The story
A box in which demons can be forced to take flight… a priest’s mind that cannot release them.
Inner demons surface when a Roman Catholic priest’s soul is stripped bare by a mysterious stranger offering absolution.
Brief synopsis
Whilst praying in front of his church altar late at night, dutiful Roman Catholic priest Father Ray Long is distracted by the sudden arrival of a stranger in the confessional box.
The shadowy figure beyond the grate appears nervous at first, picking at the walls and reluctant to share his sins, but it soon becomes clear he is far from repentant. Father Ray admonishes the man, but with his confidence evidently growing the stranger begins to taunt the priest, imploring him to loosen his dog collar and share his own thoughts before it is too late.
The stranger sympathises with Father Ray’s alleged crisis of conscience, and toys with the priest’s emotions until he is forced to flee the confessional to compose himself. The clergyman belligerently returns to unmask the stranger but instead discovers an empty seat and demonic sketches scraped into the wood panelling.
Suddenly, the stranger reappears on the opposite side, in the position of power. He instigates a game of psychological warfare and ups the stakes by offering absolution in return for the truth. Father Ray resists as hard as he can and confesses nothing, but his strength is slowly sapped. He makes a final bid for freedom, only to discover to his horror the stranger’s game is one he has already lost... and that the price of defeat is a fate far worse than death...