goose bumps appear on her arm. As Grace backs away from the scuffling sounds,
she backs up against a dusty wall and it’s decaying plaster chips begins falling to the
floor. With the sounds of the falling plaster chips and the scuffling mice, her panic
intensifies. Grace runs to and from every corner of the basement in desperate need
of escape. She finds an old broom handle and begins desperately banging on the
only two windows protected by steel bars. The only response is the clinging sounds
echoing from the walls. Every hour that passes, she feels the walls closing in. Grace
repeatedly yells for help but she is still unheard. No one seems to be of earshot of
her cries. The basement walls are unrelentless in its pursuit against Grace. She runs
up the stairs to bang on the basement door while crying hysterically. She sits and
sobs for a while.
We are now in the next morning, the day of her ceremony, and sheer panic and
hysteria has set in. Grace is famished. Her makeup is now smeared and her
expensive clothing unkempt. There is still no sign of rescue. Her only comforts are
the sounds of an occasional car that passes by. Life still exists in the outside world.
Hours later, her appearance is barbaric. The walls have now ganged up on Grace and
refuses to back away. She laughs hysterically as she look through old family photos.
Finally, one of them catches her attention; her father using a tool to that opened the
locked door before. She draws on the little strength that she has and searches for the
tool. After she finds it, she applies it and it and it finally works.
She escapes the basement and run directly out onto the front lawn, taking in the
fresh air. Cameras flash while her colleagues try to present her the award. She
refuses them then lay and rolls in the grass in a very weak, but contented state