I cannot believe how all of this began... it started with a brazen dare to play a game with the devil. For the uninitiated, the "Devil's Game" is an alleged method for contacting the devil himself. I have never believed in any religion, because I need to see for myself before I believe something. So, naturally when my group of friends got together and drank ourselves into a liquid stupor, one of the more spiritual amongst us mentioned how we could "prove" that the devil and thusly, god himself, in fact exists. Simply do a small ritual and play a game of question and response with the father of all lies. I was the fearless one who accepted the challenge.
"Goddammit!" I exclaimed, tearing a nearly full page from my notebook. I crumpled it up and tossed it into the fire. "Why won't this story just come together already?" That's when Blister, the eldest in our group spoke up, after taking a long drink from his canned, amber poison. "Listen boy, god ain't to blame for your writer’s block, and Iain'gonna hear you take his name in vain again!" I set my ten cent, dollar store pen down on the earth next to me, now once again staring at a blank page. I was beginning to get fed up with all his religious talk. "Oh yeah? Whadda’ya gonna do about it, gramps? Pray me away?" I taunted, bursting into raucous laughter. I was more than a little drunk so my usual ability to just chuckle and keep my mouth shut was out the window. “So you ain’t afraid of the devil?” asked Blister. “Nope,” I responded, “I don’t fear things that don’t exist.” “Then prove it.” Blister demanded. “How would you have me do that?” I asked, my voice was beginning to take on shades of anger now. “Why don’t you make a deal with him?” taunted Blister, he was swaying by this point, sloshing his booze all over the place. "Both of you shut up, this is a vacation, not a fuckin' crusade!" interjected my cousin Rob. “I’ll raise a bottle to that.” I said and took a drink from my beer.
The next day, I awoke in my tent. Matt and his wife Ann slept in the communal cabin, while Rob and myself had tents. My hangover was nearly non-existent, despite having been more drunk than I had in months. “How’d you sleep out here Alex?” asked Rob. He was setting up his JetBoil to make instant coffee. “I don’t feel hungover at all, but I think I crashed on a rock, my back absolutely kills today.” I climbed out of my tent and stretched in the morning sun.
“Sorry about last night guys, I can’t stand preachy people.” I said apologetically “Blister was really grating on my last nerve.” We gathered up our things and put fresh wood back on the communal cabin’s fire pit, and began our descent to the pickup location. Sitting in the back of Tommy’s truck, I opened up YouTube on my phone and plugged in my headphones, and as I did, one of the first items on my feed intrigued me: “The Devil’s Game.” I listened to the alleged ritual from start to finish, thinking back to Blister and his argument the previous night. “Fuck it, I will be leaving in a few days, I’ll prove him wrong before I go.”
The plan was a deceptively simple one, there was a church not far from the mountain we were hiking on, it has a full length mirror on the wall in the main sanctuary. I would pick the lock using a flathead and the wire from a windshield wiper. Now all I needed are the supplies. 7 white candles, the length of red paracord from my survival knife, a box of sea salt and a way to keep track of the time I spend with “The Devil.”
“Hey guys, can we run to the store today?” I asked Matt and Rob, who were both diligently working away in the living room. “I need to go to Wal-Mart.,” I stated. “Isn’t that a pretty far drive?” Rob asked, without even glancing away from his MacBook.“Yeah it’s a ways from here, what do you need out there, dude?” Matt asked me. Knowing there was truth in my words, I had no problem saying “My phone card expires tonight and I need the service for my wifi hotspot.” Matt responded with “Okay we can go, but let’s do it soon.” I slammed down my cup of black coffee and the four of us left —Rob, Matt, Ann and myself— I broke away from them almost immediately, I asked one worker where I would find candles, and grabbed a pack of 10 tealights. I found the salt by myself just 3 aisles down from that, and before anyone noticed I was gone, I found and paid for my phone card and a pack of cigarettes as well. I reunited with my group and we checked out. “That was too easy.,” I thought to myself. It was actually getting there would be the issue.
truth is a straight, keen edge with no soft angles or rounded sides.
That night was moonless, the onyx sky hanging overhead like a dread blanket of malicious cold. Rob had gone down to the spring to collect and filter water. Matt was working away on his computer, and Ann had gone to Blister’s camp to have some drinks. This was the one chance I would have to disappear. “Hey Matt, I am going to head up to Blister’s campsite, I wanna have a few beers.” I said. “Alright, I’ll let Rob know when he gets here.” He responded.
I was sorry for lying to Matt. I abhor the idea of lying in general, specifically to my friends, but I had to do this, as much for my own pride as for my curiosity. I grabbed my bag of supplies quickly and set off.
There is no arcane or demonic text...only your deepest desire can bring him out
It took roughly 10 minutes to get to Blister’s camp. I stopped in and had some beers. Blister began his tirade of religious garbage after 20 minutes so I had my beers and then left. I checked my timeline via my cellphone. The walk took almost exactly one hour, but eventually I made it to the church. I knew I had to act fast, to avoid unnecessary attention. I bent the wire into a hook and took out my flathead. The lock was simple, and only took 5 minutes to break. I checked my phone one last time; 11:57 pm. I left my cell phone and flashlight outside of the church doors and turned a cross on the wall upside down as I walked into the darkness within the house of god. There is no real "ritual", simply set up the protections and concentrate on your deepest desire, and he will appear. I wrapped the red cord around the mirror three times and tied it off in front. I opened the salt and poured a semicircle around the reflective glass, making sure it touched the wall on both ends. I only needed 7 of the candles, and I lit them in a clockwise fashion, once they were burning strongly, I stepped back from the mirror and visualized the thing I wanted most in this whole world… Her. I closed my eyes and slowly counted up: one...two...three...four…five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten. As I opened up my eyes again I noticed, to my shock, the mirror shimmered and undulated before me. That’s when the gravity of my situation hit me like a truck full of sober…
"Shall we begin the game?" boomed a voice from the mirror.
Here's the images I used, thanks for giving it a read! Steem on!
image 1: http://www.lulu.com/blog/tag/writers-block/#sthash.x9xoB37i.dpbs
image 2: my own photography
PS: This is not the end.
