On board a yacht, "The Star Bird," Mara Guerdon is woken by a mysterious white light that washes over her. She's frozen in place and gasps for air, as if the light exerts some kind of psychic force. Pulling free of it, she darts to the bathroom, retching. Shining a penlight into her eye, she's horrified to see a light still slowly receding in her pupil like some tide. Shaken, Mara skypes with Ty Bushnell, her rehab sponsor. He's guiding her through the final stages of OxyContin withdrawal. She's confined herself to the boat, taking meds to mitigate her addiction, and she assumes the nightmare she just experienced was a side effect.
Mara is traveling to the Virgin Islands to meet her fiance, Riley Johns. They're planning to dive to explore a shipwreck. As she makes landfall to rendezvous with him, we learn she's a sharpshooter who survived the horrors of Fallujah. She was discharged from the military for stealing oxy from a base.
Sailing on The Star Bird, Mara shows Riley photos of The Advena, the Civil War era wreck which was carrying silver when it sank. She's wearing a necklace with a doubloon she and Riley found from the ship. They estimate there are millions in undiscovered treasure, but there's a ticking time clock on their efforts - an approaching tropical storm. That night, she wakes, bewitched by noises she's hearing where they've set anchor. Her pupil appears to dilate again and she's assaulted by someone or some thing that smashes her face into the mirror!
Mara comes to - Riley's banging on the bathroom door. They're both shocked to see she has shards of glass from the mirror embedded in her cheek. After they treat her wounds, she relates the incident to Ty (via Skype again), and there's some suspicion that side effects from her withdrawal have her acting against her own self-interest. She insists that she didn't, but Riley and Ty argue she must have locked herself in the bathroom. Ty instructs Riley to do a search on his fiancee for her own good, and he discovers a pinprick between her toes (though he keeps this a secret from Ty). Ty relates that if she's using, a telltale sign is the shrinkage of her pupils. Her eyes are small in the light, but not "pinpricks" as Ty has described. While Riley administers a drug test, which she passes, Mara notices a flesh wound on his hand, building some of her own suspicion toward him, though he tells her that it's from digging the glass out of her face.
The couple sails to San Juan to have the dosage on Mara's meds changed. Dr. Stans explains that it's unlikely she'd be having any hallucinations from the meds, but it's a possibility. Riley is dismayed to discover that Mara didn't tell him she had ovarian cancer before she met him; trust seems to be eroding between them.
Resuming course toward the wreck, the storm is about a hundred miles off and Mara sees a ghostly figure displacing the rainfall. When she runs out to the deck to confront the apparition, it's dissipated. Riley assures her there are no stowaways and nothing to fear. But later, Mara sees a specter behind her in the mirror that actually reaches out to touch her arm.
2.
INT. THE STAR BIRD (YACHT) - BATHROOM - NIGHT
-- into the cramped bathroom space. Flips on the light and
faucet in a singular motion...
She splashes her face --
-- considers herself in the mirror. Her face, slick with a
sheen of sweat, almost aglow...
Suddenly, she launches herself to the toilet and --
RETCHES, heaving...settles herself and returns to the mirror.
She tugs at one eyelid, examining the white, the iris and
pupil of the eye.
She opens a drawer, rifles through toiletries, finds a
grooming kit and inside it -- a PEN LIGHT.
Mara shines the pen light into her eye, watches in the mirror
as her PUPIL CONTRACTS...
But deep within the black hole of the pupil, for a fraction
of a second, slithering light recedes...
EXT. THE STAR BIRD - FORE DECK - PRE-DAWN
The first lick of sunlight on the horizon. The sea's surface
placid, like a vast and perfect plain of glass.
Mara clutches a ceramic mug emblazoned with: "Keep Calm and
Carry On." The cat mews, curls around her legs...
EXT. THE STAR BIRD - FORE DECK - MORNING
THE STAR BIRD courses through crystalline water. Mara's at
the fore deck, a LAPTOP splayed open.
ONSCREEN -- TY BUSHNELL (40), black, shaved head, faded gang
tats snaking up his neck.
TY
-- I wouldn't lie to you, Mara.
It's not easy. The stats, the
rates of relapse. You know these
things...And I don't want to sound
defeatist. But odds are you will
relapse. It's just facts.
(pause)
How's the nausea -- ?
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