The Sleeping Deep - 1-page Synopsis

by

Jeffrey Blake Palmer

KEVIN (27) and JENNIE (25) are camping in Maine. He presents an engagement ring and Jennie accepts. That night, Jennie is drawn to Dexter Lake where tendrils pull her into its depths.

PRESENT DAY… CHARLOTTE (26) is struggling at her publishing job in Providence, Rhode Island. Her boss BARBARA (50) demands that she prove herself by reporting on backwoods New England. At home, Charlotte finds another literary rejection letter in the mail. She falls asleep and we enter Dreamscape, where Kevin pledges his soul to the demon spirit Fashtanak for Jennie’s return. Kevin awakens from this shared Dreamscape in a public library. The staff call for help. At Portland, Maine hospital, psychiatric nurse JANICE (55) visits Kevin, who has been "hearing voices" since Jennie’s drowning.

In Maine, Charlotte catches word of Hokum Bog. At Stony Hill Folk Museum, she meets old-timer STONY HILL (65), who directs her to Foes End. Before leaving she photogprahs a newspaper clipping headline: Drowned Victim Retrieved From Lake. At Foes End, she visits Lakeview Inn, an eerie spot with no one save the unfriendly proprietors, HAROLD (50) and EFFIE (60). Charlotte asks Effie about the "drowned victim" but gets only vague answers. That night while sleeping she is visited by an eel-like demon-creature with inky black tendrils.

At his room, Janice finds Kevin unresponsive with a strange symbol carved on his chest. In his Dreamscape… he chases Jennie, then Charlotte, then a demon-beast. Charlotte awakens from the same dream, no longer at the Inn. In fact, she finds it boarded up, vacant. In Providence, she suffers from nausea that baffles her doctor. Searching the web for Dexter Lake, she spots a photo of Kevin: the man from her dreams… and discovers that Harold and Effie committed double-suicide in 1978.

Janice decides she owes it to Kevin to check out his story. In Dreamscape, Kevin watches Charlotte pull a baby demon from Jennie’s womb. Charlotte awakens and knows she must return to Foes End. In Somerset County, Janice speaks with SGT. DEMERS (45), who sends her to see Stony Hill. Stony shows Janice a giant eel skeleton, tells of the Maknaki Indians and the legends of Dexter Lake. In Dreamscape, Kevin fights the demon MAZIMUS, but is defeated. Stony and Janice find Charlotte unconscious next to Jennie’s grave with "the symbol" on her stomach. Stony has an idea.

At "That Healing Feeling", spiritual counselor NELLIE (50) enters Charlotte’s "mind line" and saves her from Fashtanak. This resuscitates Charlotte, claiming she saw Kevin die in her dream. Janice gets a call: Kevin is dead. Nellie must take Charlotte and Janice to Hobbs Island via canoe while Stony goes to his museum to collect the tools needed for an ancient ritual exorcism.

Effie releases dozens of "Sosk" creatures into the night. On Hobbs Island, Stony joins the others… the Sosk follow. During the ritual, Charlotte disappears in a flash of light and enters "The Otherside" as a Maknaki Demon Warrior where she fights a demon (formerly Kevin) while our heroes fight off the Sosk with Maknaki weapons. Warrior Charlotte slays another demon (formerly Jennie). The Fashtanak rises from the lake and explodes into harmless rain. Charlotte re-appears to discover that they have beaten the evil lake spirit. The following day, Sgt. Demers finds the remains of Jennie and countless others at Lakeview Inn.

ONE YEAR LATER… Charlotte, now a successful novelist, is signing her new book, "The Sleeping Deep". That night, while dreaming… off the coast of Maine, Nellie rows into the bay and conjures up an enormous tentacle, which thrusts her into the ocean deep. The nightmare is not over.