SCENE ONE
(The stage is set up to resemble a bar. There is a table on stage, sideways to the audience. Under the table is a row of glasses. GWEN is a middle-aged woman with a fierce demeanor and exacting movements. She stands behind the table, holding a rag, cleaning a glass and humming to herself. The door opens. DURZO is a young-looking man with an air of casual hostility, dressed in black. He enters, slams the door shut and stalks forward to take a seat opposite GWEN. She gives him a dark look.)
DURZO
Give me a drink.
(GWEN frowns, and slowly does so.)
DURZO
(mutters)
Thanks.
(DURZO downs the drink and slams the glass down, glaring at the table.)
GWEN
What's wrong this time?
DURZO
Kylar.
(DURZO motions for another drink, seeming agitated. GWEN fills another glass and sets it down.)
GWEN
What about him?
DURZO
(drinks and slams it down again)
Doll Girl.
(pauses and regards the empty glass)
I see him looking at her. I think he's falling in love. That can't happen.
(to himself)
It'd ruin everything.
GWEN
He's a boy.
DURZO
(snarls)
He's a killer. I trained him myself.
(DURZO pauses, holding the glass before pushing it forward with a growl. GWEN picks up the emptied glass.)
GWEN
You seemed to have managed all right.
(angrily)
You managed to give my sister a child.
DURZO
(snort)
There's a difference between fucking and love.
GWEN
(refills glass and sets it on the table)
I doubt Vondra saw it that way.
DURZO
(downs the glass)
Vondra was the bitch that didn't know when she wasn't wanted.
(DURZO sighs and puts his face in his hands for a moment. Then he lurches to his feet and grabs the glass he was drinking from and flings it across the room.)
DURZO
Damn him!
(softer)
Damn him.
(GWEN fills a new glass and holds it, cradling it against herself for a moment, while watching DURZO. For a brief time he is unaware of being watched, then DURZO looks up and sees GWEN looking at him. He reaches for the glass she is holding.)
DURZO
Give it to me.
GWEN
(pulls back)
You've gone through three already.
DURZO
(snarls)
Three or three hundred –
GWEN
You're a drunkard. You understand that, right?
DURZO
A drunkard isn't sober after leaving a bar!
GWEN
But a drunkard does drink night after night in the hopes of getting drunk.
(DURZO stares at GWEN for a long time, not quite reacting to what she has just said. His hands migrate to the table and curl into fists. He looks away. GWEN sets the filled glass down.)
GWEN
(slightly bitter, slightly wistful)
What's the problem with love, anyway?
DURZO
Murderers don't worship the goddess of love. We worship the god of potent liquids.
(raises glass in a mocking toast and takes a sip with each pronouncement)
Blood. Semen. Wine.
(pauses, looking into the glass and laughs)
He's a lie, like they all are, but at least he isn't a weakness. Not like Doll Girl.
GWEN
(shakes her head)
You're obsessed.
DURZO
And if I am? Give me another.
GWEN
(fills another glass and sets it down)
You can't expect –
DURZO
I'll expect what I damn well want to!
GWEN
(placating)
Durzo –
DURZO
(frenzied anger)
He knows the price of failure!
(GWEN stares at DURZO, then turns her back on him to fill another glass. There is an extended silence between the two of them. DURZO sits completely still, his face unreadable. GWEN sighs as she turns around with the filled glass and sets it on the edge of the table, watching DURZO.)
GWEN
He's just a boy, Durzo.
DURZO
(echoes)
Just a boy?
GWEN
Kylar.
DURZO
(reaches for glass and fiddles with it)
Kylar.
(looks down)
Yes. He is just a boy.
(extended silence)
Gwen. Help me.
GWEN
(puts down another glass)
Help yourself.
(GWEN exits silently. DURZO picks up the glass as though mesmerized, and stares after GWEN for a moment. Then DURZO stands and throws the glass after her.)
DURZO
You stupid bitch!
(long silence)
Whore!
(pauses uncertainly, then plaintively calls)
Gwen?
THE END
(Here's my disclaimer: Durzo, Gwen, Kylar and the Night Angel series does not belong to me... That's the property of one Brent Weeks. (And if you haven't read it, you damn well should.))
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