EPISODE: 2

RENAI

When we ran out of places to go.

Sendal picks up a report, reading from it.

SENDAL

It says in your report, Renai, that

last night at approximately ten PM,

Elise put your husband, Josh, into

a state of hypnosis. She did this

as part of a ritual that she

believed would allow Josh to

project his unconscious into a...

He leans in closer, stuck on a word.

SENDAL (CONT'D)

...spirit realm - I can't read my

own handwriting - where he could

locate your son and bring him back

to consciousness.

Sendal looks up.

SENDAL (CONT'D)

Did you believe her?

RENAI

I had to.

SENDAL

Did you pay Elise for this?

RENAI

I never had the chance.

SENDAL

Is this something you've been

interested in before? Ghosts? The

supernatural?

RENAI

No. But it worked. My son woke up.

SENDAL

What happened after he woke up?

RENAI

I was in the kitchen with Dalton. I

was so happy to have him back. Then

I heard a noise coming from the

living room. I ran in there to see

what it was...TITLE SEQUENCE - HAUNTING TITLES THAT RECALL THE FIRST FILM

INT. POLICE STATION, INTERVIEW ROOM - DAY (PRESENT)

A woman is hunched in a chair opposite a police detective.

She is pale, traumatized, her face streaked with tears.

This is RENAI LAMBERT (32). The officer is DETECTIVE TERRY

SENDAL (40). He regards Renai with a relaxed, coaxing eye. A

true professional who listens rather than speaks. A crushing

silence envelopes the stark room. Finally:

RENAI

My son had been sick.

DET. SENDAL

He was in a coma?

RENAI

Yes.

DET. SENDAL

What was the cause of the coma?

RENAI

No doctor could tell us. One

morning he just wouldn't wake up.

We took him to the best hospital we

could find, but they had no idea.

Eventually we brought him home. A

nurse would monitor him...but

nothing would bring him out of it.

Sendal thumbs through a medical report.

RENAI (CONT'D)

Then things started...happening...

around the house. Unexplained

things. I got so freaked out that

we moved. But they kept happening.

SENDAL

You believed that there was some

sort of ghost following you?

RENAI

More than one. I saw them.

SENDAL

When did you hire the services of

the deceased, Elise Rainier?LORRAINE

She's gone.

JOSH

She could be --

LORRAINE

She's dead.

Josh seems like he might faint. He staggers back, then looks

up at Renai. Her eyes are locked on him.

JOSH

Why are you looking at me like

that, Renai?

She backs against the wall.

JOSH (CONT'D)

You think that I did this?

(beat)

Why are you looking at me like

that?

Renai holds out the digital camera, showing him the pixilated

image of the Old Woman. Josh takes the camera, stunned.

RENAI

It's Elise's camera. It was by her

feet. That's the last picture she

took.

JOSH

Oh my God...this face. I know this

face.

(beat)

This is the face that haunted me as

a child.

INT. INTERVIEW ROOM, POLICE STATION - DAY (PRESENT)

Sendal studies Renai intensely. Her every twitch.

SENDAL

So he claims he was out of the room

when it happened?

RENAI

Yes.

SENDAL

Do you believe him?INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)

Renai scurries into the living room. She is confronted by the

frozen death mask of Elise, stock-still on the couch.

With horror, Renai seizes a flashlight and flits down the

corridor.

RENAI (O.S.)

Josh! Josh!

Renai returns to the living room. She rakes up a digital

camera from the floor. An image an Old Woman is burned into

the viewing window.

Renai GASPS, her hand flying to her mouth. Another hand grips

her shoulder from behind.

JOSH (O.S.)

Renai...I'm right here.

Renai STARTS, wheeling around. She sees Josh, dread in her

tear-brimmed eyes. She reels away from him.

RENAI

No!

Josh is alarmed by her fear.

JOSH

What? What?!

Renai keeps backing away. His mother, LORRAINE, and son,

DALTON, run into the room, startled by Renai's screaming.

LORRAINE

Renai?

Renai says nothing - just points to Elise. Josh locks his

eyes on Elise, his face dropping. He seems horrified.

JOSH

Oh Jesus...Elise...

He rushes to her.

JOSH (CONT'D)

Mom, get Dalton out of here!

Lorraine shields him, hustling him out of the room, returning

quickly. She squats next to Josh, feeling Elise for a pulse.

JOSH (CONT'D)

No...no...call an ambulance!One of the mourners is CARL, who we met in the opening scene.

He's aged a lot in the past thirty years, but still wears the

same expression of pensive thought.

We finally come to rest on two men - SPECS and TUCKER.

PRIEST

...and this is not the end...for

though dear Elise's body may have

left us, her spirit goes on to the

kingdom of Heaven and the life

everlasting that awaits her there.

Specs looks up, finding Josh in the crowd and staring at him.

EXT. CEMETERY - LATER

The mourners dissipate, scattering like leaves.

Specs and Tucker meander away from the crowd, heads down. A tall

man in an ill-fitting suit huffs up the hill behind them. This

is DAVID FOX (47). He is holding a folder of papers.

FOX

Gentlemen, a moment of your time!

They stop and turn, suspicious.

FOX (CONT'D)

I've had some trouble reaching you.

You're not easy men to locate.

TUCKER

If the US government feels the same

way then my plan is working.

Fox holds out the folder. Specs accepts it.

FOX

I wanted to give you these papers.

I'm David Fox, the attorney

representing Elise Rainier's

estate.

SPECS

Her estate?

FOX

You are Steven 'Specs' Fisher and

Tucker Croft, are you not? Did you

work as Elise's assistants for the

four years leading up to her death?RENAI

He's my husband.

SENDAL

That's not what I asked.

RENAI

Yes, detective. I believe him.

SENDAL

You know, ninety per cent of

detective work is looking for nose

hairs at a crime scene. The rest is

people watching. I have to say, your

body language right now tells me

that you don't believe him.

RENAI

There were...strange things

happening in our house that night.

SENDAL

I'm not interested in ghosts, Mrs.

Lambert. I'm interested in the

living people who create ghosts.

Sendal pushes the file aside, sitting back.

SENDAL (CONT'D)

It's been a long night, so I'm

going to end it there for now.

But you should know that our

forensics team has already claimed

a result from the fingerprints on

Elise's neck.

Renai holds her breath.

SENDAL (CONT'D)

The fingerprints did not match your

husband's.

EXT. CEMETERY - DAY

The sun flares down on a large congregation of mourners. They

are gathered around an open grave.

A casket is lowered into the grave. Lorraine, Josh, Renai and

Dalton hover over it. Renai cradles Cali, and FOSTER slinks

behind Josh, who is wearing DARK SUNGLASSES.

We PAN across the disparate group of grievers. So many

different ages and races. A true mix, all dressed in black.LORRAINE

I can manage.

JOSH

My mother taught me better than

that.

LORRAINE

I'll go and make up the beds.

JOSH

I'll help. Come on, guys.

Josh tows a sleepy Dalton and Foster away, leaving Renai

alone. She is a deer in the headlights. She steps out of the

doorway, surveying the house. The living room is recognizable

as the living room from the opening, with updated furniture.

INT. KITCHEN, LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Renai unloads the dishwasher. She heaves a stack of plates

out of it, slotting them in a cupboard. Lorraine enters,

alarmed by the sight of Renai working.

LORRAINE

Oh no, Renai, please let me do that.

RENAI

No, it's fine. I want to do it.

LORRAINE

You really need to sleep. Don't

even worry about the dishes.

RENAI

No, Lorraine, I want to. I need

something to do right now.

LORRAINE

Okay. Sorry. It's hard for me to

stop playing mother.

INT. YOUNG JOSH'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

The bedroom looks much as it did when Josh was a boy. Toys

clustered in boxes. The closet doors face the bed.

The main difference is that there are now TWO single beds on

opposite sides of the room, rather than one.SPECS

Yeah, but...

FOX

As the executor of her last will

and testament, I'm here to inform

you that Elise left a substantial

amount of her estate to you

gentlemen. I'll need you to come to

my office so we can discuss the

terms and settle everything

contractually.

Tucker takes the file from Specs' hands, flipping through it.

TUCKER

Is there one of us who got more in

particular, or is it kind of an

equal thing or...?

SPECS

Tucker...

FOX

I can't list every particular, but

basically, she left you guys her

home...and everything in it.

EXT. LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT - ESTABLISHING

The house we met in the opening scene. She's weathered a

little with age, but is still a home to be proud of.

Lorraine's car veers into the driveway.

INT. LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

The front door groans open and the family lumbers inside,

still bedecked in their funeral black. The whole brood looks

dour, fatigued by the emotions of the day.

Josh and Renai are lugging gym-bags and suitcases.

LORRAINE

Make yourself at home. My house is

your house.

Josh, who is toting a sleeping Cali, reaches out and takes a

bag from Lorraine's shoulder.

JOSH

Let me take that.He climbs out of bed and scurries over to Dalton, handing him a

plastic cup, then whips back to his bed, stretching out a

string between the two beds. It's a homemade tin-can telephone.

Foster covers his mouth with the cup.

DALTON

No, that's stupid.

FOSTER

Come on. It really works. I wanna

ask you something.

DALTON

Just ask me normally.

Dalton gives up and places his ear up to his cup.

FOSTER

(through cup)

Um...what do you think of this?

DALTON

(into cup)

It's stupid.

Josh pokes his head in. Busted. The boys feign sleep.

JOSH

You think I'm falling for that?

INT. CORRIDOR, LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT - LATER

Night has draped its cloak over the house. All is in repose.

INT. BATHROOM, LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

The only sounds are the occasional grunts of the house

itself, settling into the earth.

INT. LORRAINE'S BEDROOM, LORRAINE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Lorraine is splayed out across her bed, asleep.

A TV facing the bed is on, a newscast droning quietly.

INT. KITCHEN, LORRAINE'S HOUSE - LATER - NIGHT

Renai is still cleaning dishes, drying off an orange mug with

a towel. The kitchen is spotless now.Foster reclines across the mattress nearest to the window.

Dalton is in the bed by the door, reading a book. He looks up

when he hears a knock. It's Josh.

JOSH

Time for bed folks.

FOSTER

Oh, man.

Josh enters and slumps down on Dalton's bed.

JOSH

We're gonna stay at Grandma's for a

little bit, while the police work at

our house. You'll have fun. I loved

this room when I was a kid.

DALTON

Did you ever see anything bad in

here?

JOSH

No, I didn't. And neither will you.

DALTON

Daddy, does dying hurt?

JOSH

No. It doesn't. It's like...falling

asleep. It doesn't hurt to go to

sleep does it?

DALTON

No.

JOSH

And you've got a lot of sleeps to go

before you have to think about that

stuff. Good night.

He switches out the bedside lamp and leaves. Dalton thumbs a

flashlight on and continues to read.

FOSTER

Hey, Dalton.

DALTON

What?

FOSTER

Look what I made....