The Demon Girl of Lodi

The Demon Girl of Lodi, by Kirk Harrington

      I am an avid fan of Hellboy.  There’s something about the idea of a demon child going against its nature to fight evil and do good that really attracts me.  It makes me think that perhaps I can go against my worst nature and do good as well.

     Its ironic then that I came across this story.  I call it the Hellgirl story, because there is also a demon child, a girl though, and the circumstances of how this girl came about are mysterious.  Instead of a group of Nazis and Rasputin bringing a child through an other-world portal though, there are witches involved, ancient curses, and a Prussian soldier.  Further, the timing of the story was perfect because I’d been writing horror movie reviews and was interested in writing more horror fiction.  Horror is one of my loves.  I think my greatest inspiration comes from Stephen King, along with the Conjuring movies (my favorite movie series).  I also like urban legends.  I took a writing class in High School where we discussed them.  Mothman has been my recent interest.

     This story definitely could be categorized as an urban legend.  The place where this story was shared with me was Target, by someone who was stocking shelves that noticed my Hellboy shirt when I walked by. They’d mentioned (as others have) their like for my shirt and that they knew a story that was similar to Hellboy’s.  This piqued my interest of course, and it was perfect timing for me.  I asked about it and the story was related to me.  Because I found it so interesting, I later did a recorded interview with with them to get more details so that I could write into a story.  I am hoping it will further pass down as urban legend stories find a way of doing.

The writing style is not one I normally write in.  It is meant to be as me telling someone's story that they told me of themselves from a past memory.

     The story I was told is set in Lodi Ohio.  A child grows up going to an elementary school that has excursions to the nearby park.  The park was more wooded then than it is now.  Further, many of the houses that are there now weren’t there then.  There was also an area in the park that had a large boulder.  Today, the boulder does not exist…however the child remembers it vividly.  There was a volunteer teacher also…who was there just for that year.  She told a story that the child remembers.  The child also remembers a boy that was acting up at the time, thinking he ‘knew everything’, was ‘better than everyone else’, and would brag that he could do anything (even if it disrespected others) and be saved.  Clearly his parents must have taught him to be that way.   

     Laughing at this mean boy, the substitute teacher had said ‘with a chuckle’ that religious people were like this…acting like they’re better than everyone else.  ‘The truth is though’, she said, ‘that we’re all equal.’

     One day, when on an outing to the park…when the children were in a group…the opportunity came to teach the mean boy a lesson.  When in front of the boulder, the teacher had said “Do you know the story of the witches that lived under that boulder?”.  She then began to relate a story about the women that lived in a cave behind the boulder, in a then much larger valley that was outside of town.  They had mainly kept to themselves.  On rare occasion they would go to the town for supplies or food and people would overhear them talking to each other in a Scottish accent.  Because of this it was thought that they came from Scotland…and perhaps were children of witches persecuted in that country in the 17^th century.  While they were considered odd for strange things that they’d do…like rituals involving a knife stuck in the wall and milk would come out of it, what they did was considered harmless and the townspeople mainly ignored them.  No one ever got hurt and no misfortune befell anyone.  Further, it didn’t matter to anyone whether what they did was nature related, had to do with old gods, or was satanic.  As long as no one got hurt. 

     Also in the same area there were some zealot men that took it upon themselves to spread stories about the witches.  ‘Look at them…they are in this cave doing evil witch acts’, and similar.  Not only that, two of these men had gone to Lodi and got drunk in a local tavern, and they bragged about having trapped these ‘witches’ in the cave behind the boulder.  The people of the town knew of these men.  Similarly to how the mean men saw the women as ‘weird’ and ‘evil’, the townspeople saw the men as dangerous and over-religious.  Many in the town knew that it had been 200 or more years since Salem and had since learned that dangerous and evil thoughts about others could cause undue suffering and harm.

  The mayor happened to be there when the men came into the tavern.  Further, it was odd for everyone that they were even in the tavern at all…considering how religious they were.  While the men were celebrating, the mayor became curious about their line of talk and confronted them.  When the men bragged about what they’d done…trapping the witches in a cave behind a boulder…basically admitting to murder…he immediately sent out a detail to investigate.  Sure enough, when the detail arrived, they found the boulder covering the cave where the women had lived.  And, since no one had heard from the women for quite some time, it was easy to ascertain that these men had killed them.

     As the detail went back to town to tell the Mayor about what happened, the two men that bragged realized that maybe they were in trouble and decided to flee.  They got on their horses and headed north to Cleveland to find a boat that could take them to Canada.  They reasoned that it was easier to get to Canada through Cleveland than to go through Pennsylvania or Michigan.  If they timed it right and rode hard enough, they could get out within the same day.

     On their way though, they were intercepted by some cavalry officers.  The officers were led by a German who used to be a Prussian soldier.  He thought it definitely suspect that the men were trying to hurry north…possibly trying to escape something.  ‘Woah woah woooahhh’, he  had shouted to them…asking them to slow down.  Soon after, while being held up by this cavalry brigade, the deputies sent by the mayor had intercepted them and found them in the hands of the government soldiers.  It was in this way that they were captured and taken back to Lodi to face justice for their crimes.

     The German brigade leader was asked to join the deputies back to Lodi where he could give witness against the men.  On the way, he was told the story about how these men had bragged about killing the witches.  Further, he was told that strange things had started happening in the town ever since the men appeared and what was assumed to have started happening after their deaths.  The deputies told of hauntings and ghost appearances for example, and about people’s crops unexpectedly rotting.  People would get sick and there was poltergeist activity…like rocks being thrown and people’s hair standing on end.  It was also believed that these witches were protecting the town from curses that were placed on the land by earlier indigenous shamans.  And, that since their souls were not at rest after their untimely deaths, that these curses that had been held back were now unleashed on the town. 

     This former Prussian soldier became disturbed hearing the stories…because things like this happened in the old country he came from.  Raised Bavarian, and later becoming Prussian, he’d hoped he had gotten away from some of this coming to a newer place.  ‘Surely it can’t be that bad’, he thought, as he feared the worst.

     As they rode into town to see the mayor, day was breaking on the town.  And, his fears took form and rose in him on the way.  The shut doors, the silence.  If people were out, they hurriedly walked to their destination and walked as if demons were following them.  Further, he saw what he thought were protection wards hanging near doorways…wards actually given to some of the townspeople as gifts from the witches…a sure sign that the people were looking to protect themselves from whatever evil had beset them.

When the brigade leader finally got to see the mayor, he was distraught and angry.

     At one point he said…in his best English and German accent…“I left my mother country to get away from such things!  I can’t believe they are here.  This great evil which these men brought upon this town must be stopped…forever…otherwise it will curse and disturb this town for years to come!”

     The mayor and the brigade soldier then devised a plan to hang the men in the same valley where the witches were murdered.  In a place where the town could see it.  The thought was that if the men died this way that it would put the ghosts of the witches at rest and the curses they had kept at bay could be kept at bay again in the after life.

     The day came when the men were to be hanged.  The wind was howling and violent…and with it came hail that made the way treacherous and difficult.  The harsh weather seemed to test the resolve of the people to make things right.  At one point the mayor wanted to go back and try another day…however the German solder urged them on.  “You must go on” people later remember him saying.

     No one in the town turned back.  Even the women who had brought their children did not turn back.  Instead they huddled them closer and protected them as they walked.  The bravery and courage in their hearts could be felt in the air as they walked to the hanging place.  They were determined to face this evil and do away with it.  Further, in their hearts, they felt sad for the poor witches that had suffered such injustice.  The people were determined that these evil, self righteous men, should face the consequences for their hate.   The fallout from such hate on the town was too much for them to bear.

     As part of the hanging ritual, no words were allowed from the men.  This was important because they didn’t want to offend any spirits further…more so than what was already done by the words of these self righteous men.  Bound and gagged, they were led to the gallows.  In one version of the story, one of the men slipped on the ice that had formed on the makeshift wooden platform…hitting his head.  The executioner had said something like ‘Serves you right for not using your heads and killing innocents.”

Finally, the deed was done.  The men were hanged and died.  And, as if a curse was lifted, the skies opened and the sun shone.  The ice that had formed on the plants and trees melted and the town had no more hauntings and strange occurrences after that.

     The story is not done however.  Yes, at this point it was enough to scare the mean elementary school boy of Lodi Elementary, that thought he was better than everyone else.  In the mind of that child, the idea that someone could face such big consequences for being over-religious definitely left an impression.

     Another part of the story, that was told later, was that the Prussian soldier (with some men) had decided to visit the town again after he heard rumors about glowing eyes seen in the local forest.  Not wanting the evil to come back, he went to the forest to check on the rumors.  After some time searching, he did finally come across the glowing eyes, initially illusive to him.  The eyes tried to hide when first seeing him, however being an experienced tracker and hunter (as Prussian soldiers were known to have been), it was easy enough for him to corner the glowing eyes and the creature they belonged to them. 

     It was not a creature though.  It was instead what looked like a young girl, in a simple dress.  It was clear that the girl was not completely human…but acted human and could only be explained as being part demon.  If you play Dungeons and Dragons, she could be described to be like a Tiefling. 

     When the soldier saw the girl…and in his mind he could only see the girl and not the demon…his mind immediately remembered a young girl who stood looking at him crying while her family’s house burned down behind her.  Her family had been revolutionaries and had been killed by his soldiers.  He remembers looking at the girl in the sites of his rifle and later having felt deep shame and guilt for himself and the deadly orders to kill these ‘rebels’ that were given to him by his superiors.  It was this moment, in a past life long ago, that had changed his heart.  It was the moment that made him have empathy towards the revolutionary’s cause.  He even tried to help them after that…and did help as he could…but eventually was hunted down by the same superiors he had betrayed and he decided to flee to America. 

     He had fled to escape the evils that men put upon themselves.  To flee the memories of that crying little girl staring at him and of his cruelty in killing her. 

     And here was another little girl standing in front of him that needed him.  He felt in that moment that it was fate and the universe that led him to her.  He also felt that it was his duty to give her the protection and love that she needed…that was taken away from her.

     When the child (who had a limited vocabulary at the time) was asked where she came from…she led the Prussian soldier and his men to the boulder and the cave where the witches had died.  The brigade leader decided to adopt her as his own…and he stayed in Lodi to raise her.  The townspeople welcomed the child and admired the brigade leader for his sacrifice and life now dedicated to her. 

     To him…being with the child and raising her with kindness meant that it not only kept the curse at bay  and kept the spirits of the witches at rest so that they could hold off the ancient curses in the afterlife…but it also redeemed him from his past sins.

     Not much is known about the demon girl other than this.  She grew up with the Prussian soldier and was with him when he died.  And, it was told that she went around teaching children to be tolerant of each other and to not hate those different than them.  She shared stories of her good mothers that were killed by evil men and told them about the curses that her mothers had kept at bay.  And the story was passed down this way to today.

     If you go to Lodi today and experience a haunting, or see glowing eyes in the forest…perhaps you will think about this story.  Hopefully too, you will remember to be more tolerant of others and not let too much religion ‘get to your head’.

Picture Credit:  Taken from the Lodi - Harrisville Historical Society website