"Go away, you pesky imps!" was the man's daily mantra. "I shield myself from your vile influence!" Yet, the unclean spirits still bothered, still wreaked their havoc. So every day he continued his prayer.
Finally, as men will do, the man passed away. As he was walking from here to the unknown Beyond, he caught a glimpse of the vexatious disembodied and decided that he must inquire of them.
"Why did you torment me so? What did I ever do to you?" he stopped and asked. The man caught the attention of a particularly sinister-looking devil who crept his way over and faced him directly.
"I s'pose it won't do no harm ta say now tha'cher one of us..." scowled the hellion. "Here's the secret, mate, to sinkin' yer teeth into the souls of the livin': We wait fer them to cry out against us, casting us off with their mean words. If they didn't make such a ruckus, we could hardly even see 'em! Sure, sometimes we hook onto those who don't deserve it, but they can get borin' fast, unless they start gettin' riled up... then it gets int'resin'!
"We have to leave fer a minute when they yell at us like that, but make no mistake, we come back, mad as hell. If they get to be so noisy t'wards us, why shouldn't we get to have some fun with them? It's only fair, ya know! They are always so forceful when they talk to us!"
"Now there was that time quite a while back when we were really goin' to town on this poor fella. He was so messed up that he ran around buck naked like a loon! But then we came across the One, who talked to us much nicer than any other folk. He had every right to cast us off, 'cause we had been pretty nasty with the man. But He talked to us and let us move on the way we wanted instead of pushin' us out to the Great Empty."
"If yer livin' brothers were to deal with us like that, I s'pose that we'd have nuthin' to do, 'cause we can attack those who accuse us. The One said so. But we got no int'rest in the Skinned who don't wanna play."
The man absorbed the words then carried on his way. As he walked, he heard a call from the demon, "Hey! I'll see ya soon, mate!"
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