The Bargain

[Elwen]

The Bargain

Characters:

Elena, a doctor and friend to Liriel and Yuki

Liriel, a young woman who is fated to die

Yuki, the young man in love with Liriel

Ariel, the personification of death

(lights off)

Yuki: (off) Look out!

(A loud crash and a woman’s shriek is heard.)

Yuki: (off) Liriel?! (no answer) Liriel!

(The lights come up to reveal a makeshift hospital room. Liriel is lying on a bed in Center. Elena is bent over her, and she shakes her head to herself. Yuki enters.)

Elena: Yuki, I’m sorry. I can’t do anything. She doesn’t have much time left...a few hours, at the most. Maybe…if we were in the city instead of this place in the middle of nowhere, I could do something. But here…nothing. All I can do is make her comfortable, try to take the pain away, ease her passing. (lays hand on Yuki’s shoulder.) I don’t know what to say, Yuki. But I’m sorry.

Yuki: Could you…leave us alone? I…want to say my goodbyes.

Elena: (pause, considers) Alright. It’s the least I can do…(exits)

Yuki: (to Liriel) I won’t let you go. Not now. I won’t let it end like this.

(Ariel enters)

Ariel: But it is not for a mortal to decide the fate of others. (points at him) Child, you cannot change what has already been written. It is her time to go and yours to stay behind.

Yuki: And who the hell are you?

Ariel: (steps closer to him) My name is Ariel, but as to what I am-(she walks forward) I am the road that leads to nowhere. I am the darkness that never lifts. I am the cold colder then ice. I am the dream that never awakens. I am the night that has no day. I am the guide to no return.

Yuki: (bows respectfully) So you must be Death…the Dark Lady.

Ariel: Very good. (studies him, inclining her head) You are no ordinary mortal, child, considering that you can see me without it being your time to die. Either you are touched also by the shadow that is falling on your friend, or you have the Sight that your kind lacks in these times, or both. And, no matter what the reason is, you are special. But, despite your abilities, you are still nothing but a mortal. Do not get involved in things that do not concern you. I am not here for you-but for the woman behind you. I have no quarrel with you.

Yuki: Then your quarrel is with me.

Ariel: Step aside, mortal. You cannot alter the hand of fate.

Yuki: (does not move) The only way to get to her is through me.

Ariel: You are foolish. You cannot stop what has already begun.

Yuki: (shouting) Hell itself and all its denizens will not bar the way! I would follow her into fire, into storm, in darkness, and yes, Dark Lady, into death! You cannot hold me back!

(the two begin to circle each other warily)

Ariel: (even louder) And I am not a denizen of hell! So where does that promise go? (grabs him by the hair, jerks, and sends him sprawling.)

Yuki: (gets to his feet and walks towards Ariel) You will not be rid of me so easily, Dark Lady.

Ariel: I admire your courage, child, but it will get you nowhere. (grabs him by the collar and pulls him closer) Why? Why all this? Why are you doing this? (shakes him on every next word) Pride? Duty? Friendship? Why? (on the last why, she shoves him backwards and he sits heavily on the ground.)

Yuki: (gets up again: softly) Because I love her.

(Ariel stares at him intently)

Ariel: People die all the time, and the ones they love and who love them are left behind. This is not different, child. Look at her. (she points to Liriel: Yuki looks, and closes his eyes briefly.) She’s suffering, trapped in that failing body of hers. She doesn’t even know you’re here…she cannot hear you, through the pain and haze that will be the end of her life. So much pain…the reason that I was created was to end humanity’s suffering. She suffers still, trapped in life. Can you take her pain away? (Yuki shakes his head) Only death can heal this pain. Death comes to all of humanity in time. This time is hers.

Yuki: I don’t want her to die…

Ariel: But it has to be that way. The balance must be maintained. One must die in order for another to live. That is the way it works. No one can change it…not even the gods themselves. Once their Song of Creation was sung, it cannot be changed, cannot be added to, cannot be altered. One death for one life. I must take someone…and I cannot let her live.

Yuki: Then I invoke K’mana. My death for Liriel’s life.

Ariel: (truly shocked, for the first time) You are mad! You would die for her, in her place?!

Yuki: Yes.

Ariel: There are always consequences to every decision. Always an equal and opposite reaction.

Yuki: (without thinking) Newton’s Third Law.

Ariel: Yes. That physical law applies to people, too. I will show you…the consequences to your decision. A possible future. (snaps her fingers. Ariel and Yuki move away.)

(Elena enters, as Liriel is sitting up in bed. She knocks over a tray on the table in frustration.)

Liriel: (emotionally) Go away! I said go away!

Elena: It’s only me.

Liriel: Oh. (listlessly) Stay, then.

Elena: I’m sorry, Liriel. His body is in a state of complete metabolic shutdown.

Liriel: You can say he’s dead in less technical terms. You don’t need to hide the truth from me, you don’t need to cloak it in all those medical terminology. I already know.

Elena: Fine. Yuki’s dead, Liriel.

Liriel: (dully) I know.

Elena: Do you want to talk about it, Liriel? Need a shoulder to cry on?

Liriel: (dully: she is still in shock) I guess. (angrily) I didn’t want him to do it, whatever the hell it was that he did. I never would have asked him to.

Elena: I know that you wouldn’t have.

Liriel: I should have known that he’d pull some stunt like this. It was just typical for him to do something stupid. He was the most undisciplined, stupidest-(breaks down)

Elena: Nicest, best guy there ever was.

Liriel: I never knew what to do with him. Ever.

Elena: What happened, exactly?

Liriel: The last thing I remember is that I was just lying there, floating out of my body, and thinking ‘hey, this is it. I’m finally going to die. It’s not so bad, after all.’ Then the next thing I know, I’m pulled back by something, and from far away I hear a voice saying ‘I love you.’. I open my eyes, and I see her standing there, and Yuki’s lying on the floor.

Elena: Her?

Liriel: Death. A young woman about our age…all she said was that it was his choice to give you his life. Then she turned and left. God, I swear to you, Elena, I tried to call her back, but she wouldn’t listen. She just wouldn’t listen. (breaks down again: Elena rubs her back soothingly.) I tried to go after her, but my body just wouldn’t move. I couldn’t get up.

Elena: I believe you, Liriel. You couldn’t do anything. Your system was still in shock.

Liriel: I thought for the longest time that Yuki was nothing but a pain in the ass. Sure, he was my friend and all, but he was so damn annoying at times.

Elena: At times?

Liriel: Oh, yes. I still remember hearing you scream when he sang Modern Major General for three hours straight and wouldn’t shut up. And I Spy? I thought that you were going to kill him for sure. ‘And that’s when I shot him, your Honor’, indeed. I think I was about to shoot him and I was only listening.

Elena: But I would put up with his stupid songs-yes, even Modern Major General- and that I Spy game and his babbling, because it meant that he had come back. I wouldn’t say anything. I would even ask him to sing stupid songs and play I Spy with me, if it meant that he was alive again.

Liriel: So would I…so would I.

Elena: How did you feel about him?

Liriel: Me?

Elena: Yes, you.

Liriel: I thought he was a pain in the ass.

Elena: I know you did. That has already been established on both our parts. Is that all?

Liriel: (considers for a moment, and shakes her head) I would be lying to myself if I said that was all I felt for him. And I’ve done that for far too long.

You know that I’m not exactly good at relationships, especially considering how often I’ve bugged you for advice. Hell, it would be better to say that I’m absolutely awful, downright terrible. Everyone I’ve loved has either hurt me or left me. And the ones who stayed…they were nothing. They meant nothing. So, after years of that shit, I just decided to forget about it. Then along comes Yuki, there he was. I knew that he’d never hurt me, and I knew that he’d never leave me, and I knew-hell, everyone did-that he loved me. I knew it. And I just didn’t want to admit it. And he gave so much, and wanted so little in return.(is starting to break down yet again) All he wanted was a kind word or a smile, and what did I give him in the years I knew him? I gave him absolutely nothing but grief. And why, may you ask, did I do something that stupid? It’s because I think that I saw something that I wanted, and I was afraid. I was afraid to take it.

Elena: (getting pretty emotional herself.) You thought it wouldn’t work out, knew in your heart that it wouldn’t work out. You were just protecting yourself from getting hurt again, that’s all.

Liriel: But it’s still damned unfair, the way he just put up with the way I treated him. I sure know that I wouldn’t have put up with the way I was treating him, if I were him. He trusted me enough to tell me his greatest secret, and I made fun of him.

Elena: What was it?

Liriel: That he’d waited his entire life for a person he loved enough, to share himself with…that he’d saved himself for her-or him, even, that special person. Whoever they were. Yuki liked being impartial. Anyway, I laughed at him, not seeing the hint that he was talking about me. I was so damned blind.

Elena: What did you say to him?

Liriel: I told him to go out and catch himself a unicorn, because virgins are rare these days and they were probably getting lonely. Then I didn’t think anything else of it. Of course.

Elena: (reaches out to her) Liriel-

Liriel: Maybe, maybe I should have tried one more time. I could have done that for him, if I had been willing to even try. But now I can’t. (snorts sardonically) At least I should have screwed him just once.

Elena: Why? I understand your reasoning, kind of, but why?

Liriel: Hell, it’s not like I’m doing anything else.

Elena: (sadly) I guess it’s one way to deal with unrequited love, huh?

Liriel: (leans into her shoulder, but turns and speaks to the audience) All love is unrequited, Elena. All of it.

Elena: All?

Liriel: All. (pauses) Maybe…if I had said something sooner…he wouldn’t have felt driven to make that choice…to make that bargain with death…

Elena: (shakes her head) Liriel…even if you had said you had loved him…Yuki wouldn’t have been happy. All I can guess is that-he had a death wish.

Liriel: Huh?

Elena: His family died a long time ago, in a freak accident, and he was the only one who lived.

Yuki: (to Ariel) Do you decide who lives or dies? Because if you do, you made a mistake.

Ariel: I am only the guide…not the one who decides.

Elena: Survivor’s guilt.

Yuki: Why was I the one who lived when everyone else died?

Elena: He couldn’t ever forgive himself for being alive.

Liriel: I don’t understand.

Elena: I think he thought that he didn’t deserve your love…and that there was no way you would ever love him.

Liriel: (bitterly) So there was nothing we could have done to save him?

Elena: Unless he forgave himself for living…then no. And now it’s too late.

Liriel: I never would have asked him to make that choice. Never.

Elena: I know. I know. But we couldn’t have stopped him…but God, I wish we could have…

(Ariel snaps her fingers. Elena exits, Liriel returns to her former position, lying down and dying.)

Ariel: You have seen one possible path, the destiny that you have chosen by invoking K’mana. Is this what you want to pass?

Yuki: What other choice do I have? Let Liriel die? Not a chance.

Ariel: Then you have chosen death. (points at him) I ask you again-why? Why have you chosen this path?

Yuki: For her.

Ariel: To give up everything for the sake of one woman. (shakes her head sadly) Child, you have a rare soul.

Yuki: Why do you care, which one of us lives and which of us dies? Why do you want her to die and me to live? You are Death. You are not supposed to care. You said that death comes to us all in time.

Ariel: I-

Yuki: Do what you have come here for. You are Death-then kill me. (he crosses to stand at Liriel’s bedside.)

Ariel: (crosses to him, and traces a symbol on his forehead.) You invoked K’mana, to give your life to someone who was meant to die. Let it be done as you have chosen. (takes a step backward) There is no turning back now.

Yuki: There never was. Death is the same as life-there is never a chance to go back.

Ariel: And you are not afraid?

Yuki: Death long ago ceased to hold any fear for me. (to Liriel) I would have followed you into fire, into storm, into darkness…but you will not follow me into death. Not yet. (bends down and gently kisses her on the forehead. He straightens up, and wavers.) I…love you. (slides to the floor and lies there, still. Liriel wakes up and sees Yuki.)

Liriel: (screams, then screams again) No!

Ariel: It was his choice. He gave his life for you…chose to die so that you can live.

Liriel: (hysterically) I know who you are, Death. Take it back! Take it back! (struggles to get up, but can’t.) I was ready to die! Take it back!

Ariel: I cannot. He invoked K’mana, the only flaw in the Song of Creation that allows another to die in someone’s place, for then the balance would be kept. I cannot act against it. (gives her a look) Such love he bore for you, that he would have sacrificed himself, even after I showed him the future that would result from that choice. No human has ever defied me like that, for the sake of another. No one. (walks closer) I envy you, Liriel, that someone loved you that much, even when it seemed like you didn’t love him back. No one will ever love me like that.

Liriel: But-why-

Ariel: Live the life he gave you, girl. And remember him, as I will,-for the people you have lost, and the dreams that have faded, will live on in your heart, as long as you remember. (Ariel turns and exits)

Liriel: (quoting) ‘Tread lightly on my ground, or you will be left with nothing but the memory of a memory.’ (bitterly) And that is the way it always ends for me-those I love only live in a memory of a memory of a memory…

(lights fade to black, amidst the sounds of Liriel’s sobbing. Curtain.)

[Damon Inferel]

you know, if such a flaw exists in Death's contract, so to speak, this sounds a hell of a lot like something I would do if you were dying. I doubt it'd make you happy, but at least you'd collect a hell of a lot of life insurance, and it's most noble for a person to give their life for someone else. I'm so old-fashioned *sweatdrops*

 

Anyhow, I wasn't certain that you were still into the whole playwriting thing, but I see you haven't lost your touch. Very angsty, as usual, but that's what I like about your writing. It's very emotional. I don't see how a person would let another person throw them to the ground by their hair though, especially if it results in the effects of trichotillomania. Basically, hair pulling resultsa in lostt of hair, especially if you're throwing something, but... it'd be an interesting touch.

 

I found it a tad awkward how Ariel, or Death, expressed some form of emotion, especially the shock of seeing someone throw their life away for another. In my mind, deaht is neutral, but this deviates from the mundane, scythe-wielding, skull-faced, black-claoked figment we've all heard about. As unorthodox as it is, it is a nice touch. Perhaps Meister Schmidt would let it be produced. I'd love to see it in action.

 

Good work ashke!