"Well that's heartening," he commented wryly. "But I'm not sure, actually. It only came up because we were talking about David- since they got paired- and I offered your assistance to talk to David where he could speak freely, and he looked like I just told him I was going to take his other arm as well."

Despite the grim humour, the concern is real. "The parishioner's sister isn't even its first victim, her husband got killed over Scratch possessing him, so. My first instinct is that it simply wants freedom, but obviously we don't know what that would even mean. Oscar thinks it's more powerful than you were, within me, but probably not more than you are now."