Hemlock: Shadow Pages
Page 6
The lights promptly go off. Leaving the only two lights on stage the two burning candles. The black being holding Devlin’s candle snuffs the fire out and disappears into the dark wall. This leaves the only light on stage being Kaine’s candle. Slowly the lights come up to reveal Kaine alive and well, despite exhausted, and Devlin slumped over in his chair, there is blood running out of his mouth and nose. Kaine nods at a shaken Lewis, who with the help of Kaine’s bodyguard takes Devlin’s body reverently out of the room, leaving Kaine alone in the chamber. Kaine rises from his seat and the black being with his candle recedes into the dark wall as the candlelight goes out. Kaine looks slowly around the room and straightens his clothes. He walks over to the desk and picks up the picture Devlin was looking at earlier, and stares hard at it for some time before returning it to the drawer. He picks up the grimoire and walks over to the window. After looking out the window for a moment he closes the blinds and turns around. He looks around the room and then speaks.
Kaine: My coat please. (the coat hanger comes out of the dark wall, he takes it and dons it as he makes to leave) Begone. (the hanger recedes into the darkness)
Kaine opens the door and leaves. Shortly after the stage returns to full darkness.
Eventually the stage in completely dark again and a spotlight comes to rest upon solitary figure.
Voice of History: I am the Voice of History. All things pass through Me. (hits staff on the floor twice) Amen.
END OF THE LINE
Well chummer, there you have it, my shadow pages.
A wise man that fools often called Woodcutter had this to say:
“Honorable men die hard, but they still die.”
Never more true than in the Twilight City. Sentimentality is a one-way ticket into the ground, and yet, according to the Editor it is the only way for the world to make stories worth telling. The frozen of us don’t know love, and so never rise to take it. So we linger on, cold, and hard, while the true lights of our world burn and gutter. Someone has to tell the stories, someone has to do the digging, someone has to write the words.
This I have done.
Now the debt is paid you motherfucker.
Meanwhile, in a world beyond the Twilight City…
And yet closer than you would imagine…
Somewhere on the streets
In the darkest part of the witching hour
A voice whispers as I cross the threshold
If you’re gonna go, it had better be all the way
I looked into her eyes and that was it
Whatever her history
No matter the burdens
Or the scars she maps them with
Her enemies become mine
Her light shines and I am renewed
Of all the gin joints…
You’re telling me bub
--- Sean-Michael Argo
In The Blue
You don’t ask me where I’m at
Cause you can’t see that I’m gone
And in the crystalline morning, colors abound,
But you and I carry on
In the blue
Good enough to keep me tethered
Even as I dream of flight
And though I’m soaring, exploring another life,
I come back to you each night
In the blue
I’m praying just to keep my heart from going to sleep
If something better is always calling,
Better just to let it ring
It’s a song I’ll never understand,
A song I will always sing
In the blue
Got a fantasy for every color
Got a fantasy for every color
Got a fantasy for every color
Got a fantasy
--- Bekah Kelso
A Chorus I Never Saw Coming
My heart beats with fragile impermanence
An inner rhythm given to all men begins
Plays its march, and one day ends
The orchestra of muscles beats in double notes
In joy, in grief, and in hopes
One by one until the song of my life has been all the way sung
No man knows how long the music plays
A youthful haze fills our eyes and we disguise the fact that we will all
One day
Take a deep breath and die
But I, for one day, cast this mask away
Within the shifting shade I lay
Wide awake, aware, and okay with this truth
For I am the believer
The resounding gift receiver
Of a chorus I never saw coming
Blinded in the southern sun by a man whose song rang out so loud and long
And beat in time, it fit with mine
His cadence was dissident in all the right places
We swelled in deep crescendo
Again, and again, and again
And we bent notes and time , music divine
Sweet and painful his song played with mine
So how could I mind life’s metronome
The double note drone
Clicking on, reminding me that time, you see, is fleeting
And this beating heart will one day start to stop
For I am the believer
The resounding gift receiver
Of a chorus I never saw coming
Lyrics penned in steel and stardust
Love and bloodlust
Words made to release a Keeper of the Keys
And even more dreams made manifest
Tested by fire
We will only rise higher
Up this scale
Each note pales to the new
To you
And your sweet drifter’s song
I will listen my whole life long
Till my song is all the way sung
For I am the Believer
The Resounding Gift Receiver
Of a chorus I never saw coming
Grateful to the Ancient Music
For giving us a chance to do this Wild Love Song
Together
We aim our Voices at forever
And fire
--- Bekah Kelso