At the cemetery on the hillside, a small congregation gathered around a small open grave. Ray McCallister loomed over the pit, chin down to keep his face shrouded in his hat brim's shadow. The heat wasn't so bad; the scent of sage travelled on an unusually cool breeze. The day would have been enjoyable under different circumstances. As Reverend Flockheed gave his final words, the two grim men in matching black outfits at his sides lowered the little closed casket into the earth.  Ray clutched a string of turquoise beads to his heart and mouthed his own silent blessing. Flowers were tossed onto the casket and the grim men covered them in dirt.<br/><br/>The mother sobbed next to Ray. She whored at Scarlet Dove's, Sangre de Madre's very own brothel. Her name was Darla. Only her closest friends knew she had had a little boy, until Ray dreamt of him while sleeping in the wilderness. In the dream, the boy was locked in a dark room. A beast from another place banged at the door, screaming, laughing, and begging for entrance. The boy cried for help. When Ray woke, he followed the cry. After 60 miles by horse, he reached Sangre de Madre and met the mother and son. It was too late; the beast had settled into the child. The priest and doctor said he was beyond help. Without anyone else to turn to, Darla invited the stranger in.<br/><br/>The boy was strapped to his bed, in a room in the basement of Scarlet Dove's. His skin had turned chalk white, covered in bright red scratches that spelled out words in ancient script. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, but you could feel the bloodshot whites follow you in the cold dark. He would grin with rotten teeth and call out the names of your ancestors, and tell you how they were spending eternity in Hell. The demon that corrupted his body called itself Saleos and he took the boy's soul hostage.<br/><br/>For days, Ray knelt at the demon's bedside, torturing it with herbs, chants, stones and metals. "You pig filth," Saleos growled. His voice was alien, deep, it came from the depths of nightmares.  "I'll skin you and roll you in balefire pitch. I'll feed your mother to the chitinous nether hounds. I'll-" Ray cut him off, shoving a bulky head of garlic in his mouth and punched his jaw, forcing his rotten teeth into the cloves. Saleos's eyes welled up and he screamed, bits of garlic shooting from his mouth like a volcanic eruption. Smoke billowed up from the pendants placed on his flesh. Symbols from the Book of Sekt were carved into each pendant, and Ray felt strong with his Lord's power. Saleos was waning. It was time to evict him.<br/><br/>Ray laid on the floor and closed his eyes, hands nestled on his chest. He retreated down, within his mind and out the doorway to the realm below - the Underworld, where all misery spawned. Ray treaded down a shadowy labyrinth. He held out the crystal (carved in the form of a stout mantis) he wore around his neck, casting an amber glow to light the way. The corridors were built with pale, crumbled stone. The stairways were slick with blood and slime. Particles of ash suspended in the air, and the sound of footsteps and screams were never far enough away. He found himself the in the dark reflection of Sangre de Madre, stunned by the overwhelming corruption. The boy's possession was not an isolated incident. The decay here signaled things to come and there  was much work to do. But first, the boy.<br/><br/>The halls and chambers twisted all sense of direction. Down, up, in, out.  Ray could picture the room in the dream. He knew where to go, but the real challenge was the mounting dread sinking his spirit. Invisible spectres brushed their fingers on the back of his neck and whispered promises of pain. He carried on and found the room.  The door was torn apart. Inside was Saleos. Horned, massive, coated in fleshy scales  and frozen by the pendants in the material realm. Black fluid leaked from his thirteen eyes, four nostrils, and his one gaping, needle toothed rictus grin. At his clawed feet was a figure, wrapped in a fabric that resembled rusted metal. The boy. Distant voices echoed down the hall. The watchers of this kingdom knew of Ray's presence. There wasn't much time.<br/><br/>Ray gripped the wrapping, straining to keep his concentration as the voices grew closer. He tore and yanked, as if he were uncovering a mummy. The fabric bit into his fingers, his blood stained where he touched. It was agony, like pulling apart barbed wire. The voices weren't far at all. A shriek pierced the air. Ray turned his head and saw his pursuer: a decomposed, bulging-eyed head the size of a barrel, fanged and oozing with venomous insects from its wounds. Its expression locked in painful malevolence and it flew at Ray.<br/><br/>Ray dashed out of its path and whipped his LeMat revolver from its holster. The head picked up the boy in its teeth and shook him like a dog that caught a rabbit. "BASTARD!" Ray shouted as the beast sprayed blood and bugs across the walls. He fired til the chambers were all empty, popping the eyes and breaking the teeth of the beast. It shrieked and fell to the floor, not dead but incapacitated. The boy's soul, however, was dead - merged with oblivion. Saleos dissolved into sour mud. With the soul gone, there was no anchor for him in the Underworld. Trapped in the material world, the boy's body could not sustain him and he died as well.  Ray buried his face in his hand, ears ringing and gun smoking.<br/><br/>He woke up on the floor in a cold sweat. The boy's appearance returned, but his life could not.<br/><br/>When the funeral procession had cleared, Darla and Ray were left alone. "I appreciate your trying," she said, wiping the tears from her face.  "You're welcome to stay with me a few nights. You'll scare off some customers but I owe you for putting yourself out like you did." She tried to smile.<br/><br/>"If you don't mind, I'd like to take his room." Ray replied, his voice quiet like cool sand trickling in an hourglass. "I could use the privacy and have some work to do."<br/><br/>She agreed and they walked back to town, silent and with arms around each others' back.<br/>