It was ten o'clock on a bitterly cold, desolately black night, and Dan Howell had decided to leave his and Phil's new apartment to take a walk. Although it had been five years since Clarissa's death, her anniversary made all of his old wounds feel sickeningly fresh again. He held back tears as he walked briskly through the streets of suburban London, determined to find a place where he could be completely alone with his thoughts without the distraction of passing traffic or the shouts of children playing. Eventually he came to Oldem Park, a place he knew well and had many fond memories of. He entered the large, red gates and began walking along the cobblestone path until he came to a wooden bench displaying a shiny, gold plaque.

He brought out his phone and shined the torch light to read the engraving: "In loving memory of Tracy Hutchison," whoever she was. He sat on the bench and stared down at his lap, five years, he thought… how has it been five years? It felt like only yesterday since Clarissa was here, laughing and joking with him about silly things. He could still picture her so clearly; her wavy blonde hair, the way dimples appeared when she smiled- and her vibrant, piercing green eyes which lit up whenever she laughed. It was so unfair, in fact, it was just plain cruel that she had been taken so young… she was so full of life and had so much ahead of her, but he knew that there was no point in thinking about it. Dwelling on the injustice of her death wouldn't bring her back.

"Hey," Dan almost jumped at the suddenness of Phil appearing seemingly out of nowhere, perching himself on the bench.

"Phil, I…" Dan responded, trying to find the words to explain that he just wanted to be alone.

"Look," Phil started, "I know it sounds creepy, but I was worried about you- so I followed you out of the apartment to see where you were going."

"You didn't need to do that, Phil, I'm fine… I promise," Dan replied.

"You don't look fine, your eyes are all red and stuff."

"Do you know what today is?" Dan spun around so that he was facing Phil and stared at him, if he had forgotten about the anniversary then Dan would blow up.

"Of course I know what today is, and I'm feeling it too, Dan… I really am, but it's been so long now, we need to start moving on with our lives."

"Just go." Dan tried to suppress the anger from his voice but failed.

"I'm trying to be supportive!"

"Phil," Dan stood up, keeping his back to his best friend, "I'm fine, I just want to be alone right now… please."

Phil removed himself from the bench silently and walked away, taking several glances back at Dan before leaving the park and walking back towards their apartment.

Dan ditched the bench and decided to walk further into the park. He approached an old, tired looking two-person swing-set and sat on one of the seats, pushing himself back and forward lightly with his feet. The painful squeaking noise which ensued made him feel as though the rusted metal frame would snap under his weight if he attempted to do much else. It kind of reminded him of being a kid again, not knowing how to use the swing by himself, just using his feet against the ground to move about as much as he could. He still remembered the day when he finally managed to teach himself how to swing on his own, it was such a magical feeling; He felt so free, soaring high above the ground with the wind blowing in his face.

He heard another squeak coming from beside him, snapping him out of his reminiscent state. What was that? He turned his head slowly to look at the other swing seat. He couldn't believe what he was seeing- it was moving back and forth, as if someone had given it a gentle push. He glanced quickly around the park to see if there was anyone there who could have done it but saw no one. Maybe Phil was still here, playing a stupid prank on him to try and cheer him up and was hiding somewhere behind a tree.

"Phil?" Dan called out.

He paused, silence. Nope, no Phil. He settled himself by concluding that it was probably just the wind and that he had nothing to worry about… But then again, what if it was a murderer? Dan shuddered, that was a stupid idea, he was very clearly alone and there was no one in the park with him. Plus, if it was a murderer they would have had multiple chances to seize their opportunity up to this point, what with him being alone and everything. He chuckled to himself, his brain always went to the worst case scenario whenever the tiniest thing happened, he had always been a paranoid person in general, it was one of the things that Clarissa made fun of him for. He pulled out his phone and checked the time: ten thirty. Had it really only been half an hour since he left? That was strange, it felt like longer… fifty minutes, maybe?

Suddenly, he felt something cold against his arm, almost like the touch of another person with freakishly icy skin. This really spooked him for a couple of seconds, but he again settled on the fact that it was probably just a light breeze drifting past him. After calming himself down for a second time, he began to swing himself slightly to try and take his mind off everything, the swing- set squeaking louder with each movement.

He was enjoying the soothing motion of drifting back and forth when, out of nowhere, something terrifying happened which made him grind to a halt. He could have sworn that he heard a female voice whisper his name- he also thought that it had been right in his ear too. He was also fairly confident that he felt someone's breath on his neck just before it happened. He snapped his head round to check if there was anyone behind him. Nothing… just bushes. He had had enough, he wanted out of that park- and fast. He stood up as quickly as he possibly could, but, before he could move anywhere, an invisible force pulled him back down onto the swing seat. His heart was racing, he had no idea what was going on- he hoped it was just some big nightmare that he was about to wake up from, but no such thing happened.

"What the actual fuck is going on?" He growled between gritted teeth; he was panicking more than ever and his heart was beating so hard and fast that he could physically hear it

His head began to inadvertently fill with creepy, demonic laughter- the kind you usually hear in horror movies. It was odd, because he could tell that he wasn't actually hearing it, it was almost like it had just been planted in his head by the same invisible force which had dragged him back on to the swing seat.

He tried to return to his feet but was pulled back again, and the laughter in his head was getting increasingly louder. He cried out, covering his ears, but that didn't seem to help. The laughter was unbearably loud now, consuming him. He took a panicked glance out towards the centre of the park and instantly wished he hadn't done so. His eyes caught what seemed to be a dark, shadowy figure standing directly in the middle of the grass. As he looked more closely, he realised that the figure was getting closer by the second. He was so disorientated; he had no idea what all of this meant. He was hoping that it was some messed up nightmare, but it all felt much, much too real.

"Stop!" He screamed, "Stop it now, please!"

Everything stopped so abruptly, as if to answer his request. He fell of the swing and collapsed onto the ground struggling to catch his breath and get over the overwhelming experience of what had just occurred. As soon as he had regained enough energy to do so, he rose swiftly to his feet and, although he wasn't really "the running type" as he always said to his peers and subscribers, he sprinted as fast as he could out of the park and towards his apartment.