Dance With the Devil - 1. Chapter 1: Dance With the Devil

It will be Halloween in a couple of weeks, and since my friends and I are all 13-years-old, we feel we’re too old to dress up and go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. The problem is, we can’t decide on what we want to do instead.

“We can each sneak a roll or two of toilet paper out of our house and then go around TP-ing the neighborhood,” Mason suggested.

“That might be fun for a while, but we’d use up the toilet paper really quickly and then we’d have nothing to do for the rest of the night,” Shane countered.

“Then let’s go egging instead,” Patrick suggested.

“Nah, my mom is always complaining that the egg prices are still too high,” I pointed out, “and she’ll go ballistic if she finds out that I was wasting the eggs by throwing them at people, cars, and houses.”

“Kit’s right, and besides, my dad told me that eggs can eat the paint off of houses and cars if they’re not cleaned off fairly quickly,” Devyn stated.

Even though you might not know it, he was referring to me when he said that. My name is Christopher, but nobody calls me Christopher or Chris. My grandma started calling me Kit when I was a baby, because she said it was an old-fashion nickname for Christopher, and the name just stuck. I don’t mind it and actually think it’s kind of neat.

“What if we throw water balloons at people then?” Patrick offered.

“It’s usually a little chilly on Halloween night and I’m sure getting wet will piss off a lot of people,” Shane warned. “And if we accidentally hit one of the older guys with one, then they’ll probably chase us and then beat the shit out of us when they catch us.”

“You mean IF they catch us,” Mason challenged.

“Trust me, if we piss them off like that then they won’t stop chasing us until they catch us,” Shane said. “Besides, most of them know where we live, since we all ride the same bus, so if they don’t catch us, then they’ll just get even with us later.”

“Ok, then what if we play Ding, Dong, Ditch?” Patrick followed. “We can ring a bunch of doorbells and then take off before anyone comes to the door.”

“Nah, most of the people around here have a doorbell with a camera,” Devyn pointed out, “so we’d definitely get caught if we did that. They might not get mad, but they’ll probably tell our parents what we were doing the next time they see them, and then we’ll get in trouble with our moms and dads.”

“Yeah, he’s right,” Shane concurred.

After thinking about it a little longer, I offered my own suggested.

“What if we just have a sleepover?” I asked. “Halloween is on Friday, and I can ask my parents if we can have a sleepover at our house. We have a big family room in the basement with a 60 inch (152 cm) flat screen TV, and we can pig out and watch a scary movie on TV.”

“Yeah, that might be fun,” the others agreed.

“And maybe we can think of even more things to do before then, because we’ve got 13 days until Halloween,” Mason added.

Now that we’d reached an agreement, all I had to do was to convince my mom and dad to let us do this at our house, and I decided to ask them while we were eating supper that night.

“I was wondering if you’d let me have a sleepover with my friends in the family room on Halloween night?” I asked hesitantly.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” my mom responded, and then she turned her head to speak with my dad. “That way we won’t have to worry about what he’s doing or if he’s getting into trouble.”

“How many others are you thinking of inviting?” my dad followed.

“Just Devyn, Shane, Mason, and Patrick.”

“I think we can deal with them,” my mom stated while looking at my dad. “We can let them have a pizza party and I’ll make some Halloween cookies with Royal icing on top, because that will harden and not be messy. I might even make some peanut butter blossom cookies too. They’re the ones with a Hershey kiss on top.”

“Ok, you can invite them,” my dad confirmed, “and your mother can take care of the details.”

I knew he was suggesting that my mom could plan what we’d eat, but my friends and I would take care of what else we were going to do.

As soon as I told my friends that everything was set, they started checking with me about different things.

“What furniture is in your family room?” Shane asked.

“There’s a recliner that my dad usually sits in when he’s watching sports, and a loveseat that he and my mom sit on when they’re down there together. There are three other comfortable chairs as well, along with the TV, so there are plenty of places for us to sit while we’re watching what’s on the TV.”

“Yeah, that will work out for watching TV,” Shane stated, “but it won’t work out very well for sleeping. I guess it means we’ll be sleeping on the floor, unless we want to try sleeping in the chairs.”

“Yeah, because the love seat isn’t big enough for any of us to sleep on either, unless you want to sleep in the fetal position,” I confirmed. I’d used the term fetal position because our health teacher introduced us to it when she was describing how babies grow inside their mother before they’re born.

“Ok, then we probably should all bring a sleeping bag with us, unless you don’t have one,” Devyn added, and we quickly confirmed that all of us had one.

“And maybe a pillow too,” Mason followed.

“We have some throw pillows you can use, if you don’t want to bring your own pillow,” I suggested.

“Are we going to sleep in our clothes?” Patrick asked.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to sleep in my underwear,” I confirmed.

“What if your mom sees us?” Mason asked concerned.

“I’ll just tell her she can’t come down there once we get ready to go to sleep.”

“But what if she forgets and comes down when we’re taking off our clothes?” Patrick asked.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t know about the rest of you, though, but if she did come down and saw us in our underwear, it wouldn’t be any different than if she saw us in a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt or in a swimsuit.”

“Maybe not for you, because it’s your mom,” Patrick countered.

“Oh, come on and stop acting like babies,” Devyn told them. “If it happens, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

I had a feeling that Shane and Devyn were going to sleep in their underwear as well, but I wasn’t sure about Mason and Patrick. They seemed to be shier than the rest of us.

Now that we’d talked it over and had covered all of the important points, the others merely had to check with their parents to make sure they didn’t have a problem with what we wanted to do. It turned out that they were just as eager to let their sons do this as my mom was when I asked her. It seems that they all thought it was a better idea than worrying about us running wild and getting into trouble.

When school let out on Halloween, the others rushed home to get the things they were bringing with them to the sleepover, and then they all rushed over to my house. As soon as they arrived, we took their things down to the family room and left them there, and then we went outside and walked around to see what else was going on until it was time to eat.

My mom called my cell phone to let me know when the pizza and boneless chicken wings arrived, and then we all hurried back to my house to eat. My mom had also bought some baby carrots and containers of French onion and ranch dip for us too, along with bags of potato chips and crunchy Cheetos for us to snack on later. We also got to choose a flavor of Hint from a variety pack, and then my mom left the rest of the bottles for us to drink later.

“What are we going to do now?” Patrick asked once we finished eating.

“A few of the channels are showing scary movies tonight, so do you guys want to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the Thirteenth, or Halloween?”

“Let’s watch A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Shane suggested. “They’re all scary movies, but I think A Nightmare on Elm Street is the scariest.”

After some mild disagreements, the rest of us eventually agreed to go along with his suggestion, so I got the remote and turned on the TV, and then I selected the appropriate channel. As we were waiting for the movie to start, I got up and turned off the lights to set the mood before I made my way back to my chair so I could watch it with the others.

After watching the movie for a while, Mason spoke. “Can you imagine being afraid to go to sleep because some creepy guy would attack you in your dreams?”

“You better stop talking or it might be me attacking you while you’re sleeping later,” Shane warned.

Mason got the not too subtle hint and remained quiet for the rest of the movie, if you didn’t count his startled gasps, muffled screams, and horrified groans.

During the commercial, Shane turned to Mason and spoke. “To answer your earlier question, it would be horrible if someone could attack us like that in our dreams and it’s not something I’d want to deal with.”

“Yeah, I’d probably die from fright before anything really happened,” Patrick agreed.

“And I’d do everything I could to stay awake,” I concurred, “but I know that I’d only be able to do that for so long before I fell asleep from exhaustion.”

The commercial ended and the movie started again, so we all turned our attention back to the screen.

We chatted during every commercial for the rest of the movie, and during one commercial the lights came on as my mom came down the stairs. She was carrying a large serving tray with a bunch of items on it, and we soon discovered it contained a platter filled with Halloween cookies. They were all home-made and some had hard frosting on top, and there were also peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses on top. After she’d passed out the cookies, my mom gave each of us a couple packages of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and a Ghirardelli dark chocolate candy bar.

“Happy Halloween,” she said to each of us as she handed us those things.

“Thanks, Mrs. Arpante,” the others all replied.

“Yeah, thanks for the cookies and candy, Mom,” I added, “but now you can go back upstairs and you don’t have to come down here again, cuz we’re going to go to sleep as soon as the movie ends.”

“Ok, then I’ll just wish each of you sweet dreams before I leave.”

I wasn’t sure if that was an ironic slip of the tongue or if she said it because she didn’t know what movie we were watching. Anyway, I believe we all shuddered slightly after she said that, and then we watched her as she walked up the stairs and turned off the light

When the movie ended, Mason looked at me and spoke. “Are we really going to go to sleep now?”

“No, I just told my mom that so she wouldn’t keep coming down here.”

“Oh, ok. Then what are we gonna do now?”

“I have something special planned,” I replied.

I then pulled two candle holders and candles off of a shelf that’s hanging on the wall, and I set them on the coffee table that was sitting in the front of the love seat. We’d used it to set our plates on while we were eating, but now I had something else in mind to use it for.

Besides the candles and candle holders, I also grabbed the lighter that was left on the shelf next to those items for emergencies. I used it to light the candles, and as soon as they had a nice flame burning, I spoke.

“I summon the Prince of Darkness and command him to join us!” I began, but then I was interrupted.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Devyn demanded.

“I heard someone say that in some movie or on a TV show, and I thought tonight would be a good time to see if anything happened when I said it.”

“Do you even know who the Prince of Darkness is?” he continued alarmed.

“Yeah, it’s the devil, but I don’t really believe in that stuff.”

I’d barely finished saying this when I noticed movement in the corner of the room. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I ran over and turned on the light so I could see.

“Turn off that damn light,” a deep and forceful voice said. “I prefer the darkness.”

“Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” I demanded as the scary looking individual moved closer.

“Didn’t one of you just summon me and command me to join you?”

“Do you mean you’re the Prince of Darkness?”

“Yes, that’s what some people call me, while others call me Satan, Diablo, Beelzebub, Abadon, the devil, and many more. So, which of you summoned me?”

I didn’t answer right away because I was confused. He didn’t look the way he’d been depicted in books, cartoons, TV shows, and movies. He didn’t have horns or a tail, and he wasn’t wearing a cape either and his skin wasn’t red. He was merely a rather tall figure that evoked a feeling of terror the second you laid eyes on him, let alone heard him speak.

“Well, speak up! I don’t have time to waste. There is much for me to do tonight and I don’t have time to waste dealing with a bunch of children.”

“Uhhh, ummm, I’m the one who summoned you,” I stammered.

“And for what purpose did you do this?”

“I just wanted to see what would happen.”

“You summoned me and commanded my presence just so you could see what would happen? Well, in that case let me show you.”

“I can make you do things,” he said, “and since people like to use the phase ‘dance with the devil’, I’ll make you dance first.”

Before we knew what was happening, he made each of us do an Irish jig, even though we’d never done it prior to tonight. As soon as he grew tired of watching us do that, he made us start fighting with each other, and we were punching as hard as we could.

“I can also turn you into different things,” he added after we stopped fighting, and then he turned Patrick into a King cobra and Mason into a braying jackass before he turned the rest of us into zombies.

“And I can also do things TO you,” he continued after changing us back.

Suddenly, I heard Patrick scream, and when I looked over at him, I saw that his shirt had a lengthy tear in it that was rapidly turning a dark red color. When I looked closer, I realized that under the tear in his shirt there was a deep gash that extended from his left nipple and went down to his belly button and exposed several of his internal organs.

As I was focusing on that, I heard Shane’s muffled scream, and when I looked over at him his left arm was missing. All that was left was a bloody stump and blood was squirting out of it in rhythm with his still beating heart. And while I was staring at this, his right leg was suddenly ripped from his body as well.

I was still reeling from that sight when I heard a loud thud followed by a cracking sound coming from where Devyn had been standing. When I turned toward him, I saw that his head was split open, as if it had been struck by an axe or a broad bladed sword.

That only left Mason, so I quickly looked around for him, and that’s when I saw he was hanging from a length of rope that was attached to the ceiling fan. I watched in horror as his body slowly went around in a circle with the spinning blades.

That made me wonder why he’d done something to each of the others and not to me, and that’s when the Prince of Darkness spoke again. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry to have bothered you. Please forgive me.”

I was still waiting for him to do something to me, and wondering why my parents hadn’t heard the noise from what was happening down here. Then I realized that if they were already in their bedroom on the second floor, they might not be able to hear the noise that was coming from the basement, either that or they thought it was just the TV.

“What are you planning to do to me?” I asked with my voice trembling.

“I thought I’d let you see what it was like to burn in hell,” he answered, and then I burst into flames.

The pain was unbearable and some of my skin was literally melting and falling off my body, and then suddenly it stopped and I was myself again.

“Did that answer your question?” he asked before releasing a sinister laugh.

“Yes, it did, but I was the one who summoned you and my friends had nothing to do with it,” I said after summoning a bit of courage, “so please put everything right again. They don’t deserve this.”

“Since you asked so nicely, and because it’s one of my favorite days, I will take mercy on you and restore your friends back to the way they were when I arrived. I usually wouldn’t be this lenient with someone who has irritated me, but since you are all so young, I’ve decided to make an exception.”

With a mere wave of his hand, the gash in Patrick’s chest healed and his shirt was made whole, so no signs remained to show it had ever happened. Shane’s arm and leg had also been restored, and Devyn’s head was no longer split open like a ripe melon. Then I looked to find Mason, and instead of hanging from a rope attached to the ceiling fan and going around in circles, he was merely standing on the floor under the ceiling fan.

“Thank you, Mr. Prince of Darkness!” I said, truly thankful.

“Then let this be a lesson to you. Don’t ever summon me unless you’re willing to serve me or it’s for something important you think I should be aware of. And don’t ever command me to do something again.”

“I promise I won’t. I’ve learned my lesson. We all have.”

“Now that you understand the danger of summoning me for fun, I’ll be going, because I have much more important things to deal with.”

As soon as he’d left, the rest of us looked at each other in awe.

“That was fucking scarier than watching the movie,” Shane said, “and something I’ll never forget.”

“Fuck, it was like being in the movie,” Mason added, “but he did worse things to us than Freddy Kruger did in the movie.”

“I think I need to change my underwear, because I’m sure I shit in them when the devil slashed my chest and my guts started spilling out.”

“And do you have any Tylenol?” Devyn asked. “I’ve actually got a headache from when he split my head open.”

“Yeah, I’ll go get them for you, but I want to apologize to each of you guys first. I should have told you what I was planning to do first and let you talk me out of it.”

“Actually, since the devil reversed everything he did, it made this an awesome Halloween and one that I’ll always remember,” Devyn replied.

“Yeah, and since it turned out that none of those things that happened were permanent,” Shane concurred, “it was a frightening, but neat experience.”

“Yeah, I was scared too,” Mason stated, “especially because I wasn’t dead yet as I was twirling around on the ceiling fan, but now I’ll just think of it as being on a ride at an amusement park.”

“An amusement park that I never want to visit again,” I countered, “but since we’re all ok, I agree it was a frightening experience and something I’ll always remember as well. And I promise I’ll never summon the Prince of Darkness again.”

“That’s a wise choice,” Devyn concurred, and then we agreed it was time to go to sleep.

I know my dreams were filled with visions of what had happened earlier, and I’m sure that was true for the rest of my friends as well. At least we survived the experience and we’ll live to see another Halloween. Someday we might even tell our children and grandchildren, although I doubt they’ll ever believe such a fantastic tale.

THE END