"Dixon is the demon?" Chad questioned. "How do you know?"

"Not the best time," Kairos dismissed.

Dixon took a step out of the side street and vomited a cloud of black fog. The thick gas spilled from his mouth to pool at his feet. Dixon raised his head, eyes red as blood, and grinned evilly at them. The fog around his feet surged upward and enveloped Dixon in a column of darkness.

The gargoyle nearby lowered itself into a crouch, ready to attack or defend. Kairos saw the maneuver and put a hand on Father Dane and Chad, silently encouraging them to mimic the creature's stance.

A clawed foot stepped out of the black fog surrounding Dixon. The large and leathery foot reminded Chad of a dinosaur with its three toes and razor sharp talons. As the demon, Mortifer, emerged fully from the cloud, its loathsome appearance became visible. Measuring eight feet in height, the monster had far more mass than Dixon, and its flesh was blackened and cracked similar to meat left too long on a fire.  Spurs of bone protruded from its skin along the forearms and shoulders; identical pieces of jagged bone marked its back down the length of the spine, between its leathery wings from the neck to the start of the long tail. The face was an elongated skull of charred flesh and sharpened teeth. Ribbons of black smoke rose from the glowing maw of its mouth, and the eyes burned in a resemblance of a volcano on the verge of eruption.

The gargoyle sprang forward and tackled Mortifer around its midsection, and the both of them crashed into the stone building closest to the side street where the demon had been standing. Mortifer let loose an ear hurting bellow, but only part of it came from the impact with the gargoyle. When the two of them fell against the building, the demon touched the magical symbol carved on the wall; smoke billowed from the point of contact with the symbol, and the demon's flesh burned bright orange.

A clawed hand smashed the gargoyle over the head before another strike knocked the gargoyle away completely and allowed the demon to remove itself from the magic symbol. The wings on the demon's back had been rendered useless because of the burns, restricting the monster to the ground.

Turning its malevolent gaze toward the humans standing nearby, Mortifer prepared to unleash its fury upon them. Father Dane pushed Kairos and Chad apart, barely stepping back in time before the claws slashed downward and raked the ground where the three humans had been standing a moment earlier.

Father Dane dodged two more attempts on his life, and Chad rolled across the street to avoid being stepped on.

Because the demon was so completely focused on Father Dane and Chad, it didn't notice Kairos until he lunged toward it with the warding stone. Turning quickly to one side, Mortifer swung its heavy tail and caught Kairos across the chest, knocking the wind from him and sending him tumbling down the street.

Chad lunged forward and snatched the ward stone, jumping back to his feet and running as Mortifer tried to smash the stone.

"Give me the stone!" Mortifer screamed in a voice reminding Chad of nails on a chalkboard. Sharp claws reached for Chad's back, but before they could dig in, the gargoyle landed on the demon's back, driving it to the ground.

Chad tried to keep running, but a serpentine tongue flashed out of Mortifer's mouth and wrapped around his ankle, pulling him off balance. Chad landed on his stomach, gripping the ward stone with both hands to avoid accidentally letting go. The tongue wrapped around his ankle started pulling Chad backwards, and he slammed one of the pointed ends of the stone into the dirt road, using it as an anchor to halt his slide.

The gargoyle raised both hands and slammed its fists down on the back of the demon's head. The blow caused the monster to release its hold on Chad's ankle. Chad rolled over and hurled the ward stone toward the gargoyle, who caught it and stabbed the pointed end down into Mortifer's back.

The demon's scream shook the entire town. Glyphs of bright white appeared on the ward stone, and the form of the demon turned into a fog, slowly peeling off and being drawn into the glowing marks like a vacuum sucking up smoke. When the last of Mortifer vanished into the stone, the glyphs turned red and pulsed softly.

Dixon lay in the street, bloody but alive and free of the demon who'd possessed him. The gargoyle held the ward stone in one hand and used the other to drag Dixon into a standing position.

Chad was brushing the dirt off himself when Father Dane and Kairos joined him where his run from the demon had ended.

"Are you alright?" Father Dane asked, checking Dixon and Chad for injuries before either of the boys answered.

"We're fine," Chad told the priest.

"Speak for yourself," Dixon countered. He ran his fingers through the long tears in his shirt made by the gargoyle's claws when he'd been attacked earlier. "What happened? Last thing I remember was handing over that crazy stone to the old man."

"Quite a bit has happened," Chad told him. "The stone was a prison for a demon responsible for the Black Death, you were possessed, the town drunk is the descendant of the original warriors who imprisoned the demon, and the gargoyle is the protector of the town and guardian of the stone."

Dixon suddenly noticed the living gargoyle standing beside him and almost tripped over his own feet while backing away as fast as possible.

"What of the demon?" Kairos asked.

"It's back in its cage," Chad said, nodding to the glowing symbols on the stone. "How did you know Dixon was possessed?"

"I suspected it the moment he came in the tavern," Kairos answered. "He claimed he got splinters from the door, but I've been in that tavern enough times to know those doors are sanded smooth; there aren't any splinters to catch, but there is a ward on the door which protects against demons. The second incident happened at my house when he avoided stepping on the rug. I have a magic sigil on the floor underneath, designed to trap demons. If he'd crossed it, Dixon could've walked out, but it would have held the demon behind. Since I knew the gargoyle was the guardian, it provided the final clue when Dixon was attacked. The gargoyle wouldn't have gone after anyone else, only Mortifer."

"How come Dixon has memories of handing the stone over?" Chad inquired. "If he was possessed, shouldn't those be gone too?"

"The demon didn't take over until after he left the chapel," Kairos replied. "The building is surrounded by hallowed ground, so Mortifer couldn't leave the stone and cross the sanctified soil. He had to wait until Dixon carried the stone outside the perimeter, only then could the demon possess him."

"We ought to make the whole world hallowed ground," Chad suggested. "It would leave the demons nowhere to go."

"We're working on it," Father Dane said with a smile.

"Considering the demon caused such tremendous amounts of death the last time it was loose, I expected more casualties," Chad admitted hesitantly.

"The Order of the Blinding Dawn expected a fight if Mortifer escaped," Kairos explained. "It's why every building in town is covered with wards of protection to keep the demon out."

"So, uh, what happens now?" Dixon questioned while taking a few more steps further away from the gargoyle. No distance seemed to be enough.

"The stone will be returned to the chapel," Kairos answered. "Hopefully, it will stay there."

"Unless someone lets it out again," Chad grumbled. "Malcolm Feldman is still on the loose; he could try again."

"According to the books, the time of Halloween is when dark magics are the strongest," Kairos informed them. "It's only then the wards can be broken."

"In that case, I'll be here every Halloween from now on," Chad promised. "That thing won't escape again. Maybe next time, Malcolm won't escape either."

"Dawn comes, must secure stone," the gargoyle rumbled in a voice sounding like sliding blocks of heavy stone. With a single sweep of its powerful wings, the gargoyle took flight and soared back toward the chapel.

"If you will excuse me," Father Dane said. "I have repairs to make on the chapel roof and floor."

The priest accepted a handshake from Kairos beside him and waved his farewell to Dixon and Chad before following the gargoyle back to the chapel.

"What about you?" Chad asked Kairos. "People will start listening to you now, so are you going to start talking rather than drinking?"

"Sounds like a good idea," Kairos agreed. "I think so."

"You're going to have to tell me what happened in a little more detail," Dixon encouraged, still baffled by all that had occurred.

"We have several days before we need to head home, so I'll tell you the whole story," Chad promised, wrapping an arm around his friend's shoulder. "But if you ever try to touch some magical looking item again, I'm going to tackle you."

The two friends laughed together, looking toward the horizon as the first golden rays of dawn made their appearance.