Out_of_the_Devil_39_s_Cauldron

speed I could not imagine. The people’s faces looked drained and confused, and I felt as though I
could not breathe. I found a spot to grab onto, and there before me was a young woman dressed in a
stylish business suit looking into my eyes.
I got a good look at the woman. She had a knockout smile that highlighted a beautiful face.
Everything about her was striking. She moved her lips and said something to me. “I’m going to hell,
and I’m dragging you with me!” she said in a devilish language.
Fear ripped through me as the young woman reached for my arm. She gripped me with the
strength of a man, and when she did I pulled away so hard I jolted myself from sleep. Eyes darting at
every corner of my bedroom, I was looking to hide from the attractive pursuer with the demonic
voice. But a moment later, I found myself tumbling back into another surreal setting.
This time I stood on a high platform, looking onto the subway tracks below. Beside me was a
devil-worshipping cousin of mine. I asked him, “How do I get down from here?”
“If you want to get to the platform, you’ll have to slide down that rope.” He pointed to a long
rope dangling down into the tracks. “Or you can enter the tunnel until you exit onto the street.”
The dangling rope looked dangerous, but I wanted to find my way home. So instead I opted for
the darkness of the long, foreboding tunnel. The tunnel was narrower than I thought, more pitch black
than I imagined. I knew I was not in a normal tunnel but one of the tunnels of hell. How long would I
have to be here, strangled in my fear? Walking deeper into the tunnel, I felt uneasy and the fear grew
stronger, like no fear I ever felt on earth. Heat emanated from the tunnel, as if I were walking into the
mouth of a dragon. With every step I took, my feet sank into a soft, unfamiliar surface. Suddenly, the
devil himself stood in front of me. He was over 12 feet tall, with gruesome-looking features and deep
red eyes. I noticed that his wings were stained and dirty.
As he spoke, heat came out of his mouth. “I have given you everything: wealth, women, and
power,” he said in a deep, echoing voice. “People fear you because of me. I was like a father to you,
and now you want to throw it all away? Don’t you know you can never get rid of me?”
I looked into his churning eyes, and what I saw made me want to run in the direction I had
come, but my feet felt cemented to the ground and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream to save my life.
“If you won’t serve me,” he continued, “then I’ll have to destroy you.”
He tried to grab me, and I backed up.
“You fool,” he said, laughing. “You can’t get away. You belong to me!”
As he went to grab me once again, something appeared in my right hand, and I looked at it
with amazement. It was a 3-foot cross. As soon as he reached for me, I put the cross on him, and he
lost all strength and power and fell to his knees. In shock at what had taken place, I continued running
through the tunnel as fast as I could. When I reached the end of the tunnel, the same fear gripped me
again, only this time much stronger and much worse. The devil appeared for the second time, angrier
than before, speaking to me in demonic tongues and telling me how he was going to destroy me.
“I have no plans of leaving you!” I shouted, my whole body trembling.
He pointed his long finger at me. “You liar!” he said in a screaming voice.
“No, no,” I pleaded, “I’m just confused! Bear with me. I’ll get it back together.”
“No!” he said once again, his voice echoing down the tunnel. “I’m going to keep you here in
hell with me so your body on earth won’t wake up. You’ll be pronounced dead.”
When I saw I had no way out, I pulled down my T-shirt and showed him the scars on my chest.
“I will use these to destroy you,” I said.