Oubliette

By Justin Blasdel

(A Play.) What is more cruel? To trap your enemies in a small, black box with with no hopes of escape? Or to put them in that same box and give them a small window to peek through? These prisoners of war have been forced into a dark abyss where occasionally a gracious light shines down ever so briefly, only to remind them of what they lost. They are the last few remaining, and they absolutely refuse to reform their dangerous ways. They attack each other like ravenous animals; spilling blood and breaking bones as a way to pass the time. Their base instincts keeps them occupied only for so long before the thrill of the body withers and dies. They gladly push themselves further and further into madness, and all the while the doctors above try to get the patients to play nice. It is a living hell, but soon the gods above will make a mistake; a mistake that will force the doctors to either rise above the chaos or become consumed by it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Justin Blasdel
• Release date: Oct 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370512270

Justin Blasdel

This is an attempt to make my works public. If you like them and want to produce them, please contact me first. Thank you.

Book preview

Oubliette

By

Justin Blasdel

10/01/16

[e-mail]

Smashwords Edition Copyright by Justin Blasdel, 2016

CHARACTERS

(PATIENTS)

Cain: The Vengeful

Loki: The Joker

Persephone: The Masochist

Set: The Sadist

Tiamat: The Monster

Venus: The Temptress

Ymir: The Brute

(DOCTORS)

Kali: The Enforcer

Prometheus: The Caretaker

Computer: The Voice

TIME

Long after the War of All

SETTINGS

In an Oubliette; In the Doctors’ office.

ACT I, SCENE I

An oubliette is the cruelest of prisons. Simply put, it’s a hole in the ground. At the top, a locked door where the light shines through. There is no other way out. In such a dismal, bleak predicament, the only way to escape on one’s own terms is to learn how to grow wings and fly away.

The stage is one of such prisons; the light is above sight, and the hard, cold floor is on the bottom. On the floor of this prison is PERSEPHONE.

To PERSEPHONE, life is a pain to be thoroughly enjoyed. Only through the gain of torture can SHE truly lose HERSELF.

SHE lies motionless on the ground. Dead or alive, none can tell just yet. Then, the spotlight shines down from above. It is revitalizing; a sacred gift handed down from those on high. PERSEPHONE stirs. SHE looks above, blinded by heaven’s favor, and SHE is given an unsullied form of bliss before the light is gone once more.

It’s dark again. Time to play.

LOKI enters. A dead smile incarnate, LOKI is the madman’s laughter that plays to a one man audience.

*LOKI

A rose can only bloom in the light of the sun. And then it withers. It dies. It rots. And then, more sunlight. More blooms. And then death comes rolling on back. Small deaths. Each one of them sweeter than the last. Tell me, Persephone, how sweet was it this time? Quickly, before you rot all over again.

*PERSEPHONE

Shut up, Loki.

*LOKI

[Laughing] Did you smell it? Did you taste it? Did you hear it? I know what I saw and felt, but you were closer. You stole a spot in the light.

*PERSEPHONE

I won it.

*LOKI

You took it. It wasn’t yours. Now, tell me what was so special about this time. Did it make you feel young again? Full of hope and…freedom?

PERSEPHONE hits the ground.

*PERSEPHONE

Leave it alone!

*LOKI

No. Tell me. Tell me what the light did to you this time? How did it make you feel…unstained?

PERSEPHONE starts to chuckle. Then, SHE laughs. LOKI is confused.

*PERSEPHONE

I am stained.

*LOKI

Yes. You are.

*PERSEPHONE

I am torn.

*LOKI

Like paper.

*PERSEPHONE

I am a bleeding heart dripping my tears on skinless faces.

*LOKI

And you are back. Wonderful.

*PERSEPHONE

No one can ever know the darkness that eats my stomach and forces putrid bile out my raw mouth.

*LOKI

And blah, blah-blah-blah. Persephone, don’t you ever think of anything new?

PERSEPHONE grabs hold of LOKI.

*PERSEPHONE

Keep stabbing me with your slick tongue, Loki. Make me bleed.

*LOKI

No.

*PERSEPHONE

Make me hurt.

*LOKI

Get off me.

*PERSEPHONE

Lash me with your cruelest of words, your razor eyes—(your needle teeth…)

*LOKI

Leave me alone, bitch!

LOKI pushes away PERSEPHONE, who stays on the ground.

*LOKI

Your flavor has gone. As it always does. As everything does. What wouldn't I give for one…good...victim.

*SET (OS)

If it’s a victim you wish for, then you should reconsider how you punish one.

SET enters. Upon a throne built on the top of the highest pyramid, there sits SET looking down upon the world. But only in HIS mind, for now HE’s spiritually chained at the ankles and forced to mingle amongst the slaves.

*LOKI

Oh, please. No one tortures like I do. Set, you are out of your element.

*SET

Am I? I’ve tortured thousands on a whim, just to pass time. I watched their blood splatter upon my rivers, turning veins of blue into crimson.

*LOKI

Really?

*SET

All smashed to pulp beneath my fists. Did I care if I destroyed their dreams? Reduce them to sniveling babies who wine about life? I hurt them, because I could. With my will and will alone. Pain, Loki. Pain is all that matters, when you’re the one causing it.

*LOKI

I need an example. Set, will you be the one to give it to me?

*SET

Definitely. Persephone, I’ll—(be needing you for a moment…)

LOKI sucker punches SET in the jaw, and SET goes down fast. PERSEPHONE sits straight up, crawling toward the source of more pain. LOKI moves to tower over SET with punches, but SET kicks LOKI away. SET and LOKI wrestle on the ground, and PERSEPHONE touches THEM whenever SHE can.

*PERSEPHONE

Oh please, give me some of this too!

*SET

[to PERSEPHONE] You’ll get your turn soon enough!

*LOKI

Oooooh, big words, little king.

SET manages to get the best of LOKI and pins LOKI’s arm behind the back.

*SET

Ha, ha! Once again, I prove my superiority.

LOKI laughs, and PERSEPHONE joins HIM. It’s obvious to THEM what the true contest was, and SET is completely oblivious to the punch line of this joke.

*SET

What? What is it? I won! I beat him! [to LOKI] I beat you!

*LOKI

At what? Proving your physical superiority? We both know you’re the stronger one, stupid.

SET punches LOKI, and LOKI laughs even more.

*LOKI

You…you think the fist is the sharpest tool. Whip the slave and watch him squirm. But you don’t own him. His mind is impervious to blunt trauma. Set, little king of mine, the harder you squeeze, the more you lose. And the harder I laugh.

SET releases LOKI.

*SET

But I still beat you physically. At least I have that.

*LOKI

Yes, you do. And I have the memory of bringing royalty down to my peasant level.

This realization hits SET quite personally. HE retracts from LOKI as a nobleman flees from the plague.

*PERSEPHONE

That was wonderful. I am the voyeur to your defeat. If only your pain was mine.

*SET

I won! I won this