By Angela Gant
Character List
Jack- Artist-once married to the Muse- serial killer.
Muse- Representation of Jack’s wife and Sarah’s mother.
Sarah- Jack and Muse’s Child.
Setting
Artist’s studio in a warehouse.
Time
Present.
JACK’s studio is filled with pictures of the MUSE, each with a large diagonal slash painted across the portrait. There is a large picture frame surrounding the MUSE on the couch where she is laying. Off to one side is a portrait of a baby. On the opposite side of the stage is a picture frame covered by a black cloth. We hear moaning and whining sounds coming from behind the cloth periodically through the scene. As the scene opens JACK is “painting” the MUSE as she is laying unmoving. JACK finishes the final touches and crosses away from his work to clean out his brushes. The MUSE animates and crosses through the frame.)
MUSE
(Looking at her body.)
Very nice. This is good work.
JACK
Some of my best.
MUSE
You did all this from memory?
JACK
Memory is all I have left of you.
MUSE
I don’t recall wearing dresses all that often.
JACK
I always preferred you in dresses, though.
MUSE
I see. Trying to recreate me in your ideal image?
JACK
You were already my ideal image.
MUSE
(Indicating to other portraits.)
And all these?
JACK
A humble attempt to capture your true beauty. Thirty-three.
MUSE
How did you do this time?
JACK
Close enough that I think it all ends tonight.
MUSE
Let’s cut the crap Jack. Why am I here?
JACK
I had to see you one last time. I had to make a clean break. It didn’t end the way it should have. It has to end the right way. I never got to say good-bye the way I wanted to… the way I needed to.
MUSE
Jon, I’ve been dead for years.
JACK
But not dead to me.
MUSE
How many times have you brought me back?
JACK
You… this is the first time. The others, they looked like you, but they weren’t you. Not really you. I made them look like you.
MUSE
I think you need to get some help. Seeing me won’t help you. It will just make you worse.
JACK
I just wanted to remember you the way you were.
MUSE
I think my legs are longer, and my chest is… (looking down at chest) I just seems a bit different you know.
JACK
Ninety-nine.
MUSE
This is our first house isn’t it. I always loved that house, you know.
JACK
I loved you in it.
MUSE
It wasn’t like our last house at all,
JACK
No.
MUSE
Do you have any paintings of it?
JACK
What?
MUSE
Our last house together.
JACK
No.
MUSE
Why?
JACK Too painful.
MUSE
Painful, yes. (Noticing baby portrait.) Look at that. Baby Sarah. Oh, you really captured her. She had the best smile, the perfect little baby smile. You remember? I loved it when she use to smile up at me and gurgle that little baby gurgle of hers. (To portrait) She knows who her mama is didn’t she, oh yes she does. Can she come out and play too?
JACK No, Just you. No baby Sarah.
MUSE
Are you sure? I would so love to hold her again. Just for a minute. I won’t tell anyone.
JACK Just you.
MUSE
Too painful? (No response. A moan is heard from behind the black cloth, she crosses to it.) What’s this?
JACK Nothing, nothing, it’s not finished yet.
MUSE Can I peek?
JACK
No, you’ll ruin it. You’ll ruin everything. Just be patient.
MUSE
There was a time when you wouldn’t deny me anything, you know.
JACK That was a long time ago.
MUSE Not so long ago that you’ve forgotten.
JACK Not so long ago.
MUSE
There was a time when I wouldn’t deny you anything, either.
JACK You always denied me. You never let me…
MUSE You remember my touch?
JACK Yes.
MUSE My smell.
JACK
Stop.
MUSE
You don’t really mean that, now do you? This is what you’ve been thinking about, dreaming about. I know I’m still there is your dreams. Even when you close your eyes, just for a second, you see me like this.
JACK Stop. Two fifty eight.
MUSE
Or do you see me like this. Does it excite you, the way it use to?
JACK
Stop. This isn’t right. This isn’t the way I remember you. You’re ruining it.
MUSE
You’re ruining it. As you wish. I suppose you like it better this way, now. It’s easier to control me like this.
JACK I suppose.
MUSE
You like the control? You like it better this way don’t you?
JACK Stop this.
MUSE
Why? It’s kind of fun, don’t you think? I mean your the entire reason I’m here.
(Muffled sound from behind the black cloth.)
JACK
You’re here, because you want to be here.
MUSE
You’re the one who can’t let go.
JACK
Actually, I think it’s you, who won’t let go of me.
MUSE
Really?
JACK
Really.
MUSE
That’s an interesting perspective, all things considered. I think I completely let go at the end. I know what you did. (Pause.) I said, I know what you did.
JACK
I heard you. Three fifty seven.
MUSE
What are you doing?
JACK
Counting.
MUSE
Can I hold the baby?
JACK
No.
MUSE
For old times sake.
JACK
No.
MUSE
She must be huge by now. Are you okay?
JACK
Fine.
MUSE
You don’t look so good. Why don’t you come sit by me? I’ll warm you up just like before.
JACK
I said, I was fine.
MUSE
You think you would be happy to see me. It’s been a long time.
JACK
I’m sorry, it’s the long hours.
MUSE
Working?
JACK
Working.
MUSE
That’s what you always use to call it, “working.” Of course I had no idea at the time. I was so young then. How is your “work?”
JACK
Almost finished.
MUSE
(Indicating to black cloth) Is that your latest piece of work?
JACK
Maybe.
MUSE
You always were elusive, I suppose it was all your “work” that brought it on. Is it hard work? (Muffled whine behind black cloth.) Don’t you want to show me?
JACK
Later.
MUSE
Why not now?
JACK
I can’t bring baby Sarah out, the way I can bring you out. Five oh three.
MUSE
She’s probably not a baby anymore.
JACK
She’ll always be my baby.
MUSE
Like me?
JACK
Not like you. No one will ever be like you.
MUSE
Where is she now?
JACK
God only knows.
MUSE
Grew up like her mama, huh?
JACK
Never grew up.
MUSE
I like to think I was always young at heart.
JACK
Never grew up… the fire.
MUSE
The fire? But she wasn’t even home.
JACK
It was the fire.
MUSE
I know she wasn’t home,
JACK
How do you know? You were asleep weren’t you. That’s what they said.
MUSE
What do they know? My baby was not in the house. What did you do with her you bastard? What did you do with her? Answer me.
JACK
It was so long ago.
MUSE
What did you do with my baby?
JACK
I lost you, the house, and the baby all in the same day.
MUSE
You killed her didn’t you?
JACK
So tired…
MUSE
Answer me.
JACK
Not dead, just dead to me. Not like you.
MUSE
The fire ate away everything in that rotten house, filled with your filth. Ate it away and purified it.. Burned away the evil, but my baby was not there, I made sure of that. You were always trying to keep her from me. You wanted her all to yourself.
JACK
I know what you did.
MUSE
You think, you know.
JACK
Oh, I know.
MUSE
So what if you do? What can you really do about it? You’re a sick, sick bastard.
JACK
That’s right, I’m the sick one.., after what you did, I’m the sick one.
MUSE
I thought you loved me.
JACK
I did. I loved the image of you. I loved so much, it hurt.
MUSE
You dressed me up like a doll, and then you went to “work.” Was it worth it? Screwing all those other women, when you had me waiting at home. We had a baby.
JACK
Had yes.
MUSE
Dolled me up and went to so called “work.” You use to stare at me for hours.
JACK
Yes, I remember. I had to get them right, so I didn’t have to do it to you. Seven oh eight.
MUSE
Remember how hot you use to get staring at me? Most men would turn away when I caught them staring, but not you.
JACK
Not me.
MUSE
Not you. I knew you were just waiting for me to touch you. I enjoyed making you wait. You wanted me to touch you, you practically begged for it.
JACK
My muse.
MUSE
I would come up to you and tousle your hair. Rub my cheek against yours. Yours was rough and harsh, cold like your exterior, always cold. But 1 could feel you trembling. You always reached out to touch me… and then you went to work.
JACK
You didn’t want me to work on you. Eight oh five.
MUSE
How do you know?
JACK
I know. Women didn’t like it when I worked on them. I spared you. I couldn’t do it to you. But I would pretend it was you, I made them look like you. I reinvented them into you, but I couldn’t get make the smell right. I couldn’t make them smell like you. Why couldn’t they smell like you? It ruins everything. This time though, I think I got it right.
MUSE
Are you talking about the me I am now? You have remade me into my own image.
JACK
I’ve remade you so many times. I worked on them, the way I wanted to work on you, but I wanted to save you. There Is a certain finality to my work. You could ask the other women, but I don’t think they’d have much to say on the subject at this point. You ruined everything, why did you do it?
MUSE
What my dear?
JACK
Why did you torch the house? Why did you try to kill me? I have to know.
MUSE
I didn’t approve of your work.
JACK
You didn’t even know what my work was. You assumed.
MUSE
I assumed she had a name, or several names.
JACK
I’m working on a new project right now.
MUSE
Does she have a name?
JACK
It’s not what you think, it never was. You would have never understood my work.
MUSE
Show me.
JACK
Not yet. The house.
MUSE
Ah yes, the house. It’s all about the house isn’t it?
JACK
Why?
MUSE
I needed to purify my soul, and the easiest way was to get rid of the house and you.
JACK
Why me?
MUSE
I think you know. I’m sure we’ve covered this, by this point. Let’s see your work.
JACK
In a minute, tell me how, in detail. Nine hundred and four.
MUSE
A gasoline can.
JACK
Like this one?
MUSE
Very much like that one. I took the baby to the neighbors. I told her I needed a little break, some alone time, she was married, she understood. Asleep for your three o’clock nap I knew you wouldn’t wake until five, you never did, exhausted from your work. I doused the house and watched the flames dance and play. They play you know, dance and play.
JACK
Nine seventy two. Twenty eight left to go.
MUSE
What?
JACK
Twenty seven.
MUSE
What are you doing?
JACK
Twenty three. You only get a thousand you know, words that is.
MUSE
Until what?
JACK
That’s why I’ve waited to show you, you see. I never could handle your long speeches, but I can handle another twenty one words.
(JACK crosses to covered frame and reveals SARAH bound and gagged on a chaise squealing to be let free.)
MUSE
My God. She looks just like me.
JACK
You remember our little girl, Sarah. Sarah you remember Mom don’t you? (SARAH is screaming and trying to get free. JACK approaches her and pets her head to soothe her.) It’s been a while I didn’t mean to scare you. I know she can be quite scary sometimes, but daddy is right here. She does look just like you, doesn’t she?
MUSE
What have you done?
JACK
Nine-ninety one. My life’s work will be complete tonight. See I always told you you wouldn’t understand my work, but I always wanted you to. I wanted you to see the beauty I accomplished, and yet I always managed to spare you. I found women you see. I took them from different places, parking lots, art galleries, wherever was most convienent. I remade them into you. I did to them all the unspeakable things I wanted to do to you. I suppose their unspeakable, because the girls are all dead, of course I’ve immortalized them. (Indicating to portraits of women.) They all died, before their time, poor things, ut I always wanted to end it with you. The real you. My crowning accomplishment. Then I tried to bring you back, but I couldn’t. You wouldn’t come back, until now, but now I have a new plan. I’ll end it all with Baby Sarah. My masterpiece will complete my work.
MUSE
What’s wrong with you. Let her go.
(JACK pulls out a house paint brush dripping red.)
JACK
Almost done. Do you want to say good bye to mommy? (To MUSE) Time for you to go.
MUSE
No. Stop.
JACK
Just one more.
MUSE
No.
(JACK strikes the MUSE diagonally across her body with the red paint brush leaving a trail of red paint. The MUSE goes limp and the JACK lifts her and places her back inside her portrait. Then he takes the gasoline can and douses the MUSE and the coach. JACK then crosses to SARAH and removes her gag. SARAH begins to scream. The JACK cuts the gag back in her mouth and slashes her. She nods that she understands and he removes the gag again.)
SARAH
Look mister, I don’t know who you are, but just let me go I won’t tell anyone I swear.
JACK
Of course, you don’t remember me, I had to give you away after the house fire. (Pouring gasoline around the room) Sad really. Didn’t you ever wonder who your parents were? I would have wondered if I were you. I don’t mean the people who raised you, I mean your real parents.
SARAH
Please just let me go. My fiancé has money, he’ll pay you whatever you want.
JACK
Thirty four. Not whatever I want. (Picks up large knife.)
SARAH
God no, please. Don’t do this, you don’t have to do this.
JACK
I have to end it. There are a lot of girls who will be glad you are the last. You wouldn’t want to take that away from them would you?
SARAH
We’ve got to be able to work something out . You’re an in telligent man, I’m
sure we can come to some sort of agreement, right?
JACK
Just like your mother. You have nine hundred and thirty words left.
SARAH
Why? Why are you counting? Look at me, tell me why you’re doing this.
JACK
Simply lovely, so life like. So alive, I wish you were real.
SARAH
I am real. Please tell me what you want. I’ll do whatever you ask, just let me go.
JACK
One hundred and two.
SARAH
Why are you counting?
JACK
A picture is only worth a thousand words.
(BLACKOUT.)
