Early Morning.

I woke up this morning alone. I had slept in the presence of ghosts.

Outside, the morning's darkness was so cold and shivery. Silhouettes of monsters rose right and left.
No. Trees. Just trees.

I wonder if I'll see anyone. But doubt scampers in and out of the shadows.
Little clouds of exhalation form outside my mouth. Obfuscations of the dim light of the streetlights.

And all around, this city holds secrets that I need to discover. That I need to find. A hidden treasure here.
A secret there.

And even in the darkness, I can see every colour. I can see every shape, every twisting mass. Every single secret.

It's all around me. Like music in the cold morning air.

A Box of Clouds.

A Box of Clouds

Characters-

Katie - A girl plagued by nightmares.
Damien - A child molester.
Living Mannequin - A part of Katie's dream world.

Note: There is no spoken word unless otherwise indicated.

Scene I

(Lights up on a podium, center stage, decorated in a way that is reminiscent of a carnival. March In A Minor begins to play. DAMIEN, wearing a mask, enters through the studio doors, carrying an old fashioned megaphone and a sandwich board sign with an old advertisement for a carnival on it. He carries them to the stage, places the sandwich board next to the podium, and places the bullhorn on the podium. He exits through the studio doors again, then enters with a large cage, big enough for a human to fit under, and LIVING MANNEQUIN, who is also wearing a mask, in tow. DAMIEN drags LIVING MANNEQUIN to the other side of the podium and quickly places the cage over her. KATIE, who is also wearing a mask, enters S.R. and crosses to the cage and begins pointing and laughing with the laughter in the song. DAMIEN picks up the megaphone and when the man in the song begins speaking, DAMIEN begins to address the audience as though he were the one speaking.

On the line "...to peel back your cranium!", DAMIEN crosses to LIVING MANNEQUIN, lifts the cage off, and then tears her mask off. KATIE mimes screaming when the recording screams. LIVING MANNEQUIN tears the mask off of DAMIEN. She begins choking DAMIEN, and the pair falls to the floor. All the while, KATIE is laughing with the recording. At the end of the song, the lights fade to black.)


Scene II

(Lights up on KATIE. She is lying unconscious center stage, with the only source of light being an old, yet very intricately designed lamp, which is resting on a nondescript desk D.S.R. A small chalkboard is resting up against the front of the desk -- visible to the audience -- with words that read "DO NOT TURN OUT THE LIGHT." Four signs, 'THIS WAY', 'THAT WAY', 'ONE WAY', and 'OTHER WAY', in respective order from U.S.L., are pointing offstage in four different directions. A loud thump startles KATIE into consciousness. Bleak sounding calliope music begins to play. The lights come up slowly.

As KATIE slowly begins to regain her composure, the thump is heard again. KATIE stands up and looks around, examining her surroundings. She starts to exit "THAT WAY", but is brought back onstage by LIVING MANNEQUIN. LIVING MANNEQUIN sidesteps her and exits "THIS WAY". KATIE tries to follow her, but something stops her; an invisible wall. She places her hands on the wall, then crosses to the desk and sits in the chair, frustrated. The thump is heard again, louder this time. She stands and begins to search in depth in the four directions.

KATIE exits "THAT WAY", then enters with a small ragdoll with scissors stuck in the torso. KATIE crosses to the desk, sits in the chair, and begins to examine it. A small girl's laughter echos around the room. KATIE stands, places the doll on the desk, and exits "One Way". The calliope music stops. KATIE stumbles back onstage, clearly distraught by something. The music resumes. KATIE regains her composure, then exits "Other Way". She enters with a small, ornate hand mirror. Upon further examination, she discovers that the mirror's surface is cracked and is missing a fragment.

The thump is heard once again. KATIE begins to storm off "THAT WAY", but is stopped by DAMIEN. He hands her a "Have You Seen This Child?" poster with KATIE's face on it. DAMIEN exits "Other Way". KATIE stares at the poster for a few seconds, then crumples it up, crosses to the desk, and yanks open one of the desk drawers. She makes as though to throw the poster inside, but is stopped by something. From inside the drawer, KATIE withdraws an envelope. She looks at the envelope confusedly, turning it this way and that, trying to make sense of it. Finally, defeated, she hands it to one of the audience members and motions for them to open it and read it.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Reading the letter) It's either this or that way. It's one way or the other. Try to find the pieces to fit inside the cracks. But the pieces don't fit together so well, with all the breaking and all the fitting back.

KATIE thanks the audience member by shaking their hand, then takes the letter back. She studies it very carefully, trying to decipher some clue from it. She thinks deeply for a few moments, then picks up the mirror. The thump is heard again. She looks off "THIS WAY" and notices something. She bolts off "THIS WAY", and is pushed back onstage by LIVING MANNEQUIN. From out of "OTHER WAY" comes DAMIEN. DAMIEN and LIVING MANNEQUIN meet center stage and begin to waltz. KATIE stands S.R., mouth open with horror. DAMIEN and LIVING MANNEQUIN's dance gradually increases in intensity and the music begins to skip. With each skip, DAMIEN and LIVING MANNEQUIN jolt as if they are marionettes whose strings are breaking, one by one. After all the "strings" have broken, DAMIEN and LIVING MANNEQUIN fall to the floor, unconscious, and the calliope music stops. KATIE runs over to them and checks their pulses.

KATIE starts to sob. She collapses to the ground in despair, then slowly becomes more angry than hopeless. She begins throwing a fit. She beats the bodies of LIVING MANNEQUIN and DAMIEN with her fists, then stands up and moves her tantrum to the desk. She shreds the letter into pieces, then throws it into the air. She jerks open one of the desk drawers and gasps. She slowly reaches into the drawer and extracts a mirror fragment. KATIE picks up the mirror off of the desk and holds the fragment to the hole in the mirror's surface. Absentmindedly, she starts to exit "ONE WAY", but trips over the lamp's cord and falls to the ground, dropping the mirror. She stands up, brushes herself off, then looks down. Her eyes widen. She picks up the dropped mirror -- the handle has snapped off. Furious, KATIE drops the mirror pieces and scoops up the lamp's cord in one fluid motion. She very visibly unplugs the lamp. As the lamp goes out, so does the spotlight.)


DAMIEN: (From the dark)There is no way out. You may think there could be a way out of this, but there isn't. You may think that all your problems can be solved by looking in the other direction. Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong.
Intentions may be good. Intentions may be bad. But they always end up coming back to haunt you.
Yours thoughts can fester in the darkest chasms of your soul. They'll keep screaming at you until the only you want is for them to get out. Your personal demons, well, they can scheme like professionals. But humans have this thing called hope. It can tear them apart. It can build them up. It can do marvelous things. It's no mystery why the lot of you tell yourselves that everything's going to be alright. (Beat) You should stop lying to yourselves.



Scene III

(Lights up on an abandoned playground. There is a small slide S.R. Various objects, such as chalk, a jump rope, ect. are scattered around the stage. KATIE, dressed in a jacket, a mid-length skirt, a tank-top, and sandals enters S.L. bouncing a small ball. Slide by The Dresden Dolls begins to play. At this point, all of KATIE's and the rest of the character's movements should become very fluid and graceful, as if the whole thing were a dance. The ball should be one that would be used for a outdoor game, such as four square or wall-ball. KATIE bounces the ball a couple times, then looks up and notices the slide. She drops the ball in front of the slide, climbs up the ladder to the top, and begins to slide down it. When she gets to the bottom, she accidentally hits the ball off S.L. She chases after the ball, exiting S.L. for a few seconds, but then backs up onto the stage again, followed by DAMIEN. KATIE begins to run away from him, but he catches her arm and makes eye contact on the line "...Wants to take her for a ride."

KATIE breaks away from DAMIEN and begins to run off S.R., but stops and turns to face him. She slowly crosses to him and looks at him tentatively. They embrace at the line "...And he tells her he'll take her away where it's safe..." and DAMIEN very noticeably crosses his fingers at the line "...And, of course, it is a lie."

They break apart and LIVING MANNEQUIN enters S.R., crosses to KATIE and removes her jacket, leaving her in the skirt and tank-top. KATIE crosses to Damien and begins to play pattycake with him. As this is happening, LIVING MANNEQUIN is standing upstage of the pair, sloppily applying lipstick, blush, ect. KATIE pays no attention to her. After a little while, they stop and KATIE motions for DAMIEN to bend over. She whispers something into his ear, then crosses to S.R. in front of the slide and begins mouthing numbers. DAMIEN appears irritated at first, but he hides it, crosses to the slide, and crouches behind it, although still very visible. KATIE stops counting and begins to search for DAMIEN. She enters the audience and looks up and down the aisles, but to no avail. Dejectedly, she turns back to the stage, spots DAMIEN, and excitedly runs to him.

She grabs his hand and pulls him U.S.L., picks up her ball, and begins to play catch with him. LIVING MANNEQUIN crosses to KATIE, takes her hand, and gently leads her to the slide. KATIE climbs to the top of the slide and LIVING MANNEQUIN removes her sandals. KATIE slides down the slide around the line "...But she's coming. She's coming. She's coming". LIVING MANNEQUIN crosses to center stage, faces the audience, and begins to address the audience as though she were the one speaking. At the line "...a good decade before the bell rang?", LIVING MANNEQUIN turns away from the audience, distressed.

At the line "As she starts to draw nearer," KATIE moves into the audience and hides behind an audience member, but is still very visible. DAMIEN appears irritated to see that KATIE has disappeared, but then glances into the audience, and his expression softens into a ominous smile. He crosses to KATIE and leads her by the hand to the slide. KATIE appears wary of DAMIEN, struggling somewhat against his grasp. DAMIEN half helps her, half pushes her to the top of the slide, then crosses to the bottom of the slide and crouches with his arms spread, as if to catch her.

At the beginning of the "Don't worry, I've got you" lines, KATIE begins to slowly slide down the slide. When KATIE is about halfway down the slide, LIVING MANNEQUIN notices the scene, rushes to KATIE's side, and begins pleading with her, but KATIE doesn't notice. When KATIE reaches the bottom of the slide at the last "Don't worry, I've got you", LIVING MANNEQUIN places herself between DAMIEN and KATIE. KATIE and LIVING MANNEQUIN make eye contact, then KATIE frantically tries to stand up and run away. Before she can run away, though, at the line 'The orange man's got you," DAMIEN throws LIVING MANNEQUIN aside, picks KATIE up and half drags, half carries her offstage. LIVING MANNEQUIN, paralyzed with horror, is unable to do any thing and simply stares after them. She dissolves into tears. Blackout.
The lights come up on the abandoned playground. On the last line (...Wants to take her for a ride), KATIE's ball bounces onstage. Blackout.)

Echo Gallery.

Walk through this echo gallery. Shadows of individuals rest here, succumbed to their inner thoughts. And while the hall is a secret, the world's critical gaze judges those that reside inside.

Look at this girl. Jackie, her name was. Jackie, the Maiden of Anguish, you might call her now. She's just a statue now. And now, only in her wildest dreams is she human.
And from her rocky face, her dry eyes shed tears of pebbles.

Her face was sculpted from her body, a bust from the rest. The artist; herself.
She only wanted to look pretty for the world.

But now, the curator of the gallery covers them all in silky clothes to keep them from staining.
What's the point of looking pretty if nobody's watching anymore?

But she's not pretty anymore. No, she had a scarring accident. Someone tipped her over while visiting and her face received a fatal chip.

Horribly disfigured, she welcomes the curator's cloth. She might be taken down from the gallery, because who likes imperfection among perfection?
Isn't it sad that beauty is based on chips and flaws and dents?

But now, she sits in a pensive state. She wonders if she could have changed her destiny. Who knew that she would have sold herself to this awful place?

Eden.

The spirits, they are restless. There is something ill at ease. I watch them from my window, quarreling with the wind.
Look into the garden.
The branches, they are swaying, dead twigs suspended in air. There is something ominous about them.
The spirits create a raging tempest of memories soon forgot. I watch it from my window -- a storm of swirling silver is mirrored in the glass.
The wind picks up. An unearthly whistling fills the air.
Thunder crashes.

The fall of water from clouds forms a silver sheet. It crashes upon the roses and strips them bare of colour.
It is often warned that weather is a force to be reckoned with. It is heavily laden with omens, both good and bad.

Go into the garden to calm the spirits. The rain pours from the sky like blood from an open wound into the garden, staining it a silvery-blue.
The petals, they have fallen from the roses to the ground. The bare branches shake in fear.
I look upon the ghastly sight of destruction by gales and rains.
My eyes fill with water. I've fallen to the ground.
The ground begins to shake. I'm as frightened as the trees.
A yawning chasm opens, enveloping the breeze.
I wonder if this chasm will swallow all my fears. The silver sheets of water drain slowly to the deep.
The petals, they have vanished. Swept away with the silver.
I'm left alone with the trees; what little use they serve. They quail in fear, huddling masses of brown and grey.

The weeping willows sob, their time has come at last. They fall into the chasm, into a dark vortex of silver and pink.

The spirits, they have vanished. Drawn into some endless pit. The weather is an omen -- the storm is not relenting.

The future is looking grim. My eyes have flooded over. I'm swallowing the wind, the water, and my tears.
The garden, it is helpless. It's drawn into the chasm. The silver sheets of water are ever relentless.

The spirits, they were restless. There was something ill at ease. I watched them from my window, quarreling with the wind.
Looked into the garden.
The branches, they were swaying, dead twigs suspended in air. There was something ominous about them.

Something ominous.

I never should have gone into the garden.

What We Had Was a Beautiful Tapestry.

Don't I know you?

We measured the time with hands entwined, counting the moments that left us in a haze.
Alone...
You left me.
But of course I forgive you. I've seen how you live. You have fears and needs to appease. But we helped each other. We banished those fears. We filled those needs. And like a phoenix, we rose from the ashes of your former life. We picked up the pieces, rose up towards the sun, with ambitions and dreams wrapped around us like brightly coloured ribbons.
But the ghosts in the attic, they never quite leave.

I could have sworn I know you.
It's a distance that's filled with the greatest of ease. The distance between our fingers. We fit into each other like puzzle pieces, with your hand in mine.

With each passing day, the history we made drew us tighter and tighter together, confirming our belief that some sort of miracle brought us together in this celestial waltz. Rising up towards the sky, dancing through time and space. Through the colours of the seasons. Through the brightly coloured ribbons.

But somehow, this time spent together was ephemeral. The petals of time slowly unfolded, revealing what the fates had planned for us. Whether we liked it or not, we accepted it as part of Time's decree.

So we just held on fast while the moments we had faded away into the caverns of our minds. And all of the memories we had eroded to dust. All of the time and space between us grew into a huge chasm.

We learn to accept the past as lessons that were painstakingly and exquisitely crafted. As thread that we use to spin the stories of our lives. The tales of the love and hate, the happiness and sorrow, captured in thin lines. Brightly coloured lines. Forever immortalized in a tapestry to hang on our walls.
Because we don't realize how much faith we have in our lives unless our prizes have been somehow elusive.

Yes, I thought I knew you from somewhere...

Inkwells.

I don't want to sleep tonight. I want to take a walk in the falling snow.

...there's no snow...

I want to lay in fields of green-turning-white.

For some reason, all the world is alive tonight. I guess the cold, in a strange, invigorating way, breathes life. La vie.
The wind picks up. The windows shake.
Loud, though. I guess I won't hear the dawn break.

I cannot bear it any longer. I dash outside.

Neighborhoods with sporadic trees. The world pulses. The rhythm of la vie. The rhythm of my pulse. Together, just one beating heart.

I throw my head up to the sky. Clouds of ink float above, quietly. My breath catches.
And strangely, slowly, all around, I watch the snow fall to the ground.
Each silent flake is like a drum, beating out an ephemeral cadence.

Morning light upon the clouds. Drops of light fall to the ground.

The drums are still beating. Puddles of light ripple from centers of gold.

I never heard the dawn break.

Beginnings.

A labyrinth of moments, each different from the next. Everywhere I turn, a new beginning begins, but they never find a finish.
The walls are nothing.
I walk to the horizon.

Another maze. It's all so surprising, but entrance is granted.
I wonder if it's different.

It isn't.

Up in the sky, the moon is swept around. Swaying over the ocean. The waves keep crashing. The moon still keeps moving. Almost like clockwork. Like a wind-up doll.
And through it all, the maze keeps going.

Another patch of sky. The moon has vanished. Or shrank.
But now the stars sign. Twinkling out a life that could be mine.
If only their light could shine enough for me to make it through the maze.

Sudden darkness.
Glancing up to the heavens -- the sky has clouded over.
There's no spark of Leo or Orion.

Winds from far off countries have taken echos of their stories, but all that is heard is whistling. Crashing. Misting. As the moon comes down from dreaming, and the crashing waves stop sleeping, one can only wonder if this is only dreaming.

An unseen blockage is an illusion. A turn taken to begin a new beginning -- still looking for an answer, but never finding the finish. The wrong turn is taken, and lost is found.

Lost, a dark line is made, hopefully in search of the way back to the moment.
It could be left or right.
It could be in or out.
It's either this or that way.
It should be one direction.

But the turn that was taken, the turn that is being made, the turns to come, they don't hold the answer. The stars are gone. The ocean has melted into darkness. The moon is weeping somewhere.

This might be the end.
Or this could be just the beginning.