Infernas

"You couldn't save Cory and Malcolm from the fire. They're with us now."

- The Girls, taunting Torque in good/neutral playthroughs

"You threw Cory and Malcolm into the fire. They're with us now."

- The Girls, taunting Torque on evil playthroughs

The Three Puritan Girls are a trio of minor villains from the 2004 horror game The Suffering, numbering among the many ghosts tormenting protagonist Torque throughout his journey across Carnate Island while also serving as powerful enemies late in the game. Likely the only Malefactors to possess recognizable personalities and lives outside of combat, the names of these ghostly children have been lost to history, and as such are known only by the alias given to them by Clem.

Appearance
At once ghosts and Malefactors, each member of the trio possess two distinctive forms: the first and more human of the two, encountered over the majority of their time in the game, is that of a young girl of approximately thirteen years of age; dark-haired, pale and dressed in Puritan-era clothing, they carry hand-made dolls wherever they go - later revealed to be explosive talismans. All three girls look quite similar - though it's not certain if this is some side-effect of their supernatural nature, or if they are actually siblings. However, even in this form, it's made abundantly clear that these children are not human, for they will occasionally leave glowing red footprints in the ground.

Late in the game, they manifest their second form - that of the Inferna Malefactor: little more than a charred, burning corpse in the tattered remains of Puritan dresses, the Infernas are perpetually wreathed in flames and possess only a tertiary resemblance to human children - tough they still wield the same hand-made dolls they carried in their initial form. Unlike their ghost-selves, the Infernas can be harmed and actually destroyed, crumbling into a heap of glowing ashes that must be dispersed lest the Malefactor resurrect itself.

Behavior
As the only Malefactors to demonstrate anything close to personality in the entire game, the Three Girls retain their original identities from the days when they were still alive: as such, all three possess a childish sense of cruelty and a vicious, spiteful sense of humor throughout their appearances, exhibiting little - if any - regard for the lives of others. Regularly taunting Torque over the fate of his sons, they confront him with visions of Malcolm and Cory lying dead at his feet, needling him over his inability to save them - if not outright accusing him of murdering them himself; later, they can be seen playing hopscotch with Cory's ghost, cheekily asking Torque if he wants to join them. At one point, the girls can even crank-call Torque, asking if they can play with Malcolm and Cory, and upon "hearing" that both boys are dead, gleefully ask if they can play anyway. Furthermore, they can often be seen spying on Torque from a distance prior to their tenure as enemies, hurriedly sprinting away if he gets too close - audibly giggling as they do so.

Outside of their initial interactions with Torque, the three girls take great delight in committing arson, especially when it results in death and destruction: already introduced barring the path ahead with an exploding doll and a sadistic giggle, it's implied that most of the larger fires set throughout the game are their handiwork; in particular, the destruction of Carnate's only civilian settlement is directly linked to them, especially given that the Infernas emerge as combatants when Torque's escape attempt leads him towards the burning ruins of the town. Furthermore, they hunt as regularly as any other Malefactor in the game, and some Corrections Officers were so terrified of "those girls" that they resorted to hiding in the Burrower-haunted caverns of the island. Finally, they even go so far as to re-enact their first crimes by igniting the pyre site where the witch-burnings took place.

As with many characters on the island, it's not certain how much of their sadistic behavior was due to their own personality and how much was caused by exposure to Carnate Island's unique nature, but it presumably played a role: towards the very end of the game, the Girls seemingly regain some sense of lucidity, reacting with confusion and weariness to their surroundings, remarking "who are all these strange people?" and "we've been playing for so long." Later, flashing back to the crimes they committed in life, they swing wildly between sociopathic contempt and grief-stricken remorse, some of them even going so far as to cry "I take it all back." As such, their part in the story ends with them re-enacting the events of their presumed death - jumping from the cliffs of Carnate into the ocean.

Origins
In the 17th century, Carnate Island was settled by Puritan pilgrims who established a small settlement on the island's coast, well away from the ominous forests and caverns that dominated the heart of Carnate. Named Goodsmouth, it was in this town that the three girls were born and raised: though their real names and the details of their lives prior to the disaster are unknown, it can be presumed that they enjoyed relatively normal childhoods. However, Carnate Island has an unnatural tendency to drive individuals to extremes, gradually exaggerating their natural tendencies into nightmarish caricatures, and the three girls were no exception.

In 1681, a thirteen year-old girl suddenly accused a fellow villager of witchcraft, shocking the town with wild claims of pacts with the devil; backed up by her two close friends, she went on to accuse no less than eleven people. Already on-edge from life on an island so grim and forbidding that even the Natives refused to set foot on it, the Puritans quickly succumbed to mass hysteria, having all eleven of the accused arrested, tried and executed. However, rather than simply hanging the condemned, as was the accepted method of execution in other notable witch-trials, Goodsmouth's authorities had the "witches" burned at the stake.

It soon became apparent that the condemned were innocent: initially, the three girls had been simply accusing people they personally disliked, but had continued because they'd enjoyed the power they'd held over both the accused and the angry mobs. All three accusers then simply vanished from Goodsmouth and were never seen again: from Torque's visions later in the game, it can be presumed that they were driven to suicide by the crimes they'd committed, and jumped to their deaths from the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

Events Of The Game
As with the other ghosts and Malefactors encountered throughout the game, the three girls return in the Cataclysm following Torque's arrival on Carnate.