GMNJ

GMNJ02

The Jersey Devil was born to a young woman by the name of Martha Leeds. Not much is known about Martha’s past, but we do know that she developed a secret relationship with a wealthy, and married, business man by the name of Obadiah Jones. Soon after their love affair began, she became pregnant with Jones’s baby. Obadiah’s wife, Katherine, found out about the affair and pregnancy when Martha’s belly grew too big to be kept secret in the small town of Tuckerton.

A furious Katherine stole a large sum of money from her husband and paid two local witches to put a curse on the unsuspecting Martha. The hex was supposed to abort the unborn child and hopefully do away with Martha in the process. But to the chagrin of the witches, the spells had no effect on Martha Leeds. As she drew closer to delivery, the witches decided to kidnap Martha, as they did not want to give the money back to Obadiah’s wife, and not have people think their magic was a sham.

So they brought the very pregnant woman to their home deep in the Pine Barrens.

The night the Devil was born was the nastiest and most sudden storms in New Jersey’s history. For three hours straight, black lightning erupted from massive, dark clouds and ignited fires across the whole state. When the black rain finally fell, it only gave the citizens a temporary relief. The water pounded the grounds, and elevated the rivers and lakes. The flooding drowned cities, towns, and many residents, throughout the state. The roaring winds carried the newborn child’s wail throughout the Garden State as local newspapers at the time had printed many eyewitness accounts that the wicked storm sounded like the bone-chilling cry of a sinister baby.

Martha had an extremely difficult childbirth and suffered severely. She died thirteen minutes after her son was born.

And the Son of Leeds stopped crying seconds later.

Gods vs. Monsters vs. NJ is a flash fiction series by Chris Blount. It magically tries to update itself on a weekly basis.

About the plot: https://write.as/doc-halo/gods-vs

Burn All, Burn Everything (AKA How It All Ends), part 2

Part 1 can be found at: https://write.as/doc-halo/burn-all-burn-everything-part-1

After the fiery beast had finally been tamed, a somber night had begun to slowly suffocate the tiny city of Long Branch, NJ. The pier, which had been the source of amusement for decades, was now an unrecognizable heap of charred wood and ash. Although it was way too early to talk aloud about recovery, the residents knew immediately that rebuilding the boardwalk back to it’s original glory would not be easy.

For hours, the devil had maintained his watch from high above like a great king surveying his kingdom from afar. A kingdom that had just been decimated by a rival army.

“Sir?” A familiar voice from behind broke his trance. He turned around. It was the first time today that he had taken his eyes off his burning home.

It was Tillie. Even though Tillie was dressed in his customary blue and white school boy uniform, he seemed different now. Tillie’s impossibly wide, warm smile was gone, replaced instead by a look of worry and sadness. It was a look the Jersey Devil had never seen on his friend’s face. Not in the 100 odd years he had known him.

Behind Tillie, three others appeared in the night sky. All who, at the Jersey Devil’s permission, had been allowed to haunt the boardwalk in recent years. The great djinn Mal stood stroking his equally great beard. Next to him, the ghost of 10 year-old Sirah Newt floated with her legs criss-crossed applesauce. And next to her was the ancient demon Lenape Mankiller, a former king and the Jersey Devil’s predecessor. They all hovered, peering anxiously at their king.

“What is it?” He spat at the group.

“We were just wondering,” Tillie said, stealing a nervous glanced back at his companions, “Where do we go now?”

The Jersey Devil’s stare pierced like daggers. And he knew how uncomfortable this made them all. This discomfort he invoked in others normally gave him much delight, but tonight was different. He sighed heavily and returned his gaze to the smoldering pier.

“For all I care,” he finally said, “You all can go back to Hell.”

Burn All, Burn Everything (AKA How It All Ends), part 1

GMNJ 1

The Jersey Devil hovered high above the massive inferno that was destroying his home. The sudden, heavy winds that blew off the ocean had caused the blaze to spread rather quickly, engulfing the entire pier in what seemed like a matter of minutes. The restaurants, amusement rides, retail stores, and even the tiny space rented by that fraud psychic medium, were being consumed by this fiery beast. Not piecemeal, however, but voraciously devoured in one huge bite. The arcade was currently being shoved into the fire’s massive mouth, and next on the menu would be something extra special for dessert: The Haunted Mansion.

The Devil had built the Mansion decades ago, moving his main place of residence from the quiet isolation of the Pinelands, to the vibrant and noisy Jersey Shore. It had been a difficult decision, and one he had regretted at first. (He had spent nearly three centuries maintaining his home, and legend, in the Pineys.) The Devil had made a deal with a local business man named Vincent Gualterri to construct this magnificent mansion on the boardwalk in Long Branch. He would occupy the sprawling basement levels, while Gualterri and his crew provided fright and terror to those willing to pay $10 to walk, or run, through the macabre manor above. Despite that immediate regret, the Devil felt at home in the Haunted Mansion, and in a mere few months he had also developed a deep fondness for the beaches, boardwalks, and congestion of the Shore.

So it was somewhat difficult to watch this impending catastrophe.

The Devil felt sorry for the colony of black and yellow firemen below. Their efforts had been in vain. They had stopped aggressively fighting the blaze about an hour ago, and now seemed content with just keeping it from spreading to the smaller sections of the boardwalk. Nearly a dozen engines responded to the call, yet they were still useless against this monster. Despite it being surrounded by water on three sides. Their shouts, shooting up to the Devil's perch above, had repeated the same whine over and over again: The fire was too big and too fast!

And those who had escaped those burning jaws had gathered blocks away at the firefighters’ request. They watched dumbfounded as the fire belched out thick, black smoke that could be seen from miles away. They were pointing and reporting their version of the story to others who had just joined their gathering of tragedy watchers. The Coast Guard, who continued to drift up and down the ocean side of the pier spraying water, was also doing it's form of crowd control against the numerous boats that had floated in to get a closer look at the spectacle.

It had been a blaze beyond the human’s control. And like everyone else on the ground, the Jersey Devil was just a spectator to the unstoppable power of this fiery juggernaut. He was not just any demon, but the King of Demons, with the power to easily crush boulders, or the hearts of men, with the slightest thought.

Yet all he did was watch, and wait for the flames to lay waste to his home.

Cover

The Jersey Devil is bored, and tired of being king. He yearns to forsake his responsibilities and just blend into society. But the demands of the supernatural community keeps pulling him back into the mix, until eventually he’ll have to make a decision: Keep ruling, or let New Jersey fall into chaos.

The above image is the cover page to Gods vs. Monsters vs. NJ. GMNJ is a collection of flash fiction stories that started as an idea for worldbuilding and slowly grew into something out of my control.