01x02 - Horror Beyond Nightmares

[bunniefuu]

This so-called Revolution,

it's not a struggle for the rights of man.

It's an abomination,

an affront to the natural order,

to common decency,

above all,

to God and his church.

My own holy order,

the Knights of Saint John,

founded to protect pilgrims

in the wars for the Holy Land,

has been commanded to submit

to the blasphemous, Godless state.

We would rather die.

But whatever atrocities

they commit

in the names of their sacrilegious future,

the days of this abomination

will soon be over.

A deliverer is at hand.

A new Joan of Arc,

a mighty warrior queen

to lead us to salvation.

She will raise

a holy army of the righteous

to crush the blasphemers.

In the name of God.

In the name of God.

Name your business

in the Commune of Paris.

This is Paris, is it?

What a dump.

I'm a representative of

the Insurrectionary Commune of Paris.

State your business.

I'm a representative too,

of the Messiah.

Religious orders need to register

with the National Convention.

Not that Messiah.

The real one.

I don't know if I should bury it.

Come on. I need help with breakfast.

I've heard about the revolution

in Saint-Domingue, of course,

but the Paris papers

only reach here sometimes,

and then about six months late.

So I know the slaves rose up,

b*rned all the sugar plantations,

and k*lled all the bastard sl*ve owners.

Not quite all. One escaped.

Many white colonists were vampires.

The island was teeming

with all kinds of evil.

And it's not over yet, our revolution.

We're still fighting.

I'll call a meeting.

It will be so inspiring.

Representatives from another revolution.

- You were slaves then, were you?

- Annette was.

I was an opera singer.

Oh my God.

This bread.

We've been living off ship rations

for weeks.

If I never eat another strip

of dried meat for as long as I live

Yeah, and f*ck knows

what kind of meat it even is.

You've spent time on a ship?

I sailed here from Boston

when I was a boy.

Worst few weeks of my life.

I didn't think it was humanly possible

to vomit so often.

Nor did I.

Annette found my suffering hilarious.

Everything's an opera,

even puking over the side of a ship.

Tell me what you know

about this Vampire Messiah.

In Saint-Domingue, there's a mambo,

a priestess, my teacher.

She's a powerful sorcerer and seer.

It was she who told me to find you.

And she knows

about this Messiah?

She said, "Something is changing

out here in the Old World."

For centuries, vampires have lived

coiled around the old houses of Europe,

like vines.

Close allies of the dukes and barons,

the principalities,

even the royal courts themselves.

That's amazing.

But many vampires resented

their reliance on human kings and princes.

This Messiah promises to make them

unquestioned masters of the world.

Won't that be fun.

They'll leave

the kings and princes in place,

but with vampires pulling the strings,

which means, first,

they need to crush the Revolution.

Oh, what a surprise.

The evil Messiah

is on the side of the old regime.

The priestess told me you could do magic.

I could when I was a kid.

What happened?

I don't know.

Never mind. We'll make do.

The Messiah was a monster

before she was a vampire.

She?

Even as a human, she tortured

and m*rder*d young girls and boys.

What's her name?

The Vampire Messiah, do you know her name?

Erzsebet Bathory.

Countess Erzsebet Bathory.

Mum, what's wrong?

Oh, no.

Mum?

Oh, yes.

She'll do nicely.

The Messiah will be pleased.

I never really told you

why I fled from Russia.

You said you had no choice.

That's true.

But I never really told you

who I had to leave behind.

I thought I hoped

that it was locked away in the past

and far away in the East

and you were safe from it.

But of course you're not safe.

I was born 4,000 miles to the east,

in Russia,

by the banks of a great river.

People were poor, cruelly treated.

So, my family, a clan of Speakers,

settled there for a while

to help ease their suffering.

And for a while, we were free.

But, of course,

our freedom couldn't be tolerated.

So the soldiers came.

And not only soldiers.

There were vampires too.

None worse than Erzsebet Bathory

and her att*ck dog, Drolta Tzuentes.

So, you fled.

Not yet.

They captured my sister.

I didn't know you had a sister.

I tried to save her.

Erzsebet Bathory

doesn't simply k*ll her victims.

She tortures them

for as long as she can keep them alive.

Rejoices in the most terrible agony

she can inflict.

I fled

leaving her

and everyone I knew and loved.

West, and further west,

to places I didn't even know existed.

Until I finally found refuge here.

I should have told you before.

There are things

that I don't talk about either.

She will bring horror beyond nightmares.

Suffering and pain beyond endurance.

She won't want simply

to crush the Revolution,

she will want to drain it slowly of blood,

before she grinds its bones to dust.

But we will defeat her.

Yeah, don't you worry.

We're going to f*cking k*ll her.

Do you feel close to these creatures?

They come when I call.

They do what I command.

Mm, well, ask.

I don't really command them.

But, yes, it feels like,

for a little while, they're part of me.

So, part of you has d*ed.

Like part of you d*ed with your sister.

I'll sing for them both.

When I am laid ♪

Am laid in earth ♪

May my wrongs create ♪

No trouble ♪

No trouble ♪

In thy breast ♪

Remember me ♪

Remember me ♪

But ♪

Forget my fate ♪

Remember me ♪

But ♪

Forget ♪

My fate ♪

This Marquis, you believe vampires

are gathering at his château?

Yes.

It makes sense.

It's where vampires would go.

We should investigate

and burn it to the ground if we have to.

It's getting late.

You should wait.

For another att*ck?

We needed to rest,

but now we're wasting time.

We'll stay out of sight.

Just get a sense of numbers.

Then I'll come with you.

You need to rest,

and we need to stay hidden.

Frankly, four is already too many.

I promise

We'll be careful.

We'll be safe.

Thousands of years ago,

before any church or anything,

the people who built stone circles

communed with what they called

the Otherworld.

Sounds like the spirit world,

where Annette's ancestors live.

Generation upon generation of ancestors,

back to Ogun, an orisha, a god.

The god of iron and w*r.

She's descended from a god?

That's on my father's side.

On her mother's, it's Orunmila,

an orisha of wisdom and divination.

Apparently.

Anyway, it gives her power

over metal and rock.

We're all descended from gods.

We just have to learn

how to draw on their power.

Well, I'm quite happy with my whip

and my knives, thank you.

Generation upon generation of my ancestors

have k*lled vampires with just this whip.

Actually, quite a lot of them

could do magic,

including my mother,

but it's never been essential.

Where's your mother?

She d*ed.

Some vampires do magic too.

It's like Versailles emptied,

and its dregs washed up here.

That's him.

That's the Marquis.

Poor devils.

He's giving them the corpses.

- Why?

- To make more.

The Marquis has some kind of deal

with the Forgemaster.

Follow those night creatures,

we find their maker.

It's Jacques.

I saw him only yesterday.

Oh my God.

It's the vampire

who enslaved her and m*rder*d her mother,

the Comte de Vaublanc.

He looks like he's found God.

Papa Legba, open the gate.

Annette, not now.

Annette.

We need to get out of here!

Go.

Maria! We need to go!

Now!

Annette! We need a bridge!

Annette!

Richter!

Well, well

Glory be to God.