The Forever Man

Duke Addy

Darren Sunderland/Yearning - Male - Mid 20s - Pessimistic, sardonic, and disillusioned. Refuses to move on from the failures of his own life, and seeks to rectify his own shortcomings. Snappy and quick to anger. 

Death - Any Gender - Ageless (Presents younger) - Quiet, contemplative, kind, and patient to a fault. Just trying to do their job, but begins to question if they want to anymore. Has a strained relationship with God, and a deep, albeit tumultuous bond with Darren. 

God - Male - Ageless (Presents older) - Powerful, authoritarian, and stubborn, but guile nonetheless. Comes to blows with Darrius over his refusal to move on to the afterlife, but offers him a deal. Serves as a looming, imposing enforcer over Death.

Scene 1 

[Lights go up on two plastic, see-through chairs, set side by side. DARREN and DEATH sit on the two chairs, contemplating.] 

Darren: How long has it been? It feels like a lifetime. 

Death: This isn’t really Time’s domain. They have no power here, but I'll entertain you. For a mortal, you’ve spent about… 5 years here? Perhaps a bit more. 

Darren: …I was joking. About the lifetime thing. 

Death: Well, what is it that you mortals say? “Time waits for no man?” Rings more true here, than it does when you're alive. 

[A beat] 

Death: We can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep doing this. It’s not part of my job description. 

[DARREN ignores them, deep in thought. He then gets up from his chair, and walks directly up to DEATH.] 

Darren: He’s coming today, isn’t he? To set the record straight, to exert his all-mighty power, kick me out, and send me to the depths below. 

Death: Well, he has every right to. This isn’t your home, Darren. Just a stop on your journey. [Beat] 

Although, Devil tossing you into a pit of eternal flames would just make you whine more… 

Darren: [Grinning] Well then, looks like you’re willing to put up with me just a little bit longer, aren’t you? 

[DARREN wraps his arms around DEATH’s shoulder’s affectionately, leaning into them. DEATH smiles, craning their neck till DARREN is in sight.] 

Death: I know I’ve said this a million times, but I just want to make sure you know this. You’re a beautiful soul, Darren. Just because you didn’t do enough right or wrong in life to send you up or downstairs, doesn’t make you any less beautiful.

[DARREN lets out a heaving sigh, rising and beginning to pace.] 

Darren: That’s just it though, that’s the problem! 

Death: I know. 

Darren: If it had been Heaven, or Hell, or whatever they’re actually called, it’d have at least meant that I mattered. That I had done something worthwhile. 

Death: You can’t change the past. Staying here isn’t doing either of us any good. I just don’t understand what’s wrong with trying something new! Something unknown! 

Death: [Sighs] I’ll just wait for him. Maybe he’ll 

Death: He won’t. He’ll force you into the doors. 

[Both DARREN and DEATH look at the large doors sitting ominously upstage left, surrounded in fog.] 

Darren: You don’t know what’s behind the doors. How do you know he won’t give me a second chance? 

Death: Cause it’s just not how this works! There’s no alternatives! He would’ve told me if there were! 

Darren: Hmm. And they tell me I’m not open to new things. Take a look in the mirror. [A beat. Silence.] 

I’m… I’m sorry. You’re right. I can’t change the past. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to. And… well, he has the power to. 

[DEATH takes a moment, nods quietly, and then rises from their chair, walking towards DARREN. They place their hand on his shoulder, and sit down together on the ground.] 

[A short, wistful melody plays. Lights go down.] 

[GOD enters to center stage. Spotlight goes up on him.]

God: Judgement comes for us all, in the end. 

[Lights up. DARREN and DEATH scramble to their feet.] 

Death: Welcome sir. Glad you could make it. [Bowing slightly] 

Darren: [Bitterly] Well, you don’t get to see the big man upstairs everyday. I have an apartment full of unanswered prayers that I’d love to show you if you send me back! 

God: THIS is what you chose to distract you from your duties? He pales rather drastically in comparison to your accounts. How disappointing. 

Death: Sir, Darren is 

God: No different than any other ungrateful mortal that passes through this forsaken place. A pitstop for failures. I grow ever tired of their kind. 

Darren: Then change us! You created us after all. 

God: It is an insufferable one, I see. 

Darren: I wouldn’t be this way, if you had helped me. Helped me save my relationships, helped me save my job, helped give me purpose, helped me to not kill myself on accident in some ditch! 

[GOD turns away from DARREN, ignoring his cries. He turns to DEATH] 

God: Sharp tongues do not grant saviors. I may have lost faith in your capabilities Death, but for this session, I am grateful. This creature, its fate has indeed changed. Send it to the doors, and I will revel in what it finds behind them. 

Death: [Under their breath] That can’t be right. Condemnation… just like that… 

[Downcast, DEATH begins turning to DARREN silently. DARREN however, grabs GOD’s arm desperately.] 

Darren: Look, please. Please, just… just listen. I know I have no right to touch you. Hell, I have no right pleading to you right now. I’m probably so small, in your eyes. So insignificant. But please, just, try to take a look through mine? I worked with what I had. What you gave me. My family left me. So did my friends, the few that I had. I used the talents you gave me, and I was

good at them. A good painter, a good singer. And I tried to get things off the ground over and over and over again, but nothing. fucking. worked. You’re right that I belong here. That I’m a failure. I abandoned myself, just like everyone abandoned me. But Death didn’t. Despite my 

abrasiveness, despite my self-pity, Death stayed by my side, even when they didn’t need to. And with them around, I’ve finally felt like I can matter again. I know it sounds ridiculous, coming out of my mouth, but Death saved me. The time I’ve spent here has mattered. Just let me prove it. 

God: [Turning around, amused] …Alright Darren… let’s make a deal. 

Darren and Death: [In unison] What!? 

God: I am a merciful one, after all. 

Darren: What do you propose? 

[A beat] 

God: Immortality. 

[Lights go down. A booming voice-over is heard] 

God: Death is not the end. 

END SCENE 

Scene Two 

[Lights up on the two plastic chairs, now set opposing one another. DARREN and DEATH are standing in front of both. GOD stands unmoving at the back of the stage, in dim lighting.] 

Darren: He laid it out plainly. You’re reading too far into it! 

Death: Darren, please! Don’t you see that something’s not right here? 

Darren: What!? What possibly couldn’t be right!? He is giving me… no, giving us an unprecedented opportunity here!

Death: SHHHHHH!!! You know he’s watching and hearing all of this right now, right? Drinking it all in? Enjoying us squabbling? I get it Darren, I do. I’ve been listening to you yearn for something like this for what feels like forever. Lets just parse through this calmly, please? 

[DARREN sighs, nodding his head in shame. The two quietly look at the looming figure of GOD watching them, and proceed to sit down in their chairs.] 

Death: Alright then, thank you. Give me a heads up the next time you’re about to explode, I’ll run for cover. 

Darren: Okay, I’m sorry, damn! Don’t give me shit for this! All of this is a big deal! Death: Exactly why I want us to just walk through this… together. Gather our thoughts. 

Darren: Alright. Well, I just got my first ever promotion offer. Only took dying to get that, heh. Either way, I can take your boss up on ascending to immortal deity status, or resign myself to those fucking awful doors. No outs, and no alternatives. 

Death: Why do you mortals only think in the binary? Darren, why would he ever offer you this opportunity? Sure, you’re the only soul to stick around this long, but your sentiments aren’t anything unique. 

Darren: Sure, but those that came before me caved in. They didn’t commit to what they promised themselves they would do. I did. That has to count for something. 

Death: Well, if you consider enraging the One Above All counting for something, it certainly did. What were you thinking, talking to him like that back there? 

Darren: Well, what’s the harm? I’m already dead! 

Death: Darren, I have never grown attached to a soul, in quite the way I have with you. Please, don’t take that for granted. Take this seriously. 

Darren: [Voice lowering] I am. I just don’t understand why you’re trying to hold me back, from the very thing you know I’ve wanted. 

Death: This isn’t what you wanted. You wanted a second chance at life, not one that never ends. Darren: …I’m not seeing what you’re seeing.

Death: Look. I’ve known God for an eternity. He doesn’t partake in this sort of thing with mortals. And the deals he makes with divinity? Well, he always wants something. Never ends well for the other party. 

Darren: Look Death, I don’t care about the schematics, to be frank. You both told me I can’t go back. And I’m not walking through that door. So this is the only option. 

[DEATH sighs, rising from their chair, pinching their brow, and walking around it in exasperation.] 

Death: Why can’t you just… budge, for once? Listen to reason! I’m trying to help you! 

Darren: I’m not being stubborn, I’m doing this for you! Didn’t you hear him!? I’ll get to stay here, with you! 

[There is a deafening, tense pause. DEATH stares at DARREN pensively, before taking a deep breath.] 

Death: I don’t believe you want this for me. I think you want this for you. You want it because you don’t want to let go of your fear of being nothing. But you don’t have to keep running from yourself. You don’t have to prove anything, to anyone! Just because you were flawed, just because you made mistakes, doesn’t mean you are any less valid. These flaws… they set you apart from me, and all the other deities. They’re what makes you human. But stop letting them define you! This deal… no matter how it turns out, will not make you matter. Cause you won’t be you anymore. 

[A long beat. DARREN is silent for a moment, his face unreadable. DEATH watches him, and then begins to speak.] 

God: 10… 

[DARREN and DEATH turn towards God, who remains still and impassive in the back. The faint ticking of a clock begins to fill the space.] 

Darren: You’re wrong. This is my chance to matter. I get to decide what happens next. I get to carve my own fate. Not some... some nothing after death. 

God: 9… 

Death: Darren, please... I’m begging you. Don't.

God: 8… 

Death: Darren, immortality is empty! It’s not living! No matter where you go, living is through those doors!!! 

God: 7… 

[DARREN begins to approach God silently] 

God: 6… 

Death: [Voice cracking] Stop this!!! This isn’t right, don’t you see!? 

God: 5… 

Death: You can’t do this… 

God: 4… 

Darren: I don’t need a guide to tell me what’s right anymore. I’ve made my decision. God: 3… 

Death: [Softly] You’ll lose yourself Darren. Immortals don’t feel. Please… not like this… not like this… 

God: 2… 

Darren: [Looking back, one final time] If immortals don’t feel… why do you care so much? God: 1… 

[DARREN reaches the center of the stage, and shakes GOD’s hands as the ticking comes to a close. DEATH reaches out a hand, but falls to their knees. Lights fall.] 

[A booming voice-over is heard, yet quieter now.] 

God: Death is not the end. 

END SCENE

Scene 3 

[Lights up on a cross bathed in spotlight center-stage. DARREN is strapped to it, tears flowing from his eyes continuously, mouth stitched shut, body now skeletal and ghastly. DEATH looks upon them, GOD by their side. Despite his closed mouth, YEARNING’s voice can be heard throughout Purgatory.] 

Yearning: I want to matter… I want to matter… I want to matter… I want to matter… God: And now, he shall never die. 

Death: Why? Why would you do this? 

God: He took the deal. I just offered him his dream. 

Death: It wasn’t his dream. 

God: How would you know? In the end, he shook my hand, didn’t he? 

Death: Why? Why? Why didn’t he listen? 

God: Because like any mortal, he thought he knew what was best. A disgusting heretic. And now, every reject who passes through here, will not yearn for things they’ll never have. 

[A long beat] 

Death: I felt. I cared for him. He mattered to me. 

God: No longer the kind, yet impassive herald to the after-life, are you? Now you’re just a broken toy. 

Death: Take it away. These feelings, the love, the hurt, take it away, please. God: I don’t feel like taking it away. But I can offer you a deal. 

[Lights down. Singular spotlight remains on DEATH, center-stage. A voice-over plays.] God: Death is the end.

BLACKOUT