Episode 2 - Backdraft | Burn Pattern

In September 2025, The Watcher Sleeps had three official performances at Philadelphia’s Cannonball Festival. Every surviving schedule agrees on that.My planner says there was a fourth.It says I was supposed to be at The Drake on September 28 at seven p.m. My phone contains a photograph taken outside the theater thirteen minutes before curtain. And beneath the entry, in my handwriting, is a note I don’t remember writing: Careful. That’s where it starts.So I started checking the record. What I found led from a performance that may not have happened to a vanished review, an abandoned investigation into a fatal apartment fire, and Ross Ford—a journalist who stopped publishing after his podcast ended in the middle of something it could not explain.For now, I’m beginning with what I can prove.

Three performances appear in the official record.Morgan Clancy’s planner says there was a fourth.This special trailer follows the thread connecting Tell It Again, Season Two of Burn Pattern, with My Friend, Ithamar, a live supernatural-horror performance presented by Cannonball during the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.Performances:Wednesday, September 9 at 9 p.m.Sunday, September 20 at 6:30 p.m.Friday, September 25 at 9 p.m.Get tickets to My Friend, Ithamar: https://phillyfringe.org/events/my-friend-ithamar/A very limited number of copies of the My Friend, Ithamar short-story collection will also be available for purchase at the performances.No prior listening is required. Tickets and complete event information are linked in the show notes.The stories stand alone.The evidence doesn’t.

Archived studio recording, June 2025. First read-through of a staged production. Three voices. Contents unverified. Potentially dangerous.

The facts are buckling. Journalist Ross Ford tried to hold them up, to build a case against James Brightman, but the walls are coming down. The story is watching Ross. The lines are gone - between evidence and obsession, between the Brookfield fire and the fire in Ross's head. This is the structural failure. In the final episode of this fictional true-crime investigation, the evidence doesn't just point to a killer; it points to something else entirely, something looking back from the dark.Tell it again. TELL IT AGAIN.Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.Cast: Ross Ford - Daniel Romano James Brightman - Jacob RyanAdditional characters/voices - Tenara Calem, Becky Fleckner, Ryan Kirchner, Jed Krivisky, Taylor Rouillard, Heidi Silva, Geremy Webne-BehrmanMusic by Kobe OContact: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Forensic evidence tears apart the official narrative as journalist Ross Ford uncovers devastating physical proof that challenges everything. But as Ross closes in on the truth, the investigation takes a sinister turn. The search for a killer becomes a struggle against an unseen force trying to bury the truth forever.Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.Cast: Ross Ford - Daniel Romano James Brightman - Jacob RyanAdditional characters/voices - Tenara Calem, Becky Fleckner, Ryan Kirchner, Jed Krivisky, Taylor Rouillard, Heidi Silva, Geremy Webne-BehrmanMusic by Kobe OContact: [email protected] more of the story and dive into the lore: Come see The Watcher Sleeps as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Cannonball Festival.⁠https://phillyfringe.org/events/the-watcher-sleeps/⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thewatchersleeps.com/

Journalist Ross Ford rewinds the week before the Fairview apartment fire, looking for cracks in a seemingly impenetrable story… only to uncover the emotional backdraft building inside Apartment 3A. Receipts. Maintenance logs. Texts. Private recordings. The once “clean” story of the fire and its survivor begins to splinter. Even Ross’s own audio begins to act… strange.Cast: Ross Ford - Daniel Romano James Brightman - Jacob RyanAdditional characters/voices - Tenara Calem, Becky Fleckner, Ryan Kirchner, Jed Krivisky, Taylor Rouillard, Heidi Silva, Geremy Webne-BehrmanMusic by Kobe OContact us at: ⁠[email protected]⁠See more of the story and learn more lore! Come see The Watcher Sleeps as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Cannonball Festival. ⁠https://phillyfringe.org/events/the-watcher-sleeps/⁠⁠https://www.thewatchersleeps.com/

On the night of July 12th, 2022, the town of Fairview was rocked by a senseless act of violence, leaving two dead and James Brightman as the only survivor. Journalist Ross Ford reopens the cold case to see if the story is truly as cut and dry as it has been made out to be.Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.Cast: Ross Ford - Daniel Romano James Brightman - Jacob RyanAdditional characters/voices - Tenara Calem, Becky Fleckner, Ryan Kirchner, Jed Krivisky, Taylor Rouillard, Geremy Webne-BehrmanMusic by Kobe OContact us at: [email protected] more of the story and learn more lore! Come see The Watcher Sleeps as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Cannonball Festival. https://phillyfringe.org/events/the-watcher-sleeps/https://www.thewatchersleeps.com/