"What he saw he described as a black moving form of mist like floating smoke, blacker than the blackest black with glowing red eyes moving from left to right across the garden."
I received the following account:
"There has always been a little ongoing joke within my family about the time my Dad stood a few yards away from the Devil and shot at him. It's always been one of these little jokes that get mentioned once in a blue moon. I can remember as a kid if I was ill or hurt etc he'd mention it The point is I never really got a good explanation for it except that off-the-cuff remarks about it. I've never believed in anything paranormal, I like ghost films, etc. But I've never really bought into the whole idea.
Anyway, a few years ago the whole family and friends were over celebrating New Year. As the party was dying down, for some reason or another it got to people telling paranormal experiences in life. It was the first time I really heard the full story about the Devil incident.
This happened back in 1982, I was only a baby back then so I've no memory of it. We live in a small town in Scotland called Blackburn which is famous/infamous now for Susan Boyle. Anyway back then my parents were not long married and had their first home, a little bottom-floor flat in a street called Rowan Street, it's a dump now and I bet it was a dump back then.
So the story goes that my Dad was working late one night, and it was just me and my mother in the flat, my Dad came home late in the evening ate his dinner, and then our dog started going nuts barking at the kitchen door, real aggressive frantic barking at something outside. This was strange for our dog Sinbad as he was one of those dogs that just never barked and was a good-natured dog. He died when I was nine so I've a good memory of his characteristics. So the fear was that there was an intruder in the back garden my dad reasoned. So he quickly ran into his bedroom and got out his 2.2 air rifle, hey it's Scotland, not America.
So he ran back into the kitchen, the dog still going nuts barking and scratching at the door. Air Rifle over the shoulder and a torch in hand he opened the door to the garden. The dog ran down the steps, stopping on the pavement, still going nuts. My Dad stepped down too, scanning the area, seeing nothing. Until he looked where the dog was barking at. What he described to me is the stuff of nightmares.
He looked across the garden and what he saw he described as a black moving form of mist like floating smoke, blacker than the blackest black with glowing red eyes moving from left to right across the garden. Raising his torch to it only illuminated it against the night and made its features stand out more, a smoky black form, those red eyes burning. So he went into soldier mode, he was in the Territorial Army back then. He raised his rifle and began firing at it. I still find the idea of shooting at this thing with air rifle pellets funny, but God had that been me I'd have been running in the opposite direction.
It was around that time telling the story that my mother chimed in mentioning that she too had witnessed this thing from the kitchen window and she too watched it pass through the brick wall separating the gardens. I had always assumed it was only my dad that saw this thing, but I got the impression that neither of them where really keen to dwell upon those memories. The logic was that way back in 1982 the upstairs neighbour was a guy known to be into weird stuff like Ouija boards and the like. So naturally they think there was a connection. I know they moved away from there not too long after and in my job now as a postman I've been to that block of flats and saw the garden. Also the morning after the event my dad checked the back fence and found no pellet marks so he shot and hit the devil, or a rather large cat." M
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