Demons, Daemons

~from the dictionary:
1. A devil or evil being; especially, in the New Testament, an unclean spirit that possesses and afflicts a person.

I guess that is as good a description as we are all familiar with. It also is (2.) a persistently tormenting person, force, or passion.

Okay. But what do they look like? Do they look like us? Or are they different looking?

I've got books that have depictions of demons in them. Some resemble bats, rats, snakes, and a wild combination of just about every creature, including man.

So, as a writer who dreamed up new/different worlds, I had to come up with some ideas as to what demons might look like. Maybe some looked human enough. Others, not so much.

In the second book, Vampire's Trill, my main character, Sabrina Strong meets a few demons. One is a Nelapsi demon, and considered an ancient relation to vampires.
Excerpt:

I wasn't entirely over my anger when I heard Rick say quietly, "That's a Nelapsi.”

“Nelapsi? Really? What is a Nelapsi?”

“A really ugly demon. Well, actually it's part demon and part vampire. But then they're closely related.”

“Got cha.”

That was when I saw the attacker's face. His head was totally bald, and red eyes held me in their thrall, the pupils were cat-like. He was eerily handsome — in a demonic way. The ugly parts were more the two snake tails and giant bat wings.

“Your woman?” he asked Tremayne, his smile slanted sinisterly, filled with sharp teeth. Fangs in both the lower and upper jaw.

“Get your own, you slimy asshole!” Rick slung bravely.

The creature's smile broadened, but he narrowed his eyes at Rick.

“You bring a leprechaun and a lovely human female with you here? Bjorn, you must have lost some brain cells in the centuries you've been on earth.”
But in other places the demon isn't quite so hard on the eyes.
That would be Jacob in another section of this scene:

I entered the room, and the women followed me in. The walls were made of masoned stone, the floor looked like slate. Inside, my guides took me into another room where there was an old style lounge, red velvet covering it, one end slightly higher than the other. I recognized it as a fainting couch. Before I could throughly take in my surroundings, the women were touching my clothes, trying to undress me. I jumped back, and they looked confused. They said something to me, and I tried to explain that I didn't need their help, but they couldn't understand. Obviously, we had a language barrier.

Concern rippling their delicate brows, they spoke, slightly frantic, to one another, and then one of them scurried through another doorway — this one had green veils over it — and in a moment, a man stepped out. He wore a light gray robe with his hands tucked inside the deep sleeves. His face was so gorgeous I was stunned mute.

He spoke a single word to them that must have translated “leave,” and they darted through the green, curtained door and disappeared.

“Welcome. I am Jacob. You are a stranger here, yet I welcome you happily,” he said in a nice, mellow voice. “Your name is Sabrina?”

“Yes.” I was also stunned he knew my name, but, I reminded myself, I was in another realm.

He made a sudden intake of air, his head tilted slightly, and he blinked those brilliant blue eyes. A look of surprised delight lit across his face. “You are the sibyl?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said, realizing this might be significant, but I was thinking of the demons who wanted to kill me earlier. I bit my lip watching what he would do, my hand on the laser's handle.

He made a low bow, his long, black hair falling into his face as he straightened and he had to shake it. “I welcome you, mistress. Please, understand that we only wish to give you a retreat, allow you to bathe and — forgive us if our ways are not your ways — but you must dress in something more... appropriate?” He was looking me over. I'd noticed that everyone here (except for Naamah, who was actually nude), was in either a dress or a robe.

“Oh, sure. No problem,” I said, relief flooding me.

“This way,” he said, hand outstretched toward the next curtained-off threshold.

I went ahead through the entry and found myself in a small, low-ceilinged room with a sunken bath that probably resembled the one Cleopatra herself plunged into. Decorative lanterns cast golden light all along the walls, and their gentle glow reflected in the water. I was happy to see this was a private bath.

“Disrobe, mistress, and bathe. I will return with your new attire.”

I watched him duck out. I stood with indecision. This situation sent red flags up all over the place, but the water was scented, and I could tell it would feel sooooo good. Worried I'd be in the middle of pulling off my underwear when Jacob returned, I quickly stripped, letting everything lay wherever it fell. I located the steps that descended into the pool. Poking my toes in, I found that it was a perfect bath temperature. In a moment, I was neck-deep and swishing around in my own private hot tub. Eventually I found that there were a couple of little ledges to sit and settle back on. Luxuriating, I leaned back with my eyes closed. Nice. All I needed was a glass of Moscato, and a hunk of chocolate and I could forget where I was.

My eyes snapped open at the sound of water parting with someone entering the pool. I saw Jacob, totally nude, striding into my personal hot tub. ©Lorelei Bell
Well, yummy! I felt that the contrast between the two demons would give you an idea of the types of demons I dream up. And just in case you aren't sure what Jacob is---hint, hint, he gives pleasure, and -bus is part of his name, and there is a female version of this. Can you guess what type of demon he is?

Real Horror Inspiring Fictional Horror

Sometimes I don't think we are aware of the real horrific events that often inspired great horror fiction and film.

Here are some cases that were the inspiration for some great novels and films:

Burke and Hare at their trial
Edinburgh 1829


William Burke and Willaim Hare were two Ediburgh residents who discovered a real money spinner. When a lodger (an old man) happened to die owing Hare money (Hare and his lady friend rented to lodgers), Hare along with Burke decided to give the body over to the medical institute run by Dr. Knox.

They were delighted wtih the money paid for the corpse. Corpses were much sought after for medical research as the only ones available came from executed criminals. Thus a new business was born with two eager entrepreneurs ready to make a go of it.

Now they were not actually grave robbers. They were more like grave fillers as they began to kill for money. Burke by 'burking' (smothering and compressing the chest) and Hare by helping him.

Of course they got carried away and when a popular, very young and very healthy lady turned up dead on the dissection table their numbers were up.

Dr. Knox was a dubious character himself for never once questioning how they were able to get so many bodies for him, but nothing was ever done to Knox.

Burke was hanged and Hare cut a deal and testified against Burke. He was released and was last seen leaving Edinburgh. I personaly don’t think Hare got very far!

Their story and their hideous crimes are thought to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher.


The Mary Rogers Murder

The Mary Rogers Case was infamous in New York, there have been books about it and it is still spoken about.

Employed in a cigar store, she was a popular young lady, much admired for her looks. Among her admiring customers were literary greats: James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving.

In July 1841 she disappeared. Her body was found three days later, floating in the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey.

Her face was badly battered, her clothes torn. The coroner said there was evidence of a 'man's thumb mark' on her neck. She had been gagged and choked and he concluded she had been 'outraged.'

He did also say there was no evidence of pregnancy which is interesting because there were rumors that she died as a result of a failed abortion.

Her fiance committed suicide by poison which many people felt was telling.
The case was never solved however.


Is Edgar Allan Poe’s sequel to The Murders of the Rue Morgue.

In the story, the body of Marie Rogêt, a perfume shop employee, is found in the Seine River and the media take a keen interest in the mystery.

It features the Detective, Dupin who eventually, unlike the real Rogers case solves the murder.

As Poe wrote in a letter: "under the pretense of showing how Dupin... unravelled the mystery of Marie's assassination, I, in fact, enter into a very rigorous analysis of the real tragedy in New York".

He situated the narrative in Paris using the details of the original tragedy.


Deacon William Brodie

Deacon William Brodie was a respected member of Edinburgh's society, a skilled cabinet-maker and Deacon. What few people knew was Brodie led a secret life as the leader of a gang of master burglars.

He was married but he had two mistresses and a number of children by them that he supported by nefarious means.

As a sideline to his cabinet making he repaired locks which helped him in his thievery!

Brodie's last crime was an armed raid on the King’s Excise Offices. It went wrong. Yet Brodie escaped to the Netherlands, but was arrested and returned to Edinburgh for trial.

There wasn’t any evidence to incriminate Brodie until a search of his house revealed the tools of his thievery. The jury found Brodie and an accomplice guilty.

Both men were hanged.

Brodie was supposed to have bribed the hangman but it didn’t work and he is buried in an unmarked grave.

His unusual double-life might indeed have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson, whose father had had furniture made by Brodie. Stevenson included aspects of Brodie's life and character in his story of a split personality, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'.

Vlad Dracul Tepes ruled an area of the Balkans called Wallachia in the mid 15th century. He was also called by the names Vlad III, Vlad Dracul and Vlad the Impaler. The word Tepes stands for "impaler".


His was a turbulent life lived in cruel times. He fought against the Turks and is considered a hero in his native Romania because of it.

He was engaged in constant battles with the Turks. At one point the Sultan launched a massive invasion of his native land of Walachia.

Vlad finding himself without allies burned his own villages and poisoned the wells along the way, so that the Turkish army would suffer.

But there was more, for the Sultan saw the hundreds of stakes holding the carcasses of Turkish captives, a horror scene which was ultimately nicknamed the "Forest of the Impaled."

This worked and the Sultan withdrew.

Note: Victor Hugo, in his Legende des Siecles (Legend of the Centuries) recalls this particular incident).

Yet Vlad's younger brother, Radu, was persuaded by the enemy to take the Walachian throne.

At the head of a Turkish army and joined by Vlad's detractors, Radu pursued his brother to Poenari Castle on the Arges River.

Vlad’s wife in order to escape capture, committed suicide by hurling herself from the upper battlements, her body falling down the precipice into the river below, a scene depicted in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula.

Vlad, escaped the siege of his fortress but was assassinated in 1476.

But even when fighting no one he meted out terrible punishments for arbitrary reasons.

He is credited with killing between 40,000 to 100,000 people in this fashion.

Bram Stoker it is thought based his Count Dracula on Vlad and gave us the classic, Dracula.

What has always struck me about Vlad’s staking of victims was that the stake and the idea of staking a vampire through the heart is used in Dracula and in so much vampire viction. I think that is an amazing connection.

Elizabeth Báthory, also known as the Blood Countess was a sadistic sexual murderer, she tortured and killed servants and reputedly bathed in their blood because she thought it beneficial to stay looking young.

The killings and tortures finally caught up with her and she was put on trial.

A servant testified at her trial that the Countess made incantations to her mirror and would gaze into it "for over two hours at a stretch."


Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed. In fact, Elizabeth killed 612 women -- and in her diary, she documented their deaths. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survices today in Hungary

In the traditional tale (the non-Disney version ) of the Snow White story, the Queen asks that Snow White's heart (or lungs and liver) be brought to her. When the man ordered to murder the young lady returns with the same items from a deer, the Queen commits what she thinks is an act of cannibalism.

When her crime is discovered she is forced to wear red hot slippers and dance until she drops dead.

That is I believe is a reference to Bathory’s proclivity of burning people for slight infractions.

Ed Gein

Yup old Ed is Plainfield, Wisconsin’s infamous one-time resident.

Ed was into necrophilia and murder. Although not a serial killer by police standards as he is thought to have ‘only’ murdered two women, Ed is still considered a murderous deviant.

He murdered two women in his town and had one gutted and hanging in his farmhouse, the other woman was murdered and used to make some trophies.

Ed’s mother Augusta instilled a frightening fear of women in Ed and it is thought that set poor Ed on his road to perdition. Ed’s brother by the way is thought to have been murdered by him although it was never proven.

Ed was arrested and died in the insane asylum.

Within three years of his arrest the novel Psycho written by Robert Bloch was published and the brilliant film by Hitchcock based on that book was released.

The irony here is Ed Gein’s crimes were far worse than Norman Bates’ crimes. His story was far more horrific than the novel, Psycho.

Real horror, fictional horror--horror nevertheless because horror is horror, but I think it is safe to agree that non-fictional horror is by far the worse because it is real!

I think it is quite obvious as to why horror fiction and film exists, if there wasn't horror and evil in the world we as writers could not write about it.

Peter Kurten: Vampire of Dusseldorf

“After my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.”

― Peter Kurten 1883 - 1930

Peter Kurten, known as 'The Vampire of Dusseldorf,' committed a series of sex crimes and murders against adults and children, although it is his crimes against children that have made him infamous.

Kurten was born into poverty and witnessed violence. His father, a violent alcoholic, sexually abused Kurten’s mother and sisters.

While fairly young, Peter began committing various offenses for which he served some time. When released he began torturing animals. He soon graduated to attacking humans.

He served eight years in prison for strangling a ten year old girl. He was released in 1921 and returned to Dusseldorf where he began the series of crimes for which he is best known.

From February 1929 through November 1929, Kurten went on the attack and viciously murdered six people.

Then in early 1930, Kurten began a series of attacks with a hammer. None of his victims died. His last one reported him to the police.

Kurten confessed to nine murders and seven attempted murders and in April 1931, he was convicted and sentenced to die by guillotine.

 "I had a small but sharp pocket knife with me and I held the childs head and cut her throat. I heard the blood spurt and drip on the mat beside the bed. It spurted in an arch, right over my hand. The whole thing lasted about three minutes. Then I went locked the door again and went back home to Dusseldorf."

~Peter Kurten

Fritz Lang directed the classic film 'M'—formerly entitled: Murderers Among Us.

Lang was asked to change the title by Nazi officials as they thought the film referred to them. Lang and the star of the film, Peter Lorre left Germany for Hollywood soon after.

If you haven’t seen the film, you should. It is creepy, atmospheric and very powerful and for a film, that old—well that tells you something.

The direction is superb and Lorre’s performance is memorable. However, as compelling as the film is, nothing could have properly portrayed the hideousness of Peter Kurten and his crimes.

Mystery of Murder Castle

Secret passages, sliding walls, trapdoors in the floors, oddly angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, windowless rooms, doors which opened only from the outside...

A fun house?

No. This was no fun house. This was a torture-chamber of horrors in real life, built in Chicago 1893. At this time the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) was held in Chicago, and many people were drawn to the fair. Holmes Castle seemed to be exactly the place to stay. Large, it took up a whole block and was three stories tall. Built by a man by the name of H.H. Holmes.

Sound-proof sleeping chambers with peepholes, asbestos-padded walls, gas pipes leading into some, and sliding walls, or vents that Holmes controlled from some other place in his huge “castle”, which he himself only knew the actual lay out, as he would change builders during the construction.

You would definitely not want to spend a night here. Your sleep would be permanent. After being asphyxiated. Or worse. It was believed that Holmes would place his victims into these special chambers, and then pumped lethal gas into them, controlled from his own bedroom where he would watch what happened.

In some cases he might ignite the gas to incinerate them, or sometimes a stretching rack he had devised.

Holmes had trapdoors in the floors with greased shoots, leading down into a two-level cellar. There he had installed a large furnace. In some cases it is thought that he would take twisted pleasure in dissecting the corpses, strip the flesh from the bones, and sell the skeletons to a medical school. (Later on, it was said that parts of bodies found were so dismembered and decomposed that it was difficult to tell how many bodies there actually were.)

His alias was Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. Aside from being a psychopathic serial killer, he was a swindler. He liked to swindle insurance companies. In many cases having a ready made corpse for the body of someone so as to collect on the insurance. He was also married to two women at the same time in two different states. He also liked to marry rich widows and then get them to leave him their wealth and then kill them.

His undoing was his last swindle. He found a lawyer who would go in on a plan to swindle an insurance company out of $10,000 by taking a policy out on himself, and faking his own death. He promised a man he went in on with $500 commission for the name of the lawyer who he could trust his plan to. The insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay. He decided to try a similar plan with his associate, Benjamin Pitezel. Pitezel had agreed to fake his own death, arranging that his wife would collect. Holmes was to find an appropriate cadaver to play the role of Pitezel. Instead, Holmes killed Pitezel. Evidence in the case against him was that he had administered chloroform to Pitezel after he died, trying—presumably--to fake a suicide.

The only thing that foiled Holmes was that he forgot to pay off a man who helped supply him with the name of the lawyer to help him with this scheme, and he tipped off the police.

As far as “the Castle” Holmes built in Chicago, a custodian for the place informed the police that he was never allowed to clean the upper floors, and so the police began a thorough investigation over the next few months. There are conflicting numbers as to Holmes' victims, but it has been said that anywhere from 20 to 100, and as many as 200, based upon the missing persons reports of the time, and testimony of his neighbors who saw him escorting young women to his hotel. Yep. A real life “Hotel California” where nobody leaves. He apparently liked blondes.

Holmes was convicted of murdering Pitezel and he confessed soon after, to 30 murders in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto. Some of these people were actually still alive. Apparently the man was such a good liar, even he couldn't keep track of his lies. At one point he even said he was possessed by Satan. You think?

On May 7, 1897, Holmes was hanged. It's really too bad we can't hang them a second and maybe a third time. However, he didn't die right away. It took him approximately 20 minutes to die.

Lorelei Bell's author's blog: http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com

Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch ~ a Review

There I was in the coffee and candy aisle and edged over to the books and magazine section (of course), of my local grocery store.

There it was. I saw the title: Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker.

Well, I had to have it. I needed something to read in the evenings during my vacation, and so I bought it. I was hopeful for an enjoyable read and I was not disappointed.

Description from book back cover:
Freed from his vampire curse, Barnabas Collins is ready to embark on a new life and marriage with his savior, the virtuous Dr. Julia Hoffman. But when Antoinette, a beautiful flower child with a shocking resemblance to the immortal witch, Angelique, rebuilds the Old House, his past returns to haunt him. Discovering a grisly corpse in the basement—where is old casket once lay—Barnabas realizes another vampire has invaded his domain. His fight to protect his family from this new threat will take Barnabas back through time to an evil moment in America's history: the corrupt witch trials of old Salem.

I enjoyed the history told from an innocent girl, Meranda du Val, who is accused of witchcraft by girls of the village. Although she is innocent of all their accusations, she is magical. And—I loved this part—she could fly, and she had been raised by the Indians during her childhood. This all ties in with the ending so well!

I loved the story told from both her voice, and Barnabas' through out the story. Meranda's story takes place in 1692 from Salem, Massachusetts, while Barnabas' takes place in 1971. The time lines were well depicted, well organized when she went back in time too. Laura must have done some vast research on how people spoke, and lived back then. And also what it must have been like to live in Salem during the witch-hating craze where all it took was someone saying your looking at them cause them to feel as though you were on fire, or that you caused a cow to die, etc. And the corrupt judges—wanting to take over land which you owned pretended to believe them.

Meanwhile, Barnabas is trying to decide if this woman (Antoinette), who looks just like the evil Angelique is really her reincarnation, after she has bought the Old House, and began decorating it just as it was before a fire took it. Meanwhile he suffers from the daily injections that Julia gives him in order to make him human again. He's finding out how it is to be human and aging. But at the same time enjoying certain delights he never could before—such as going out into the sunlight. I felt Parker really captured Barnabas in this story.

And what of Antoinette's daughter who she rescues from an insane asylum? And there is something attacking the hippies who are camped out on her property. Is it a vampire, werewolf, or zombie? Barnabas needs to find it and stop them before it's too late!

Parker's beautiful prose paints the surroundings wonderfully, dutifully adhering to the diction of the times—which ever story we are in at the moment, from the 1600's to the 1970's. It is spellbinding suspense and the storytelling does pull you in. I wanted to read it all in a matter of nights, but held back so as to enjoy it for an hour or so each night.

I enjoyed this read, and want to get the next book as soon as I can find it. I think anyone who loves the darkness of the series, or someone who is looking for a great read could really get into this book. I highly recommend it!