The Cowboy

155.

"I just got back from an annoying thing, can we do this some other time?" Clarissa didn't need to know what the cowboy wanted, the way he dressed told her it wasn't anything she wanted.

"Can't do that, I need your help, I was told this is something you do."

"What help can you even need?"

"I got a portal to hell on my property."

"I'm listening."

****
Roy had made the trip from Wyoming (Clarissa actually laughed a little when she heard his name was Roy). He had made an assumption about the portal being to hell, just he had a portal that was putting out scary things and the DSA was refusing to help because he wouldn't sign away part of his property for their "investigation." Clarissa was mostly interested in the portal to hell, but that the DSA wanted it for an investigation had her hackles up after the recent unpleasantness.

"It's over here." The portal had appeared in a barn, killed all the animals inside, Roy had "locked it up" as he claimed with some sigils he'd found on the internet. Clarissa was almost amused at that being a thing now.

"You found these sigils on the internet? Yikes." They were a hodge podge of several religions in Clarissa's estimate, some she'd seen Gilbert use, most seemed useless, but a couple good ones had kept the things inside at bay.

"They worked didn't they?"

"Worked is a stretch, held is more likely, some of these are very dangerous, like they won't do anything against a creature, but a person who didn't know what they were doing, blow you up."

"Really?"

"Really, this is like a bomb of spiritual power, you have to be careful with it Roy." Clarissa had found herself always warning people now in the new world about playing around with all the shit they previously thought was just dumb stuff in movies and games. She'd already seen it end tragically.

"Well next time I'm facing demons from the pits of hell I'll call you Clarissa and you can tell me the optimal way to keep them locked up." Clarissa peaked into the barn and didn't see anything, she could see the bodies of farm animals, but no portal, no demons.

"You sure was in there?"

"Yes?" Roy himself looked between the slats and was surprised to not see anything.

"Ok I know this looks bad, but I swear there was a portal to hell in there."

"But its not there now."

"It would appear so." Clarissa sighed, she knew this was a bad job, and it just got worse.