Lourdes sleeps in the shadow of a tombstone. All alone in the churchyard, the creature's appearance is nothing like the boy who strode into the Guinevere Hotel. His skin sunken into his bones, and his bones sunken into the dirt, the thing pretending to be a boy reveals its true shape, and beneath the decomposition, there's a serenity on its face. A motionless peace. Surrounded by limitless desert, here there's only a boy and a collection of curious ghosts. Until the sound of footsteps. A long, slow shuffle crosses over the earth attended by the distant thunder of wolves – howling with every step.

Uneven footfalls stumble over rocks and break through briars. This pair of feet land with stark echoes, dreadful sounds that shake the stars. The footsteps search the cemetery, growing louder and louder, until a shadow, darker even than the night, touches Lourdes.

"I knew this place was infected," his eyes still closed, the boy speaks. "I was just looking for a quiet place to spend the night. I didn't come here to fight."

"Then why did you kill me?" The shadow asks. The remains of Liam Macintosh hang over Lourdes. While his mouth's dissected and part of his brain blown away, Liam is here and now, his eyes narrow, fists clenched, and whole frame misshapen into a scowl. Kicking the earth, he knocks gravel and dust onto the still sleeping boy.

"I warned you. I told you I'd kill you, and if you don't back away, I'll do it again," Lourdes answers. He opens his yellow eyes and again becomes a thing with luster in its face.

"Kill me again?" Liam laughs, thrusting out his chest. He cracks his knuckles. He stretches the rigor mortis from his limbs. "No, it's my turn now. It'd be rude if I don't return the favor."

"It'd be a miracle if you do," Lourdes yawns. The boy, at once, is on his feet and behind Liam's walking corpse. It takes the ghoul a moment to register Lourdes's speed, and it isn't until Lourdes yawns again that Liam finds him, but once he does, he lashes out. He swings a hard and heavy fist at the boy. Lourdes catches it. He bends it back. Bone breaks. A shatter echoes throughout the cemetery, but Liam, indeed dead, doesn't feel a thing. He launches another punch. Lourdes steps back, out of range of the swipe, and reaches for his gun.

The boy's hand, though, only returns with air. The gun's not there. His whole belt's gone.

"The blonde..." Lourdes spits after a half second of recollection. He has no time to finish the thought as Liam's already started for him.

"What's the matter? Lost your courage? Not such a big talker without your gun?" Liam snickers. "I think I know what you can do with your lips." Liam's steps build steam. While his joints don't move quite right, the monster can control his body enough. Plunging his hand into his shattered arm, ripping through rancid flesh, Liam pulls a broken bone free. A white knife. The ghoul charges, his bone shard aimed at Lourdes's heart.

Steeling himself, the boy avoids the slash, and maneuvering back, he sends his boot into Liam's knee cap.

A snap, but nothing changes. Not the slightest bit dismayed by the broken knee, Liam continues his attack. Liam lands a fist on Lourdes's jaw. A second hit slams into the cowboy's chest. His ragged bone, wheeling through black night, slices into Lourdes's gut. The boy's down.

"Hurts?" Liam laughs. "It's not a hole in the head, but I think it relays the same sentiment." Lourdes's teeth fuse together. Holding back vitriol. The white bone now red, Liam's jagged ulna hangs from his stomach, and Lourdes presses hard to keep his insides from falling out. Muffled curses. The monster circles Lourdes. He looks at his opponent struggle and then glances at his busted arm and knee. Muted screams. "You breaking my bones would have hurt me, too, but I guess you can't feel pain when you're dead!"

"You can," Lourdes spits. "I promise you." A smile shines through the weight on Lourdes's face. His thin grin grows as his hands move around the piece of Liam piercing him. He pulls Liam's bone from his side. He snaps it. He tosses it away. Liam's face curls as Lourdes starts to stand. His first step is shaky, but it doesn't take the child long to find his composure. Lourdes looks at the man with the same odd eyes he gave him back at the bar. The slash through Lourdes's stomach is now a scratch. The boy pulls his fingers into fists. "It's been a while since I've been in a fight, but I think I remember enough."

Liam sprints at Lourdes, not giving him any more quarter. Neither bracing for impact nor putting up a defense, the boy lifts his fists. He matches the demon punch for punch. Grappling, earth and flesh fly into the air. Kicks. The monster dislocates his arms and legs with each strike. He bends and moves every way a body can't. Jabs. Lourdes's shoulders smash into Liam. He wrenches his rib cage apart. Bites. Lourdes brings three heavy hits together and sends the ghoul soaring. Liam twirls above the earth, suspended by invisible strings, until Lourdes lands one more punch. Tombstones ache. Macintosh's face meets the dirt.

Hurled into the ground, the demon moves no more, but Lourdes doesn't draw near even though his opponent lies still on the desert floor.

Lourdes keeps his distance, his hands remain fists, and he waits for Macintosh to rise. And sure enough, a groan soon issues from Macintosh's throat. Tearing at the dirt, Liam writhes to his feet. His nose has been replaced by two ugly holes. Strips of skin hang loose from his cheeks. Dripping foam, blood, and puss, he wags a broken finger.

Liam grunts and lifts a heavy grave marker over his head.

-

The sounds of fighting ring throughout the cemetery. Fleshy punches and swipes. The dreadful noises bounce about tombstones and boom into the chapel at the graveyard's far end where they shake an old man from his sleep. A pastor.

Uneasy steps led by the lingering glow of a candle which has consumed the last of its wick follow the smashes. Dust falls from the church's decrepit ceiling. Crucifixes and extinguished candelabras quiver. Monstrous noises roaring through stone and wood cause the pastor's candle to shudder. Ever so slowly, the old man's timid feet bring him across the chapel to a window overlooking his cemetery. His ancient eyes strain behind heavy whiskers. The pastor cannot see in this night, but each and every echo pushes him back. He recoils at a crash.

-

Lourdes lies on the ground. Surrounded by pieces of granite. The prone boy coughs. He winces. He's been struck by the tombstone Liam hurled with all his deviant might, but the rock – not Lourdes – broke. Giggling, Liam waits above, ready to dispatch his opponent. His eyes, as narrow as needles, remain on the boy while his arms reach around another slate. He hoists it over his head.

"I should thank you for killing me," Liam grins.

"No, you shouldn't," Lourdes dismisses while picking jagged stones from his skin. Liam walks right up to the cowboy, ready to drop his heavy rock on his prey's head. Lourdes, though, doesn't display concern. Instead, the boy drops his gaze from the dead man to one of the chunks of stone by his own skull. Lourdes's gold eyes focus on a toothy hunk of granite from the shattered tombstone, and after a moment and with a burst of wind, the stone shard rises off the earth. It hangs. It floats. Lourdes's eyes shoot to Liam, and the rock – a bullet – shoots, too. Lourdes sends a second stone flying before Liam can react. A third rock, somehow possessed by Lourdes's vision, drills into Liam's chest. Macintosh loses his balance. He falters, and his tombstone comes crashing down.

Lourdes rises as Liam falls. Flat against the cold dirt, imprisoned beneath demolished granite, Liam yelps. He tries to shake free, but struggle all he might, he can't escape the broken rocks carpeting his body and piercing his bones. The ghoul then looks at pebbles, squinting, whipping his vision to his adversary. He pleads with his eyes for the tiny stones to fly. But they don't. He next looks at Lourdes for a long time. He realizes something. There are no cuts, no scrapes, no gashes, and no wounds on the boy. Liam labors to make his face into an angry shape, but he can only bleed fear from every pore.

"What are you?" Macintosh shakes.

Lourdes, a stone cross at his back, stands tall. He's mute and answers, instead of with words, with a look into the heart of the night. The boy parts a sea of ink-stained clouds with his glance to the sky. His golden eyes glisten. Lourdes's whole form shines with something not of this world. A snake. A sad crescent-shaped star hangs above him, summoned from the burned-away firmament. A spider. A moon the color of bone casts preternatural light, and for the first time, fangs emerge behind the child's lips. A bat. Lourdes smiles. A raven. Winds from nowhere and everywhere howl. A wolf. The hot winds roar over Liam, frozen against the dirt.

Closing his hands into fists, Lourdes commands the screaming storm. The stone cross behind him shivers and, unable to bear the eldritch pressure of his fangs, cracks. The name inscribed in the slate, Nicola Amsterdam, becomes ash. A shock rips apart the rock. The stone cross shatters.

Transformed into a thousand daggers, the tombstone flies into Liam Macintosh. Knives cleave apart his form, riddle him with holes, and toss him – a rag doll – about the earth. And when it's over, cast down, prostrate before Lourdes, Liam Macintosh is reduced to a wretched shape. Liam stares into the empty night. He looks up at a bleak moon with his right eye, his left destroyed, oozing, and blind. If he was still alive, this would have surely killed him. Yet, against the sand, he is conscious of every dagger driven into his corpse.

Lourdes watches. Lourdes waits. Lourdes sees Liam twitch. He sees Macintosh try to cling to the loose soil surrounding him. He sees the gruff, dirty, green, dead man cry. Lourdes waits no more.

"Stand up!" Lourdes barks at Macintosh. The boy stomps forward, and with the ghoul unable to comply, he heaves the thing up himself. Lourdes tears Liam apart. He cuts hard into Macintosh's side and snaps his spine. A fist rips out a shoulder blade, and a thrust goes through both the monster's hips. A kick crushes Liam's chest. Macintosh swings his arms, trying to attack, but with a tap, the cowboy pushes him back. Lourdes turns the demon's jaw to ash. The unraveling animal lunges. He bites, snarls, and sinks his teeth into Lourdes. The child sends him into a row of graves.

For a moment, all is still.

Then, skin torn, muscles exposed, and organs hanging out, Liam Macintosh picks himself up. He pushes his foot into the ground and kicks. Bellowing, the ghost races at Lourdes. The boy backs up. He walks calmly through the churchyard as Macintosh bounds. Bile, piss, and blood spill out behind the monster with his every mad step. He forces himself into a sprint. Lourdes, though, with each footfall serene, somehow stays ahead. He floats. He retraces his steps and walks back toward the chapel – and to the fresh grave at the cemetery's start. There, at the empty plot serendipity prepared for him, Lourdes plants his feet. He looks over the unfilled hole carved into the desert and, with indifference, watches Liam's wild scramble. The boy pulls the shovel from the ground. As the rabid thing breaks near, Lourdes becomes only more tranquil.

Lourdes swings.

The shovel cuts Macintosh in two. Liam's head comes free. Liam's body falls into the open pit. One final sound, Liam's body hitting the bottom of the grave, echoes into the night, and then there's only silence and the chime of Lourdes's spurs. The boy tosses his shovel away, and his eyes drift to the hole in the ground. A headless, forever-dead Macintosh is broken there against the earth. Shattered and unmade a hundred ways, Liam sleeps forevermore.

Lourdes looks at the thing utterly destroyed inside the dirt and gives an expression a sibling to melancholy. He then holds his head and turns away. Looking over his own form, Lourdes watches lines of deep red break across his skin. The toll from Liam's strikes, slashes, kicks, and bites – kept at bay throughout the fight – begins to appear. The hole Macintosh dug into Lourdes's belly reopens. The boy shuts his eyes. He forces paper thin tranquility onto his face. Lourdes leaves the cemetery with swift steps.

As the boy passes the chapel, an iron cross atop its roof twists into a knot.