Artificial Box

Artificial Box

Gracious me. Was I raving?

Please forgive me.

I'm mad.

Let's see... 

where was I?

Oh, yes! The master.

He was kind, you see.

He brought me to 

our mutual acquaintance, 

Father Karras.

Not too well at the time. 

I'm afraid he... was passing on 

in the dying mode, as we say.

So... as Karras was about 

to slip out of his body... 

Is this True?

The master was slipping me in.

There was some confusion 

when the medics said that 

Karras was dead.

He was dead, technically speaking.

His time was up.

He wanted out. But I was in.

A little traumatised, true. 

After all, his brain was jelly.

Lack of oxygen and that sort of thing. 

You understand?

It took a maximum effort... 

that at last got me out 

of that cheap little coffin!

Vow of poverty, disgusting.

Never mind.

Toward the end, a little slapstick... 

and comic relief when old Brother Fain... 

who was tending the body, saw me 

climbing from the coffin.

It's the smiles that keep us going.

The giggles and bits 

of good cheer.

But then, after that, it was 

all blue Mondays for 

a while, I'm afraid.

So much damage to 

Karras' brain cells.

So many lost.

It's not enough, you see, 

to be a spirit.

There's no magic.

In this Artificial Box you call A World... 

we can't Touch, except through bodies.

We must operate through 

neurologic systems, brains 

that function...  and your friend's was nearly past resurrection.

It was quite an effort to 

regenerate his puny 

little brain cells.

It took me 15 years!

So many years.

Now I'm just 

A Traveling Man.

One who moves.

I have dreams 

of a rose.

And falling down a 

long flight of stairs.

Lieutenant!

Did you get my message?

I left it with Keating.

Nice girl. Good heart.

Yes! About this body of mine...

Friend of yours.

Well, there I was... so awfully dead in that electric chair.

I didn't like it. Would you? It's upsetting!

There was still so much killing to do, 

and there I was... in The Void without a body.

But then along came... 

well, you know, my friend. One of them.

Those others, there. The cruel ones.

The master.

And he thought that my work should continue.

But, in this body.

In this body in particular, in fact.

Let's call it revenge.

A certain matter of an exorcism... in which Karras expelled certain parties from the body of a child.

Certain parties were not pleased, to say the least.

To say the very least.

And so my friend, the master... devised this pretty little scheme 

as a way of getting back... of creating a stumbling block, a scandal... 

a horror to all men who seek faith.

Using the body of this saintly priest... as an instrument of... Well, you know my work.

But, the main thing... is the torment of your friend, Father Karras... 

as he watches while I rip, and cut, and mutilate the innocent!

His friends! And again! And again!

And on and on!

He is inside with us!

He will never get away!

His pain won't end!

I don't believe you're the Gemini k*ller.

You are issuing a clear invitation to the dance.

What does that mean? Never mind.

Incidentally, don't blame me for that idiot Temple.

That was a su1c1de. The man was a lunatic weakling.

Still, he helped me.

Are there services? I would like to attend.

Temple helped you? Of course! He brought you to me.

I told him if he failed to convince you to come to me... that he would suffer in unspeakable ways.

"Pain that cannot be imagined," I said.

Poor superstitious fool, he believed me. But he couldn't take the pressure.

What pressure? The pressure of inimitable me.

Some other tasks I said I had in mind for him.

Things. Little things.

Did Temple get you out of this cell?

Who gets you out?

Just friends.

Old friends.

Tell the press... that I am the Gemini, lieutenant. Final warning.

Incidentally, I can help. Help what?

Your unbelief.

I'm tired.

I am so tired.

Bill, help me.

Damien? No!

Little Jack Horner.

Child's play, lieutenant.