A few steps in, and a second whickering of light.

Three more steps, a door.

The third whickering of light revealed the demon at the end of the hall.  It slouched in the corner like an aberration, wearing the skin of a prepubescent girl.  The demon appeared to be covered in smears of mud.  Her hair stringy and greasy, obscuring her face.  The demon wore what appeared to be angels’ wings, black feathers strapped across its back, its hands were like scythes.

I leveled lex.

The demon did not move.  For some reason, it had allowed the boy to go.

Light danced in the heavens.

I realized it wasn’t mud that covered the demon, it was blood, long trailing smears of blood.

The hallway reeked of slaughter.

“We were wondering when you’d get here,” the demon said, a thousand voices speaking at once.

I almost pulled the trigger, finger quivering, eye twitching.  Sweat beaded my upper lip, threatened my brow.  I’d seen ‘her’ kind before.  Not one of them, but oft times guarding them.

The demon began twitching its ‘fingers’, each scythe grating against the other.

What do you want to bet ‘she’ can move faster than I can shoot?  I was about to find out when Saul reentered the hall.

“Hey mister,” he said, “I changed my mind-

“Run,” I screamed, as the demon launched itself after him!

Lightning followed by thunder, thunder, thunder-

My first shot missed entirely, blowing a fist-sized hole in the wall next to where the demon slouched.  The next two shots connected, one punching a quarter-sized hole just below the demon’s collarbone, coming out its back and scattering a handful of feathers, the other hitting smack dab in the middle of the ‘girls’ chest- exiting and shattering the window behind it.

Neither shot slowed it down a bit!

Metal glint as the demon passes by- I twist as razor-sharp scythes slice- sudden intense pain in my right side, just below the armpit.  I scream, drop lex.  Such was the impact, I am shoved through the wall beside me, and into the room beyond, scattering sheetrock, wallpaper, and wood.  My head slams into the footboard of a bed-

Darkness!

I come to slowly, sprawled, leg kicked up, head sticky with blood.  Lex lies next to me.  I’m covered in pieces of sheetrock, plaster, and dust.

Memories return- demon, gunfire…

I look around.  I don’t see the demon or the boy.

I fumble for lex, fingers numb- all I do is push it around, unable to get a grip.  Intense agony erupts all along my right side.  A groan escapes my lips.

“It’s about time you awoke,” a voice says, greasy and guttural.

It comes from behind me.

Grabbing my right side, I attempt to turn myself around and fail.  My left leg is hung up in the remains of the wall.  I reach for lex, only to see it taken away by a hand in the dark.

The sickening stench of honeysuckle…

They!  Even as I think it, the laughter begins again.  I kick myself free and turn around-

A series of windows line the wall to my right, what would have been the back of the saloon.  There is an enormous bed beside me, its footboard elegantly carved and stained.  Red stains one outstretched claw.  It is a King’s bed, blood-red sheets, and a duvet heavy with embroidery.  Off to my left, stands a series of heavy dressers, equally impressive as the bed, darkly stained and carved.

A sudden light appears as an oil lamp is lit, then another.  Golden yellow begins to fill the room, lighting the space.

Pictures hang on the walls, painted scenes of coastlines, black volcanic rock, and the deep blue-green of the Mediterranean.  Another painting shows a schooner amidst a sea of glass, its sails limp.

The skies behind the schooner are on fire with the setting sun.

A chair sets close by, red-velvet seat, clawed legs.  Next to the chair, a closed door.  Next to the door, a pair of heavy black boots, European.

“Where are you,” I ask.  Speaking causes, me to cough, once, then twice, each time an endless agony of pain.

“I am here,” the voice says.  The bed creaks.

With effort, I struggle to my feet.

Two people are in the room with me.  One I take to be the ‘Fancy Lady’, black dress, black veil.  The other is an abomination!  A man so immense, so obese, my mind cannot comprehend.

I am reminded of an immense, bloated parasite.  It is from this individual, this man, that the stench emanates from.

Corruption… disease… waste

The man’s flesh glistens, rolls of fat, hands, little more than sausages.  The man turns to face me; he is completely hairless, almost sexless in his immensity.  And when ‘he’ speaks, my skin crawls.

I lean heavily against the bed frame, blood trickles down my side.

The fat man holds lex casually like one might handle something trivial.  The ‘Fancy Lady’ watchs.

Without warning, the ‘thing’ on the bed turns lex over, points it at me, and pulls the trigger-

Thunder and lightning-

The pain is unlike anything I have ever felt.  Like I’ve been kicked in the gut by a mule.

I am grabbed up, spun around, and thrown against the wall, as the bullet tears through my left side.  I end up face down, a sunrise of pain blossoming the entire length of my abdomen, blood washing out of me.

“I think you killed me,” I groan.

“That was my intent,” the fat man wheezes.

The world began to narrow down.  So, this is it.  This is how I die!

I am surprised more than anything.  Never in a million years did I ever consider I would be killed by lex…

Nothing…

The battlefield sprawls around me, a rocky hill under a sullen sky, angry.  Dark stones stand, pennants wave.

The air reeks of blood and excrement.

This is more than battle- this is war!

Bodies cover every square inch of green, broken, and twisted amidst churned mud.

Gore crow’s circle.

I cannot find Roland.

I no longer have the strength to hold my blade, bloodied, and wet.  Its point digs into the blood-soaked earth.

Smoke billows from somewhere behind me.  Camboglanna, in all its beauty, burns.

I remove my helmet; let it fall.  The man I seek, once a boy, nowhere to be found- but he is here, and he is near!

I can feel it.  I can feel him.

Blood calls to blood- stain to sin!

Rage fills me, I rear back and face the sky, “Mordred….!”

Part Five follows…