Dark Self (continues)
In a semi-darkness on stage, the large cloth covers the large upside-down wine glass. We are seeing SOFIE SOME first standing and then JAY JUMP is running towards her.
JAY
(runs across the stage and sighs in relief. He has short bushy, brown hair; a green top with short sleeves, and long black pants with pockets. He is wearing blue tennis shoes.)
I am glad that I escaped from it. I do not wish to see it. Repeat, I do not want to see it again in my entire life!
SOFIE
(looks at him with surprise. She has short, black hair; no makeup, white plain dress up to her knees with straps on her shoulders. She has black shoes with straps around her ankles.)
Are you okay, Jay?
JAY
I am fine. I mean, good!
SOFIE
Okay. Then, let’s have a walk to see something special.
JAY
(looks at the audience)
Not for me. I need to go home. (whispers) I already run and I do not want to go for a walk. I need to relax my conscience from it.
SOFIE
Are you sure, kid?
(JAY hears a whisper and runs off backstage. At the same time, she shrugs.)
He is acting weird again. I wanted to know why and what happened to him. He is going crazy like… I do not know!
(walks stage right and sees a small upside-down wine glass on a glass table. She is awed by the look of the vessel and she could not turn away from it until she hears a voice.)
SHADOW’S VOICE
(sounds eerie in the dark)
Do not run. Do not look away. Do not scream. Look into the eyes of fear. Try to see your personality and character in a pair of eyes. You will see the dark self of yourself. And it is not anybody's shadow, but yours.
SOFIE
(turns around and looks into the eyes of the shadow. Right away, she screams and runs away.)
I cannot believe that I ran away from a man’s voice. He, I mean it spooked me. I need to tell my friend about this voice!
JAY
(appears standing and relax, but alarmed at her approach)
Why do you go there? You need to get away from the rich people. They are strangers!
SOFIE
Strangers? I do not think so. I hear a voice, a manly voice. It says like...
JAY
Oh, no! Do not say that! It is a curse, who goes to meet… Do not say it! Just forget about it.
SOFIE
Okay, I will.
JAY
Good. Just stay away from rich people and rich stuff. And avoid the voice!
(SOFIE is walking away from him and hears a louder whisper than before.)
SHADOW’S VOICE
Do not walk away from me. Just look over here. I wanted to be seen by a human person. I do not care if it is a girl or a boy. I do not try to make you do wrong. Just try to see me. I am right behind you.
SOFIE
(raises an eyebrow in question)
I want to, but my friend says, ‘I should get away from rich people and rich stuff. And avoid the voice.’ I need to keep my eyes on the road.
(walks away)
SHADOW’S VOICE
I need to keep an eye on the victims. They are running away from fear, which is me. They are not listening to me. What have I done wrong to humanity? Do I belong here in the world with humans? No one cares about fear. But they only care for their own things and chores. They forget who they are as a person, not their dark selves. So cruel, humans!
(JAY appears slowly on stage.)
JAY
(embraces his arms like shivering)
Did I just feel the chills, just now? I hope not. But I do hope to run away from it before I get caught. Seeing it will be a curse for my entire life! My family is scared of the thing itself. I cannot let it catch me off guard!
(exits)
SHADOW
(The large cloth that covers the large upside-down wine glass falls down dramatically. You can see his right leg over his left leg sitting down on a wine glass stool with the wine glass in his left hand. It is half full of red wine. He is wearing very dark clothing like a tuxedo. He has short black hair and normal skin. In addition, he is speaking loudly inside the vessel as SOFIE looks at him in awe.)
Why is everyone running away from me? Do I look scary? Ugly. Filthy. Stupid. What is it? I am sick of seeing people’s eyes turning away from me. I am just a mere darkness and cannot move within the wine glass. But the victims can move without thinking and running wildly around a circus and get lost in thought. They will suffer more than the darkness itself and they will run out of time and there will be no chances to live with fear. As a result, I see no bravery, but cowards. I dislike their personalities, period.
However, one person will make a difference. Just one person will change it. Is it a she or a he? I do not know and am careless about gender. I just wanted to see and make the person look at the fear, which is me. He or she has to see it and... be brave and surprised by who you are looking at. You are looking at your dark side, yourself.
Yourself is human just like yourself. I do not mean selfish but have a personality
yourself. Do I like it? It depends on you and yourself to look at fear.
SOFIE
(enters)
I want to say that you are a handsome man. And you made a point on the appearance of what people think of you as a person. I do not care what they think of you. Actually, what am I supposed to say to a… rich man? Wait (pause) to look at something.
(pause) I remember that I saw a wine glass on a glass table. It was pretty transparent and cool.
SHADOW
I want you to see the upside-down wine glass on a glass table.
SOFIE
Like a mirror to reflect on me?
SHADOW
Not everyone did it. But you did it without question.
SOFIE
Was I the only one who can see it?
(points her finger at herself)
SHADOW
(In the meantime, he stands and walks towards her. He is within the large upside-down wine glass.)
Was I forcing you to see it yourself to make a difference in human history? Was it? If I were to get the first victim over here, then he or she makes a difference. I did not mean you cannot. Maybe, you can make a difference in that you see me without question and fear. But everyone else is running away from me.
(drinks a bit of wine)
SOFIE
Ah, I know who runs away from you. He is my friend, Jay. Plus, I think that he is acting weird.
SHADOW
He is my first victim. The very first one in this time period. You know that I hate people running away from me like a creep. Do I look scary to you?
SOFIE
(shakes her head)
No, not at all. (swoons) You look so handsome that I feel like I am daydreaming about your beauty.
SHADOW
(walks to the stool and puts down the wine glass on the stool and he walks towards her with his two hands on the glass. He breathes in and out slowly.)
I wonder if it is very weird for me to do this… The...
JAY
(runs to push her aside and he glares at SHADOW)
What are you doing? I do not want to get caught by it.
(looks at her while she gets up on her feet and taps her back)
We should run!
SOFIE
(glares at him)
You push me. Why? You see not a friend, but a weakling in front of someone. Am I weak? A weak girl?
JAY
No. We should run. Now!
SHADOW
(his voice is very grim)
Running away again.
JAY
(turns around quickly)
Shut up!
SOFIE
Do not scream at him like that.
JAY
It is the thing that I am talking about to avoid.
SOFIE
(confuses)
Who? Exactly?
JAY
The thing. (his finger points at SHADOW) Just avoid the voice at all times.
SOFIE
(lowers his finger)
You are not talking about him. You are only talking about avoiding the rich people and rich stuff. Not him. Plus, he is not the thing. He is a handsome man.
JAY
Really? A handsome man that can attract you. It is a monster more than anything that I fear. We should run this time.
SOFIE
(crosses her chest)
I refuse.
SHADOW
(appears behind SOFIE)
Are you trying to dispel the bad side of yourself to be the good side without the bad side? Or you just look innocent all the way through despite friends and family. Conscious and unconscious. Love and hate. Fear and fearless. And so on…
JAY
(gasps)
Shut up! It is nothing like that. You cannot be human by saying those innocent words. Only humans can say these things with imagery and emotions. And you have to get away from her.
SHADOW
Nothing, but a liar to your dark self. I can feel it through my blood and cells. In addition, you are hurting another victim about your age. You are doom, the first victim.
JAY
(walks back a few steps)
I wish that you are gone and you are back to hell. I do not want to do anything with this. This kind of problem is in the past, not the present or the future. I want to go home and forget all about this. I need no one to teach me a lesson about life. I can do it myself with confidence. I want freedom. I want to live a good life without seeing you and stopping me from living.
Do I care about Shadow? Do I care about my friend, Sofie? Do I care about my family? No, I do not. I want to live a lonely life. Better off without people and darkness. When I die, I have no connection with anyone, but myself.
(puts his right hand over his chest)
SHADOW
That is your choice, the first victim. Then, the rest of humanity will follow in your footsteps and die in vain because of your choice. You are not thinking smart for them. I do not care about gender, who will survive on this planet Earth? They can…
But, you are no different than they are. What I am seeing is the truth. We all do not look different from one another. I mean light and dark goes with the good and evil. They are gathered hand in hand. Problem and solution.
SOFIE
He has a point.
JAY
(looks at her in surprise)
You are following his way of being scary and evil. I do not care. I am not here.
(runs away from them.)
SOFIE
(sighs deeply)
Now, he is acting weirder than I thought.
SHADOW
Dark self, give me your hand.
(SOFIE looks surprised and gives her right hand to his left hand. He takes it.)
I feel a bit different from your hand. Is it a warm touch or an icy heart? Is it a warm welcome or a cold stare? None that matters if you are the only one who can make a difference, a dark self.
(his other hand touches her right hand)
SOFIE
Do you mean making a difference to my friend?
SHADOW
Do not dare to ask me this kind of question. You are on task to make him realize that he is wrong and you are right. Is it worth being here and doing nothing about it? Or you can run after him and say this meaning of dark self.
SOFIE
Dark self? Which is me. I wonder why.
SHADOW
Go now!
SOFIE
For what?
SHADOW
(walks away from her.)
Do you want me to repeat myself and you will be in the upside-down wine glass with me for eternity?
SOFIE
I want to say... (realizes) Oh, I will see my friend this evening.
(SHADOW exits and JAY arrives on stage.)
Hi, friend!
JAY
(surprises)
You are still here! You have not run from… it. You have been so different to me since I met you. I thought that we have similarities as friends. I guess that I was wrong and you are so… into it. Like a couple. You and it. I am not here once again.
SOFIE
(tries to stop him from running away)
Wait! I want to say that I want to meet you now. We are still friends. I want you to… sit down and realize what you have been through.
JAY
You mean (pause) it!
SOFIE
Just sit down.
JAY
Is this a trap? If it is a trap, I am no longer a friend to you. Do I trust you? I do not want to sit down and realize that you are on the side of Shadow. The darkest and creepiest way of humanity, I have nothing to do with it.
SOFIE
Please, sit down. Just once.
JAY
Never! Not for you and not for Shadow.
(runs away from her and stops by SHADOW and stutters.)
How can you get here so fast and so momentarily? Are you out of the cage? Man, you are so creepy.
SHADOW
(walks toward him as JAY walks backward. And then, SHADOW grabs his throat, not tightening though.)
You are creeping me out, the first victim. I am tired of you running away from me. You are a victim of time and darkness. You are still unchanged from the time that I first saw you. You need to realize now that you have a dark self by yourself.
JAY
Never! I have nothing to do with you.
SHADOW
This is not about me. It is about you.
JAY
How?
SHADOW
(pulls him closer to his face)
How? It is about you and your own fears. You are running from yourself. I represented you.
SOFIE
(interrupts)
I understand him.
SHADOW
Quiet!
(lowers his voice only JAY can hear.)
Do I look ugly to you? Do I look stupid? Why have you been running away from me? Is it a simple understanding that you have missed your entire life? I mean that you have been lost to me. If you were not my first victim, then anyone can be my first victim. Does gender matter to me? Does it matter to you? Who are the victims? And what they have done to themselves. You are harming yourself, boy. I did not come to scare you. Instead, I give guidance to you.
(He has two wine glasses in two hands. One is half full of wine on his left hand and the other is upside down on his right hand.)
One choice can be good and the other is bad. The first victim, you do not have much time for this. Decide or leave it to your friend. She will decide for herself.
JAY
(gulps)
I cannot believe what you say to my friend right here. Does she have a choice like mine? Are we on the same coin to figure out in a short time? I do not think so. Plus, you do not even look nice to me. You have been after me for so many years. Then, I met her as a friend. However, you are… Not my spirit.
SHADOW
(turns to the audience)
A spirit, you say.
SOFIE
What do you mean by spirit? You mean he is a demon.
JAY
My choice is to keep myself away from you so I can live in peace. Or better, I can break all your glasses to signify no change in me.
SHADOW
(looks at JAY)
Really? You are making these drastic changes in human history. Humans will follow in your footsteps and they will not realize that this is death to themselves. Are you sure that you are doing for all of humanity, the first victim?
(JAY fell silent as SOFIE gasps)
You are letting your conscience die within yourself, boy. You are not looking at me carefully and you are not listening to me at all. You are so… lost in your own thoughts and heartbeats. Rhythms can make you feel cowardly. You need to be here, not there. Not running anymore!
(JAY pushed him hard and the wine glasses fell on the floor. And the liquid on the wine glass spilled on the floor. SOFIE cries in horror.)
You!
(he is on the floor and his finger points at JAY )
You… break… my… (screams) wine glasses!
JAY
(turns around to backstage)
Ah, I made a choice to just run.
(runs backstage. SOFIE stops crying and looks at SHADOW on the floor.)
SOFIE
Are you okay, sir?
SHADOW
Second victim, will you make a choice for yourself?
SOFIE
I would have chosen the upside-down wine glass. It means a lot to me because it is so transparent and beautiful.
SHADOW
Then, you are understanding yourself and your dark self.
(SOFIE exits first and SHADOW draws out the napkin from his pants pocket and wipes the spill on the floor. He carries the broken wine glasses on his hands and then, he gets up and exits. Then, JAY appears on stage.)
JAY
(is running on stage. His body bent forward as his arms covered his knees on the floor. He is alone in the semi-darkness on stage.)
I am alone in the darkness. I have chosen to leave without options. Do I have options? No. I do not. None of my family members ever have options. They say “Run!” I always hear “Run, Jay!”
I felt the urge to run away from… fear, itself.
Just run, run, run like a gingerbread man, who is created alive and soon to be eaten. Just like me. (his hand is over his chest) Me as a gingerbread man. Instead of getting eaten, I…run away as fast as possible. Away from Shadow and… Sofie. Away from them. I had to be alone in the darkness.
I had to… do nothing. Just nothing, but silence.
SHADOW
(claps and appears behind him)
I can hear your dark self wants to be silent.
JAY
(alerts)
You had to get away from me.
SHADOW
(taps his shoulder)
I cannot.
JAY
(stands up and turns)
No, I mean it to myself to just run.
SHADOW
No, do not run from me.
JAY
What do you want from me? I have broken your wine glasses. You just need to be gone!
SHADOW
To your dark self, the first victim. Your dark self needs healing!
JAY
No, I do not need your help. I need no one, but myself.
SHADOW
(takes a deep breath and sighs)
The second victim has chosen the upside-down wine glass.
JAY
What does it mean?
SHADOW
She understands her dark self.
JAY
And?
SHADOW
You want to find it yourself. I will not say an answer to your “and?” (emphasizes) You can be somewhere with the second victim.
JAY
I guess that I need to talk with my friend, Sofie.
(SHADOW exits and SOFIE enters.)
SOFIE
Hi, Jay! We meet again.
JAY
I have a question about the wine glasses. What do you choose?
SOFIE
I chose the upside-down wine glass.
JAY
Why?
SOFIE
I like the color itself. The transparent look on the wine glass.
JAY
(turns away from her)
Shadow says, “You understand your dark self.” Is it true, Sofie?
SOFIE
I believe so. That he is correct.
JAY
(turns to her and shouts) Why are you not running away from it? Shadow is bad for you and it is bad for everyone. Why can you not run from it?
(SOFIE stays silent.)
Are you not brave enough to run away from it? Are you just too lazy to be just looking pretty at it? It can attract you with love and energy. Why are you not running away from it?
SOFIE
Why are you screaming like my father? Are you so related to him by any chance? Are you hurting your own friend for your own amusement? Screaming can help you relieve stress. That’s it? There is more to it than screaming, Jay. Do not be a kid.
JAY
And stop getting serious with me. How about this? Just walk with Shadow and be on your honeymoon and forget about me. Totally forgetting about me. Do your own thing.
I, on the other hand, follow my family’s tradition of just keeping my distance from the shadow. I will survive on behalf of my family. I wanted to be free from its chains.
SOFIE
So?
JAY
You really do not understand me, Sofie. You are a weak girl. A weakling in the entire planet of Earth. So weak and no one needs you. Not even Shadow. I guess that I can be wrong--
SHADOW
(appears to grab his neck once more.)
The first victim, you are getting too far from your own fears. You need to calm down without me putting you in the wine glass.
JAY
The wine glass? Which one? Do not tell me there is a tiny one with you.
SOFIE
He mentions the bigger one. You can be his prisoner for life.
JAY
(turns to her and startled)
What? No. Do not. Put me in the… cage. I need to run!
SHADOW
Too late!
JAY
Give me time, please.
SHADOW
No more tries, the first victim. You are coming with me.
JAY
(screams like a long note) Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
(SHADOW drags him to the large upside-down wine glass. He picks up his wine glass with red wine from the stool and drops him ruthlessly on the stool and says.)
SHADOW
There you are, the first victim. You are finally home.
(JAY whimpers like a puppy and has tears coming down his face. SHADOW ignores him and looks at the audience. He takes a sip from the drink.)
Do not look at him with sad eyes. Be serious and enjoy your stay in the wine glass. You will be in control of yourself to look at your dark self. The dark self is not running away from the original self. They are like you, the first victim. Be brave and be accepted in your own way.
JAY
Me? (cries) No, I have not understood it since my parents say, “Run, Jay!”
SHADOW
(looks at him)
This is not like you, the first victim. Then, what do you want for yourself? Ask yourself this question.
JAY
(shakes his head)
I am not going to do it. I want freedom!
SHADOW
Your freedom is here. (touches the large wine glass with the smaller wine glass to ring a note) Right here, Jay.