A young girl attempts to escape her home, which is plagued by domestic violence

SYNOPSIS:

A young girl, EMILY (12y.o.) listens to music through headphones while her parents argue heatedly in the background. She dreams of escaping her abusive household, and imagines herself free, on a beach somewhere. Her fleeting, imaginative escape ends when her FATHER (30s) begins beating her MOTHER (30s).

The following day, Emily is eating cereal, while her mother, with a bruised and battered face is doing the dishes. Emily’s father arrives home, and gives her mother a red ROSE by way of apology. Emily’s narration muses how he brings her mother a rose after every instance of domestic violence, and as a result Emily hates roses, seeing nothing but thorns. She asks to be excused, and as she leaves, she steals $20 from her mother’s handbag, and places it in a hidden box that holds a lot of money she has been saving to help fund her escape from the home.

Another day, and her parents get into another argument.

Sensing that the argument will descend into violence (as it always does), instead of putting her headphones on, Emily decides to enact her escape plan. She goes to her room and begins packing a bag of her things, which includes the stolen money.

After he’s finished beating Emily’s mother, her father leaves. Having waited for his departure, Emily heads downstairs to find her mother cowering in a corner, horribly beaten. She tells her mother that she’s leaving, and her mother lets her without question.

Emily gets in an Uber and leaves her house. We discover she has fled to a beach, and as she exits the Uber and walks towards the beach, we can tell she is finally free.