stories about devil

[year2027]

God first

thanks everybody

The Blue Rocks

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

Well now, the Blue Rocks have been hear in Lenhartsville for nigh on forever it seems. They are a bunch of huge bolders just settin' in the field, getting in everyone's way. How'd such huge stones get into that unlikely looking place? Well, that's a story, and no mistake!

Seems someone told the Devil about a New World vegetable called a potato that was the tastiest treat in the whole dad-blame county. Well, ol' Lucifer was unfamiliar with the vegetable in question and asked for a description. Potatoes were round and hard, he was told; some were big, and some were small.

Satisfied with this description, the Devil hied himself down to Lehigh County and started filling up his sacks with everything round and hard he could find. He collected thousands of these hard round objects, and was planning on collecting a thousand more. Then the bravest of his minions informed ol' Lucifer that the objects inside his sack weren't potatoes. They were rocks.

Well, that made Satan just plain mad. He had a temper tantrum that shook everything up in the whole county. He shouted and he stamped his feet and he jumped up and down. Then he ripped open those sacks and threw the rocks all over the place. The rocks landed in gullies and in rivers and on the mountains and in the fields.

A whole passel of rocks landed in the empty field near the old meeting tree. They settled deep into the ground and no one could budge them. Since the field was no good for farming after the Devil threw his "potatoes" into it, the men-folk started using it as a local meeting place. And that's how the Blue Rocks came to rest in Lenhartsville, at least, that's how the story goes.

Christmas Gift

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

Away down South, an old custom dictates that if someone comes up to you on Christmas Day and says "Christmas gift" before y'all do, why y'all are obliged to give that person a present. Mind you, the custom does not say what sort of present y'all should give! But those of us who hail from the South consider ourselves to be gentlefolk. The gifts given and received in this manner are good enough to keep the custom alive and well.

Now, this is not to say that this custom does not have its drawbacks. Why, the Devil himself got a hold of the eastern coast of Florida in this manner! The Devil, being a canny fellow, knew that God was walking about Florida one Christmas Day, so he hid himself behind a stump. When the Lord came strolling by, the Devil jumped out real fast and said: "Christmas gift!" And the Lord, being as fine a Southern gentleman as you could meet, held up to his end of the custom and told the Devil, "You can have the east coast," and continued his stroll. So now the Devil plays hurricane games with the east coast of Florida whenever it pleases him.

Dancing with the Devil

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

The girl hurried through her schoolwork as fast as she could. It was the night of the high school dance, along about 70 years ago in the town of Kingsville, Texas. The girl was so excited about the dance. She had bought a brand new, sparkly red dress for the dance. She knew she looked smashing in it. It was going to be the best evening of her life.

Then her mother came in the house, looking pale and determined.

"You are not going to that dance," her mother said.

"But why?" the girl asked her mother.

"I've just been talking to the preacher. He says the dance is going to be for the devil. You are absolutely forbidden to go," her mother said.

The girl nodded as if she accepted her mother's words. But she was determined to go to the dance. As soon as her mother was busy, she put on her brand new red dress and ran down to the K.C. Hall where the dance was being held.

As soon as she walked into the room, all the guys turned to look at her. She was startled by all the attention. Normally, no one noticed her. Her mother sometimes accused her of being too awkward to get a boyfriend. But she was not awkward that night. The boys in her class were fighting with each other to dance with her.

Later, she broke away from the crowd and went to the table to get some punch to drink. She heard a sudden hush. The music stopped. When she turned, she saw a handsome man with jet black hair and clothes standing next to her.

"Dance with me," he said.

She managed to stammer a "yes", completely stunned by this gorgeous man. He led her out on the dance floor. The music sprang up at once. She found herself dancing better than she had ever danced before. They were the center of attention.

Then the man spun her around and around. She gasped for breath, trying to step out of the spin. But he spun her faster and faster. Her feet felt hot. The floor seemed to melt under her. He spun her even faster. She was spinning so fast that a cloud of dust flew up around them both so that they were hidden from the crowd.

When the dust settled, the girl was gone. The man in black bowed once to the crowd and disappeared. The devil had come to his party and he had spun the girl all the way to hell.

http://www.americanfolklore.net/mp3/thedevil.mp3

The Devil and the Werewolves

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

Now there once was a man named Jean Dubroise who never did a lick of work, but his house and his barn and his crops were still the best in the whole land. This puzzled people, since Jean had no family and no hired men to help him. No one could figure out how he managed to have the best trapping lines in winter, and have fences and barns in perfect repair at all times with no one working his farm.

Odder still were the reports of a roaring sound that came from Jean Dubroise's property late at night when good, God-fearing people should be sleeping. His neighbors started avoiding the place, and folks in town would hurry to the other side of the road rather than meet Jean when they saw him coming.

One night, Dubroise's next door neighbor, Alphonse, had a bit too much to drink. Alphonse decided that he would dare the strange noises and take a short-cut across Dubroise's land to get home. As he was weaving his way through the fields, he heard a loud roaring noise from overhead. Alphonse threw himself flat on the ground and saw a huge canoe flying over him. The canoe landed on the ground in the clearing next to Dubroise house and the Devil jumped out with a whip in his hand.

At the sight of the Devil, Alphonse gasped and rolled under some shrubs at the edge of the field. From his hiding place, he heard the Devil shout: "Come out of the canoe!" and snapped the whip at the occupants. Twenty creatures with the shaggy coats of wolves but the upright walk of men leapt from the canoe. Alphonse recognized them immediately. They were werewolves (called loup garou); men who had neglected their religious duties for so long that they had fallen under the spell of the Devil. As the loup garou began plowing and mending fences and doing all the daily chores on the farm, Dubroise came out of his front door to talk and drink with the Devil. Alphonse knew then that Dubroise had sold his lazy soul to the Devil in exchange for the werewolves' work on his farm. Alphonse lay trembling under the bushes, praying the Devil and his minions wouldn't find him. At last, the Devil and the loup garou jumped back into the flying canoe and flew away.

As soon as it was safe, Alphonse hurried to the local priest to report what he had seen. When he heard about Dubroise's evil visitors, the priest came up with a plan to rid the neighborhood of the Devil. While Dubroise was in town the next day, the priest sent Alphonse and several of the parish men to Dubroise's farm with buckets full of holy water. The men sprinkled the holy water over Dubroise's house, his outbuildings, and all of his land. Then the men hid themselves in the bushes to keep watch.

It was midnight when the Devil and the loup garou came flying to Dubroise's farm in the huge canoe. They landed in the clearing next to the house and the the Devil leapt out of the canoe. As soon as his foot touched the holy water sprinkled onto the ground, the Devil started leaping about and shrieking in pain and rage. The werewolves were frightened and fled from the canoe.

The Devil was furious. He believed that Dubroise was trying to save his soul by driving the Devil away with holy water obtained from the priest. The Devil ran to the house and pulled Dubroise right out of his bed. He dragged Jean Dubroise outside, threw him into the canoe, and flew away in a blast of fire that scorched the ground for many meters.

The men of the parish collected the werewolves and brought them to the priest. The priest pricked each one with a knife, which is the only way to turn a loup garou back into a man. The restored men fell to their knees and begged the priest to forgive them for neglecting their religous duties. From that day on, the men were faithful to their parish and never more did any fall under the Devil's spell. But Jean Dubroise was never seen again.

The Devil On Washington Rock

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

The dream was so vivid, she didn't realize at first that it was a dream. The party was crowded, the guests cheerful, the food delicious. Then a rumor began to circulate among the guests. The Devil was coming to the party. The Devil was on the way.

She didn't pay much attention at first. Until a hush came over the crowd. Turning to see what it was, she saw a tall, handsome blond man standing in the doorway greeting his hostess. Around her, the murmurs began. It was the Devil. He had come.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as the Devil made the rounds of the room. He looked so ordinary, it was hard to believe he was the Devil. Then he came to her group. As soon as he joined them, she knew the rumor was true. This was not someone to be trifled with. Frightened, she grabbed for a Bible her hostess had left lying on a nearby end-table and threw it at the Devil. For a moment, their eyes locked. The Devil's eyes were full of ferocious anger, terrible evil, and malevolent malice directed right at her. She thought she was dead.

Then she woke, and lay trembling in her bed with the light on until dawn.

The next morning was the end of term. Her parents and younger sister helped her clear out her dorm room and packed the car. It was dusk before they settled into their seats for the two-hour drive home. They talked excitedly as they drove towards their home in New Jersey, interrupting each other often, contradicting themselves and laughing. It was good to be together again.

They were fifteen minutes from home when they left the highway. Her father turned onto Washington Rock Road that led up the mountain, through the C-bend around the Washington Rock State Park and then down the other side of the mountain. As they drove up the steep hill, a noisy motorcycle tail-gated them, trying to pass even though the road was windy and narrow. Finally the hill grew so steep that the driver was forced to slow down and eventually, they pulled away from him entirely.

The car reached the top of the hill and started around the long C curve that took them through one end of the park. The park was dark and still. The whole family automatically looked to their right, out over the gorgeous view of the New York City skyline. They all saw the small park cart, sitting next to the road just inside the park boundary. It was parked directly underneath the only streetlight, where you couldn't fail to see it. And inside the vehicle....

She started trembling fiercely. Inside the vehicle was a tall, handsome blond man with eyes full of ferocious anger, terrible evil, and malevolent malice. It was the man from her dream. The man everyone said was the Devil!

The tension in the car was palpable. She had mentioned her dream to no one. But her parents and her sister all felt the evil pulsing from the still figure in the cart. No one spoke as they drove past the man.

Suddenly, the engine gave a strange cough. Her father gunned the motor, once, twice in a silent, desperate battle to keep moving. She gripped her hands together, praying silently as she stared at the figure opposite their car. The engine caught again and her father pressed down hard on the accelerator. Then they were past the man and roaring away from the park and towards the downward slope of the mountain.

She was sweating profusely, unable to stop shaking. She looked back out the window at the man in the park, and saw the motorcycle come roaring at last to the top of the hill. It drove half-way around the C-bend and as it drew opposite the figure in the cart, she heard the engine of the motorcycle cough. And then stall.

And then the park was out of view and they were riding silently towards home, not daring to speak until they were safely indoors.

She often wondered what happened to the man on the motorcycle.

The Devil's Hole

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

When the new priest came to the poor parish, there was no house or church for him. A farmer took him in, while the men built him a small shack in which to live. The priest, a true saint with no false pride, was happy in his new parish. But the people wanted more for their priest, so they decided to build a church. The priest was pleased with their noble idea, but troubled because the work of hauling stone was back-breaking without a horse.

One night, the Virgin Mary appeared to the priest and offered him a horse to cart the stone for the church. She told him that the horse would be wearing a sanctified bridle. If anyone took it off, the horse would disappear forever.

When the priest awoke from his dream, he heard the sound of a horse pawing the ground outside his door. Running to the window, the priest saw a horse tied to the post by the house. It was a magnificent animal, pitch black in color, tall, sleek and rippling with muscle. It had a wicked gleam in its black eyes. The bridle of which the Virgin Mary had spoken was quite plain. But when he studied it closely, it seemed to glitter in the sunlight, as if its sanctity were being tested at every moment. The priest realized at once that this horse was evil; perhaps even the devil himself!

When the workmen arrived to begin hauling stone for the new church, the priest presented them with the horse, but warned them not to remove the bridle.

"What is the name of this horse?" one man asked.

"I call him Old Nick," the priest said.

The men harnessed Old Nick to the cart and put in a regular load of stone. Old Nick went off with that load as if there were nothing in the cart. The priest, who was watching, told them not to worry about Old Nick. He could handle much heavier loads. So they sent someone to fetch a larger cart. This cart they filled with so much stone it resembled a load of hay. The stone was so heavy that the wheels cracked. Old Nick didn't even break a sweat. In the days that followed, the men hauled so much stone that the plans for the church were moved up.

One hot day when were drawing stone from the far side of the river, a man unbuckled the horse's bridle so it could take a drink. Well, Old Nick gave one great shake, and was gone like lightning, leaving harness and cart. Old Nick was racing up the road as fast as he could go, when he saw the priest, who was on his way to visit a sick man. As soon as he saw the runaway horse, the priest drew the sign of the cross in the air. Old Nick reared up and threw himself away from the holy symbol. The horse sprang onto a rock overhanging the river. Immediately, there came a thunderous noise and the rock split in two, making a cleft that was six feet wide and that lead to a deep cavern into which Old Nick disappeared.

Thereafter, the cavern by the river became known as the Devil's Hole. Any Christian who passed the Devil's Hole would find that his horse went lame or that his wheel broke or that some other misfortune befell him. Animal's avoided the Devil's Hole and any horse that went past trembled and started as if it sensed a terrible presence within. Moans and horrible screams came from the hole at night, and several times a huge black wolf was seen coming out of the cavern with flames spouting out of its mouth. Only when the priest walked passed was the Devil's Hole silent.

with love and a holy kiss Roy