copyright © 1988 Todd Ristau
Piece for me and David

(lights up to dim. In the dim, surrounded by the bodies of dead cats, dogs, and mice sits NIKOS in a large chair. WILLIAM enters.)

     WILLIAM
Nikos?

     NIKOS
Why have you come?

     WILLIAM
I could feel you calling me. It was driving me mad.

     NIKOS
You came because I willed it.

     WILLIAM
Your ego is astounding.

     NIKOS
I wanted you here, you came. Its as simple as that.

     WILLIAM
I came because I wanted to ask you to stop. To leave me alone. Stop wanting me.

     NIKOS
I can't.

     WILLIAM
Everywhere I go, especially during the day, I can feel you trying to find me. Sometimes--

     NIKOS
Sometimes its as though I enter your head, and look out through your eyes, think your thoughts.

     WILLIAM
Yes.

     NIKOS
I do. Sometimes you miss me. When you do, I am inside you.

     WILLIAM
Stop it. You're making me hate you.

     NIKOS
No. You hate yourself for loving me.

     WILLIAM
It stinks in here. You look horrible.

     NIKOS
I'm a vampire. I'm meant to look horrible.

     WILLIAM
Damn your jokes. Damn your self-pity.

     NIKOS
Damn your fear of loving me.

     WILLIAM
I am not in love with you. I never was.

     NIKOS
Remeber the first time we kissed?

     WILLIAM
You kissed me. "We" never kissed.

     NIKOS
You lie. You were crying. So afraid to be kissing a man.

     WILLIAM
I don't kiss men.

     NIKOS
I asked, "Will you trust me?" You said, "With what?" I said, "With you."

     WILLIAM
And we kissed. Great. One kiss and you sell your soul.

     NIKOS
Bitch.

     WILLIAM
I'm leaving.

     NIKOS
I miss you, damn you!

     WILLIAM
Nikos! You're a vampire! You kill people to stay alive! How can I love that?

     NIKOS
Its the law of nature, life feeds on life.

     WILLIAM
Not people!

     NIKOS
I'm not people!

     WILLIAM
But I am!! God!

     NIKOS
Love me! Damn you, say it! I'm not asking for anything you haven't given me before!

     WILLIAM
I don't love you. Look at you. You're like a corpse.

     NIKOS
I haven't eaten properly in weeks.

     WILLIAM
Killed anyone, you mean.

     NIKOS
Killed anyone then! Dogs, cats, even a rat last night...I'm trying!

     WILLIAM
Trying to what.

     NIKOS
Be like you.

     WILLIAM
You're not like me. You can't be like me. Give up.

     NIKOS
Please, hold me....I want to feel human again.

     WILLIAM
You're dead, Nikos. DEAD! I can't love a dead thing.

     NIKOS
(rising in fury) I am not dead! I am beyond death!

(NIKOS strikes WILLIAM across the face sending him bleeding and flying across the room. NIKOS crawls to him. As lights fade to black, NIKOS licks the blood from WILLIAM's cheek.) "Piece for me and David" IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR'S NOTES (7/5/02):
This piece was part of a series of vampire things I was doing at No Shame while working on a full length play called the Bleeker Street Vampires, which later became Blood Dance. The idea came from a descussion with Lisa Schlessinger about a play where I'd meet and be seduced by a vampire, a character with all the character traits I suppress (or ought to). It was her idea to name him Nikos. I remember raiding various props locations to find the dead animals. There was a turkey head, a horrible stuffed rabbit, a rabbit puppet of mine that Lisa's dog had chewed part of the head off and I'd dumped red ink into and dubbed "road kill bunny". I think this was performed on Friday Nov. 18th, as I have a note in my datebook that Lisa asked me not to wear my vampire make-up anymore because even after I took it off she said she could still see it on me in the dark.

...there was a stuffed rabbit or dog or something that when Cosmo saw me carrying it he got all upset because it was a real important stuffed animal to the theatre department...can't remember why though. Wish I had better recall.

If you'd like to be bitten by Nikos and become a member of the Undead, follow this link: Love Bites.

"Piece for me and David" debuted November 18, 1988, performed by Todd Ristau and David James.
[Nikos' Birthday] [Piece for me and David]
[Nikos' Birthday] [Piece for me and David] [Lovers] [Piece for March 4th]
[Todd Ristau's website] [Ristau Entertainment Ltd.]
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