Satanic Cult Scare! (run away!!!)

A long time ago, in a small town in Texas, everyone went crazy.
The people of this town were, for the most part, affluent, God-fearing, traditionalist folks.
They went to work, went to church, went to the football games, went to vote and pretty much did what everybody else was doing.
Some of their kids, however, were not satisfied with this narrow world, this proscribed field of possibility.
They rebelled….mostly in superficial ways…such as different drugs than their parents, different modes of dress and appearance, different likes and different opinions on big, important things like politics, religion, sex and freedom.
This was a shock to the parents, and other adults of this small town. There was much fear…and much laying of blame. The targets of this blame-laying were the usual suspects.
Rock and Roll was among them, as it was thought to be an instrument of the Devil…engendering loose morality, sexual excess and antisocial behaviour.
Drugs were there, on the block…for much the same reasons.
But the biggest culprit in the Rebellion of Youth was insufficient religious instruction….specifically, insufficient fear of the Christian God, and Love for His Son, Jesus.
The Town began a Crusade of Revivals, Youth Groups, Hay Rides, and Summer Camps. There were assemblies called in the schools, where the evils of drugs and the importance of abstinence were hammered home.
Gangs of Prayer Warriors deployed to Hangouts and the Drag, where young folks could be found on a given Saturday night….to bring the Good News to these kids, lest they fall into Satan's clutches.
And it was all for naught.
Rock and Roll still played, drugs were done, sex was performed, and youthful fashion marched further and further away from the parents idea of good and proper.

Then, at the beginning of the school year, a new kid came around. He was from California and wore his rebellion on his sleeve…he had an earring!, and a trenchcoat, and a Devil may care attitude that really worried the adults.
His charisma and West coast charm quickly found him a small coterie of friends, and a girlfriend.
The Californian, and his crew, did all the things the rest of the kids were doing….but the most important thing they did was go and drink beer and wine-coolers in a local cemetery, at night.
This was nothing unusual, what with the cops and Jesus Freaks that were everywhere else….indeed, many of the adults had done the same thing, in their time.
One night, in the cemetery, the Californian decided to shock one of the girls that was there.
He "performed" a séance.
It was all a joke…merely something to do…but the girl was freaked out.
Apparently, she was from a particularly religious family, and thus believed in Demons and Witchcraft.
Word soon spread around town that there was a Satanic Cult hereabouts….and that they had evil designs on the town.
Rumors flew! The Cult was everywhere! They were out for blood!
There were stories of Human Sacrifice, and of Blood Drinking, and of Black Mass being performed at cemeteries. His girlfriend was rumored to be pregnant, carrying the Devil's Child, who would be sacrificed on the football field on Homecoming, which so happened to fall, that year, on the same weekend as Halloween…Samhain in the Satanist's parlance.
Cops ran around everywhere, chasing down reports of vandalism and Rituals.
Church folks prayed and held Vigils and rallies.
Hippies, Stoners, Goths and Punks were chased down and beaten…just in case.
The Principal of the school called an assembly, with the Chief of Police behind him, calling for kids to report Suspicious Activity, to Be Careful, and for any Cult Members present in the audience to Cease and Desist!

There was a Vibratory quality to the atmosphere on the afternoon and evening of Homecoming.
Vigilance! Watchfulness! Apprehension!
Would the omnipresent Prayer work to fend off the Devil and his minions?
Or would Satan's Army triumph?...perhaps as punishment for the town's lack of Faith…
For allowing such sinful behaviour to go on so blatantly for so long.

It was a near-Full Moon, as well….

Nothing happened, at all.

All the fear and insanity and oppression and warnings were over something that didn't exist…and never had existed.
But that fact didn't lessen the general feeling that the Town had dodged a bullet…that the Prayers had, indeed, worked. God had placed His shielding Hand over the Town, and the Forces of Darkness had been defeated.

I don't know what happened to the Californian…I reckon he was encouraged to switch to a different school.
Kids in the town still did drugs, and listened to music and had all manner of sex.
The only things that really changed were that the Oppression got more severe, the cops got more assholeish, and the schools got more zero-tolerance.

This really happened.
I was there.
This is the best of my recollection.