Bet With The Devil
Short Story : Bet With The Devil.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2018
I remember when my brothers and I were children we enjoyed the stories
my grandfather told us.
Many of these stories were made up, but many others were events that
had occurred in our own family.
There was one of those stories that really impacted me because not only
did my grandfather assure us that it was true, but my mother also confirmed it.
The story began with my grandfather's grandfather, he was a very
well-known man in his region, he owned a good amount of land, people said he
was a direct descendant of the great indigenous warriors and rulers, he was
loved and respected by those who knew him.
After marrying a foreign and also charming woman, they formed a family
that seemed very happy, they had three children, two girls and a boy named
Antonio.
Antonio was his favorite son, although one would assume that parents
should not prefer any of their children, they were different times and also the
preference for Antonio was evident, since he was not only very similar to him
physically, but his way of being was also very similar, he was kind, charming,
strong and at first seemed to have a great vision for business.
People say that Antonio fell madly in love with a woman who had already
been engaged to another man. Even so, they swore eternal love to each other and
had agreed to run away together, but when the time came, she changed her mind
because she felt too much about the commitment her family had made for her
marriage.
So Antonio had no choice but to accept it, he never fell in love again,
nor did he marry, this disappointment in love changed him completely, he became
a lonely man, he was no longer kind to people and although he had always had a
great taste for bets and gambling, after this it became more common for Antonio
to bet and the truth is that he almost always won, that is why his father never
saw a real problem with it and as I said before, those were different times, it
was normal for some men to get together to bet by playing cards or dice, which
were the games that Antonio liked the most.
At that time, and especially in towns and rural areas, it was normal to
travel on horses, especially when one lived on ranches or estates that had
them, so Antonio generally rode his horse. It was a beautiful, imposing,
thoroughbred horse, and it was said that it had been brought from Europe.
Horror story Bet with the devil
Horror story Bet with the devil
Antonio's mother was of Spanish descent, there was no one else like her
in the entire region.
Because of the imposing presence that Antonio projected when riding his
horse and the great luck that he seemed to have in betting, in addition to the
fact that over time he had begun to use a language that was very blasphemous
for the people of the town, people gave him the nickname El Diablo (The Devil).
He won a large part of his entire fortune and managed to expand his lands
through gambling. There seemed to be no one who could beat him.
One day, Antonio, as usual, was gambling. He was in a house that
functioned as a bar, where at that time men used to go to play cards and dice.
On that particular occasion, Antonio was on an unstoppable winning
streak. He had brought some cash and a few properties as a base for his bets,
but people say that he had won almost four times the value of what he had
brought. Horror story
He constantly asked for drinks that he even shared with his opponents
and he repeated out loud that there was no one in the world who could beat him,
not even if God himself came down to challenge him at that moment, could he
beat him.
So when the victorious Antonio was counting his winnings against those
he had defeated, a person appeared outside that place, a man, a foreigner who
was riding a horse that could only be compared to the thoroughbred that Antonio
had at that time.
Horror story Bet with the devil
People of that time described the stranger in very different ways. Some
saw him as an old man with gray hair, others said he was young with blond hair.
The truth is that to this day there are no two identical versions of the
stranger's appearance.
The stranger arrived at the place asking directly for the man nicknamed
El Diablo, it was as if he knew him, the man who was at the door told him that
he could find him inside. horror story
The stranger entered and when he saw Antonio who was about to leave for
his house, he challenged him to a game. He showed him that he had a lot of
money and gold, even properties from different parts of the country. Although
Antonio was about to refuse, he could not contain the ambition that aroused him
when he saw all those valuable goods that the stranger was willing to lose by
betting with him.
They started with cards, at first each won and lost a couple of games,
but then the foreigner started to win, again and again.
More than five hours passed while the two continued betting and
drinking, Antonio was already quite drunk and had lost everything he had won
before the arrival of that stranger, not to mention that he was about to lose
everything he had brought that day to bet, to him this seemed completely unreal
because never in his years as a gambler had he met someone who had better luck
than him.
It was then that he resignedly decided to shake the stranger's hand and
left the place towards his house, but at that moment the stranger proposed a
deal to him, he asked him to make one last bet, but Antonio told him that he
had nothing left to bet, then the man told him about the horse he had seen
outside, Antonio's thoroughbred for which he had been nicknamed The Devil had
caught his attention, so he proposed to bet that horse against everything he
had already won.
Antonio hesitated for several minutes, he really wanted everything he
had lost back, but his horse was the being he loved most in this world and he
couldn't even imagine losing it, so the stranger, as if reading his thoughts,
raised the bet and once again Antonio, trapped in his tireless greed, accepted.
The stranger let him choose the game and since Antonio's favorite was
dice, that was the one he chose. They would play by rolling only once, it was
all or nothing. Antonio rolled the three dice and got 17, two sixes and a five,
it was a very difficult score to beat, but when it was the stranger's turn the
dice showed three sixes, adding up to 18.
Antonio begged him to let him get his horse back, he asked him to wait
for him to bring more money and property to bet, but the stranger flatly
refused and, taking pity on him, offered him an old mule as a consolation
prize, a horror story.
The strange thing was that when they saw him arrive he did not have any
other animals with him, however when the stranger left that place he left a
mule at the entrance and before leaving he said goodbye to Antonio by shaking
his hand and telling him that they would soon meet again but in another place.
Antonio had no choice but to accept his defeat and to cope with the
loss of his faithful companion he continued drinking, until it was dawn and one
of the employees of that place convinced him that he should return home.
The next day Antonio's father went to talk to him, but he couldn't find
him. Very worried about his son, he went to the town to look for him, but no
one had any news of him.
Until a lady told him that she had seen him in a betting house and told
him where it was.
Antonio's father went to the place and there a man told him that the
night before a strange man that nobody knew had been gambling with Antonio and
after having taken everything from him, including his horse, Antonio had gone
home, drunk and riding a mule.
They organized a search with several workers and volunteers from the
family, but they were unable to find Antonio. Five days went by and the
expectations that he would appear alive became increasingly dim.
Horror story Bet with the devil
Then one night a worker said that his son had seen Antonio wandering
along a quiet road, so they all went in the direction the worker had indicated,
hoping to find some clue as to Antonio's whereabouts.
They went into the path that was next to an abyss. They say that at
some point Antonio's father turned pale as he stared into the bottom of a
ravine. From a distance, what looked like the body of a person could be seen
there.
They descended as quickly as they could, but being careful not to have
an accident, and when they approached the body they were able to identify that
it was Antonio.
It was obvious that he had died, he had very strange wounds, and due to
the passing of days and the heat in that area, he had a putrid smell.
A few meters away was the mule on which he had been seen leaving that
fateful night. The animal, although lifeless, was completely intact; it did not
seem to have suffered any damage; it was as if it were mummified.
My grandfather says that his grandfather told the story of his son
Antonio with great melancholy, he regretted not having been able to do more for
him. horror story
He said that after that, he had to sell part of the land where Antonio
lived, since the workers constantly complained of finding entire crops that
seemed to have been ruined by animal trampling.
A couple of times they said they had seen a man riding a horse and
followed by what looked like the thoroughbred that once belonged to Antonio,
but when they tried to describe this man they used to see, especially at night,
they could not agree on what his physical appearance was like.
Some said that he was the Devil himself, who one day, for fun or out of envy, had decided to come to earth to defeat the man they had nicknamed The Devil, just to prove that no one was worthy of being compared to him.
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