This is the first chapter for How it Happened.
This is a story about how Hoody became Slendy's proxy. Just a story I made up. If I did know how it would be super cool and all but I'd probably have to be killed.
Chapter 1
"What Are you doing?"
I looked to my elder brother.
"So I can catch it on tape, remember? I told you like three times." I reminded.
"How is filming the horizon going to help?"
"I thought that it would be a cool opening. Ya know how fast the car's moving and the setting sun. Besides you know how those monsters always show up just on the edge of the forest in horror films? That's why." I elaborated.
Cliff rolled his eyes at first then nodded to himself as if thinking something over. The drive there was rather long and boring. I was really glad that I wasn't driving. Cliff was making a habit of making the one with the permit drive for 'practice' but I knew he just didn't want to drive. He even said that driving lost its... flare I guess after you got your licence. It was apparently like 'Yes! I've got my licence... now what?' which I wouldn't doubt. Cliff was eighteen since last week and I had just turned sixteen about four months ago. It was the first day of summer vacation. June fifth and like always we headed out to our grandparents for the summer.
I was pretty sure that mom just didn't want to deal with us. Didn't matter though. I prefered being with our grandparents anyway. They lived by a park with a forest next to it. Neither of us were allowed to go into the forest after dark. Grandma would turn on the upstairs lights whenever we were out too late. We normally stayed on 'our' side of the creek where we would see the light, but I will admit that more than once we crossed and went exploring on the other side. Crossing the border into enemy territory as my brother had always said.
Another thing about our grandparents house... My brother didn't ignore me. He'd act how I knew him. Not as his friends knew him. Instead of talking about girls and sports he'd explore the forest with me. He'd play board and card games with our grandparents and I. He was my brother and not a 'cool' guy who's too cool to talk to his younger brother.
I turned off the camera after a while and set it down. I looked back to my brother who looked really bored. How could I have blamed him? I sighed, finding nothing to entertain myself inside or outside the car. However looking out the window at the setting sun was obviously a better option. It always was with this long boring drive.
I watched as the slowly setting sun was soon hidden behind the forest. Looked like we were almost there now. I squinted hoping to see the shape in the woods my brother and I had seen when we were ten and eight. That was the very reason why we had taken an interest in exploring the forest. It couldn't have been us just imagining things. Cliff still to this day believed that there was something there and he was a pretty logical thinker. So there must be something there. That was the reason we still continued to search. Each year we risked going in deeper into the seemingly endless forest. It was fun and all, but it would get dark and we'd have to head back. That was the reason we hadn't explored the whole thing yet. We Had to be back before the night fell or we'd get scolded. Even now. It was really annoying, but they had the best in mind and that meant that they knew there was something there. They knew even though they denied it and that in itself fueled our determination to find it.
This was going to be the summer. It was going to be This summer that we found it and if not then next summer. Even if I had to search alone next year I was going to find it and I was going to get a picture to show Cliff. One of these days we were going to find it.
When we finally reached the house it looked the same as ever. A little worn and old, but still very cozy. As long as you didn't entertain the possibility that a monster was laying in wait for you to come out during the night that is. We often did that and sometimes, laying awake at night to talk about our 'plan of attack' for tomorrow's exploration or what we'd do if we did actually find it. It mostly involved running for our lives along a certain path we chose. Logical, right? You get the picture or video and then get out of there before you get killed. If it notices you run. Simple as that.
We stepped out and did what we always did. Say hi. Get everything unloaded. Spend the first day with our grandparents.
Nothing real interesting happened on the first day. I stared out the upstairs window at the forest that night. Cliff lay on his bed with his laptop probably deciding on the college that he wanted to go to. Either that or doing an application for one. I never did spot anything. It was the following day that we headed out on our usual exploration. Unfortunately we found nothing for the first couple weeks we explored.
The forest was teeming with life like always. Birds chirping. Little animals scurrying past the paths and in the underbrush. Just a normal day. We just followed the faded and unkempt paths for a while, but like always we strayed from the paths. We traveled at a quick pace like always, just trying to get as far as possible before we had to rush back.
"Have we been here before?" I asked looking around.
"I don't know. I hope not. I don't want to revisit a place we've already been."
I searched the ground. I felt kind of disappointed at the sight of the spray painted stick we had drove into the ground for a marker. The color was yellow. The ones that meant we were closer to the paths were green and the bright red stick which there was only one of stayed from summer to summer and showed the farthest we had ever gotten. It had to be replaced several times over the years. I walked over to it.
"Yep. We've been here before." I sighed.
"Where is that red one? Which way did we go from here?"
I shrugged. "Everything looks the same here. Trees. A sea of trees."
"Lets try right."
"Alright."
We headed in the direction that we assumed was right. We traveled on for a while until we saw something behind the trees. Cliff nudged me.
"Get the camera ready." He said under his breath.
I did so. I turned it on and hit record. We approached and found a rather old broken down building. The windows were broken and a couple were covered in tarp. Cliff blocked my path with his arm to stop me then headed forward himself. I kept the camera on him as he slowly approached the busted up building. He peeked in and after determining that the coast was clear waved me forward.
I followed him into the building. We walked amongst the rubbled. We walked into the backroom to search. We jumped. There was a crash. Whipping around we froze and listened. I leaned toward Cliff.
"Do you think that's it?" I whispered.
"Shh..."
We started walking back out into the first room. Dust was rising. It looked like a board from the ceiling had fallen. We frowned kind of disappointed.
"That's it?" Cliff question sounded disappointed. "Lets go."
We continued back into the back room. The back door was gone. Like the rest of the place it was destroyed. We spent that day wandering the forest and failing to find anything after the building. Later that night we reviewed the tape like always only to find that once again the tape was screwed up for the second time in a row. We watched as the video tore over and over again.
"Well this is useless." Cliff muttered.
"Maybe we need a new camera...?" I suggested.
"Maybe. Lets go to town tomorrow and get a new one." Cliff shook his head. "It is pretty old."
So we went on our magical journey to town. After getting our camera later we headed back like expected only to be stopped by some man in an old antique shop. We had become very familiar with Mr. O'lair. He was nice besides being a bit odd. He had warned us against searching for IT every summer as it seemed. He waved us over. We came over and obviously asked what he waved us over for. Expecting to just be warned against searching again though.
"Still trying to find IT?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?" I asked him. "You have some tips for us?"
"Well... Nevermind. Your camera break?" He asked pointing to the new one. He must've seen us go in and buy it since it was just across the street from his shop.
"We believe so. The video keeps tearing." Cliff answered to which Mr. O'lair chuckled. "What?"
"There's nothing wrong with it." He laughed.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Cliff asked suspiciously and Mr. O'lair kept laughing.
"I mean exactly that! You wanted to find IT well you found IT!"
We both exchanged confused looks.
"Um... What?" We asked at the same time.
"YOU found IT!" He laughed. "You are going to need all the luck you can get!"
"..." I blinked. "Why?"
"Yes! Yes! But remember! Don't look at it!"
This wasn't the usual odd behavior Mr. O'lair had. This was more than a bit weirder.
"Don't look at what?" Cliff asked and I could tell that he was feeling just as uneasy as I was.
"IT! IT! Don't look at IT! If you look at IT, IT will take your life! Just like Josh!" His crazy laughter morphed into panic.
We were more or less creeped out by Mr. O'lair's behavior. He had always been weird, but he had always been the one who had believed us about the creature in the woods... Now he was just weirder than the normal weird now.
"Mr. O'lair...?" Cliff inquired slowly. "Are you... ok?"
"Yes Yes! It is you who won't be ok!"
We stayed silent. We were confused and worried now.
"Don't you understand?!"
"Uh. Um... No?" I replied hesitantly.
"Do Not Look At IT."
"O-ok. We won't. We'll be careful, ok?" Cliff replied trying to end the conversation so we could leave. "We have to go now before our grandparents get worried."
"Be careful." Came the much calmer voice as we exited.
We quickly made our way back to the house, still rather uneasy over Mr. O'lair's warning.
"Nothing's wrong with it...?" Cliff muttered to himself as we sat upstairs that night in our room. "Then why was it tearing?"
"... Why don't we test it now? Ya know record something and watch the video?" I suggested.
Cliff shrugged and pulled the little old camera out of its case. Pressing record he let it run for a few minutes before turning it off again. I walked over and sat next to him on the bed as he played it back. The TV on the far end of the room looked fine. There was no tearing for a time. Cliff sighed.
"It's fine... So... Back at that abandoned-" Cliff stopped as we watched our door slowly creak open through the TV's reflective screen.
We watched as the video started to tear again. Our eyes were glued to the screen as the creature from that one summer. So many years ago came into view in the reflection. The video tearing even more until it was impossible to see the TV's reflective screen anymore. A weird static sound replaced the silence in the were shocked. We looked up to the TV's screen to see that there was nothing in the doorway anymore. However something prevented us from looking back to make sure that the creature was truly gone. Instead we just stared at the screen. Waiting for the reflection of the creature to come up in half a second like in the video. Nothing came. We looked back to the camera as the sound of static faded. The creature vanished and the tearing stopped.
"Holy..." I started.
"Mother... F_ck..." Cliff whispered.
We looked back to the TV screen. Did we DARE look back? No. We couldn't. Mr. O'lair had warned us for a reason.
"Cliff?" I asked looking for some sort of direction.
Cliff stood and using the TV screen as his guide he walked backwards to the door and closed it. Only then did we look back. Cliff quickly crossed the room and closed the blinds then sat back down on the bed. I swallowed. Shaken by what we had just seen.
Maybe hunting for that thing was a bad idea after all? Maybe we should have heeded Mr. O'lair's warnings so many summers ago? Why hadn't we been frightened and never gone into the woods again the first time we had caught a glimpse of it? Things have warning labels for a reason on everyday things. There was a reason we had been warned and there was a reason that you were suppose to stay on 'our' side of the creek. A reason that we weren't suppose to go into the forest at night. We had ignored all of it now look where it got us.
"Now what...?" I asked hesitantly.
My question was vague, but I was pretty sure he understood what I meant.
"I... don't... know..." He said slowly as he replayed the video and paused it where the creature had appeared.
That night we had stayed up really late. Almost to where the sun had risen in the early morning sky, just waiting and listening for even the slightest sound. Even the smallest sound made us jump and become more alert. I had slept with Cliff that night... well morning. I had pressed myself as close as I could to his body while he held me, his steady breathing felt in my hair. Weird sure but it made me feel better. Safer and more secure and I was sure it was the same with him.
