When I was seven my dad killed my mum in front of me. I was shoved in a boys’ home for a few years before being sold to the Church. Five quid for a boy and a birth certificate. I did four more years with a man called Sean in the darkest little corner of the Church. I won’t bore you with that particular narrative, but the first time they locked me in a room with a demon I was 12 years old. You know, when you first saw that demon in the attic, Tomás, were you scared? Yes. You know what I felt? Relief. ‘Cause for the first time in my brief but very long life, I had a purpose. I was the gun, and the Church was the hand, and the words… were true. You’ve read about the Beatific Vision? Being one with God. Seeing His face. I saw it once. At the moment of exorcism. I saw it, and it was so… loud. I could hear it. There is such a… noise in my head, Tomás. I’m not fit. And… you should know that. And… I haven’t had that vision since. Most of the words in [the Bible], they’re man’s words, they’re not God’s. But I can try. If that’s what He wants, I swear on my life, I can try.
Ben Daniels as Father Marcus Keane in season one of The Exorcist (2016-2017)
