"What a sad story..." I said calmly as I clicked the back button on my Google chrome web browser. Yet another creepy video game story about distorted hacked, and supposed haunted video games. While they were all sad, and considerably scary, they didn't bother me... Seeing as everyone consisted of a young player finding a game at a game stop, or garage sale and getting an old cartage game free. And with ever haunted game, you could always note the sticker, or cover was either peeled off, scratched, or replaced with sharpie writing of the game title. These were always red flags to me.

"How could people really fall for that?" I asked my friend, who I had been chatting with for a while now.

"Not sure, they're just stories though. Scary stories need gullible players." She said.

"True," I said, agreeing with her. "Thanks to these stories, I hardly even want to go back and play the old gameboy games, or my N64..."

"Chii, they're just stories, nothing in them is true facts, or actually happened." she said. I sighed.

"You're right, Toa... Thanks for reminding me of that," I said as I looked at the time. I remember That I had to go out and bring my brother lunch since he was busy at work. I gave a farewell to my friend Toa and logged off before grabbing my car keys and leaving the house.

I sat with my brother at his office and talked to him for a short while since he had a five minute lunch break. After finishing, giving a hug and a small argument over sibling things, I finally left and drove around town After a while I finally came home and hopped back on my mac, returning to my usual routine of drawing, and working on my home business.

I got on skype, and received a call from my friends Toa, and Dean.

"Chii, you gotta download this game!" Dean said.

"What is it?" I asked, knowing it was going to be some scary horror game.

"Slender," Toa said. I tilted my head. Slender... I had not played that one before, but had seen game play on youtube. Curious, I looked it up and downloaded the first game instalment. As the game started up, I quickly found that this was a horror game, I sighed and rolled my eyes ready to close out, seeing as scary games didn't scare me, and quickly lost my interest - and screamers just downright annoyed me.

The game started normally as I had seen in youtube videos, white text telling me to fight eight pages. I began my search. I took my time, knowing that Slendermen wouldn't spawn till the first page is picked up, I also put my flashlight away to save battery as well. Once I had picked up the first note, the familiar creepy beat started playing in the background. This didn't creep me out in the slightest. Everything was normal... Until I picked up a note I had not seen in the game before. I paused and checked online forums of a possible ninth note. Finding nothing, I went back to the game, and took a screenshot of the picture, before pausing once more. I reviewed the picture in my iPhoto app.

It was the same kind of picture you could expect from a Slender game... But... It was a picture of Slendermen's face. What I found very odd was he had eyes, with tears streaming down his cheeks.

...

Why would Slendermen be crying? After a while, I dismissed this picture as a glitch in the game, or a picture the creator was going to use, but deleted it, and it somehow getting its data trapped in the game as a randomised glitch. I returned to the game, and took the not... Thats when the crazy shit started. After obtaining the picture, a text appeared.

Instead of "2/8 pages" It said, "Why do they hate me?"

Still in Skype call I called on my friend Dean, the Slender expert.

"Hey Dean... Does this game usually have a glitched note, and a message asking 'Why do they hate me?'" I asked him, he was quiet.

"I haven't ever heard of those glitches before..." He said. I sat and pondered for a while. Could I have downloaded a patch along with it? No... I only downloaded Slender, nothing extra, and no extras sneaked in with the game.

"Could this be hacked? No... This isn't a catreg game!" I told myself, and continued. With each note, things kept getting weirder. I felt like someone was in my room with me... I looked over my shoulder several time to make sure. Every Time, no one was there...

And as I continued, I noticed my Slender encounters kept stretching further and further from the original mob behavior. Instead of following me, and trying to kill me. It would pop texts asking me questions like, "What is love like?" "Do you have friends?" "Do you hate me as well?"

This was getting a little weird. These were things that shouldn't be happening. After a while, I noticed I couldn't exit the game, or pause it to check other things, and my Skype call had mysteriously ended. I wasn't going to try and force a shutdown, or reset on my computer. So I did the only thing I could do... Find the final note. My palms were sweating for the first time. I was actually nervous. I was actually scared...

After what seemed like a lifetime, I found that last page. But before I could click it, it disappeared. Text popped up again.

"Stop! Please... If you take it, you will leave, and I will be all alone again..."

I found this eerie, and creepy, since I had only received one spook, and spotted Slendermen once through the whole game.

"Bull shit..." I muttered as I started looking for the note once more.

"I am not trying to deceive you,"

The text popped up again... What came next, I will never forget.

"Chii, please don't leave me..."

I jumped from my seat and moved away from the computer. I was shaking now... How... How did it know my name!? There was no way of typing information into the game, or naming your character, Slendermen was talking to me...

After a moment... I looked back at my computer. A new message had appeared.

"Please don't be afraid of me... All I want is a friend..."

Curiously, I pressed Enter to see if a char bar would highlight like in other games like World of Warcraft, and DMO. Shockingly... One did... I typed a message back.

"Is this some joke a game designer is playing on me?"

Immediately a reply came.

"No... I only wish to stop this lonely feeling in my heart."

"Why?"

"Everyone runs from me... And every time they do, I accidently kill them... I feel as though I am trapped in a nightmare... All I want is a friend..."

I thought for a moment. Then typed another reply.

"I'm sorry you're so lonely... But I can't help you... You're just a game."

"But thats not true... I'm alive, just like you..."

a feeling stirred inside me. The feeling of endless sadness, and loneliness... I felt something for this game character, but why?

"Then why do you stay here in this creepy forest?"

"I am afraid..." It said, "I am afraid they will capture me, and destroy me..."

"Who?" I asked.

"Them... The ones who took everything from me, and made me what I am..."

Tears welled in my eyes, I was feeling sorry for him.

"You don't have to be scared anymore, Slendermen..." I said.

"Ricky..." It said. "My name was Ricky."

Realization struck me. He use to be a normal human being like me, but was distorted and twisted to satisfy the sick minds of teens and young adults.

"Well... Ricky... You're not alone anymore... I'll stay here with you..." I said. Not sure if I fully understood the gravity of the offer I had just made.

Several moments passed before one final message popped up on the screen.

"Thank you Chii... I love you..."

After that the game instantly crashed, and I could never get the game to re open. I busted into a fit of tears and sadness. What had I just done? After hours of several attempts to get the game to work, I gave up and went to bed.

The next day, a new gamer article had arrived, and several others with the same title, "Where's Slender?"

Every blog stated similar bugs I had experienced with the game shutting down, and being unable to re open the game. Nun however, mentioned talking with Slendermen himself. But what caught my eye was in every Slender game, the mysterious tall figure with no face, simply stopped appearing all together.

People could walk through the game and collect every note without spotting Slender, or even hearing the music began to play. Weeks passed and a new model of the game was made to make up for the malfunctioning game. The title sent chills up my spine.

"Slender's Chii" was the name of the new game. But to my surprise, the game had nothing to do with me, or my conversation with Ricky that night. It was just another game to entertain the young sadistic minds.

I smiled to myself and shed a tear. Ricky, wherever he was now... He was at rest, and free.