Post by Angel DuMourne on Sept 4, 2021 18:49:57 GMT -5
(Angel’s house is chaos incarnate. It’s destroyed. Mirrors broken, holes in the bedroom wall, which looks as though it’s been ripped apart. There she is, in the corner, looking thoroughly devastated her own self. Her blond hair is disheveled and hangs in a mess about her once flawless but still beautiful face while the rest falls about her shoulders and back. She’s feeling the drink as well, the bloodshot eyes and shakiness of her slender body as she rises clear indicators she’s had a bit too much, even if she didn’t have a liquor bottle in one small, bloodstained hand. Blood? Maddy walks in carefully and hears her raging. There is concern in her eyes for Angel, but Angel is having none of it. She sees Madison and reacts with mock joy.)
Angel: Oh Maddy, girl it’s been a minute since you’ve come around! How the hell are you?
Well if it isn’t our fucking nosey friend, come to check on the hapless heroine.
Maddy: You’re drunk.
And she’s observant.
Angel: You’re observant! Give the girl a prize!
Maddy: Why are you drunk? Why did you disappear? You called out of your match against Hastings and Gabriel and then took the last week off and now your house is trashed and so are you! Why?
Why does she fucking think we called out? We’ve lost our nerve apparently.
Angel: Why is it your business, hmm? Why are you even here?
(Angel moves with surprising speed for someone so hammered and grabs Maddy, tossing her against a wall by her shoulders and holding her there. Madison is terrified. She’s never seen Angel like this. Desperate and drunk and raging.)
Interesting move…
Maddy: I’m here because no one has heard from you, we’re all worried sick, let me GO.
(Maddy pushes gently, then more firmly against Angel, who doesn’t yield. A chuckle from the other side of the room, her demon is enjoying this immensely.)
Angel: I called out because I didn’t feel like being injected with whatever Gabriel Baal has up his literal sleeve. Then shame due to fear got the best of me and I called out last week. I’m drunk because I can be, because I deserve it. I deserve the whiskey high.
Of course you do, kitten.
Maddy: We’re just worried, that’s all Angel.
Angel: Shut up! Liar! I don’t need your pity or your worry!
(There’s a crash as Angel throws the empty bottle and lets Madison go to stagger to another bottle. Of the old scars along her arm new wounds can be seen, but they appear to be attempting to dry up. Not that Madison notices this.)
Angel: I’ve had enough of both to last a lifetime.
Maddy: I don’t know you well enough to pity you! You won’t let anyone in!
Don’t feel bad saddy Maddy, she doesn’t let anyone in. I had to force my way here. Cunt.
Angel: Why are you here Madison? Do you want more details into my private life? Is that it? Well FINE! You want to know about me, SIT. DOWN.
(She comes back and shoves Maddy to the floor, hard, and backs away, talking and drinking.)
Oh here we fucking go.
Angel: My parents, LOVELY people, were stuck in the middle class. They thought having a child would make them better accepted! They wanted a daughter. They got my brother Alexander instead. It worked though, and they started being welcomed into the social circle of parenthood and PTA’s and decisions about the community. Perfect Xander could do no wrong. So they figured if one child was good, two would open even more doors. They tried again and got me. But being a child of the DuMourne family came at a price.
Maddy: What are you talking about?
SHH…
(Angel sways, scratching at her arm, causing fresh blood to appear in the cuts there. Maddy’s eyes go wide at the sight of the marks she hadn’t noticed before. What all has this girl gone through?)
More than she’ll tell you that’s a fact. We haven’t even got to the GOOD part yet.
Angel: I couldn’t be a child, neither could Xander. We were enrolled in sports and competitions and musical lessons and dance and everything. If you name it, I was in it and failure? NOT an option. Failure earned harsh punishments. Perfection was the only way. So one night, listen here, one night it gets interesting. See, a popular girl at our school was throwing a party she was quite famous for.
(The memories stir and Angel drags her arm across her eyes, smearing the tears away.)
Angel: my bestie and I snuck out, like fucking idiots…
At least you’re honest about it.
(She pauses for another swig, getting so close, too close to Maddy. Madison can smell the rankness of liquor on her breath as Angel speaks.)
Angel: we went to this party and got in over our heads. Xander came and saved me, and by proxy her. He was driving us home when the accident happened. I woke up to machine’s beeping, my brother and my best friend dead. My parents tried everything. Counseling, drugs, other therapies, all to get me to come out of it. They wanted their good girl back. They didn’t care about my hurting, momma and daddy only wanted me back to being the perfect child they had. They couldn’t lose their standing in the community, so they put me in an institution. It seemed a god-send, but they were told to leave me alone, no visits, and so they stopped coming. I got worse.
(There’s a dark chuckle from the demon. Angel pushes away from Madison slowly, her breathing labored as if with renewed fear.)
Enter me.
Angel: Then the voice came, and the vision that came with it. Always shrouded in the darkness, my worst thoughts and fears personified. Always poking and prodding and kicking me. I was isolated but never alone. Not with so many demons to keep me company. They did things to us, things you can’t imagine. The weak ones simply gave in to the insanity and pills and were fodder for the strong. There was a select few of us who had special atrocities committed to us, we were even given our own little club. Somewhere between the pain and abuse and torture, somehow, I saw a picture of one that had made it out.
(A small, somewhat hysterical laugh bubbles out of her, while a sigh escapes from the darkness.)
Enter the fucking devil himself.
(She speaks faster now, renewed purpose in her voice as her story unfolds)
Angel: It got me thinking, if he could make it out I could too. That was the first time he inspired me. Then one day, one day I saw him. I SAW him! He was on television, but I KNEW him from the poster in one of the worker’s rooms. I scrambled to the television and told Charles I’d throw the next fight if he let me watch every time this guy was on. The resulting beating almost killed me, but I thought of Raenius. He was dark and brilliant and beautiful up there. He was shining. I figured out what it would take to get out of there and god knows I did it.
Men value sex far too much, Angel.
(She nods to the being that Madison can’t see.)
Angel: Ain’t that the goddamned truth. So yeah, I made my way to his house, and what happens? He gives me nothing. He saved my life, but he…he just stood there, shell-shocked while I died inside. Eventually I left, and came back home. You know the rest.
Maddy: Oh Angel…
(Angel glares at her, the liquor taking over again)
Angel: Don’t. Don’t you give me that look! ‘Sides, It’s not his fault in the long run.
Madison: How can you still defend him?
Because she’s obsessed.
(She throws a sideways glance towards the shrouded image.)
Angel: No. It’s because there are few people in this world who aren’t liars, and he’s one of them. Him and the Creeps.
Madison: The…Creeps, the Astro Creeps, like Tempest and them?
Angel: The very same. The more I watch them the more I like them.
Madison: Angel, they’re playing a ruse!
Angel: Crazy knows crazy.
She isn’t wrong.
Angel: I also know when I want to be alone. I’m in no more mood for company.
Madison: Well I’m not leaving.
(She doesn’t have a choice as Angel physically moves her out of the bedroom and slams the doors in Madison’s face. Alone again, Angel breaks for the balcony and fresh air before she starts spilling more than her guts. The last thing you can hear before all is lost is her whispering…)
Angel: Come find me…
Angel: Oh Maddy, girl it’s been a minute since you’ve come around! How the hell are you?
Well if it isn’t our fucking nosey friend, come to check on the hapless heroine.
Maddy: You’re drunk.
And she’s observant.
Angel: You’re observant! Give the girl a prize!
Maddy: Why are you drunk? Why did you disappear? You called out of your match against Hastings and Gabriel and then took the last week off and now your house is trashed and so are you! Why?
Why does she fucking think we called out? We’ve lost our nerve apparently.
Angel: Why is it your business, hmm? Why are you even here?
(Angel moves with surprising speed for someone so hammered and grabs Maddy, tossing her against a wall by her shoulders and holding her there. Madison is terrified. She’s never seen Angel like this. Desperate and drunk and raging.)
Interesting move…
Maddy: I’m here because no one has heard from you, we’re all worried sick, let me GO.
(Maddy pushes gently, then more firmly against Angel, who doesn’t yield. A chuckle from the other side of the room, her demon is enjoying this immensely.)
Angel: I called out because I didn’t feel like being injected with whatever Gabriel Baal has up his literal sleeve. Then shame due to fear got the best of me and I called out last week. I’m drunk because I can be, because I deserve it. I deserve the whiskey high.
Of course you do, kitten.
Maddy: We’re just worried, that’s all Angel.
Angel: Shut up! Liar! I don’t need your pity or your worry!
(There’s a crash as Angel throws the empty bottle and lets Madison go to stagger to another bottle. Of the old scars along her arm new wounds can be seen, but they appear to be attempting to dry up. Not that Madison notices this.)
Angel: I’ve had enough of both to last a lifetime.
Maddy: I don’t know you well enough to pity you! You won’t let anyone in!
Don’t feel bad saddy Maddy, she doesn’t let anyone in. I had to force my way here. Cunt.
Angel: Why are you here Madison? Do you want more details into my private life? Is that it? Well FINE! You want to know about me, SIT. DOWN.
(She comes back and shoves Maddy to the floor, hard, and backs away, talking and drinking.)
Oh here we fucking go.
Angel: My parents, LOVELY people, were stuck in the middle class. They thought having a child would make them better accepted! They wanted a daughter. They got my brother Alexander instead. It worked though, and they started being welcomed into the social circle of parenthood and PTA’s and decisions about the community. Perfect Xander could do no wrong. So they figured if one child was good, two would open even more doors. They tried again and got me. But being a child of the DuMourne family came at a price.
Maddy: What are you talking about?
SHH…
(Angel sways, scratching at her arm, causing fresh blood to appear in the cuts there. Maddy’s eyes go wide at the sight of the marks she hadn’t noticed before. What all has this girl gone through?)
More than she’ll tell you that’s a fact. We haven’t even got to the GOOD part yet.
Angel: I couldn’t be a child, neither could Xander. We were enrolled in sports and competitions and musical lessons and dance and everything. If you name it, I was in it and failure? NOT an option. Failure earned harsh punishments. Perfection was the only way. So one night, listen here, one night it gets interesting. See, a popular girl at our school was throwing a party she was quite famous for.
(The memories stir and Angel drags her arm across her eyes, smearing the tears away.)
Angel: my bestie and I snuck out, like fucking idiots…
At least you’re honest about it.
(She pauses for another swig, getting so close, too close to Maddy. Madison can smell the rankness of liquor on her breath as Angel speaks.)
Angel: we went to this party and got in over our heads. Xander came and saved me, and by proxy her. He was driving us home when the accident happened. I woke up to machine’s beeping, my brother and my best friend dead. My parents tried everything. Counseling, drugs, other therapies, all to get me to come out of it. They wanted their good girl back. They didn’t care about my hurting, momma and daddy only wanted me back to being the perfect child they had. They couldn’t lose their standing in the community, so they put me in an institution. It seemed a god-send, but they were told to leave me alone, no visits, and so they stopped coming. I got worse.
(There’s a dark chuckle from the demon. Angel pushes away from Madison slowly, her breathing labored as if with renewed fear.)
Enter me.
Angel: Then the voice came, and the vision that came with it. Always shrouded in the darkness, my worst thoughts and fears personified. Always poking and prodding and kicking me. I was isolated but never alone. Not with so many demons to keep me company. They did things to us, things you can’t imagine. The weak ones simply gave in to the insanity and pills and were fodder for the strong. There was a select few of us who had special atrocities committed to us, we were even given our own little club. Somewhere between the pain and abuse and torture, somehow, I saw a picture of one that had made it out.
(A small, somewhat hysterical laugh bubbles out of her, while a sigh escapes from the darkness.)
Enter the fucking devil himself.
(She speaks faster now, renewed purpose in her voice as her story unfolds)
Angel: It got me thinking, if he could make it out I could too. That was the first time he inspired me. Then one day, one day I saw him. I SAW him! He was on television, but I KNEW him from the poster in one of the worker’s rooms. I scrambled to the television and told Charles I’d throw the next fight if he let me watch every time this guy was on. The resulting beating almost killed me, but I thought of Raenius. He was dark and brilliant and beautiful up there. He was shining. I figured out what it would take to get out of there and god knows I did it.
Men value sex far too much, Angel.
(She nods to the being that Madison can’t see.)
Angel: Ain’t that the goddamned truth. So yeah, I made my way to his house, and what happens? He gives me nothing. He saved my life, but he…he just stood there, shell-shocked while I died inside. Eventually I left, and came back home. You know the rest.
Maddy: Oh Angel…
(Angel glares at her, the liquor taking over again)
Angel: Don’t. Don’t you give me that look! ‘Sides, It’s not his fault in the long run.
Madison: How can you still defend him?
Because she’s obsessed.
(She throws a sideways glance towards the shrouded image.)
Angel: No. It’s because there are few people in this world who aren’t liars, and he’s one of them. Him and the Creeps.
Madison: The…Creeps, the Astro Creeps, like Tempest and them?
Angel: The very same. The more I watch them the more I like them.
Madison: Angel, they’re playing a ruse!
Angel: Crazy knows crazy.
She isn’t wrong.
Angel: I also know when I want to be alone. I’m in no more mood for company.
Madison: Well I’m not leaving.
Angel: Then get out of my sight, at least. I don’t want to talk anymore.
Goodbye.
(She doesn’t have a choice as Angel physically moves her out of the bedroom and slams the doors in Madison’s face. Alone again, Angel breaks for the balcony and fresh air before she starts spilling more than her guts. The last thing you can hear before all is lost is her whispering…)
Angel: Come find me…