Before the calamity, the demon used to visit this world from time to time. Its small body and childlike mannerisms drew its attention toward playgrounds, where other small kids were playing. It was very skilled in concealing itself, and its favorite hobby was watching children play. It used to dream of a day when it could run alongside them and play with them. 

Among the kids it liked to watch, there was a small boy who visited the playground a lot with his dad. After some time, the demon got more and more curious about the boy, so it followed him back home one evening and started watching him from his bedroom window. It pretended that it was hiding from the boy and was waiting for him to come find the demon, just like how the boy played hide-and-seek with his friends.

After a while, the demon started to come to this world more often. It didn’t know why, but it was much easier to do so now. Nobody seemed to care if it just slipped through the door to this world, and it could stay for as long as it wanted to. 

Months passed, and all the demon did was stalk the boy from the shadows when he went to school, when he was playing in the playground, when he was playing in his room. But it was getting tiresome to just watch. The demon was bored of waiting and waiting and waiting. It never got to surprise the seeker and win the game and squeal with joy and jump up and down like all the other kids. 

What if it let the boy win, just once? Maybe the boy didn’t even know that the demon was hiding. So one night, when the boy was sleeping, the demon crept close to his bed and shook him awake. It wanted to whisper the boy’s name, to let him know it was going to hide so he could seek, but the excitement of finally having a real playmate took all of its words away, and all the demon could do was giggle with its hands on its mouth and run away to hide. 

The boy woke up and sat in bed, crying and screaming for his dad. The father came into the room, and the demon couldn’t really hear what they were talking about from its hiding spot, but it must have been something very serious, because the father scowled and looked at the open window and left the room in a hurry.

Oh no, the demon thought. It had forgotten to close the window this time! 

The father came back into the room with something long in his hand. The demon got excited again. It was one of those long wooden things that some of the older kids had on the playground! The ones that they used to hit the small white ball with! Maybe now the father wanted to play too, so they could all play together!

The boy was still crying on his bed, and now the father was the one seeking. It didn’t matter to the demon, as long as the game was going on. He tried to stay very, very still and silent so he could finally jump out at the end and win the game!

It took the father a few minutes to look in the wardrobe and under the bed and under the desk and behind the curtain, but he didn’t look up, in the corner, in the shadows, on the ceiling. So he couldn’t find the demon. When he finally gave up and sat down on the bed, the demon decided it had won, and it could come out now!

So it jumped down as light as a feather and opened its arms wide and high and squealed with happiness. “I win!” and then it giggled.

Pain, blood, screaming, swearing. The demon didn’t understand what had happened at first. It was so confusing. When it opened its eyes, the boy was hiding behind his dad, and the dad was holding the bat high up in the air, swinging it down on top of the demon’s head. But it was faster than the father. It dodged the bat and looked around in confusion.

“I hide. You no seek. I win?” The demon asked with a child’s voice. 

“What the hell? What the- what the hell?” The father yelled and walked back, trying to shield the boy behind him. 

“Yes! Hell!” The demon clapped. Some humans are very, very clever. “I,” it pointed at itself, “win! Win! Yay!” It jumped up and down and clapped, unable to stop giggling. 

The father swore again and swung the bat once more. Faster and harder this time. It caught the demon off guard. He had hit it in the shoulder this time. The demon stopped laughing and put its hand on its shoulder, scowling and howling in pain.

This wasn’t nice. He wasn’t nice. But why? All the bigger humans were nice to kids on the playground. Why wasn’t this one nice to the demon? Why was the boy crying so much, and so loud? 

Another swing of the bat, but the demon dodged this one in time.

Why didn’t they just want to play?

The father took a step toward the demon and started to shout and shout, and everything was getting louder and louder, and no one was happy or laughing or winning or playing or hiding anymore. The demon shook its head and tried to put its hands on its ears so the father wouldn’t hurt them anymore.

The shouting and the crying and the losing were so loud that the demon screamed with it, just to make it stop. And in the middle of the screaming, it got an idea. What if it took something of the boy and ran with it? Then they had to chase the demon to get it back, and then they would all laugh and be happy again. That was another game the kids played on the playground! Maybe the boy and the father just didn’t like to seek; maybe they liked other games more. 

The demon stopped screaming and jumped behind the father and snatched what it wanted from the boy. It took it and ran and ran and ran, giggling with itself. The treasure was warm, and it was tickling the palms of the demon’s hand, so it laughed even harder. 

It took the demon a few minutes to realize that neither the father nor the boy were chasing it, so it slowed down and stopped. What was with these humans? Why didn’t its friend want to play with the demon at all? He didn’t like to seek, and he didn’t like to chase, so what?

The demon went back to the boy’s room. He was still on the bed, lying down on his pillow. He was asleep again. His dad was, too. On the floor, with the bat still in his hand. The demon sighed. They were not very good playmates. Maybe it should move and look for new playmates somewhere else?

It dropped the boy’s and the father’s hearts onto their bodies and cleaned its hand on its robe. 

No matter, there will be plenty of playmates elsewhere. It will finally find someone who would like to seek and would fail, and then the demon would finally win.