Hey, guys! This is my first Slender FanFiction. I got very inspired by the games, which are absolutely amazing to play. I hope you like it, leave feedback if you like! ^^

The First Page: Let the Games Begin

"And I believe this ends our final session. It's been nice seeing you," said Dr. Hesling.

Aveny gaped at him with no effort to hide her surprise and disappointment. This was the moment she despised for so long, despite knowing that it would come sooner or later.

"But, Dr. Hesling… I –"she began.

She had no words. Was she really this upset? Shouldn't she be happy to finally be free from her therapist? He tore her sanity apart and glued the pieces back together to his liking. Everything she used to believe that was right was disapproved by this man. She had to admit, however, that he took care of her when her father failed to do so. Dr. Hesling was her friend. Now they had no further business together. He cured her of her compulsive need to be in fear. Or at least, she thought he did.

"Aveny, don't be afraid anymore. You've grown plenty since the first time you walked into my office. There is an entire world outside the doors. You can run and succeed as far as you like. You're no longer a danger to yourself," he assured in a monotone, yet comforting, voice.

With that he stood up from his dark red seat, the chair that Aveny had never seen him leave for all the years she's known him, and offered her his hand. She took it almost reluctantly, not wanting it to be real. He helped her on to her feet and began leading her out of the building.

"It's been a pleasure, Aveny. Do come visit as often as you like," he ended with a smile. It was sad, but genuine. Aveny felt a tinge of pain through her chest as she started down the sidewalk. Before proceeding to turn the corner, however, she looked back at the office.

Doctor T. Hesling: Mental Therapy, it read in red, wooden letters.

Her only friend and sanctuary were closed off from her now. How far could she go without them?

Reaching her home, now covered in crumbling paint and oak climbing up its walls, she walked in. She uttered neither words nor greeting as she rushed up the stairs and into her room. What was the point? She'd be talking in a house that was empty of any members beside her. Regardless, she sometimes had conversations with herself without knowing it. She didn't like it, for the constant sound of her voice would annoy her from time to time, but it would have to do considering the lack of company.

She dropped her backpack roughly on her bed and entered the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, Aveny eventually gave in to her thoughts. She was full of discomfort, constantly irritated every time she entered this house. This house was wrong. It was so small, yet so big. It's an empty shell. What was it even doing here, secluded between the small town she lived in and the woods? You could cut this house and everything in it out of the world, and it would make absolutely no difference. It was here for no reason.

Like me, she thought.

Aveny stared into her reflection in the glass. She stood at five feet and five inches tall, her crisp black hair smoothly waving down to below her chest. Her hand rose to lift her bangs up from her forehead, revealing the original red roots before she dyed her hair black. She was incredibly pale. It wasn't that she never went out, but more like she had scared the color out of her constantly until it decided to leave her body for good. Aveny always had a fixation on being frightened. It was her obsession. She loved horror stories, movies, and the such. It gave her a happy feeling. Almost pumped. She wasn't depressed or anything like that, no, she was just excited by the adrenaline. She would go beyond normal lengths just to put herself in danger. The rush of being in fear, oh, it felt marvelous to her.

"It's something like a drug," she once referred it to as during one of her sessions.

And like a drug, it had just gotten worse and worse. She had never intended to hurt herself, but accidents happen. It got to the point where they never stopped happening.

She looked straight at her face in the mirror. She had such thin lips and tired eyes. Her irises were often mistaken for being the color of blood, though they were just bloodshot all the time from lack of sleep. They were actually cardinal, but it didn't particularly matter unless she mentioned it. They did look a bit eerie though, on account of her eyes being so red in comparison to her ghostly, pale skin. She completed her supernatural-looking appearance with a gray tank top covered by a large, black hoodie and dark red shorts. Of course, she never really meant to look creepy either. It just felt natural.

She turned the faucet and cold water began spilling into the sink. Dipping her hands in, the water did little to calm her. Instead, she felt a horrible emptiness in her gut. The disgusting, ghostly feeling you get when something bad has happened but you don't know what.

Unfortunately, she was about to discover the what of her fears.

A soft, frantic knock came from down the stairs. The sudden noise made Aveny jump from her spot, sending small splashes of water to the tile floor. She immediately regained enough composure to switch the faucet off, listening intently for more sound. Footsteps strode down her wooden, rickety porch and the noise faded as quickly as it came.

Eight, Aveny heard. Large, forceful steps. The porch is wide and the stairs leading down it are rather steep for just eight steps; perhaps a man's? Whoever knocked on her front door was long gone by now, she assumed while cleaning up the spilled water. She didn't expect it to be much. Probably kids pulling a prank, she thought at first. Children seemed to like coming up to this old house, assuming that it was abandoned or haunted on account of its aged appearance and its vicinity from the woods. Aveny's home was literally right next to the forest. She felt it was useless trying to scare the kids off, in case they would try to run off and get lost in the blanket of trees. Coming to think of it, there had been reports of missing children every now and then. Heaven forbid she be involved in any of that nonsense.

As soon as she convinced herself it was a practical joke, she left the bathroom and peeked through the curtains in her room.

"Nothing." She relaxed.

Aveny decided to pull the curtains apart, revealing the last bit of sun before it disappeared behind the trees. She stared out into the tiny clearing in front of her house, now able to see the full view. For a faint moment, her head felt clouded. A curious buzzing flowed through her ears as she looked for the source. There was nothing in her yard. So why was the sound getting louder? The hairs on the back of her neck stiffened. For the longest time, she stared forward, knowing perfectly well where the sound might have been emitting. She just didn't want to look. To turn her head and see the creature that had been watching her from the corner of her eye. The buzzing began to grow and mutate into some kind of irritating static.

The anticipation was eating at her. The fear beginning to burn through the crevices of her brain. She was terrified, and she loved it. Turning her head to meet faces with the stranger the static dissipated. The figure was gone like thin air. Aveny stood looking at the vacant space for a second. Was she imagining it? She thought she saw a tall man in a black dress suit. And with no face?

"You're losing it, Aveny," she muttered to herself.

She made her way downstairs and out the door, to be sure that it was just her head lying to her. She wished that what she saw was just a fluke, but then again, she didn't. After all, that would've been quite the disappointment, wouldn't it? She stepped onto the damp grass that she called her yard, taking a full look around in search for her faceless stalker. Nobody was here. It was as still and as quiet as a library. An desolate library, if such silence were allowed. Disappointed at her results, she turned to head back inside. Upon looking at her front door, she froze in confusion. Something was carved into her front door. Scratchy-looking words that she had missed while running outside. The tiny act of vandalism on her door looked as if it done in a hurry as it was barely readable.

DON'T PLAY HIS GAME, the words read within the scratched wood.

"What a shame. I love games," Aveny sighed sarcastically.

In all honesty, she couldn't care less about her door nor the message. It did present a bit of chills, but she was far more interested in the mysterious white figure that was standing beside the trees a few minutes ago. What was it? Why was it out here? Was it even real?

She looked back at her door, now sure that perhaps those children were right to stray from this area. Was it just her or were the words harder to see? No, wait. She looked up towards the pink, orange sky. It was getting darker. She finally forced herself off her spot and walked back up onto her porch. She looked at the words again, wondering who could've carved them. Letters don't appear in thin air, let alone her front door.

The noise was back... but something was different. It sounded so familiar. What in the hell was it?

It was hollow and empty. If despair and despondent made a noise, this would definitely be it without a doubt. So why did the name of it keep escaping her mind?

Absent-minded, she found her hand making its way to the external of her front door. The sound began to augment itself. It intensified in her head until it was all she could hear. She allowed her fingers to brush themselves against the uneven surfaces of the door, tracing around the letters with the tips of her fingernails as if she were writing the words herself. Before she could finish the last E, her eyes began to widen and she took a step back. She wore a look of horror at what she was doing. Maybe she really was alone. Her doctor never stopped telling her about how far she could go in life, but she always felt she was falling farther than she was rising. What did she become? She was so full of doubt, that the answer seemed nonexistent. There was one thing she knew for sure, however. The sound that she had been longing to know the name of. It came from her.

"Don't play his game," she whispered to herself.

Aveny quickly took her hands and covered her mouth to stop the words from escaping. They sounded like static on her lips. Before she knew it, she was running inside, slamming the door closed on her way in.

She immediately regretted her decision. Her walls were ravaged with drawings and words. Pictures of trees and distorted figures obscured the surfaces of her home. Black ink was splattered all over her staircase. Furniture was turned over, either torn or destroyed. Pieces of glass and broken vases were scattered everywhere. "Well that's unfortunate," she grumbled. Nevertheless, she was quite amused. It's not everyday your world comes crashing down. The blood was rushing to her head, the adrenaline pumping in her veins instead. She was absolutely thrilled. Her house was no longer safe. She'd have to get out of here; fast. She couldn't go back into town. The only safe place there would be Dr. Hesling's office and that was off limits as of now. She took one quick look out the door again and back at her devastated living room. The woods would have to do. It's the last place she could think of, as sad as it is.

Aveny took an unconscious step forward, already cutting her feet on the shards of glass. Streams of blood began pouring through her feet, staining her black Converses as she ran towards the stairs and up to the room. She grabbed her black backpack and almost ran back in the hallway, stopping herself before she got through her doorway.

Probably not a good idea, she thought as she glanced as her bloodstained ankles. She wasn't stupid, she could feel the pain. Well actually, scratch that. Aveny could be pretty stupid when she wanted to. This would be one of those times.

She turned and ran towards the window she had been looking out of earlier. Yanking the curtains right off the rack, she took hold of the frame and tightened her grip. Oh, she wished she had bigger hands for this. Preferably stronger too. Forcing the window out of its pane in one piece, she leaned the glass against the wall and began climbing out of her bedroom window.

The night was upon her. Time was running out fast. She needed to get somewhere safe before she'd end up lost in the blackness. She took one last look in her room and began descending the walls of her house. It had gotten extremely colder since this afternoon. Her exposed skin was already beginning to feel numb under the wind. She gripped tightly onto the oak vines as she made her way down, not wanting to accidentally let go. Once her feet touched the floor, they didn't hesitate to start moving. She made a break for the trees, not even bothering to look back at her home, which was now in a state of ruins. All she could think was to run as fast as possible, because she knew she wouldn't feel safe until she was away from the building. It must have been a good eight minutes of sprinting. She felt her feet slow, her body beginning to weigh her down. She didn't want to stop yet though. She picked up her feet, trying to cover a little more distance before collapsing in exhaustion.

By the time something got her to stop, she was struggling to breathe. Panting, she thought about what restrained her from going even more. Suddenly, she knew. Aveny knew what Dr. Hesling meant by what he said so many times before.

"You can run and succeed as far as you like."

But how far could she run?

How far could her fear take her before she reached a dead end?

She stood still, her very being hidden and shrouded by the trees and fog in this endless forest. A spot of white caught her attention. She turned her head slowly, trying to decipher whether it was reality of imagination. It was a sheet of paper posted on the trunk of a tree.

"What in the..." Aveny moved closer, unable to complete her thoughts.

The static was back, but she didn't care. The closer she advanced towards the tree, the greater the static and her stimulation grew. Maybe she was alone and crazy. She didn't care. If she scared herself hard enough to the point where her heart stopped beating, she wouldn't mind at the slightest. Her arm began rising again. She touched the paper, running her cold touch along it's smooth surface. All she wanted was answers. Perhaps she could find them here.

Aveny instinctively removed the sheet from its place on the wood. The static stopped once again, leaving her in a frightening silence. There wasn't a single sound as her hands automatically began to turn the page over. Something struck in her head as she found the words, like the striking of a clock as the hands hit twelve.

Let the games begin.

End Chapter 1 |
1/8 Pages Collected.

Sorry if it's a bit slow. Since it's the beginning, it's a bunch of background and stuff. ^^"
The story will definitely progress more as it goes along. Thanks for reading!

-AvenyCity