Lockdown With the Devil - Chapter One

Taking The Screwtape Letters as a model, Mr Hall envisions the demonic attack on the family during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

From One Peter Five

By Kennedy Hall

A time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family.

–Sister Lucia, Seer of Fatima

When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce.

–True Devotion to Mary, Saint Louis de Montfort

***

Malthus my boy,

Administration has informed me of my obligation in forming and guiding yet another junior devil. I am sure you are familiar with this relationship, and have no doubt heard of what happens to novices who miss the mark: if you prove incompetent and fail in your endeavour, I will have my way with you. Let this be a firm reminder.

The humans are under the impression that we “work together” to uphold this lowerarchy and to fill our Father’s house. They foolishly assume that we share some “common goal,” like they do when faced with a task. If there is any manner of working with one another, it is the way scavenging birds work together. Souls are food, nothing more and nothing less, therefore I will tolerate this assignment as a means to an end. Secure your endeavours by following my advice, and perhaps you may avoid a fate common to those arrogant devils who forget their station.

The Enemy is no fool, and his so-called “Guardians,” the ghastly messengers He employs to protect His disgusting creatures, work just as hard as we do. Now, these Guardians are in reality cowards, which was evidenced at their pitiful obedience to the Enemy when our Father Below so courageously rejected the unjust contractual demands presented to him at the beginning of time. Nonetheless, they are formidable opponents, and they do not play fair. They always seem to have insider information from the Enemy’s camp. As of yet we have not figured out how this is so. However, we expect that with continued progress of the Innovation Task Force, we will soon crack the code to this trickery, and therefore level the playing field.

In any case, The Cabinet tells me that you show great potential, and has thus tasked you with the oversight of an entire family. Of course, you will still have at your disposal the lesser devils who will torment the unique members of the family, but you are charged with orchestrating the whole affair. In former times, we would not entrust so much responsibility to such a junior tempter, but, the humans are more spiritually weak than they have ever been. The majority of them have so completely given up on the Enemy, that we have never before enjoyed such a surplus of souls at our infernal banquet. If it were possible, I might even say that I was satisfied with this continual harvest. Of course, we will never be satisfied if even a single soul escapes our grasp, as it is a wholly unjust reality that the Enemy believes He has a “right” to his so-called children.

The family under your charge is what they call a “modern” family. I never tire of how these humans think they can simply add a descriptive word, believing it changes the reality of a thing. The word “modern” is perhaps one of our greatest assets, for it can be used to trick our patients into allying themselves with even the most absurd of ideas. The human family is the primordial unit that our Father Below so eloquently attacked in that ancient Garden, and nothing about it has changed in the slightest since then. However, most humans are convinced that so-called “modernity” means that their family unit is somehow different from that of their First Parents. They are currently so gullible that they believe the passage of time changes the nature of what is eternally true, as if something could be ontologically different on Thursday than it was on Tuesday. Just as it was at the beginning, families are where the humans develop. So our task is to corrupt the unit as much as possible, and in this way ensure their entrance into our kingdom.

The sort of relativism needed for them to view the nature of the family as a changeable thing, is no doubt the result of our past endeavours. Not least of our efforts has been the notion of Evolutionary Theory. You see, we have implanted in their collective philosophies, through the efforts of our most dedicated disciples, the idea that the nature of the created realm is in a state of flux. Many of them believe that they share some common bestial ancestor, and that through millions of unseen years they have somehow arrived at their current state. Inherent to this idea is the proposition that only the “fittest” survive, which is quite amusing as only the unfit minds of the current civilization believe such a splendid lie. Since they see their nature as being in continual adaptation and even radical transformation to their environment, it only follows that the family would also adapt. As a result, the fools now accept as an inevitable reality all manner of familial dysfunction as a mere sign of the times, or evidence of a changing world. I say, when this tactic was proposed at a meeting of strategists centuries ago, even I had my doubts, thinking the vermin were at least intelligent enough to avoid such an obvious farce. Nonetheless, I was delighted to be proved wrong.

I see no reason why your family should be any different than the vast majority currently are. If there was any real threat of resistance, surely we would not be entrusting a rookie such as yourself. Fortunately, it is rare to find a family that gives us any reason to do anything other than throw inexperienced devils at them.

Until I receive more reconnaissance information from you and your underlings, I cannot give you specific advice as to how you may destroy this particular family. But, not much has changed in our line of work, and the “old tricks” still work, even if a minor tweak in operative procedure is required. I imagine that the father is not much different from most modern patriarchs, little concerned with the spiritual fabric of his family. The patriarchs are the fountain heads of the family, and therefore must be our primary target. If the man is weak we can take him directly, if he is strong then we must go around him to the women and children. All of them have chinks in their armour, and this man should be no different. It is probable that he himself will offer us various fleshly weaknesses that we can exploit. It is simply a matter of encouraging him to look at those nauseating images of souls engaging in that horrendous activity the Enemy reserves for marriage. More on this tactic in a later correspondence, but be assured of its efficacy in trapping specimens for our bidding. Start by curating his viewing habits on his electronic machines in our direction, ensuring that the content is of the brutal and sexualized sort that permeates all popular programming for adults these days.

Until next time,

 

Quelle

To be continued next week. 

Editor’s note: this serialization is from the novella Family Be Damned.