The Slender Man?

## The Slender Man? by Josh Dean

There it is again! What is that thing?! I can’t take this anymore. It’s like everywhere I go all I see is this horrible, tall, thin and seemingly faceless creature. It’s been haunting my dreams as well ever since I first saw it; all it does is stand there, and watch me. I can’t shake this constant feeling of being watched, it’s like I’m never alone. I hate it. I can’t sleep, I can’t go outside, and I can’t function as a normal person anymore without… It being there.

I done a lot of research on it the last couple of days, Googling what I can best describe it as. All I could remember was it being an impossibly tall, thin man. I say impossibly because no human could be that height and that thin, it’s just not goddamn natural. I tried my best to remember its face, I figured that would help narrow the search, but there wasn’t one. I have no memory of seeing this thing’s face. It was always just a blur. But then, I could never look at it long enough without feeling uneasy. I usually just walked in the other direction or something. Or if it was a dream, or a nightmare at that, I would always wake up before I could get a clear look. Well, the search provided me with something called “The Slenderman”. What the fuck is a Slenderman? This mythical creature is the thing that’s been stalking me? No, it can’t be. I refuse to believe it.

I’ve not left my house in two days. I’ve been held up reading all these Slenderman stories and accounts. Needless to say sleep has eluded me for the duration. Nothing’s going right anymore. I think I’ve angered it by not letting it in my dreams. I keep hearing banging on the windows late at night, and creaking of the floorboards as I’m lying in bed. I know they say houses do that on their own, but this is different. The creaks aren’t that of the house settling, there’s weight behind them. Like soft footsteps. However, every time I go to look there’s nothing there, but when I re-enter my room I always get the sensation I’m being watched.

Tell me, have you ever been sitting in a room by yourself, windows and door closed, when suddenly the door opens for no reason? I think everyone has, but I’m different. I swear it’s not the draft; I’ve had all the windows locked for about a week now. I’m not one to believe in ghosts or anything of the sort, but this just has an eerie feel to it. Whenever the door spontaneously opens, it gets noticeably colder in the room. The second I leave the room however, all the other rooms are back to normal, so it’s not like my thermostat’s on the brink. Any room however, except my own. My room has been getting cold recently, real cold. I’ve resorted to lighting candles all around the room to try and heat up the place. I don’t know what’s happening; I’m starting to lose it.

I went outside for the first time in over a week today. I thought maybe my delusions were coming from being cooped up and spending too much time scaring myself reading about the Slenderman. I went through my day to day life, as best I could and to my surprise, no sightings of that…thing. Everything was going fine, in fact, I was starting to forget about the whole thing. That is, until I was heading home.

I was walking through the woods, trying to take in as much fresh air as possible before I went home, when I stumbled across a piece of paper lying there on the middle of the footpath. I’d normally have just written it off to be some litter left by someone, but it was crisp white. It looked like it had been carefully placed there, no longer than perhaps 20 minutes ago. I picked it up and turned it over.

It was a drawing. A drawing of that thing, the Slenderman. A very crude sketch depicted him with the words “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO” scribbled down the sides of the page. As I tried to decipher the page the clouds quickly darkened, turning to a heavy black. I best get home quick before the rain hits, I thought to myself. Now I’m home, sitting staring at this fucking picture going out of my mind trying to figure out just how it got to where it was, thinking about how new it looked and wondering what sick fuck drew this and left it there for me. I’m just gonna go to bed, I’d be as well to get some sleep.

I swear that picture’s cursed! Slenderman was in my dream again last night. It seemed so real, I was lying in my bed in the dream, and I had woken up and seen him standing there, in the corner of my room. I tried to scream, move, do anything. But I couldn’t. I lay there, frozen in fear wondering what would happen. He just lifted his arm and stretched it a good 10ft to the headboard of my bed and rested his hand (I say hand, but they didn’t feel like hands, more like…tendrils) over my eyes and I went back to sleep. When I woke up there was nothing. What a fucked up dream.

Oh, and d’you know what else has been happening since I brought that picture home? My electronics have been fucking up. My laptop shuts down on its own, even with full battery, my tv randomly turns to static, my phone keeps getting no reception. Along with the opening of doors, the constant sound of footsteps at night. You get the picture. I’m burning it tonight. I’m taking out the back and setting the fucker alight.

No. No no no no no no no. This can’t be happening. I watched that get burned last night. I took that piece of paper outside last night and watched it burn. How can it be back?! What kind of twisted bastard would put a duplicate copy through someone’s mailbox? This really isn’t funny. I can’t even phone for help because my electronics won’t stop acting up and I’m too paranoid to leave the house. I don’t know what to do.

Things are getting too much to cope with now. Day after day more and more of those damn pictures keep coming through, nothing works in the house and I keep thinking I’m seeing him in the house. Whenever I leave the room I think I catch a glimpse of him in my peripheral vision, or in the corner of a mirror I pass by. It’s driving me insane. Has this thing really invaded my home? If so there’s no safety to be had. If it can get me here it can get me anywhere. Doesn’t mean I won’t go down without a fight though.

Okay, I’ve locked my doors and all the windows and took enough food and water from the kitchen to last me about a week. I’m going to hold up in my room for as long as possible. I don’t feel safe outside nor do I feel safe in my own home. This is my last resort. I know he’s got something sinister in store for me, I just know it. Why else would he go to such lengths to scare me to the brink of my sanity? Well, I’ve barricaded myself in my room for now. Nothing’s getting in here without my say so. It’s getting late, I’m going to try and get some shut eye.

Shit. What was that? I swear I heard something move. It must have, because it woke me up. This is no ordinary footstep that I heard at the beginning of all this, oh no, that was a loud and deliberate thud. It must be messing with me. The Slenderman knows I’m here. I would get up out of bed to turn the light on, but there’s no point, he’s been messing with the electrics. I lay here scared out of my mind, staring into total darkness.

I know this sounds crazy, but have you ever seen a darker shade of black that normal? Like, when you’re in a dark room with only a little light and everything casts a shadow, but some shadows seem darker than the others? I swear, even though I’m currently in near blind darkness, that corner is darker than the rest. It’s the same corner that was in my last nightmare! It’s like, the darkness is moving. My night vision is getting better now, I can see in a little more detail.

Oh no. No. No no no no no no. I can see the outline of a man form in that corner. A really tall, thin man. It looks like he’s wearing…a suit. Oh God. It’s…him. He’s here, just like in my dream. I lay here, frozen in fear wondering what’s going to happen. He lifts his arm and stretches it across my room and over to my head. He rests his hands, no, these aren’t hands, these are…tendrils on my forehead. I thought about grabbing his arm and trying to push away, or getting up out of bed and trying to break down the door, but something told me there’s no use. Nothing would help me now. His tendrils grew in length and snaked down my entire body, slowly wrapping themselves around me into some sort of blackened cocoon. Before I could scream the blackness reached my face and covered my mouth. As it enveloped my head the last thing to be covered was my eyes, which were firmly shut the whole time. I decided to open them, one last time. I looked directly up, and he was there. Standing directly over me, looking down. That was the last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me.

Although he has no face, I swear, he seemed to smile.