It was dark.
That first time she encountered him.
That at least she could remember.
Then again, the damned thing could hardly be conceived as a man, she never recalled a mortal face for the predator.
Since that fateful, inky black night, she began to see things….things that even those 'seeing-illusion types' wouldn't be able to comprehend.
Sobbing and wailing in a scrunched fetal position, she heard footsteps coming towards her…..
….Perhaps we're getting a little too ahead of ourselves. Let's go back to the beginning…
Sandra quickly scrawled out a last minute sketch on her completed test answer sheet. It was always an unofficial tradition of hers to draw something on whatever piece of paper was given to her at school. This time it was a rabbit, she didn't feel particularly creative that day-so she settled on just that.
"Alright class, any tests that are still out, please pass them to the front desks!" Her U.S. History teacher boomed.
Looking up from her sheet in a start, Sandra clumsily stumbled out of her chair with a loud SQUEAK, grabbing her paper and dropping it on the little pile of answer sheets at the designated desk. Embarrassed with her commotion, the poor thing accidentally hit her foot against one of the desk's legs, wincing in the process. Earning a few giggles from her classmates, she straightened her composure and nervously scuttled back to her seat.
It was then the bell rang.
The class of 24 began bustling and chattering away, gathering their things like they had all the time in the world.
Meanwhile, in a hurry, Sandra quickly grabbed her striped backpack and ran out of class before the hallways got too crowded. It was lunchtime, and boy was she hungry.
Almost missing her locker on the way to the cafeteria, she hastily unlocked it and grabbed her Joker lunch pail, stomach growling, sprinting to find a good seat in the lunch area. Sandra was in luck; however, as she saw her little group of friends had already captured a table. Smiling as they waved her over, the girl trotted merrily to an empty seat beside one of her companions, Catherine.
"About time you got here! Where the hell did you go to? Vietnam and back?"
Noting her sarcasm, Sandra merely rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders, slowly opening her lunchbox.
"Yep, totally….they were pretty nice too! They were even generous enough to get me some…."
Quickly she pulled out a pork roll, shoving it into Catherine's face.
"OH! You shouldn't have!" Snorting and giving a light smack to Sandra's back, she unwrapped the roll and began munching away.
Grinning widely, for Sandra herself, she took out a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich, a personal snack of hers, licking her lips in anticipation as she removed the plastic baggie.
But just as Sandra was about to take a bite, another friend of hers, Laura, snatched the food out her hands, sitting across from the table where Sandra was.
"How the fuck do you eat these fattening things and not turn into Porky Pig?"
With a grunt and a session of whining, Sandra vainly tried to retrieve her sandwich back from those flailing hands, but to no avail as she sunk in her seat and said,
"I'm not exactly Tyra Banks-thin either, but come on! I'm starving and I NEED sugar!"
Enjoying her distressed reaction, Laura was too distracted to notice Catherine grab the food from her hands and give it back to Sandra.
"Cut the kid some slack! We got to stuff her up for the winter anyways." She said playfully. Catherine turned her back away from the two and talked with another person beside her.
Gawking at her friend in gratitude, Sandra giggled, taking back her food in her hands.
"Hey! But I wanted an answer!" Laura slammed her head against the table, shaking her head with a slight grin.
Shoving the sugary concoction into her mouth before anyone else got their hands on it, the now-satisfied girl leaned over the table and looked at Laura, seeing that she was on her phone now.
"Whatcha lookin' at?"
Laura lifted her head, raising an eyebrow and gripping the device, hiding the screen from her friend.
"Have you ever heard of Creepypasta?"
Puzzled, Sandra cocked her head to the side, "What's that? Wait! Does it have something to do with the Flying Spaghetti Monster?" She said, wiggling her fingers as she spoke.
"Psht, you wish, it's these spooky stories people write online, and they can be as scary as hell!"
Sitting back in her chair and reopening her lunchbox, Sandra retrieved a baggie of grapes, gobbling them up, scoffing in the process.
"What's so funny?"
Her turn to shake her head, Sandra knew that her friend here was an easy person to terrify.
These so-called 'Creepypasta' of hers were probably as fear-inducing as a fat man with a tuba. She should know, she herself was an avid fan of anything horror related, and anything with the word 'pasta' in it was obviously not horror.
Switching her attention back to the girl in front of her, Sandra replied,
"You'd get scared of anything if you put your mind to it!"
"I'm serious! This stuff is shit-my-pants terrifying!"
"Oh reeeeeeally now? What are some of these Creepypasta called, anyways? The MACARONI MASSACRE?" Throwing her head back, stifling a giggle.
Normally Sandra wasn't so cocky, but she could become quite the monster when you mess with her favorite genre.
"No! See! This one here! I'm reading this one right now," Laura shoved her cell phone into her friend's face, "Dead Bart!"
Admittedly a bit startled by the first thing she saw on the screen, a decomposed Homer Simpson alongside some text, Sandra moved her head so as to see Laura with raised eyebrows.
"Dead Bart? I'm shaking in my booties! Laura, it's the Simpsons for Christ's sake! How can these things be scary?" Sandra giggled.
"You just haven't read any of these stories yet, you should really give them a read sometime! And besides, these are one of the Lost Episode Creepypasta, they kind of add this scary version of different TV shows. I'd thought you'd like to know about it, with your little-bitty obsession with Horror and all!"
Sandra glanced at Laura's phone, contemplating whether to give these things a read. Laura held the phone closer to her friend, inviting her to read. Just as Sandra was about to grasp the device, it was then that the 5 minute warning bell rang.
"SHIT!"
Jumping out of the table seat, Sandra desperately gathered her things, threw away her remaining lunch, telling Laura sorry and rushing out the cafeteria. She always hated being a late arrival to class.
Some Time Later…..
"How was school today, honey?"
The only audibility came in a grunted 'okay.'
Sandra was caught drawing on her 6th period classroom desk, hence the reason for her irritated mood. Her Pre-Calculus teacher sent her for a momentary chat outside the halls, all the more embarrassing to her coveted ego. But there was no way in hell would she tell her strict mother about all that.
Speaking of her mother, she was chatting away about her own work day with her daughter, but unfortunately it feel to deaf ears as they drove their way home from school.
Jumping out of the car with her bag, Sandra opened the front door and jogged up her second-story home, walking into her room. Immediately dropping her bag near her nightstand, she jumped, landing on her Queen bed with a 'plop.' Looking around, one could tell that the décor was quite feminine for someone her age. A white antique vanity desk beside a flat screen on top of an eggshell white, country-themed drawer set. Next, a tall coat hanger lay in front of the large bed, filled with decorative hats and purses for which she so adored. Finally, there was the nightstand right next to where her bag lay, with a white lamp, alarm clock, and music box Sandra bought at a secondhand store.
While the girl herself was calming down as she lay between the pillows of her comforter, in exhaustion, she recalled the school day she had.
'Nothing necessarily eventful….stupid.. .. it was a bloody horse I drew-it washed…."
She thought wearily as her eyelids became heavy. Yawning with her gaping mouth and letting sleep overtake her, it wasn't until she let out a heavy yawn that she took herself out of her daze.
"WHA-"
It was then she remembered the Creepypasta her friend Laura mentioned earlier.
"Humph."
In a sudden burst of curiosity, Sandra quickly hopped off of the bed (almost rolling her ankle in the process) and grabbed a drawer handle from the working desk. Opening it, she grasped a rectangular object and tucked it in her hand, before shutting it closed and climbing back in bed.
It was her laptop.
Turning it on and opening a new tab, she intended to type in 'creepypasta scariest stories' on her web browser…she wasn't all that quick in typing either ways.
But just as Sandra was about to type in the 'c' in scariest, a suggestion popped up.
"Creepypasta Slenderman"
Scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion on who this 'Slenderman' could be, she clicked submit. Immediately, a multitude of paranormal encounter stories popped up, though they looked to be fictional to Sandra's eyes. She obviously wouldn't be able to get any reliable information from those just yet, and in that realization she puffed out her cheeks in irritability. It was then that she drew her gaze to another link that said 'Wikipedia: Slenderman.'
'There we go.' She smiled as she lead her mouse towards the page link—it was then that her bedroom door burst open, with her mother stomping in and yelling;
"Did you hear me young lady? I've been calling you for ages for lunch! Why didn't you listen to me?!"
Quickly Sandra shut her laptop with a gasp, eyes darting towards the intruder.
Turning red with embarrassment and blabbering a string of 'I'm sorry's and I couldn't hear,' she tumbled out of her bed and scuttled with her mother out of the room and into the kitchen downstairs.
Her mother was not a force worth reckoning with.
A delicious-looking plate of fried battered fish and veggies was placed in front of Sandra as she sat down at the table. About to reach for the cutlery beside her with an eager look on her face, a hand immediately swiped her grasp away, and along it came her mother's voice once again.
"Your hands are probably filthy! Go to the bathroom and wash up or you'll get germs all over the plate!"
With a pointed glare and a pointed finger, she directed her daughter to clean up.
Frowning at her denial of food, and God knows she loves to eat, Sandra scooted out of her chair, heading towards the nearest bathroom.
While washing her hands in the sink, she gazed at the mirror in front of her.
Her brown curly hair looked unkempt and frizzy from the hot day outside, not exactly flattering the semi-tanned skin she was stuck with. The mascara that surrounded her dark brown eyes still seemed intact though, even her foundation held up a bit, but, nevertheless, she didn't like dirty appearances, and so Sandra grimaced at the sight.
Drying her hands with the towel on the nearby rack, she turned herself around, looking at her body.
People wouldn't necessarily call her overweight, but Sandra's diet certainly give her a bit of a tummy. Luckily it doesn't seem to stray to other parts of her person, so she appeared relatively normal.
'Could be worse,' Sandra thought as she then looked at her apparel for the day; a cream, short-sleeved sundress with flayed ends that ended around her kneecaps. She had a tendency to dress up in the most unnecessary of times.
Then something strange occurred.
Looking back up towards the mirror at eye-level, Sandra nearly swore her face abruptly contorted amongst the glass image. Her expression distorted in a tight swirl, eyes blacked out.
Gasping with fright, Sandra saw the image returned to normal as abruptly as it came.
Shivering, she never recalled seeing anything so odd, horror movie or reality. She genuinely wanted to yell for help, but for once, she actually thought before acting out.
Her mother cannot know about this.
Quickly remembering her now growling stomach to excuse herself out of that now cursed room, Sandra ran out of the bathroom towards lunch, hoping it was in her head.
Walking in the kitchen, she could see her mother turned on the little television that hung visibly above the table.
It was turned on the Local News Channel, and apparently there was breaking news going on. Sandra, still shaking, took her seat at the table, seeing what commotion was going on.
"We interrupt our current broadcasting to issue another reported missing person's case.
7 year old Kaitlin Daniels has disappeared for the past 3 days, and it is now under the belief of the local law enforcement that she may have been kidnapped. The parents of little Daniels discovered that the girl was found missing from her bedroom in the waking hours of one morning. Upon further investigation, the bedroom window was discovered wide open and yet evidence so far suggests that no sign of struggle was involved.
It is believed that, along with the other four recent cases of missing children, there may be some sort of connection between them. All disappearances seem to correspond in terms of their circumstances, and thus believed that the same perpetrator may apply to all the children. None of the bodies nor trace of the children have been found since then, and thus cannot be confirmed of their whereabouts. The police department is currently performing screening tests and is requesting that parents lock and secure all windows and doors throughout the night. Now we bring you to our original broa-"
*Boop!*
Sandra's mother shut off the television, heaving a sigh of worry and turning her head to look at her daughter. Her daughter looked just as shocked as herself at this turn of events.
Sandra could sense the missing children struck a nerve in her protectively maternal side.
"You have to be careful out there, honey, I wouldn't know what to do if you left my sight… I thought when we first moved here with your father, we'd be out of danger from the city-but- what kind of world do we live in where our kids can't even be safe in the countryside anymore?"
With a mouth now full of broccoli, Sandra swallowed nervously and said in a seemingly comforting tone,
"Well, I'm not exactly as young as those children are mom, don't…worry." Her daughter spoke softly.
"But if there's people who want to kidnap children, what makes them not want to t-"
"MOM. I'm fine! It's just a news story, kids get lost all of the time…."
"Sandra, you know how easily you get sidetracked, I've always had to keep an eye on you, even as a little girl!" Her mother said with a concerned look in her eyes.
In the midst of the concern, Sandra couldn't help but let a huff of air escape her irritated mug.
She didn't like to be reminded of her troublesome self from early childhood.
But what could she possibly do? Blame her own mother? Oh how she tried not to.
Looking back at her sheepishly, she saw as the once distressed look on her face softened.
"I'll just have to make sure to lock up a bit more secure from now on. Darling, please never go out after sunset from now on, okay?...What's wrong?"
Sandra's mother was noticing the subtle look of worry drawn over her daughters face.
Quickly responding by creaking out her chair, she threw her plates in the nearby sink, and ran up the stairs in a hastened reply of 'sorry, I remembered I had homework to do,' too fearful of being downstairs at the moment.
Her mother held a look of upset and heartbreak.
Sandra doesn't have outbursts like that towards her very often,-
She was under the suspicion that her daughter may put herself in some kind of danger.
And she must find out what.
…
Closing the door to her room, Sandra pressed her back to the door and slid down, crouching in fear.
She remembered watching a share of paranormal films in theaters throughout her life, but Sandra always found them drawl and complete bull. Why didn't the couple move out of the godforsaken house if the 'poltergeists' kept moving the chairs around? Why do they videotape themselves sleeping if all it may do is traumatize them for their remaining existence? Because ghosts are complete bull-nonsense-drawl. They couldn't possibly be the reason behind that image.
It was so quick, what had just happened, and Sandra felt idiotic for fretting over such a thing, but that visage….that disfiguration in the mirror seemed the work of something….dare she say it…..demonic!
'Fuck, shit, fuck, shit, nononononono, nothing like this exists, no way in hell.
No. No. No! NO. NO. NO.
It was in her head. No. No such thing as ghosts…
'But there's always demons..' The little voice in the back of her mind spoke softly….
Slowly standing up, knees clattering, Sandra noticed her laptop that lay on her bed.
Pondering vaguely for a moment, she thought of distracting herself with a trip to the internet.
'Maybe I can take my mind off reading that Slenderman fiasco, can't be anymore disturbing than that fucking mirror…'
Reopening the laptop after climbing onto the bed, she once again revealed the Wiki tab pertaining to Slenderman.
"Let's see here…."
And so Sandra managed to distract herself from the mirror incident for the time being, absorbing the information on this newfound monster.
The legend seemed somewhat of a bore to her though, not impressed nor scared in the least, no sir.
'First appearing in a Something Awful forum, the being has since been an internet legend, though by no accounts a real thing.
It has been described as an obviously disproportionate, thin person with a white, faceless head and elongated limbs in a black suit. He is also believed to possess excess ligaments that can come out
But it is in no way human.
It is said to stalk the woods and forests of humans, beckoning mainly children and the occasional wandering eye. The bodies are never discovered or found, and so it is never known what Slenderman does to his prey-wait-'
A light bulb clicked in her head.
"WHAT TH-"
Suddenly there was a loud bang in the foreground, startling the poor girl.
"CHRIST!"
Sandra immediately lifted the comforter of her bed, dropping her laptop in the process, and hid under the sheets, shaking uncontrollably with sweat perspiring off her forehead.
A million thoughts collided with each other inside her mind, connecting two and two together, but can it be?
A tear slid from her eyes.
Her town was in fact situated right beside the local woods after all, and the Cul-de-Sac she lived in was but a block away from it!
Add that to the missing children on the news.
Could this…..thing….be real?
And that incident with the mirror. Oh no. It can't be here, can it? Why now?
"DAMN YOU LAURA!"
She had always mocked and ridiculed others for being afraid of the silliest of things, but never took the time to actually sympathize with their fears. And now Sandra had to pay for it.
Fucking Laura. Why did she bring up those damned Creepypasta? Why did she look them up?
'Karma is such a bitch…' She thought with gritted teeth and watery eyes.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The girl squealed in fear, tightening the covers around herself as the banging noise was followed by hasty scratching. Another bang and a crash, Sandra began pleading desperately into the air, falling to a silent void.
"Oh-oh-Christ…STOP! STOP! PLEASE OH GOD! DON'T HURT ME PLEASE!"
And just like that, it stopped.
Afraid to see what it may have been, Sandra did not loosen her grip on the comforter.
But to no avail, as she felt the sheets being pulled away from her body, she darted her eyes at the intruder in front of her.
By no less than a few inches from her nose was a faceless abomination, the likes of which have never been replicated in any horror film.
That black suit it wore.
The tentacle protrusions that came out its back.
Those white hands-no-claws at its side.
It was Slenderman.
Sandra saw that her room began to faze as static surrounded her form. White noise filled her ears, causing her to groan in distaste and close off her ears with her hands.
But It wasn't budging from it's position though, and that is what drove the girl to slowly back away, until her head made contact with the board of the bed, and yet the form got closer, and closer to her face.
His face suddenly split, revealing a wide, black mouth with daggered teeth; and as everything went black for Sandra, all that could be heard was that final scream erupting from her throat.
…..
"AUGH! AHH! AHHHHHHHHH! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"
"SANDRA, dear it's a dream! WAKE UP!"
She indeed woke with a start, and saw it was her mother and father looming over her, a look of disgust and fear shared between their faces.
"Oh thank God you're alright!" Sandra's mother exclaimed as she held her daughter.
Shaking her head back and forth, the girl wailed, "No! Momma it tried to kill me!"
"Honey, it's nothing, it was a nightmare, a very, very bad dream." Her father said, stroking her frizzled hair.
"B-b-but, Daddy, it wanted to hurt me, it w-"
"You're with us now, little Sandy, don't worry, whatever you dreamt up won't bother you anymore."
Sandra, in between wiping her dripping nose with her arm and burying her head in her mother's shoulder, noticed a pungent aroma wafting through the room.
Letting go of her mother and looking down, she found herself lying on her bed in her clothes from school still, but also found another not-so-special surprise.
She had also wet the bed.
By the second floor window of the girl's room, he was able to have full view of his new little toy.
She had said she was not afraid of his reign of terror, but he knew it wasn't true. He saw that newfound terror on her facial expression the moment he cornered her in her bed.
And her screams held such a desperate tone he had not heard in a while.
God, how he loved that.
But just once wasn't enough for him this time, as he found out. Normally he killed them off in the woods or lured them into his territory after just one encounter.
This one…..he wanted to make her scream until her voice croaked.
He'll make sure this one lasts for a while, whether she wanted it or not.
A slithery tongue swept across the pale man's sharp teeth.
'Until next time, little one…..' He hissed as he teleported back to his home.