Dana was sitting on a blue metal park bench watching a pair of young kids playing on the fountain when she first saw the strange man.

He was tall, sure, but looked thin. It would take more than a light breeze to knock him over but a decent shove would definitely do the job.

More importantly, he looked rich. From his long black coat to his dress shoes to his hat to the expensive-looking silver watch around his wrist. Even his stance, which was so unguarded, so different from her own.

She looked around for Billy to give him the signal and heard a loud splash when the kids fell into the fountain.

A slight smile lit up her face which was usually fixed in a semi-permanent frown.

Dana remembered her and Billy playing around on that fountain too, they'd balance along the edge like they were those circus people who cartwheeled on high wires at stupid heights for the sake of the audience below.

Not that they'd ever actually been to the circus before, of course.

Back then she'd told Billy to close his eyes when it started to seem too easy then pushed him off balance.

He'd grabbed the front of her shirt as he fell and she was sent toppling on top of him.

They'd both gotten soaked head to toe.

She finally found her younger brother across the park, snickering at a couple acting all lovey dovey together on a bench just in front of him.

It was a woman and a man who didn't look much older than Dana herself. They were holding hands and the woman was leaning in close so the man could whisper things in her ear.

Every now and again her sweet round face would turn pink and her bright blue eyes would widen. Then she'd laugh and lean deeper into his shoulder.

Billy finally noticed her looking at him, though she wasn't casually looking so much as giving him intense dagger eyes. She knew exactly what he was planning.

He raised his eyebrows.

'I'm gonna do it'

Dana widened her eyes in return.

'Don't you dare'

He smirked.

'What are you gonna do about it?'

She glared and widened her eyes even more, now fully convinced the old ladies who met at this park daily to knit and gossip about their families were convinced she was completely nuts.

'Billy I swear to everything in this park I will beat the life out of your dead corpse if you even think of-'

He broke eye contact and did exactly what she warned him not to do.

He was so dead.

Dana leaned back and watched her sibling back up a step, push his shoulders back until they cracked, then turn in a split second from a grubby looking 13 year old boy to a swarm of black and brown insects.

Some winged, some not, altogether they looked like a bug killers worst nightmare-the bug entity spiders pray to before they're crushed-the demonic bug god that fights back.

Billy-the-swarm dove straight into the couple who screamed like people who'd just seen what hell looks like.

The guy looked like he'd short circuited and forgot how one is supposed to get off a bench, struggling to climb over the back of it with arms and legs that were far too tense to do much of anything.

He still made an effort.

The girl had bolted and was now half way across the park, leaving her small black purse behind for Billy-the-human to pick up once they were both gone.

He sat crossed legged on the now-empty bench and waved it over his head at Dana, grinning toothily.

His sister drew a line with her finger over her neck.

'You are dead'

***

"No please don't-" The man was cut off by a piercing scream as a quiet but audible 'snip' could be heard.

"Please take our questions seriously Mister," His torturer asked in an unsettlingly pleasant voice, pulling back the scissors as his captive whimpered.

The older man's dark eyes glimmered. "Now, have you seen these siblings?"

He pulled out two pictures. They were grainy and old looking but the subjects looked modern.

The first was a girl standing in front of a house with a frown on her face holding a shiny green coat in stick-like arms.

The second was a boy sitting in a grocery cart holding a watermelon over his head and grinning ear to ear, low bangs nearly covering his eyes.

They were clearly siblings from their matching dark brown eyes to their button noses and fluffy mouse-ish hair.

He glanced over the girl but paused on the boy. He looked familiar, had he seen him on the street somewhere? Or maybe at a restaurant?

His captor set the girls picture face-down and held the boys picture closer.

"I, I think I've seen him,"

"Where?" The sudden intensity in his captors voice frightened the man.

His previously pleasant tone had started to slip as some of the madness in his eyes began to take over.

The man felt his eyes drawn to a necklace around the elder's neck. It was silver with a claw shaped pendant at the base.

It dipped down low over an ill-kept grey button up with red and brown stains on the front and sides, as well as black stains like pen ink.

"I,I'm not sure," He admitted, screaming again when the scissors flashed back into the light. "Nononono-please! PLEASE! SOUTH!"

The scissors paused. In interest or confusion it didn't matter, either way he'd bought himself some time.

"South end park, I-I was out with m-my girlfriend at south end park, h-he was there," The man choked out.

"Was he alone?"

"No, he was with someone else-"

"Who?" The intensity was back.

"I,I'm not sure," The man's face was strained. He really didn't know. The only reason he remembered the boy at all was because Marin had asked if that's what he was like when he was younger and- "A GIRL!"

The girls picture was pulled out again.

"No, not her, she was, she looked," He caught his breath. "She had blonde hair? Dyed I think, it's hard to tell these days,"

He laughed, anxious.

The older man did not.

"Blonde." His captor stated dully.

"Yeah, really light blonde, I didn't see her face but she was tall, taller than him," He couldn't remember anything else.

"South end park," The man muttered to himself. He sounded a little surprised. Maybe even confused.

He brushed a hand through his hair, mumbling something under his breath. It sounded like an apology.

The man pulled the hand from his hair and brought forward the scissors again.

His captive shrieked and screamed as the weapon opened and shut. This time there were no questions, nor was there an end to the torment.

Looking at his captor now, it was hard to imagine he was the same composed man from earlier.

The madness in his eyes was fully in charge and it was perfectly clear that he wasn't a man at all.

He was a demon.

***

"What do you want to eat?" Dana asked her brother, stuffing her hands in her pockets. The air was cool but it wasn't freezing yet.

Billy didn't answer.

"Billy?" He was looking at a group of boys around his own age on the other side of the road.

They were laughing and running from an older lady telling them to scram.

He looked wistful and Dana felt a light ounce of familiar guilt send a pain to her heart.

"I don't know, whatever," He answered before she asked again, ducking his head away from the kids down to the cracked sidewalk. "Do we still have money for that?" He asked.

The girlfriend from the park had lip chap, five bucks, two tampons, red lipstick, a condom, three blue pens, a packet of tissues, a pocket knife and a couple loose sticky notes.

So no, they did not have money for supper.

Dana studied each person walking past before landing on one in particular. He stood under lamplight like he was waiting for something.

The rich man from the park.

For the second time that day she felt a smile peel back her guarded face.

He looked like an angel under the lamps gravely orange glow.

She gave Billy a nudge, nodding towards the man. He followed her gaze and looked back at her. She nodded again towards the alley they were passing.

"We will soon."

Billy rolled his eyes but followed her direction, waiting back in the alley, concealing himself in case the worse happened.

Dana kept walking, keeping her head low and eyeing others on the street. It was pretty quiet, most people were home by now.

As she passed the man she smelt something strange, like something was burning.

She ignored it and let the swarm take over.

He was just a man after all. He would fall just the same as any other.