Hold Still
By Kellie Powell
Hold Still is a ten-minute horror play about a painter who hires artist's models who remind him of his sister, who disappeared in childhood. It is unclear whether he killed his sister, or if the trauma of her disappearance has led him to kill an unknown number of paid proxies...
THE PAINTER:
No, that wasn't real. That was - I was consumed by grief, after we lost you. It was too disturbing for such a fragile mind. I saw things - but it was merely my mind's attempt to explain your disappearance. I needed someone to blame and - for a time I even believed that I had killed you - can you imagine? A five-year-old child, capable of such a brutal - it was so vivid - and yet - of course it was only a twisted imagination...
Do you remember when we would have contests to see who could catch the most butterflies? You always won - you were older, quicker, more graceful, but the day you disappeared, I was winning. And I caught the most beautiful butterfly that I had ever seen - I showed it to you, and you took it from me, so gently - and then, you looked at me and you said, "I always win." And you balled your hand into a fist and crushed it to death. That's the last time - that's the last thing I remember before you disappeared. I used to wonder if you ever felt guilty. For destroying something so beautiful.
