Hetalia: The Fifty Stars

Chapter 3: The Jersey Devil

New Jersey. The 3rd state was known for his impish attitude that has more than often got him into trouble with his neighbors. As such, he often gets into fights wherever he goes, especially whenever New York is involvements. Outside his smitten behavior, he can be composed and well-educated whenever he needs to be.

Among his favorite activities to do, he loves anything related to horror and the spooky. Whether it be spending a night at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital to daring his fellow states to touch the Devil's Tree, he's a huge fan of the haunted. One of his favorite stories is the legend of the Jersey Devil, an infamous tale set in the 1700s that is well-known throughout not only in his home, but across America as well.

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"It was a dark and stormy night. Mother Leeds was bedridden for many days in preparation for another child to be brought into this world. Her beloved friends watched over her and her twelve children, awaiting for the arrival of the thirteenth new-"

"That's a lot of kids. I'm surprised she hadn't stopped at two," Maine's voice squeaked in the dark.

Jersey pointed his flashlight onto the red haired, pale skinned girl with emerald green eyes. "Quiet, Maine!" Jersey scolded her before gathering his composure, adjusting the flashlight back on him. "As I was saying, Mother Leeds was afraid for her life, her friends, and her family for earlier when she discovered she was pregnant, she had an omen." He paused, allowing his audience to absorb the shock of the news.

Maine and Vermont's facial expressions remained intent on New Jersey while New York looked rather indifferent, his cobalt blue eyes darting elsewhere around the cabin's living room, the only room to be lit brightly in the dark thanks to their flashlights and the fireplace that sat behind Jersey. His nonchalant yawn ruined the eerie silence of the story.

"Are you going to tell us?" York impatiently asked.

"Quiet, Yorkie!"

"Don't call be that!" York bristled, but Jersey paid no attention to his rude neighbor.

"To answer your question, the omen she had prophesied her thirteenth child will be the Devil itself."

York raised an eyebrow. "And how is that possible?"

Jersey rolled his eyes. "Haven't you been paying attention? Mother Reeds is said to be a witch and the father is the Devil," he tried to explain.

"That doesn't make any sense. How can the mother fuck with the Devil to give birth to the Devil? Plus, how come her last twelve children have been normal? Wouldn't they be the Devil, too? Or, did she had an affair? Explain."

"Quit your complaining, and let me finish the story!" Jersey grumbled. "Anyway, where was I...? Oh, yes! When Mother Leeds gave birth to her thirteenth child," Jersey paused to build up suspense, "the child was born...normal..."

Another brief moment of silence was given to take in his words.

"Normal?" Vermont repeated the word, perplexed by what Jersey said.

"Yeah! A normal child with a normal weight and a normal body. Both hands having five fingers each, and both feet having five toes each. Crying sweetly like any newborn, the thirteenth appeared innocent and alive," Jersey described with excitement.

"But suddenly," Jersey deepened his voice, waving the flashlight toward his face, "the newborn began to warp into a creature of unimaginable ugliness. A fiend so horrifying it caused everyone in the room to flee on sight. The creature's chubby, peachy limbs began to extend and form the large hooves of a horse. Its cute, baby head suddenly distorted into the head of a wild, rabid goat, shrieking out hellish screams of the dead. Along its back the cursed child grew a pair of large, bat-like wings the length of the room before growing a spiked tail at the end of its spine. Its beautiful, porcelain skin started to grow out the black fur of a demon. Its blind eyes were now open to the world, now clouded with blood lust. No longer was the child human, but a menacing monster."