Selective Dissonance: The Final Stretch
Cenbian for Narrator Ep 8
The narrator is a single adult that suffers from mental illness. Actor should be able to lean into the narrator's feelings of anxiety, confusion, and listlessness.
Content Warnings: unreality, getting lost, sleeplessness, panic attacks, dissociation
Some people don’t like knowing their neighbors, and that’s fine. It just helps my anxiety to know when there’s a true stranger in the hallway, versus just my neighbor down the hall who doesn’t get out much.
I just kept staring into the painting. There were so many lines and corners and edges. Like stairs. Or hallways. Or doors. Or walls. Like a maze my eyes could follow, but never quite solve. Every time I felt like I was getting somewhere, I’d hit another dead end. But I couldn’t just give up and look away- I felt like I needed to finish the maze, to find the way out.
I can’t sleep. Every time I try, the hallways are right there, waiting to swallow me up. And when I open my eyes again, they’re closer, threatening to catch me even when I’m waking. I’m so tired- beyond tired. Exhausted. But I cannot sleep. No matter what I try, it will not let me sleep.