Murder Mysteries a Play for Voices (9781466109827) (3 page)

/SFX/ THE SOUNDS OF LOS ANGELES CROSSFADE
WITH

/SFX/THE SOUND OF RAGUEL’S AWAKENING,
UNDER...

/MUS/THE WORD WAS GOD -- SILVER CITY THEME
--

RAGUEL NARRATION

The Word gave me a body, gave me eyes. And I
opened my eyes, and I saw the light of the Silver City. I was in a
room -- a silver room -- and there wasn't anything in it except me.
In front of me was a window, that went from floor to ceiling, open
to the sky, and through the window I could see the spires of the
City, and at the edge of the City, the Dark. I don't know how long
I waited there. I wasn't impatient or anything, though. I remember
that. It was like I was waiting until I was called; and I knew that
some time I would be called. And if I had to wait until the end of
everything, and never be called, why, that was fine too. But I'd be
called, I was certain of that. And then I'd know my name, and my
function.

/SFX/ DISTANT WHISPERS, CRYSTAL CHIMES,
UNDER...

RAGUEL NARRATION (CONT’D)

Through the window I could see silver
spires, and in many of the other spires were windows; and in the
windows I could see others like me. That was how I knew what I
looked like. You wouldn't think it of me, seeing me now, but I was
beautiful. I've come down in the world a way since then.

(beat)

I was taller then, and I had wings.

/SFX/STRETCHING AND FLAPPING OF WINGS FOR
THE FIRST TIME

RAGUEL NARRATION

They were huge and powerful wings, with
feathers the colour of mother-of-pearl. They came out from just
between my shoulder-blades. They were so good. My wings...

/SFX/ SOUNDS AND MUSIC OF ANGELS IN FLIGHT,
SWOOPING PAST; DISTANT CHIMES AND SOUNDS OF THE CITY OF ANGELS,
UNDER...

RAGUEL NARRATION (CONT’D)

Sometimes I'd see others like me, the ones
who'd left their rooms, who were already fulfilling their duties.
I'd watch them soar through the sky from spire to spire, performing
errands I could barely imagine. The sky above the City was a
wonderful thing. It was always light, although lit by no sun --
lit, perhaps by the City itself: but the quality of light was
forever changing. Now pewter-coloured light, then brass, then a
gentle gold, or a soft and quiet amethyst...

/SFX/ THE SOUNDS OF THE CITY OF THE ANGELS
CUTS OUT AS:

RAGUEL NOW

You know what amethyst is? A kind of purple
stone?

NARRATOR -- LIVE

Yes. I know that.

NARRATOR

My crotch felt uncomfortable. It occurred to
me then that the man might not be mad; I found this far more
disquieting than the alternative.

RAGUEL NOW

I don't know how long it was that I waited,
in my room. But time didn't mean anything. Not back then. We had
all the time in the world.

/SFX/ LA CROSSFADES TO THE CITY OF
ANGELS

RAGUEL NARRATION

The next thing that happened to me, was when
the Angel Lucifer came to my cell. He was taller than me, and his
wings were imposing, his plumage perfect. He had skin the colour of
sea-mist, and curly silver hair, and these wonderful grey
eyes...

/SFX/ MIX UP THE SOUNDS OF LA

RAGUEL NOW

I say he, but you should understand that
none of us had any sex, to speak of. Smooth and empty. Nothing
there between the legs. You know.

/SFX/NOW LA FADES BACK INTO RAGUEL’S CELL IN
THE CITY OF ANGELS, AND THE FLAPPING OF LUCIFER’S WINGS...

RAGUEL NARRATION

Lucifer shone. I mean it -- he glowed from
inside. All angels do. They're lit up from within, and in my cell
the angel Lucifer burned like a lightning storm. He looked at me.
And he named me.

LUCIFER

You are Raguel. The vengeance of the
Lord.

RAGUEL THEN

Yes. I see. I am Raguel. I am vengeance.
That is my name. That is my function.

LUCIFER

There has been a ... a wrong thing. The
first of its kind. You are needed.

RAGUEL NARRATION

He turned and pushed himself into space, and
I followed him.

RAGUEL THEN

(shouting over the wind of flight)

It’s astonishing! It’s wonderful!

LUCIFER

(in flight)

The Silver City. Yes. It astonishes. It
inspires wonder. It’s all there is, you know.

RAGUEL THEN

(in flight)

What about outside the city? What is
that?

LUCIFER

(in flight)

It’s called the Dark. We do not go there. It
is not of this place.

/SFX/ LUCIFER AND RAGUEL TAKE FLIGHT, SWOOP
OVER THE CITY, EVENTUALLY LANDING, AS RAGUEL DESCRIBES IT,
UNDER...

RAGUEL NARRATION (CONT’D)

I flew behind him across the Silver City, to
the outskirts, where the City stops and the Darkness begins; and it
was there, under a vast silver spire, that we descended to the
street, and I saw the dead angel.

(beat)

The body lay, crumpled and broken, on the
silver sidewalk. Its wings were crushed underneath it and a few
loose feathers had already blown into the silver gutter.

(beat)

The body was almost dark. Now and again a
light would flash inside it, an occasional flicker of cold fire in
the chest, or in the eyes, or in the sexless groin, as the last of
the glow of life left it for ever.

(beat)

Blood pooled in rubies on its chest and
stained its white wing-feathers crimson. It was very beautiful,
even in death.

(beat)

It would have broken your heart.

LUCIFER

You must find who was responsible for this,
and how; and take the Vengeance of the Name on whoever caused this
thing to happen.

RAGUEL THEN

I know. The hunt, and the retribution: it is
why I was created, in the Beginning; it is what I am. Who was
this?

LUCIFER

The Angel Carasel. He worked in the Hall of
Being, there.

RAGUEL THEN

Impressive building.

LUCIFER

Perhaps. It serves its function. Do you know
who did it yet?

RAGUEL THEN

No. Not yet.

RAGUEL NARRATION

I leaned down to examine the body. All
luminescence had by now left it. It was a dark thing; a parody of
an angel. It had a perfect, sexless face, framed by silver hair.
One of the eyelids was open, revealing a placid grey eye; the other
was closed. There were no nipples on the chest and only smoothness
between the legs.

RAGUEL THEN

Help me turn him over.

/SFX/ MOVING AND A GRUNTING.

LUCIFER

What happened to it?

RAGUEL THEN

It’s a mess. Let’s see: Carasel’s wings are
broken and twisted; the back of the head staved in; I think its
spine has been broken as well. In a couple of places. There’s blood
all over its back.

(to Lucifer)

Okay. Let’s turn him back again.

(inspecting)

His front is pretty clean. The only blood is
in the chest area. Hmm. Some kind of hole in its front. Look -- if
I probe it with my forefinger, it enters the body without
difficulty.

LUCIFER

What have you learned?

RAGUEL THEN

He fell. And he was mortally wounded before
he fell.

(Voice treatment -- Raguel in his aspect. He
is addressing the whole city, but quietly:)

Somebody is responsible for this. Somebody
made this happen... I will find you, whoever you are. And I will
take the Lord's vengeance upon you.

LUCIFER

You’re very certain.

RAGUEL THEN

Yes.

LUCIFER

I have work to attend to.

/SFX/ FLAPPING WINGS.

RAGUEL THEN

Before you go! Who discovered the body? Was
it you?

LUCIFER

Phanuel. The senior designer in the Hall of
Being. You can find him inside.

RAGUEL THEN

Yes. I can. Thank you, Lucifer.

LUCIFER

You are most welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse
me...

RAGUEL NARRATION

He flapped his wings, once, hard, and rose
upwards; the gust of wind sent the dead angel's loose feathers
blowing across the street.

NARRATOR

The man took the cigarette stub from behind
his ear, lit it with a match.

/SFX/ LA STREET. A MATCH IS STRUCK,
HYPER-REAL...

RAGUEL NOW

Waste not, want not. That’s what they say,
isn’t it?

NARRATOR -- LIVE

That’s what they say, yes.

NARRATOR

I could smell the ashtray smell of a dead
cigarette, acrid and harsh; then he pulled down to the unburnt
tobacco, exhaled blue smoke into the night air.

RAGUEL NARRATION

So. The angel who had first discovered the
body was called Phanuel.

/SFX/ THE HALL OF BEING. INT. ANGELS
FLAPPING. NOISES OF STRANGE MACHINERY. BUT WITH THE LA NOISES STILL
GOING OVER...

RAGUEL NARRATION (CONT’D)

I spoke to him in the Hall of Being. That
was the spire beside which the dead angel lay. In the Hall hung
the... the blueprints, maybe, for what was going to be... all
this.

NARRATOR -- LIVE

All what? The cars? The streets? LA?

RAGUEL NOW

Yeah. All that and more. The universe.

NARRATOR -- LIVE

The Universe?

/SFX/ LA NOISE ENDS. HALL OF BEING NOISES
GET LOUDER...

RAGUEL NARRATION

Phanuel was the senior designer; working
under him were a multitude of angels labouring on the details of
The Creation. I watched him from the floor of the hall. He hung in
the air below the Plan, and angels flew down to him, waiting
politely in turn as they asked him questions, checked things with
him, invited comment on their work. Eventually he left them, and
came down to my level.

PHANUEL

(fussy)

You are Raguel, are you not? What need have
you of me?

RAGUEL THEN

I hear you found the body.

PHANUEL

Poor Carasel? Indeed I did. I was leaving
the hall -- there are a number of concepts we are currently
constructing, and I wished to ponder one of them, Regret by name. I
was planning to get a little distance from the City -- to fly above
it, I mean, not to go into the Dark outside, I wouldn't do that,
although there has been a some loose talk amongst... but, yes. I
was going to rise, and contemplate. I left the Hall, and...

(his voice cracks)

Poor foolish Carasel. How could he do that
to himself? How?

RAGUEL THEN

You think his destruction was
self-inflicted?

PHANUEL

(surprised at the question)

But of course. Carasel was working under me,
developing a number of concepts that shall be intrinsic to the
Universe, when its Name shall be spoken. His group did a remarkable
job on some of the real basics -- Dimension was one, and Sleep
another. There were others.

(beat)

Wonderful work. Some of his suggestions
regarding the use of individual viewpoints to define dimensions
were truly ingenious. Anyway. He had begun work on a new project.
It's one of the really major ones -- the ones that I would usually
handle, or possibly even Zephkiel. But Carasel had done such
sterling work. And his last project was so remarkable. Something
apparently quite trivial, that he and Saraquael elevated into...
But that is unimportant. It was this project that forced him into
non-being. But none of us could ever have foreseen...