"Please, don't do it." "You have to be good and kind and protect us." "If you drink the black poison, you'll get sick and you won't love us anymore." "Now I'm very, very, very angry, Princess." "I just want to play with you." "No more playing." "Leave my princess alone." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Stop it." " It's time for lights out, sweetie." " Stop it." "You've got school in the morning." "You're no fun." "What?" "You're no fun." "I know, but sometimes it's my job to be no fun." "Mostly on school nights." "This is the stupidest damn idea ever." "Has Allison done anything to make you think she might still be possessed?" "How many years was it Mildred was coming to your sermons before you knew the truth?" "Mildred... was a special case." "Look, we know that people can walk and talk and act normal, and still have one of those things inside of 'em." "My daughter's in that house, Rev." "I've got to know for sure." "You put one foot on that property... she can have your ass thrown in jail." "Whether she still loves you, that's not the question." "What it comes down to is, "Does she trust you?"" "Let me talk to her." "I can look for signs of possession." "But Mildred." "I mean, she was right under your nose." "She didn't show any signs." "I don't know what happened with her." "Maybe I didn't stay with it for long enough, but every other exorcism worked just as well as it did with little Joshua." "And I can prove it." "Okay." "Shit." "Dammit." "Hey, what's up?" "I have to see Allison, and I need you to set it up." "You've lost your mind." "I need to talk to her." "In person." "Why?" "Because I need to know that they're all right, Megan." "Of course, they're not all right." "After what happened?" "What do you think, it's all rainbows and unicorns over there?" " Megan." " Look, she's fucked up, and you trying to see her now is gonna fuck her up even more." "Look, I'll go check on her." "Make sure she knows she's got some support." "All right?" "Okay, fine, but Megan..." "Will you make sure that she seems... like her?" "What does that mean?" "I gotta go." "I'll talk to you later." "Gah, what the fuck?" "You sick son of a bitch!" "Why don't you mess with your own guys?" "Don't you think I don't." "You got any more of those?" "Sorry, last one." "Asshole." "Hey." "You're not wearing your watch." "It's at the jeweler getting the clasp fixed." "I heard about that fire out at Lowell's place." "Any idea what started it?" "Never came back with anything conclusive." "No damage done, who gives a shit?" "If it was deliberate, I give a shit." "I need a why and a who." "Punks." "Punks?" "You know, teenage variety." "They see something, they want to break it, burn it, or fuck it." "Case closed, you're welcome." "I suppose you're right." "You come over here to ask me about some brush fire?" "That was just an excuse." "I missed my breakfast." "And here it is." "Ah!" "Don't burn yourself." "Boys." "Mm-mmm!" "I'll see you later." "Did you call ahead and let 'em know we're coming?" ""Hi, this is Reverend Anderson," "I'm just calling to see if you're still 100 percent demon-free."" "No, I did not." "And you think that's gonna sound better face to face?" "I know what we're gonna find here." "Point is for you to see it." "Hey, Roy!" "Roy!" "Reverend?" "How are you?" "What are you doing all the way out here?" "Uh, this is a friend of mine." "Kyle Barnes." "Hey, Kyle." "Pleased to meet you." "We were in the area, and I just wanted to check in with you guys." "Make sure that Sherry's still doing okay." "No, it's fine." "Kyle here, he had a similar experience." "So, how is Sherry?" "She must have started college now, right?" "I wish I could tell you that for sure." "She hasn't been home in some time." "Living in Charleston now." "Well, they all have to leave the nest eventually, if you're lucky." "It's not like that." "She, uh... she's on the streets." "Haven't seen or heard from her in months." "What happened?" "Father's job is to protect his family." "When he fails at that..." "Your daughter..." "Before she ran off, she ever show any signs that... the demon might still be inside of her?" "No." "Not after the reverend did his thing." "But did it..." "You're sure it worked?" "We drove the demon from Sherry." "She's not even here." "How do you know that?" "Are you saying she may still be afflicted?" "That's why she's on the streets?" " Well, that's..." " Kyle here, he's just... speculating." "Right?" "Are you happy?" "Hmm?" "That man lost his daughter to the streets." "How would you feel if it was your Amber we were talking about?" "I'd want to know the truth." "That's how I'd feel." "I'd want to know if my daughter was still possessed or not." "You know, the whole point of this whole thing is for you to show me that your exorcisms have worked." "I'm still waiting to see that." "Apologize for being such an inconsiderate prick back there." "Are you fucking kidding me?" "I'm doing this for your benefit, not mine!" "Sorry." " Hey." " Hey." "What are you doing here?" "I was not even remotely in the neighborhood, so thought I'd stop by." "That was him last night, wasn't it?" "Outside in the car?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "He just sat out on the street watching the house." "Kyle?" "Okay, I had no idea about that." "If it's true, then I'll give him hell for it." "But you really want to know why I came all this way?" "'Cause I'm worried about you." "I miss you." "You want to come inside?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Okay." "The princess thing is getting a little old." "Time for something new." "What do you think, dinosaurs?" "How's Amber feel about that?" "She's seven." "She doesn't get to decide everything." "You said I needed to set boundaries for her." "Well, yeah." "But she's had a lot of change in her life." "Maybe some things should stay the same?" "Heh." "Nothing is the same." "I didn't have to lock the doors at night or panic every time I heard a dog bark or a car in the street." "If Amber acted up, Kyle could handle it." "He was always the calm one." "This might sound crazy, but would it help if you and Kyle talked?" "No." "I could be there, and Mark, too, if you wanted." "No." " Just for Amber's sake." " No." "Okay." "Okay." "I feel like everything that held me down is gone... and I'm just floating away." "It scares me so much." "There are memories... there are days that I just can't access." "And I don't know." "I don't know if I lost something... or if something's getting in the way... blocking the truth." "I don't think that they're open." "Well, maybe he's at lunch." "Doesn't even look like they're still in business." "We're closed!" "Hey, Brian, how's life?" "Reverend." "What the hell you doing here?" "This is a friend of mine." " Kyle Barnes." " Kyle Barnes," " pleased to meet you." " Yeah." "We're just doing some outreach, checking up on friends." "Well, I suppose you'll be wanting to come in, then." "All right." "Come on in." " Well." " You closed up shop?" "Yeah." "Too much work." "Dealing with animals all day." "Now, I'm talking about the ones that walk through the door." ""Our little precious can only eat grain-free food."" "Grain-free." "Fuck that shit." "So you're living here?" "Yeah." "Karla got the house." "Oh." "You're not together?" "That's what "she got the house" means." "She's living there, and I'm..." "not living there." " You get it." " I do." "So, uh, so what happened?" "I mean, this shop was your life." "Heh." "Peddling kibble?" "Cleaning up gerbil shit." "Oh-ho, that's some life." "Aargh!" "Kyle!" "Jesus, Kyle!" "Kyle!" " You okay?" " Yeah." " Brian, friend..." " Whoa, whoa." "I don't like to be touched." " Take it easy." " No one's here to hurt you." "We just want to help you." " Whoa, hold on." " We can get that thing out of you." "Brian, that thing's still inside of you." "You gotta listen to me." " Reverend." " Listen to me!" "Rev, come on!" "Jesus." "Devil's a trickster." "He makes you believe he's up and gone, but he's hiding in them, dormant." "However this happened, we gotta..." "we gotta deal with it." "Reverend... if the rest are like this, what a..." "Hold on." "Megan?" "I saw Allison, and she's fucking on to you." "What?" "Were you at her house last night?" "Did she agree to see me?" "No, she won't fucking see you!" "Not with you stalking her." "And I'm not gonna ask her again." "She's way too fragile." "Wait, fragile?" "What do you mean, fragile?" "How is she acting?" "It might be the meds she's on, but something's not right." "Look, I'm gonna make some calls." "I wanna make sure she's not self-medicating, but you stay away from her." "You hear me?" "That's not gonna help." " Well?" " Take me to Allison's." "Wait, we need to figure this out." " Let's not just rush into it..." " You figure it out!" "I'm not wasting any more time." "All right, here, look." "You take the car, but I need you to drop me somewhere first." "There's something I gotta do." "For my own peace of mind." "Chief?" "Come on in." "What do you got?" "That camper from the woods." "Got the DNA analysis back on that fingernail." "Still waiting on the blood and the hair, but she ran it through for me." " Get an ID?" " Yeah." "Lucky for us she went through our system about a year ago." "Lisa Peyton, 26." "She got caught stealing a 12-pound ham from the Piggly Wiggly." "Well, let's go find her." "Yeah, well, not possible." "Boyfriend reported her missing six months ago." "You sure about that?" "Just got off the phone with him." "She's still AWOL." "Look, Chief, we got the DNA of a missing woman who was at the scene of what looked like a slaughterhouse." "A scene that just got burnt to the ground by someone who's trying to make our job a lot harder." "I know what we got." "How much you want to bet we don't find her, what, 50 yards from where we found that camper." "Hold your roll there, Supercop." "You want to make a big homicide case?" "Yeah." "Find out if she's "gone" gone." "Maybe she don't want this boyfriend of hers to know where she is." "Find a parent or a sibling, someone she's not so eager to run away from." "Do your follow-up, officer." "All right, will do, Chief." "Mm-hmm." "I'm not here to hurt you." "Uh..." "I just want to talk." "I won't come in or anything." "I swear." " Hey." " Hey." "What do you want, Kyle?" "Can you come all the way outside?" "Just..." "I'm already here." "Can't just talk through a crack in the door." "Last night, parked out front, that was you, wasn't it?" "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important." "What do you want, Kyle?" "I..." "I just..." "Daddy!" "Hey!" "Ooh!" "Hey, baby girl, look at you." "When are you coming home, Daddy?" "Uh, that's not up to me right now, sweetheart." "Did Mommy tell you to leave?" " No, no, no, that's not what..." " Amber." " Listen to your mama." " No." "I want to be with Daddy." " I want to show you my new bike." " Yeah, yeah." " I saw it." "It's awesome." "Awesome." " Watch me ride it!" "Amber, don't make me tell you again." "You're a mean bitch." " Excuse me?" " Amber, hey!" "Don't you dare talk to your mother like that." "You apologize." "No, I want to live with you, Daddy." "You're just saying that right now, 'cause you're mad at your mama, and that's not fair, okay?" "She hasn't done anything wrong." "Inside, Amber, right now." " No!" " Come on, baby." "No!" "Daddy!" " Daddy!" "Daddy!" " Up to your room, baby, okay?" " Is this what you wanted, Kyle?" " What?" " To turn her against me?" " No, what do you mean?" " Stay the hell away from us!" " Allison, wait, please!" "Mrs. Barnes?" "Mrs. Barnes?" "What happened?" "Mrs. Barnes, can you hear me?" "Where am I?" "You're at the Sister of Mercy Hospital, Mrs. Barnes." "You were admitted through the ER department yesterday evening." "Amber." "Your daughter's fine, Mrs. Barnes." "She's okay." "I want to see her." "Soon." "What happened to me?" "It's not uncommon to block out details when you've been in a significant trauma." "Your memory should come back at some point." " What happened?" " You're safe here." " Your husband's in custody." " I don't understand." "He's the one responsible for this." " No." " At the station he admitted everything." "Kyle, why would he do that?" "That's crazy." " I'm afraid it's true, ma'am." " No." "It's not." "No, I don't believe it." "No, let me go." "Just stay back right here." "Just let me go." "You cannot get out of bed." "Watch your arm." " No!" " Lie back down real quick." "You've been in a serious accident." "Well?" "Couldn't get close enough." "Well, did she react?" "You know, in the way they do around you?" "It's hard to tell." "Things got complicated." "At least you didn't get arrested." "I think I need to go home now, Rev." "I understand." "First, there's a little job we have to do." "I made some stops in town." "I do work with some of the groups that shelter the homeless, addicts, runaways." "The director of the mission here thinks he's seen Sherry, and I want to bring her home." "Salvage some kind of a win." "Okay." "Good luck." "Don't need me for that." "I think you're underestimating the healing qualities of a selfless act." "Gonna take more than a selfless act for my situation, Rev." "Well, we have to start somewhere." "You made me face this." "First with Mildred, Brian, and now Sherry." "If she's still out here because of me..." "Hey!" "Hey, Paul Bunyan!" "You oughtta know better than to sneak up on a man with a chainsaw." "You want to shut that down?" "I'd like to get this done before dark." "Blight brought it down." "Been meaning to get to it for a while." "We go back a long way." "Seen and done some crazy shit." "Not asking in an official capacity, are you?" "We're friends." "I might go so far as to say best friends, maybe." "I'd like to think that if I had a problem, I could come talk to you." "Wouldn't judge me." "And that cuts both ways, right?" "Sure." "What's your problem?" "Not my problem." "Think that's you." "Yeah." "Yeah?" "Chief, you were right." "That missing girl, Lisa Peyton?" "She popped up." " What?" " Talked to her sister out in Wheeling." "Turns out she was holed up." "Didn't want her boyfriend to know." "Looks like you were right to hold back on the dogs." "Good news?" "Just a case I'm working." "So, whose problem is it?" "I'm gonna let you get back to it." "Wouldn't want that blight to spread to your whole grove." "Ugh." "I don't need any magazine subscriptions, or life insurance, or house numbers painted on my curb." "Excuse me!" "Oh." "I'm sorry." "I didn't realize." "What do I call you?" "Is a name important?" "It's customary." "I'm Mildred." "Don't meet many Mildreds these days." "Humans are so... desperate to express their individuality, to separate themselves from each other." "Seems so short-sighted." "You really wanna make that speech wearing that outfit?" "You can call me Sidney." "These things, all these possessions, they yours?" "Some of 'em from before I arrived." "Most of 'em since." "You find your passions here." "You, uh..." "Have you found things to engage you?" "I have a job." "Oh." "Of course." "I suppose you're here about the Barnes boy." "He came to see you." "Not on his own." "The reverend brought him, but he knows." "What he knows wouldn't fill one of these." "What if he comes back?" "What if he keeps trying?" "I'll take care of him, and the Barnes boy." "They're my responsibility, not yours." "The reverend gives you any trouble, you let me know, but I doubt he will." "Wait!" "Agh!" "You know... that won't work with me." "You can't blame a girl for trying." "I won't survive to The Merge." "You took your chances, my dear, just like all of us." "Sometimes... you draw the short straw." "Okay, well, if you do see her, let me know, huh?" " Thank you, appreciate it." " Sure." "Anything?" "No." "Not yet." "We don't even know if she's gonna show." "Patience is a virtue." "Yeah, well, not standing around here all night." "God helps those who help themselves, right?" "Sherry!" "Sherry, is that you, sweetheart?" "Reverend." "I'm gonna take you home." "Back to your Pa." "Come on, give me a hand." "Aah!" "I won't fail you again." "Lord, You know my pain and distress, you understand the fear in my heart." "I draw my strength from you, and live in your limitless grace." "Stay away." "I'm not here to hurt you, okay?" "You're the key." "We need your light." "What do you mean "we"?" "Who's "we"?" "The nameless." "The numberless." "We see you through the veil." "We come to you and you lead us here." "What's so special about him?" "Sherry!" "Sherry, it's okay." "It's okay!" "Come on, I got you." "You know what you have to do!" "Hit her!" " Hit me, Kyle." " No." "Hit me." "Like you hit your pretty wife." " Hit her!" "Hit Her!" " Aah!" "Fight it with me, Sherry." "Come on." "Aargh!" "Kyle!" "I'm okay." "I decided the wall should be red." "God dammit, Amber!" "What is wrong with you?" "Aah!" "Aah!" "Amber?" "Amber?" "And Lord, we ask and pray, in your infinite wisdom, to bring back..." "Sherry to us, and more importantly, to her family." "Amen." "Amen." "I'll come by tomorrow." "You really think that's gonna make any difference?" "Prayer?" "Yes, I do." "That kid in there is a vegetable because of us." "Her soul is freed because of us." "You're insane." "You're calling that a win?" "She's in God's hands now, same as your mother, and though my soul weeps for them, they will have eternity with him." "That is a win." "Look, I don't know where that girl Sherry is right now, but God sure as shit didn't put her there." "No." "Who did then, you?" "The "Outcast," whatever the hell that is, with your magic touch?" "Wake up, Reverend." "All these souls you think you're saving with God's infinite wisdom?" "It's bullshit." "Look at her." "And Brian." "And Mildred." "That man in there's praying for a miracle that you and I both know is never gonna come, 'cause no one's fucking listening." "If your God is out there, he's laughing at you." "That's close enough." "Where's Amber?" "She's with a neighbor." "She's fine." "She's happier without me right now." "That's my fault." "I didn't mean to make her that upset." "I should not have come by the house." "Why did you?" "I worry about you." "I feel like I need to protect you, and I can't." "I'm... not allowed." "Protect me from what?" "From who?" "It's hard to explain." "It's just a feeling." "A feeling?" "You know, all this time we've been apart, the one thing you haven't told me is that you're sorry." "You apologize for everything, even when you don't have any reason to." "I always hated that." "I'm sorry." "And then something like this happens and..." "I know you." "If you really did the things they said, you'd at least try to explain." "There's no excuse for what happened, Allison." "You know, the hardest part... is if I could erase ten minutes from our lives... ten minutes... it'd all be perfect." "I have to know if you're the same person you always were." "The man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with." "So..." "You're safe." "Oh, you're safe." "From what?" "What happened that night?" "You know what happened." "No, I need you to tell me." "I'm scared, Kyle." "I feel like I'm outside of myself." "Like I'm watching myself but I can't control anything." "How can the man who makes me feel so safe" " be the one who hurt me?" " Allison." "I need to hear from you what happened." "I want you to tell me." "Tell me right now." " Please, don't..." " Please." "Kyle, look at me." "Kyle, please don't do this." "I need you... to tell me." "Goddamn you."