| abstract
| - I would begin with the date, but, the truth is, I have been in here so long that I don’t even know what time of day it is. They gave me this pen and paper to shut me up. So I feel I must write my story here. My story… well first off, I know I am not supposed to start by saying that I’m not crazy, but I want to reassure you. I’m not. I wouldn’t be sitting here if I was, well, all the others like me say the same thing. I tell myself that they put me here to protect me, to keep me from ending up like my friends. Yeah, about them, that’s what this story is about. How I got here, and what happened to them. But you have to believe what I said. I know that makes me sound worse, but please… Anyway, where do I start, probably with my name, and how this started. But where did it start, and how would I put it in words? I’ve got it; I remember now, how and when it started. With my friend Ethan, and steadily got worse. The bell rang for our seventh period to be released, but no one moved. It was graduation week, and our school had made a rule that the seniors got to leave first. Ethan and I scowled as a brute named Dillon got up and left the room. He wasn’t passing, and probably wouldn’t next year around either. Everyone knew him, the eight year high school student. He left without a scene for once. Finally, the bell to release everyone else rang, and we crowded towards the exit like a herd of cattle. Ethan motioned me away from the rest of them like he normally does, and them waited for our other friends. “Did you pass that test?” he asked. “Don’t ask. The teacher will freak out. Violation of the rules, you know,” I replied. “Seriously, Gary?” Ethan laughed. “I failed it. Don’t care,” I finally answered. We sat and waited for Kevin and Alisha. They usually dragged behind and tried to see how long we would wait for them. We had left them a few times, leaving them very pissed off. Ten minutes later, they appeared around the corner, walking slowly, and laughing at us. When we were all together, we decided to walk to my house, and headed out. Ethan walked in front as usual, and waited to tell us his newest story. Kevin walked on my left, and Alisha was behind us. “Alright guys, you won’t believe this shit. I was googling creepy stuff again, and I found this amazing story,” He began. We were closing in on the woods that we had to go through to get to my house. “And this is the perfect setting! Have you guys heard of the Slender Man? Well, I doubt it, but even if you had, I’m still telling you,” He said. He was an average looking high-school kid, but he had that annoying streak like a little kid. So we let him continue his story before he whined about us always ignoring him. “Anyway, he is supposedly a creature that appears to children, and steals them away. He is said to be a tall man in a dark suit, and he has no face. The internet also says he can stretch, and has tentacles. He usually appears in foggy areas, or at night, where he can blend in and stare at you without you seeing him. I wonder if he is real… I mean, I know other monsters and internet things aren’t real, but there are so many pictures, like, the others only have one or two and they are usually drawn, but he has tons, and they all look real!” Ethan rambled. We continued through the woods and were a ways in before Kevin finally piped up. “So, what’s the woods got to do with this… Slender Man?” “Oh, don’t you know? He is most likely to appear in woods, on foggy nights!” Ethan answered. “Then why would you take us through the woods?” Kevin asked. “To try and find him.” “He’s not real. You aren’t going to find him, and we’ve been through these woods for years. You’re just being an ass Ethan…” Alisha said for the first time since we started walking. Her face was white, and she was holding herself. “Hey Ethan, I think you should stop. Let’s look at it more when we get home. You’re scaring Alisha,” I said politely. “Yeah, I should stop just because I scared the little girl,” Ethan mocked. “Shut up!” Kevin said. “Why?” Ethan asked, still mocking Kevin. “Because otherwise, I’ll make sure you can’t talk again.” After that, the night went fairly uneventful until Kevin and Alisha left. That was when Ethan felt like showing me the stories. We searched and searched, finding more and more, scaring us both. I tried to laugh it off, and ignore each new link he clicked, but the more he learned, the more scared I got. He kept searching new images, and finding new videos. Finally, I grabbed the mouse, shut down the computer, and told him to leave. I myself was thoroughly disturbed. I ate, showered, and stared at a wall to ignore the thoughts. Eventually, I went to bed, but couldn’t sleep. So I stayed awake, and watched my alarm clock tick off the minutes until morning. I shut off the alarm before it even started. As I got ready, I kept thinking, ‘Why did Ethan have to show me that, and why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?’ I was finally able to leave, but not before grabbing a knife, and my sketchbook. School was awkward to say the least. I went through the day, distracted and distant. When I gazed off through the window, I found myself drawing him. The drawings were better than how I usually draw, but more than thirty minutes would pass as I dazed. Several times, I was snapped out of it by a teacher yelling, and the quiet laughter of the class. By seventh period, my only class with Ethan, I looked completely ragged and tired. He looked me over but didn’t say much. Finally he looked at me and said, “Were you able to sleep at all?” “No,” I replied. “Me neither…” he said, “Sorry for showing it all to you. I needed someone else to know.” “Why me?” I said. “You seemed most likely to believe…” he said. Then he looked at my sketchbook. He pulled his out and looked at mine. Both were filled with Slender Man drawings, but not one the same. “Great, he’s in both of our brains…” Ethan stated. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m drawing to clear my mind!” I snapped back at him. He winced and shied away before I said anything more. It took me a while to realize my hand was in my pocket, tightly squeezing my knife. I let it go, and tried to pay attention to class, but the haze kept coming back. I kept shoving it off, but it returned. Finally, I drew again. I let my hand do whatever it felt necessary while I zoned out into a world of black. “Gary… Gary… Gaaaaary…” a voice kept calling from the blackness. It kept coming closer and closer before I - “GARY! I would appreciate you returning to class. Would you mind explaining this?” The teacher said, holding up my sketchbook. I grabbed my knife again, but instead of running him through on the spot, I snatched my sketchbook back, and quickly replied, “Nothing… Just a doodle…” The last five minutes went as usual, a brief explanation of the homework, seniors leaving, and me and Ethan exiting to the hall. The only differences were we didn’t talk, and Kevin appeared alone. We started walking as usual, not questioning Alisha’s absence until we reached the woods. “Why’d you tell that story?” Kevin asked. “It’s not a story…” Ethan replied. “It’s fake! But I can’t convince Alisha of that! She went home and started searching that Slender Thing crap and said she was sick today!” Kevin yelled. “If you knew what Gary and I were going through…” Ethan started, before I quickly interrupted. “What do you mean ‘Gary and I,’ I’m fine, just a bit scared. You’re the one obsessing!” Ethan started laughing. He laughed so hard, he was on his knees, red-faced, and hardly breathing. “What do I mean you and me? I saw you Gary, I watched it happen! When Slender Man came near us, you started drawing, and had a perfect replica of where he was, standing right outside the window! You tell me you’re fine? Hah! You’re next!” Ethan raved. “That’s it!” Kevin yelled. “I’ve dealt with your hyper, over-imaginative ass for ten years! You’re going to shut up, now!” He continued. “Whatever you do to me, he will do ten times worse…” Ethan cackled. Kevin grabbed him, and threw him at the nearest tree. Ethan made no resistance, and hit the tree face first. He sat up, still laughing. “Heed what I said, the more you do, the worse you get…” Ethan spat. Kevin yelled something unintelligible, and then jumped on top of Ethan. He began pounding him in the face, Ethan laughing the whole time. “Shut up! Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!” Kevin kept repeating. Normally, I would have stopped the fight, but Ethan had pissed us all off recently, so I sat and waited for it to be over. Ethan’s laughter was disturbing, but it kept getting wheezier as Kevin knocked the breath out of him. About twenty minutes later, it stopped like it began. Kevin got up, started to walk away, but looked back. “Stay away from Alisha, Ethan. I don’t want to hear any more of this, and Alisha is having trouble sleeping.” Then he walked home. I looked at Ethan as he sat there giggling. Then I began to walk away. “You’re next! Once he’s done with me, you’re next!” he screamed hysterically. I ignored him, and continued walking. It was already getting dark, and I still had to go through the woods. I tried to go as fast as I could, but I couldn’t help feeling watched. Every tree on the familiar path seemed suspicious. Any opening that allowed light through was his head. It kept blending together and all of it seemed like he was there. It was night before I got home. “Gary, where were you?” my mom asked. “Nowhere…” I replied. “You’re late.” “Ethan started acting up. We went off course.” “Oh, be careful next time…” she said. I went up to my room and closed the door. And that was how Wednesday ended. When I went to school the next day, Ethan wasn’t there. Kevin and Alisha were there though. I went over to them. “Sorry about Ethan,” I said. “Don’t mention it. We’re trying to forget about the whole thing…” Kevin said. His hands were bruised and cut up. Alisha looked tired and wasn’t wearing make-up for once. I probably didn’t look much better than either of them. “Where are we going tonight?” I asked. “My place,” Kevin said. He lived alone with Alisha since their parents knew he was old enough to take care of them. The rest of the day barely fazed me. It all went by like a daze. Exams were over, and I passed all of my classes, so I didn’t care about the last three days’ bull crap. The seventh bell rang, and I got to the hall to wait for Kevin and Alisha. They got there quicker than usual. “Let’s go, I don’t wanna wait here,” Kevin said. We immediately started to head for Kevin’s, which was opposite from my house. It didn’t take long, and we didn’t say much the whole time. When we did finally get there, Alisha immediately went to her room and got on the computer. Kevin sat down on the couch, and held his head in his hands. I sat on the chair and turned on the television. We sat in silence for a few minutes before he talked. “I want you to talk to her. Ever since Ethan said that, she has been on the computer. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d only make it worse, I’d be there. She thinks he’s real, and says she sees him. She also keeps watching these videos and posting on some community when she does see them. I need you to snap her out of it, because Ethan will only make it worse…” he explained. “I’ll try, but what if he is real?” I asked. “There is no way he is. I don’t need you going wacko on me too. Ethan is enough.” "Alright… I’ll try.” I walked upstairs, and headed for Alisha’s room. I could hear the keys clacking halfway up the stairs, so I knew she was in a frenzy. As I walked in, the sight astounded me. There were drawings of him everywhere. Photos printed from the computer surrounded the desk. The bed was made, and covered with camera equipment, pointed inside and out. In the middle of it all sat Alisha, completely zoned in some website. “When was the last time you ate?” I asked. For some reason, that question came to me first. “Tuesday morning.” “How many times have you seen him?” I asked. “Four confirmed obvious sightings, seventeen total.” “And you think he is real?” “Yes.” “Me too…” It was the first time I had admitted it. The facts seemed obvious, but my mind said it was impossible. Once I let it click, a lot of the haze went away. “Why did Ethan snap?” I asked. “He dug too deep. Bit off more than he could chew.” “Is he dangerous?” “More than you’d think,” she replied. “How long has he been obsessed with the Slender Man?” “Judging by his posts on this site, since the beginning of school, or earlier is when it began here.” “Why’d he wait so long to tell us?” “He told him to wait.” “What?” At that, she wouldn’t answer. She acted like she hadn’t said anything, and kept searching the internet. Kevin came in a few minutes later. He cleared a space on the floor and sat down. We sat that way until dark. Then I realized my mother was probably worried. “Hey, can I spend the night?” I asked. “Sure,” Kevin replied. I called my mom, and she approved, so I re-settled. Kevin looked at us both. “I know. You both believe. But you have to realize, there is no way that a tall man can be wherever in the world, have no face, stretch indefinitely, and wear a suit in the woods. I mean, you’d have to take the dry cleaning bill into consideration, you know?” he said. I laughed a little, but Alisha ignored him. “If he was real, why can’t I see him?” Kevin asked. “Because, you aren’t afraid. He has no use for you because he can’t manipulate your emotions. The only thing you do is piss him off and get in his way…” Alisha said. “What’s that supposed to mean? I mean, if he wanted you, but not me, wouldn’t I be able to see him to?” Kevin asked. “Not necessarily… He has a kind of, cloaking device. If your subconscious doesn’t want to see him, you won’t.” Alisha said. “But I want to. I don’t want to think my three friends, or two plus a whiny bitch that went crazy actually are crazy…” Kevin said. “No. No you really don’t,” I said. “We’re talking about a creature who steals children away…” Just at that moment, a white flash appeared at the window. My back was to the window, so I didn’t see it, but Kevin, who was about to say something, just sat there, with a look of shock on his face. “What… the fuck… was that?” He shuddered. “Did you see him?” Alisha asked. “I… I…th-th-th-think so,” he stammered. We took the camera, and rewound it to see what came near the window. For less than a second, but just enough time to see it, the white face of Slender Man had appeared on camera, along with an ear-piercing screech that made us clutch our ears. “See…” Alisha said, saving the recording. “I see nothing,” Kevin said. He got up and left the room. Alisha and I looked at each other, and then drew the curtains. We didn’t need any more interruptions. “How far is he with you?” I asked. “He’s trying, but it’s only been two days. I can hold out.” “I bet Ethan said the same thing,” I said. She ignored me, but the point had been made. I know she was further than me, but only because I denied everything, and barely looked at the stuff on the internet. As I could see with her, she had been searching since Ethan said the name, and when she was away from the computer, making theories about him. “Why and I want and answer, did he do this to us?” I asked. “Ethan or Slender Man?” “Ethan," I replied. “Well, Ethan is pretty bad. His behavior patterns, already fairly unpredictable, have gone off the charts this year. He’s different. I need more evidence, but I don’t think he is Ethan anymore.” She tried to explain. I shuddered at the memory of Ethan giggling in the woods, but decided not to tell her. “Do you think he will be at school for the last day?” “I don’t know, but if so, not as we know him…” she answered. Well, that wasn’t very helpful, but it gave me an idea of what was going on. I rearranged the cameras in the room, and got in her bed like I usually would when I was there. “Are you coming?” I asked. “How can I? We know what this thing is, how can I sleep?” “You go to bed and try.” She took off her glasses, shut off the computer, then crawled in bed with me, stealing the blanket as she usually did. Normally, this is where some make-out scene or comfort sex would happen in a story like this, but neither one of us were in a romantic mood, and we both watched horror movies. The slightest trace of romance, and the creature came and slaughtered the lovers. She and I just slept through the night, but both of us had trouble sleeping. We woke up an hour before we had to, and got ready for the last day of school. “How many people do you think will show up?” I asked. “Half, maybe less. There is no reason to go, especially not for the seniors.” When we were ready to go, we left Kevin a note, and began walking. I was tense, yet tired, so I felt like an old brick wall. We began to get near the woods that surrounded Kevin’s house, and Alisha grabbed my hand. I knew what she was scared of, seeing as how I had been through the woods alone. I let her do it, and we continued to school without incident. When we got there, we were early, so the school looked deserted. It took forty-five minutes for many people to show up. It was about seven twenty when we went inside, and still it hardly felt like school with how few people there were. Not many students had arrived, so the school compensated us into five classrooms. Alisha, Kevin, and I were in the same one, but with no one else we knew. We hadn’t seen Ethan, so I decided to go to his house after school. Nothing really happened, some kiss-ass students tried to make conversation with the teachers, and people discussed what we needed to do. When the bell for when second period would have normally rang, Alisha and I asked to go to the computer lab. We stayed in there looking up as much as we could through the school filter, which wasn’t much at all. About two hours later, I had to use the restroom, so I left. On my way back, I realized how quiet the school was. I went to check the other classrooms because before I left, we could still hear the rest. The first three were watching a movie, so they were being relatively quiet compared to before. As I looked at the next one, they were gone, but I could see them outside the window, so they must have gone outside to entertain themselves. I headed for the hall where the last class was, and saw what looked like a disaster. Lockers had been ripped off of the walls and papers were strewn everywhere. On each door, a symbol looking like a circle with an X through the center was carved. Several of the papers on the floor had the same symbol along with the words “It’s too late”. All the doors were open except for one, and it had a different symbol on it. This one had what looked like two eyes on top of each other in a cross shape, with one pupil staring out from the center. I checked the handle, found it locked, and tried to force it open. On the other side, I heard six loud shots. “Shit…” I muttered. I reared back, and kicked the door in. There were six black sacks hanging from the ceiling, and they all looked full. Six more bodies were on the floor where they had just been shot. Dillon, the dumb senior, stood in the middle of the room, reloading a revolver with his back to me. A hooded figure stood near the wall. I couldn’t see his face, but he had the build of an average time. “Yes… Finish them… none of them deserve…He will bless you well Dillon,” the hooded figure said. His voice was muffled, but I couldn’t figure out why. Dillon was extremely influenced by the hood figure. “He…will…bless me…” Dillon said, snapping the chamber back into position. “Yes, now, put the gun up to your head,” the figure said. “Put the gun… up to my head…” Dillon slowly repeated. “Good, cock it…” Dillon slowly complied. Two loud clicks seemed to echo around the room. Dillon stood like a rock, not moving at all. The hooded man walked around the room, bagging each body. For some reason, neither person had noticed me. “Now, thank him for allowing you to be used by his mercy.” “Thank you… master…” Dillon said “Pull the trigger…” The shot seemed magnified. Dillon’s head exploded on the right wall. His body crumpled to the ground, slumped over on his knees. The blood began to flow in a pool around his body. The hooded figure began to draw the same symbol that was on the door onto the floor in Dillon’s blood. Dillon was the center where the pupil would have been. “Gary, you can run at any time. If you try to tell anyone, guess who the number one suspect is?” The figure said. He turned around, and I saw what was muffling his voice. There was a white mask with black rings around the eyes. “You fucking monster! What the hell would make you do this?!” I screamed. I began to run towards him, but as soon as I got in arm’s reach of him, he jumped back and pulled a large knife out. “You know what. You know exactly what did this. Now, if you excuse me, I have to leave,” He said, shoving through me to run for the door. I stood in shock for a few minutes, then ran to Alisha. “We need to go, now!” I yelled. “Huh, why?” “Something happened, and I think He is involved. Some hooded guy in a mask just had Dillon kill twelve people, then himself. Then he ran away. Let’s go!” We grabbed Kevin, and left the school. No teachers stopped us. It was the last day and they could care less. We ran all the way back to Kevin’s house without stopping. To save the trouble of more writing, I’ll give you a summary of what happened for the next few weeks. Nothing much. Alisha found out what a Proxy was, and the two symbols we saw. The one like eyes was the Observer symbol, and the one like a face with an X through it was the Operator symbol. The Proxies were slaves of Slender Man that had given themselves to him. We never found Ethan, or heard from him. The school shooting was listed as an extremist from a satanic cult performing a ritual. Kevin remained skeptical and non-believing, while Alisha suffered from what was called ‘Slender Sickness’ She didn’t go outside at all for the first few weeks of summer, and was constantly tired. We gained about twelve more shots of Slender Man. All were near Alisha’s side of the house. The next thing that happened shocked Alisha most, because she still hadn’t heard about Kevin pummeling Ethan. Kevin sat in the floor and watched Alisha and I continue compiling information and drawings into our website. We had spent a week gaining the domain name and acquiring followers, and another two days adding a decent chat system. The website was buzzing about the new update, waiting for the expected shutdown, signifying we were updating stuff. “I still think you’ve gone too far,” Kevin stated. He had given up stopping us, and tried to ignore us, but somehow couldn’t. “Even if he is real, the shooting should have been a warning. You guys need to stop! You’ll drive yourself sick!” “Wrong. The shooting was a confirmation. We’re involved, and he knows our names. We are sealed into it,” Alisha replied. “No… No you’re not… but whatever. Waste your summer away…” Kevin said. He grabbed his skateboard and left. We finished the update as usual, but had a few weird problems. When we got back online, the layout had changed. Instead of reading: “The Slender Man watches us,” it read: “The Slender Man is enraged…” The fans were already buzzing, and were checking all the new material, chatting about it constantly. Then, the online members bottomed out to zero, then one. His name was“IKn0wU” He immediately messaged us. The chat log looked something like this: IKn0wU: Stop. (Us): Why? (I): I know who you are. (Us): A lot of people do, how are you different? (I): Stop before it is too late… (Us): We know what can happen. (I): You don’t know enough. (Us): How did you get in? (I): You will be taught. (Us): Taught what? (I): A lesson. After that last message, he immediately went offline. We took a screenshot of the conversation and posted it along with fixing the title line. The few that got back online were creeped out, and they told us to be careful. Kevin came back shortly after. It was a night with a new moon, and he didn’t like being out after dark anymore. He ate leftover pizza, showered, and went to bed early without a word. We continued to make sense of ‘IKn0wU’ and his vague words. He typed better and faster than Ethan, so we didn’t think it could be him. Unless a hacker was pissed at us, we didn’t think it was a site member, so we were clueless. Eventually we got tired, and went to bed like usual, and tried to sleep. The cameras were on as usual, and we hoped for a new image. The night seemed to pass without event, and we woke up finally to check the website. What we found was shocking. The site had been hacked again, and this time the top line was changed to: “Slender Man warned you…” The chat was also acting up again. This time, IKn0wU was back, but he kept spamming us with: “I WARNED YOU BUT YOU DIDN’T LISTEN” This was sent about one-hundred and seventy three times before he disconnected five minutes later. “What do you think happened?” Alisha asked. “Probably nothing. It seems to be an internet troll,” I said. We went to go get Kevin, but he wasn’t there. “He… was here, and he didn’t leave…” I said. We saw the window broken, and on his pillow was a drawing of the operator symbol with the words “YOU WERE WARNED, YOU’VE BEEN PUNISHED, WANT TO TRY AGAIN?” in large sloppy handwriting. Underneath his blanket was a design made out of semi-burnt photographs of Alisha and I walking to and from school down Kevin’s road. The design was another operator symbol. Alisha screamed, and I shuddered, but I quickly grabbed a camera and snapped a photo. We went upstairs, and quickly announced an update, and within five minutes had one together We called the cops, and tried explaining what happened, but they assumed we were loons and first tried to say it was a murder. But eventually, after several interviews, and searching, they agreed that it was a runaway case, and began a search in a ten-mile radius. Alisha freaked out the whole time, and I kept shuddering. We spent that day and the next questioning his disappearance. We both knew why, but we didn’t want to. Slender Man, or one of his slaves had warned us, and we ignored it. So he followed through with it. We had to stop playing around. But we didn’t. Alisha kept asking on our site who IKn0wU was, because he wasn’t a registered user. He had to have been close to have taken him, and it had to have been a Proxy. Only Proxies left human evidence. But with the date on some photos, it made me wonder, ‘How long had we been stalked?’ Some of these photos were in the middle of the school year, and a few were near the beginning of the year. Had Ethan been planned to be stopped like us before he was converted? Or were they watching us long before this stuff anyway? Currently Alisha had become a void shell. She seemed to have disappeared inside herself. All she seemed capable of was typing grammatically incorrect accusations on the site. We lost several followers, and several said we needed to grow up and deal with life. People thought we were a game. They thought it was cool at first, but we took it too far. But that only made Alisha worse. There were days when I couldn’t even get her out of bed. On these, I would always see random people watching me, hiding behind trees, watching from a distance, but always there. I wasn’t sure if it was paranoia, or if I was being watched, but every time on days like these, I would run home, always near the point of tears. I would slam the door, lock it, and hug Alisha. She wouldn’t respond, but I felt better. After a few weeks like this, Alisha suddenly snapped out of it. She was vacant one second, then suddenly back, as if nothing had happened. She got up, ate, and updated the site with an apology post. She refused to acknowledge what happened over the past few weeks. I thought it was incredibly weird, but tried to play along. At this point, I didn’t know what would happen next. My mother called, and I had explained I would be at Kevin’s for a while longer. I faked sounding alright so she would believe me. She sounded skeptical, but let me stay. Something I noticed was Alisha denied everything about Kevin’s existence, but still followed the Slender Man obsession. I finally decided to see what our followers had to say. I put a post up on our website, asking what they thought of our current situation, and diverted Alisha from the computer all night. I checked it again after dinner, and was surprised. Well, that was an understatement. Over one-hundred new users had joined the site in the last hour, and the chat box was exploded with constant new messages. My post was filled with comments such as: “You were warned, but still you persist." “We told you to stop.” “Was Kevin not enough?” “You obviously need another lesson…” “We act tonight…” I grabbed Alisha, and put her in front of the computer. “What is this?” she asked. “We’re in too deep…” I said. “Yeah, I know that, but how were they so quick?” “I put it on the internet, and the Proxy net is already fast. I’m just wondering how long we have…” We watched the site explode for a few more hours, before it finally died down. The final comment was “You will learn,” All of the new users said it once. Every single poster agreed we would learn. They never said what, but we didn’t have to ask. The night was eerily quiet. We began checking our videos and cameras for new evidence. There were about thirty new photos, all from different times. He was in each shot, staring at the camera. He knew we knew. He had seen us, and had been watching the whole time. Several of the videos showed him staring at the camera for hours at a time, and then leaving. Neither of us knew what to think. We knew that we were being observed, the Proxies proved that, but we didn’t know one of the Slender Men stayed near. The website gained one more notification. “You should have learned… We are here.” As soon as we finished reading it, a rock shattered through the window. On it, the Operator symbol was painted in a fresh red fluid. I looked outside, and about forty people were standing in the front yard. They were all wearing hoods and masks, and were staring at the house. A Slender Man stood in the distance, watching from just above the tree line. One of the Proxies stepped forward. “Hello Gary…” He said. All of the other Proxies repeated in a monotone voice. “I would like to show you something, since you wouldn’t listen to us when we warned you, or when we punished you. You will learn…” The crowd pulled back to the curb. The masked man pulled his hood and mask off. Where the single Proxy had stood now stood Ethan. “Alisha. Come forward. He calls you,” Ethan said. Alisha walked out of the front door, and stood in front of Ethan, motionless. “Tell Gary what he needs to know.” (No. No. No. No. No. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!) “He will have us all, as he has us now…” Alisha stated like a drone. (NONONONONONONONONONONONONO!) “You hear that Gary? We will all do his bidding eventually,” Ethan said. “We will all do his bidding…” Alisha repeated. (Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit…) “And do you know what he wants ME to do?” Ethan asked. (Don’tyoufuckingdoitIwillkillyoushamelessly) “He wants me to die… for you to learn…” Alisha said. (Dammitnononononothertoo) I stood at the window with the rock in my hand and watched Ethan pull a knife from behind his back. Then he pulled a revolver out of his pocket. (It’sthesamefuckingwayaslasttimefuck) “Alisha, take the gun, and look Gary in the eye,” Ethan commanded. Alisha looked at me. Her eyes were blank again. She took the gun in her hand’s without breaking the gaze. “Put the gun in your mouth…” Ethan continued. Alisha did. The scene all looked slow motion. “Cock it…” The click went off again. My mind raced, and Dillon’s body hitting the ground flashed before my eyes. “Now, pull the trigger until you die.” Alisha began pulling the trigger. Two clicks, three, four, five, the next would surely do it, six, seven… The chamber was blank. He was going to kill her for himself. He grabbed her shoulder, and stabbed her through the stomach. Alisha kept pulling the trigger, but cried out in pain now. She fell to her knees. As she fell, Ethan let the knife rip upwards, ripping organs, cartilage, bone, blood vessels, and her clothes. I got to see the wound unzip, like a raincoat. A few mutilated intestines fell out of the wound, and blood was flowing heavily, but the trigger kept clicking. Ethan pulled the knife back, and cleaned it on Alisha’s shredded shirt. The trigger finally stopped being pulled. “See Gary, we told you to stop. I told you to quit denying it, they told you to quit while you could, but you didn’t listen. Watch her body die, it’s your final warning,” Ethan’s body said, but it wasn’t Ethan speaking. The voice of the mass rose with him. A chant began between them. “You didn’t listen, watch her die.” “You didn’t listen, watch her die.” Alisha’s blood pooled around the driveway. I hadn’t realized I was crying until I wiped my face. I looked down and my hand, and immediately started running downstairs. I grabbed my jacket and my knife and started chasing Ethan and the rest of the Proxies. They were all converging into the woods, but I had my target and kept running. Ethan stayed constantly ahead of me, laughing the way he did in the woods that one day. “I told you that you were next! And here you come!” He was screaming. I kept blindly chasing him feeling tree limbs that felt like tentacles grab me, and watching what looked like several Slender Men standing in front of me. But I kept running through them, the trees, the wind, and the tentacles. Every time I tripped, I jumped back up, and kept going. Somehow, Ethan stayed ahead of me, and kept running, even through all the Slender Men. It was like they made a path for him, and left me to follow. We finally arrived in a clearing with a stone floor. In the center, the Observer symbol was drawn around the Operator symbol. The Proxies surrounded the clearing. Ethan and I stood in the middle. A Slender Man was nearby “Master…” Ethan said, kneeling down. “I have brought him before you…” he said. He paused like someone had responded. ”What do you mean I have made a mistake? What have I done wrong?” “Impossible! I did everything you said!” I finally got tired of Ethan’s ramblings. I grabbed my knife, walked over to him, and kicked him. “Shut. Up,” I said. “He’s here! Take him! He’s here!” Ethan pleaded. I kicked him harder, this time in the ribs. “Shut. The hell. Up,” I repeated. “PLEASE! Please spare me master!” Ethan began to cry. I took my knife, and stabbed him. Here, another haze took over me. I remember stabbing him, several times, and then the crowd parting. He watched as I carved the Operator symbol on Ethan’s chest, and then looked at me. Another Slender Man began restraining me. “Son, you’re coming with me. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in the court of law,” The Slender Man began saying to me. “This can’t be right…” I muttered. The handcuffs clicked tighter, and the Proxies stepped out of sight, beginning to wander in their own direction. The officer continued reading me his rights, and guiding me to his car. “This can’t be right… No…” The car began to drive off, and I watched the trees disappear in the distance. “But, I came to you… Why did you abandon me?” After that, well, that’s court records. They pronounced me criminally insane, and sent me to the nearest asylum under maximum security. I was left alone except for meals for a few weeks. They convicted me with the murders of my two friends, and tried to connect me to Kevin’s disappearance. They tried psychiatrists, therapy, and support groups to get me to talk, but that only made me look more insane. After that, they tried medication, which only made me zone out on trips to the past. When the medication was proven ineffective, they took me off, and tried to tell me the case. They said that Ethan’s story and action’s scarred me, and Dillon’s suicide made it worse. They tried to tell me Alisha and I hid away at Kevin’s house and he left the day he turned eighteen to leave us to our obsession. They told me the website was a fake. Every Slender Man photo was just a neighbor, a police man, a Private Investigator when I stopped returning my mother’s calls, and specks of dust in the night. They also tried to say that I killed Alisha in a fit of rage, and found Ethan in the woods, and slaughtered him in front of his friends, where they were getting high. I was told I made it all up, that I put myself in a mental shield so I wouldn’t have to deal with it all. And at first, I believed them. But then, He began arriving. Telling me to speak my story, telling me to get it published. Saying he had plans for me, all I had to do present my story to you.
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