The footsteps were getting closer and closer. The metal clanging of the stirrups rang loud as thunder to Sophie’s ears and she felt her heart begin to burst, the muscles snapped in her head and she imagined blood pouring forth from the broken organ only to fill within her chest like a sickening pool.

“Oh Sophie come out come out wherever you are,” the whispered voice seemed to lick its way inside Sophie’s skull and she shivered against its imagined touch. The deep and haggard breathing of her stalking hunter made Sophie mutter in fear and she quickly clamped her hand hard against her mouth, the thought of the mans bloodied knife brought fresh terror to her and she pressed herself as tightly as she could to the wall behind her. 

Sophie saw her breath fog in the freezing air and she closed her eyes in silent prayer, the metal clanging brought tears to her eyes and they froze in the winds of the desert night. Far off in the desert a jackal howled to the moon and Sophie cried for the parents and friends this criminal had taken in a blaze of bullets. His hair had flared in the desert wind and the red, ancient fire hidden within his eyes burning deep into Sophie’s soul.

Suddenly the clanging metal ring stopped and Sophie opened her eyes a tiny fraction, she held her breath and she clutched her small teddy tightly to her chest. Her scream shrieked through the ghost town stirring the sand just settling upon the bodies of her friends.

“Hello sweety.” The yellow toothed smile of her father made Sophie lend extra strength to her scream and she felt her throat burn with the fear she felt. “Come on sweety. Daddy won’t hurt you.” The long skeletal fingers grasped Sophie’s wrist and she heard the flesh begin to burn under the daemonic grasp. The blazing eyes of her father’s body seemed to show the laughing demon encased within, fangs sprang from her father’s mouth and before she could move Sophie’s throat was ripped apart as the demon within her father began to feast.

The howls of the feasting jackals echoed long into the night as the demonic beast left its old town behind to hunt in pastures far beyond the horizon. It would take many years for the tale of Sophie and the inhabitants of Little Big Horn to be discovered but the Demon would still be stalking the Earth on its eternal quest of damnation.