"Say, what are you asking all these questions for, anyway? You're not from the magazines, are you?"

"I'm not from the magazines. I'm --" fuck he told everyone else who asked he was doing a fluffy piece on the area -- "investigating a series of disappearances. The police don't want to look into it because it's just tramps, not anyone the kind of people who live here would care about, but -- anything you know would help."

Genial nods. "All right, then, I'll show you. If you think it will help."

"I do. And thank you."

"This one night, just about dusk, as I was worrying about what I should do about what I've seen— I heard this whispering as I was headed up to the house. This hissing and spitting. I thought maybe it was a cat or a raccoon, trapped. I headed over there to the garden patch where it was coming from, all this rustling and hissing and spitting. See if I could help. You’ll think I’m crazy, so I’m just gonna show you."

"Alright." Mordred follows him.

So does Carrie.

Genial brings them to a patch of flowers deep in the back of his employers’ grounds and pulls away a blanket of moss and mulch lying on the ground in the midst of thick — and unnaturally lush — flowers.

In the ground, a calcified mouth is frozen in a biting scream.

Mordred goes frozen, still and silent, eyes wide, not breathing, for several moments. When he manages to blink again he's noticeably shaky.

"Well. Thank you for showing me."

"There it is. ’Cept when I saw it, it was all hissing and biting at me, and I’m not afraid to tell you that I screamed."

"Christ."
 
 
 

"The only thing I could think of was my mama’s holy cross, the one the Holy Father himself blessed, or that’s what she said. I ran to my shack and got that cross, and I threw it into the mouth. That cross is still down in that… thing. As long as it stays down there, I’m guessing I’m safe."

Mordred has no such faith in the Christian God but observably the mouth sure is calcified and not moving. "I'm glad you thought of it."

His hands are still shaking. It's warm out. Why are they doing that.

"Judge me if you want for keeping silent. But I’m sure not man enough to carry on a fight against the Devil himself. So I guess I’m laying that duty on you. Or the Lord is. Can’t think of any other reason he could’ve sent you here."

"I don't intend to judge you for keeping silent. Most people would. -- would keep silent, I mean, sorry. Thank you again for showing me. And I suppose I'm grateful for your faith in me."

(He wants so, so badly to be able to talk to Gale.)

"I'm telling you, that man worships Satan Himself. And... I think the bodies are sacrifices."

Mordred doesn't think it's Satan. He think sit's something much weirder. "I suppose that tracks," he says, because enough of his brain is up and running to know that 'I know they are' is obviously wrong.

"I will be praying for you. And if there's anything I can do to help--"

"I'll ask. -- ah, a mailing address might be helpful for that. Your name won't end up tied to any of it."

"I live in a cabin in the back of the house here. All the servants in LA do."

"...Right. Yes. I keep forgetting that people in most places don't live in apartment buildings even when observably right in front of me -- anyway. Thank you again."

"You're welcome. I have a rosary that used to be my mother's, blessed by Our Lady of Guadalupe. If you want I can give it to you to keep you safe."

what does he even do with that.

Carrie takes it.

Mordred is an atheist who doesn't believe in the protective power of Christ and feels VERY A WAY about being offered people's mother's rosaries. Carrie can have it and Mordred will feel somewhat less A Way about this but not very much less.