I Saw the Devil
“Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face”. The priest’s words echoed loudly inside of the holy church. I looked at the people around me. “He could be here” I thought. “He could be everywhere. Those fools don’t have a clue about what they are against. The priest continued: “May the devil make a ladder your bones – While he is picking apples in the garden of Hell”. I looked at the priest with a feeling of relief. I already knew that. I found out a long time ago. I felt it and saw it – everyday.
The church remained behind me and the light went out. The darkness embraced me and my breath became even heavier. My footsteps echoed loudly as the rain outside started to fall - slowly and soft in the beginning and suddenly, without a sign, heavy and merciless. I put my worn jacket tighter around my shoulders and started jogging. “Damn it. The devil is here. The rain must have been a sign from God to tell me about this. I knew it. I had to hurry, before the he has captured me as his next prey”. I began to run while my heart was beating in my chest. I looked feverish behind my back to make sure I was not followed. No one was there. But I couldn’t relax, because he could be everywhere, couldn’t he? The old man, sitting on the bench and reading his newspaper, the little boy riding his blue bicycle or the fine well dressed woman walking her dog with all her expensive jewelry hanging around her neck. I could not let myself be fooled, he was smart.
Finally I arrived home. The little tree house nearby the wood could not be mistaken: ramshackle with broken wood all over and the whole place in a rot. But this was the perfect place to hide from him, away from all the naive bastards in the town. I not only felt untouchable, but I really was untouchable. I opened the door and hurried inside. “Mother?” A soft voice said. “Is that you?” I smiled. My little girl. I remembered those times she came running towards me every time I came home. She was my angel, my innocent little girl. But as she grew up she began to sin and the evil came closer to her. Why couldn’t she be all like me? I went inside to the small kitchen where she stood. She turned around and smiled at me with a beautiful smile, which he must have created through the years. Suddenly hate and disgust overwhelmed me. “Idiot”, I thought, but the word wasn’t directed to her. It was directed to me because of my foolishness and simple-mindedness. “He almost got me there”, I thought.
As we began to eat my hate only grew bigger. I hated everything she did: The way she ate, the way she talked and the way her eyes vibrated now and then. But I did nothing - and I hated myself for that. I didn’t say a word. I just stared at her, but she was used to it. When she waited for an answer and didn’t get one, she just continued talking. Bla. Bla. Bla. Something about why I wouldn’t listen to her and if she had done something wrong, but those words were the words of himself. My grab on my fork got tighter. “Idiot, idiot, idiot!” The words resounded in my head. “He had tricked me all the time!” I got up and saw the pain in her eyes. Gosh, I hated her. “What did I do wrong to have such a daughter?” I was about to slap her in my frustration, but then the girl cried out, which reminded me of the time when she was a little baby, and my arms wrapped around her instead of. “Sweetheart”, I heard myself saying soft and I forgot all about my insulting words. Her beautiful sea blue eyes began suddenly to lighten up and I noticed the loveliness in them, which had always been in her baby eyes. What a little angel she was, sitting there all innocent on the chair with her red blushing chicks. If I continued looking at her, I knew I would end up catching myself eating her, so sweet she was. From time to time I kept reminding myself that she was my guarding angel. She earned the ability to light up my whole entire world and push all the evilness far away. I knew that God has sent her, I knew that for sure. I grabbed her tiny soft hand. It was time for me to follow my little princess to school and if we weren’t hurried up, I would be late for work. She just looked at me and smiled, oh she would make me melt. The sun was shining and we walked down the street hand in hand. All of a sudden I felt great and I knew that the devil was afraid now, because God was with me. God was protecting me. We finally reached the school. The amount of children walking around the hallway was overwhelming. It was scary. I came to the school’s café and immediately put on my working clothes. I began to wash the dishes and turned on the oven to its highest, 425 degrees, so it could warm up quickly. My baby girl sat down eating with her friends. I stared at her for a long time. I could not get enough of her. All of a sudden she started looking at me too. Her face began changing. Her eyes turned red as hell, while they where getting bigger and bigger. Her ears were sharper than before and her skin became ugly. Transition was disgusting to watch. She opened her mouth and started laughing. Her laugh was evil. Something hit me very hard right in the chest and I was pushed back. I couldn’t fell my legs or my arms. It was him! The devil had found me, oh no, how could he? I was about to cry, but I reminded myself that I was stronger than him. I just couldn’t let him do this, not after all this time. I jumped and grabbed him by the hair. He was screaming like a blameless animal getting killed, but I didn’t care. I pulled him up and with all my strength threw him in the oven. His scream became lauder and lauder, while the flames surrounded him. And then after a few seconds it stopped.
Through the window I could see the sun going and the sky was overcast. I listened to the sound of ambulances and heard the sound of the ambulances. There were plenty of them, but I didn’t care - I was relieved and I felt strong and proud. He was gone. Finally. I looked down and smiled – but was he really dead? Could he really die? I felt a pocking on my back and turned around immediately. There was a mirror just in front of me. I looked at myself and remembered the priest’s words at the last sermon: “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face”. And suddenly I knew what he meant.