Vanessa
awakens in Malcolm's study. She speaks about the death, and how in some places
the dead are prettied up and photographed for men’s spank banks. As she almost
purrs about it, Malcolm asks if she remembers her episode the previous night.
She’s been asleep since. She asks who dressed her, if he did like he did when she
was a child. But he never dressed her, he was always away. It’s Mina inside
her, as she talks about her mother weeping over him, missing him as he whored
around the continent. She wants to hear about those women, but not Mrs. Ives,
she knows all about him. He tells her to stop, but she continues talking about
his screwing the natives, making his son screw them along side him even though
he didn’t want to, but Peter did anything to please his father. Things start
flying about the room, as Vanessa gets out of control, and Sembene is forced to
come in and pimp slap her. He carts her off as Malcolm looks over the damage.
Vanessa
awakes again. She stares at herself in the mirror, apologizing to Dr.
Frankenstein that he has come all this way for no reason. Vanessa claims to be
well, but Frankenstein isn’t buying. He checks her vitals, asking about her
lip. Sembene’s sedation is a little rough. Everything looks good, as
Frankenstein presses her for more information as to what happened downstairs.
She doesn’t know what happened, there is usually violence when she goes away.
Neither favor an asylum, thankfully. Eva hungers, and notices Frankenstein’s
clean hands. She wonders if that is why she’s a virgin, and she tries to pull
Frankenstein into her trap. He is scared, and pulls away. She asks if he knows
a greater demon. His examination is far from over he tells her as he leaves.
Malcolm has
called a meeting. It’s happened before, but he isn’t sure why they happen.
Frankenstein asks if she experienced sexual trauma, if she’s intact. Malcolm
has no clue. Vanessa has a deep seated psychosexual projection that is manifesting
in shame. Malcolm only knows that she was out with a man that evening.
Frankenstein reasons that Vanessa’s episodes are caused by guilt over some
sexual act. As he touches one of her tarot cards a spider crawls over his hand.
He drops the card and the table is swarming with spiders. Malcolm and
Frankenstein look at it in horror as the spiders pour onto the floor. Vanessa’s
screams pierce the air.
She continues
to scream as Ethan arrives. Malcolm meets hi9m at the door, and Ethan is armed.
They find Vanessa on the floor, stripped down to her undergarments, grunting.
She asks for forgiveness, that she’s not herself. Vanessa is fighting the thing
inside for control. She asks him if he fucked Dorian, or if Dorian fucked him.
She concludes that Dorian fucked him, and asks if he enjoyed it. She tells him
that they’ll Brona, that she already knows the boy. He screwed her too as she
bled, tells him to have her show the pictures. Malcolm calls for the
sedatives. It takes three of them to
sedate her as Ethan looks on in shock.
Ethan asks
what’s wrong with Vanessa. Malcolm tells him that she’s possessed by the Devil,
or a devil. Her problem is outside of Frankenstein’s normal scope of practices.
Based on the Egyptologist, Malcolm thinks that she’s fighting an incarnation of
Amon-Et, and if she gains control it will be disastrous unleashing untold
horrors. Ethan wants to get a priest to exercise her, but Frankenstein says
that it would do them as much good to get the a witch doctor, or an old gypsy
woman. They cannot bring anyone else in. For now they have to keep her alive
and let her fight this thing. She told him once that in the end they only have
the people the trust, and she trusts them. Malcolm asks Ethan to stay, and he
will. He asks if Malcolm understood what Vanessa said to him at the end in a
whisper, she said let me die.
Vanessa
fights the thin g inside of her, and the men try to keep her sedated. They
bathe and care for her, and nights pass. Only her screams of anguish pierce the
night. She rocks, and fights, and it takes a toll on all of them as they
struggle to help her. Frankenstein finds solstice in drugs he injects into
himself. Ethan sits by her bedside. Vanessa awakens, normal sounding. She’s
been sleeping for the most part of a week. He tells her that she did wake up
and got feisty on occasion, which does not surprise her. He hesitates at
handing her a glass of water, and she promises not to hurt him. Frankenstein
had suggested restraints, and she smiles at that. Vanessa confides in him that
it feels like an animal scratching at her insides trying to get out. She doesn’t
remember everything, but she knows that he’s been kind. Everyone has been, but
not like him. Vanessa admits that she might have fallen in love with him, and
he tells her that she still might. She tells him that when the moment comes, to
pull the trigger, the other won’t be able to. He will send her to heaven, but
admits that he believes in the other place more, a place where he was flung
when her cunt of a God cast him out. Ethan turns dark before her eyes. It’s not
Ethan, but her old friend. She doesn’t like this game, she doesn’t want to give
him a name again, forever hiding his face in another. He draws close, telling
her his biggest fear is greatness never achieved. Vanessa will not surrender.
He threatens to kill her, and she’s ready for death. He’s sure she can’t resist
him forever, but she’s willing to try. He threatens to kill everyone downstairs,
and she will not submit, because her soul would still be her own. The darkness
wants her to be his demon bride, the mother of his children, ruler of his world
where there is no more pain because there are no more hearts to eat. Together they
could conquer god and rule over his throne. Vanessa falls into his kiss,
listens to his heart’s sweet music as Sembene sits outside her door.
Ethan isn’t
in the room at all, he’s in Malcolm’s study, twirling Brona’s necklace. Malcolm
asks again about his proposition to go to Africa, and Ethan wonders if he’s
trying to relive his glory days. Malcolm isn’t running from his past, like
Ethan is though, and he isn’t ashamed of it. Ethan delivers a low blow, pointing
out Peter’s death was his fault. Malcolm asks if Ethan knows why he must go to
Africa, but Ethan has a case of cabin fever and doesn’t care. He tells Ethan
how he found his son nearly eaten away by insects, and placed the body for safe
keeping but had to continue his quest. He tells himself that he’s going back to
bring his body home, but not even he believes it.
Vanessa’s shrieks
interrupt, as she scratches the walls until her fingers bled. She goes into
another trance, contorting. Her flesh is ripped into, and she tries to scratch
off her own skin. Malcolm asks that she be restrained before she kills herself,
and they sedate her once more.
Frankenstein
sedates himself with morphine. He tells Malcolm its an addiction. Malcolm
leaves him, but Frankenstein is not alone. Proteus lurks outside. Ethan reports
that Vanessa is asleep, it’s the best thing for her. Frankenstein admits that
for all their efforts they may still have to let her go. He asks Ethan his
beliefs, he himself believes in everything but God. Ethan doesn’t think that
Malcolm is being completely honest with them. He knows that Malcolm wants her
to live, but not why. Frankenstein reasons that she’s like his daughter, but
Ethan knows that’s not the true at all. He tells him that the saddest thing he
ever saw was the Indian wars, how they white washed the Indians, took their identities
from them. The worse was when one of these children would make it back to their
tribes, they forgot their stories, their language and were outcast. These
children did not fit into either world, like Ms. Ives. Frankenstein asks what
they did, and Ethan tells him that they roam and they die. Frankenstein goes to
look out at his creature again, and notices that its snowing. He asks Ethan for
a favor.
Ethan
teaches Frankenstein how to shoot a gun. He’s a very good teacher, or Frankenstein
is a natural. Frankenstein hits all of his marks. He tells Ethan to play too,
and Ethan fires with flare. Sembene breaks up the fun, since Malcolm is inquiring
about the noise.
Another bout
of hysterics on Vanessa’s part leave her restrained. It further brings down the
hopes of the men. Ethan cooks a mighty fine meal, bringing a plate to Sembene
who sits on sentry duty. He picked up the skill on the road. Ethan asks for his
story, but Sembene claims to have none. He thinks that Malcolm saved his life
and he owes him, or Sembene says that he saved his and now he’s responsible for
him. Ethan believes it’s the same thing, and they’re all responsible in the
end, even for Vanessa. Sembene thinks that they should call a Priest. He
believes in everything.
Vanessa
stays chained. Malcolm sits by her bed. He goes to her, trying to reach her. He
knows she’s somewhere inside. He asks if she can hear her, and she answers him.
He knows that she’s in a special place, somewhere between life and death, just
like Mina is. He asks her to reach out to Mina, it may be their only chance.
She sees that he allowed this to happen, just for this chance. She breaks down
into tears over Malcolms cruelty, as he coos for her to find her. Ethan puts an
end to it, and get Malcolm away from her. Ethan wants it all to end now, and to
get Vanessa a priest. Frankenstein knows that the battle is over, that she is
dying, and they need to accept that. They should give her what she wants. Then
they should get a catholic priest to deliver last rites and exorcise her so she
can lead them to Mina, Malcolm reasons. Frankenstein cannot believe his
callousness. Ethan only sees that he has a girl dying inside, telling Malcolm
that if he wants a daughter, she’s in that room. Malcolm orders the priest.
Ethan swears that if Vanessa is right, if he allowed all of that to happen to
manipulate her that he will rip his throat out.
Malcolm asks
Frankenstein to give him something to stay awake. Frankenstein gives him a
cocaine durative, but it makes an increase for narcotics. There is so much he
doesn’t remember because of drugs, his son died because of him. Peter asked
once for him to name a mountain after him, and after he died, Malcolm didn’t
give him a second thought when he named mountains. He has no shed of decency
left.
The priest
has arrived. Malcolm tries to give Father Matthews the low down on Vanessa’s condition,
but he doesn’t need to hear any of the whys he’s there, only that she was baptized
and in good standing with her church. Malcolm admits that he wanted him to do
more, that she may be possessed, but Father Matthews tells them that exorcisms
are strictly forbidden without permission, and none will be granted. He can do
little. Frankenstein is outraged, he tells the father to deliver the last rites
and get out. He heads upstairs to do his duty and nothing more. Malcolm leads
the way.
Vanessa is
in the same grunting trance state she has been in, and Father Matthews is
shocked to see it. Malcolm urges him to do what he came to do, and Ethan gets
him a chair up close to Vanessa. Father Matthews prepares as Vanessa watches
him warily. She is a faithful catholic, and when he asks for her confession she
talks about other Matthews she knew and lured in. Vanessa springs forward
biting a chunk from the Father’s cheek, and throwing off her shackles. She
jumps to the ground on all four, stalking towards them. She leaps onto the wall
above, and towards Malcolm. Ethan restrains her, telling the others to leave as
the windows break. They scurry out. Ethan draws his gun on her, but he can’t do
it. He begs her to come back, and she begs him to do it, to kill her. He places
the gun against her chest, and he gives her exercises the demon himself with the
help of Brona’s medallion. The deom fights to keep possession, but Ethan
prevails. Vanessa falls to the ground.
Ethan walks
out of the room, down the stairs and out of the house.
Malcolm
finds Vanessa sleeping peacefully in the bed.
Vanessa
hears voices, she sees sites of Mina. Plays and blood. Vanessa awakens. She
goes down to Malcolm in the sunlight. He tells her that she should be in bed.
She knows where Mina is.
