Oceans course through
cracks
in the walls in my
heart.
Fill up my
e
m
p
t
i
n
e
s
s
with stories never told
and take me
to the
abyss
(so help me)
and keep me safe
till moonbreak.
Let the stars
yellow
green
gold
guide us where we
never thought to
turn but
a
l
w
a
y
s
needed to go.
And the warmth of
everlasting dark
will restore my shoulder
and my belonging to the
universe
and you, who
p
r
e
t
e
n
d
s
to be strong
when you are weak
won't have to play as
who you're not
or force
a smile
when you can't.
Because even if I
have
t
o
cry or
b
e
held against the tide
of the burning sun,
shielding your eyes
from its
cold
hard
sorrows
I will promise you
that I will make you
w
h
o
l
e
again.
(Spotlight up on a girl sitting on a chair, CS. Standing behind her is a boy. She does not appear to notice his presence. She looks lost and frightened, looking around like the walls are closing in on her. There is a paper lying next to her on the floor. She is wary, but eventually picks it up to read.)
Girl: (reads) In the end, the greatest demons we must face are…ourselves…? (looks around, even more confused now) What is this place?
Boy: (walks around chair) You don’t know? It used to be our favourite hideout.
Girl: (jumps up, disbelieving) You?! What are you doing here?! I thought we agreed you’d leave me alone!
Boy: Friends don’t abandon each other.
Girl: I’m older now. I don’t need you anymore!
Boy: You’ve grown out of our friendship? But you promised me you’d never go anywhere!
Girl: I said that so you wouldn’t hurt me!
Boy: You lied? Friends don’t lie to each other.
Girl: Friends don’t threaten each other with matches, either!
Boy: I wasn’t threatening you! I was trying to help you with the voices!
Girl: Don’t mention the voices. I don’t hear them anymore. They don’t have anything to do with this.
Boy: They have everything to do with this.
Girl: Whatever. Just leave me alone! I have to get out of this place.
Boy: It’s not as easy as that. You’re trapped. Remember how long you used to stay here for? Days, weeks on end. You couldn’t leave until you really, really wanted to.
Girl: I do want to!
Boy: (shakes head) If you did you wouldn’t be here now. And yet here you are! So we may as well have some fun. (pulls out knife, maniac) Just like old times.
Girl: (backing away) No. Don’t you dare think about it.
Boy: You don’t have be afraid of me. I’ve always protected you, haven’t I?
Girl: I don’t need to be protected!
Boy: (approaching slowly, still maniac) You screwed this up when you started to grow up, started getting help, started taking those pills for your voices. When you started getting better, you let this place fall to ruin! Every day me and the others suffered. Since when do you have the right to do that? Now you have to pay.
Girl: (walking backwards, falls, scuttling backwards) You brought me here to kill me?!
Boy: I didn’t bring you back, you came here by choice.
Girl: No! I didn’t! Please, don’t hurt me!
Woman’s Voice: (disembodied voice fills the room) It’s alright, honey. They’re not going to hurt you.
Boy: (grins) Do you hear them? The voices are back. Guess you’ll have to stay here with me, then. Forever.
Girl: (frantic) No. They can’t be back. I’m cured. I’m cured! You did this, you made the voices come back, this is your fault!
Woman’s Voice: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want this. Please put the knife down.
Boy: What are they telling you to do, crazy girl?
Girl: (on the verge of tears) They want you to put the knife down!
Boy: Me? Put this down? Why would I ever do that? I’m just trying to help you.
Girl: No! You’re going to kill me! Go away!
Woman’s Voice: I’m sorry, honey, please, everything’s going to be alright!
Girl: (grabs head in hands) No, no, no! First the boy I promised myself I’d never see again, now the voices!
Woman’s Voice: What boy? Honey, there’s no boy here!
Girl: Shut up, shut up!
Boy: Are you sure you don’t want my help? I can make them go away for you.
Girl: (looks up at him, angry) You asshole. It’s your fault. You brought them back!
Boy: They’ve been there all along. You just weren’t listening. You came here to get away from them. You knew they were there.
Girl: No one in their right mind would go anywhere with you for help!
Boy: (laughs crazily) Because this really is your right mind, crazy girl.
Woman’s Voice: Please, you have to listen to me! Put down the knife!
Boy: (knife raised on girl) I’m sorry to cut this little reunion short, but I’m afraid it’s time for those voices to leave.
(Light fades on boy and girl, his knife poised to stab her. New light rises on a hospital bed. The girl is lying there, the doctor sitting next to her. Her mother enters DSL, distraught.)
Mother: How is she doing?
Doctor: Fine. But she’s still unconscious.
Mother: I don’t think the dosage on her medication was high enough. The voices started again.
Doctor: I’m aware. It’s a strange phenomenon, really. She seems to go into her subconscious and hear us, out here, as the voices. It’s like she’s living in a whole other world in there.
Girl: (eyes closed, twitching violently) Please, you have to stop! He’s going to come back and hurt me if he hears you again!
Mother: I just...walked into the kitchen and found her with the knife. It was like that time with the matches all over again.
