Chapter 1, Episode 4

Transcript: Chapter 1, Episode 4

A taper candle is lit with a long match. Blaze narrates, “I light my candle at nine on the dot to start the session.”

The candle burns as Blaze continues, “Spirits are tethered to the place they lived and the place they died. To call them elsewhere, you need to offer a guiding light.”

cut-
I carry a lighter with me at all times. You never know when a spirit might need you… or when you might need them.”
–

Vern’s ghost is shown. He sits hunched, his hair and shoulders morphing and dissipating into rising smoke. Blaze narrates, “Vern is smokier than ever today. Just when I thought we were making progress, he’s taken two steps back.”

Blaze and Vern sit on either side of a small round table along the wall of Blaze’s living room. Blaze’s hands are clasped in his lap as he listens to Vern, whose head is bowed. “I can’t, Blaze,” Vern says. “I can’t handle seeing her with him. It ain’t right.”

Blaze cocks his head and asks, “You love her, right? Don’t you want her to move on? She was your wife.”

Vern scowls, his brows furrowed. “IS,” he says emphatically. “She IS my wife.”

Blaze reaches out an arm and gazes at Vern sympathetically. “No,” he says. “Not anymore, Vern. I know it’s hard, but…”

Vern cuts him off, his teeth bared and his eyes glowing with anger. “SHE’S MY WIFE,” he yells.

Blaze sits silently, looking resigned. He narrates, “I sympathize with Vern. He’s had it rough.”

In a flashback, a burglar in a hoodie and ski mask is seen walking away from a house, which has a broken window. The burglar holds a knife and bag. Blaze continues, “He and his daughter were the victims of a violent home invasion. His wife barely survived.”

Blaze is seen from behind, holding the hand of a ghostly young girl in a knee-length summer dress and walking toward a blaring white light in the distance. The girl is only as tall as Blaze’s waist, and she looks up at him. “I guided Millie into the light,” Blaze narrates. In the flashback, the girl says, “I don’t want to go without Daddy.” Blaze replies, “I’m sending him right behind you. I promise.”

Vern is pictured, copious smoke rising from his ghostly form as he looks around. Blaze narrates, “But Vern… He’s so far from the light he can barely see it. He can’t accept that he died that night.”

“I’ve tried everything to ease his pain.”

A row of lit candles is shown. Blaze continues, “I’ve kept candles lit 24/7, just so he’d have a place to go.”

He recalls standing amid a crowd of rowdy, cheering football fans, clapping primly as Vern’s ghost cheers beside him. He narrates, “We’ve had barbecues, watched football games together. I don’t eat meat and I don’t understand sports, but I pushed myself for him.”

A bright light is pictured beside rising smoke. Blaze narrates, “When a spirit leaves this realm, it either passes into the light or into the smoke.”

Blaze remembers facing off against a towering, threatening ghost whose form is merging into the smoke. The only distinct parts of him are his clawed hands, inky eye sockets, scowling mouth, and gunshot-riddled chest. Blaze holds his gloved hands in front of him to ward off the ghost, his scarves blowing in the wind. On the floor around the ghost is a circle of candles, at the center of which is a sigil drawn in a dark sandy substance. Blaze narrates, “Even the angriest spirit can be saved from the smoke…”

“…if you take the time to learn what they need.” Blaze is now pictured sitting cross-legged on a park bench beside the same ghost, who’s still smoky but several degrees more solid than before. Beside the ghost’s feet are two pigeons, and a squirrel sits on the bench’s armrest beside Blaze. The ghost wears a faint smile. He and Blaze both hold ice cream cones.

Vern’s face is shown, while Blaze narrates, “But Vern is the most challenging spirit I’ve ever worked with.”

“He was so close to the light. So close…”

In a memory, a young woman with wavy red hair and a pearl necklace smiles up at a stubbled man, her hand on his shoulder. Blaze continues, “And then Isabelle met a new man.”

In present time, Blaze glances to the side and hesitates as he wears a ponderous expression, his red hair framing his face.

He turns to Vern, eyebrows furrowed, and asks, “Vern… What aren’t you telling me?”

Vern silently walks away, passing through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto the balcony.

Blaze joins Vern on the balcony, adjusting a teal scarf around his neck. “What happened last night?” he asks. “What did you do?” Vern stands somberly with his arms braced on the balcony railing.

He hesitates, then answers with a bowed head, “I broke her window. Threw a brick at it from the outside.”

With an expression of disappointment, Blaze says, “Vern, we talked about this… Every time you hurt someone or destroy something, you come closer to the smoke. Slip up and kill someone? Then you’re lost for good.”

Vern turns to confront Blaze, his mouth wide and his arms outstretched and threatening. Heavy smoke rises from his body. “What was I supposed to do?” he yells. “She’s CHEATING ON ME, right under my nose! I talk to her and she doesn’t answer! I tell her I’m right here, and she ignores me!”

Blaze replies with a look of concern on his face. “But you’re not ‘right here.’ You’re not in a realm she can reach.”

Vern towers over Blaze and leans in close to his face, yelling so loud Blaze’s hair and scarf are blown in the wind. He screams, “I’M TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW!!!”

Vern looks down at his translucent hands, his eyes sorrowful and his voice quavering. “Why… Why can’t I talk to her the way I can talk to you?”

Blaze stares silently up at Vern, tears welling in his eyes.

Vern lowers his face into his hands. Blaze stammers, “Uh… You know…”

He pauses, eyebrows furrowed as he watches Vern’s breakdown.

His face breaks into a wide, helpless grin. He raises a hand behind his head and proclaims, “The Bears are playing this weekend!”