Ephraim

Ephraim was never the best when it came to saving money. Despite still being young, he was knee-deep in debt caused by his love for all things elegant... and his tastes aren't exactly cheap. To keep himself afloat, he often took up the less desirable jobs; modeling for department store catalogues, stock photography, or resorting to more risque positions if the pay was good enough.

Each gig felt worse than the last. Photographers barking orders, standing under hot lights for hours while desperately trying not to sweat all his makeup off, every inch of him constantly being scrutinized — and Ephraim having such a sour attitude certainly wasn't helping. But his debt wasn't getting any smaller, so he did what he had to do. Even if it often left him sore and exhausted.

One night, while leaving a particularly grueling shoot, he was approached by an older, disheveled gentleman. Before getting a chance to tell him to get lost, the man spoke in a frantic, desperate manner.

"Thank God I finally found you - a servant of Lotus!"

Servant? Like, an angel...? But he wasn't --
He remembered there were no other harpies in Salem's Grave.
The man continued.

"You have to help us. Please, you must! Just on the outskirts of the swamps lies our small village..."

He continued to talk while the two walked to Ephraim's bus stop. Apparently, the community of Sepulcher had an increase in unexplained disappearances recently, and the villagers were desperate as their already small numbers began to dwindle. Be it the work of a madman, a disease, or an otherworldly creature, surely an angel could put a stop to it once and for all.

But the bus was slowly pulling up to the stop, and seeing the look on Ephraim's face (he was never good at hiding his emotions), the man offered him an extremely generous amount of money as well as proper accommodations until the job was finished in exchange for the supposed angel's protection. The money was more than enough to get him out of debt, so Ephraim thought it'd be stupid not to take him up on it. How hard could a little monster-hunting be, anyway?

Little did he know that the lurking horror plaguing the village was much more aware of his presence than he was of hers, and she intended to toy with this new plaything for as long as possible.