Characters

Hesh Cable:
Roadie:
Groupie:
Musso Koroni:

Setting: A windowless room with various instrument cases and amplifiers around the floor. A man sits against the wall with his legs pulled up to his chest and a huge black guitar leans against the opposite wall.

Roadie: (Sticks his head in through the door.) Oh, there you are! Nobody knows you’re back here. You’re on in ten minutes! (Leaves)

Cable: (Apparently to self) You feel the vibration, that motion in the floor? That’s an army of stamping feet under a forest of fists held to the sky. It’s ten thousand voices raised in my name. If I don’t give them what they want they’ll tear down the walls with their hands and grind up the bricks in their teeth. They’re addicts, clawing at the music flowing through the air. They’re here to feast on the sound, to bathe in the milk of life I pour over them. Me, Hesh Cable, but what am I?

What am I without you Koroni? These hands play silent songs without you. What am I without your power? What am I without your voice howling its gathering song to the darkness? I’m nothing without you, Koroni, but I’m here to ask for a favor my friend. (Gets on his knees, folds hands) I’m here to beg you my master! Please! Can we go on tonight without feeding?

Koroni: (Dark powerful voice through microphone off stage) You know what I require, child.

Cable: (Definitely speaking directly to the guitar now) I know! God help me, I know!

Koroni: And you know I’ll not be denied.

Cable: That’s why I brought you back here Koroni. Please, just this once, just tonight, can we play without feeding? Show me your strength this way Koroni. Show me your mercy.

Koroni: MERCY! What of me suggests that in my being resides even a flicker of mercy!

Cable: It’s tearing me apart, Koroni. I need to be free for one night. Just this once, and next time I swear by God, I’ll feed you whatever you choose.

Koroni: God! You dare swear by God? God is with you no more Cable. God flew from your presence many years ago when under the fading light of a splinter moon you spilt the life of an innocent!

Cable: God have mercy on me!

Koroni: No Cable, God is far from you now. God no longer hears your cries. Bow to your new God! Bow to me, Musso Koroni!

Cable: (Whimpering) No.

Koroni: I said bow!

Cable: I can’t do it Koroni! I can’t kill for you any more! It has to stop!

Koroni: Very well, very well, boy. There were not contracts between us. Nothing signed, nothing broken. I’ll simply find a new protégé. Someone unafraid to make a sacrifice for the fame and fortune I bestow.

Cable: You can’t be serious.

Koroni: And why not? Why would I not move on to one more able to control my unimaginable power?

Cable: Damn you, Koroni!

Koroni: (Laughs) Yes, yes child, damn us both.

Cable: You know I can’t live without you! It’s not the money, or the fame. It’s the strength I feel when I control your sound.

Koroni: Yeees, child.

Cable: It’s the way we shape the minds and bodies of thousands of people.

Koroni: As with me you do.

Cable: It’s the way my heart flows out from the stage, the way my soul fills the sky every time I tough your strings!

Koroni: You’ve not begun to tap the true power within me boy. The night is no less full for the want of one. Feed me now and I will reward you on that stage with wonders you can’t possibly imagine.

Cable: Yes.

Koroni: Can you taste it boy? Does your mouth water for the unspeakable power I can bestow?

Cable: Yes.

Koroni: Does your chest heave with longing? Do your fingers ache to master the world with sound?

Cable: Yes, YES!

Koroni: Now boy! In your passion I feast as if upon a thousand virgins! Feed me now and rewards beyond earthly wonders will be yours!

Cable: No! Stop manipulating me!

Koroni: Damn. I was so close.

Cable: No more killing Koroni! I can’t do it!

Koroni: Silence child! What matter the lives of the filth with which you feed me? I, who am older than mankind and what you call time, have fed upon the creators of worlds and the shepherds of galaxies.