Chapter 1, Episode 2

Transcript: Chapter 1, Episode 2

The view pans down from the early morning sky to Chicago’s skyline, tinted in pale yellow, orange, and pink. The Sears Tower is visible, and the sun rises in the distance. Narration appears: “My mentor once told me, ‘Sunrise is a bloodthirsty predator that devours a careless night.’ I never understood what she meant…”

“Ugh,” someone says.

The narration continues, “Until now.”

Blaze sits up on the living room sofa with nothing but a blanket across his lap. As the sun blares down on him, he covers his face with one hand. His wavy, shoulder-length red hair is mussed and tangled.

His face still on his hand, he peers down with one tired green eye.

As he looks at the coffee table, now covered with amorphous blobs of wax from the previous night’s melted candles, he says, “Oh… right.”

He rises, wrapping the blanket around his body. Ornate orange tattoos are visible on his hands and around his wrists, reminiscent of mehndi designs. Included in the designs are an eye shape at the center of the backs of his hands, with a reddish dot at the center of the pupils. On each of his fingers is a double band across the top knuckle, with a larger ribbed pattern on his middle finger extending down to the second knuckle.

Behind him, in the kitchen, a light-blue-tinted female ghost in a medium’s robes asks, “Long night?” He freezes, looking frazzled.

Wearily, he looks over his shoulder at the ghost and says, “It’s too early in the morning to be smirking at me like that, Evie.”

He approaches the counter, adjusting the blanket that’s now wrapped around his waist and over one shoulder like a robe. On the counter is a teapot and a plate with a light-blue-tinted, ghostly piece of pie. Evie, a hand on her hip, asks, “How many did you invite?” Blaze hesitates, and Evie asks, “Well?” Blaze finally replies, “Eleven,” and Evie says, “I can’t believe you.”

Blaze looks up at her with a wry smile as he lifts a teapot to pour himself a cup. “It was Halloween!” he says. “They would have been out wreaking havoc in the streets. Besides, Dickie and Nate only stayed an hour. The candles burned out too fast. And Marta only came to use the oven.”

Evie, looking jaded and disappointed, says, “You invited Marta… that poor old lady… to that kind of a party?”

Smiling wider, Blaze holds out his hands in a shrug, revealing mandala-patterned tattoos on his palms with red dots in the centers. He says, “She’s a grandma, Evie. She just wanted to feed everyone. That’s her apple pie you’re eating.”

Evie crosses her arms. “I expected more from you, Blaze,” she says. “These risks you take… they’ll come back to haunt you one day.”

Blaze lowers his eyebrows and points a finger, grinning in challenge. He replies, “Hey, you may have been my mentor when you were alive, but you’re not 80 years old anymore, Madame Evelyn. Your spirit came back at 36. You’re way too young to be lecturing me.”

Evie leans across the counter toward him, steely-eyed, and says, “I didn’t come back young so I could lecture you.”

Her face breaks into a wild, dangerous, wide-eyed smile. “I came back young so I could fight you.”

Blaze leans away, gulping nervously as sweat beads on his forehead. He thinks to himself, “Ooh, she’s not kidding.”

Grinning nervously, he points to his right and says, “I’m gonna go wash up.”

Blaze makes his way down the hall while Evie watches him from the kitchen. As he walks, he narrates: “When Evie was alive, she was a world-renowned medium. But she just doesn’t see spirits the way I do. To her, they’re otherworldly pests who don’t belong here.”

“To me, they’re friends.” Blaze raises a hand to the back of his head, revealing tattoos of the moon’s phases down his triceps.

He continues narrating, “Some of them just aren’t ready to leave yet.”

As he remembers the coffee table covered with melted wax, he continues narrating. “But Evie wasn’t wrong. I did go a little hard last night. Getting down with spirits is pretty draining.”

Blaze is shown from behind, running his hands through his hair. On his back is yet another ornate tattoo connecting to the tattoos on his shoulders. The back tattoo is shaped like an inverted triangle and includes motifs of lines, beaded strings, fire, and flames. He narrates, “I have a client at 9am. Time to pull myself together.”

Cut to white.

A logo appears: Into the Smoke. Intothesmokecomic.com

Text reads: This episode is brought to you by my awesome patrons! An image shows a collection of signatures in various colors, sizes, and handwriting styles, alongside Otto the cat with a roughly sketched pointy hat.. After the signatures, more text reads: plus additional anonymous supporters! patreon.com/bob_artist.