I am not a very good writer, this is my first ever post. I wasn’t even sure if I should post this at all because I know some of you might find it silly.
Well, anyway, here goes nothing.
A couple of years ago, when I was a sophomore student, I met the strangest person ever. When you ask people about the scariest or weirdest experience they’ve ever had, it’s always something that happened at night or in a creey haunted location, but my experience was different.
This was at noon, inside a busy park right next to my dorm.
I was sitting on a bench, waiting for my friends, we were supposed to play basketball that day. We are not that into sports, we would just toss the ball around on weekends to kill some time.
So, how should I start this?
Okay, so imagine with me, I’m sitting in this park, sun is shining, some kids are playing, a guy wearing a long sleeved shirt standing in front of a group of guys, and he’s hitting on a girl, and a couple walking their dog.
Then I see him. A tall, slim man, maybe mid thirties, wearing a floral patterned red suit. The shoes and the shirt are shining black, he was already out of place, but what made it more interesting is his plastic little horns he has on top of his black, oily hair.
And the way that he walks.. like he’s more important than everyone else
So he walks in my direction, I try not to stare. As he reaches my bench, he suddenly looks my way and asks:
“Mind?” Nodding towards the bench.
“No, not at all” I answer. Why would I care, anyways?
The man took a couple of smooth steps towards the bench and sat. I say “smooth” because I don’t know how else to describe it, but everything this man did somehow felt elegant, or graceful, as if he had put a lot of thought into every little move. I found the contradiction between his funny outfit and his formality a little scary.
What if he is not right in the head? That would be a plausible (and a very unfortunate for me) explanation.
“You can just ask, you know.” Said the man, looking right in front of him, at the group of guys who are standing around the girl. She didn’t look particularly happy about what was going on.
“Excuse me?” The only thing I could say.
He turned his head to look at me and smiled.
“Nevermind.”
But I did mind, because deep inside, I knew what he mean and it made me feel uneasy.
The man has turned his head back to the flirting scene that was unfolding in front of him.
“These guys are pricks.” I said, deciding to talk to the man over minding my own business.
“People, you can always count on them to do evil. Yet they always decide to blame someone else.” He giggled, still focused on the group.
I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say. Something about this man terrifying.
Yeah, and I forgot to tell you, probably because I didn’t realize it at the time, but I started developing some bad migraine.
“Hmmm, I could easily end this, you know.” He said “What..? How?” What was he talking about??
“Oh, there are a lot of ways. But then there is the whole “free will” dilemma.”
“What are you talking about?” “You know what I mean.”
I didn’t respond, again, and we sat there for some time, in complete silence.
The man kept looking content as he observed the park in front of him. Every now and then he would look at me with his comforting smile, as if he was waiting for me to say something. I thought about leaving, but somehow I couldn’t, or didn’t want to.
I tried to distract myself with my phone, maybe there is a message from my friends, they sure are late today. “I should totally do something.” Said the man, at last. He looked at me, with a smile. “I am, after all, famous for breaking the rules, right?”
“I wouldn’t know..” I answered.
“Yeah? You wouldn’t? The horns, the free will thing. You really don’t know who I am?”
“Oh. So you are the devil?” This man is probably high on something, or just not right in his head.
“Yes, sir. The one and only.”
“Okay. A devil with plastic horns on his head. You couldn’t grow your own?”
“I could, but I never had. People decided that I have to have horns. No one knows why. And the whole goat thing. There are a lot of other animals, but no. I get the goat. Thanks, people.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Right? Why the goat?”
“No, not that. I mean, if, as you say, you are the devil, and you don’t have horns, why are you wearing these plastic ones?”
“Oh, I’m just bored, I guess. I always see people dressed up as me on Halloween. I wanted to try it myself. I mean, it’s pretty rare to be able to wear a costume of yourself.”
“This is interesting. Are you a method actor?”
“A method actor? Hmm. No one has put it this way, but yes, I think I am.”
I looked at the man, he was enjoying the attention he was getting.
“So, you said you wanted to stop these guys from hitting on that girl.”
“Yes, I guess I can make an exception today. Why not?”
He looked at me, his smile has turned into a full grin.
“What should we do to them?”
“We? I’m not planning on doing anything.”
“Well, then give me your suggestions, what should I do to them?”
“Umm, like light them up? Like in hell?”
“What?!” the man looked astonished “And they say I am the bad guy. You want to burn all these guys for simply flirting with a girl?”
“No, but I figured the fire would be your thing, right?”
“Yes, it kind of is.” He sighed “But please, be more creative, and maybe less evil. Also, I cannot really kill somebody.”
“So you can’t do anything, yet you want me to believe you are the devil?”
“I didn’t say I can’t do anything. I just can’t kill people. I have far more sophisticated ways.”
“Any examples?”
“Oh, don’t turn this around on me. I want to see what you decide we should do with them.”
“Why would I decide anything about these people? I dont care and dont have the right to do so.”
“But you can watch something bad happening in front of you and not intervene? Come on, there is an opportunity for you to do the right thing.”
“The devil wants to do the right thing? Isn’t that like the exact opposite of what the devil should do?”
“As I said, you people just love to blame someone else.”
I realized that Im having the strangest conversation with a weirdo that claims he is the devil, it made me feel stupid. That’s why I decided to go along with the man, just to prove that he is not the devil. To myself, maybe.
“Okay. Can you humiliate the guy in the long sleeved shirt from here? The one next to the girl?”
“Oh, but of course.” The guy almost shone with excitement “Humiliation, I love it. Such a self sabotaging feeling. How should we humiliate him?”
“Can you make his pants drop?”
“You are such a cliche.” The excitement escaped the man. “Fire, pants drop. What next? Do you want me to stick a paper to his back with “idiot” written on it?”
“What do you want from me? What do you want me to say? You just can’t do any of these things. I don’t understand the joke you are trying to pull here, but this is really ridiculous.”
“Just think, what would humiliate you the most, make it worth it.”
“I think…” I said after really thinking about it “ If my dad humiliated me in front of all of them.”
“Yes!” exclaimed the man “This is perfect! We get to ruin so much! He might start hating his dad, his friends stop talking to him, he can end up using drugs, go to prison or kill himself! So much damage with one small action.”
I didn’t think of his words back then, I thought he was just being over dramatic and I wanted to see what he will do when he wouldn’t be able to pull this through.
“Is that what we should do?” He looked me straight in the eyes.
“Yes. Why not, let his dad appear out of thin air.” I shrugged.
“And you will be totally responsible for that?”
“What do you mean?” His question made me worry a bit.
“Well, I will do what you suggest, but I would need you to say “Im totally responsible for what is going to happen to these lives.” Can you do it?”
“No, I dont want to be responsible for anything.”
“But then you are responsible for what is happening to this girl.”
“I’m not responsible for anything. I’m just waiting for my friends.”
“But you said you don’t believe I can do anything.”
“I dont”
“Then say the words and see for yourself.”
“Why can’t you be responsible for your actions.”
“I can. But this way it’s more fun. More damage.”
“Okay, this is crazy. Im out of here.” I said as I was getting up.
“Do you think that this guy deserves to be punished?”
“I don’t know, don’t care, anyways.”
“Oh, but you do. You do know and do care.”
I looked at him as I was standing, ready to leave. My head hurt so much. Like there was something inside. Or someone. I looked at the group of guys that were still bothering that girl. She could leave. Why didn’t she leave? “Don’t blame the victim. Don’t be an idiot.” These words hit me with terror as goosebumps rose along my spine. I didn’t say anything. Did he just read my mind?! I froze there, not able to leave or sit back down.
“So? Are you willing to take the responsibility for doing the right thing?”
I thought about the guys, the girl, the man next to me. Why would I care what happens to this guy? He is an asshole anyway, and deserves to be punished. So why not, if anything bad is going to happen, it should happen to him.
“Yes, I will take the full responsibility.”
“Perfect!” The man got all excited again. “Now watch!”
I sat back down. Just from behind the tree, a man showed up. He looked angry as he approached the guy in the long-sleeved shirt. They started to fight, as the guys and the girl giggled over something the man was saying. The more the man talked, the more humiliated and ashamed the guy looked, but the man is not anywhere near stopping. Eventually, the guy couldn’t take it and just left, crying. The rest were all laughing by now.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. My mind searched for a rational explanation, I’m sure there is one. Maybe it’s a prank, the man next to me had all this planned beforehand?
“This is a prank.” I said, my voice now shaky “We did what you decided. Why wouldn’t you still believe?”
“Because it cant be true.” I was trying to make him understand that I refuse to believe he was the actual devil. “Also, why me? Why would the devil come to me?” “Oh, dear, don’t give yourself more credit than you deserve.” The man rolled his eyes, “There is no reason for that. It’s a coincidence. You are not chosen or anything, believe me.”
We looked at each other, and deep in my heart, I knew, I knew right then that it was the devil. Despite the crazy devil custom he was wearing. Despite the silly plastic horns. It was really him. Thinking of it now, maybe I was just scared.
I’ve never seen something that couldn’t be explained. He could’ve just predicted what I was thinking, manipulated me somehow into deciding on the humiliation part. He could have had it planned all along for some kind of joke or maybe an experiment. Anything. Back then, as we were looking into each other’s eyes I was convinced I was sitting next to the devil.
“Well,” said the man, clapping his hands together, “we had our fun, it’s time for me to go now.”
He rose, looked at me, and turned to walk in the same direction he came from.
The man stopped, turned his had towards me and smiled, “Plastic horns, ha! No one would really think I would be wearing this, right?”
I didn’t answer. I was trying to process everything that just happened. He winked at me and continued walking way, laughing.
“Plastic horns, ha-ha-ha, perfect, just perfect!” I could hear him laughing right until he disappeared around the corner.
A lot of time passed and I never saw him, or anything slightly supernatural ever again, but I can’t really forget what happened that day, or what happened after At first, I tried to forget about the whole thing, but it just wouldn’t leave me alone.
Somehow, one of my friends happened to know the guys at the park from that day, and I learned that the guy in the long-sleeved shirt ended up in prison, and his parents got divorced. The worst thing that I found out is no one was trying to bother that girl. The guy was just trying to make up with his girlfriend after a misunderstanding.
The devil left me to learn all these things by myself, and be responsible for everything that happened to these people.