Vigil

It’s a myth that the Devil can’t enter churches – although he has a little trouble when they’re locked. It’s the witching hour, but the door to this chapel is open. He lets himself in, quiet as he can. Only one other person is there, a squire dressed in white, kneeling in prayer before the altar. He will be knighted in the morning, after his vigil.

The Devil is careful not to make much noise as he wonders how best to approach. The knight’s body will be at its lowest ebb, internal tides settled, and the Devil doesn’t want to startle him. He remembers his own vigil in Gethsemane. It’s easier when there are two of you. They only made love once, too sad to do it again – but the night would have been unbearable if they were both alone.

The Devil decides to walk with heavy footsteps, but the young man does not respond. Definitely asleep.

“Henry,” he says quietly.

The man starts at his name, turns, and sees the Devil. His sword is in front of him, but he doesn’t reach for it, not yet. The Devil remembers how Peter cut off Malchus’s ear.

“Who are you?” asks Henry.

“I think you know that,” the Devil says.

“And why are you here?” asks Henry.

The Devil sits on the steps, not quite facing Henry, doing his best to look unthreatening. “I know this sounds like a temptation, but it’s not – I don’t want anyone’s soul. I simply don’t think that going to war is in your best interest.”

Henry’s eyes are closed. “It is my duty,” he says. “I do it for the Lord.”

This is the problem, as far as the Devil sees. He knows exactly what Jesus thinks of knights, crusaders and war. He knows what Jesus thinks of swords and soldiers. He doesn’t want this young man caught up in all that. He wishes he were here as a tempter, because maybe he would do better.

The Devil takes a deep breath. “You could walk away. Find a place where they don’t know you, but they need strong, smart people. You will find a wife, have children. You could swap swords for ploughshares.”

It’s the truth. At any point, you can decide to do something new. You can leave the road you’re on and change course. The Devil sees Henry is struggling with something – maybe he’s been persuaded? But instead, Henry has gathered his bravery: “In the name of Christ, begone.”

The Devil shrugs. He can’t be bothered, and the reference to Jesus annoys him. “I’m going,” he says, and walks away.

He knows the knight will see this as a story of victory, how he resisted the Devil’s temptations on his vigil. The Devil can see the future, but only sometimes. The life, the children Henry could have had, they’re gone. It’s injury and lingering death instead. The Devil closes the church door as quietly as he can. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do.

Notes

This story definitely involves some sleight-of-hand, since I know very little about knights or medieval history. Hopefully I’ve skipped over enough details to avoid making an error.

I also had to explicitly stop myself from ripping off the Brian Cox monologue that ends 25th Hour (spoilers). It’s such a great piece of writing/performance that I could feel myself starting to copy it, so I stopped writing about the knight’s future after a sentence or so.

This story is part of my South Downs Way project, and provides a little more about the the Devil and his relationship with Jesus. It’s taking me a long time to tell these stories, but I am making progress.

One of the problems of writing a series of over a hundred interlinked stories is keeping track of everything. I’ve begun vibe-coding a website to help me with this, and it’s making the structures much easier to follow. If you go to southdownsway.orbific.com you’ll find various ways of exploring the stories - by character, by collection and by geographical location. It needs a lot more work, but it’s a good start.

Seeing my stories laid out like this is making me excited about them again. I can see the potential in what I’ve been building. More will be coming soon. This is the 107th story that I’ve written in this project.