The Night I met the Devil
Not long ago I met the Devil. I know what you must be thinking that it was my imagination or I was dreaming or I am flat or lying. The tale I am about to tell you is neither a lie or a delusion. It happened, it really happened.
The year was 1892 and I was a young man of 20. I had recently accepted a job as a barber's apprentice but my dream was to play music. I loved playing the violin and I had a true talent for it but it was hard finding work as a violinist without any real connections, so I took up barbering to pay the bills until I could make it in music.
One night, I was on my way home from the barbershop when I heard someone call my name. I was taken aback mainly because only being in town a few days no one knew my name, not even my employer who always called me Jan instead of Jon. He called my name again and I spun around to face a dark alley way. I squinted my eyes to try and pierce the darkness but it was a pointless gesture. It was as if all the light had been sucked out of this one corner of the world leaving nothing but the purest of darkness it its wake.
"Who's there?" I said. The voice from the darkness said nothing but as if by magic I could see his eyes piercing my soul, his outline formed before me and I swear to you he had a reddish glow about him. He raised his arm and gestured for me to come towards him. I was frozen in fear, yet against my very will I went to him and he embraced me. The last thing the Devil said to me was "Welcome to my family."
Sometime later I woke and I was in my apartment. It was night and I had slept the day away. I rushed out to see my employer, to tell him I had been sick and to beg him to not fire me. When I got there, however, he was closed and the door locked, so I went to the stairs beside the shop and darted up them hoping he would be home. I knocked and the door swung open slowly. It was not like him to leave the door unlocked. I stepped inside. The place was dark and cold. I headed through the kitchen and into the parlor where he usually sat drinking brandy before bed. Having been here on a few occasions I knew my way around. I went through the door and into the parlor. There I found him sitting in his chair in front of the fire place, yet there was no fire. I went to make my plea but as I rounded to the front of the chair I stopped dead in my tracks. He was there but his throat had been ripped out. I could see the teeth marks where they had ripped and tore at his flesh. My stomach turned and I fled outside and down the stairs.
It wasn't the image that bothered me but the stench of death that had come upon him. I realized that my stomach was turning not because I had fallen ill but because I had become very, very hungry. The insatiable hunger gnawed at me to where I could think of nothing else. It was then that i saw her.
She was a petite woman with short, straight, dark hair, and a round voluptuous face Her skin was ivory white and she glowed under the gas streetlamps. I had never seen a more beautiful sight in all my life, I still haven't.
I could smell her evanescence on the corner from which I stood. She smiled as she passed me and I smiled back. I don't remember what happened next but I do remember when I next regained my senses the woman lay before me on the ground, her throat had been mauled in the same manner as my employer. My face and hands were covered in her blood. I realized in that moment that not only had I met the Devil that night but I had also become the devil.
That was 128 years ago for me, I tell you this as to warn you. Pray that you see me before I see you.
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