It staggered out of the gloomy doorway with it’s legs twisted and its head hung low on its slumped shoulders. At first I thought it was a man lost to drink by the way he staggered about, his arms stiff at its side – but I was wrong.
It was a black man, dressed in dark jeans splattered with filth and dust. He wore a dress shirt, ripped along its front and the buttons hanging loosely around his neck like dead skin.
He approached my friend, standing next to me.
He grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt, his eyes wide and crazy in their sockets. He growled at him like a rabid animal.
It was then I realized this was no ordinary man. Sure, he was flesh and bone like me, with veins pumping hot blood through his body. Somewhere he had a mother, a father, maybe even siblings who were worried about him, who loved him, and hated him seeing reduced to this wretched state.
But it was worse than that.
He was possessed by a demon. For those of you out there who refused to accept this as nothing more than outdated superstition, I assure you these things are real. And they are everywhere, causing havoc in our daily lives. And this poor bastard had one in him.
I raised my bible and told him to stop in the name of God.
That’s when his head twisted around , his face twisted in agony and a rage so deep, it cut me like a knife. It growled at me like a mad dog…
And I woke up.
I hate to do the dream cliche after that, but it was a dream – or so I think. I hope. I pray. For me, the dream was so real that I couldn’t go back to sleep for the longest time afterward. I kept thinking about the man and the way he snarled at me in the dream. His face.
It was all clear.
Two days later, I still feel its sting.
This is not the first dream or encounter I’ve had with demons. I’ve seen the world end in a dream. I wrote about it in my short story THE FALLEN.
And I’ve seen worse.
I’ve heard the bee-like buzz of Beelzebub one night, while dozing on my coach. This was no dream. The room was quite, just the gentle hum of the air conditioner. And then off to my right, as clear as day, I heard a buzz. It wasn’t an insect, it was something else – something wicked letting me know it was there. Letting me know that it was watching me and my family. The thing radiated fear so strong, I didn’t dare open my eyes until I felt it was gone.
Demons are everywhere and they come in many shapes and sizes, human and inhuman. Like the ghosts I have encountered, I believe sometimes they are drawn to me – and me, like a dumb ass, am drawn to them. I find them just as fascinating as I do terrifying. Like a scientist, I want to study them and learn more about them. And yet, don’t want anything to do with them.
But that dream, though.
Was it their way of reminding me that they were still around, watching me – hating me for finding God once again, and home in church with great people and friends?
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
Hall of the King 