Deviation Actions
Description
Does this need a mature content filter because of the blood...? I'm not sure, since I kinda suck at gore anyway so I don't think it's that bad. *shrug*
Scroll down for the written story!
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Nicodemus Woolwine
Mortal Reference: [Link]
Demon Reference: [Link]
Cover Page: Divine Inferno - Cover Page
Page 1: YOU ARE HERE!
Page 2: Audition - Page 2
Page 3: Audition - Page 3
Page 4: Audition - Page 4
Page 5: Audition - Page 5
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..:: STORY ::..
Prologue (Note: Not all narratives will be this long, this is just the big fat intro!)
Once upon a time, Nicodemus Woolwine wanted to be a doctor. Throughout his childhood and adult life he studied diligently until he made his way into the field. While finishing up his schooling, he met and married his lovely wife Amelia. Within a couple years, they were blessed with the promise of a child. However, Amelia fell victim to an illness. Due to complications, the infection overtook her, and during childbirth both she and the baby died. Heartbroken, Nick focused his attentions on finishing up school and becoming a doctor, with an eye for infectious diseases so he could help prevent and cure such diseases as the one that took his family.
He quickly became proficient in the field. Though not yet widely known, those who worked closely with him were consistently impressed with Nick’s abilities. When a mysterious disease broke out in the town of his practice, St. Francis, Nick leaped into the fray, doing everything n his power to help stop the infections.
Panel 1
Nick fell heavily into his large desk chair. It had been a long day. Looking through microscopes, helping care for his patients, and experimenting with ways to stop the new disease. He was low on staff, and thus had to pull double or triple shifts just to keep up with all the work that had to be done. He was currently experimenting with holy water and its strange ability to slow the multiplication of the pathogens considerably. However, nothing he had found as of yet could completely stop it or prevent it. He was fighting an uphill battle with a peashooter against an army with nuclear bombs.
He sighed and reached over to pick up the black top hat that was resting on his desk. He ran the brim through his fingers, his chronically sad-looking eyebrows scrunching in thought. He loved hats, always had. Everything from warm beanies to suave fedoras to tacky antler-clad Christmas hats. He owned dozens. For his birthday one year, his wife bought him this top hat. He remembered that beautiful smile of hers as she reached out to place the hat on his head. Now he put the hat and gazed into the slightly reflective surface of the dark window. It pleased him that his hat matched his doctor outfit.
The doctors who stayed behind to study the new disease all wore black lab coats. It was a small joke amongst them that they were the new-and-improved plague doctors of the 21st century. The last plague to have black-clad plague doctors was the Black Death, otherwise known as the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century. Though instead of face masks, they wore primitive gas masks shaped like bird beaks filled with good-smelling herbs, spices, and flowers that worked to filter out the smell of the diseased and dying. Instead of lab coats, they wore wax-covered black robes that was somewhat effective at warding off the germs.
Nicodemus shook himself out of his reverie, and took off his hat to stare at its velvety surface nervously. Those noble plague doctors of old often died with their patients. That was one thing he didn’t want to imitate, that’s for sure. But this new disease was so easily spread. It wasn’t airborne, thank the stars, but a single scratch or bite from an infected person or animal could prove fatal. They were often easy enough to recognize however, the infected, as the pathogen hideously mutated its victim, twisting their mind and destroying their body from the inside-out. Most died within a day or two without treatment, and even then it was impossible to completely stop the process. However, some seemed to overcome the pathogen, and somehow gained the capability of controlling the new abilities the mutations gave them. These survivors were commonly called demons.
Nick set his hat down on the desk and scoffed at the idea. There was no such thing as a real demon. The name was merely given to the infected because of their resemblance to the evil, mindless demons of yore. The mutations simply stemmed from the alterations on the brain and DNA the disease had on the victims, turning them into biological anomalies, no more.
If the presence of the disease was caught early on, treatments of blessings and holy water seemed to slow the progress of the infection. Nick thought this was merely the placebo effect, the patients believed they were being cured by this divine intervention, and thus their body fought harder against the disease. Things such as this happened all the time in medical practice, and sometimes doctors would prescribe sugar pills under the guise of another medication, and the patients would gain the same effects of the real pill simply by believing that it’s real. The power the mind has over the body is incredible, you could make yourself sick or sometimes cure yourself simply by thinking about it in some cases.
It was for this reason Nicodemus was studying the effects of holy water on the pathogen. It really did seem to have an effect on it, much more so than other samples of both distilled, bottled, and tap waters. Holding to the placebo effect, this made no sense. Nick rested his head on his hand and closed his eyes, deep in thought. The only logical explanation was that there was something in the water, some mineral or other element that must be doing harm to the pathogen. Something in the church’s water source that was different from his own pipes. He visited the church frequently, requesting gallons of the water and an occasional blessing for a troubled patient. They were often glad to oblige. He especially enjoyed the company of one of the deacons, a lad by the name of Gabriel. Though Nicodemus was not a religious man himself, he admired the dedication Gabriel had to his faith, and even more so his love for humanity. It reminded him of his own dedication to his line of work and mission to help people.
Panels 2, 3, 4 (see? I told you not all of it will be long!)
Nick was yanked out of his reverie by some loud crashing and strangled screaming coming from down the hall. Grabbing his hat, he ran out of the office toward the noise, which seemed to come from the lab. He peeked around the corner.
Panel 5
There was some kind of dog in the lab. Nick always hated dogs, and seeing one in his lab destroying things was simply infuriating. He leaned out around the corner a bit farther to get a better look at the damage, and almost immediately regretted it.
Upon closer inspection, this was no dog. Perhaps once it might have been, but this thing had obviously been infected by the demon virus. It had lost most of its fur, save for a mangy patch on the top of its head. Its pinkish-grey skin was stretched taunt over its scrawny, bony body, and a ragged green color with a small tag hung loosely from its neck. Its ears were large and strangely shaped, and it had large nostrils, huge discolored claws, and long yellow teeth from which hung a bloody chunk of meat. Below its snapping maw was a freshly torn open nurse.
Panel 6
Nick’s jaw dropped, and before he could duck for cover, the dog thing swung its head to look at him, gore dripping from its mouth. It seemed to almost smile as its black eyes bored into nick. It quickly stood up and lunged at Nick, who barely had time to turn around and flee toward his office. He desperately hoped that all those years of running marathons and jogging would grant him the speed to get to the door before the dog got to him.
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