Season 1, Episode 7

Reappearance

Content Warnings:
-Past parental death
-Cancer

[A local farm in Marksbury. Day.]

CHRISTINE

This place is nice.

VICTOR

Yeah. We used to take field trips here all the time when we were kids. Learn how to milk cows, how to plant seeds, all that stuff. If we came during the fall, we'd paint pumpkins. Elliot and I actually took horseback riding lessons here when we were eight. 

CHRISTINE

Oh yeah?

VICTOR 

Mhm. There was this one horse. Sierra was her name, if I remember correctly. She always gave everyone a hard time. Nothing dangerous, obviously, just not wanting to cooperate. Figure she must have been bored of a bunch of kids tugging on her reins all day. But Elliot, the moment he sat up there, it was like she'd known him her whole life. 

CHRISTINE

He sounds wonderful. 

VICTOR 

He was.

CHRISTINE

Do you have a picture of him? 

VICTOR

I… yeah. Here.

[There is a beat as he pulls up the photo]

CHRISTINE

And the one in the hockey shirt is Henry, I'm assuming? 

VICTOR

Yeah. This was right after one of his games senior year of high school. They won.

CHRISTINE

He's wearing your sweatshirt. 

VICTOR

Well-- Technically it's his. He let me keep it though, I…. I haven't really taken it off unless it was for laundry or to sleep, not since he…. [A breath] 

CHRISTINE

No, I get it. You all look really happy.

VICTOR

...I still don't understand it, you know.

CHRISTINE 

Understand what?

VICTOR

You. Clearly you're on… Erik's side, why bother with me?

CHRISTINE

I'm not on anyone's side. You know as well as I do that he has a tendency to get violent. If he decides that he wants to come after you, I might be the only person who can change his mind. It’s not a decision I made lightly, my fiancé and I talked long and hard about it. Weighed all the pros and cons, the risks and benefits.

VICTOR

Hold on, you’re--

CHRISTINE

Mhm. He and I were childhood sweethearts. He proposed not long after I graduated.

VICTOR

Can’t imagine that went over well with your secret admirer.

CHRISTINE

No, it didn’t.

VICTOR

And so what? Your fiancé is just… okay with you moving six hours away and keeping an eye on someone who’s basically a stranger so that your kidnapper doesn’t murder him?

CHRISTINE

In short? Yes. We trust the other can hold their own if things do go south. But honestly, I don’t think Raoul or I have to worry about Erik.

VICTOR

...So at the end of the day, you've decided that you're my bodyguard whether I like it or not.

CHRISTINE

It sounds better than "Friend with benefits".

VICTOR

[He laughs] 

Now you just sound like Henry.

CHRISTINE 

Is that a good thing?

VICTOR

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

CHRISTINE

I'd love to meet him someday.

VICTOR

I’d have to check with him on that. Not sure he’d love the idea of….

CHRISTINE

My connections?

VICTOR

Exactly. It’s not that he’s a bad person or anything, he just--

[Very faintly, almost overlapping his words, there is a soft, nearly inaudible humming in the distance]

VICTOR (Cont.)

Did-- Did you hear that?

CHRISTINE

...Hear what?

VICTOR

...Nothing. Nothing, sorry.

CHRISTINE

...Are you okay?

VICTOR

I think we both know the answer to that.

CHRISTINE

You know what I mean. 

VICTOR

...Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.

CHRISTINE

Can I ask you something?

VICTOR

I have a feeling you're going to find out the answer one way or another, so go for it.

CHRISTINE

What inspired you? What gave you the idea to--

VICTOR

To make a person, commit arson, and drop out of school?

CHRISTINE

A little more blunt than I was going for, but yes.

VICTOR

Yeah, no offense, but I'd rather not get into it.

[There are a few seconds of quiet as Victor debates whether or not to continue]

...My mom died. Cancer. I was seventeen, just a couple days out of high school. We'd always been close, so losing her, it… it was devastating. Not just for me, obviously. My dad, my sister…. My brother was five at the time, he didn't even really understand what was happening. That she was gone, that she wouldn't be coming back. Unless… she did. Unless she did come back. 

I'd always had the interest in the subject. I already had theories, but they'd always been just that. Theories, curiosity. "Is this the secret to piercing through the veil that separates life and death?" Little more than a hypothetical. But after she died, that's when I decided it. That this would be my life's work, that I wouldn't rest until I found a way to see her again. But it-- it wasn’t just for me, it was for everyone. The entire world. Elliot, he lost both of his parents when he was five. What if-- What if no other child had to go through that again? Imagine death not as a finality, but as nothing more than an inconvenience, an-- an unfortunate circumstance equal to a car breaking down. Irritating, perhaps a bit stressful. But something that could be fixed, life continuing on as usual before long. That was the vision I had, the future I’d dreamed of. I'd already been accepted at Ingleside, I would have access to everything I needed there. Tools, chemicals, even cadavers. All that was left was the work, the dedication, and the perfect storm.

Of course, I couldn't tell anyone what I was doing. They wouldn't have understood, they would have tried to stop me with talk of ethics and the dangers of playing God. That made the entire project difficult, not only having to get into the building undetected every night, but hiding my progress where it wouldn't be discovered. But I managed.

...You know, I think that was the last time I really ever felt excited about something. That night, thinking that this was the moment that would lead mankind into a new Golden Age of science. It-- It was like every dream I'd ever had was coming true right before my eyes. I walked into that lab expecting glory. And instead… I ended up like this.

CHRISTINE

...I think she’d be proud of you, you know.

[Victor scoffs]

I’m serious. You’ve been through a lot, but you keep going, no matter how hard it is. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. [Beat.] I lost my dad when I was eleven. We were close, too. Honestly, he was all I had, my mom died not long after I was born. We immigrated from Sweden when I was two, and it took everything he had just to keep us on our feet. Not exactly a huge market for violinists these days. But we were happy, even during the hardest times. It was just the two of us against the rest of the world. But then, all at once, there was just me. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how difficult it was. It still is sometimes. Some days, everything still reminds me of him. Are you religious, Victor?

VICTOR

No.

CHRISTINE

But you believe in something, I assume. Given your work.

VICTOR

...Yeah. Call it whatever you want, a… soul or whatever. There’s something, I’m just… not sure what it is. Or what happens to it after death. Even now, I… I have no idea.

CHRISTINE

Makes sense. Let’s look at it from a non-religious angle, then. Whatever that something is that you still can’t identify, that you know is there. That soul, or sense of being. It existed in her. Would you say it could be considered some sort of energy?

VICTOR

I guess…?

CHRISTINE

And what’s the First Law of Conservation?

VICTOR

...Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

CHRISTINE

You see what I’m getting at? Whatever that force is, whatever made her her, it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that it’s still out there. Maybe in a different form, but even so. ...I know it’s hard, Victor. There are gonna be days where it all comes rushing back, and you’re gonna feel like breaking down. You've gotta understand, that never really stops. Years from now, you're gonna see something that reminds you of her, and it's going to hurt, no matter how well you've healed. I wish I could say that eventually you'll just stop missing her, but I can't. But it will get easier. There's one main difference between you and me, I think. You're under the impression that your mom's death means that you're alone. I believe that with my father watching over me, I’ll never be alone again.

VICTOR

Poetic.

CHRISTINE

I try to be. But it’s true. And the same goes for the others, too. We love, we mourn. And in time, no matter how impossible it seems, we accept. All you can do is remember that, and hold onto the friends who are still here.

VICTOR

And... are you included in that category?

CHRISTINE

I’d like to be. If you’d let me.

[She thinks for a moment]

I have an idea. Maybe it will be a step in the right direction for you. What’s your work schedule look like the next few weeks?

VICTOR

...Why, what’re you thinking?

CHRISTINE

Well, if you’re comfortable with it, maybe the two of us could take a trip to--

[There is the sound of a horse in the background, and we hear Victor’s breath begin to shake]

Victor? You still with me?

VICTOR

We need to leave. 

CHRISTINE

What? Why, is everything okay?

VICTOR

Just go, now!

[The pair get into the car, doors slamming behind them as Christine drives off, clearly shaken up]

CHRISTINE

Victor, what's wrong?

VICTOR

Did-- Did you see her? 

CHRISTINE

See who? 

VICTOR

Her, the-- the woman on the white horse in the field. 

CHRISTINE

The one in the red sweatshirt? I didn't see her face, I--

VICTOR

Because she didn’t have one. 

CHRISTINE

What?

VICTOR

Just-- Just keep driving. This is a long story.