Act 2, Scene 1

(Continued from my old blog. Your own problem if you don't have the link. Sorry.)

It is late in the morning a month or so after death has visited the girl. The curtain rises on her bedroom; it has been rearranged slightly and there are no pictures to be seen. The audience is made aware that she is not sleeping, but merely curled up, thinking and waiting. Life enters SL.


Life: Little one, you are stalling again. You cannot tell me that you are already tired of the new world I've been trying to show you!

Girl: (stretching lazily) I never thought that things could be like this.

Life: Is that not what you always wanted?

Girl: There's so much...more here. There's more and there's less.

Life: Less?! Certainly you are mistaken. You have only started to see, to experience - you have only started to heal from your wounds, though it has been years since you have shuddered against that blade which held you.

Girl: (slowly, with the naivete of a young child) That...that's just it! There used to be a crutch for me...there used to be the silent terrors that could overwhelm the demons. The most terrifying things could bring me back from the forbidden place, could always bring me back to safety and comfort. And now...now they do nothing against the real demons I face.

Life steps swiftly over to the bed, and forcibly lifts the girl out. She struggles against him as he prevails, setting her on her feet in front of her mirror.

Life: Look! Look, damn you! You have got to understand - this is you! This is me! There never were demons, never was anything beyond your own headstrong fears and imagination, you silly, simple thing!

Girl: (crying) I am so lost now! Nothing is within my grasp; you cannot understand. I feel helpless, confused, homeless - yes, that's the word I've been searching for - HOMELESS. I'm not at home within myself; nor am I in this new place you've shown me.

Life: (gently, rubbing her shoulder) Homeless. No...no, you are never without your home. I can take you...

Girl: (sobbing harder) You could never help me go home! You don't even know where my home is!

Life: (quietly) If you want to be at home, you must be at home first within yourself. Who are you, and who is the girl before us in that mirror?

Girl: (touching the mirror) I...I don't know who she is. She barely looks like anyone I know, much like anyone that I could be living inside.

Life: Come with me, then. You will not rest again until I have taken you far inside and outside of her...then you will know. Then you will be settled; you will be home - and maybe we'll vanquish your demons once and for all.