FRAGILE

By: Group 3

CHARACTERS

ZOE: A calm and collected friend

JUSTIN, DANIEL AND LUCAS: Friends of Zoe

[SCENE: The living room of a haunted house. Windows with metal grills and a dusty curtain loosely
masking it. In the corner lies broken chair and trinkets covered in grime along the tables surrounding the
room. ZOE, JUSTIN, DANIEL AND LUCAS enter the living room, drenched from the rain outside. Their car
has just shut down.]

[ZOE, JUSTIN, DANIEL AND LUCAS enter the stage]

ZOE: Ah... Were drenched...

[Shaking off the water from their clothes.]

JUSTIN: Out of all times, why did the car break down now!

DANIEL: You can’t blame it... That things been running since the 80s.

LUCAS: I can’t believe this! And at this exact hour-- While there’s storm brewing up as we speak!

DANIEL: Were stuck here... This place is scary.

[ZOE shows behind JUSTIN.]

ZOE: Ahh!

[JUSTIN, DANIEL AND LUCAS screams.]

ZOE: [Laughs mockingly.] Oh-- what are you all? Babies? Oh... Im so scared ... [Chuckles.]

JUSTIN: This is not a joke okay. Its deep at night and we don’t know what could happen to us!

ZOE: Boo... You're no fun at all.

[The door they entered at suddenly creaks—everyone screams.]

DANIEL: Hey--

LUCAS: Did you hear--what I just heard--

ZOE: Of course! Everyone can hear here—

JUSTIN: Zoe—Can you stop it with the jokes--

LUCAS: It might’ve been the wind... Its storming out you see...

JUSTIN: But it wasn’t as strong as the wind is! That shouldn’t be possible--

[The door sounds like its been locked, the noise fills the room]

JUSTIN: [He shouts, voice filled with terror.] Now-- what was that?!

DANIEL: Did the door...

LUCAS: The door just locked by itself... Justin how many are we again? Justin…? Justin are you alright...?
[Looks at JUSTIN.]

ZOE: [Gets behind JUSTIN] Hey, Lucas is asking if you’re— [Taps on JUSTIN’s shoulder.]

JUSTIN: [Startled.] Ah! Yes-- Wait why yes-- I’m alright...

DANIEL: What... [goes closer to JUSTIN.] Are you getting scared?

JUSTIN: [Laughs nervously.] Oh-- no—I’m a man—At most Zoe should be the one getting scared—

ZOE: [In dismay.] Justin are you being serious—

JUSTIN: What if I am—! Daniel looks like he’s going to piss right now—

DANIEL: [Looks at JUSTIN, indignantly.] What--? I’m certainly not--

LUCAS: So… did you hear it? Did you hear it? [Looks around.]

JUSTIN: [Nervously.] OK, I did! But guys-- This place might be...

ZOE: Haunted. Yeah figured that out a long time ago.

DANIEL: We’ve been here for 5 minutes.

ZOE: And the storm, [Checks at the window.] Doesn’t seem like its ending soon.

[ZOE looks around for an object, find one and aims it at her companions.]

ZOE: Oh! Here, catch this! [Throws a rusty, metal spoon.]

[Everyone but ZOE, screams.]

JUSTIN: I thought I already told you to stop--

 [The old chair in the corner falls over. No present wind within the room. Everyone falls quiet, anxiety
burning up.]

LUCAS: [Shaking.] We should be getting serious... Hey... Why are you all so quiet— [Gets closer.] Hey,
come on--

DANIEL: [Looks at the door anxiously, then at the fallen chair.] I can’t do this anymore! Why is
everything moving around--!

ZOE: Oh please, this house is most likely haunted... What can we do about it though? [Inspects
something outside the room, ZOE exits the stage.]

JUSTIN: And you're alright with that...? You sicken me...

[The windows violently rattle.]

LUCAS: [Shaking.] Now surely that must be the wind, right? The winds strong enough now...

DANIEL: [Terrified.] I can’t do this anymore--!

JUSTIN: Daniel-- what do you mean--?

LUCAS: Surely, we can escape through the windows…

[ZOE, enters the stage. Doll at hand.]

ZOE: But it’s covered in grills. The owners of this house might've been paranoid...

DANIEL: [Panicky.] Paranoid--? I think I’m getting paranoid myself...

[JUSTIN gets near the left door, then at the left entrance.]

JUSTIN: How about the doors?

ZOE: They're all locked. I checked them while you were busy being children

JUSTIN: [Shouting.] That doesn’t sound like good news--! And... And-- We all have the right to get scared
okay—

[Meanwhile, LUCAS approaches the doll ZOE came in. The doll makes a slight movement.]

LUCAS: [Nervous.] Uh, Zoe...?

ZOE: [Gets closer to LUCAS.] Yeah? What’s wrong?

LUCAS: I feel like... [Points at the doll, fingers quivering.] That doll you brought in just moved....

DANIEL: Lucas... You can’t be serious right--

ZOE: Wait did it really--

[Doll strongly moves around, everyone yells, panicking.]

DANIEL: [Panic-struck.] It did! Oh my god! That doll just moved! It moved! Ah--!

[Everyone scrambles and screams.]

ZOE: Can you all just calm down-- [Picks the doll up, ZOE exits the stage.]

DANIEL: [DANIEL draws back, shaken and terrified.] I said—I can’t do this!

LUCAS: [Shaking.] Hey.... Can we just... [ZOE enters the stage. LUCAS fidgets over ZOE.]

ZOE: Oh, come on—where did all of your masculinity go—

JUSTIN: [Shouts.] It’s still here—Of course we still have it--! It’s just—It’s just—Zoe, it’s a haunted house
okay—a haunted house!

[JUSTIN backs off slips on the curtain, curtain falls over. At the same time, LUCAS runs into a cobweb,
screams.]

JUSTIN: [Gets back up, wobbles on his legs.] I’m alright—I said I’m alright—

LUCAS: [Gets close to DANIEL.] Me too—I just ran through a web its not a big deal—

DANIEL: Lucas—! There’s a—a spider on your face!

[LUCAS violently shakes off the spider on his face, scaring the two men nearby. The spider falls onto the
floor, but ZOE picks it up.]

JUSTIN: Zoe can you seriously stop this act—Why aren’t you scared!

DANIEL: Aren’t you a girl—Aren’t girls supposed to be crying right now—

LUCAS: Put that down--! Zoe! We are the men around here you shouldn’t be doing that—

ZOE: Listen to me—

DANIEL: What if we go out the roof—

LUCAS: The roof--? We can risk falling down! And think of all the—All the bugs up there—

JUSTIN: Just thinking about it makes me hurl up—We’re going to die here. I said it—! We—All three of
us dying here!

LUCAS: We die of meaningless death--? But I’m a man--! I can’t rest in peace like this—
DANIEL: I still haven’t asked the girl I liked out! And she was so popular too—Imagine my reputation
after--

ZOE: [Shouts.] Quit, that—! Its so fragile--! Maybe if you three would stop screaming around--

DANIEL: Fragile—Us--?

LUCAS: But we are men—we aren’t fragile like you—

ZOE: Now I’m the fragile one—Me—You think I’m the fragile one—

JUSTIN: We weren’t screaming—

ZOE: Oh yes you were. All three of you—

LUCAS: But who wouldn’t be—! We’re stuck here—We don’t know what could happen—Anything could
—

DANIEL: I don’t want to die here—

ZOE: And the problem lies here—Maybe—Maybe if you listened to me—We could have found a way
sooner—!

JUSTIN: But we were—

ZOE: Stop acting like you do—Because you weren’t. All you did was scream over everything that moves!
You’re panicking too much—Do you think you could think of a way like that?

[JUSTIN, DANIEL, and LUCAS look down, shakes their heads.]

ZOE: Exactly—You can’t. So, this is what were going to do now—We stay calm, and thoroughly think of
escaping this place. Our car broke down, that’s already one problem. But we can fix that— [Window
rattles again.] See—we can stay calm even with the windows moving. Now help me find ways. I’ll be
checking the other rooms. You better not be a screaming mess once I go. [ZOE exhales a sigh, fixes her
hair, then exits the stage.]

DANIEL: Zoe is right… we sure are scaredy-cats…

LUCAS: And that’s on fragile masculinity.

JUSTIN: Come on, lets get on going. Zoe is doing all the dirty work for ‘men’ like us—if that’s what we
still are. After this, we should really treat her to something she really likes.

[All three shakes their heads in agreement. Proceeds to scram and think calmly of how they can help
getting out.

CURTAIN