Critical Event Summary E04
 

Flashback 1998:
It’s Thanksgiving, and Anna and her parents pile into the car, ready for a trip to visit friends in another state. The mood is light, and Anna feels a buzz of excitement as they pull out of the driveway.

An hour into the journey, the sky grows dark, and rain begins to fall in steady streams. Anna’s father confesses he forgot the loaf of bread his wife had repeatedly asked him to bring—and to make matters worse, they’re already late. Their usual bickering sparks up, filling the car with sharp exchanges.

Anna tunes them out, her gaze fixed on the rain streaking down the window. The downpour intensifies, blurring the scenery outside. Then, out of nowhere, a loud noise pierces the air, and the car jerks. Anna’s father grips the wheel tightly, struggling to regain control as the car swerves on the slick road. With a firm press of the brakes, he manages to slow the vehicle and pull onto the shoulder.

The car is at a standstill, but the rain now pours relentlessly. They’ve gotten a flat tire. Anna’s father steps out, drenched within seconds, and begins trying to remove the tire, only to find the bolts stuck. Her mother, visibly frustrated, joins him in the rain to help.

From the back seat, Anna watches as tension brews between her parents. Each failed attempt at loosening the bolts seems to fan their irritation. Finally, her mother insists on taking over, waving her husband aside with an impatient gesture.

Her father, noticing Anna’s eyes on them, attempts to lighten the mood. He throws his hands up in exaggerated surrender and offers her a playful smile. Anna giggles as he steps back dramatically, pretending to retreat from her mother’s command.

Then, suddenly, he is illuminated by the blinding headlight of an oncoming truck.



 

Present:

Anna jolts awake, disoriented and aching. She lies tied up on the floor of a cabin as rain lashes against the windows. The boat pitches and rolls with the waves, and her stomach churns violently. The combination of pregnancy and seasickness leaves her on the brink of collapse.

When the storm begins to subside, Anna remains still on the floor, her breathing shallow. For the first time, she speaks to her baby. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she whispers, her voice trembling, “but I promise I’ll do everything I can.”

The door creaks open, and Eirikur steps in, one of his henchmen following close behind. His tone is icy as he demands the coordinates once again. Anna shakes her head, defiance flickering in her eyes—she knows giving them up will mean her death.

Eirikur smirks, his expression hardening. “Then you’ll get a taste of your husband’s medicine,” he says. He pulls a mask with a tube from his bag, lights the drug without hesitation, and forces it onto her face. Anna tries to hold her breath, but she can’t resist for long.

The fumes hit her instantly, and she’s hurled into another dimension. She steps out of her childhood car but realizes something is off—she’s watching from her father’s perspective. Rain streams down the windshield as she takes a few steps back, seeing herself smile in the passenger seat.

Then—BAM! Blinding headlights consume her vision before she’s flung into an endless void of darkness.
Anna claws her way back to consciousness, gasping for air. Her senses reel as she screams, but Eirikur, unfazed, lights the drug again. The void pulls her back, relentless.

This time, Anna has no choice but to surrender. She finds herself in a place where everything dissolves and reforms, where life and death converge. She is no longer Anna but an infinite, intangible presence—a space where her unborn child also exists. She dies but does not disappear. She is no longer a body, only a presence suspended in infinite space.

A black car winds through Thingvellir National Park. Inside sit Eirikur, his henchman, and a visibly defeated Anna, slumped against the window in the back seat. Her puffy, vacant eyes stare out—completely hollow. She has finally given in, and they are heading to the coordinates. Psychedelic flashbacks periodically pull her into a stupor.

When they stop, the henchman hauls out digging gear. They make their way to a hill where the dig begins. Eirikur, phone pressed to his ear, confidently assures his client that everything is proceeding as planned. With the henchman’s back turned and his tools within reach, Anna slowly regains lucidity. And in a tremendous effort, she seizes her chance,  grabs a pickaxe and strikes him from behind, driving it deep into the back of his skull. Eirikur, witnessing the final blow, freezes before trying to flee. But Anna, now armed with the henchman’s gun, fires, clipping him in the shoulder.

For the first time, Anna senses she has some control. Her exhaustion, hallucinations, and desperation to protect herself and her baby make her unhinged and dangerous. She walks a fine line between reality and delusion, tapping into a primal survival instinct that makes her capable of anything.

In a cold sweat and bleeding, Eirikur stumbles toward the car, clutching the dug-up suitcase. Anna follows, gun pointed at his back, and commands him to take her to his client. Eirikur complies. They drive across Iceland and board the ferry to the Westman Islands. On arrival, Anna forces Eirikur to continue driving until the client’s house comes into view.

Ascending a desolate road hundreds of meters above the Atlantic, they stop in front of the house. Eirikur, weakening from blood loss, pleads for Anna to call him an ambulance. She ties his wrists to the steering wheel and leaves him in the car.

Anna approaches the house, sneaking around to the garden, gun drawn. She hears laughter and freezes. On the enclosed veranda sits a man with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, all smiling and happy. Anna’s eyes lock on the daughter.

She stands still in the shadows as something inside her shatters—something final. She was ready for so many scenarios, but not this. Not walking into a family. The father is a Lawyer with an unassuming appearance and impeccable manners. Despite his seemingly ordinary demeanor, she realizes he’s the one. Then, suddenly, his eyes meet hers.

Anna steps out of the darkness, her gun pointed at the Lawyer. He tries to diffuse the situation, calmly offering her a seat at the table to eat, but Anna orders them to go inside. She forces the Lawyer to lock his wife and daughter in a room so they can talk in private.

Once eye to eye, The Lawyer explains to Anna that he can make everything disappear, that Anna can take the money intended for Jonas, and that they can consider the matter closed. He tells her it’s all just business for him and assures her he won’t hold anything against her if they part ways now.

For a moment, Anna considers that this could be a way out. She just wants it all to end, but deep down, she knows there’s only one way this will end for her. In a sudden and desperate attempt to overpower her, the Lawyer lunges at Anna. In that fraction of a moment, she makes the call and shoots him dead.

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As she leaves, the crushing realization hits Anna: she has done to another child what fate once did to her—left them fatherless, setting into motion the same trauma that shaped her own life. To the muffled screams of a dead man's wife and daughter, Anna stumbles off, back toward the car. There, she finds Eirikur motionless—he’s bled out. She opens the trunk and tosses the gun inside along with the bags of drugs already there, then shuts it again.

Putting the car into neutral, Anna pushes it off a cliff. Cradling her belly, she slumps down on the ground. In the distance, the sun begins to rise over the horizon.

Epilogue:

It’s peak fall in Pennsylvania. Leaves blaze orange and red against a bright blue sky. An elderly woman sits in a nursing home, staring out the window. Her tired, glazed eyes are unmistakably Anna’s.

A staff member introduces a young woman in her 30s, who steps into the room. The staff explains that Anna doesn’t understand much anymore and remembers little coherently. The young woman sits beside Anna and begins to speak, sharing her life story. She tells Anna she grew up in foster care and spent her adult life searching for the mother who abandoned her. Finally, she reveals, “Anna, I’m your daughter.”

Anna doesn’t respond, her gaze distant. The young woman continues, saying she has a good life despite the hole in her heart. When Anna doesn’t react, the woman kisses her on the cheek and leaves.

As the evening darkens, Anna remains by the window. Late at night, Anna remains by the window. A single tear falls from her expressionless face, and for the first time in years, the heavy fog within her seems to lift. A quiet warmth stirs in its place, fleeting but real. Outside, the trees sway gently in the breeze, as if bearing silent witness to the passing of something profound.

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END OF TUNDRA.​​