"We're gonna get arrested," Bobby sighs, lowering the binoculars from his eyes and leaning back against the seat.

"Got a couple of FBI badges in the dash," Rufus says distractedly, "You're gonna have to quit worrying about that. Guess how many times I've been arrested?"

Bobby narrows his eyes: "No."

"The point is, its gonna happen sooner or later. Use your one phonecall to call me, or if I'm there with you call Ellen. We'll figure out something to get you out."

"Well that's comforting." But it kind of is.

The MacFarlanes have drawn their

curtains and only a sliver of light peeks between the drapes of the upstairs apartment. the shop is all shuttered up. every so often the curtain flickers. They keep themselves awake with coffee and avoidance-conversation. Once Rufus asks if Bobby's doing okay, and Bobby has no idea how to take that, so he tells him to shut up and watch.

"This is stupid," Bobby says at least. "We should just go in and-"

"Say sir, ma'am, excuse us, but we have reason to believe your twelve your old son is possessed by a demon. If you'll just allow us to exorcise him-"

"Look!" Bobby says suddenly. The curtains open. The boy, Derek, is standing there, and his eyes are black. he looks right, left, right again, mouth set in a grim line, and as he ducks back into the room the curtain lifts, and they glimpse a woman pinned to the far wall, bloodied,

" -…on second thoughts that'll work perfectly. Let's do it."

They're out of the car, running for the building, and break the lock of the upstairs apartment. Someone screams and they head for the main room. Mr. and Mrs. Macfarlane are pinned to opposite walls, and in the center stands the demon in the body of their son. It wheels on them immediately, but they're ready: Rufus is carrying a motorized water pistol in each hand: vaguely ridiculous, except that they're primed full of grade-A holy water, and as he's shooting and the demon's screaming Bobby's diving for the kid and forcing his hands into iron handcuffs, twisting iron wires around its ankles, and this is the shitty part but they flipped a coin and he lost, what are you gonna do? The thing is supernaturally strong and before he can wrangle it, it sears a path down Bobby's arm with the kid's fingernails and its own mojo. He barely feels it.

"Get downstairs!" Rufus is shouting to the parents, who have fallen to the floor, and they're picking them up and the woman cries,

"Derek, Derek!"

"THAT'S NOT DEREK!" Bobby bellows.

"What the hell is that thing?" screams the father.

"It's a demon," says Rufus almost tiredly: "Y'all get downstairs, don't come up till we say
it's safe. And don't call anyone! Wait, where's your other kid?"

"Out – out," stammers the father. "

"Alright, go!"

"What are you going to do to my son?" demands the woman. The son in question is currently thrashing on the floor , raging and screaming, Exorcist style. his eyes are pure black.

"We'll get it out of him," Bobby assures her, and that's true one way or another but dammit, God dammit, he is going to save this kid like he couldn't her if it literally kills him.
They have the kid tied to a chair in the middle of the room now, a devil's trap etched on the floor around him. he's seething, or the thing is within him, a gag on his mouth.

"Exorcizamus te-" Bobby begins.

"Wait-" Rufus jerks a hand out, stopping.

"What?" Bobby looks at him like he's gone crazy.

"What do you want?" Rufus asks the demon.

"Are you nuts?" Bobby demands. What do they all want? Death, pain, destruction?"

The demon seems to agree with him because it laughs, shows the kids teeth.

"Rufus Turner," it croons. "Ain't seen you in a dog's year. Thought you'd a been dead by now
– though – no, I'd a heard the screams. Lots of us downstairs got a hard-on for your meat." It flicks the boy's tongue, revolting.

"Yeah, guess you'll have to cancel the party," Rufus bites off.

"Oh I don't know about thaaat…" it says silkily. "Mommy and daddy manage to provide us with
a fair bit of entertainment."

Rufus grits his teeth.

"What are we waiting for? Let me exorcise it!"

"No." Then: "Why are there so many of you on earth now?" he asks the demon.

"Uh, fun?" it suggests, and he sprays it with holy water. It screams, smokes and arches its
head back. Bobby knows that holy water isn't harmful to the host, but it still sends
shudders up and down his spine seeing a child's face and body express that degree of pain.

"What's your gameplan?" Rufus asks calmly.

"Game," the demon arches the kid's eyebrow, disturbingly provocative on the young face.
"That's one way to put it."

Rufus raises the water pistol again. The thing flinches. "What do you care?" it snaps.
"Nothing you can do about it."

"Well, we'll see." Rufus draws a thin silver blade from his pocket and holds it up.

"Rufus," says Bobby nervously.

"We got to make it talk," Rufus says in a low voice. "We aint gonna get this opportunity again, Bob. I'll hurt the kid as little as possible."

Bobby bites his lip. Rufus knows more than him, books notwithstanding, and if he feels that its crucial to know why the demons are popping up everywhere, well, it probably is. He nods. Rufus starts forward, and carefully, without breaking the devil's trap, cuts a thin line down the outside of one of the boy's cuffed arms. The skin smokes, bubbles, and the demon shrieks.

"Tough guy, huh?" Rufus says sarcastically.

"You call it game," sneers the demon, smoke still rising where the holy water has seared its skin, "You have no conception." Something crosses its face, a quick pleased flash, as thouh it has just said something especially clever.

"So enlighten me," Rufus says evenly, drawing the blade in a longer arc down the other arm.
The demon gags and spits. Then in chuckles. It looks past Rufus then, looks at Bobby. "The Boy King is born," it says, and then nothing but manic laughter, and Rufus says,

"Exorcise it," in disgust, and Bobby does so.

*

"What the hell did it mean?"

They're back in the car, sitting and staring straight ahead, but they haven't pulled away yet. Derek MacFarlane, superficially injured and profoundly traumatised, is reunited with his frantic parents. They had left to the family's hysterical discussion of whether to tell the sister, whether to tell anyone, should they join a church? They were looking at Bobby and Rufus when they ask this.

"If it'll make you feel better," Rufus shrugs. "Ain't never seen the point in it for myself."

"What did it mean" Bobby asks again.

"You got me," Rufus is staring out the windscreen, unseeingly. "Wasn't that some Egyptian Pharoah?"

"It was happy," Bobby says. "It said it like it got some weapon over us."

"King of the demons," Rufus suggests, and shudders. "Man. If we could put him down…..still,
can't help hoping I never have to meet the mother personally."

"Their greatest strength shall be their greatest weakness," Bobby says abruptly.

"Huh?"

"It's in some of the demonologies. The older ones. Just came back to me," he shakes his head. "You think it means…if will kill this thing, Hell will collapse? It's their vulnerability."

Rufus looks at him balefully, shrugs his shoulders. "All I know is, we hunters got some bad times up a ahead of us," and turns the radio on.

The end.