The air in the town of Serra grew heavy with a dread that no prayer could lift. In a cramped apartment, far from the eyes of any honest constable, a tragedy unfolded that would make the stoutest heart shudder. A scoundrel by the name of Brian Fernando Jimenez Souza, a man of twenty-six years who fancied himself a banisher of demons, turned a dwelling into a torture chamber.

For a mere month, he had known young Marceli de Oliveira Gottardo. But on that fateful day, the pair had been indulging in the vile fumes of narcotics. In a fit of drug-induced delirium, Souza became convinced that the poor girl was possessed by some foul, infernal entity. He decided then and there to 'cleanse' her soul—not with faith, but with brutality.

Neighbors, startled by heart-rending screams that pierced the silence of the street, summoned the authorities. When the officers burst through the door, they found a scene of utter horror. Poor Gottardo lay lifeless, her face a mask of agony. There were the tell-tale marks of strangulation upon her throat, blood seeping from her ears, and bruises that painted a picture of savage violence.

The surgeon's knife later revealed the grim truth during the autopsy: the girl had perished from a massive intracranial hematoma and severe cranial trauma. She had been beaten senseless with a blunt instrument, all while her tormentor claimed to be fighting demons.

The self-proclaimed exorcist was apprehended on the spot, caught red-handed in his bloody madness. He has since confessed to the deed and now languishes behind iron bars, awaiting the judge's gavel.

Alas, such is the dark fruit of superstition. Only recently, another wretched case reached our ears from the same Brazilian lands, where a group of zealots bound an elderly woman to a cross and beat her in a bid to drive out devils. The poor soul could not withstand the torture and breathed her last, a victim of those who mistake cruelty for salvation.