[Center stage is a bedroom, consisting of a king sized bed angled slightly left of center, a

bedside table on the right of the bed, a lamp on this table and the left of the bed, two
windows on both sides of the bed. Stage right is a door to the bedroom. At the very front
of the stage, is a kitchen table, two chairs on both sides. The lights are a dim warm shade
of amber.]

[Enter RED, frightened, from stage right through the door. Trembling, RED runs under
the bed.]

RED: ​[To audience] ​These surges of memories, these surges of frost through my veins,
are becoming only more and more frequent. They play tricks on my mind. Shadows
through windows, wilting sounds of sorrow emitted from thin air. It’s as if a mattress and
the warmth of darkness breed a contempt for longing and lust, and despite these feelings
being non existent in my life, this cold hand maintains a laced caress upon myself.

[There is a loud bump from behind the stage left window. RED flinches, squeezing eyes
and fists tight before two short inhales and exhales, opening eyes again.]

RED: ​[Choking back tears] ​What kind of taunting is this? Is it real? Could the past
become a haunt or an apparition? Is the supernatural but a lingering of untoward passion?
These noises have driven me into a childlike state, and so now I have hidden under my
parents’ bed. At this moment I feel there is nothing formidable about me. I have been
drained by my terror. By a terror which I am unsure of the justification, of the reality.
How can I possibly overcome a fear that exists not only in my mind but also outside of
this room and ultimately that may exist in still only my mind. I find no solace nor comfort
under this bed and yet here I stay.

[Another rustle, from the stage right window, the lamp flickers, the lights dim more.]

RED: ​[Tears have dried, but RED’s trembling has increased] ​I can feel the sinew of my
muscles beginning to turn to frigid sickles, slicing the power and will from my body. My
legs and arms grow cold and limp, a mystery that penetrates my ability to move, to call
out…
 [RED pauses, looking down at the floor, then rolling over so as to face the underside of
the bed.]

RED: But call out to who? Perhaps my sense is blinded, perhaps there is another life in
this house… my parents have been gone, and from where they have gone they will surely
make noise when they enter our home. They have no self restraint when it comes to
alcohol and I fully expect intoxication and loud chitter. Still, this does not make me
uncomfortable, as it is loving, if sloppy, chitter, and I would prefer that over the grief and
deceit that has previously been.

[There is a sound of a key fumbling in the lock, followed by the door opening, and BRIT
and LYNDYN stumble around, finally reaching the table slowly . RED listens from under
the bed.]

LYNDYN: I feel so exhausted but still my heart is racing…

BRIT: ​[Words stuttered, slurred] T ​ his was such a mistake, I haven’t been out like that
since…
LYNDYN: Have you really a need to bring that up now? After tonight?
BRIT: No, you’re right, I don’t.
LYNDYN: I fear everyday that a nightmare in you will open as it did once before.
BRIT: You haven’t a reason to fear that again, you have become a miracle in my life, an
untangling of the slipknot which became my heart. Within you first meeting me I was so
ready to step off that chair, its legs of falsity, it’s surface of regret, and you lifted me from
this mental snare.
LYNDYN: ​[Pursed lips, turning away from BRIT slightly] ​Please, let’s just go to bed.
You know how much I care for you, but I cannot do this now, for it will be too heavy for
me to carry in my current state.
BRIT: ​[Furrowing brow] M ​ y praise is too heavy? The beauty you’ve brought to my life
is too heavy? The way you’ve raised me from my perishing heartless and futile vision…
it is… too heavy?
LYNDYN: ​[Looking back up to BRIT quickly] N ​ o, darling, I find you no sort of burden,
my care of you no burden, these past years no burden, but, oh BRIT, I wish to only hold
you tonight, my lost lips to be found in yours. These things you say, they make me afraid
to…
BRIT: ​[Interjecting] ​To what? To what? To feel my caress, to caress me? Do you still
feel I am tainted in some way, that perhaps I will taint you?
LYNDYN: Please BRIT, where is this coming from? I think you’ve had too much drink.
What a mistake I’ve made taking you out. ​[LYNDYN freezes, wide eyed, hand to no
longer pursed lips, staring at BRIT]
BRIT: A mistake. A mistake. You truly might find me soulfully repulsive still! Perhaps I
should be the one inquiring where this has all come from. What is bringing this disdain
out from you?
LYNDYN: ​[Sighing] ​I promise that was not my intent. As I said, everyday I fear of what
may happen again, and it seems your words have drawn it out to a greater extent.
BRIT: You still see me upon the chair, my neck still in the treachery of my slipknot.
LYNDYN: I have lifted you, cut you free of it, so many times in my mind, and I just
cannot do it tonight. Tomorrow, tomorrow we shall confess our feelings, but for now, I
wish only to go to bed.

[LYNDYN turns slowly from BRIT, beginning to walk towards the door. BRIT reaches out
quickly, grabbing LYNDYN’s wrist. LYNDYN stops, but does not turn.]

BRIT: I cannot wait, I simply cannot.

LYNDYN: Fine then, speak what you need to, but a response from me I cannot promise.
BRIT: I wish I could speak something beyond anguish, something beyond remembrance,
but as my reminiscence has turned to pain, so it has stuck upon my brain. If you do still
see me upon that chair, you would not be wrong. Your vision would, truthfully, be more
pure than mine. I have not tainted you, that I will not admit, and you shall not in good
conscience refute that, but I have brought something into our lives that is a slow dose of
poison. I have often wondered if what drew the final ounce of passion to commit from
you was ultimately your knowledge of how desperate my state has been, worse still as it
was many years ago. Is my anxious disruption of trauma what holds us together still?
You learned of my dishonesty, you learned of my deception, how my infidelity tore about
my previous love, and how this previous love’s tearing so brought with it my ability see
past my own destruction. While you have acted as breathing, seeing slits, in this knotted
cage, and though these spaces have widened over years, it, as it does you, draws fear
from me. You have learned all of this, and even with your back to me, I can see you
tensing as you wish to turn and embrace me. Isn’t that it? Your forgiveness seems to
extend to the tenderest of the cruel. Your tenderness seems to be an extension of your
forgiveness of the cruel. I hope that I shall not act merely as an effigy for this. I long not
for your sympathy…
 [BRIT lets go of LYNDYN’s wrist.]

BRIT: … simply your love. Simply your love. How I wish I could speak beyond
anguish… how I truly wish I could speak beyond the pain that erodes away the gentlest
spaces of my heart.
[LYNDYN looks back over the shoulder at BRIT, head slowly dropping.]

​ ome with me then.

LYNDYN: ​[In a hushed tone] C

[LYNDYN finally turns, taking both of BRIT’s hands in hand, walking backwards pull
BRIT toward the door. The lights fade to black.]

[The bedroom door opens as the lights fade back up to a dim warm amber. BRIT and
LYNDYN enter through the door, approaching the bed. Underneath the bed RED’s eyes
are squeezed tight, hands over ears. LYNDYN lays BRIT on the bed, getting up on the
bed, stradling BRIT. BRIT comes up to kiss LYNDYN, and LYNDYN bends down so their
lips meet as BRIT slowly falls back. BRIT begins to undress LYNDYN, and the lights go
to black. A spotlight appears on RED under the bed.]

RED: ​[To audience only] ​This is beautiful, I’ve now become trapped under these
intoxicated lovers, my self destructive parents, so hell bent on obliterating the sadness
that intertwines them, so blinded by their poisoned rapture, their gently fleshed suicide
pact. Their moaning is purely the lament of lustful prisoners. Bars and locks, interwoven
as their lips. Cages and traps, interlocked as their limbs. I wish not to be elsewhere
because of discomfort, but because I wish to never hear the steady decline of those who I
should seek shelter in. Their dismal romance, their asphyxiated understanding of what is
truly amongst their hearts. This bed is not a vessel of passion… it is a hearse…

[There is a loud thump and another crimson colored spotlight shines on the stage left
window. RED freezes, eyes and fists squeezed tight as before, balled up fists the top of the
head. The lights come up slightly to the same amber glow as the crimson spotlight
disappears, revealing BRIT and LYNDYN’s bare bodies, BRIT sitting up inquisitively,
frightened, after hearing the noise.]

​ hat’s the matter, what is this grave

LYNDYN: ​[Head slightly raised, eyes squinted] W
look you possess?
BRIT: Did you not hear that? There was a rumble outside of the window, some type of
movement.
LYNDYN: Darling I did not hear anything. What would you fear anyway, this
neighborhood is safe, so this noise is surely an animal.
BRIT: You will think me paranoid, absolutely paranoid, and after this dreadful night I
would honestly prefer to simply return to our sanctifying embrace.
LYNDYN: Your words are as saccharine as your touch. Come to me again. Place your
skin to mine.

[The amber fades to black, a spotlight coming again to RED, the crimson spotlight
appearing dimly on the bedroom door. RED trembles, still unmoved from under the bed,
tears welling up once again.]

RED: They move in synchronicity, I can feel the shiver of the bed, but they still cannot
spill from their loins the agony which I fear awaits them. This harrowed distress will
penetrate through both of them, and their blissful twisting will be severed. Brutes to be
gentle. This is what they play with their tongues. I can no longer pretend to not feel, to
not hear, their presence, sinking my ever drowning heart. Have they truly no clue that I
have hidden under them, as I have always done below their spoken blows? In the drunken
swirl they had no thought of me. They had not a worry. They were entranced by a feigned
reparation upon their brief bloodletted truth. Their sickness rots their vision of more than
themselves. It brings about a certain disdain in myself which I have not felt before.
Would I give what they for each other do for them as well? I doubt this, but I have also
seen what damage they bestow upon their crowns. My understanding is lucid, my
knowledge pure, untainted, by their delusion. I could never lie in repose simply to
appease my innocence. Theirs is a thorn of a blossom I shall never plant. Have they ever
known a punishment outside of themselves? No matter the intention of one, the quakes of
the other will seduce the impending collapse of the cracked solace either tries to build.
They will topple their own palaces no matter how hard they may try to forge more of this
deceptive scaffolding. I wish for them to learn. I wish for a swift introduction to the sight
I have been given. How could I, a prisoner under their brutalized lust, exact this? It has
finally been actualized, this subverted anger, and still I am unable to make my revelation
carnate. Writhing bodies, writhing thighs, writhing gasps, a traipsing fluid of perpetual
devastation, they make only more edges with which to slit open their immoral throats,
and I must weep and listen, thoughtless of anything but their misery as it coincides with
my furious reincarnation. I can no longer stand to be lost among their flood of dismiss,
my years of existence stand in no way of how I shall rid them of their lies. My plan is
unseen, my heart pounding out the last drops of indecision. Perhaps it is only the word of
a cherished, yet still forgotten, face that will draw their savaging breaths to one set of
lungs. To one heart. Their union as my revelation carnate… or collapsed.

[The spotlight cuts to black, and the stage lights fade to a dark hue of crimson, the
spotlight on the door turns to indigo. Through the door steps a figure. RED gasps, head
quickly hitting the floor, hands now grasping to hair. Hand in coat, the figure stares at
LYNDYN and BRIT, who have now completely frozen, sheets pulled up to necks. BRIT’s
eyes widen in recognition.]

​ you know I could have never…

BRIT: ​[Tears beginning to flow heavily] …
THE LOVER: Hollow words. All. Hollow. Words.
BRIT: You don’t understand there is something more than I could have ever told!
THE LOVER: You are without a tongue forked enough to slither through this barrier of a
conscience. You are aware of this. We built this together.
LYNDYN: Who are you?!
BRIT: ​[Turning quickly] ​Please LYNDYN, I promise no tactic of deception, it was all in
weakness, but I could have never fully told who!
THE LOVER: I am the nightmare that I heard wailed through your walls. My sight is of
unflinching damnation and you shall learn by my razing of your sanctuary that I have no
identity anymore beyond the bloodshed which will replace your agonized lust.

[THE LOVER moves to the bed, as BRIT and LYNDYN remain, frozen in fear. THE
LOVER grasps the sheets tightly, pulling them off of BRIT and LYNDYN’s bodies, their
bare skin slick with sweat. RED begins to sob, mouth covered forcefully by both hands,
head shaking vigorously. THE LOVER grabs BRIT’s ankle, and begins to pull.]

LYNDYN: ​[Leaping quickly over BRIT, hands pushing at THE LOVER] ​No! Never! You
sick freak, what you have started is not going to continue! Your disgusting tirade is
strengthless in the face of utmost love! Love and…

[THE LOVER swiftly pulls from the jacket a revolver. Two shots are fired, the first hitting
LYNDYN’s shoulder, the second LYNDYN’s head. LYNDYN’s body goes limp, slamming
against the side of the bed, blood coating BRIT and the sheets and headboard of the bed.
BRIT screams and lurches up away from THE LOVER, but is caught by the hair, and
pulled back onto the bed. LYNDYN’s body slumps down and falls hard on the floor, blank
stare into RED’s terrified gaze. RED reels away to the other side of the underside of the
bed.]

THE LOVER: ​[Eyes watering] ​You’re as disgusting as I dreamt. You’re as pathetic as I

wrote. You’re as loathsome as I remember. The pain we inflicted on each other is to be
dwarfed by what I wish you to feel. I have longed for this night, longed for it more than
how I longed for your touch as you hid in another city from me. But here I am, and the
touch of your hand, of your lips, is not what I want. The only caress I long for is the
hands that will claw at me for mercy. The caress of suffering.
BRIT: ​[Choking on saliva and tears] I​ …
THE LOVER: More. Hollow. Words! You have never been able to do anything but flick
a silver deceiver, a tongue of decayed truths! Now stop crying, your eyes shed not when
you crushed my spirit. So, here are these shards to shred your grin, to lance your touch, to
slit your will.
BRIT: ​[Staring straight into THE LOVER’s eyes] I​ ’ve never meant… I was selfish… I
fled to other arms so as kill a pain that has no demise, and instead I brought about our
hearts’. My being is racked with the guilt of how frigid we ended and how infernal I kept
you throughout. I still think about you. I can’t take this back, but I wish you sweet release
from a cell I built you. I wish you a tender life. I wish…

[THE LOVER brings the butt of the revolver down hard on BRIT’s mouth. BRIT
screeches, blooding flowing from the spaces where teeth have shattered out, lips split in
two. THE LOVER grabs BRIT’s hair and tears BRIT off of the bed, back hitting the floor
with a crunch.]

BRIT: ​[Mushed] ​… please…

[BRIT flips and lifts to hands and knees, crawling over LYNDON. A pool of blood has
now spread over the floor, the edge touching RED, RED choking back vomit. BRIT
continues to crawl past the foot of the bed, whimpering through a caved mouth. THE
LOVER walks slowly behind. BRIT collapses, and THE LOVER grasps BRIT’s ankles,
pulling a limp BRIT back to the bed, then onto the bed. BRIT gains consciousness, and
screams.]
THE LOVER: ​[Tears beginning to actually well] ​This is too much for me to take.
You’ve given me too much to take. There’s nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to
save…

[BRIT starts crawling away, towards the side of the bed, almost the edge when THE
LOVER points the revolver, and BRIT freezes. RED curls into a tight ball, unmoving
now.]

THE LOVER: ​[Choking] ​Nothing. I can’t wait for nothingness. I am truly jealous that
you will reach nothing’s rapturous ceremony before me.

[BRIT’s eyes squeeze shut, head back. THE LOVER fires twice again. The first through
the throat, and then through the roof of BRIT’s open mouth. Spurting and falling on the
bedside table and the sheets, blood flows from BRIT’s throat and back of the head, the
splash from the exit wound coating RED’s face and curled body. BRIT’s head hangs off
the side of the bed. Teeth drop to the floor. RED lets out a low whimper. THE LOVER
freezes, jaw clenched, and shoots BRIT once more in the abdomen. RED lets out a full
cry, and THE LOVER jerks.]

THE LOVER: ​[Quietly and slowly] ​… come out from under the bed.

[RED, eyes closed tight, crawls through the blood, and out into the open. THE LOVER
stares at RED, and then sighs.]

THE LOVER: A kid. These two had a kid. I never wanted a kid, but BRIT was a
dreamer. Still, BRIT was not a nurturer, and so we decided we shouldn’t…

[THE LOVER looks at the revolver, then back to a shaking RED.]

THE LOVER: I’ve got only a single bullet left… perhaps it’s just chance that has saved
you. But I’m sure you know that chance is no saviour. I’m sure you have heard the lies
and deceit spilt in this home. Now you have been slicked with it. Deception and
repulsion.
RED: ​[Through tears and snot] I​ thought hated them, I truly felt it beginning to course
through me, but… not like this. Good god, not like this. Is this love, this devastation?
THE LOVER: You have not felt hate. You have not felt love. I am unsure if the are even
separate. Yet, this is my purest attempt at a separation of the two. Would hate be death, or
would love? Which has truly taken more lives? I am not sure which has taken these lives.
For all the rage that has propelled me through years has not told me of hate. No, a passion
so strong can only be love. Only love.
RED: This cannot be… love.
THE LOVER: For me, this is it. This shall be my last sight of love. Carnage in the lusted
temple of gore dining lovers. Crawl back under the bed, crawl back under, or you will
learn what it looks like to join love in its final form.

[RED hesitates, and then stands.]

RED: ​[Tears drying, looking into THE LOVER’s eyes] ​Let me help you. Give me the
gun. It would be fitting. Let me put my hand around yours as you are sent to my nurturer,
let us do it together.
THE LOVER: ​[Eyes widening, tears then dropping with THE LOVER’s gaze] ​Yes, yes,
for love has always been selfish, and to think that in some way BRIT can still send me to
meet love, yes, let’s join hands.

[RED walks to THE LOVER, together walking to the bed. RED takes the revolver, and
with their hand in eachothers, THE LOVER and RED place the barrel. THE LOVER’s
tears have stopped, and an faint ghost of a smile has formed.]

THE LOVER: Please.

[THE LOVER places a finger on the trigger, RED’s hand still pressed to the handle as
well. THE LOVER cocks the gun.]

RED: No… wait… Wait!

[RED tries to pull the gun, but instead THE LOVER pulls the trigger in the same instant.
The slight motion causes the bullet to enter through the lower part of THE LOVER’s
cheek. There’s a spray, blinding RED, and RED stumbles back, still holding the gun.]

​ o wait!
RED: ​[Panickedly wiping away blood] N
[Finally wiping away all the blood, RED’s eyes open to see THE LOVER on the bed. The
gunshot had blown apart the top of THE LOVER’s mouth, the top lip a loosely dangling
strip, THE LOVER still trying to mouth words through labored breathing. THE LOVER’s
hands clutch BRIT, trying to get closer and closer, crawling to BRIT’s chest. THE
LOVER finally stops moving, head on BRIT’s shoulder, trying to press the mangled lips
to BRIT’s cheek, but running out of strength, laying down, eyes staring into RED’s. RED
watches as the lover still tries to wheeze out words. RED leans closer, and THE LOVER
uses the last bit of strength to whisper in a rasped and wilting voice.]

THE LOVER: Tonight, we have finally met love.

[Lights cut to black.]

Scene