[Years ago.]
[A young boy and his friend walk through a meadow in the Groves. They’re chatting, frolicking, and playfully goading one another when one abruptly falls into an open well.]
“Sam, are you okay?”
[The young boy shouts down to his friend.]
“I’m stuck! I think my leg is broken. There’s no way I’m getting out of here, Mal.”
[Mal peers over the edge, seeing nothing but darkness.]
Mal: “We shouldn’t have been out here. You know what Isaiah will do if he finds out we ventured from the cocoon.”
Sam: “I know.”
[Mal thinks about it for a minute.]
Sam: “You’re gonna have to go and get him, Mal. He’ll know what to do. My leg really hurts.”
[Torn between two evils, Mal sits on the edge of the well with his legs dangling over. His best friend sits injured at the bottom.]
Mal: “I can’t…”
[As he sits with his friend yelling below, a figure appears over his left shoulder.]
“If you go back to Isaiah with the truth, you’ll be whipped until you bleed. He’ll beat you for your lack of discipline. You’re not supposed to be out this far, boy.”
Mal: “I know.”
“This is your moment. Your choice. Isaiah always tells you about the demon within and how every boy must take his opportunity to become a man. You sit on the precipice of manhood. Choose.”
[Mal stands up and peers over the edge one last time. He sighs.]
Mal: “I’m sorry Sam. If I go back to the cocoon with the truth, he’ll kill us. You know what he always says, right? You’re a boy until you choose to become a man. If I go back to him with my tail between my legs then I’m a boy.”
Sam: “What kind of man leaves his best friend to die!?”
[Mal frowns.]
Mal: “This one.”
[The present.]
Malakai Midnight: “Welcome to the midnight hour, my little hours.”
[Malakai sits in front of his owls.]
Malakai Midnight: “There comes a time when every boy must choose to become a man. He must choose to do the difficult thing and shed his boyhood exterior. When my friend Sam fell down that hole, I could’ve saved him.”
[He shakes his head.]
Malakai Midnight: “I could’ve pulled him from perdition at great cost to myself and been his hero – only to do that, I’d have to sacrifice myself. I had to make the hard choice, little owls.”
[He pats one on the head.]
Malakai Midnight: “Destructo Boy, you too have a choice to make. Your father has fallen down a hole of despair and you stand upon the precipice of that journey with a decision in hand. You could reach down and pull him from perdition, and remain the boy he’ll always see you as…”
[Malakai smiles.]
Malakai Midnight: “Or you could walk away a man.”
Malakai Midnight: “You could leave him there to perish, refuse to suffer fools or consequences and move into manhood. Mark Hayes did it at Lambs to the Slaughter when he abandoned Raven like the fool he is. I did it as a boy, too. Now look at me, I’m a man. ”
Malakai Midnight: “Why don’t you join me? We’ll have a hoot.”