A Vigilante (2018)

1
I'm looking out the window,
and the trucks
won't stop coming.
My name is Andrea Schaund.
I live at 176 Hillside Terrace,
Kingston.
My husband's out of the house
on weekdays
between
8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.,
so it's safe to meet then.
But I have two children
who come home at 4:00,
and I don't want them
to get hurt.
He'll hurt them, if I leave.
We're gonna kick off
this liquid latex series
with a crow's-feet tutorial.
Making crow's-feet
is a great introduction
to wrinkle stippling,
which is one of my favorite
aging techniques.
You don't need to spend a ton
of money to do this.
The latex I'll be using goes
for about six dollars
at Halloween stores,
and you can get about...
The wife failed to inform me...
the insurance medical
was booked for today.
Make it quick.
Hello, Mr. Schaund.
Today you will do
the following three things.
You will sign this house
over to your wife.
You will transfer 75%
of your funds
to a bank account in her name.
And you will leave,
for good.
Who the hell are you?
Do you understand and agree
to these things, Mr. Schaund?
Are you a lawyer?
I know what
you do to her, Mr. Schaund,
and what you'll do to the kids
if she leaves.
Two hundred
and thirty-seven thousand...
four hundred
and sixty-five dollars.
Thanks for calling
CSO Security,
how may I help you?
Margaret Turner,
Human Resources, please.
- Hello?
- Margaret.
This is Michael Schaund,
from Finance.
Sorry, who?
Michael...
Schaund.
Okay, I can't talk right now.
You'll have to call back.
No, no, this can't wait.
I'm resigning.
If you bother her, or the kids,
or anyone they know, in any way,
I will kill you.
I want to kill you.
Get your stuff.
So, I just...
I just tell people he left me?
Mm-hm. For another woman.
No one will question it.
Keep going to Group, it'll help.
You can be honest
about everything except me.
Can I pass on your details?
If someone really needs it.
I can't promise to come in time,
not yet at least.
Thank you.
And do you have my note?
Oh. Uh...
If my number changes,
I'll let you know.
Thank you.
Take care of yourself.
I am.
[Celtic music plays
In Paddy Pallin's
name for his book,
Never Truly Lost,
just geographically,
temporarily dislocated.
Well, I met him at 16 years old.
I had a daughter
at the age of 17.
I moved in with him,
at his mother's house.
Everything was fine
until like a year later,
I started getting punched.
I left it alone,
never walked away,
never called the cops.
It started getting... He started
getting used to abusing of me,
because he saw I wasn't calling
no one for help or anything.
I left it alone because
I was young and in love,
until not too long ago.
My son was three...
I was at home working,
it was a Sunday.
I got home,
and my son ran to me crying,
telling me his father beat him.
When I checked the baby,
he had marks all over his body,
from a USB plug
that he abused of him.
I went to confront him about it,
he didn't say anything about it.
I called 911.
That was the first time
I ever called the cops on him.
I never called them
when he abused of me,
but once it got to my kids,
I wasn't gonna let it happen.
Which they sent me into a
domestic violence shelter...
Even though I went
into the shelter,
I was still planning
on going back to him.
Because I was 16 when
I first met him, so it was like,
that's all I knew, was him.
So, I started meeting new people
in the shelter,
going into counseling groups,
just let me hearing
other people's stories,
and I felt like I had support
by other people
once I got in there.
And to this day,
I choose not to go.
I'm still with my two kids,
on my own...
The sea bed is dark,
and the sharks there may be,
but what scares the women most,
is Tomokazuki,
a mirror image of themselves
they see in the ocean deep.
The mirage will beckon you,
saying,
"Come with me, come further.
I'll give you more abalone."
But if you follow her,
you will never come back.
It can
be so very hard to accept
that someone so close to you,
someone who's supposed
to love you,
can brutalize and control you.
That brutality, that control
starts to breed worthlessness,
and that feeling
that you can't do any better.
And sometimes, we do.
We get that feeling that...
We can go.
We gotta get up outta there.
If we wanna go, we can go!
And then we get scared.
Start to feel
like there's no escape.
You're confused and not know
what's real and what's not real.
And there's something,
there's something inside of us,
something that we know
is down there,
and we recognize it, we all do.
That's how we got here.
We recognize that we have value.
And we reached up
and we reached out
and we got some help.
And we grabbed that freedom
and got outta there.
That's what's real.
That's real.
I'm looking out the window
and the trucks
won't stop coming.
My name is Charlene Jackson.
I live at 98 Scomen Road,
Gloversville.
He let me come
to the store with him,
this is a stranger's phone.
I gotta go.
...everybody,
and I will see you next time.
Take care. Bye-bye.
Hey, guys, last night,
I watched Valley of the Doll,
and I was, like, I have to do
something like that tomorrow.
I love all their makeup,
so I did a more...
Um... One of the more
dramatic looks from it.
So, if you like what you see,
stay tuned.
Fuck you!
Where are you gonna go?
Somewhere warm.
I don't know. Miami, maybe.
It's like all his hate makes
his love worth it.
Because we really had
to fight for it.
This is one fight it's okay
to give up on.
Well, wherever you go,
you better find
a new support group.
Yeah.
Let me give you some more cash.
I hate that
I have to take it at all.
What can I get for you?
Well, whiskey on the rocks.
Four bucks.
You're alone?
Yep.
Where can I get 40%?
Just here for a drink.
Hey, come back inside,
let me buy you a drink.
No, thanks.
Don't do that again.
I'm looking out the window,
and the trucks
won't stop coming.
This is Joyce Richards.
You helped me in March.
I'm not calling for me.
I'm calling because of
my friend's neighbor,
I think the kid there
really needs help.
If you're in town,
can you check on him?
The address
is 87740 Maiden Lane...
What do you want?
Do you need some help?
Do you have an appointment?
No, I...
I saw you at the store and I...
I thought you might need
some help.
My mom won't let my brother
out of his room.
He's in there.
Does that bathroom door
have a lock on the inside?
Good, I want you to go inside
and lock the door.
Are you going to hurt her?
Do you want me to get you
and your brother away from her?
Okay.
What the fuck are you...
Get the fuck off me!
Where's the key?
- You don't want this...
- Where's the key?
Get the fuck off me!
What's your name?
Sadie.
What's yours?
Zach.
And your brother?
He's Leon.
Zach.
The police are gonna come now,
with someone
from Child Services.
And they're gonna take
you and Leon
away from your mom.
It might be a little scary.
A lot of strangers
asking questions,
but this is your chance
for you guys to be safe.
Can't we just come with you?
I have to go.
You wouldn't be safe with me.
If anyone ever hurts you,
or Leon,
you tell someone.
You tell as many people
as you can.
If no one helps you...
You call this number here,
and I will help you.
Okay.
And don't...
Don't tell anyone my real name.
I know it's his weakness
but he really loves me,
like nobody, like, no one will.
Hey,
it's ground zero.
It's hard starting from scratch,
but it's good.
I have control over me
and my kids now.
It's my will.
Not his.
My will can't change anything.
What makes you say that, Sadie?
'Cause it's true.
Can you share your leaving story
with us?
We went on camping trips a lot.
Who's "We"?
Me, my husband and our son,
Cody.
What were the trips like?
Survivalist camping. It's...
We'd trek into the woods,
build our own shelter,
hunt and forage for food,
do our own first aid.
He would...
set my bones.
After he broke them.
When I broke the rules.
He never did it
in front of Cody, though.
He never hurt me
in front of him.
And I always used makeup
to cover anything.
And we protected him.
Did you tell anyone?
Your friends, family,
about the abuse?
No, I...
When we got married,
we moved away from my parents,
across the country.
And I was glad. I...
I don't have any friends.
If I wanted to socialize,
the money came out
of Cody's food budget,
so I just didn't go out.
And I wasn't allowed to work.
Because that's a husband's role.
I was a very good wife.
How long were you with him?
About ten years.
What made you leave?
He came home early.
Right after Cody got home
from school.
He was excited.
There was a new truck
in the driveway,
hooked up to our
camping trailer, and he was...
saying we were leaving.
We were gonna go
live off the grid,
like we always wanted.
He was more than excited,
he was...
manic.
Told me to go start packing.
Just the essentials.
"Now."
What did you do?
I panicked.
I went into Cody's room
and I said
that I needed to sneak out
to go get Dad a special present.
And would
he come with me?
He thought it
was a special mission.
We snuck out
through the kitchen,
through the laundry room.
And then out the back.
And we were almost
at the freeway.
And he...
cut us off,
and knocked me down,
and...
He had a knife on him.
And he just started slashing me
with it.
Slashing me with it.
And then Cody started screaming.
And he got up off me...
And then my boy
stopped screaming.
Can't change that.
You could hear
the trucks there, too.
Thank you, Sadie.
If it's okay with you, I would
like to end this session by...
by taking a moment
of silence for Janet.
All the women that died,
wanting out?
Men who died, wanting out?
Girls...
Boys...
Every graveyard is full...
of people that didn't make it.
And you sit here, alive,
and wasting.
It's disrespectful to them.
To the ones
that are gonna die today,
and gonna die tomorrow.
It's a massacre.
And all you can do is sit here
and read kids' books.
You have to fight back.
Even if...
Even if it kills you.
Is the bank still foreclosing?
Sale's in two weeks.
You need to go in and get out
any possessions you want
before then.
Good news is,
credit card companies
are reviewing your debt.
I'm fairly confident it'll all
get written off as fraud.
Do you know what he was buying?
Mainly supplementing
mortgage payments.
Until they cut him off.
And the life insurance policy?
Because your husband's missing,
not confirmed dead...
they won't pay out.
Hmm.
What's my best option?
From the state, I can get you
an immediate payment
of two-and-a-half grand.
That's the cost
of your son's funeral.
Dear Miss Beverly,
please destroy this letter
after you read it.
I know what I wanna do
with my life.
I wanna use it to help people
who can't escape.
I won't kill.
But I'll get them free
from the abuse quickly.
And for good.
Let me fight,
so they don't have to.
I'll ask for cash or food
in return,
whatever they can afford.
One day I hope
not to ask for anything.
I'll be out of contact
most of the time,
but it won't
be forever, either.
Instructions are at the bottom
of the page.
I know it's a risk
to pass them on and I...
I don't expect you to take it.
I used to be afraid that
the trucks won't stop coming.
But now, I welcome every one.
Thank you for helping me.
Sadie.
In Scarlet Town
Where I was born
There was a fair maid
dwelling
Made many a-poor
Cry a wild day
Her name was Barbara Allen
I saw you in the woods,
I thought you were a hunter.
I followed you for... for miles.
I don't even
really know why, I just...
Even when I saw you hid the car
the way we did...
I wasn't sure.
Until I saw your face.
Saw my girl.
But I don't know, Sades.
You still my girl?
Why'd you do that to your hair?
Hey.
You need to drink some water.
That's a lot of forest
you covered, Sades.
You've marked it off perfectly.
You been looking for me?
We gotta figure out
your head, Sades.
You messed it all up.
So, there is still
a heart in you.
You've been a bad person.
But it's okay.
Because I got you back now.
I got you back, Sadie.
I'm gonna go
get us something to eat.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Put your arm on the wood, Sades.
Sadie...
Put your arm on the wood.
Sadie!
Still can't believe
you're alive.
You gotta come home, Sades.
I love you.
I can't help it.
Even after all this...
I still love you.
I thought it was love you had.
But it's not.
It's need.
Desperate...
perverted...
- need.
- Sadie.
No.
I tried to hide from it.
And then I tried to run from it.
And now...
Now I'm gonna end it.
You're coming home.
You killed our boy.
You made me!
You made me do it!
You knew it'd be bad,
leaving me.
And you did it anyway.
You knew it'd be bad!
You made me...
You killed our boy...
because he saw the truth of you.
You killed our boy.
And now, I'm gonna kill you.
Glad the shelter
was able to find you.
Why did the police wanna see me?
The police may have found
your husband's body.
And they want you to go in
and identify it.
And what happened to him?
Well, the man did not die
of natural causes.
But there doesn't seem
to be any evidence.
And considering
his felon status,
I doubt they'll wanna
put more effort
into solving the case.
If it is him,
you'll need to account for
your whereabouts and schedule
during the second week
of February.
I can do that.
The good news
is that with a body,
his life insurance pays out.
Is there some way I can keep
in contact with you?
Email, telephone number?
Yeah, I made you
an email address.
I'm looking out the window,
and the trucks
won't stop coming.
My name is Eva Greenberg.
I live at 402...