Deus Irae

BOOK ONE

The youngest daughter was host to the Demon.

What?

What was your deal with the older sister?

Look. Take a good look.

See the background. What's that?

- A window. - And in the reflection?

Don't know, a man.

The father.

They were both abused by their father.

He let the Devil in.

You fucked up so bad.

I will talk it over in my next confession.

Don't forget this, Father.

You have any idea what's waiting for you on the other side?

What did you do to me?

You did it to yourself, take a good look.

Look at your hands. Look at yourself, Javier.

Don't you remember?

CHAPTER ONE JAVIER

Stay still.

You will have to watch out for infections.

Why are you here?

You never come on Sundays.

Lucky you. You would've lost your fingers.

It's been weeks since I last heard from you.

And out of nowhere... Look at what you've done to yourself.

Why do you keep punishing yourself?

- This isn't punishment. - Talk to me, then.

Anything you say stays in this room.

I know you.

And this is not who you are.

You heal people.

Give them hope.

If we can understand our nature, we can understand God.

And then...

Then we can act as He would.

Then God acts like a hypocrite.

My job is to visit these people, families

who claim to have witnessed things that can't be explained,

that don't belong to this world.

Those things have a name, Javier.

We call them miracles.

No, Roman. They're not miracles.

They're "something else."

That is why you go to these people,

you help them telling the divine from the mundane...

from what's real.

My job is not helping them.

It's convincing the parents

there's something wrong with their children,

diagnosing them with some sort of schizophrenia.

A chemical imbalance, even the consequences of domestic abuse.

No, no, no. What my little girl needs is that you listen to her.

Come closer. Talk to her.

Don't be afraid of my baby.

Stop it.

I don't want to know your name.

Come closer.

Take a look at my darling. She needs your blessing.

Yes.

Don't lose your faith, Father.

You spend too much time with these families.

Feeling this empathy, sharing their despair, is not unheard of.

No. Don't use that tone with me.

Which tone?

The same that I use with the mothers.

This "something else." It's real, Roman.

- What is? - Creatures.

Parasites.

That wait for us to fall asleep to lay their eggs into our bodies.

Monsters. Demons.

Demons are only a metaphor.

We use them to talk about our potential towards evil.

They are not real.

That's what they've been teaching us.

What they want us to believe, to tell people.

That's the great lie of the Church.

Careful there, Javier. You're talking blasphemy.

What would happen

if we had evidence that we never were God's children

but the lowest link in a food chain that we can't even begin to grasp.

What would happen to the Church?

It would lose all its power.

What is this really all about?

What did you get yourself into?

It's the headaches.

They're back.

CHAPTER TWO THE SEAL

I thought you were getting better.

You never mentioned these.

There was no point.

You wouldn't have believed me.

Why would you think that?

You would've listened to me.

Counseled me.

But you would've never believed me.

See, this one's from this address and I found this in another house.

The same seal.

And what about these pictures?

I went back to the houses I had visited.

To check on the families.

Sometimes...

the headaches, they make me lose time.

Look.

And what about these people?

They were gone.

- "Gone"? - But the seal was always there.

In every house I've been, the seal is there.

One home after the other.

And what about this home? Or this one? What about the families?

- It was "them." - Who is "them"?

The ones that make the evidence go away.

You always went to these homes by yourself.

No one went there with you.

Why did you do that to yourself?

To wipe my prints.

So, that "they" wouldn't find you?

Or to clear your tracks?

Why did you come here?

What happens when you "lose time"?

When you lose track of your surroundings, what do you do in those moments?

Where do you go when you "lose time"? Give me an answer!

Who did all this? What have you done?

CHAPTER THREE

Does this mean... it's all in my mind?

If everything you say is real, and "they" actually exist...

now they know who you are.

And they know you've seen them.

If this is the reality you choose to live in...

where can you go?

Where can you hide?

What do you see?

Javier.

Are you sure what's real?

Father.

Do you want to know your name?

Roman?

CHAPTER FOUR AZATHOTH

Come back!

I know you are real!

Come back!

Come back!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

- Azathoth! - Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Azathoth.

Azathoth!

The violent flame burns inside your chest, Azathoth.

Azathoth!

Inside your chest, Azathoth, the violent flame burns!

Azathoth!

Azathoth!

Who are you?

We are your destiny, Father.

You've been following me.

You were looking for us.

And you found us.

You want me to go with you.

Or you can stay here and answer for what happened to your mentor.

This belongs to you now.

And you belong to it.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...

CHAPTER FIVE THEY KEEP BREEDING

I'll bring you another one.

Make it two more toasts to his order.

And two gins. Doubles.

We already visited these houses.

They are the same addresses, but different apartments.

They keep breeding.

What do you know about the funnel web spiders?

Last night I couldn't sleep. Saw them in a documentary.

They are the most repulsive, the most aggressive of their kind.

And the only thing they dread is not man...

but a wasp.

The Pompilidae.

They keep breeding.

The wasp stings the venom into the abdomen and lays its eggs in there.

The spider wakes up and feels that something's wrong with her.

But she doesn't know what it is.

Where's the other waiter?

It's just me today.

The spider is nesting the eggs.

She is nesting the eggs.

We know you are in despair.

We are here to assist you. All of you.

It's been three days since she last ate.

You want some? I can heat up some leftovers.

This was us, when we were whole.

Look at her smile, before she became what she's now.