Issue 4
This issue is 44 pages.

Page 1
A black page.
Caption #1: “I am not a wife.”
Caption #2: “I am not a little girl, begging and idolizing daddy.”
Caption #3: “I am not a penitent, begging for entrance.”
Caption #4: “And I am not a woman.”
Caption #5: “I am nothing, and only in this is there freedom.”

Page 2
1.Void in close-up, immediately following the conclusion of the previous issue. Void: “You may answer.”
2.Tommy bowed before Irene, with Void in the shot but de-emphasized. Tommy: “I killed your family as a gift to you, my love.”
3.A black panel. Caption: “‘To give you a chance at life, I had to free you from them.’”
4.A flashback shot of Irene sitting at the glass table in her kitchen, on which she was subsequently raped, reading the newspaper on that day in 1974 that she woke up and found Tommy missing. Caption: “‘My orders had been, as in any such mission, to kill you. I was to burn down the house, disguising the cause of your death.’”
5.A flashback shot of Irene’s face at this moment as she reads. Caption: “‘Had I done so, you would never have awaken that day.’”
6.A shot of Irene being forced onto the same table by the thugs. Caption: “‘That night, before the thugs attacked you, I visited your home, Irene.’”

Page 3 1.A tier-wide close-up of a pistol with a silencer in Tommy’s hand.
2.A similar shot, except that here the gun is firing, smoke coming out.
3.A similar shot, except that here the gun is recoiling as more smoke comes out, the shot fully fired. [57 | 58]
4.A shot of Irene’s brother in the moment that he’s shot in the chest, blood spattering behind him. Caption: “‘I shot your brother in the chest.’”
5.A shot a second or two later as Irene’s brother falls, as if in slow motion.

Page 4
1.A shot of Tommy’s gun over the head of Irene’s brother.
2.A shot of a bullet exploding the head of Irene’s brother, blood spattering behind it. Caption: “‘He fell and I put another bullet through his brain.’”
3.A shot of Tommy beating Irene’s mother savagely. Caption: “‘Your mother rushed me madly and I beat her to the ground.’”
4.A shot of Tommy binding the hands of Irene’s father, who’s crying, to the lamp fixture on the wall where we saw him dead earlier. Caption: “‘Your father I bound to a lamp in front of her.’”
5.A shot of Tommy raping Irene’s mother in front of her father. Caption: “‘I raped your mother in front of your crying father, beside your brother’s corpse.’”
6.A shot of Tommy knifing Irene’s father in the chest as Irene’s badly beaten, raped mother reaches up towards him. Caption: “‘Your mother watched as I mortally stabbed your father.’”
7.A shot of Tommy with a gun to the head of Irene’s mother, looking up at her father as he watches and bleeds from the knife. Caption: “‘Before he died, he saw me shoot your mother in front of him.’”

Page 5
A full page shot of her family, slaughtered, just like the one in the second issue -- except that here Tommy is in the shot, clearly the murderer, calmly cleaning the knife. Caption #1: “‘It was brutal, but I had to send a message. A message to you. If you visited them before the police, which I thought you would.’” Caption #2: “‘I had to be brutal, and I had to do it personally. Because it was against orders. Our clan would never have condoned that, let alone helped.”

Page 6 [58 | 59]
1.Irene’s face, emotionless, as she looks down at Tommy, bowed before her. Irene: “But why?”
2.A shot of Tommy bowed before Irene. He’s looking up at her. Tommy: “Isn’t it obvious?”
3.A shot of Tommy bowed before Irene. He’s looking down as if ashamed. Tommy: “Because I couldn’t bring you with me, but I wanted to give you a chance.”
4.Irene looking down at him, as shot so that we see her front. Irene: “A chance to what? I want you to say it.”
5.A shot of Tommy’s face, bowed and looking down. Tommy: “A chance to follow me to Japan.”
6.A shot of Irene at her Athenian kitchen table, reading the newspaper. Caption: “‘I couldn’t tell you to follow me. You might have told the police. So, instead of killing you, I had to destroy everything that tied you to Athens and hope you had the strength to abandon it.’”
7.A shot of Tommy in their Athenian house, watching covertly as his assistant answers the doorbell. Caption: “‘I was in the house when the local idiots I’d sent arrived looking for me.’”

Page 7
1.A shot of Tommy silently slipping past a Thug #1 as he enters a room with a gun in his hand. Caption: “‘I slipped past their amateur search.’”
2.A shot from Tommy’s P.O.V. as he watches Thug #1 in the kitchen assuring the others -- a scene shown in the first issue from another angle. Thug #1: “I’m fuckin’ sure. I searched every goddamn room. He’s not here.”
3.A shot from Tommy’s P.O.V. as he watches Irene being raped on the glass table. Caption: “‘I watched you beg for death. I watched them rape you. And I watched you kill them.’”
4.A large shot of Irene standing in front of Tommy as he’s bowed before her. We also see Void in this shot, reminding us that he’s there. Irene: “Why didn’t you do anything?”
5.A shot of Tommy looking up at her. Tommy: “I couldn’t, even if they killed you. You had to take your chances, prove yourself. If I’d done anything, you’d have known I was there. It would have thrown everything off.”

Page 8 [59 | 60]
1.A shot of Tommy in the bloody kitchen, reading the newspaper. Caption: “‘I couldn’t bring you with me. Our clan would have killed you. But if you were strong enough, if you did the right thing, they’d have to deal with you in Japan.’”
2.A shot of Tommy sitting, nervously, avoiding the blood. Caption: “‘Waiting for you to decide what to do, knowing I should have left Athens hours earlier, I almost wished the thugs had killed you. Because I’d have to do it myself if you called the police or waited until they came.’”
3.A shot of Irene exiting the front door, as seen from Tommy’s P.O.V. as he hides. The same event was seen in the first issue. Caption: “‘But then you left.’”
4.A shot of a girl that looks like Irene at the time being killed by Tommy in an alley at night. He’s slitting her throat. Caption: “‘I’d killed a girl with a body like yours the night before. A poor girl no one would miss. And I’d used my contacts to arrange for the morgue to identify her as you.”
5.A shot of a small fire on the stove, Tommy adding newspaper to it. Caption: “‘I took her folded corpse from a small trunk in the basement, put it in the kitchen, and set fire to the house as I’d been ordered.’”
6.A shot of this girl that looks like Irene, lying on the floor of the kitchen as the flames inch towards her. Caption: “‘And I left.’”
7.A close-up of the girl’s dead face, eyes still open as the flames burn and melt her face, her hair aflame.

Page 9
1.Irene in the bamboo room with Void and Tommy. Irene: “And what if I’d gone to the police? What if I’d stayed in Greece?”
2.A shot of the cab driver who drove Irene to her parents’ house. Irene’s seated in the back. Caption: “‘The cab drivers were associates of mine. They would have killed you.’”
3.A shot of Irene exiting her parents’ house as seen through a sniper’s scope. Caption: “‘A sniper would have killed you at your parents’ house had the police arrived or any other problem result.’”
4.Tommy looking up at her. Tommy: “But you were perfect. As I hoped you would be.” [60 | 61]
5.A large shot of Tommy bowing before Void, who sits on a bamboo dais with armed ninjas around. Caption: “‘Of course, I told Void everything upon my return.’”

Page 10
1.A shot of Void entering the conversation, the other two in the shot. Void: “He revealed his indiscretion. I told him that you would, of course, be killed. No woman would be allowed to enter, much less one not Japanese.”
2.A flashback shot of Tommy bowed before Void. Caption: “‘He suggested that you be trained instead. It was audacious, he confessed, but he promised that he thought you would do well.’”
3.A flashback shot of Tommy, speaking as he looks up at Void. Caption: “‘He said that we could put you through any trial we wanted, that we could be as severe as we wanted. But that you should be accepted if you passed them.’”
4.A flashback shot of Tommy, holding a knife to his stomach. Caption: “‘He humbly said that he would, of course, commit seppuku in penance for his disobedience, regardless of my decision. But he asked that I honor this last request of an otherwise noble warrior.’”
5.A flashback shot of Tommy with the knife to his stomach, a ninja standing over him with a ready sword. Caption: “‘His second had his sword ready when I asked him to stop.’”
6.A shot of Void pondering on his dais, Tommy before him ready to commit suicide, his second ready to cut off Tommy’s head the moment Tommy stabs himself. Caption: “‘He had disobeyed, but been careful to control the damage your life might have caused. We could have killed you the moment you landed in Japan.’”
7.A shot of Void’s face in close-up during the same flashback scene. Caption: “‘And so I told him what I’d do.’”

Page 11
1.A shot of Irene in the Japanese airport, as seen in the second issue. Caption: “‘If his knife found his belly, I would have you killed immediately. If he stayed his hand, I would honor his request.’”
2.A shot of Irene in the airport, looking lost, as Ringo approaches her. Ringo: “Mrs. Nakiotomo.” Caption: “‘He could watch how you did and consult with me on you. Only [61 | 62] when it could be determined whether you’d failed or succeeded would he pay for this chance of yours.’”
3.A shot of Tommy sitting before Void in the flashback, Tommy’s second standing in attention at his side. Tommy’s hands indicate that he’s cutting at his genitalia. Caption: “‘For this chance, he would have to castrate himself immediately.’”
4.A shot of Irene sleeping outside the gates of the ninja compound. Caption: “‘And so he watched you, his life connected with yours, unable to speak but when and what we allowed.’”
5.Irene looking over at Tommy in the bamboo room, Void between them. Irene’s in shock. We see her face clearly.
6.A shot of Tommy with his robe open, as seen slightly from the side so we don’t see his mutilation.

Page 12
1.A shot of Irene in shock, looking away from Tommy, who has his robe open. Irene: “So … you’ve been like this the whole time?”
2.Tommy’s face, as seen in profile as he looks at her. Tommy: “Yes.”
3.A shot of Irene glancing at Void. Irene: “And if I’d failed? If I’d rang that bell?”
4.A flashback shot of Irene at the bell on the mountain, contemplating ringing it. Caption: “‘Our men were told that you were theirs to do what they wanted with, so long as you were dead.’”
5.A shot of Irene looking deeply at Void. Irene: “But my succeeding … .”
6.A shot of Void staring back at her. Void: “He’s had four more years of life than he would have had. He’s remained true to our little game through the rapes, your seductions, and your service of me here, as he watched as half a man.”
7.A shot of Void in close-up. Void: “Today is more his day of triumph than yours.”

Page 13
1.A shot of Void gesturing towards Tommy. Void: “Now redeem the sin that brought you here.”
2.A shot of Irene looking over at Tommy as Void hands her a knife. Void: “Let your hand be his. Gut his stomach as in seppuku.” [62 | 63]
3.A shot of the scene as Irene steps toward Tommy, holding out the knife without hesitation. Caption: “It didn’t matter that we’d both be killed if I faltered. I didn’t care whether I lived or died, so long as I did so well.”
4.A flashback shot of Tommy standing over Irene after she’d entered the compound in issue three. Tommy: “If you love me, you will obey each of the men here as if they were myself.” Caption: “There was no dissenting opinion.”

Page 14
A full-page shot of Irene stepping into Tommy, stabbing him in the stomach in pure professional manner.

Page 15
1.A close-up of Tommy’s face, his eyes open and looking at her, his teeth gritted in pain behind his mouth.
2.A shot of the knife in Tommy’s stomach.
3.A shot of Irene looking at Tommy professionally, coldly.
4.A shot of the knife tearing across his stomach, opening it up, tearing it deeply.
5.A close-up of Tommy’s face, in a little pain but with eyes open.
6.A shot of Irene pulling out the knife.
7.A large shot of Tommy collapsing on his back, his gut opened, as Irene stands over him with the bloody knife.

Page 16
A black page.
Caption #1: “It wasn’t enjoyable, but it was easy.”
Caption #2: “I never loved him more than I loved him at that moment, though in an entirely different way than I ever had before, as if I’d never been an adult before that moment.”
Caption #3: “He’d been in the house as I’d panicked. As I’d longed for him. But he’d done it for me, the only way he could, bound by the same rules I was now pledged to follow.”
Caption #4: “He was a traitor. To everything he’d brought me to know and respect.”
Caption #5: “But he was triumphant at the end, and I knew then that I was that triumph, my life an experiment he’d guessed correctly.”
Caption #6: “I didn’t know the silly girl I’d been before, in another life, and if this was a new life it was a gift from him, [63 | 64] purchased with his life, taken in triumph from the hand of the instrument he’d sacrificed himself to let that girl become.”

Page 17
1.A shot of Irene looking over at Void, though he’s off-panel. Caption: “All was right with the world.” Irene: “May I?”
2.Void looking down at Tommy’s body, though it’s off-panel.
3.A similar shot. Void: “Yes.”
4.A large shot of Irene getting down on the floor by Tommy as Void stands over them, a bit further back.
5.A shot of Void bowing his head.
6.A shot of Void exiting the room through a sliding panel, opening it.
7.A shot of Void closing the panel behind him.

Page 18
A beautiful full-page shot of Irene fellating Tommy, caressing him with one hand and holding his hand with the other. Tommy’s mouth has a bubble of blood on it. Caption: “His sex had died a day or so after I’d been taken by the first man beside him, but I felt his life ebbing away through his organ, now mutilated, against my tongue and throat.”

Page 19
A black page.
Caption #1: “After some time, I realized he was dead and stopped.”
Caption #2: “This feeble attempt to show him I would have given him what I’d given so many others ... .”
Caption #3: “I hope it gave him some small happiness in his final moments, though he could no longer show me his satisfaction.”

Page 20
A full-page shot of Irene emerging from the building through the sliding door through which she entered.

Page 21
A full-page shot of Irene walking away from the building, looking confident, herself for the first time, not happy nor sad, just her. [64 | 65]

Page 22
A series of tier-wide panels.
1.A shot of Cinderella losing her glass slipper as she runs away from the ball. Caption: “As I’d become Cinderella, the pauper girl rescued by the wealthy noble, ...”
2.A shot of Ariadne on the shore as Theseus’s ship sails away. Caption: “… as I’d become Ariadne, abandoned by her beloved foreign husband, ...”
3.A shot of Tommy knifing Irene’s father. Caption: “… as I’d become Elektra, slayer of my father, parricide, ...”
4.A shot of Lucretia from classical mythology, raped and with her hands as bleeding stumps. Caption: “... as I’d become Lucretia, raped to exhaustion, desecrated beyond life itself, ...”
5.An abstract shot of Irene’s hand on the knife in Tommy’s open gut. The shot is odd and disturbing for its abstract nature, like something out of Bill Sienkiewicz’s good work or like the similar strange blood effect in The Mystery Play by Morrison and Muth. Caption: “... so I became Klytæmnestra, slayer of my husband -- in my case, the only man who’d truly loved me.”

Page 23
A full-page shot of Irene walking through the ninja compound. Caption: “So I became Irene.”

Page 24
1.A large tier-wide panel. All black. Caption: “It was all different after that.”
2.A much larger tier-wide shot of Irene in costume with the other ninjas, eating with chopsticks and talking together. Caption: “I was one of them, male in their eyes, worthy of respect as the best of them.”

Page 25
1.A page-high, half-page-wide shot of Irene standing on a rooftop in New York City, her longbow raised into the air at almost a 45 degree angle. Caption: “I wanted for nothing. I had only to request something to receive it.”
2.A page-high, half-page-wide shot of a businessman leaning his head down to get into the back seat of a car, his briefcase in hand. An arrow is suddenly piercing his head, [65 | 66] which is screaming. Caption: “But I wanted nothing save what I needed. The only freedom I’d ever found was in quiet discipline.”

Page 26
1.Irene entering a hotel room wearing sunglasses, a tank top, and jeans.
2Irene tossing off the sunglasses as the door, in the background, closes behind her. Caption: “I still met Ringo as my contact.”
3.Irene taking off her jeans as Ringo watches in the background from inside the hotel room. The camera’s between Irene and the door. Irene: “I’ve got to get out of these jeans. I hate them!”
4.A reverse shot as Ringo approaches as she takes off her top in the background, the door behind her. She’s got a bra and panties underneath. The jeans are at her feet. Irene: “It’s a good disguise, this trashy junk. I’d never wear it!”
5.Here we see Ringo as he approaches her. He’s trying to act professional. Ringo: “Success?”
6.Here we see Irene, basically in a bikini, looking very stuck up, rushing past Ringo with no physical acknowledgment. Irene: “Of course.”

Page 27
1.Here we see Irene sitting on the hotel bed. Irene: “You have my sleeping potion? I’m eager to get back.”
2.Ringo in close-up gazing over at her with slightly malicious intent. Subtle -- don’t play it up for laughs. Ringo: “So am I.”
3.Ringo’s hands handing Irene’s hands a small glass.
4.A close-up on Irene’s lips as she drinks.
5.A large panel showing Irene passed out on the bed as Ringo sets the glass down. Caption #1: “They can’t take sexual advantage of me anymore. Except for Ringo, that is.” Caption #2: “I essentially outrank him, could get him to stop, and could get him disciplined.”
6.A small panel showing Ringo’s waist as he unbuttons. Caption: “But it’s so pathetic that one can’t hate it. And so I let him keep this little pleasure.” [66 | 67]

Page 28
1.A large shot of Irene walking past a Greek Orthodox church in a big city. Caption: “There are times when it gets to me, ...”
2.A photograph of Irene and Tommy marrying. Caption: “… when I think of marrying Tommy, of the joy of the new, of when everything was exciting and alright.”
3.A shot of Irene walking on the street, seeming professional but wiping away a streak of tears. Caption: “Sometimes I think of all the rapes, too many to count. And sometimes I cry.”
4.A shot of Irene stabbing a man in at a crowded subway station as bodies are pressed together. Caption: “But it doesn’t cripple me. I can do this in my sleep.”
5.A shot from the same angle as the man slumps and a few others look at him as Irene walks off in the distance. Caption: “I don’t have any answers except that there are no answers, that there is death and life and it is what it is.”

Page 29
A full-page shot of Irene asleep in total blackness. Caption #1: “I don’t long for more anymore. It’s been raped out of me. It died at the tip of a knife in the gut of the man who I continue to obey after his death.” Caption #2: “And I can laugh at that, at the ridiculous melodrama that is life, that is pain, even as I feel it.”

Page 30
1.A shot of Irene with a sword to a priest’s throat. It looks like an apartment in a big city. There’s a window and through it we see that it’s night out. She’s sitting in a chair, bound with tape. Irene: “And that’s my story.”
2.A close-up on the priest’s head as seen in profile, the sword to his throat. Priest: “My daughter, ... you have committed many sins.”
3.A shot of Irene staring down her sword at the camera. She’s emotionless.
4.A shot of the priest’s face in extreme close-up. It looks tense. Priest: “Do you ... ever think of what comes after? When your work … when it kills you?”
5.A close-up of Irene looking off and slightly up. Irene: “Perhaps I’ll find myself in heaven. Perhaps I can put down my [67 | 68] weapons as I never will in life.”
6.A similar shot, only with Irene looking down again. Irene: “Perhaps there’s nothing. It doesn’t matter in terms of my life here on Earth. It’s a waste of time to think about it.”

Page 31
1.A shot of cherry blossoms falling through a white, sunny sky.
2.A shot of Irene looking up into the light as cherry blossoms cascade down upon her, as seen from a worm’s eye view. Caption: “Instead of living. Instead of shutting off your mind and just being.”
3.A shot of Irene in the cherry blossoms on the grounds of the ninja compound. Caption: “That is peace. If there’s a greater peace, it’s not to be found or understood in this world.”

Page 32
1.A wide shot of Irene looking down the blade, which is very close to the camera along this line panel. Her eyes are close to the blade and gazing down it. Irene: “This is a world where mutilating corpses, where rape camps, where ... landmines in kindergarten playgrounds are legitimate tactics.”
2.A large shot of the room, with Irene and the priest marginalized on the right side of the panel. We see a bed, its covers askew. Priest: “How can you say that? That is, I mean, that’s terrible! We’re talking about ... about innocents. About civilians. About kids. God ... .”
3.Irene leaning into the priest, looking him in the eyes while keeping the sword level. Irene: “Of course they’re legitimate tactics. They work, don’t they? The hand of God doesn’t descend to stop those who use them.”
4.An angled close-up on the priest’s mouth area. Priest: “But civilians ... innocents … .”
5.Irene’s lips whispering in his ear. Irene: “These words mean nothing.”

Page 33
A full-page shot. Mostly black save for Irene’s sword and the somewhat distorted reflection of her face near its hilt, the top of which is just visible at the bottom of the page. Irene (balloon #1): “You make these rules, these arbitrary classifications.” Irene (balloon #2): “Children are vicious. They’ll beat up a [68 | 69] poor begging girl.” Irene (balloon #3): “Civilians always contribute to the war effort.” Irene (balloon #4): “If innocence means ignorance, better the innocent die than the knowledgeable, whose contribution is greater.” Irene (balloon #5): “Good applies to skills, to obedience to one’s betters, but not to souls. At least as anyone can label in this life.”

Page 34
A full-page shot of the priest, shocked, stammering, in close-up. His eyes tilt up at an odd angle to look at her. Priest: “But … but you were raped.”

Page 35
A full-page extreme close-up on Irene’s lips, looking sultry, speaking soft. Irene (balloon #1): “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Irene (balloon #2): “Precisely because it stripped away all your anxious terminology. All the bullshit that let me feel safe or be nervous over feeling I wasn’t.”

Page 36
1.The bound priest, a sword to his throat, as Irene walks behind him. Priest: “Daughter, you … you were raped. Traumatized. A girl who went through more … more than anyone could bear.”
2.The priest’s face looking up at her behind him. Priest: “Don’t you see? You tell me this story. You go into detail.”
3.A flashback panel of the priest asleep in bed, awakened to a sword at his throat. Caption: “You wake me up.”
4.The priest putting on his priest outfit as Irene stands beside him with a sword. Caption: “You have me put on the cloth.”
5.A shot of Irene taping the priest into the chair. Caption: “You bind me to this chair.”
6.A shot of Irene leaning over the priest with a sword at his throat. Caption: “And you tell me I’m going to hear your confession.”
7.A shot of the priest looking up at Irene, who’s in the panel. He’s really trying to identify with her. Priest: “You’re a Greek Orthodox girl and I’m a Greek Orthodox priest. You’ve been through hell on earth worse than anyone I’ve known, and you have to bind me to a chair to feel comfortable enough to [69 | 70] open up.”
8.An extreme close-up of the priest, especially his eyes, looking up at her. Priest: “It’s okay to need to confess. And I understand your defensiveness. Daughter, it’s okay.”

Page 37
1.Irene, emotionless, looking at the priest.
2.A similar shot, only here she’s speaking. Irene: “Let me tell you something that happened to me.”
3.A shot of Irene on a rooftop at night. Caption: “I was in New York and I heard screams.”
4.A shot of a woman, her long hair pulled by one brutish man as a fat man punches her and another stands by with a bat. Caption: “It was a woman being assaulted by three attackers. Big men. Beating her.”
5.A similar view of the same scene, only now the fat man is removing his pants. Caption: “They gang-raped her. And you know what I did, having suffered the same a thousand times?”
6.A black panel. Caption: “Nothing.”
7.Irene on the rooftop with a sniper’s rifle. Caption: “It wasn’t my mission, nor my business -- and, with my life as evidence, who was to say whether suffering was good or bad?”
8.Irene’s finger pulling the trigger. Caption: “I killed a man a few minutes later, and my ease doing so and walking away, knowing that I’d been good, was the final sign of certainty for me.”

Page 38
1.The priest looking up towards Irene. Priest: “I don’t believe you. How do you know anything they told you was true? How do you know Tommy did what he said he did?”
2.Irene looking down over his head, as seen from above her head. Irene: “Because I know them. The way they think. And if it’s a lie, who cares? It’s a life. And it feels good.”
3.A reverse of the last panel, with the camera below his head and looking up as he looks up at her. Priest: “How can you say that? If you know they may be lying to you… .”
4.A profile of the scene. Irene: “Anything in this world could be a lie. If I find out that’s the case, I’ll act accordingly. But I probably wouldn’t be too upset.” [70 | 71]
5.A shot of Irene and the blade silhouetted against the window, the priest just a mass in the chair, ill-defined by contrast due to their position. Irene: “I’m sure they’d have a reason, and they’ve given me the only lasting happiness, not giddy newlywed happiness but happiness of the spirit, a deep happiness that doesn’t bubble up like that.”
5.A shot of Irene on the ninja compound in the rain, her clothes drenched to her body, her arms outstretched. Caption: “A calm.”
6.A close-up of Irene’s outstretched palm as rain falls into it.

Page 39
1.A shot of the priest in the chair. Priest: “Then why want me to hear your confession?”
2.A close-up but askew shot of Irene’s face, the light cascading over her face, half dark. Irene: “As a favor a girl who died a couple lifetimes ago.”
3.A shot of the priest in the chair. Priest: “No. You’re Greek Orthodox. Born and raised. You may have fallen away from the faith, but … but you need to confess, to reconnect to that whether you’re admitting it or not.”
4.A shot of the priest’s collar in close-up. Priest (off-panel): “God is still there for you. Why else would you choose a Greek Orthodox priest?”
5.Irene leaning over him from behind, looking down into his eyes as seen from above. She looks powerful, smooth, confident. Irene: “I didn’t. Your brother the gangster did. You’re a message to him. And you’re projecting, imagining my rape was you witnessing your family beat some guy’s teeth out or something.”
6.The priest’s head, cropped off at the bottom by the panel border, closing his eyes as he responds. Priest: “No. I’ve made my peace with that. This isn’t about me. This is about you.”
7.The priest’s head looking up into her eyes. Priest: “I’ve never known a rape victim who couldn’t be healed by realizing that Jesus, that God Himself, actually loves you.”

Page 40
A full-page shot of the priest’s head and shoulders as he looks up at Irene, who’s head is just over his and looking down. Her [71 | 72] sword has sliced through most of his neck, straight back like a sausage on a cupboard. Irene is smiling calmly but honestly. Irene: “You’re right. That does make me smile.”

Page 41
1.A silhouette of the priest’s corpse in the chair, his head tilted back anormally, his flesh cut to ribbons, blood dripping down onto the floor in a pool. Caption: “I use a legitimate tactic to add a few punctuation marks.”
2.Irene walking down the stairwell of the building. Caption: “He was a nice man, even if he couldn’t understand.”
3.Irene exiting the building and heading down the big city street. Caption: “It’d be nice if he did find peace before I needed his body for a postcard. It wasn’t my peace, and it makes me smile to think it true, but even wanting that peace in the next world means anxious selves in this one, arguing over the meaningless, attempting to classify the arbitrary.”
4.A large shot of Irene disappearing down the street among the others out at this hour. Caption: “My mind is constantly fading into calm, aware without thinking, ready to die without complaint but bound to my clan that has resurrected me into this role, this passive instrument.”

Pages 42
A full-page shot of the people of the city and a few streets, Irene no longer recognizable.
Caption #1: “And with these thoughts, my identity dissolves like so much terminology.”
Caption #2: “I am a part of a universe of pull and counter-pull, wind and rain, chirp and hum.”
Caption #3: “I find stillness with the swing of a sword at the moment that’s just right, when the universe makes obvious that a lifetime of waiting should end, and I let it blow me into movement as a leaf from a tree.”
Caption #4: “A blade like that, slicing through a man’s skull, unleashed without thought, and thus with precision: that is peace.”
Caption #5: “I walk with the crowd, becoming part of them, dissolving into them, tuning my soul to the rhythm of their step, mimicking the tension of their arms and eyes and soul. So focused on them that I forget the me.” [72 | 73]

Page 43
A full-page shot of the people of the city and the city itself, individual people hardly recognizable at all.
Caption #1: “I am Irene. I kill and I am gone, vanished because I dissolve, like a drop in an ocean, into a universe that telegraphs its moves, that writes every feeling, every thought, every movement on every breeze of a billion subtleties of smell and sound and taste, too fine for communication even to one’s self.”
Caption #2: “When you don’t feel this, you are misaligned, tense like some shaking part of a moving whole. Close your eyes, relax, and see.”
Caption #3: “I have no thought but that thought is illusion. You know someone is in the room before you see him because you’re not looking for him, filtering the information the universe provides with a colander of logic full of large holes.”
Caption #4: “There is no world to know, and if you know this you know the world.”
Caption #5: “I feel the utter illusion of the self, of knowing, and in this there is total freedom.”
Caption #6: “Freedom to die. Freedom to kill. Freedom not to care. Freedom.”

Page 44
A full-page black panel. Caption: “At one with nothingness.”

[end page 73]