My six year old son is Death

He sits there in the corner, watching the sand fall through an hourglass. I'd like a bowl of ice-cream now, he says. But you've had four already, I tell him. He taps the glass pointedly and the flow of the precious granules speeds ever so slightly. That's not what I asked is it? he hisses. I go to the freezer and lift it. Which flavour? I ask. All of them, he replies. We're going to need a bigger bowl, I think.

Later we're at the park, the other kids play on the swings and chase each other with sticks. He stands by the pool and stirs the water gently with his scythe. A girl comes up to him and holds out a flower. His hollow black eyes stare out from his cowl, he takes the stem and the petals bloom grey with ash, the stalk wilting before her eyes. She tries to take it back but it crumbles as dust in her fingers. He picks an old chicken bone from the bin and slides it into her hair; she clutches her throat and her eyes roll back as she falls over. Her parents come running over, but I know it's too late.

We leave and it begins to get dark. He walks in the opposite direction to which we came. I tell him we should be heading home. We should be heading home, I say. He continues to take his careful steps as though he never heard me. A dog runs up to him and licks his face, his hood falls back and a child screams as the dog runs his tongue over bare skull. He moves his finger, ever so slightly, if you didn't know where to look you would miss it, and the spasms start in the dog's tail. It's not long before he's lying paws upwards on the floor, his tongue lolling on the concrete.

He's been back indoors for less than ten minutes when he wants to know if he can go out and play; Famine and Pestilence are coming over and War has a new bike. I tell him to take a coat and hear him mutter something about my mother under his breath. He hits the cat on the way out, and she begins to sing Puccini in a most heartbreaking soprano. I shout at him to shut the door, but nothing bar the empty wind answers me back.