"Dancing with the Devil." | Larry Stylinson. TRANSLATION

XII. "Midnight Confessions"

For over thirty years, parents terrorized their children with the famous story of Reinold Cowell. According to everyone, he used to be a sorcerer who lived almost on the outskirts of Holmes Chapel. He became a faithful servant of the Devil when mean children frequently went to his house and threw stones at it, breaking windows and destroying his home.

There had been times when he had been physically hurt, and that house he had lived in used to be well cared for because his deceased wife had built it with him. It was the only memory he had of her.

Determined and blinded by the pain of having lost the love of his life, Reinold decided to invoke the higher demons, selling his soul to their leader to protect him from those children.

The last time the children went to throw stones, not only were they disturbed by all the demons in humiliating and painful ways -breaking their fingers out of nowhere and feeling sharp nails burying themselves in their feet- but the famous musician from hell, Giussepe Tartini, only climbed up to play the violin's sharpest string abruptly and irritatingly. That sound blew up the children's heads one by one, and soon their bodies appeared on the doors of each parent's house.

Reinold Cowell was hung in his own living room, and the last thing he said before he died was: "Here I am dying unjustly, as most people do. I don't blame those children, I now see before me the monsters in which they were reflected."

Harry's entire childhood was based on jokes about that man, and even the few times he had almost made it out of town with his family he cried and cried out for a safe return home. He couldn't even think of death or someone surrounded by demons.

Ironic, because he was in love with the Devil, and now death was normal for him and quite frequent.

The house was huge and it looked old. He was pretty sure the cobwebs were real. However, the Halloween décor helped, and the crowd inside seemed to be having fun as they danced to Elvis Presley's "Rock in jail" thanks to the jukebox in the corner.

There was a bar at the other end of the room, and it was also full. The light of the place was out, and the candles of the huge candlestick on the ceiling illuminated the place dimly. In the kitchen, people were sitting around what appeared to be a tablet with strange letters. Harry would probably be scared to death if he had entered the house before meeting Louis, but he wasn't afraid. It was completely normal for him.

Liam watched with a slight smile as Fionn removed his sheet and watched with indignation the terrifying costumes of everyone. How couldn't he notice that he and Harry looked ridiculous! Immediately he noticed the curly boy, who was still hiding under the sheet and seemed to be bobbing his head at the sound of the music.

—Oh, fuck. Can you repeat what I said about us in front of the mirror? —Harry watches him for a few seconds, completely lost to the neutral way Fionn is talking to him.

—Oh. You said, "We look so terrifying, Harry."

—Why didn't you hit me when I said that?

Liam laughed, shook his head, and put his hands behind both boys' backs. —Let's have a drink and calm down, —he said, heading with them toward the bar, which was full but served quite quickly.

Harry took the sheet off his body once they reached it and tied it around his neck, like a superhero. Fionn had left it somewhere, his hair up, disheveled and eyes painted black.

—Fionn? —Liam asked, speaking clearly as he was about to be served by the man on the other side of the bar.

—A beer.

—Harry?

—Oh. Uhm, water.

Liam's eyebrows rise. —Water?