DEVIL CONNOR, 23 years old and dirty-looking, sits in a corner, meditating. We stay very close on his face. In another room, BILLIE JETT, 26, Devlin's girlfriend, is running around cleaning up the house and getting things ready ... she is very high-strung, apparently obsessive-compulsive, and moves around at high speed, like a bat out of hell. We occasionally see her running back and forth through the open door frame in the distance.

BILLIE (from other room)

Devlin! Come downstairs! The Gundersons are going to be here any minute!

Devlin speaks very quietly, apparently to himself.

DEVLIN

Your voice sounds different. Why does your voice sound different?

BILLIE

Are you ready?

Billie runs into the room.

BILLIE (CONT'D)

Devlin! Come on, there's not much time.

She grabs Devlin's shoulder, and notices with shock that he's not dressed.

BILLIE (CONT'D)

What are you wearing?

DEVLIN

When?

BILLIE

Oh god Devlin, you're not even dressed yet? Goddamnit! Get dressed! What would the Gundersons think if they saw you like this?

DEVLIN

Who are you?

BILLIE

I don't have time for this, Devlin.

Billie rushes off and starts rummaging through Devlin's drawers looking for clothes. Giving up on this, she looks on the floor for the less-dirty items.

DEVLIN

You don't sound like yourself. You don't look like yourself either. You've changed. Into a different person maybe. When did it happen? Did it happen overnight?

BILLIE

GODDAMNIT DEVLIN! You know how important this is to me! The Gundersons are only the most important family in the entire county, and their respect means everything to me.

DEVLIN

Why?

BILLIE

Because they have class, Devlin. Class, sophistication, you ever heard of that? You should try having a little class sometime.

DEVLIN

I got class out the ass.

Billie chooses a specific red dress shirt and folds it up in her arms.

BILLIE

Devlin, if you fuck this up, I'll kill you.

DEVLIN

Not if I kill you first.

BILLIE

Here, put this on.

She hands him the red dress shirt.

DEVLIN

Yes, mother.

He puts it on.

BILLIE

I am not your mother. We're sleeping together.

DEVLIN

How do you know I didn't sleep with my mother?

BILLIE

You're an insane, disgusting, filthy creep.

DEVLIN

Which only raises the possibility.

BILLIE

Shut up.

She hands him a tie and new pants. He puts them on.

DEVLIN

You really don't look or sound like yourself at all. Your face isn't your face anymore. It's wider there, thinner there. Your eyes used to be clear. Young and crystal clear. Now they're clouded over. They look like smoke. Maybe inside your head there's a forest fire, and the smoke is coming out of your eyes. (he looks down) I don't know how to tie this tie.

BILLIE

Oh, for heavens' sake, you're like a child sometimes.

She ties his tie for him.

DEVLIN

Do you ever wish we had children?

She doesn't reply. After a moment, he pushes her away.

DEVLIN (CONT'D)

Fuck off, I can tie it myself.

He ties his tie himself.

BILLIE

Fine. I'm tired of being the strong one in this relationship.

DEVLIN

So am I.

A silence.

BILLIE

I had a dream about you.

DEVLIN

I had a dream about you too. You were naked in it.

BILLIE

I'm serious.

DEVLIN

So am I. Tell me about your dream first.

BILLIE

We were in India. I've always loved India.

DEVLIN

Yes. You have.

BILLIE

We were in a harem of Indian whores and you were fucking every girl there except me.

DEVLIN

Beautiful. I've had dreams like that too.

BILLIE

I woke up crying.

DEVLIN

What, you want sympathy from me now? You want me to say I'm sorry? I'm sorry your dream version of me fucks other women? It's your damn fantasy, you ought to be apologizing to me for slandering my character - dreaming me up as a total asshole.

BILLIE

I don't need to be dreaming for you to be an asshole.

He slaps her, violently.

She doesn't recover. There is a silence.

Then she slaps him.

He slaps her again.

She slaps him.

He grabs her and they kiss, violently.

She pulls away from him.

He pulls out a knife. A large one.

DEVLIN

I could kill you. I could slit your face from ear to ear. Carve you a new smile. I could dig into your skull, dig into your eye sockets, pop your eyeballs out.

She is almost in tears. He comes closer to her. He puts his arms around her. He doesn't put the knife down, but holds it close to her. He runs his finger down the front of her body.

DEVLIN

I could slit your chest open. Slit your stomach open right here. Dig my hands in and pull your skin apart, and see what your organs look like. Your liver. Your still-beating heart.

He looks into her eyes and seems entranced by the way she looks when she's crying. He presses still closer. She does not resist. Their eyes meet and he seems almost ready to kiss her.

DEVLIN

I'd crack open your ribcage. Yank it open, pull it apart, hear the bones crack and die. I'd dig in with my bare hands, find your intestines, and yank.

He places his hand on her back.

DEVLIN

I'd pull your intestines out and they'd hang, limply, out of your body. Like a umbilical cord on a baby.

Their eyes meet, and there is now no distance separating them. He gestures with the knife.

DEVLIN

I could take this knife, put it in your cunt, and twist.

A moment. Then she pushes him away, violently.

He is almost knocked down, staggering back a couple steps.

Crouching slightly, he looks up at her and nods, as if to say he agrees with what she just did.

She bites her lip.

BILLIE

I should leave you. It's a good thing I don't have any friends, because any sane friend would have convinced me to leave you long ago. You're insane! You're a maniac. I should call the cops on you, for the things you've said to me. They'd have you arrested. They could have you shot.

DEVLIN

I wouldn't mind that.

BILLIE

You wouldn't mind dying?

DEVLIN

Not if I deserved it. I'd mind dying for no reason.

BILLIE

I cry all the time, you know that?

DEVLIN

You're desperate for attention.

BILLIE

I cry when I think about the life I gave up to be with you. Sometimes I cry for no reason. But in my dream, when you were fucking all those other women, I didn't cry. I actually laughed. Long and hard. I only laugh when I'm sad, you know, when I'm angry. I don't laugh when I'm happy. It took me until that very moment to realize that all these years I've been laughing with you, I've really been crying the whole time. ... I don't think I'm going to laugh as much anymore.

DEVLIN

I'm not gonna give you any sympathy. If you wanna die I can kill you.

BILLIE

You couldn't kill me.

DEVLIN

Why not?

BILLIE

Because you like me more than you like yourself. If you killed me, you'd have to kill yourself first. That doesn't work.

DEVLIN

I could kill us both at the same time.

BILLIE

You could. But you won't.

He steps closer to her. She is unafraid. He presses up against her and speaks almost in her ear.

DEVLIN

I could kill you right now.

BILLIE

You try anything, I'm calling the cops.

DEVLIN

You call the cops and you'll be dead before they get here.

BILLIE

Not if I call late at night when you're not looking.

DEVLIN

I'm always looking. I watch you, when you're sleeping. I never sleep, you know that.

BILLIE

You have to sleep sometime.

DEVLIN

And you have to die sometime.

They kiss, passionately.

She drags him back and they lie down on the couch together. A silence.

BILLIE

You really want to have children?

DEVLIN

No.

BILLIE

Then why'd you bring it up?

DEVLIN

Because I thought it would hurt you.

BILLIE

Well, it didn't. It made me happy, that you want to have children.

DEVLIN

I don't want to have children.

BILLIE

I do.

DEVLIN

Well, that's your own damn problem.

She runs her hand down his chest.

BILLIE

What was the dream you had about me? Where I was naked?

DEVLIN

We were in a whorehouse in India. And you were fucking every woman in there but not me.

BILLIE

Be serious.

DEVLIN

I'm not in love with you anymore.

BILLIE

Yes you are.

A silence.

DEVLIN

I had a dream where you were riding a white horse - and your face was your real face. Not the fake face you've got on now. You looked beautiful.

BILLIE

Are you unhappy with the way I look?

DEVLIN

You don't look like yourself. You're wearing the wrong face. A face that keeps changing.

BILLIE

Are you unhappy with the way I look?

DEVLIN

Are you?

BILLIE

No.

DEVLIN

You were riding a white horse. And the horse tripped, and you fell. And your real face became a false face, like the one you're wearing now. A face that kept changing. And I took you in my arms and I asked you to take off your mask, but you wouldn't. I wanted to take my knife my knife and cut your face off. Peel the skin off, peel this mask of yours off, and reveal the face underneath. The face of blood. The face of death. That's your only true face. The face you've got on now, I wanted to cut it off and wear it on my own face, wear your skin like a mask. Then I could be just like you. Just as fake. Never be myself again. And I was going to do it. I was going to take my knife and slice your face right off.

BILLIE

Why didn't you?

DEVLIN

Didn't have my knife with me. Funny - I've always got my knife with me. I've got my knife with me now.

He holds his knife up to her face and traces the outline of where he would cut her face off with it.

DEVLIN (CONT'D)

But I don't want to take your face off now. Not right now, anyway. We all wear masks. You can keep yours, for now.

Billie becomes incredibly frightened and pulls away. She stands.

BILLIE

I'm leaving you. I can leave, and I will. I am.

He grabs her arm and restrains her.

DEVLIN

The dream goes on. Your white horse got sick. So we killed it with a rock, you and I. We built a fire and roasted the horse and ate it. Then we made love by the fire. We don't make love nearly often enough. Because we're afraid of what it means. And even in the dream it killed you to make love. I made love to you so hard and so passionately that it killed you. You died, right there, in my arms. And suddenly your face didn't change anymore. It was your real face, and it would always be the same. I just held you, held your dead body for a .. for a long time.

A silence.

DEVLIN

But looking at you made me sick, and I had to throw up. Then I woke up.

Billie looks at him, annoyed.

BILLIE

That's beautiful. You should write children's stories.

DEVLIN

I really did throw up. Right there on the floor. That's what woke me up. Vomit everywhere.

BILLIE

I don't remember there being vomit on the floor when I woke up this morning.

DEVLIN

I cleaned it up. Didn't you notice the smell? ... No, I guess you wouldn't.

BILLIE

What does that mean?

DEVLIN

Well, you don't notice anything, do you? Have you noticed how we never make love anymore? Every day I feel like less and less of a man, because I'm not making love to you.

BILLIE

Why don't you?

He presses close to her.

DEVLIN

I want to. I want to make violent passionate endless love to you. I want to stay in bed with you for four straight days, constantly making love until we're both exhausted. And then I want to kill you, and make love to your corpse.

BILLIE

You're sick.

She kisses him. He takes her lead and continues the kiss ... he takes her back onto the couch. He fondles her ...

BILLIE

Stop.

He doesn't respond to this. She says it a little louder now.

BILLIE

Stop. Please, stop!

She pulls away. He seems disappointed.

BILLIE

We can't. Not right now.

DEVLIN

Why not?

BILLIE

Because the Gundersons will be here any minute.

She fixes her hair and leaves the room. But she stays within earshot, in the doorway.

BILLIE

Clean yourself up. I'll be waiting for you in the dining room.

DEVLIN

We don't have a dining room.

BILLIE

You know what I mean.

DEVLIN

No, I don't.

BILLIE

Well, then you're stupid.

DEVLIN

Why do you keep doing this?

She pokes her head back into the doorway.

BILLIE

What?

DEVLIN

This. Every week you say the Gundersons are coming and we have to get ready, and you run around like a maniac and clean up the entire house, and we wait and we wait and the Gundersons never come. Every single week for the past three months, you've done this. The Gundersons aren't coming, Billie. If they even exist, I'm not stupid and I know they're not fucking coming.

BILLIE

I'm sorry about all the other weeks. Lenny Gunderson called me this morning and he's really sorry they weren't able to make it these past few weeks, but they're coming this time for sure. Eight o' clock sharp, they'll be here.

DEVLIN

No they fucking won't, Billie! They're not fucking coming! And I think I know why! The Gundersons don't exist. You say they're friends of yours.

BILLIE

They're not really friends. I want them to be.

DEVLIN

They're figments of your fucking imagination.

BILLIE

I don't believe you. You're sick. I'm calling the cops on you. I'm sick of being in a relationship with a complete lunatic.

DEVLIN

Well, maybe so am I.

BILLIE

I never pulled a knife on you.

DEVLIN

Well, great, you never pulled a knife on me, what do you want for that, a fucking medal?

BILLIE

Get dressed you asshole! When the Gundersons finally show up you are going to be charming and likeable and friendly and everything you aren't.

DEVLIN

That's not even your real voice you're talking with right now. That's not your real face I'm looking at.

BILLIE

Goddamnit Devlin, this is important to me and if you fuck this up like you've fucked up everything else in my life I am going to pull out a knife and stab you forty-seven fucking times until you're dead. I'll kill you, you hear me?

DEVLIN

Not if I kill you first.

BILLIE

Why do I bother? I'm not even gonna keep talking to you unless you put the knife down.

DEVLIN

Good.

BILLIE

Put the knife down.

DEVLIN

No.

BILLIE

Put it down!

DEVLIN

Fuck you.

She picks up a plate and throws it at him. It shatters against the wall behind him.

BILLIE

You think it's easy living with a psychopath like you? I had a life once, a good one! Was going to a good school, getting good grades. I was going to be a psychologist. You can make good money in psychology. I had a career all mapped out for me. I coulda had a nice house, a great life. I coulda been somebody. But then you came and stood in my way. Stopped my life from happening. And I was stupid enough to love you for it.

DEVLIN

I gave you a good life.

BILLIE

You call this a good life? We live in an apartment the size of a box. Even the walls smell like urine. We live in a shitty apartment in the worst neighborhood I've ever seen, and we can't even make rent here. We're poor as dirt. We're surrounded by dirt. You and I are the king and queen of garbage.

DEVLIN

And if you hadn't met me your life would be perfect, huh?

BILLIE

I don't know. But it wouldn't be this.

DEVLIN

I like this.

BILLIE

No you don't.

DEVLIN

I do. Hey, I got regrets too. But you can't spend your entire life thinking about how things coulda turned out better. You can drive yourself crazy, living in a world that doesn't exist. You gotta work with the world you got. We may live in a shitty apartment, but at least we're not lonely. We got each other, whatever the fuck that means.

BILLIE

You're an idiot.

DEVLIN

Yeah.

They sit down on the couch together and hold each other for warmth.

BILLIE

The Gundersons aren't coming.

DEVLIN

No.

BILLIE

Not this week.

DEVLIN

Not this week, no.

BILLIE

They'll be here next week.

DEVLIN

Maybe. Who knows? Life's a fucking mystery.

BILLIE

I am going to leave you, you know.

DEVLIN

Yeah.

BILLIE

One of these days.

DEVLIN

Sure.

BILLIE

When I'm strong enough to stand on my own two feet. I'm just not strong enough right now.

He looks in her eyes.

DEVLIN

You're beautiful, you know that.

She looks away, shyly.

DEVLIN (CONT'D)

You're lucky you're so beautiful. I want to kill you most of the time. I want to kill you so bad. Slit your face, slit your throat. But I can't kill you, because you're just too beautiful.

She sighs sadly.

DEVLIN (CONT'D)

For your own sake, just make sure you never get ugly.

We fade out, slowly.