First Dream of the New Year

I've been having some strange nightmares lately, and last night's was particularly strange. In it I was Satan, walking around cheerily after dinner one evening with a group of friends. I don't remember who the friends were. I imagined that they didn't notice they were walking with the devil -- even though I was much taller than all of them and had horns, long bony hands, and the face of a monster -- because we were all laughing and having a good time.

But they were much smarter than me. At one point a brick fell off a building onto my head and hurt me quite badly. Everyone appeared surprised and concerned, and they convinced me that I should crawl into a hole in the side of the building to rest and heal. As soon as I got into the hole, though, I realized it was a coal chute that led into the empty, multi-chambered basement where I lived. Instead of tricking my friends out of their souls, I had been tricked by them back into hell.

This scene played itself out over and over again for some reason, with slight variations. The last time, I noticed that one of my female friends was in love with my servant, a man in a suit who had been following us covertly on the other side of the street. He would always show up in the basement a few minutes after I got there, to see if I was all right. So I convinced my friend this time to come down the chute with me so that she might be with my servant in private. She seemed quite content to be in hell once he showed up, and he seemed happy too to have a companion. I left them alone in one of the chambers. It was a happy ending.

- Andrew