DENNIS
(Confused and upset) I don't see… I still don't see how such a thing… how you could come to be. Outside of my mind. That's where you belong – in my mind, nowhere else!
THE EMPEROR
Perhaps I'm the first of my kind. A… what shall I say? A histrion, perhaps?
DENNIS
But how?
THE EMPEROR
You became another person so many times, and so effectively, that that person became an independent entity. Me. (He smiles. There is no trace of menace in it)
DENNIS
That can't happen – there's no way that can happen. It would take more than a… a performance to bring something like… like you to life.
THE EMPEROR
Oh, of course. Of course it took more. Do you have any idea of the power that lives in a theatre? Any conception of the emotions remaining after years and years of people viewing plays, films, becoming involved with what they see on that stage or screen?
DENNIS
(Slowly understanding) Catharsis.
THE EMPEROR
Exactly! Catharsis! And it remains where it is shed, remains as what one might call energy. And the result? Cogito, ergo sum!
I have gone insane, Dennis Hamilton thought, looking at the person, the creature, the ghost, the thing standing near him, there in his living room.
It was there. He saw it, he heard it, he knew he was not dreaming. He may have created it, yes, but if so, he had created it only in his mind. His fingers had slipped right through those of the thing. Wasn't that proof that it was not real?
Wasn't that proof, he thought in a miserable panic, that he was crazy?
THE EMPEROR
(Shaking his head sadly) You don't believe me. You think I'm nothing but an hallucination.
DENNIS
(Firmly) Yes. Yes, that's right.
THE EMPEROR
I can prove I'm not.
DENNIS
How?
THE EMPEROR
If I'm your hallucination, I can only know what you know. Isn't that true?
DENNIS
Yes. That seems… logical. If any of this is logical.
THE EMPEROR
It is. Supremely. (He smiles) Royally. I know the answers.
DENNIS
What answers?
THE EMPEROR
I know why Robin died. And Tommy Werton. I'm sad to say I know why Tommy died too.
DENNIS
(His hands tremble) Why? Why Robin?
THE EMPEROR
(His face is wreathed with deep sadness) She wanted to kill Ann. (Dennis's eyes squeeze shut. He clasps his hands over his ears.) I know. I know, it's difficult to believe. But I can see into hearts. I can see what even the finest actors, those scholars of human emotion, cannot. Robin hated Ann Deems. She took her up among the stars to kill her. She had found a pin that belonged to Ann, a pin that you had given her many years ago. She intended to drop it as Ann fell through the ceiling, and then tell people that it had come off her blouse and she had stepped down after it, not realizing the danger. But the light went on. An unforeseen accident. And Robin fell instead of her intended victim.
DENNIS
(Whispering) No… oh dear God, no…
THE EMPEROR
If it will comfort you to know, she did it for love of you. (An inarticulate cry comes from Dennis.) She loved you very much.
DENNIS
(After a moment his sobs subside.) And Tommy… what about Tommy?
THE EMPEROR
That, I fear, was partially my fault. It was me he saw backstage. I unintentionally distracted him. He saw me, thought I was you.
DENNIS
Did you… did you call him onto the stage?
THE EMPEROR
I did, Dennis, yes. I saw that things were wrong, and I wanted only to help. I had no idea that the fire curtain would fall.
DENNIS
You didn't?
THE EMPEROR
(Spreading his fingers) Could I have pulled the pin? (He attempts to pick up one of the Tony Awards, but his hand passes through it.) An accident. A tragic accident.
DENNIS
Harry…
THE EMPEROR
Harry Ruhl? He was disturbed, Dennis. A simple and disturbed young man. It was terrible, but it was self-inflicted.
DENNIS
Do you know everything?
THE EMPEROR
Only what takes place in… our empire. Perhaps I should say your empire. For it is yours, and since you created me I am part of it. You are my creator, therefore my god. I look to you for my well-being, my strength.
Dear God, what is this thing? Dennis wondered. It spoke of Harry's and Robin's and Tommy's deaths with only the outward semblance of compassion. Dennis had been an actor long enough to know when someone – or something – was dissembling, and this creature was doing just that. It seemed to Dennis that the thing had no conception of sympathy or the more tender human emotions. Dennis saw pride in abundance, but little else. Could it be that it was not in the creature's nature to feel the sympathetic emotions? Could it be that self-centered?
Still, when it spoke of him as its creator, its god, Dennis heard affection there and something more. Worship, perhaps? It was blasphemous, but Dennis felt it was sincere.
DENNIS
I don't know… I don't know what to say. (He gives a helpless laugh) I don't even know what to think. Except that I'm crazy.
THE EMPEROR
You are not insane. I am very real.
DENNIS
And if you're real, then what? What happens now? What do you do? What do I do with you?
THE EMPEROR
Shelter me. Be my god. I must remain here. I can go nowhere else. What nourishes me is here. You are here.
DENNIS
Can… other people see you?
THE EMPEROR
They should not. Not yet. They would not understand.
DENNIS
May I tell people?
THE EMPEROR
(He shrugs) Would they believe you?
DENNIS
But who are you? Who? Are you me?
THE EMPEROR
No. I am the Emperor. I am the character that you created, with all the character's emotions that you gave me.
DENNIS
That I gave you… (Startled, suddenly realizing) You said what nourishes you is here. Do you mean the theatre? The catharsis? Or me?
THE EMPEROR
(A pause) Both.
DENNIS
You take your strength from me?
THE EMPEROR
And why should I not take strength from my creator? You gave me life, so should I not draw my survival from you as well?
DENNIS
Strength… taking my strength?
(THE EMPEROR begins to fade away, his voice fading with him.)
THE EMPEROR
Farewell, my friend. We shall be together again.
DENNIS
Wait, wait!
THE EMPEROR
I cannot. I cannot. I am drawn away…
(THE EMPEROR is gone.)
Dennis stood for a long time listening, but he saw nothing more, heard no more words. When he regained the power of motion, a few steps brought him to the spot where the apparition, if such it was, had been standing.
There was nothing there. No trace of cold, no puddle of ectoplasm, no indentations in the thick pile carpet from ghostly feet.
"What in God's name…” Dennis said softly. Had something been there? Or had he been hallucinating? The thing had told him nothing that could not have come out of his own mind – the explanations of the deaths had all occurred to him. He supposed that even Robin's purported plot with the pin had crossed his mind. Still, it had seemed so damned real.
No. Not seemed. It was real. He was sure of it. He had never before had hallucinations, and his body was as drug free as anyone's could be. What he had seen he had seen, and its implications were staggering.
He had always thought that the Emperor had, in a strange way, a life of his own. Dennis had inhabited the character more than he had acted it, creating it like a tailor creates a suit of clothes that he plans to wear for a long time, building it up carefully, knowing that it would have to last.