Clean Slate

a novel idea

In 2055 California, Ben Phillips returns home believing he's recovering from a five-year coma after a car accident.

He moves back in with his mom briefly, who tries to maintain the illusion that he simply went into a coma after a car accident. However, neighbors stares, people removing their children from Ben’s presence, and similar behavior lean towards Ben believing there’s more to the picture than he is being told.

In reality, he's Patient Zero in Governor Williams' controversial "Clean Slate" program, which erases violent offenders' memories in exchange for their freedom. Williams, a hard left ‘bleeding heart’ candidate, believes if the memories of the how and why they became killers was erased, people could integrate into normal lives.

His rehabilitation counselor, Dr. Sarah Reeves, maintains the coma story while monitoring his reintegration, so as to not trigger his newly manipulated mind and serial killer memories.

Struggling with hostile neighbors and fragmented memories, Ben joins a dating app, seeking connection. He matches with Diana, an astrology enthusiast who's drawn to their shared water signs - he's a Cancer, she's a Scorpio. During their first date, she tells him the parable of the scorpion and the frog, musing about how we can't escape our nature:

A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that stinging the frog would cause them both to sink and drown. The frog agrees, and midway across the river the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies, "It's my nature."

Their chemistry is immediate and intense.

When bodies start appearing around Oakland in ritualistic poses, FBI agents Marcus Torres and Kate Sullivan investigate. They're skeptical of Ben's memory loss but can't connect him to the murders. Diana, who works as a criminal psychologist, offers insights into the case, suggesting the killer must be someone familiar with the area's history. Soon after, Dr. Sarah Reevs body is discovered.

Ben begins discovering hidden surveillance notes in his house. Each location mentioned becomes the site of a new murder. He and the investigators assume he's finding his own kill records, but his memories of following someone don't match the victims' profiles. Diana helps him investigate his past, as he slowly starts to understand through flashbacks that he is in fact The Ferndale Slasher, a notorious serial killer in the area.

During their investigation, Diana shares a statistic about water signs - Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces - accounting for a disproportionate number of violent crimes (40% of serial killers). Ben's unease grows as more of his memories surface, particularly when Diana takes him to locations that feel hauntingly familiar.

The truth unravels during the climactic confrontation: Ben's notes weren't about victims - they were evidence he'd gathered about another killer.

The Clean Slate program had erased his memories of being a vigilante killer who hunted other predators.

In flashback we learn that the Police had read Ben’s ‘stalker notes’ in which he was following a different killer. Governor Williams then decides to use covert elements of Clean Slate to return Ben to the area and use him as a beacon for finding the killer he was on the trail of, which would have two positive outcomes for the Governor- the Clean Slate program would be proven positive, and the other killer could be tracked and found.

When Ben starts piecing together reality, he comes to a shocking reveal; Diana isn't just helping investigate - she's the killer he was tracking before his arrest, now using his memory loss to eliminate loose ends from her past murders while framing him as a relapsed killer.

The revelation triggers a flood of memories: Ben had discovered Diana's pattern years ago and began hunting her instead of innocent victims. She, in turn, had been aware of him, leading to a deadly game of cat and mouse that ended with his arrest. Now she's back, methodically destroying evidence of her crimes by recreating them as copycat killings, using Ben's return as cover.

As Ben starts to put it together, he is clubbed in the back of the head to unconsciousness. He awakes bound to a chair, with Diana preparing to kill him.

As Ben regains consciousness in the chair, Diana circles him slowly, explaining how she engineered everything from the moment she learned about Clean Slate. She had followed his case closely, positioning herself as a criminal psychologist consultant, helping select him for the program. His notes about her past murders were too close - he'd nearly pieced it together before his arrest. Clean Slate was her perfect opportunity to eliminate all loose ends.

She reveals that each new murder since his return wasn't just recreating crime scenes - she was killing witnesses and others who might connect her to the original murders. By making them look like copycat killings of the Ferndale Slasher, she was systematically erasing her own criminal history.

Ben understands too late - the chair, the ropes, the location, it's all staged. Diana wants him to break free. She's orchestrated everything down to the minute, including an anonymous tip to Torres and Sullivan about suspicious activity at this address. She keeps provoking him, describing his past victims in detail, watching his muscle memory work against the bonds.

When Ben finally breaks free, Diana doesn't run. Instead, she smiles, telling him the final truth - she's made sure all evidence of her original murders now points to him. His escape from the chair and her death will be the final proof needed to close every unsolved case in her wake. If he tries to explain her plan, he'll sound like a desperate killer trying to blame his victim. The Clean Slate program will be discredited, and any chance of proving his story will die with her.

As Ben realizes the full scope of her plan, he hears police sirens in the distance. Diana's final words mirror their first date: "Remember the scorpion and the frog? This is who we are. This is our nature."

Torres and Sullivan will arrive to find exactly what Diana orchestrated - the Ferndale Slasher, apparently relapsed, standing over his final victim. Every murder since his release will be pinned on him, along with the cold cases that were actually Diana's work.