Children's Story: Very Little Nicky

Not too long ago, in a place deep, deep underground called 'The Land of Darkness,' there was a man named Satana.

Satana was a nice man with a mean job. Satana's job was to do bad things to bad people after they die. Everyone was afraid of Satana, and they called him 'The Prince of Darkness' But Satana never died, so he became very tired of his work. Satana did not mind his job, because he could be by his three young children.

Satana's three young boys were named Adrian, Cassius, and Nicky. Adrian was devious, always making plans to be bad to other people. Cassius was cruel, always being mean to everyone. Adrian and Cassius were good freinds- always causing mischief and tricking people. But one of the boys was not like the other two.

Nicky was a good boy that did not cause mischief or trick or be mean to people. He was nice to people when they died. Nicky was also Satana's favourite son.

One day, Satana came back home from work to talk to his sons. "Boys, I have been doing my job for ten thousand years. I am tired, and I want one of you to be the next Prince of Darkness," said Satana.

"I want to be the next Prince of Darkness," said Adrian, the devious one, "I will trick everyone into cleaning my room for me!"

"No, I want to be the Prince of Darkness," said Cassius, the cruel one, " I will make them eat all of my vegetables, every day!"

"Actually, I don't want to be the Prince of Darkness, father," said Nicky, the nice one.

"Why not?" said Satana.

"Well... The Prince of Darkness has to be mean to everyone," said Nicky, "and I don't want to be mean. I want to be nice!"

"But Nicky," said Satana, "When bad people die, they need to be punished! Without somebody punishing bad people, more and more people will start doing bad things!"

"But there are already so many bad people that come to The Land of Darkness after they die," said Nicky, "I do not think that being bad to them is going to help anyone. I think that if we are nice to them, then they will start being nice too."

"Nicky," Satana said, " I was going to pick you to be the next Prince of Darkness. But since you only want to be nice to people, I suppose that I will have to keep working for the next ten thousand years."

This made Adrian and Cassius mad. Then, Adrian came up with a sneaky plan. He thought that if he and Cassius could go up to Earth, they could both be Princes of Darkness there.

That night, just after midnight, they carefully crept out of The Land of Darkness, up the big staircase, and into Earth. Everyone was surprised the next morning.

"Oh no," said Satana, "if Cassius and Adrian are not here in our land, then I will melt into a puddle by midnight! What are we going to do?"

Thinking quickly, Nicky said, "I'll go and look for them, father. If I am nice to them, they will surely come back."

Satana thought about this for a second, and then he said, "If you can bring them back before midnight, then even if you are nice to people, I will definitely let you be the Prince of Darkness."

With a big smile on his face, Nicky ran out of The Land of Darkness, up the big staircase, and into Earth. But Earth was big, and cold compared to his home. Nicky was frightened, but he knew that he could find Adrian and Cassius.

As he was walking down the street, Nicky saw a bunnyrabbit. "Did you see two mean little boys, bunnyrabbit?" said Nicky. But the rabbit did not answer, since rabbits do not talk. Instead, it just hopped, hopped away into the forest.

Then he saw a streetlight that was blinking bright green. Nicky had never seen a streetlight before and said, "Excuse me, mister, did you see two mean little boys around here?" The streetlight simply turned yellow, then red, and did not answer, since streetlights do not talk.

Nicky was getting angry, and started running fast down the street. He saw a man dressed in a big, red coat and wearing a white beard. The man was ringing a bell, and standing next to a sign that said "Christmas Charity".

"Excuse me, mister," said Nicky, "do you talk?"

The man in the big red coat looked at Nicky and became frightened. "Oh, no," the man said, "it is another child of darkness! Stay away!"

"Do you know my father?" Said Nicky, "Then did you see my brothers, Adrian and Cassius?"

"I saw two mean little boys," said the man, "and they came and took my money out of this bucket! They ran down the street, that way!" he said as he pointed, "Now please, stay away!"

"Gee, I'm sorry they took your money, mister," Nicky said, "but thank you for telling me where Adrian and Cassius went." Because Nicky is so nice, he put some money in the bucket. The man was shocked, and did not know what to say, but he was very happy.

Nicky kept running and running down the street, until he was too tired to run anymore. That is when he saw Adrian and Cassius trying to sneak over a garden fence.

"What are you doing?" Said Nicky, "That is someone else's garden! It is not nice to take from other people."

"We are hungry," said Cassius, "and we do not know where to eat."

"Yes," said Adrian, "and we can steal some fruit from this garden."

Nicky did not like that they were stealing from someone else's garden, and he did not know what to do. It was getting late, and he was afraid that his father would turn into a puddle. But then he remembered all of the tricks that Adrian and Cassius played on him. He thought that this would be the perfect time to trick them.
"You know," said Nicky, "our father said that he would make us a big feast when I found you."

"Boy that does sound good," said Cassius.

"Yes, I am very hungry," said Adrian, "Lets go back."

The three boys walked all the way back out of Earth, down the big staircase, and into The Land of Darkness. There they saw Satana, but it was only his head. It was sitting in a big bucket of water.

"Boys," said Satana in a very angry way, "You should not have left! I almost turned into a puddle."

"We are sorry that we left, father," said the two boys.

Then Satana grew back into his body, and said, "Now that you are back, you are both going to be locked in your rooms without dinner!"

"But I thought you were going to make a big feast," said Cassius.

"You tricked us, Nicky," said Adrian.

Nicky smiled as Adrian and Cassius ran back to their rooms. Then he gave his father a big hug.

"You did a great job, Nicky," said Satana, "and I am sure that you will do even better as the new Prince of Darkness!"

Then Nicky made an even bigger smile, and said, "As long as I can be nice to people, I know that I will."