The Liturgy of the Laughing God

Father Silas is a self-ordained "Sin Eater" who operates out of a damp, deconsecrated church basement, believing he has discovered a righteous, ancient magic to forcibly excise guilt. His tool is the Hilaria, a fossilized jawbone housing a pre-biblical entity that does not forgive sin, but consumes it. In the bowels of St. Jude's, Silas attempts to cure a man of the guilt of manslaughter using an ancient, forbidden ritual. However, the extraction goes wrong when the fossilized vessel absorbs too much power, transforming the man's sin into a contagious, bone-breaking mirth. Silas realizes too late that he hasn't banished the darkness, but fed it.