I’m not … You can’t just kidnap people off the street like this. My friends will find me. I’m not some …

sack of meat …

CAPTOR (O.C.)

Who will find you, darling?

White Fox feels along the walls for a seam.

WHITE FOX

You can’t just dress me up and subject me to this. You’re evil.

CAPTOR (O.C.)

Am not. I’m neither bad nor good. I ride the changing tides. As should you.

A CRACKLE over the intercom.

CAPTOR (O.C.) (CONT’D)

They are here.

LOUDSPEAKER clicks off.

A hidden door CREAKS open. White Fox glances up.

INT. GENTLEMAN’S CLUB / AUCTION ROOM—NIGHT

Captor, androgynous, manicured hands folded, speaking to swarthy men in the shadows: CLIENTS who have come to bid on the latest prize, White Fox. She is visible through dark glass, seated on a chair. Heavily made up and clearly sedated.

CLIENT 1

You were right. She’s quite special. Looking a bit worse for the wear, though.

CAPTOR

I assure you she still tells the most charming stories.

Clients confer. Grumbles of disagreement.

CLIENT 1

Is she not … too well-known, in our former circles?

CAPTOR

She is forgotten by everyone who matters. Forgotten, yet still biting, as her name suggests.

White Fox blinks slowly behind the glass.

CAPTOR

I’ll take first bids in five minutes.

Clients confer among themselves, watching White Fox through the glass beside them as she groggily adjusts her hair.

CAPTOR (V.O.)

Oh, what will become of you, dear White Fox?

Captor exits into the hall.

Captor opens WHITE FOX’s red purse and looks through the contents.

CAPTOR (V.O.)

You say you are strong, but I know you cannot stomach the polluted mess in the mirror. Cannot reconcile it with the beautiful fantasy world you created around yourself.

Captor examines a pair of calfskin gloves, a wallet. Captor finds photographs.

CAPTOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)

A world of unbridled hope, of answered prayers, of selfless goodness, of smiling children—

Captor flips through photographs, finding one of smiling children. Two girls, beautiful girls, their identities unknown.

CAPTOR (V.O.)

How sweet the photograph was, inside your ruined red purse.

Captor reenters chamber with clients inside and watches White Fox, now stone-faced.

CAPTOR (V.O.)

Evolve or die, White Fox, dear. Evolve or die.

INT. GENTLEMAN’S CLUB / AUCTION ROOM—LATER

Clients and Captor sitting in darkness, during the auction. Plumes of cigar smoke.

CLIENT 2

(to CAPTOR)

I’ll take her, I said. No matter the cost.

INT. GENTLEMAN’S CLUB / CELL—LATER

After the auction. White Fox is alone. She screams. She beats on the ground, on the walls, on her own flesh.

She looks once more at her ruined reflection on the mirrored walls.

WHITE FOX

(to reflection)

I suppose I’ll have to save myself.

INT. GRAND OLD HOME / BEDROOM—NIGHT