Devil on Washington Rock
A True New Jersey Story
As it happened to the author
by
S. E. Schlosser
The dream was so vivid, she didn't realize at first that it was a dream. The party was crowded, the guests cheerful, the food delicious. Then a rumor began to circulate among the guests. The Devil was coming to the party. The Devil was on the way.
She didn't pay much attention at first. Until a hush came over the crowd. Turning to see what it was, she saw a tall, handsome blond man standing in the doorway greeting his hostess. Around her, the murmurs began. It was the Devil. He had come.
She watched out of the corner of her eye as the Devil made the rounds of the room. He looked so ordinary, it was hard to believe he was the Devil. Then he came to her group. As soon as he joined them, she knew the rumor was true. This was not someone to be trifled with. Frightened, she grabbed for a Bible her hostess had left lying on a nearby end-table and threw it at the Devil. For a moment, their eyes locked. The Devil's eyes were full of ferocious anger, terrible evil, and malevolent malice directed right at her. She thought she was dead.
Then she woke, and lay trembling in her bed with the light on until dawn.
The next morning was the end of term. Her parents and younger sister helped her clear out her dorm room and packed the car. It was dusk before they settled into their seats for the two-hour drive home. They talked excitedly as they drove towards their home in New Jersey, interrupting each other often, contradicting themselves and laughing. It was good to be together again.
They were fifteen minutes from home when they left the highway. Her father turned onto Washington Rock Road that led up the mountain, through the C-bend around the Washington Rock State Park and then down the other side of the mountain. As they drove up the steep hill, a noisy motorcycle tail-gated them, trying to pass even though the road was windy and narrow. Finally the hill grew so steep that the driver was forced to slow down and eventually, they pulled away from him entirely.
The car reached the top of the hill and started around the long C curve that took them through one end of the park. The park was dark and still. The whole family automatically looked to their right, out over the gorgeous view of the New York City skyline. They all saw the small park cart, sitting next to the road just inside the park boundary. It was parked directly underneath the only streetlight, where you couldn't fail to see it. And inside the vehicle....
She started trembling fiercely. Inside the vehicle was a tall, handsome blond man with eyes full of ferocious anger, terrible evil, and malevolent malice. It was the man from her dream. The man everyone said was the Devil!
The tension in the car was palpable. She had mentioned her dream to no one. But her parents and her sister all felt the evil pulsing from the still figure in the cart. No one spoke as they drove past the man.
Suddenly, the engine gave a strange cough. Her father gunned the motor, once, twice in a silent, desperate battle to keep moving. She gripped her hands together, praying silently as she stared at the figure opposite their car. The engine caught again and her father pressed down hard on the accelerator. Then they were past the man and roaring away from the park and towards the downward slope of the mountain.
She was sweating profusely, unable to stop shaking. She looked back out the window at the man in the park, and saw the motorcycle come roaring at last to the top of the hill. It drove half-way around the C-bend and as it drew opposite the figure in the cart, she heard the engine of the motorcycle cough. And then stall.
And then the park was out of view and they were riding silently towards home, not daring to speak until they were safely indoors.
She often wondered what happened to the man on the motorcycle.
A longer version of this story appears in Spooky New Jersey by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
CREEPY
Posted by: Anonymous | July 9, 2010 12:06 PM
This is a really great story
Posted by: notgonnatell | July 16, 2010 01:21 AM
it gave me chills.
Posted by: Lupita | July 18, 2010 10:25 AM
That was really good. It was awesome
Posted by: sarah | August 7, 2010 07:26 PM
wow this is creepy but at the same time funny cuz she threw a bible
Posted by: danary | August 14, 2010 03:12 PM
Wow....Could've had a better ending tho. :P
Posted by: Moaz | August 19, 2010 12:38 PM
that was ok but they should have put the long version on but it was really good
Posted by: notgonnatell | August 20, 2010 12:51 PM
very good and spooky story
Posted by: Anonymous | August 23, 2010 01:05 PM
ehhh, ive heard scarier. but good try at least! C,:
Posted by: Gigi | August 24, 2010 05:18 PM
IAM SORRY BUT IT NEEDED MORE SCARY
Posted by: corline | September 4, 2010 01:36 PM
awsome story but not that scary.
Posted by: grace | September 5, 2010 06:54 PM
cool
Posted by: Anonymous | September 8, 2010 09:55 PM
i am same with grace awsome but not scary
Posted by: bidisha | September 11, 2010 11:40 PM
ummm..alryt..but more scary parts in it not too boring
Posted by: Anonymous | September 15, 2010 03:30 PM
soooooo scary wat happen to the man on the motorcycle
Posted by: Vashti | September 18, 2010 01:18 PM
very boring
Posted by: Anonymous | September 20, 2010 09:04 PM
best so far! gave me chills!
Posted by: anonymous | October 8, 2010 09:31 AM
loved it! im going to read it again...... :)
Posted by: victoria | October 8, 2010 09:32 AM
Might have been what I call a "non-human ghost", something like a demon but I dont like using this word because of the whole lot of meaning it was given throughout the centuries. These things can take the form of anything to frighten their target or to get close to the person. If you're religious, they'll take the forms of creatures religious people fear of, like the devil.
Could have been a prophetic type of dream to warn you not to stop by that man because he is evil, some sort of a criminal.
Or perhaps you were under the influence of a vivid dream and identified an ordinary person similar to the one in your dream as the actual devil from your dream.
To the biker most likely nothing had happened and his engine came to back life again in a few seconds. If something would have happened you'd heard about it in the news. But you can ask the local police if anything had happened that night or you can dig into the papers at the library.
The worst thing that could have happened though, if this was a supernatural creature, is that the biker brought it home with himself and now it haunts him. Hauntings of these things are rather bad ones indeed.
Posted by: Herne the Hunter | October 10, 2010 04:19 PM
Scary...but I wanted someone to die
Posted by: Anonymous | October 15, 2010 10:51 PM
it's ok i wish they put da long version =(
Posted by: sofi | October 24, 2010 12:07 PM
i wonder what happened to the guy on the motorcycle????
Posted by: Amber | October 24, 2010 02:06 PM
eh. could've had a better ending
Posted by: Anonymous | October 25, 2010 01:58 PM
kewl lol
Posted by: t | October 26, 2010 11:22 AM
awesome
Posted by: Anonymous | October 27, 2010 05:33 PM
what is the longer version?
Posted by: Brianna | October 29, 2010 02:22 PM
yeh wats the longer version?
Posted by: Lily | November 3, 2010 02:10 AM
great story.
Posted by: shane | November 4, 2010 08:23 AM
Wow!!Freaky!
Posted by: Anonymous | November 11, 2010 08:23 AM
eh. i really like this spooky story and i wana have sume more better than this!!!
Posted by: rob ovis | November 13, 2010 11:59 AM
scary
Posted by: Anonymous | January 13, 2011 04:20 PM
Okay story but more detail at end
Posted by: bri | January 14, 2011 01:19 PM
kept me at the edge of my seat! love these stories
Posted by: T-rok | January 16, 2011 06:36 AM
Thats sooo cool
Posted by: Jewell | January 18, 2011 10:38 PM
Pretty scary i would pray for hours because i would be so scared
Posted by: Hailie | February 22, 2011 03:32 AM
needs a little work on the ending
Posted by: Anonymous | March 14, 2011 05:31 AM
wow i listend to it and it freacked me out!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 15, 2011 12:06 PM
wish it could of been more scary though i wondered about the guy in the motorcycle
Posted by: goth chic | March 20, 2011 01:49 PM
I felt like somone is outside wating 4 me now !! It gave me the chills !!
Posted by: eliana | March 22, 2011 09:23 PM
CREEPY
Posted by: alisha joshau | April 1, 2011 08:50 AM
Wow... That was weird so what happens after that?
Posted by: Fran Smith | April 15, 2011 07:25 AM
wasnt that scary. made me more curious about what happend to the biker
Posted by: Jaden | May 11, 2011 11:14 AM
ok....... why in every story they mention the devil, hes always like super hansome?
Posted by: kailahn omar | June 22, 2011 11:10 AM
thats really scary!! my great great grandma saw the devil but in the shape of a bull with red eyes and it was following her at night so she ran into a church building and after that he was gone. No Joke!!
Posted by: monserrat | July 28, 2011 10:10 PM
omg
Posted by: Anonymous | August 2, 2011 04:05 PM
so really what happened to the man on the motorcycle ?
Posted by: Omar | August 11, 2011 07:02 AM
That is very much so creepy. It's like a total case of deja vu....WEIRD!!!!!!D:D:D:D:D:
Posted by: tori | August 16, 2011 02:43 PM