Devil Short Story - The Devil's Diary

              My story takes place in the living room/library of the devil’s house in Hell.  I imagined this house not to be a free-standing building for just the devil, but more of the devil’s quarters in a huge building, perhaps a castle or palace, where he reigns.  The time era of the story is not an exact year, but more of whenever the seventh generation of the devil is reigning.  A specific year is not necessary because each devil reigns for as long as they like because the fact that they may die while ruling is impossible as they are already dead and living in Hell.  The main character is not the devil, however, but his daughter, Tess, and her friend, Jericho.  Tess is always wondering why her dad goes on long trips and does not tell her when he does or when he will be returning.  I imagined these trips as being when the devil does his mischievous work on earth, making humans do bad things and tricking them into doing so.  While the Devil is on one of these trips, Tess finds what she thinks is her dad’s personal journal, or the Devil’s Diary, and brings the booklet to the library where Jericho is, eager to read what is inside.  

                I imagined the characterization of my devil to have three different personalities in three different environments.  When the Devil travels to earth to influence the humans, I saw him as acting most like the devil in “Sympathy for the Devil,” manipulating people and coming across as having this evil charm as his secret weapon to complete the job.  As he’s ruling, the Devil acts as a sort of mixture between the devil in Paradise Lost and the Bible, being powerful, strong, and wanting to get things done.  I realize neither of these scenes are written in my story, but this is how I imagined the devil to act outside of his home in my story.  While in his home, the devil acts in more of a fatherly way, especially around his daughter and her friends.  When the Devil came home and found Tess and Jericho reading the journal, he immediately went into his fatherly personality, asking what they were doing with the journal.  When he heard what their story was, he went soft and allowed the two to continue reading.   The form of the devil is not mentioned, but I visualized the devil to take different forms depending on whether he is in Hell or on Earth and what he intends to do.