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Book 4: Lamentations
Erin is at Dr. Gunning’s getting an ultrasound for the baby. We notice that there’s no sound. There hasn’t been much kicking. The baby is… gone. She’s not pregnant. She was last week! Gunning thinks she miscarried and then blocked it out, but Erin says there’s no way.
Bev is taking care of Paul. She keeps going on about how he came back from the dead. He doesn’t want to eat her food for some reason. She knows who he really is— the reinvigorated Monsignor Pruitt. What she doesn’t know is that Father Paul is becoming allergic to sunlight. It burns him.
Ed and Riley have an uncomfortable father-son talk and Riley cries. At Dr. Gunning’s place, old lady Mildred is suddenly completely normal and coherent, but Erin’s blood sample explodes in the sunlight. Erin tells her own sad story to Riley, and he cries some more (he’s probably wishing he had just stayed in prison at this point). They eventually discuss what they each believe happens after death. He’s an atheist, but she’s very religious.
Father Paul is in great pain. He cuts himself and licks up the blood. He goes to see Mildred, who figures out who he is as well. She’s old enough to remember him as a young man. He gives her Communion.
Back at his house, we see Father Paul putting something in the Communion wine between bouts of pain. He chugs the wine just as Joe comes by to talk about not drinking today. Paul talks about fighting the hunger that gnaws from within,and he’s not talking about alcohol. One thing leads to another, and Paul ends up licking Joe’s spilled blood up off the floor.
The next morning, the Muslim sheriff’s son goes to the Catholic Church for the first time. Bev finds the priest and Dead Joe in his home, and she decides to “handle it.” She has a plan. She goes back to the church and explains that the Father is sick. She gets Mayor Wade and another man to dump the body in the ocean. She’s gone full-Renfield.
Erin goes to the mainland for a second opinion about the baby. They don’t believe she was ever really pregnant. There’s no evidence that she’s ever been pregnant— it wasn’t even a miscarriage. They suggest a psychiatrist.
Riley shows up for AA, but no one else is there. Paul finally shows up, and they talk about Erin’s missing baby. Riley catches Paul in a lie about Joe visiting his sister, whom Riley knows is dead. Annie and Ed are both feeling so much better; Annie doesn’t even need her glasses any more.
A strange figure visits Father Paul that night. He’s very tall and has long claws. The “man” refills the Communion wine flask with his own blood. Riley goes back to talk to Paul about the lie and finds them both there. The vampire attacks and bites Riley while Paul shuts the door.
Commentary: Finally, we get some idea as to what’s really going on here. There are a lot of long conversations, or maybe monologues from Riley and the people around him. Paul is obviously some kind of vampire now, but he was innocent when he arrived; this is all just developing for him. He’s putting vampire blood (or whatever that thing is) in the Communion wine, and that explains the people in town starting to heal and get stronger.