1: Rayleigh

 Embers burned away the cigarette. Ash broke away and crumbled to the broken brick floor. She took a slow drag; the embers ate away at the paper before she released the smoke through her nose. Her eyes fluttered shut as the nicotine filled her contaminated lungs. She felt her heart speed up ever so slightly.

 "Rayleigh?" a calm voice called to her from an open door. Oner of her eyes opened slightly to spot a bald priest standing in the entrance. "We have everything prepared for you, as you requested."

 Her eye fell shut again as she pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on and let the cigarette fall from her lips. The moment it hit the ground, her boot came down and crushed it. She blew out the last bit of smoke that resided in her throat before she made her way inside. The priest looked around before he closed the heavy door with a loud thud and locked it behind her. 

 At first the corridor was dark until her vision adjusted gradually. Dim light came in through the thin slits of windows that were barred off. There was a thick smell of sweat and musk as the priest escorted her past residents quarters. Painful groans and soft maniacal cackling filled her ears the deeper into the building they went.

 "As I had stated previously," the priest began, "his behavior has only worsened over the past few weeks. Our own exorcist couldn't free him from this entity."

 "You let it sit for too long." She grumbled as her eyes scanned the cracked brick walls and a rat scurried into a small hole just off the corner. "Now it made itself at home."

 "I'm afraid you're right." He sighed. "We should have acted quickly." He stopped at a door where two more priests stood waiting for them. "His name is Robin. We don't know much of his history, but he came to us a few years ago. Something about running away from his demons."

 "Aren't we all?" She said gruffly as she stood before the door. "He's restrained?"

 "Yes. We were able to have our nurse sedate him prior to." a tall priest spoke up from beside the door, his thick brows furrowed together. "It may be wearing off shortly."

 "That's fine." She grabbed the doorknob. "I am in no hurry." She pried open the heavy door, but stopped before she entered it. "Whatever you hear," She swept her gaze over them. "don't open the door." With that warning, she stepped inside and closed the door behind herself. She could vaguely hear their incoherent mumbles through the thick wood, but they no longer mattered.

 Sunlight came in through the thin, barred off window. Water dripped from the bars and had formed a puddle against the wall with a bit of moss growing from it. She spied the small wooden table off to the corner near the door where her equipment had been waiting for her. A cot rested up against the opposing wall and a man sat in the center of the room, hands strapped down on the arms and his head hung low with his dark hair shadowing his face.

 "No need to fake it. I know that you're awake." She stated as she shrugged off her leather jacket and rested it on the table beside her things. The chair creacked slightly behind her and a soft rumble of a growl.

 "Exorcist." He sneered as she put her fiery red hair up into a ponytail.

 "You know who I am, good." She grabbed five candles and placed them in a circle around the man, "I hate doing introductions." After she lined the candles around him, she took out what looked like white sage and began to smudge it from candle to candle to properly form the circle. The scent of the sage drifted up and through the room. The man stirred in his chair, gripped at the arms with his nails as he hissed. She continued to smudge until the sage created a star within that circle.

 "This will be over quickly." She said as she got to her feet and went back to her bag. The snarling and hissing continued behind her. The chair creaked from the weight of the man who struggled against the restraints until finally, they snapped. He jumped to his feet, the chair flew back against the wall as the man let out an inhuman scream.

 Rayleigh let out a sigh, "That didn't take long."

 The man charged at her, but she side stepped out of the way in time. Rayleigh grabbed hold of the back of his shirt and tossed him over to the pentagram on the floor. He rolled back to his feet, his head cocked to the side as his eyes turned pitch black.

 "Rayleigh." He bared his teeth at her.

 "I see my reputation proceeds me." She turned back to the bag and pulled out a thick, leather bound book and flipped through the pages.

 "We know of your cursed lineage." He snarled again.

 "Cursed." She scoffed softly. "Sounds about right." She turned to face him, "Let's cut to the chase. We both know how this is going to turn out. You'll put up a fight, do some of those tricks with the head turning one hundred and eighty degrees, climbing on the wall and ceiling." She crossed her arms, "I've been through this radio with your brotheren for years, and at the end of it, the results are still the same."

 "Times are changing, Exorcist." He growled.

 "Are they now?" She questioned with disinterest as she flipped through the pages again.

 "There's a darkness you won't be able to stop this time." He said as his nails turned into long claws.

 Rayleigh, however didn't seem fazed by this. "As long as their is light to propel the darkness, it will always prevail."

 He chuckled deeply. "Not this time." She stopped flipping her pages, "You can sense it, can't you? Your bloodline has always known of the darker energies."

 "You're rambling. Get to the point." She cut him off.

 "She's only getting stronger by the day." He hissed. "Her power will continue to grow."

 "She?" Her tongue rolled against her cheek. "You speak of Karmina, am I right?" His brow twitched. "We are fully aware of her capabilites by now." She stopped on the page she had been looking for.

 "No, you don't." He started to laugh as Rayleigh read over the passage quietly. "She is nothing that you have ever seen before!" The walls of his room trembled. Bits of brick crumbled from the ceiling above them. "When she walks this world again, we will be at her side!" He rested a hand on his chest. "We will conquer with her as our Queen!"

 "Shut up." She snapped the book shut and tossed it onto the table. "So long as Karmina is locked away. So long as we continue to take out her followers." She met his gaze as she pulled out a vial from a metal holster on her hip. "You won't be setting foot on this plane." Her eyes darkened, "Not while I'm here."

 "Saint Michael the Archangel..." She started her prayer as she popped the cap off the vial and poured a clear liquid over her hands. The white smudge of sage started to smoke and the candles flared with life. The man went to move, but his feet wouldn't budge from the circle.

 "Defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness..."

 The man's foot shifted ever so slightly in the circle as white smoke wrapped around his legs. The flames from each candle linked to one another and encased the possessed man within it. He pounded his fists against the wall of white smoke, his screeches grew louder.

 "And snares of the devil;" She stood in front of the circle. "May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;" She started to draw the cross in the smoke. The man wreathed in pain, the ground at his feet started to crumble and give way to a pit. The scent of sulfur and brimestone filled her senses. "And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God..." She had finished the cross when his hand snapped through the smoke screen and grabbed her wrist. Black ichor streamed from his eyes.

 "Your God won't save you from her!" He laughed. Rayleigh reached out and pressed her free hand against his chest. His eyes widened as smoke fumed from her palms.

 "Thust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruins of souls." She raised her voice as a force shoved the man from the circle, but her hand gripped tight of a black shadow. It continued to screech and squirm in her grasp as fire roared up from the pit below it. Skeletal hands extended out from it and grabbed hold of the shadowed entity and pulled it into the flames. She lowered to her knees as she assisted in shoving the shadowed demon into the pit. Screams of agony echoed the chamber until the bricked floor pieced back together before it was solid once more. The tremor faded away and all was still in the room. The wicks of the candles went out and the sage settled closer to the floor once more. Rayleigh sat back on her knees, sweat on her brow and chin as she looked at the soot covered hand that had pushed the demon back into Hell.

 "Amen."