The Slender Man (20 page)

Bump, bump, bump.
I can hear my heartbeat. I can feel
it. With each beat it gets heavier. I'm not dead, I know that much. He's sucked
me in. I feel numbness penetrate my body and shudder in response, but it's no
time to be scared. That's what he wants, but I came here expecting this. I
already know what it's like in this shadow world. I hold myself still, waiting
for Slender's screaming laughter, or the jagged pain, but neither come. I only
hear my heartbeat, and static. What's happening?

I open my eyes, it's very dark, but the light coming from me
is brighter than before. I still can't see anything outside of the clearing
though. I see no sign of Adam, or the Slender Man. I lean forward, balancing
my-
my guitar!
I still have it. Apparently I
can
bring things
through. If only I smuggled Dad's shotgun in. If only a shotgun would work on
this fiend.

I slowly make it to my feet, stumbling as I get used to the
numbness. This has already happened to me twice before, you'd think I'd adjust
more quickly by now, but it's like dipping into cold water; no matter how many
times you experience it, you're never really prepared for the sensation.

I turn around to look at the tree. It's moving, but not
contorting, and there's no black vortex-vein connecting me to it. Slender
really must have special plans for me, but what does he want me to do? I take a
few steps, unsure of which direction to turn. I'm starting to feel anxious,
trying to anticipate what's going to happen next. He's going to jump out at me,
or grab me suddenly. No, he must be expecting me to wander off with no
guidance, to try and escape, and eventually fall into his trap, if I'm not
trapped already.

"Adam!" I call, but my voice is muffled, as if
this is a dream. I can still hear my voice. It just won't project into a shout.
Is he blocking the sound then? I strum a chord on my guitar to see what's going
on. I feel the vibrations pass through my body, and the sound of the guitar
resonates for a while, but it's very discordant.

"Your move," I say, boldly.

Slender must be taking the bait, because here's Leanne's
scream. It's coming from my left, deeper into the woods. "Right," I
say. He must want me to follow Leanne's calls. I do my best to not let fear
overcome me, but I can hardly help myself. Every second I tell myself. "He
wants me to be scared," in an effort to calm myself down, and it does, if
only a little. I walk into the woods, every step showing me another leafless
tree.

Leanne's screams get louder which means I’m getting closer.
I walk for about another minute before I see Leanne lying on the ground. There
is no light coming from her body, but she's moving a little bit. I stand above
her, and watch her body distort. She's ghostly pale, and if not for her slight
movements I would think she’s dead. "Leanne?" She distorts again, and
I jump back as the once-prone Leanne is now standing face-to-face with me
inside one flash. She looks angry, but her eyes are blank, and her body is
emitting this shadowy aura. What's worse is while she's standing like this, she
is continuously distorting, and in between the flashes she seems to have no
face, but when she does have a face it's set in that vengeful look, the hateful
look I last saw her directing toward me.

I wait for her to make a move. She distorts again and now
she's on her knees crying for help. Confronted with this pitiful version of
her, I can't help but feel, well, pity. He's showing me that Leanne is still
here with us, even though he has total control of her actions. It's the
temporary release Shana had to fight to achieve the moment she told me to wake
up, but Leanne isn't as strong. She just wants help. She distorts again, and
Slender-Leanne is standing less than a foot away from me once more.

"I didn't come here for you," I try, hoping that's
the right answer. Leanne does the scariest thing she could possibly do next,
she laughs. As she laughs her body distorts- no contorts, violently, as if
disjointed, and she keeps flashing between no-face and angry-face, while
manically laughing, but her laugh is coming from all directions. I feel a
sudden drop in my sanity and consider running, but where?

Leanne grabs my head and my shoulder and pulls herself
forward as if she were trying to kiss or head-butt me. As her face connects
with mine, there's no impact, instead it feels like we are merging, and a
deafening static shriek permeates the air. I feel the same vertigo and sudden
weakness I experienced the last time. I pull away and catch a glimpse of what's
happening.

My light is dimming and it's as if- Leanne is creating the
same effect that the tree's vortex did before. Only this time it feels like my
whole body is being sucked in by the contact. My body distorts now, painfully.
I jump back, and pull away as fast as I can, but Leanne won't relent. I see
light coming from her body now. She's stealing my own energy from me! I jerk to
my right and run, but my guitar strap pulls me back. I turn my neck and see
she's trying to hold onto me by my guitar. She pulls back as I pull forward.

In my current condition- dizziness, numbness, and nausea, I
am in no shape to fight her back, and I hit the ground, but before she can grab
me and finish me off, I slip under the guitar strap and bolt. Bolt may not be
the best word for it. I am practically throwing myself from tree to tree,
unable to balance for more than a few steps without falling over, at least not
until the dizziness subsides. I can hear Leanne's overwhelming laughter
continue, and I turn to see she's following me. She's taunting me. As my vision
returns- somewhat, I can run more steadily. I run for maybe twenty seconds
before a hand makes contact with my face.

It's Jason's hand. I flinch, ready to be knocked back by the
solid force of a punch, and although I fall over, it's not because of any
impact. When Jason's hand comes into contact with my face, I feel the same
draining sensation.
Does everyone who touches me here steal my life-force?
I wonder.

I push myself up to get off the ground, but Leanne has
caught up and her added onslaught worsens my condition. The world is spinning
so fast that I can't even see, and it's all I can do to pitch forward, onto my
knees, and then try to stand. I hobble between the flashes of pain that come
with every distortion, and I feel my light growing even dimmer. When they fully
drain me, do I become one of them?

I jerk back and throw a punch at Leanne, but she doesn't
react to it. She's just trying to absorb me. I dive away and end up rolling
down the hill. The momentum, which I'm grateful for, rips me out of their grip.
It's perfect timing too, because there was no way I was getting out of there
with my own strength, not when I can't hurt them. I have no weapons here.
Without even being able to see clearly, I move on aimlessly. My only desire is
to put some distance between my attackers and me.

     They siphon my strength like Slender does. They're like
variants of him—or maybe extensions of him. My mind starts calling them
Slender
Children
. I noticed that they grow brighter as they drain me. Does that
mean that if they steal enough from me, they can escape? Is that Slender's
game? Whichever one of them takes the most life from me gets released? Or does
draining me sufficiently just trap me here?

I just want Adam, and since they drain my energy with
contact, do I have to find Adam and give him my strength to help him escape?
Shana hadn’t drained me this way, so this must just be an attack method. The
only way to get out of here is to run. If I fail, then both of us are stuck
here. I'll have to take him to the edge like I did Shana and hope he still has
enough strength to survive the transition. When I do that will Slender focus on
me to make sure I don't escape?

I keep running. I can see one of the girls Deputy Yew showed
me a photo of approaching. I turn and run in the opposite direction, only to
run into Lindsay. I want to apologize to her, because the first face I see of
her is a pleading look on her face, but my judgment tells me to jump away, and
I do in the nick of time. As soon as I leap, Lindsay flashes into her faceless
form and reaches her arms forward. She wants to drain from me too. It's a game
of keep-away.

I dash as fast as I can down through the woods. I need to
find Adam, but so far he hasn't appeared. How will I find him?

"Adam!" I try to call, but the static is still
distorting my voice.

"Adam!" I scream this time. I'm louder, but I
doubt anyone more than five meters away would be able to hear me. A child
catches my attention to my left. I stop and lean against the nearest tree to
keep from falling over.

"Adam?" I ask, but it's too dim to see from this
distance. I hear the laughter of Lindsay, Leanne, Jason, and a few others
behind me. If all of them dog-pile me, I'm finished.

I walk forward to illuminate the child, but stop as he comes
into view. It's Lionel, faceless Lionel. He distorts and becomes crying Lionel.
I wish I'd looked away. I wish I'd turned as soon as I saw that it isn't Adam.
The face of a five year old child in pain, full of terror, trauma, and anguish
will never leave me. I fight back tears as I run, knowing that Slender did that
on purpose, and that Lionel will only grab me like the others. I came here to
save Adam, my brother, and if anyone is going to siphon my life from me to
escape, it will be him.

"Adam!" I call repeatedly. My voice is getting
tired, but weariness isn't an excuse. I bet I haven't been here ten minutes,
and I'm sure as hell not going to let being out of breath stop me from rescuing
Adam this quickly. Now is not the time for tears. It's not time to break down
and admit defeat. "No time to cry," I tell myself, as the song pops
into my head.

"Adam!" I call once more.

I can hear Lionel laughing now. He may be the most helpless,
the most innocent of all of the children I've seen Slender take, but his
laughter is the most sinister. I'd rather have Chucky chasing after me than a
giggling Slender-Lionel. "Just ignore it. Let it go," I tell myself,
knowing Lionel wouldn't be doing this to me if he had a choice.

I hear them all laughing as they pursue me, but when I turn
I can only see about three meters behind me, and I greatly wish I hadn't let
Leanne drain so much of me. I should have run as soon as she laughed, or just
ignored her. I've fallen for Slender's traps and now I can't even see if my
predators are catching up or not. I see more children, most of whom I don't
know by name, but I have seen their faces before. These don't wait for me to
approach. They just dart in to intercept me.

Ignoring the creeping numbness, I do my best to sprint,
dodging trees and roots that would impede my path. Most of them seem like they
will catch up to me at the speed they're running, and their ability to appear
suddenly, why aren't they all upon me yet? Realization sets in. I'm being
herded.

If I could look around, I might have an idea for where I'm
going, but my field of vision is limited. I hear one more voice chime in, and
this one makes me stop for a single second to mouth the name. "Adam."
He repeats his call.

"Alyssa!" he shouts, very audibly. It came from in
front of me, slightly to my right. I follow the sound, shouting his name. When
he comes into view he takes off running. Why's he running from me? Oh right,
I'm being herded. With my track experience and his broken arm, I should be able
to catch up to him easily, but Slender has control of him now, and that’s even
more obvious when his body warps almost out of my line of sight in a single
distortion.

I follow Adam, with a choir of laughing Slender-Children
behind me, for what feels like ten minutes, before he stops in his tracks. I
don't stop- not immediately, and I put a hand on him as soon as I catch up,
only to be siphoned at the touch. I jerk away and catch what he's staring at.

My eyes begin to sting before I register what it is. The
Slender Man is standing in the middle of the clearing, but this time I don't
close my eyes. If I am to meet with the Death incarnate, I am going to look him
in the eye. As I stare him down, the stinging turns into a continuous burn. The
name “The Slender Man,” suits him well, but he’s taller than I remember him.
This must be his full-length form. He stands maybe fifteen feet tall, and yet
thin as I am. He has that imperfect stillness to him, only interrupted by its
distortions. It looks like I'm gazing at a shadow, except the shadow has taken
a three-dimensional form and is standing over me. 

My body is screaming at me to close my eyes, and my neck is
involuntarily twitching trying to get me to look away. The Slender Children
have all caught up, but they're not in pursuit. They've done their jobs. When
their laughter stops as well, I can't tell if they've just quieted, or if
they’ve disappeared, because I am looking at Slender, not his minions.

"I came here," I start, surprised that my voice is
coming through clearly despite my proximity to the entity that's caused all of
this. "...like you told me to. Now I want Adam," I finish. He doesn't
move, but Adam's movements catch my eye and I look down at him. His left arm
hangs limp by his side, but with his posture you wouldn't even tell that it's
broken. He distorts to face-less Adam, and then to the angry-faced version. He
changes back and forth, but not once do I see the crying, weakened, real
version of Adam.

He backs up, as if seeking Slender for comfort. My heart
skips a beat. I didn't come here for Adam to run from me. Was this Slender's
plan all along? I close my eyes to hold back from crying. I won't let his
victory be so easy.

"Adam it's me. It's Alyssa," I say. Adam doesn't
seem convinced. Slender bends over and I feel that resonating screech. He's
laughing at my attempt. I shake my head.