Mom's Not Coming Back, Sweetheart

FADE IN on eighteen-year-old Molly (Riley Star), bleary-eyed and tousled from sleep, shuffling into the dim kitchen haze. Her stepdad Ken (Steve Holmes) hunches at the table, face etched in grim shadow. He lifts his gaze as she nears, voice low and measured: 'Sit down, kid. We gotta talk.' He eases the blow—her stepmom's bolted, vanished without a trace. Molly crumbles, tears hot and furious; Ken pulls her close, his embrace too tight, a predatory glint flickering in his eyes beneath the false solace. CUT TO TITLE Nights bleed into dread. Molly sprawls in her bed, breaths ragged in the stifling dark, when a scrape jolts her awake—relentless digging clawing from the yard beyond her window. It halts sharp, then the front door creaks open, slams shut. Heart pounding, she slips from sheets, creeps to her door. There—Ken in the hallway, frozen like cornered prey, dirt-caked shirt clinging to his sweat-slick frame, shovel gripped like a guilty secret. 'What the hell?' she gasps. He smirks through the lie: 'Just some midnight weeding, sweetheart.' WEEKS ON, shadows thicken. Molly eavesdrops, pressed to the wall as Ken murmurs to the insurance suit: 'She's gone for good—probably rotting somewhere.' Terror coils in her gut, face draining pale; she slides down, world fracturing. Off-screen, their voices drone on, banal chit-chat masking the abyss.