Lauren escaped death on the night she escaped the Slenderman in Oakside Park. She then managed to escape death for about another 70 years more before it finally caught up to her. Or rather, until she finally slowed down for it. She was, at last, ready to let go of her life and move on into whatever might come next. She'd had a good, long life, full of success and meaning, but even so, throughout it all, something always felt missing. That was why, when Lauren felt her eyes grow unnaturally heavy right in the middle of one summer night, she had no issue in slowing down and shutting them and going to sleep.
When at last her eyes did open again, Lauren was standing right in the middle of a lush little forest, quaint and quiet, the only sounds being that of nature itself: water flowing, birds and crickets chirping, the wind rustling through falling leaves. It was a very scenic picture and it didn't help that there was a gentle, golden sunset on the far west horizon. The grass was bright green and soft beneath her sneakered feet and the sky was a hazy pink-yellow. The trees seemed young and strong, vibrant with color and rich with smells. It was what she'd envision as her own little Eden, a quiet paradise in a majestic garden, a forest.
Normally, such serenity and beauty would've been lost upon someone just waking up right in the middle of this field with no knowledge of how or why they were there. Lauren, however, felt very much at home here and even though she couldn't explain it, she felt as though this place had been waiting for her, and now she felt as though she were waiting for it...
"Lauren!" a cheerful voice that Lauren hadn't heard in decades echoed behind her. Lauren turned around with a huge grin.
"Kate!" and she had never said anything with so much certainty. Sure enough, then, coming up over the grassy slopes, was a college-age girl in a pink dress. She had long, silky black hair that ran down her muscled shoulders, and she practically flew at Lauren. Lauren, excited, began to run towards Kate, all the stagnancy and tiredness gone from her limbs. Suddenly, she felt worlds younger, and was skimming across the soft ground, limbs taunt and thin again, lithe with muscle and energy of life.
The girls met in the middle, colliding in a joyous embrace.
"Lauren! You're finally here! Oh! We've been waiting for so long!" Kate cried in delight.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It just took me awhile to get here!" Lauren laughed in reply, knowing exactly where she was even though no one had given her an exact name or explanation for this place.
"Well, that's a good thing!" Kate replied. "Oh! But it sure is good to see you again! It'll be just like when we were kids!" Kate took Lauren and spun her around a little and Lauren laughed.
"Time certainly hasn't changed you at all, has it Kate?" she joked and Kate shook her head proudly.
"It hasn't changed anyone else either!" she added, gesturing behind her.
Then, as if on cue, three boys all appeared where Kate had stood moments ago, running at them from atop that grassy hill.
"Charlie! CR!" Lauren recognized two of the boys at once. There CR was, still just as lanky as he ever was. His dark hair was still spiky and wild. He had a proud and playful smile on his thin face as he ran down to join Kate and Lauren at the base of the grassy slope. Running right beside him was a much smaller, younger boy. He was a chubby little guy with short, fuzzy brown hair. It was Charlie. He began to sing Lauren's name and he danced over to her eagerly, chubby legs never tiring at all.
"Lauren! Lauren! Lauren!" Charlie sang, then he launched himself into Lauren's arms.
"Hey, Charlie Boy! It's so good to see you again!" she hugged him tightly.
"What up, Laur?" CR greeted, coming in close behind Charlie. Lauren set Charlie down to hug CR.
"It's been too long," she said into his shoulder.
"Hasn't it?" CR agreed, hugging her back, then he whispered into her ear. "Thank you so much, for all you've done for all of us."
"You and Kate both would've done the same," Lauren replied, looking into Kate's gray eyes as she continued to hug CR. Kate nodded knowingly.
But the third boy? Well... It took Lauren a moment, but after letting go of CR and seeing the spiky brown hair and the green hoodie on this third boy, Lauren finally realized that she was looking at-
"Ticci Toby?!" Lauren was in disbelief. He looked so... handsome! Even more so than CR! And CR had certainly been a looker in his days. But Toby? Oh, Lauren was sure he could bring an entire army of people to their knees.
"It's Tobias now, Ma'am," he said politely once he and Lauren were close enough to speak evenly.
"I can't believe it!" Lauren laughed a little. Toby only shrugged with an adorable little grin and extended a hand that, for once, Lauren did not flinch from. Kate watched the whole scene unfold serenely. Any bad blood between the two of them was long gone.
In time, then, many more people of all shapes, sizes, ages, nations, races, time periods and genders appeared from all over. Some came from the trees, some from the fields, some from the distant mountain, some from nearby lakes, it didn't really matter. They came from all over, and soon, the entire forest was full of life, light, laughter, love and diversity. What bound them all together, however, was the same exact thing: Slenderman. Although that foul creature no longer walked among them, still alive and trapped in the living Oakside Park, he was the one to "thank" for bringing everyone here together. From what Lauren was told by the plethora of people, Slenderman's victims would die, and then their souls would belong to him. Sometimes, he brought them back for his own entertainment, turning them into proxies. Other times, he simply collected them, his tentacles creating a horrific cage to imprison them in. Either way, even death did not free a victim of Slenderman.
After Lauren and Kate's brave little stunt, however, when Slenderman trapped himself in his own forest out of sheer pride, everyone else inside was able to continue to rebel against him. They were all mere souls, but Slenderman grew ever-weaker without a constant supply of prey. Cut off from the outside world, the demon began to "starve" until some of the souls were strong enough to escape him. As per what the spell said, they were still trapped in Oakside just like Slenderman, but they were able to go to a far nicer, happier, freer, cleaner version of Oakside, which was where they all stood now. Slenderman was entirely alone now, so weak that even the weakest of his old victims was able to escape his tentacles and come to this New Oakside. Lauren was the last person to be admitted to this restored Oakside afterlife.
"But since you were never technically a victim and you did escape fair and square the first time, the curse that binds us does not bind you," Toby said to her as Kate and CR wrapped up the story. "This means that, if you wish, you can go explore and try to find some other afterlife somewhere else. We, however, will spend eternity here, but to be honest, none of us mind all that much. It's a nice setup and we all get to revel in the satisfaction of knowing that Slenderman is just as trapped as we are, though in a far uglier situation," Toby smirked and, just for a moment, Lauren saw that cruel and sadistic savagery enter his brown (not yellow anymore) eyes again, but that savagery was gone as quick as it came.
So that left the ball in Lauren's field. She could either stay here in Oakside afterlife will all of Slenderman's other victims, or she could travel the afterlife to her heart's content and see what else was out there.
"I must say," said Lauren, after the question was posed to her properly. "It offends me a little that you have to ask. That you don't know me well enough to know my answer. Especially you, Kate," she added with a teasing grin as she turned to her oldest and closest friend.
"Well, I think I have a fairly good idea of what it is," Kate admittedly sheepishly. "But I wouldn't be selfish enough to ask."
"Well now I'm really offended," Lauren pretended to pout. "That you would equate your company with a chore."
"But Lauren, exploration is in your blood!" Kate tried. "You don't have to wait around here."
"It used to be," Lauren replied gently. "But I've changed quite a lot over the years, mellowed out too, and I think that as wonderful and full as my life has been, I'm done exploring. I'm ready to settle down now. I'm ready to come home..."
Lauren trailed off with a longing smile and Kate opened her arms knowingly, a huge smile spreading across her face that she was trying and failing miserably to hide. The whole park cheered then, as Kate and Lauren embraced sweetly and cemented their long-awaited reunion. Laughter and whoops of triumph filled the trees and the air and raced across the streams and grass. They reached every corner of New Oakside, New Eden, as the fallen victims rose again, triumphant, with their hero in their very midst, finally returned to them after so very long.
There would be no more death or despair, no more pain. Not in New Eden. And the Devil, the Slenderman, was trapped below them now, stuck forever in a lonely Hell, a shadowy existence of life, while all of them, the victims, lived in happiness and unity above. He was stuck in the old, gloomy Oakside, doomed to wither away for all time. They were stuck in the new, paradisiac Oakside, blessed to be at peace forever more.
"Welcome home, Lauren, welcome home," Kate whispered into Lauren's ear as they continued to embrace under the warm rays of the setting sun. For the first time in many decades, Lauren finally felt complete. She had finally found her own little Eden.
AN: Here's to you, GoldenFazbearGreen, the happy ending you and I both always wanted! I didn't mean for it to get so heavy on the religious allegory at the end there, but what can you do? And honestly, now that I've written this, I am so tempted to do a crossover where the Slender characters meet the FNAF characters since, in both iterations, Heaven is a beautiful, grassy field. Maybe Slender and Afton can keep each other company in Hell... LOL.
Edit as of 3/3/19: I've been cleaning up my other Slender story, so of course I was going to fix this one up too, though I feel like this one was much better. There was a lot less to fix. And again, this is a semi unofficial sequel to my Arrival story.