Listen to the Sign
"Stay out of the woods?" Shawn read. I just snickered, he seemed to be scared.
"What? Is poor wittle Shawn scared of some wittle trees?" He blushed at the taunt, and then looked back to the sign in front of the woods. I headed in; my main goal to prove that this 14 year old was scared of nothing. On the other hand, Shawn, my friend of the age of 17, was an absolute chicken. I had found this game called Slender online, so I decided to play it. It was apparently made of some German myth or urban legend. Of course I didn't do that well on the first try. After my screen went static and the Slenderman himself appeared in said static, the main menu popped back up, forgotten. Slenderman was an interesting idea. One I just had to look up. His story is that he kidnapped children, sometimes teens or adults too, in the woods, and they were never seen again. I happened to live in the country, with my house right in front of the woods that go on and on for miles. Said woods have always been a little scary to me but I never had heard of child disappearances there. About a week after downloading the game, I called Shawn over. Making him play was fun, and he even got four of the eight pages needed to win. But when he died and saw the Slenderman in the static, he screamed like a little girl. After he finished crying, and I laughing, he said that he would never again play it. He then stormed out of my room after I told him that he had to get all eight pages.
Anyway, I had stopped and turned to him, and he was still hanging by the stupid sign.
"Come on man! Are you even really 17?" My snide comment made him move, but just a few feet in, and still behind me. Sighing, I turned back and continued my journey. After realizing I wasn't hearing his foot falls on the dead leaves, I turned back. Of course the chicken went home, I thought, and without me, when it's getting dark. I grabbed my flashlight from my backpack, and continued forward, I won't give up like that chicken.
Slenderman smiled to himself, even without a proper mouth. That foolish girl wasn't even concerned with her friend being gone. He turned to his captive buddy, Shawn, apparently. The kid was a nice specimen, with his dirty blonde hair, slight tan, and jade colored eyes. He even had a Chinese dragon tattoo on the back of his neck. For a boy who was brave enough to get a tattoo, on his neck, he was just staring at Slender. He must been too frightened to do anything, he thought. Looking back to the silent boy's friend, whose name he knew not, he noticed her shirt had what looked like bluebirds on it. He took in her shirt as her nick-name, Bluebird. As she unknowingly looked in his direction, Slender noticed her duel-colored eyes, one cyan, and the other violet. Slenderman chuckled and looked back to the boy,
"Your friend has good taste, with the cowboy boots; does she taste as good as she looks?" The boy's terrified expression changed to one of hatred.
"You leave Jade the hell alone, monster!" He growled at Slender. Said monster retaliated by winding a tentacle around the boy's neck. He got out just one word before he couldn't breathe, "JADE!" Slender growled as he punched a hole through the boy's chest, making him shut up for good. As he was dropping the body, Slenderman teleported away while the boy's innards became outers.
I whipped around, looking for the cause of the snapped branch.
"Shawn, this isn't funny, you can't scare me…"
"JADE!" I heard him shout. Turning towards the sound, I saw Shawn himself. Oh, I thought, he just fell. Running towards him, I fell down to hug him. When I made contact, I knew something was wrong. There should in no way ever be the feeling that I was holding entrails. Immediately I sat up and got a good look at Shawn. His guts were on the forest ground, and his blood was all over me. I screamed, and then fainted.
Slenderman smiled at his handy work. His little bluebird was positively terrified. He picked her up and teleported to the middle of his woods, the same location in the infamous game of his. The only reason that game became created was because one of his victims escaped. He laid her down against a giant dead tree, and gave her one of the eight pages to be found. Slender departed when she began to stir.
As I started to wake up, I rubbed my head.
"Sheesh, what a dream…" I commented as I sat up. Realizing pretty quickly I wasn't home, I looked around. All I saw was trees, to the left, to the right, trees, trees, and more trees. Putting my hand back to my head, I noticed a warm wetness. I slowly looked at it, and saw blood. "It… it was real… not a dream… sh… Shawn's dead…" I broke down into sobs. I only stopped when a stray wind cause a sheet a paper to rustle above my head. I looked up and grabbed the note. Freezing, I realized what it was, one of the eight Slender notes. Throwing the paper aside, I stood up, terrified. I felt a sense of dread wash over me, then I started to hear static.
Slenderman chuckled as the girl started to back away. He simply got close enough to talk, and all he said was,
"Let the game begin, little Bluebird…" He let her run from the direction of his voice before teleporting to the biggest tree in the woods. She is bound to come here first, he thought. He climbed to the top and sat, waiting. When Slender heard snapping twigs and saw the girl appear before the clearing to the tree, he smiled. She got to the tree and leaned against it. Looking around, she spotted another one of his notes. This one was his favorite, "Don't look back…". When she grabbed it, Slender teleported again, to right behind her. She turned, probably to run away, but she ended up just running into him. Slenderman grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the tree.
"What? Does my little bluebird not like my note?" He question as he tightened his grip on her neck. She started to flail, and got one good kick between his legs. Slender immediately dropped her and fell to his knees. Jade got up and ran.
I ran as fast as I could. It couldn't be, Slenderman can't be real. I must be dreaming. I thought of all of those, but I knew they weren't true. The one and only Slenderman was after me. As I was running, I looked back to see if he was following. Before I could turn back, I ran into a tree. But trees don't catch you when you fall, do they? I thought. Looking forward again, I saw I was yet again in Slenderman's clutches. He pulled me off of my feet again, and this time wrapped a tentacle around my legs. He pulled me close to his face and growled,
"Little Bluebirds shouldn't run away. I guess you need to be taught a lesson" His grip on my neck tightened to the point I couldn't breathe. He threw me down and taunted,
"One, two, Slenderman is coming for you… " I got up and started running again. After I rushed through a sea of trees, I found what looks to be a public bathroom. I ran inside and looked for a door. What was terrifying was there was no door, or anything. This whole building was empty. The only thing I found was another note. "Can't run" it said. Well, we will see.
Slenderman laughed as he followed the girl. She was having such a hard time running from him. He only allowed her about a minute before he approached whenever she stopped running. He stood outside the door to the empty bathroom, waiting for his prey. When she got to the main hall, and spotted him, she screamed and ran the other way. Slender chuckled as she scampered off.
"I hope you don't think you can escape, Jade" He chuckled as she fell; face first, about twenty feet from where she started.
Slenderman slowly approached me again, and I started to whimper. His evil laughter filled my ears with static. He picked me up by his hand, tightening to the point of suffocation. But before that much softer method of death could take me, he punched his clawed hand through my chest. Blood flew out of my mouth, and a fire started to spread and burn inside me. I could feel him move his hand inside, searching for something. He chuckled darkly as he gripped my heart and pulled it out of its rightful place. The last image burned into my mind was of him, teeth revealed through a ripped mouth, laughing at me.