Licking his lips and tightening his hand into a fist, he took a daring step forward. "I'm tired of being afraid of something I don't understand! If you won't go then I will!" Another step. A small chorus of gasps sounded off before the two youngest in the group reached forward and grabbed at his arms. He sneered at them jerking his arms from their clinging hands. He swung around, arm outstretched, nearly striking one of them in the face. "Let me go!" He barked out, black eyes narrowing into smoldering slits. The light twinkle in his eyes made them back away.

He was going crazy, just like they all were. He whipped back around and took a step forward, then another and another. As he neared the pacing, dark form his body his body began to tremble slightly. His body slowed but continued forward in determination. His throat felt dry as he spoke, "Why are you here? You dare to walk around with the face of that man, and for what? To mock us? Everyday I see you it is as if you are insulting me! Us! Speak and tell us- what are you?"

The naked, shadowy form finally stilled it's pacing, it's bare, black-skinned back to them all. "Natas, get back here!" One of his worried colleagues hissed from behind him but Natas refused to listen, planting his feet and folding his arms. His face tightened, the wrinkles birthed from nights of stress deepened more as he awaited his answer. "Answer me, demon!" The man barked out, his voice growing louder with his escalating confidence.

"Demon?"

A voice of steel touched their ears, hard and solid but merely a whisper like the flutter of a feather against their eardrums. Nervous eyes lifted up to the back of the creature, a shaky breath leaving them all at the same time in a combination of rattled nerves. The shadowed form inclined it's head slightly to the right as if testing if it had heard correctly.

Natas swallowed though there wasn't a touch of a moisture in his mouth to speak of. The creature slowly turned around, his limbs graceful and smooth, as it moved it's body to face them.

"So I'm a demon? Well if you think you know what I am, then why did you ask?" It questioned as a smile slowly broke it's lips, revealing pearly white teeth, a surprising tribute that they had never seen before. Since the day the creature had appeared it's teeth, the colors around the pupil of it's eyes, everything, had been black. For a moment, Natas could only stare at those pure, white teeth. The way they seemed to shine and glow from the dark skin of the creatures lips.

He snapped out of it when he saw it began to approach him with a graceful swagger, unlike his usual pacing. His eyes bulged as if he hadn't expected the other to move towards him. Natas quickly took three steps back, "D-Don't come any closer!" He yelled out, causing everyone behind him to whimper in light fear, unlike the burly, old man in the group who merely stood there with steady eyes and watched.

The man-like creature did not heed the other's cry and merely continued forward, it's lips only stretching wider to reveal those white teeth again. "You look nervous. Well, you should be." It said and slowly it's eyes began to warp in color, the black touching to gray then twisting to blue and finally settling to a apple green.

The small change caught them all by surprise. The largest yet calmest man in their group finally took a step forward but before he could take even two steps the rest of the group clutched at him. The creature's green eyes lifted up and focused on the oldest member of the group. He was tall, his arms large and heavy with muscles, and peppered-color hair with sharp eyes. He eminated a certain kind of authority in the group. The creature's eyes narrowed in consideration. The man stilled, blue eyes flickering down to the desperate faces of the people holding on to him before he moved back to his previous spot.

The dark creature suddenly laughed before it's eyes flicked back over to Natas.

"Thank you, Natas. You will be very helpful." The creature said with a decisive nod, waist-length hair swaying with it's light movements. The creatures eyes lit with amusement at Natas's confused expression.

"H...How do you know m-" His voice suddenly cut off into a sound of gargling, Natas's head snapping back in sudden pain. His neck bulged with the effort to try to breath, veins lifting from under the skin and pressing hard against the surface. His eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head, only displaying the whites of his eyes.

The creature chuckled as it moved a hand from behind it's back to reveal one of it's fingers extended upwards. Slowly, it curled it's finger and just as slowly, Natas's body began to lift in the air. Everyone's voice lifted up into a startled cry, their voices getting louder the higher Natas's body was moved as if in a twisted orchestra.

"By the way, perhaps demon wasn't way off the mark." It said but no longer did it's voice hold amusement but once again the hard, steeliness that made them quiet down. It slowly moved forward, Natas's trembling body still moving in the air with it. "You put up quite a barrier, old man."

The man with his sharp, blue eyes gritted his teeth before he made eye contact with it. Green clashed with blue as they stared at each other. The creature, now everyone's horror, began to move closer and closer to them. Unable to keep themselves calm, some of them screamed and fled from the icy prison, tears falling along their cheeks at the image of poor Natas's body dangling in the air. The old man did not move from his spot, rather he firmed his feet. "I am not afraid of you." He whispered out to it.

For a moment, it paused, interested by the man's words before it suddenly flicked it's finger towards him. Natas's body flew forward only to meet an invisible wall, which the body merely slammed against and slid along till it reached the floor.

"The barrier and this icy prison would say otherwise."

Suddenly it leapt forward, long nails piercing the wall-like barrier, scratching along it's surface right along the man's face. It narrowed it's emerald eyes, the orbs heating up like liquid fire as they stared at him. "You'd best run. Your little cage won't hold me here much longer." It said, lips firming into a thin line. A small twitch from the corner of it's eyes caught it's attention, which it turned it's head to see what it was. Natas's body was still moving which wasn't surprising since it hadn't killed him quite yet.

"His still conscious." It said in a observation rather then sympathy. It slowly blinked, the darkness of it's skin lighting up into a more human pale-skinned color, finger nails turning into a clear material and underneath them a light pink. The creature seemed fascinated by this, lifting a hand up so it could observe the light change of it's appearance. More human. It's head flicked from side to side, looking at it's hand from several different angles.

"How...fascinating." It cooed out gently before it flicked a finger up and once again Natas's body was hoisted up into the air by invisible strings like a puppet. And when the puppet groaned, the puppeteer did nothing to comfort his pain. It merely continued to use it's body as it wished. Lifting up another hand, the creature did a small slashing gesture over his finger with a quick slice. Instantly, Natas's throat was opened, blood squirting out suddenly and continued to do so, the heart pumping more into the now cut artery. With a small swivel of it's finger, Natas's body turned and slammed against the barrier that kept it prisoner.

His blood slowly drizzled along the wall, the man himself convulsing and letting out small whimpers of pain, unable to do anything else. As the blood slowly ran down the barrier, the thinner it became until it seemed as thin as a layer of paper. The creature took a step forward, the old man still standing there, unmoving. Unmoving even when the creatures human-like hands curled around his throat.

"Hello father."