**Voice Sheet – Café in Alborn, MN** *Ambience: Light café chatter, coffee machine hissing, faint autumn wind outside* --- **Hunter:** (gruff, direct) Excuse me—miss? You’ve been in town a few days now, right? Seen anything… strange lately? Around the old orchard trail? People have gone missing. Just trying to piece things together. **Melanie:** (nervous, speaking rapidly in accented German, clutching her camera) Ich… ich verstehe nicht! Was sagen Sie? Ich war im Wald—gestern—ich habe Fotos gemacht… Da war etwas… ein Geräusch… wie ein Kind… aber niemand war da. Und dann—diese Spuren im Laub… sie führten ins Nichts! *(I… I don’t understand! What are you saying? I was in the woods—yesterday—I was taking photos… There was something… a sound… like a child… but no one was there. And then—those tracks in the leaves… they led nowhere!)* **Hunter:** (confused, leaning back slightly) Uh… I don’t—look, I can’t understand a word you’re saying. German, right? I need you to slow down. English? Do you speak any English at all? **Melanie:** (frustrated, gesturing with her camera, voice trembling) Nein! Ich spreche kein Englisch! Aber im Wald—hier!—ich habe es gefilmt! Schauen Sie! *(No! I don’t speak English! But in the woods—here!—I filmed it! Look!)* *(She fumbles with her camera, pulls up a grainy video: rustling leaves, a blur between the trees, a faint whimper. She shoves the screen toward Hunter.)* **Hunter:** (eyes narrowing, watching the footage intently) Hold on… Play that again. *(He leans in. The video loops: a momentary shadow, too tall to be a child, bending strangely between two apple trees. Then—gone.)* **Hunter:** (muttering) That’s not right… not right at all. You see that? That thing—it moved wrong. **Melanie:** (urgent, switching back to German) Genau! Ich dachte, ich spinne! Aber es war real! Und heute—die Blätter waren verbrannt. Um einen Kreis herum. Wie… wie ein Ritual. *(Exactly! I thought I was going crazy! But it was real! And today—the leaves were burned. In a circle. Like… like a ritual.)* **Hunter:** (shaking his head) I wish I could follow what you’re saying. But I believe you’re scared. And that footage? I’m not forgetting it. *(His phone buzzes loudly. He pulls it out, answers sharply.)* **Hunter:** Hunter. What? *(Listens, face hardening.)* Another one? Where? The east orchard? Same area as the others. *(Glances at Melanie, then back to the phone.)* Yeah. I’ve got a lead. Be there in ten. *(He hangs up, looks at Melanie with unexpected gravity.)* **Hunter:** I gotta go. But stay out of the woods. Stay in town. You got that? *Stay.* *(He taps his badge, then points firmly at her, then at the ground—like a command. Turns and strides out.)* **Melanie:** (softly, in German, clutching her camera like a shield) Aber… was ist da draußen? *(But… what is out there?)* *—End Scene—*