PREVIOUSLY: TWO ELDERLY PARISHIONERS OF ST. MATILDE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH HAVE BEEN MURDERED. IN THE COURSE OF THE INVESTIGATION, A POSSIBLE LINK TO THE PRESENT DAY MURDERS IS DISCOVERED IN THE CASE OF A DEAD PEDOPHILE PRIEST. ONE OF THE YOUNG VICTIMS, MATTHEW LONGACRE, WAS A SIOUX INDIAN WHOSE MOTHER HAD BEEN A DEVOTED CATHOLIC. WHEN THE PRIEST WAS ARRESTED AND MATTHEW FACED THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING TO TESTIFY, HE COMMITTED SUICIDE. MATTHEW'S SECRET RELATIONSHIP WITH A FELLOW ALTAR BOY IS AT THE HEART OF THE UNFOLDING, DEMONICALLY-DIRECTED REVENGE. 

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Matthew 12: 43-45:  "When the unclean spirit is gone out of man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be unto this wicked generation."   

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A persistent bang broke through the nightmare and banished the fiend in the process of severing his tongue. On waking, Eddie's frantic probing proved its wholeness.

Sleeping pills gave him two, maybe three hours of sleep before the demon came each night with a new way to torture him. He knew he was being punished for raping Fritz Buell when he'd sworn not to touch a man like that again. But the weakling's begging aroused him, and before he could stop, he'd penetrated and climaxed to the sound of agonized screams. The pleasure was short-lived when he discovered Fritz's catatonic state, so he made the quick decision to smother him and transport the body to the laboratory.

The nightmares proved the omniscience of 'Master'. Swift and brutal punishment followed his deviance from the plan.

The din of summoning bells filled the bedroom, and Eddie heard his mother begging for help -- except she was butcher-wrapped and stowed in the garage freezer.

The worthless bitch is dead. Something is mimicking her, as if I'm stupid enough to fall for that.

His torso was slick with sweat, and a full bladder screamed for relief, but he hadn't the courage to leave the safety of his bed. Feigning sleep, only his eyes moved about the room as he waited for the sound to repeat.

A line of pure white was visible at the bottom of the room's only window. Its glow gave him a moment of comfort before a dark mass rose from the floor, swallowed the light and sped up the wall, morphing into a man-sized spider. Extending its hairy appendages to the ceiling, it moved with horrible delicacy until it hung above the foot of the bed.

Eddie willed his legs to move and feet to run, but his body ignored the brain's panic. A heavy weight dropped onto his naked body and began a slow slide towards his face. He'd thrown off his covers sometime during the night, leaving himself completely exposed to the creature. Pincers tore at the flesh of his abdomen, leaving a steady trail of pain with its advance.

The bulk of the creature's body rested on his chest. Trapped and helpless, Eddie chugged air into his lungs to keep from smothering. Displaced blood rushed upwards. He feared his head would explode from the pressure.

A flat, inhuman voice rose from the creature's depths. "Don't you think I'm beautiful, Eddie? Remember when you charged your friends a dollar to look at the caged spider? I do."

Eddie's eyes bulged with terror, and his head snapped forward. He stared into twin pools of hell-fire.

"You kept me by your bed. At night, you'd pin me to the corner of the cage with a beam of light and laugh at my fear. Then you decided you could get more money for a spider trying to crawl with half its legs."

The creature's maw opened, and a fetid smell issued forth. "When He's through with you," it continued, "we'll be waiting for revenge. Me and my brothers will rip your body to shreds over and over."

Rage surged through Eddie, restoring strength to his limbs. He flung the creature from him with such force it slammed into a wall and exploded into a thousand tiny spiders that screeched and burned out as they collided.

Rushing to the bathroom, he reached the toilet in time to expel a stream of bile, retching over and over in a futile effort to cast out the evil that claimed him decades before.

Pulling himself to the edge of his tub, he turned on the shower jets, cranked the faucet to the hottest setting and stepped into the middle of the stream of water. He emerged twenty minutes later, patted his traumatized skin dry and stepped in front of a mirror.

From a cabinet drawer, he retrieved a satin-sheathed, curved blade used for animal sacrifices. His source told him the blade came from the personal stash of Minnesota's top Satanist and hinted it had been used on more than animals. Eddie stroked its shiny surface until it vibrated with power.

Swollen spider bites ran the length of his torso. He slit the tip of the lump near his pubis, and it receded. In quick succession, the remaining mounds were incised.

The mirror reflected the outcome, and Eddie's sliver of humanity fled. A contemptuous whisper confirmed the message carved into his chest: M E U S. "Mine, complete and forever."