Slender: The Arrival

## Memories

Charlie Matheson Jr was playing peacefully on the beach, the bright sun reflecting off the water. It was a beautiful sight, but despite this, he still had the nagging thought in his mind that he was going to have to go to school soon, as August was nearing its conclusion.

“Lunchtime!”

Charlie turned at the sound of his mother's voice calling from the house. He got up and started towards the house, but as he went, something caught his eye and made him stop and turn around.

Something shining in the sand.

Curiously, Charlie walked towards it and picked it up. It was a wooden train, the kind with magnets that pulled the others with it. The shining part of the train was the piece of metal holding the wheels in place. Charlie looked up and saw another piece of the train, not a long ways away. He walked up to the next piece and picked it up, too.

“Charlie?” his mother called.

Charlie ignored her and continued, finding more and more pieces of the train. Charlie's mom decided that Charlie was trying to find an easier way around the large rocks that served as a blockade between the house and his play area.

“Be careful, sweetie,” she called out. Charlie looked back, nodded, and continued on his way.

Soon, the trail of trains was leading him into the woods. He found the last piece of the train on a rock and picked it up. When he looked up again, he had just begun to realize that the sun was setting, but at an alarming rate. Within seconds, the forest, once bright and cheerful, was now secluded and sinister. Shadows danced along the ground as the trees swayed in the wind, and Charlie started walking through the woods, now feeling quite nervous.

“Charlie?” his mother called. “Where did you go?”

“Charlie!” His father had joined her.

Charlie continued down the path, now completely frightened. He heard footsteps behind him and froze. The footsteps stopped also.

Something **–** or some*one* **–** was following him.

Heart thudding hard in his chest, Charlie broke into a run, panting hard. He could feel tears starting to leak from his eyes.

“Charlie! Charlie, where are you?” The calls of his parents weren't sounding playful anymore. They were sounding more like panic and dread now.

Charlie kept running. He stopped as the forest reached a dead end. But before he could turn around, he saw something from above. There were long, dark branches stretching high above him, however these branches looked unnatural. The areas where they bent seemed smooth, fluid, and the branches themselves were way too thick, and ended with points. Charlie looked to the left, then the right, and saw the branches stretching not from the trees, but from something behind him. He completely turned around this time, and finally beheld what was causing the branches.

It was a man, a tall man wearing a suit, with arms that stretched to the forest floor and a white, craggly-skinned face that appeared to lack facial features. The dark branches (which Charlie now saw were actually tentacles) were spanned out in a frightening array from the back of the tall man, and they were wrapped tight around Charlie. He tried to break free, but the tentacles held fast.

“HELP!” he screamed in terror, his vision panning around wildly. He could hear his parents still calling for him, and now, it was unmistakable. They were of panic and fear for his life, and they were getting closer.

“HELP!!” Charlie screamed again, crying hysterically. The tentacles were completely wrapping themselves around him, and the tall man was standing perfectly still, watching, as if he wasn't at all concerned about this.

“HELP ME!!!” Charlie screamed a final time, and then the tentacles began to become tighter, covering his face. Charlie writhed around, the tentacles in a firm coil, and before they completely blocked his vision, he heard one, final cry of anguish from his father:

“CHAAAARRRLLIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!”

## Homestead

Carl Ross got out of his car and surveyed the scene with his video camera. A small house was there, in major ruins, and a short fence made of large stones surrounding it. A few small, branchless trees had fallen onto the fence as well, and a shed was nearby, in even more ruins than the house was.

Normally, he wouldn't want to go to this clearly abandoned location, but he was investigating Charlie Matheson Jr's disappearance. He promised Charles Matheson, Charlie's father, that he would find his son, and find him he *would*. Carl began to speak.

“The date of September 19th, my name is CR,” he said casually and quietly. “On the side of the Matheson family farm, continuing my investigation of Charlie's disappearance.” He took a deep breath and quietly sighed with determination. “Let's see what we can turn up.”

Carl started towards the shed. The wood was rotten and falling away in places, and a few barrels and crates were strewn across the place. Chains hung from random areas on the ceiling. Carl found a child-like drawing on one of the barrels drawn in marker. He guessed that it was drawn by Charlie and he put it in his satchel as evidence. Looking around the shed, he saw a doorway leading to a grassy field, but it was blocked by a lift, which was being weighed down by a couple of crates.

Carl spotted a rickety staircase and started up it. He noticed a pulley with a lever attached to it, and the chain that wrapped around the pulley led directly to the lift. Carl pulled the lever and the pulley rotated, raising the lift into the air and revealing the exit. Smiling, Carl walked down the steps and went through the doorway.

*It's just like a puzzle,* he thought.

He stepped out onto the grassy lawn and surveyed the area. A vast cornfield was laid out before him, and a large, black iron gate was there, but there was a padlock fastened tight around the handles. Carl spotted a windmill, slowly turning, and a large silo with a generator sitting a good ways away from it. Carl headed to the generator and tried to activate it, but nothing happened. He checked its fuel tank and realized that it needed gasoline to run. Gasoline, which he realized, that it didn't have. The tank was empty. It looked like he was going to have to go find some.

Shaking his head exasperatingly, Carl turned towards the windmill and started to walk towards it. He hoped that it would have some gasoline stored somewhere near it, or possibly inside of it. He wondered why it would ever have gasoline *inside*, as it would seem like an odd place to put it, but he decided that it was worth a try and continued.

Once he reached the windmill, he was disappointed to discover that there was a fence blocking the way, a barbed wire fence almost as tall as him. Carl started to turn away in frusturation, but he noticed something that was laid out directly in front of him, a few yards away.

There was a trapdoor.

Carl walked up to the trapdoor, peering inside it. It appeared to lead into a dark cellar, with white walls and flooring, but it was near to pitch black down there and he didn't have a flashlight with him, so he wasn't going to get anywhere in there. But then he saw a panel on the wall, with a switch that turned the lights on or off. The switch was down. Carl headed down the steps leading into the cellar and flicked the switch up. A bluish light lit up the cellar, but only briefly, as it flickered on and off at random times. Carl knew that this light source wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

He started to walk down a very narrow passageway, which gave him a claustrophobic sense. He hung a right and was greeted by another long corridor, just as thin, however there were two doorways leading to other rooms, or possibly other passageways. At the end of the hall was a turn to the left. Carl started towards the doorway closest to him, on the right. The lights turned off briefly, and when they turned on again, Carl spotted something at the end of the hall.

A thin, skeletal figure stood there, staring at him with blank, soulless eyes.

Carl's breath caught in his throat and he took a step back, startled. But then the lights completely shut off, then turned back on, and the figure was gone. Carl's shoulders were tense and he could feel a sweat breaking out on his forehead. He slowly turned and continued into the room.

*Who* was *that?* Carl wondered. *Am I starting to hallucinate from all this?*

He saw a set of wooden shelves, one of them containing another childish drawing, possibly left by Charlie. On the wall, down near the floor, there were more drawings, this time drawn in black instead of the yellow, blue, and red colors of the paper drawings. Carl spotted a gas canister on the ground and quickly picked it up. Turning, he started back the way he had come. But before he left the cellar, he snuck a look over his shoulder. The figure was absent from the corridor, and it unnerved him. If the figure wasn't there, and he *wasn't* a hallucination, then...

Where *was* he?

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Carl poured the gasoline into the generator sitting outside the silo and attempted to activate it again. He had noticed that it had started to get darker outside, even though he had only been in the cellar for about ten minutes. When he arrived to the Matheson homestead, it was just turning sunset, but now the sun was completely gone and the sky had gotten darker. Carl saw a blue light flicker on in the silo, relatively stronger than the one in the cellar, and it didn't black out as much. Relieved, he entered the silo, still searching for clues.

At the end of a hallway he spotted another drawing, this time on the floor, and this one caused a jittery feeling to work its way up his spine. It was a drawing of the Slenderman, in black, and it was the same style as the drawings on the pages that were with Kate when Carl found her unconscious in the woods. He ignored the drawing and continued deeper into the silo.

He found another child's drawing in colored markers, in the same style as the previous two he collected. Carl picked that one up too and began to look for the exit to the silo. He eventually spotted it and left the silo.

Outside again, he saw a treehouse, in ruins. The tree had grown up through the floor of it, and a good portion of the handholds leading up the trunk had withered or fallen off. Carl knew that there was no way he was going to get up there, so he continued. He spotted a rusty black key sitting on a horizontal gravestone.

*This must be for the iron gate in the cornfield,* he thought.

He scooped up the key and went back through the silo and into the cornfield, heading for the gate. Carl saw that the sky had become a deep navy blue and there were twinkling white stars in it. He fitted the key into the padlock and turned it. The padlock cracked off and the gate opened with a loud, creaking squeak of the hinges, and a deep ambiance started up from nowhere in particular. Carl shuddered and walked through the gate, seeing a graveyard with more of the tombstones like the one he saw earlier, only some were standing upright instead of laying flat. He also saw a churchhouse, and he felt that this was where he needed to go next. He walked towards the church and saw that the doors were shut, however they were not locked.

Carl entered the church and surveyed the room. There were two rows of wooden pews, all facing the alter, which was up on a short ledge. Carl saw some pieces of baby dolls in a crooked cluster on the floor in front of the alters, and he marked them as evidence and put them in his bag. A loud slamming sound was heard from behind him, and Carl whipped his head around, for fear of the bony figure he encountered in the cellar.

Instead, there was the Slenderman, standing tall and powerful, in front of the doors, which were now closed. Slenderman stood there for a few seconds before glitching away and leaving Carl in silence. Carl walked up to another door and tried to open it, but it was locked as well. But all of a sudden, the door burst open and something lunged into the room. Carl jumped back to see what it was, and realized that it was a *who*. He'd seen him before.

It was the skeletal figure from the cellar.

Carl could get a complete view of him now, in the dim light of the church. He was surprisingly tall; though not as tall as the Slenderman, he was at least as tall as Carl himself, if not shorter by a few inches. His hair was long, dark, and matted, and his skin was pulled tight across his bones, no muscle or fat visible at all. He was wearing nothing but a tattered loincloth and an ugly sneer. He was missing his lower jaw, his nose was badly wrinkled and bent upwards, the skin under his nose was shriveled, and his head slowly swiveled around as his dark, shadowy eyes were scanning the room, finally fixating on Carl.

Carl shakily turned and started to run towards a corridor that led to the alter on the ledge. He could hear swift footsteps behind him, as well as a shrieking moan or cry of some sort, and he knew that the creature had given chase. Jumping up on the alter, Carl fled through the now open door and charged headlong towards to a house that he realized could only belong to the Mathesons. He could hear the footsteps fading behind him, though, and he was thankful that the bony being had stopped following him, or otherwise lost his trail.

Carl entered the house and surveyed the ruined wallpaper and broken furniture. He found a note left possibly by a child, to another child, though it proved little evidence. Carl kept the note with him anyway and found some steps leading upstairs. He walked up them, and saw that they led to the attic. He found a few more drawings, but what was the most shocking of all was a letter:

What's wrong with this place?

Why did this happen to us?

No answers anywhere I look Am I crazy?

These things I see at night...

I don't know what to think.

Ever since Charlie disappeared and Diane left-

I must have hit a breaking point.

I still keep looking,

I still hear him sometimes, that cute little laugh.

But he's been gone 9 years.

Why does every day have to hurt so much?

-Charles

It was then that Carl understood.

That skeletal creature *was* Charlie. He had been abducted by the Slenderman at a young age, but now he's a teenager and he had been starved beyond recognition. He's been living at this farmstead for so long now, and all the horrible things Slenderman did to him... turned him into *that*.

And he's still alive.

*Good Lord,* Carl thought in horror. He stumbled backward against a table, his hand on his head. *This... this can't be. This can't be real.* He could feel himself really sweating now, feeling it even start up in his armpits. *That was...* Charlie*?*

Carl took a shaky breath, trying to get his bearings. Then he took two steps forward and fell through a hole in the ground, unbeknownst to him. He landed with a thump and gasped in surprise, for he heard the sound of running feet again.

*Maybe I can try to reason with him,* Carl thought. He started towards the source of the sounds, and the bony human that was Charlie Matheson Jr dashed out from around the corner and charged at him. *Okay, he's beyond reasoning.* Carl turned and ran.

He fled from the back doorway and headed down the path. He did not dare to stop or even slow, as Charlie was right behind him. He felt his video camera slip out of his grasp and fall on the ground in front of him, but he didn't stop to pick it up. He could feel Charlie take a swipe at his head, feel his fingernails dig deep, but he didn't stop to tend to it. He could feel him strike a part of his brain that caused him to suddenly lose part of his sanity, coupled with all the stress that he was going through, but he didn't stop for that, either.

He just ran.
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Carl collapsed onto the metal wall of the storage building, panting in agony. He had three cramps in each of his sides and was hyperventilating hard, but he was grateful that Charlie hadn't gotten to him yet. He shakily pulled out a piece of paper and began scribbling on it frantically.

*Outside,* he wrote. *I need to die before it catches me. Everything is leaking out the back of my head*; he could feel the blood from the wound Charlie left spilling out through his hair. He paused to take another shaky breath. *Hands have teeth. Please tell no one I loved them. It's back now*, he continued as he heard Charlie start to bang harshly on the door, then he turned back to his letter.

*Hide*.

## Awake

Kate opened her eyes. She felt so weary, as if she had been lying down for a long time. Sitting up on the bed, she rubbed her forehead and looked around. She was in her room, and saw two notes sitting on her dresser. Getting up, Kate walked over to the dresser and picked them up.

The first one read:

*Kate,*

*Leaving this note in case you wake up tonight. I'm going to assume you don't remember what happened. I came over to check on you and found you in that park behind the house.*

*You had a broken video camera with you and a bag full of weird drawings. I don't know what happened out there but you're safe now. The doctors here will help you. -CR*

Kate smiled. She remembered now; she had gotten this note from her friend, Carl Ross, when she was at the North Cross Hospital. She had just blacked out after an encounter with the Slenderman in the forest. There were pages scattered around the forest, and she had been picking them up, but the Slenderman started stalking her as soon as she picked up the very first, albeit at a distance. Carl had then found her and brought her to a hospital so that she could get help. She remembered this letter from before, as she hadn't newly received it just now, but rather when she was at the hospital, and she had put it in her bag for safekeeping. But this second letter... this one was new.

Kate opened it:

*Glad you're feeling better, but that house is too close to the woods. It's too isolated. You need to go somewhere else. I know a place that I think will be safer for you to stay. I'm going to go with you, because my house doesn't feel safe anymore. I nailed all the windows shut but I still feel too open. I haven't slept in a few weeks, either. I'm so tired. Let's get out of here, Kate. I'll promise I'll keep you safe. -CR*

Kate frowned in confusion. “I'll keep you safe”? Safe from the Slenderman? Kate figured that that was what he meant, as her house was too close to the woods, and that was where Slenderman was lurking. She doubted that Carl could keep her safe from *him*, as the Slenderman was highly dangerous and malevolent, and they both knew it. But she was grateful for his concern of her being.

Slipping the note in her bag, Kate walked out of her room and headed downstairs. When she reached the bottom, she saw an envelope poking out of her mail slot, and another small piece of paper lying on the floor by her front door. She opened the envelope and was surprised by what she read:

*Meet me by the street in an hour.*

*I left a list of things to bring with you. Leave everything else behind.*

*I'll explain as soon as I see you. I know how to fix all of this.*

*Don't tell Lauren about me CR*

Then she picked up the piece of paper. Looking it over, she saw that this was the aforementioned list that Carl had left for her.

Kate started to feel uneasy. What was all of this stuff going to be used for? What was Carl planning?

Shaking the feeling off, she wrote down the list on a whiteboard in red marker, hung the whiteboard on her fridge, collected the essentials, and left, locking all the doors and windows beforehand.

*- Flashlight*

*- Lighter*

*- Batteries*

*- Kerosene*

*- Extra Tapes*

*('**LOCK THE HOUSE'**)*

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Soon, Carl showed up. He was panting hard, as if he had ran the whole way here and was out of breath. He bent over, his hands on his knees, sweat rolling down his forehead. A dark red gash was on the back of his head, the hair matted and stained red there.

“Carl?” said Kate. “What happened to you? Are you okay?”

Carl nodded. “Fine.”

“But your head, it...”

Carl looked up at Kate. “Did you bring what I asked for?”

“... Yes,” said Kate, handing them to him. Carl only accepted the lighter, kerosene, and extra tapes, letting her keep the flashlight and batteries. “But what is all of this going to be for?”

“I'll explain,” said Carl, straightening up. He took a deep breath and started towards the forest.

“Wait!” said Kate. “Where are you going? That's where Slenderman is!”

Carl nodded again. “I know. That's why we have to be quick.” He looked back. “Come on, let's go.”

Kate hesistated, then followed him.

## The Suicide

Carl and Kate were in a dark cave. They were transversing through it, with Carl pausing at times to write on the walls in white chalk.

“But Carl,” said Kate, “you said that you would explain as soon as you would see me. Now, are you going to explain or not?”

Carl sighed wearily. “Yes, I am. But the reason that I'm not telling you until now is because I'm not sure if you would agree with me.”

“... It involves the things we brought with us, doesn't it?” Kate asked. “The lighter and kerosene? Are we going to set the *forest* on fire to try to kill the Slenderman?”

“Close,” said Carl. “We... I can't say this, so I'm just gonna write it out.” He pulled out a piece of paper and started to write on it. When he was finished, he handed it to Kate and looked away, as if in shame.

**I'M SO SORRY. I'M SO SORRY FOR**

**EVERYTHINg. THIS ISN'T YOUR FAULT**

**I DID THIS. BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS**

**IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE FOR YOU**

**DON'T LET HIM INTO ANY MORE LIVES**

**THIS WAS ALL MY FAULT**

**THIS CAN END WITH YOU I LET HIM IN**

**WHY DID I EVER LET HIM IN**

**I'M SORRY FOR PLACINg THIS BURDEN ON YOU I**

**WISH IT WAS ALL ON ME THIS CAN'T**

**SPREAD ANY FURTHER. PLEASE, IT ALL HAS**

**TO END WITH YOU I WISH THERE WAS SOME**

**OTHER WAY. IT HAS TO END**

**gOD FORgIVE ME.**

“I have a theory about this,” Carl explained. “If there's anyone who even *knows* about the Slenderman that's still alive, then he will live forever. He won't die of old age, because he lives on *memory*. No one alive needs to know about him, and we're the only people on Earth who know about him. But if we don't do this now, he will just keep us alive, letting us slowly delve into insanity. That, or he'll just find more people and have *them* have memories of him, and then he'll kill us himself.”

Instantly, Kate understood what was going on.

“But... but what if we just forget about him??” said Kate. “Then maybe he won't be alive anymore!”

“Won't work,” said Carl simply, shaking his head sadly. He reached out and took her hand in his, hurrying her down the hallway, as he had quickened his pace. “I only wish it could be that simple, but no. He'll always be there, refreshing our memories, until it's either burned into them or we're driven insane.”

“I think you're al*ready* insane!” Kate exclaimed. She tried to break free of his grasp, but he didn't let go.

The pair exited the cave and started up a hill that led to the radio tower. They entered a small building beside the tower and walked through a door, heading through some more cave-like corridors, Kate struggling all the while. Then, they reached a dead end.

“This is as far as we go,” said Carl. He turned to Kate and picked up the kerosene can. “Here, pour this on yourself.”

“... What??”

“I'm truly sorry,” said Carl, “but we have to try.” He pulled out a tape recorder and pressed *Play*.

“Let go!” said Kate, struggling against him.

“Kate, please,” said Carl with soothing calmness. “You have to do it...”

“I can't...” Kate panted, shaking her head frantically. “I can't...”

“There's no other way-”

“I CAN'T!!” Kate screamed, and she broke free and started to run, but all of a sudden, A large chunk of the roof caved in, separating them. The tape recorder dropped out of Carl's hand and fell to the ground.

“I can't,” Kate gasped, staring back apologetically at Carl. A glitching sound was heard, and the two simultaneously saw the dark entity of the Slenderman step out of the shadows.

“... Kate?” said Carl worriedly, trying to see around the rubble, but the Slenderman was approaching fast. Kate watched fearfully, unable to move.

“Oh, God...” said Carl, starting to cry out of fear. “I'm sorry... for everything... forgive me... *I'm so sorry*...” He lifted the canister and started to pour the kerosene onto himself, wincing as it ran over his head wound. He then lit a match, getting ready to set himself alight. But Slenderman began to mentally control the tiny ember, and it jumped off the match and onto Carl. In a flashing blaze, Carl was set on fire. He started to scream in agony, and Slenderman began to coil his tentacles around him, trapping him.

Kate started to cry as well. She could feel tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away, and then finally found the will to move. She shakily turned and took off down the corridor. Before she fled through the open door, she turned back to get one final look at her friend.

The Slenderman's black silhouette was in front of the fire, blocking the view, and Kate couldn't tell if he was looking at her or whether he was still preoccupied with Carl. She hoped it was the latter and ran.

Out of the building.

Down the mountain.

Back to her house.

For her life.

## Escape

Kate finally arrived at her house. She dashed inside, completely out of breath. Her knees trembled briefly, and then she slumped to the floor, crying uncontrollably, her head hung and her hair falling in front of her face. As she wept, she fearfully listened for any sounds of technical distortion of any sort, which would mean that the Slenderman would've finally lost interest of Carl and had chosen to go after her. There wasn't any, however, so Kate slowly got up and walked to the stairs.

She ascended them, still shaken up from all that had happened. Carl had a suicide plan for both of them, and when she refused, Slenderman appeared and killed him. She was able to escape back to her house, and she didn't know what exactly the Slenderman did to Carl after he burned alive.

“Why... did I... refuse...?” Kate murmured to herself. “His plan... made sense. I don't know... why... I turned him down. I was... scared. I didn't want to die,” she continued, opening the door to her room and entering it. “I didn't want to, and... I'm not going to.”

She said these final words with determination, and she took a deep breath, brushed the remaining few tears from her eyes, picked up a piece of paper and a pencil, and lay down on the bed. She set up a video camera on her bed table, facing her, and she started scribbling words onto the paper. She was starting to calm down now, but then, all of a sudden...

A stormy night.

In the blink of an eye.

Moonlight shone in through her window onto the bed, and Kate quickly finished what she was writing on her paper, then set it on the table and grabbed the video camera worriedly. She knew why the weather changed so suddenly. It was the Slenderman.

“He's here!” Kate whispered in fright, clicking her flashlight on. She looked around fearfully, her scattered mind trying to think up a plan. And then she got one.

“Close all the windows and doors,” she said quietly and shakily, stating her plan aloud to herself. “*Don't let him in*.” She walked out of her room and checked the window at the end of the hall. It was open, so she quickly shut it and hurried down the hall, off to close the rest of her windows and doors.

She found the front door wide open, as she had neglected to close it after entering her house. She slammed the door shut and dashed into the living room. Two more windows were open there, and she closed them both and went to the kitchen, closing the back door on the way. She checked the rest of the lower floor, but there wasn't any more windows or doors left open.

Kate went back upstairs, walking into her parent's room. She found another window open, but before she could get to it, the Slenderman teleported inside, causing a loud burst of sound and color distortion from her camera.

“I have to hide,” said Kate worriedly. She turned around and ran back to her room, closing the door behind her. But when she turned, she saw the Slenderman there, standing tall, and she just ran to the window and jumped through it, shattering the glass and temporarily disabling her video camera.

Kate landed on the ground of her backyard with a *thump*, then she scrambled to her feet and fled for the woods. She came across a generator that caused lights standing along the path to be lit up, and Kate shut off the generator, in hopes that the Slenderman wouldn't see her in the darkness. She was scared out of her wits, and the only thought running through her head was *get away from him*.

Kate shut off another generator and more lights blinked off. She saw a wooden house, seemingly burnt badly, and she ran towards it, slipping through the open doorway. Inside, the walls were in ruins and the floor was just large clumps of sand, and the halls of the house seemed to form one long, winding corridor through the house. Kate went along the path and entered a large room, and what was in the room caused her to cry out in shock and fright.

Standing at the other end of the room, head hung, back turned, was a skeletal human, sobbing to itself. Kate paused, then slowly approached the human to try to comfort him.

“Hello?” she said softly. “Are you okay?” The human did not answer.

“Can I help you?” Kate asked him. “Is this your house?”

No reply.

“Can you help *me*?” Kate inquired, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “There's a tall, faceless guy chasing after me, I'm not sure if you heard of him, but he's known as the Slender-”

The human whirled on her and lashed out rather harshly, causing Kate to scream and fall backwards onto the sand. She stared, wide-eyed, at the spot where the bony human once was.

But he was now gone.

“Who... was... that...?” Kate panted, getting to her feet. “Carl probably would know, he was investigating Charlie's disappearance... wait. *Was* that Charlie?”

Kate didn't think so. The last time she had seen Charlie, he was a young boy, seven or eight years old, but *this* person looked to be a teenager, and in poor shape. Kate shook the feeling off and left the burnt house, heading to the entrance to the Oakside Park. Before she could enter, a camera distortion occured, and all her panic returned. She entered and closed the door shut, setting down a notebook and scrawling words onto it in a frenzy to get it done:

HE CAME FOR ME

WHY DIDN'T I *LISTEN*

he was right

he said this would HAPPEN

HELP ME

NEED CR

HE KNOWS HOW TO END THIS

Come find me

DON'T LET HIM IN

She then left the notebook down on the table and ran outside into the Oakside Park, fleeing into the dense woods.

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Kate kept running through the forest, not knowing if Slenderman was following her. She hoped that he wasn't, though. Her video camera was working again, and she had it held up, watching through the screen. She came across the park map and looked at it, hoping that it would aid her, but what she saw pasted on the map caused her heart to rise up into her throat and make her gasp for air.

There was a page.

On it was written HELP ME.

Without a thought, Kate reached out and grabbed the page. Almost as instantly as she did so, she heard a deep booming ambience building in the background. She could feel her whole body trembling violently and she felt slightly ill as she thought about what was happening. Her subconcious mind not thinking straight, she pulled out a thick pencil and drew a scraggly picture of the Slenderman on the billboard, in the same style as she had on her pages. Then she started to walk, carefully observing the scenery around her, making sure that the Slenderman wasn't anywhere there. And so far, he wasn't.

Kate came across an abandoned campsite, another page tacked to the tent. This page had the words NO ESCAPE written on it. Kate picked up that page as well and continued. As she progressed through the Oakside Park, picking up more and more pages, the ambience built, even adding the rushing wind and an eerie high-pitched hum, and she knew what was going on:

History was repeating itself.

This was exactly what she had to do, a few years ago. Travel through the forest, picking up pages and avoiding the Slenderman. Then, she blacked out and Carl found her in the forest. And after that... everything became unravelled. Carl probably went insane, and as a result, tried to kill himself (and her) by pouring kerosene on themselves and then lighting themselves on fire. And because she didn't listen to him, now she was running for her life through the Oakside Park, just like she was-

*Wait!* Kate thought, stopping. She turned around and saw another page, stuck on the side of a portable outhouse. She looked in her bag and counted the number of pages she had.

Seven.

That meant that this was the last page! Excitedly, Kate walked up to the page and put it in her bag. Right after she did so, Slenderman appeared, startling her deep down to her very bones. Before she could run, however, Slenderman extended a tentacle and grabbed her. Kate struggled in his grasp, trying to break free, but that tentacle was far too powerful. Slenderman lifted her off the ground and leaned in towards her, his faceless head mostly shrouded in shadow and nearly filling up her camera screen, and spoke.

**“I have plans for you, Kate.”**

Trembling violently, Kate took a deep breath and then screamed as loud and hard as she could, until her throat was raw, hoping that someone could hear her. Slenderman let her scream for three seconds, then he wrapped his shriveled hand around her throat, suddenly cutting off her scream and her air supply and causing her to black out as a result.

Then, he teleported away with her in his grasp.

## Lauren

Lauren got out of her car and looked at the road ahead of it. A tree had fallen and blocked the path of her car, rendering it unable to cross. She bit her lip with restrained frusturation, then looked at a large sign on two posts.

**LAND FOR SALE**

**PLEASE CONTACT KATE**

@ 555-7273

Kate. That was the reason that Lauren had come here in the first place. She had come to see if she was all right, as she had been going through a lot, what with that tall, faceless man that she called "the Slenderman". Lauren smiled and slightly shook her head, thinking that this was a result of all the stress she had been going through. Raising her video camera up, she walked around the fallen tree and started down the path.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze. She could hear birds chirping, and shadows danced along the ground as the trees gently swayed in the wind. Lauren took a deep sniff of the autumn air and sighed happily, quickening her walking pace to a skip.

Soon, she spotted Kate's house. As she headed towards the brick fence that bordered it, she noticed something off.

It was suddenly very dark.

Lauren looked up and saw the sky behind the clouds rapidly darkening, changing from a bright sky blue to a deep navy blue. She felt the wind pick up slightly, and the trees began to sway more. Lauren shivered and continued to Kate's house.

Lauren passed by a swing set on her way. *I remember playing on this with Kate when we were kids,* she thought. She then saw a playground, and after a brief pause, she went to it and slid down the slide that was on it.

*That was fun,* she thought with sarcastic cheerfulness. *Now I've got to go find Kate.*

She stepped up onto Kate's porch and raised her fist to knock on the door, but saw that it was slightly ajar. After a moment's hesitation, Lauren pushed the door open the rest of the way and entered the house. She closed the door behind her and looked around.

"Kate?" she called softly. "Hello? Are you home?"

The silence was deafening.

Lauren slowly crept into the living room and was shocked. The place was a mess, the tall lamp knocked over, the carpets bunched up, and a chess game with nearly every piece on its side.

*Someone doesn't like to lose,* Lauren thought jokingly, and she turned and walked into the kitchen.

The kitchen was in a better condition than the living room. She could see, in the dining room next door, the table was set, as if dinner was about to be served. Sitting on the counter, face-down by the sink, was a flashlight, slightly sparking. Lauren picked it up and turned it on. A bright white circle of light shone forth and struck the far wall, completely illuminating it.

*This will help me find my way around better,* Lauren thought. She made her way back to the staircase and ascended them. At the top, she spotted the door to Kate's room and walked towards it. Once she was there, she turned the knob and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"Kate?" said Lauren. "Can you open the door, please? Are you upset?" She knocked on the door, but only the deep silence greeted her. Starting to feel worried about Kate, Lauren went back down the hall and into another bedroom. There, sitting on the corner of the bed, was a pair of keys. Lauren scooped up the keys and walked back to Kate's room. She fitted the key into the doorknob and turned it. The door swung open with a *bang* and Lauren was surprised at what greeted her.

The walls of Kate's room were plastered with pieces of paper, most of them containing a badly-drawn Slenderman or a radio tower. She could see, written on the wall itself by the window (which Lauren saw was broken), were the words CAN YOU SEE IT? and another picture of the radio tower. The top of it had a red patch to symbolize a red light, and Lauren saw that the patch might have been made in Kate's own blood.

Lauren felt shook up. She saw a page on Kate's table and went to see what it said. Written on the page was TO THE WOODS. She picked up the page, looked at it for a moment, then put it in her bag.

*What does that mean, “TO THE WOODS”?* Lauren thought curiously. *Does that mean that... she* wants *me to go to the woods? Isn't that where she says “the Slenderman” is?* Lauren walked to the window, catching another glimpse of the CAN YOU SEE IT? message on the wall. She stared at the Oakside Park in the distance, and then caught sight of a red light in the clouds above. She peered closer and saw that it was the radio tower.

*That's it!* Lauren thought excitedly, stepping back a few paces and looking at the image on the wall again. *“CAN YOU SEE IT?”... yes I can! Can I see the radio tower, that's what she's saying here! I* can *see-*

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream emenating from the woods, cutting through the air like scissors through paper.

Lauren gasped. “Kate!” She was sure it was her. “Kate! Where are you?” She dashed downstairs, ran out the front door, and went around the side of the house to Kate's backyard, where a large wooden gate was left open. Lauren went through the gate and started towards the source of the scream.

She saw a yellow generator of some sort sitting by a tree, and she activated it. A network of lights suddenly lit up along the path, showing where she needed to go next. As Lauren walked down the path, she caught sight of something on the top of the hill, in the distance.

Not some*thing*.

Some*one*.

It was a man, arms as long as his legs, staring at her, just standing there.

## The Eight Pages

“Um, hello?” Lauren called out to the man. “Can you help me? My friend is in trouble, she's the one who screamed earlier, I'm not sure if you heard her...”

The man paused, then vanished with a color distortion on Lauren's video camera.

Lauren blinked, confused. How did he disappear like that so suddenly? And why did her camera resolution flicker like that? Lauren figured it was probably a hallucination and kept going.

She came across a stream, but there was a crudely-made bridge laid out across it, only a few wooden boards being held up by two posts. Lauren crossed the bridge, which stood surprisingly solid despite her weight, and she found another generator at the other end of the river. Lauren activated this generator also, and more lights lit up the area. Then she saw, in the distance, that same man that was staring at her before.

“Hey!” Lauren yelled at him. She was starting to get annoyed. “So sorry to disturb you, but my friend is in danger! Are you going to help me find her, or are you just going to stand there like a-”

The man vanished again.

“-*Fine*!” Lauren shouted. She turned away with a *huff* and was surprised at what she saw next. There was a house, abandoned and in ruins, the wood a dark brownish-gray. The walls were in poor condition; holes, rips, and gashes in the wood showed through, making it look like it had been through a fire or something. Lauren walked into the house and started to make her way around the rubble that was scattered within it.

She eventually reached an actual room, instead of making her way through the broken hallways, or the rooms that had so much rubble in them that they might as well be hallways. When she entered this actual room, she heard the sound of crying. Wondering if it was Kate, Lauren turned to the source of the sound and laid her eyes upon the most horrifying thing that she had ever seen in her life.

It was a person, facing the wall, its head hung, as if it was sad. The person was painfully thin and barely wearing anything, only a ragged loincloth. His hair was long and in a spiky-style, and looked like it needed cutting. Lauren slowly walked up to him to see if he was all right, but he turned and suddenly attacked Lauren, then vanished. Lauren froze, then shakily exhaled, unsure of what happened.

“What the *heck*?” she said quietly. “Who was that? I just wanted to see what was wrong, and he... *attacked* me! I hope he doesn't come back again. Or really, I hope he *does*, because then he can apologize for that.”

Sighing with weariness, Lauren left the burnt house and headed for the entrance to the Oakside Park. She entered the little building that was by the front gates and saw, on a wooden table, an open booklet. She walked towards the booklet and picked it up.

HE CAME FOR ME

WHY DIDN'T I *LISTEN*

he was right

he said this would HAPPEN

HELP ME

NEED CR

HE KNOWS HOW TO END THIS

Come find me

DON'T LET HIM IN

Lauren's eyes widened in fright. The handwriting scrawled on the pages matched the kind that Kate wrote on the page in her room, and Lauren was able to figure out that this was left by her. Putting the book into her bag, Lauren entered the Oakside Park.

She spotted the park map and walked towards it. She got ready to check out the map, but was shocked at what was drawn on it.

A large picture of the Slenderman.

And beside it was a page that had a picture of a tree, the Slenderman, and an arrow pointing to the right, as well as the word F

O

L

L

O

W

S

written as if the letters were falling down. It looked as if it was made by Kate as well, although Lauren wasn't too sure. What she thought had happened was that Kate found these pages in the forest, picked them up, and then she screamed because something bad happened to her, and *then* somehow the pages she picked up got left through the forest again. Possibly by that “Slenderman” she talks about...

*But “the Slenderman” doesn't exist,* Lauren thought in confusion. *Kate's delirious mind made him up.* But then she recalled the man that was watching her on top of the hills in the distance. *Wait...*

Then, Lauren felt ill and she realized that that *was* the Slenderman.

That was why he was just vanishing without a trace.

*He's real,* Lauren thought in terror. *He caught Kate, and that made her scream, and he hung the pages up in the forest again. If Kate would've gone around getting them again, then they must have some important significance, so I've got to get them for her and get out of here alive, and I gotta do it* fast.

Lauren too off through the forest, passing an abandoned campsite, a truck, a canoe resting against a tree, a water tower, and a visitor center. A page was in or on each one, and Lauren was setting off to find the final two pages when the tall man she had seen on the hill appeared directly in front of her.

The discription of the Slenderman that Kate had told her fit his image perfectly.

His skin was white and craggly, especially around his head, which lacked a face. His fingers were long, bony, and curled, and his arms stretched to the ground, which made them slightly longer than his legs. He was wearing a black suit with a dark red tie, and black shoes. He looked slightly muscular.

Without warning, the Slenderman stepped forward and reached towards Lauren, thick black tentacles beginning to emerge from his backside. Lauren turned and began to run, panting hard. She could feel the Slenderman's grasp on her shoulders, cold and sharp, as if he was trying to halt her escape. Lauren suddenly was taken to another part of the Oakside Park in an instant, and she realized that Slenderman must have teleported with her in his grasp.

Lauren did not stop running. She knew that if she did, the Slenderman would gain his full grasp on her, and that would be the end of her. Once again, Lauren was teleported, dashing through the trees now, and then again, and she fell against a cluster of rocks. The static on her video camera screen began to grow denser and denser until she wasn't able to see through it anymore...

And then everything went black.

## Into The Abyss

Lauren awoke, her mind scattered and her limbs aching. She sat up and tried to remember what had happened.

She was in the forest, finding the pages that Kate had previously found before, but the Slenderman appeared and almost had her, but she escaped, and now... she was here.

Lauren got up, feeling off balance. She leaned against a rock and stretched her legs, one at a time, then she interwined her fingers, raising her arms and stretching them above her head, craning her neck up to the sky. She saw that it was daytime, and she was unsure how long she had been unconscious. Then she found her video camera sitting in the grass and picked it up.

She started to walk, feeling a little better. She saw a house, standing on stilts, and a few barrels sitting beside it. She found a note on one of the barrels and she picked it up and read it:

*I mentioned it to my doctor again when I saw him today. He really wants you to come in sometime just to talk with him. I think it's a good idea. He also said that confronting this traumatic event in some way could be every beneficial, too. Don't worry, I didn't tell him any specifics about what happened. I do think we should go back out to that park behind your mom's house sometime soon. I think being out there and seeing nothing will help get rid of these stupid problems we've both been having.*

*-CR*

Lauren recognized the way the person signed the letter: CR. She remembered him; he was a close friend of Kate's, and she knew his real name, too: Carl Ross. He liked to call himself CR, though, she knew that too. Lauren tucked the letter into her bag and continued on her way.

Soon, she saw a large archway made of stone, leading into a vast tunnel burrowed deep into the earth. As soon as Lauren saw this, she shuddered. She knew that this was the only way to go, but she wasn't really on board with entering the dark, creepy place. But she turned her flashlight on and walked down the shadowy corridor, her footsteps echoing with every step.

Lauren walked through a doorway and into a room. Stuck on the fence was a sign, the wood it was made of rotting and old, and the coloring fading away. Lauren picked it up and read it:

WARNING

KULLMAN MINING

IN THE EVENT OF SUDDEN POWER LOSS

All employees must be removed

from the mines via emergency

lifts as soon as possible.

To power the lifts, please activate

the emergency generators

throughout the ground level of the

complex. Six generators are the

minimum required to power the lift

at full capacity. Please see your

supervisor if you need help

locating them.

Lauren groaned. Six generators? This was like the eight pages all over again! Lauren sighed and set the sign in her bag, then spotted a tattered note sitting on a desk beside another doorway. She picked it up:

I am okay Kate.

The woods are beautiful

Please come see

I am going to find

you so you can see

It is so beautiful Kate

Something about this note unnerved Lauren, but she put it in her bag and walked through the doorway.

She saw a bunch of white arrows on the wall, seemingly drawn with white chalk and pointing to the right, and more arrows were scattered along the ground, seemingly guiding her. Lauren could see a small red glow on the ground, and upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a yellow generator, just like the kind that she had seen when she first set out towards the Oakside Park. She activated the generator, and the red glow changed to a green one, and she could spot walls sliding to the sides and revealing passages. A loud clanking filled the mines, and Lauren guessed that it was just the generator doing its work.

She started down one of the passageways and saw another generator. Activating it, she walked up a flight of steps and down another hallway. Doorways littered the walls, and Lauren could see another red glow emanating from one of the rooms.

*This is going to be so easy!* thought Lauren happily, activating the generator it contained. *This is only my third generator out of six, I'm going to whiz right through this!*

But as she exited the room, she heard a sound.

The sound of running feet.

*What's that?* Lauren wondered. *Is it someone else running through this place? Did... oh my gosh, is it that skinny guy I saw in the burnt house? Or is it someone running away from the Slenderman? Is* he *down here too?!*

Not wasting a second, Lauren took off. She did not want the Slenderman to stop her, and she wasn't about to let him. Lauren jumped down another flight of stairs, hitting the ground with a hard *thump*, but getting right back up and continuing her streak. Then, she heard a hissing and growling coming from behind her. Thinking that it might be a wild animal, she continued to run, but whatever was chasing her didn't let up. Lauren suddenly realized that the running feet didn't sound like that of an animal; it sounded like something **–** or some*one* **–** running on two legs, possibly a human. She looked over her shoulder...

... and finally beheld the being for what it was.

Lauren couldn't tell if the human was a boy or a girl, as it wore a white mask over its face and its hair looked like long black spikes falling in front of it. It was wearing a white hoodie heavily stained with blood, as were its hands. The mask it wore was dirty and burnt, and it wore baggy jeans and big shoes, the jeans also stained with blood.

Lauren screamed and quickened her pace from the snarling human. She rounded a corner and up another flight of steps, sneaking a look back, but the human kept up the pace. It was unstoppable. The Slenderman appeared at the top of the stairs, and Lauren skidded to a halt in shock, only for the person to tackle her, pin her down with its foot on her chest, and start repeatedly hitting her. After striking Lauren five times, the human jumped off her and vanished into the darkness.

Lauren lay there for a few moments, then slowly got up, a sharp sting of pain rocketing through her right leg. She knelt down and rubbed it, feeling a swelling, as well as her wet blood running down it. She looked down and could see several long red streaks zig-zagging across it. Whoever that human was either had very long and sharp fingernails, or proper claws. She wondered if the Slenderman had deformed the human in some way.

Lauren kept going through the mines, keeping careful ears out for the sound of running feet and careful eyes out for the Slenderman and the mask-wearing maniac. She found two more generators and had one more Slenderman sighting before she saw the running human again.

“Keep away from me!” Lauren yelled at it, focusing her flashlight beam at its face, in hopes of blinding it. And her plan worked. The human let loose an ear-splitting screech and stepped back, blocking the blinding beam with its left hand. Then Lauren turned and took off at a high speed, but a few seconds after her flashlight beam left the human's face, it began to give chase again. But Lauren needed only to shine her flashlight directly in its face to stun it, and she was able to easily escape.

But something about its scream concerned Lauren.

It sounded strangely... feminine.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Soon, Lauren found the last generator. She thankfully activated it and started to run back to the lift by the very first generator she activated. Slenderman appeared directly in her path, and she turned around and ran the other way.

Down a flight of steps.

Around the corner.

And through a doorway.

There it was.

Lauren tried to run towards it, but her legs ached with tiredness. She was heavily fatigued, and could only walk. She could feel cramps in both her sides, but still had the strength to keep her video camera and her flashlight up. She saw the hoodie-wearing human charge out from another doorway, and Lauren blinded it once again, but this time kept the beam on it so that she could get a closer look at it. She looked closely at the body; it seemed strangely feminine also. Lauren had thought that this person was the skinny human that she had seen in the burnt house before, but now she wasn't so sure. She could see the human wearing, under its hoodie, an orange tank top, and this made a dreading feeling overcome Lauren.

That orange tank top looked like one of Kate's clothes.

With a shaking hand, Lauren reached out and gripped the human's mask. Hoping with all her might that it wasn't Kate, Lauren tore the mask off and looked at the face.

But the human's identity was against Lauren's wishes.

Kate's face had changed drastically, but Lauren could still make out the shape as being hers. She had black around her eyes, as she did around her mouth, probably due to residing in the mines. Her pupils had contracted to the point of being invisible, leaving only the gray irises, and her skin seemed ever so slightly craggly and burnt.

Lauren gasped and dropped the mask on the ground, and was so stunned that her flashlight lowered from Kate's face briefly. Kate bared her teeth, which were now razor-sharp, and resumed her attack on Lauren, but Lauren dodged the feral female and dashed to the lift, Kate hot on her heels. Lauren jumped onto the lift and got it ready to take her out of the mines, then she turned back to Kate.

“Kate!” she cried desperately. “Don't you remember me? It's me, Lauren! Your friend!” Kate kept on coming. “Did the Slenderman mind control you or something? You've gotta snap out of it, Kate!” Kate only snarled in reply, still running. “Kate, I'm sorry, I've gotta go. But I'm gonna come back, and I'm gonna get some help for you. But for now...” Reluctantly, she aimed her flashlight at Kate's face and focused the beam. Kate stepped back and cried out, raising her hand again.

“... I'm sorry.”

The lift shuddered and began to rise up the tunnel, and Lauren breathed a sigh of relief as she finally exited the Kullman Mines for good, leaving Slenderman's proxy screaming in fury in the darkness below.

## Flashback

Lauren left the Kullman Mines tunnel and stepped back into the mountains again. It was still daytime, but she could see the sun setting behind the mountains, however it wasn't turning dark extremely quickly as it did when she had first came to Kate's house; rather, it seemd frozen in place. Lauren walked down a grassy hill and started down a path grooved into the ground. As she walked, she observed the beautiful landscape, the tall trees casting thin shadows across the ground, the view in the distance fit for a painting.

*Whoever wrote what weird note was right,* Lauren thought. *The woods* are *beautiful.*

Soon, she saw a cave, an active flare sitting by the entrance to it. Lauren wandered into the cave and started down it, but it suddenly began to get increasingly dark, so she pulled out her flashlight and flicked it on. The tunnel, however, was very short, and she was soon outdoors again. She saw a metal building and was about to enter it, but stopped to pick up a page pasted on the wall by the door. All it had were the words I WANT TO DIE written again and again, as if it was raining those words, and they were falling into a pile on the ground. Lauren put the page into her bag and entered the building. She saw another page and read it:

*Outside.*

*I need to die before it catches me.*

*Everything is leaking out the back of my head.*

*Hands have teeth.*

*Please tell no one I loved them. It's back now.*

*Hide*

Lauren didn't know who wrote this note, and she didn't know what he or she meant. She considered that it might've been left by Carl Ross, and he wrote it when he got chased by

Kate through the mines. But Kate couldn't leave the mines... could it be... the shriveled human in the burnt house?

Lauren set the note in her bag with the other one and spotted a television. She saw a tape player plugged into it, and she guessed that the two tapes sitting on the adjacent table were to go into it. Lauren looked at the two tapes. One of them had badly drawn trees on it with the word ESCAPE written on it. Lauren guessed that this was made by Kate, as the artstyle and handwriting were the same as the pages. She then looked at the second one, and saw that it had nothing written or drawn on it, but was on top of a file that contained a few papers and that was titled HOMESTEAD. Lauren picked it up, set it into the disk player, and it started up immediately.

She saw it open up on a homestead, and the person filming said “The date of September 19th, my name is CR. On the side of the Matheson family farm, continuing my investigation of Charlie's disappearance. Let's see what we can turn up.”

*So this is Carl filming!* thought Lauren.

Lauren watched Carl walk into a shed and activate a pulley, which lifted a lift into the air and revealed an exit. Carl then left the shed through the exit, traveled through a cornfield, and from there into a cellar. With a light turing on via a flicked switch, Carl walked through the thin hallway, the lights flickered, and the frail human that Lauren saw in the burnt house appeared at the end of the hall.

“That's him!” said Lauren to no one in particular, pointing at the human on the screen. “That's the guy I saw in the burnt house before I went into the Oakside Park!”

She fearfully watched Carl pick up a gas canister, then leave the cellar and walk towards a machine outside of a large silo. Carl poured the gasoline into the fuel tank for the machine and activated it, and a light flickered on within the silo. Carl transversed through the silo, picking up a few childish drawings drawn in washable markers. He left the silo, entered a graveyard, and picked up a black key sitting on a tombstone. Carl then went through the cornfield again and to a black gate, and he used the key on a padlock which held the gate together, and the gates swung open with an ear-splitting creak.

Lauren saw Carl enter a churchhouse, picking up pieces of baby dolls, seeing the Slenderman, and having the skeletal human burst in through the door and chase him into a house. Carl, in the house, picked up a note that read

What's wrong with this place?

Why did this happen to us?

No answers anywhere I look Am I crazy?

These things I see at night...

I don't know what to think.

Ever since Charlie disappeared and Diane left-

I must have hit a breaking point.

I still keep looking,

I still hear him sometimes, that cute little laugh.

But he's been gone 9 years.

Why does every day have to hurt so much?

-Charles

and Lauren was able to piece together that this note meant that the skeletal human was Charlie himself. Then, she saw Carl run out of the house with Charlie right behind him, the camera falling to the ground, the two pairs of legs running past, and the tape ended with static. Lauren could have sworn that she saw the screen move just before the video ended, as if someone was picking up the camera again.

Lauren slowly removed the tape, now used up, from the tape player, and placed the one that read ESCAPE into it. She hoped that this one would show what happened to Kate, and as it started up, she saw that she was right.

In the film, Kate was writing on a piece of paper, and she looked out the window and grabbed the camera filming the video, as well as a flashlight. Then, she whispered something, and Lauren had to listen closely to hear her.

“He's here!” Kate whispered in fright. “Close all the windows and doors. *Don't let him in*.” Then she shut the open window and started walking throughout the house, shutting all the doors and windows, and then running upstairs to her room when she saw the Slenderman. But the Slenderman was there too, and then Kate dashed to the window, jumped into it, and there was the sound of shattering glass and the video ended with static, as did the first one.

*So that's why Kate's window is broken,* Lauren thought. *And then she went into the Oakside Park, and* that's *when the Slenderman caught her.* She she blinked and lowered her head in sadness, as she now understood completely what happened to Kate.

And that she could never help her now.

## The Arrival

Travelling through a cave, her flashlight lighting her path, Lauren slid down a rocky ledge and landed on the ground. She looked back and saw that she would not be able to climb back up again, which signaled that there was no turning back.

Lauren continued through the cave, which was now slanting downhill. As she walked, she noticed that something was... strange about the walls. She turned her full gaze on them and was surprised.

There was words, written in a thick white substance, all over the rocks. They were crazy things, such as I LET HIM IN and I'M SO SORRY, things that didn't make sense like DON'T GIVE HIM 20 DOLLARS!, and most of all, the word HA over and over again, as if the person who wrote it was insane and was laughing maniacally.

Lauren didn't want to read anymore of it. It was frightening her greatly, and she had been frightened way too often now. But everywhere she turned, there was more and more of this insane writing. Just then, she saw a burnt note sitting on a rock and picked it up:

**I'M SO SORRY. I'M SO SORRY FOR**

**EVERYTHING. THIS ISN'T YOUR FAULT**

**I DID THIS. BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS**

**IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE FOR YOU**

**DON'T LET HIM INTO ANY MORE LIVES**

**THIS WAS ALL MY FAULT**

**THIS CAN END WITH YOU I LET HIM IN**

**WHY DID I EVER LET HIM IN**

**I'M SORRY FOR PLACING THIS BURDEN ON YOU I**

**WISH IT WAS ALL ON ME THIS CAN'T**

**SPREAD ANY FURTHER. PLEASE, IT ALL HAS**

**TO END WITH YOU I WISH THERE WAS SOME**

**OTHER WAY. IT HAS TO END**

**GOD FORGIVE ME.**

“Carl,” Lauren murmured. It had to have been him. Kate couldn't have gotten this far away from the Slenderman, and there was really no one else who had a declining mental state that she knew. Lauren put the note in her bag and continued through the caves, doing her best not to look at any more of the insane writing.

Suddenly, the writing came to an abrupt end. Lauren looked around, confused, then decided to ignore it and continued. But as she neared the exit to the cave, the room suddenly glowed red. Frowning in confusion, Lauren hurried to the exit, and what she saw made her gasp in fright.

The forest was on fire.

Trees were scattered along the hill leading to the radio tower, as she saw, and every one of them was ablaze. Flames were occuring in random areas, and thick tree branches were falling off of trees, and sometimes the trees themselves fell over, hitting the ground with a blazing crash.

And something else that Lauren noticed was that the Slenderman was there.

And he looked *angry*.

But Lauren knew that there wasn't anywhere else to go. The cave was blocked off by that rocky ledge she fell down earlier, and if she went back now, the Slenderman would corner her and kill her. So she took a deep breath and ran into the inferno.

Head lowered, she didn't even look where she was going, for fear of the fire hitting her face. She could feel it scar her legs, lashing out at her body, but she ignored the searing heat and continued. The only words in her head were: *get to the top*.

The Slenderman appeared a little ways up the hill, and all of a sudden, long black tentacles began to emerge from his back, slithering through the air towards Lauren. But Lauren dodged them and kept on going. She could hear her camera making an audio distortion and she could see the tentacles creeping up from behind her, some of them extending past her sides. But Lauren didn't stop.

A tree branch fell to the ground right in front of her path, and a large blaze of fire went up. Lauren swerved around the fire and kept running.

She could see the radio tower in full view.

She could see a metal building beside it.

And she could see a door.

Within seconds, she was inside. The door shut behind her, and Lauren collapsed against the wall, coughing and panting hard. She had cramps in both her sides from running so much, and the muscle there felt tense and tough. Lauren wiped the sweat off of her brow and looked around. She saw a twinkling key sitting on a crate, and she went and picked it up. Something banged on the door suddenly, causing a loud *boom* to resonate throughout the building. Lauren looked for a door, for a door was what this key must unlock. She found it, at the end of a hallway, and unlocked the door. The moment the door unlocked and opened for her, she could hear the door she entered through burst open and the sound of running feet. Without a thought, Lauren dashed through the unlocked door and shut it behind her. But whatever was chasing her knocked that door open too and kept going.

Lauren's flashlight began to dim, more and more, until it blinked out entirely. She flicked the switch on and off several times, but nothing happened.

“Shoot,” Lauren muttered. “The batteries are dead.” She rounded a corner, avoiding a fire calmly burning there, and kept running, the pursuer keeping pace.

After rounding a few more bends, Lauren came across another door. Moaning in worry and agony, she grabbed the knob and turned it. To her surprise, it wasn't locked, and she quickly raced through it and felt it shut behind her. The thing chasing her could not get in. She could hear it banging on the door, but the door held.

After Lauren caught her breath, she took a look around. She saw that she was in a hallway, however it led to a dead end. The walls were *coated* with the insane white writing, in the same form as the ones in the cave. But most noticable of all was at the end of the hallway, beside a burning fire.

There was a dead man, propped up against the wall.

His whole body was charred roan red, no visible clothes on him. And thankfully, as Lauren could see, this did not cause his genitals to be revealed, as they seemed to have been burned clean off. All of his facial features, including hair, were gone as well, and it reminded Lauren of the Slenderman. She saw something sparking by his side, and when she looked closer, she saw that it was a tape recorder. She picked it up and her thumb accidently pressed *Play*.

She heard loud noises going on in the background of the recording, though she could still make out what some of the people were saying:

**Woman's Voice**: “Let go!”

**Man's Voice**: “Kate, please, you have to do it...”

“Kate?” said Lauren in surprise. *The man must be Carl,* she realized.

**Kate**: “I can't... I can't...”

**Carl**: “There's no other way-”

**Kate**: “I CAN'T!!” (crashing in the background) “I can't...”

**Carl**: “... Kate?” (more crashing)

**Carl**: “Oh, God... I'm sorry... for everything... forgive me... *I'm so sorry*...” (a loud humming started up in the background, likely an audio error from the Slenderman)

(fire sounds)

**Carl**: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

**Kate**: (crying)

**Carl**: “-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

The tape ended.

Lauren was shaking. She slowly set the tape player on the ground and shakily stared at the burnt body.

“Carl...” said Lauren mournfully, as she realized that this was who she beheld before her, “your sacrifice won't be forgotten. By me, anyway, and possibly Kate. Rest in piece.” She kissed her forefinger, then touched it to his forehead, as a means of kindness.

Suddenly, a loud banging was heard. Lauren whirled around in surprise, and saw the fire at the end of the wall blow out. She shuddered, starting to cry out of fear. Then, she saw something run out of the shadows at her.

It was the skeletal form of Charlie Matheson Jr.

And then there was a bright blue flash of Charlie striking her in the face at an unnatural speed and then everything went black.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Lauren slowly opened her eyes, pain washing over her again and again. A hanging light was flickering blue, proving a poor light source. She slowly reached up and rubbed her head, then set her hand down on the cold stone floor that she was laying on and propped herself up into a sitting position. She saw her video camera lying beside her and she picked it up. She saw that her clothes were ripped and ragged, as if Charlie's attack had torn at it also.

Lauren suddenly got the feeling that something **–** or some*one* **–** was watching her. She turned around and cried out in fright.

Charlie was crouching by the stairs and staring right at her, a look of fury and hunger in his dark blankness of eyes. He looked either angry or determined, Lauren wasn't sure which, and his head seemed to follow her, turning wherever she walked.

“Can I get by, please?” Lauren asked Charlie. “I'd like to go up the stairs. There's nothing down here but a ruined basement.”

Charlie did not answer.

“Okay, I'm leaving,” said Lauren, walking towards Charlie. But before she could try to push past him, Charlie drew back his arm and struck her, hard, and Lauren staggered backwards and fell against the wall. She clutched her stomach, feeling her blood seep through her shirt and touch her hand.

“All right, then,” said Lauren shakily. “If you don't want me to go, then tell me why I should be down here. *Is* there something down here?”

No reply.

Sighing and shaking her head in the same manner that a mother would to a bratty child, Lauren walked towards some iron bars that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, making it resemble a prison. She found a large gap and crept through it. She found a booklet sitting on a table nearby and picked it up:

*This Guy keeps stopping by my house*

*asking about my son.*

*I keep telling him to go away.*

*He's getting more and more desperate.*

*I still see him.*

*I still keep looking for him.*

*It can't be him though.*

*I know it can't. But it's so real.*

*Everywhere I go, I hear his voice...*

*but it sounds like he's suffering.*

*Like he's not the son I knew.*

*I can't escape this torment.*

*This man... this thing. He taunts me.*

*He eats at my mind.*

*Am I doing this to myself?*

*Was it my fault Charlie disappeared?*

*Is this my trial... or my punishment?*

*I need to end it,*

*I need to cleanse this place.*

*No more suffering.*

*No one deserves this.*

*It all ends here. It all needs to go.*

Lauren thought hard. This was obviously left by Charlie's father, Charles Matheson. But here... it sounded like he was being tormented by the Slenderman. It sounded that his son going missing wasn't the only horrible thing he was going through.

And what did he mean... “it all needs to go”?

Everything he owned?

Including his house?

*Maybe* that's *why it looks burnt down,* Lauren realized. *He must've burned it down himself to make everything go. Everything needs to go... yes. That's what this means.*

Lauren turned and exited the room, back into the one where Charlie squatted by the stairs. His head turned to follow her as Lauren headed to the other side of the room to find more floor-to-ceiling iron bars. Suddenly, the lights blinked out for a split second and when they turned back on again, Charlie was standing by the bars.

“Hey!” said Lauren in surprise. “How'd you get here so fast?”

Charlie just glared at her.

Lauren tried to move past him to the iron bars, but he struck her again and then was back by the stairs in an instant. Lauren stared at him, wondering if he was going to move again, and then got up and went through the iron bars. Within them, she saw a letter left by Carl to Kate. She opened the letter and read it:

*Kate,*

*This is pretty exciting, isn't it? This whole mystery: the missing*

*boy, the sightings, the arson.*

*I'm glad I get to share this adventure with you. I can't help but feel*

*saddened for Mr. Matheson. He lost so much. I wish he would have*

*just let me in to help him - the way you're helping me. Maybe I*

*could have saved him.*

*Since I couldn't help him in life, maybe I can help him now. I*

*promise to find out what happened to his son - prehaps that will put*

*his soul at peace.*

*Thanks again, Kate. I look forward to our adventures!*

*-CR*

“Oh, so *he* was 'the Guy' that was coming to Charles' door,” said Lauren aloud. “But his soul... it isn't at rest? What happened to it... to *him*? There's still so much I don't know.” She put the note away and walked back to the main basement room.

“Okay, look,” said Lauren. “I found everything down here, there's nothing left. Can I just-”

Charlie was gone.

“... Oh.” Lauren looked around, just to clarify that Charlie wasn't lurking in the shadows, getting ready to strike, then she ascended the stairs.

At the top, she could hear the sound of crying coming from somewhere. It sounded like Kate.

“Kate?” Lauren called. “Are you all right?”

Kate didn't answer. She just kept crying.

*The Slenderman must've released her from his supernatural grasp,* Lauren thought. *So she's free now, and she's probably mourning about all that's happened.*

“Kate, I'm coming!” Lauren called. She started to make her way around the rubble and pieces of ceiling that had caved into the sandy floor. She saw that this was actually the burnt-down Matheson's house that she was in, though because her flashlight batteries were dead, it looked much more secluded and sinister. She made a few more checks behind her for Charlie as she went, but he seemed to have completely vanished.

Lauren finally found the source of the crying, and it indeed was Kate. She was crouching on the ground, badly burnt, her proxy clothes removed, sobbing to herself. Lauren saw that there seemed to be miniature static or glitches around her, like a fog. She wondered if this was because of the Slenderman, that he was doing this to trap her into the claustrophobic corner from where she sat.

“Oh, Kate, it's okay,” said Lauren soothingly, walking towards her friend. “Here, let's get out of-”

The fog of static and glitches was wiped away in an instant, and Lauren gasped. Kate was still the proxy. The pixelated haze had just *disguised* her as normal Kate.

Kate got up and lunged at Lauren, striking her repeatedly. Lauren fell to the ground, the video camera crashing beside her and blinking out briefly. It blinked on again, showing a major color distorion around the edges of the frame, and also displaying the view of Lauren's legs, badly scratched and scarred. The left leg twitched briefly, and then they got dragged off-screen by something **–** or some*one* **–** as the last of Lauren's life blinked out.

As did the video camera's.