WWW Challenge Story #1: The Sun Child

 

 

The Sun Child

 

by

Jaq D Hawkins

 

Approximate playing time: minutes

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

 

 

NAME	Description	Actor
Mallory	A childless woman	Sharra Davies
Usha	A Gypsy Witch	Beth Chandler
Priest	A travelling priest on a donkey	Lee Foster
Risa	A village woman	Beth Chandler
Claire	The Sun Child	Claire Chandler

Music by Kevin MacLeod

 

 

• INTRODUCER: (softly) Title.
• /MUS/ OPENING THEME
• SCENE 1.
• /SFX/  
• Feet walking in dry leaves. Knock on door. Door opens.
• Mallory
• I’m sorry to disturb you…
• Usha
• You wish something from Madam Usha.
• Mallory
• They say you are a witch, that you can help me.

• Usha
• The villagers come to Usha when all else has failed.
• What malady has brought you to desperation?
• Mallory
• I wish to have a child.
• Usha
• And you think Madam Usha can fix what God cannot?
• Mallory
• I even tried to adopt, but there are no children available.
• Since the blight, there are too few children.
• Usha
• And you… You can care for a child?
• Mallory
• If you can cast a spell, to bring one to me…
• Usha
• You wish magic?
• Mallory
• They say you have the ability.
• Usha
• I can read the future. I can give you herbs.
• But magic… it never works how you expect it will.
• There is danger.
• Mallory
• I would brave any danger, if only to have a child to care for.
• Perhaps if you read the cards first, to see where danger lies…
• /SFX/   Shuffling cards. Sit deck on table.
• Usha
• Choose three cards, lay them left to right.
• /SFX/   Sound of cards laying out on table.
• Usha

• You have had much sorrow in your life.
• The past is represented by the three of swords.
• As you can see, it is a heart pierced with pain.
• Mallory
• Yes, I have known many sorrows. The loss of my husband…
• Usha
• You have no husband, yet still you seek a child?
• Mallory
• That is why I tried to adopt. I don’t expect miracles.
• Usha
• Don’t you?
• The card of the present, the nine of swords.
• This is a card of disaster.
• It is a warning that your present course will bring evil to you.
• Mallory
• I see a child on the last card…
• Usha
• The Sun. It can be a card of hopes fulfilled.
• But it is reversed, upside down.
• In this position it is a warning that plans will go awry.
• I see disaster for you, if you persist.
• Mallory
• I am determined. I will find a way to avert disaster.
• Please, Madam Usha. I can pay well.
• /SFX/   Coins clinking.
• /MUS/ THEME FOR SCENE CHANGE
• SCENE 2.
• /SFX/   Donkey hoofs on cobbles.
• Mallory
• You there, young priest.
• Why do you ride with a child on your saddle?
• Priest
• I seek a foster home for the girl.
• The people of her own village have cast her out.
• Mallory
• Why?
• Priest
• She was cursed with a deformity.
• God’s punishment for her illegitimate birth.
• Mallory
• Who was her mother?
• Priest
• A nun of the convent. She was simple minded, but cloistered.
• Mallory
• And her father?
• Priest
• No man could have come to her in the convent.
• The village folk said it must have been Lucifer himself.
• Mallory
• When Jesus was born to a virgin, they believed he was
• created by God.
• Priest
• Jesus learned to speak before he was five, Claire does not.
• Mallory
• I will take her, if you will give her to me.
• Priest
• Have a care, daughter, for she is an unnatural child.
• But it is not fitting that she should ride with a priest.
• I give her to you to care for her, but with some reservations.
• Watch her well.
• Mallory
• I will! She is my Sun Child.

• /MUS/ THEME FOR SCENE CHANGE
• SCENE 3.
• Risa
• She’s a strange child. Why doesn’t she talk?
• Mallory
• She is only five, there is time yet.
• Risa
• But the way she spreads her arms out and spins,
• as if she were casting a spell…
• Mallory
• The witch in the glen did something like that.
• When she worked her magic, to draw the child to me.
• Risa
• It isn’t natural. I don’t trust the witch’s magic.
• How did Claire come to you?
• Mallory
• People can be superstitious.
• No one would take her in the village where she was born.
• They feared a child who was different.
• Risa
• Listen, she’s singing!
• Claire
• Praise be to Lucifer! (Repeats through dialogue)
• Mallory (reviled)
• What does she mean by that?
• Her first words and…
• Claire
• Praise be to Lucifer! (Continuous repeat)
• Risa
• She’s unnatural! Look, she spins! And the baker’s is on fire!
• Mallory (panicked)
• And the town hall!
• /SFX/   Fire crackling
• Risa
• The whole village is going up in flames! We’re trapped!
• Mallory (panicked)
• Oh my God! What are those?
• Risa (In shock)
• All the demons of Hell…
• Claire
• Praise be to Lucifer! (Continuous repeat)
• /SFX/   Fire crackling, demons chanting, screams of terror.

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To vote for this story in the 2015 Wicked Women’s Writing Challenge, send an e-mail to horroraddicts@gmail.com
Voting ends: July 27th, 2015