"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" CR bellowed in grief and agony, collapsing to his knees before the Slenderman. The Slenderman towered over him, above even the tallest of the trees standing within the forest that they were currently inside of. While CR began to sob, clutching his head and on the verge of insanity, the Slenderman only looked down at him, totally silent and motionless.
"What do you want from me?!" CR repeated a few seconds later, voice far softer, weaker and more frightened than before. What once had been a scream of raw anguish had become a whimpering cry of a frightened child. He was still on his knees before the godlike creature, unable to look up for fear of what might happen if he did. Slenderman, meanwhile, continued to stare impassively down at CR. However, he finally replied.
"I think the better question is, what do you want from me?" he said and CR retched, the horrible sound of Slenderman's voice unspeakably hellish. It was grating and silky all at once, soft and commanding, ethereal. It managed to somehow fill the entire forest around them, and be inside CR's head, right in the very foremost part of his being. It was coming from a place deeper inside than his brain, his heart, or even his soul. It was as though Slenderman was speaking from the core of his very essence, and there was nothing more violating than that.
"What do you mean?" he whimpered, shaking violently and clutching his ears in terror, knowing he would have to endure Slenderman's deathly hiss once again. For a second, though, the entire forest seemed to tremble gently. The earth shook and the air itself seemed to undulate. A static filled CR's body from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Suddenly, he realized, Slenderman was laughing at him. This monster was so powerful that his laughter rocked the entire forest! CR had never felt more insignificant or exposed in his whole life.
"What do I mean?" Slenderman repeated. Although his voice was a drone, CR could hear a note of pure amusement in his sickly coo as he mocked CR's question. "Oh, my dear, sweet, petty, little boy!" he continued cruelly. "Is it not obvious? Do you not know by now that I am not a mere bogeyman? Nor am I a devil? Nor a demon? No. I am an angel, a god!" for a brief second, the forest around them took on an otherworldly aura and CR began to wonder if Slenderman weren't telling the truth after all... But then...?
"Then why are you here?" CR repeated meekly, still shaking hard as he stared at the ground, unable to look up and face Slenderman outright. "If you are a god, then what business do you have here with me?"
"Foolish, ignorant child," Slenderman said almost reproachfully. "How very little you understand of the world! Do you really think I am some sort of avenging angel? Or a devil come to take your soul? Or a demon here to punish you for some petty little sin you think you've committed? No. I have come for a very different reason. I have come to answer your prayer..."
"My prayer?" CR choked out.
"Surely you must know!" Slenderman scoffed again. "You did not come here because of me. I came here because of you." CR couldn't even comprehend this statement, let alone come up with a reply. Slenderman seemed to understand this, because he pressed on, not waiting for a reply.
"It was not I that brought us here together tonight. It was you. So now I must ask you, what do you want from me?"
For a moment more, there was only silence. Then, when CR began to realize that nothing at all was going to change until he mustered up the strength and courage to reply, he managed to force something out.
"I want you to leave me alone," it was bold and powerful demand, but the tone with which CR spoke it was anything but. Instead of coming out as a demand, or even a request, it came out as a plea. His voice was soft and weak, a child whimpering for mercy, not a man making a request to his god. Slenderman uttered another harsh, horrible laugh that rocked the forest to its very core. CR clutched his head even harder, panting like a dog.
"Is that so, boy?" the monster demanded.
"Yes?" CR whimpered, only able to formulate questions, having no authority of his own to issue statements.
"I think not," Slenderman replied.
"What?" CR felt his stomach drop. Was Slenderman calling him a liar? Would he soon be punished for some perceived deceit upon his part against Slenderman? CR suddenly felt desperate to the point of insanity. He was willing to say, to do, anything he could to survive this encounter and to get Slenderman to understand that he was not at all trying to defy or stand against him. But how could he when Slenderman was in disbelief of his request? What was Slenderman expecting him to say? What did Slenderman want him to say? Because he would say it! Surely he would! Slenderman just had to give the word and CR was his!
"I think not," Slenderman repeated slowly, but before CR could beg to know what this meant, Slenderman pressed on again. "If you really wished for me to leave you alone, I would have done so by now, so surely there must be something else that you want from me, even more than my departure from your life. For if my departure was all you wanted of me, then I would not be here right now. But seeing that I am, there must be something else lurking deep within you that calls out for something more. Tell me, CR, what is it? What is it you really want? Tell me. And then, perhaps, we may both understand why I am here tonight. Then, we can figure out a solution and we can both go home..."
At the thought of being able to go home and leave this nightmare forest behind, CR dared to look up, just a little. He stopped when he was looking at what one would consider to be Slenderman's torso. It was impossibly thin and bony, covered only by a simple black suit. He wore a white shirt under that suit, but the white was mostly obscured by a large black tie hanging from his thin white throat. CR didn't dare look higher than the top of that tie. He knew that to look into the face of Slenderman was to look into the eyes of Death, and no one who ever looked into those ever looked away again. Trembling, but almost hopeful, he spoke up again.
"What is it? What do you mean? What else is that I could possibly want from you?" he pleaded frantically.
"I don't know," Slenderman replied calmly. "You tell me."
"But I don't know!" CR gave a despairing wail, fearful that he may never leave this nightmare if he could not please Slenderman or answer his question. Panic set in as he wracked his brains, trying to think of what it was that Slenderman wanted to hear him say. He just wanted to go home!
"Ah, but you do know!" Slenderman interrupted and CR ceased his panicking at once. It was impossible to speak over someone was powerful, ethereal and authoritative as Slenderman. If he was indeed some sort of god, if not The God, then no mere mortal could ever stand against him.
"You do know, CR, you do know, and if you will not confess it yourself, then I shall drag it up out of you for you to see, and then I shall shove it back down deep inside of you, where it will boil and fester for all of eternity!" the threat was so harsh and horrific that even though CR had no idea what this even meant, he began to panic again, sputtering apologies and begging for mercy, or a second chance, or whatever it was to please the Slenderman. Nothing worked. Instead, even though he insisted that he had no idea what Slenderman meant, or wanted, Slenderman only began to shake his head again. Then, he began to speak.
"Very well, CR," he said, with a sort of finality that made CR's blood run colder than ice. "If you won't do it, then I shall..." then, he began to speak. This faceless, mouthless creature spoke, while CR felt his own face freeze up at once. To his utter repulsion, one of Slenderman's long, bony white hands reached out and touched his chin. CR had never felt so violated before. The feeling of those cold, clammy fingers on his warm skin made him want to puke, or scream, or cry, or jump, or any combination of all of those things, but he was totally immobile, helpless as Slenderman slowly tilted his head up until they were face to face. CR's eyes became nightmarishly big and wide, then they went totally white. Those cursed fingers slithered under his chin and around his neck, immobilizing him even further. CR felt himself gag in horror and disgust, shuddering at the feeling, but all he could do was stare, stare into that empty and eternal abyss of a face, stare into the eyes of the Devil...
"No, not of the Devil," Slenderman said, inside of CR's head now. "You are looking into the face of God!" then, as he said this, the view suddenly shifted, and CR was nowhere near Oakside Park. This was where the true torment of Hell began.
CR saw visions of his life, reflected in Slenderman's face. Through his glazed and glassy vision, CR could see remnants of his past, flashes of his present, whispers of his future, and fragments of every dream, thought, feeling, fear or desire that he'd ever had in his whole entire life. As he sat there, on his hands and knees in the dirt, face fixated upon Slenderman's, he saw everything. He saw himself, being bullied as a child because he was so scrawny. He saw himself as a teenager, being harassed because he was far more interested in educational pursuits than sexual or physical ones. Then he saw himself, being rejected by the girls of his dreams. Maybe romance was not the fixture of his life, but it was still there, but none of his stories ever ended happily. Then he saw all those late and sleepless nights, the darkness of his own mind making the midnight sky look like daytime in comparison. He saw all those helpless, hopeless thoughts. He could see anguish, agony, guilt, grief, loneliness and anger.
He could see humiliation and neglect. Parents who did not love him. Friends that he always wanted yet never had. He could see backstabbing and betrayal. He could see heartbreak and fighting. He saw a little boy staring up at the stars, longing for a better, cleaner world. He could see, now, his own present. He could see long black tentacles wrapping him up in an eternal tomb of death and despair. He could see flashes of Her face. Kate's face. He could see her anger, her distrust, her fear, her pain. He could see her, crying, screaming, begging for him to stop. But he didn't. He wouldn't. He couldn't. He could see Lauren's wary, disapproving, distrustful gaze, cutting him deeper than the bone. He could feel her chiding presence, no friend of his. He could feel Slenderman's presence, watching him. Around every corner and through every window, just beyond his line of sight and at the fringes of his waking life. Slenderman was there. He had always been there. And he always would.
But this time, the visions morphed. He could see himself, strong and brave, free and powerful. He was standing atop the tallest tree in all of Oakside, Kate's hand intertwined with his own. Their faces were distorted, twisted beyond recognition into nightmarish masks of what they used to be. But it was still him, and it was still Kate, he could feel it radiating through his hallucinations. A long shadow stretched over them, but it was not a threatening one. It was a protective one, encasing and shielding him and his beloved Kate. It was Slenderman. As CR and Kate reigned over Oakside, hand in hand, as the king and queen of terror and blood, Slenderman was there, watching over them, giving them the life that they had always wanted. One where they were free, and together. A bloodred sun was rising over the park in a flaming sunrise. A new dawn. A new era.
"Do you see it now, CR?" Slenderman hissed. "The life you always wanted? The one you came to me, hoping for?" slowly, the vision faded, darkness creeping back in once more. "Do you see it now, CR? What you really called me here for? And I can obtain it! I can give it to you, if you like!" Slenderman's hissing became higher-pitched as he slowly released his hold around CR's neck, allowing the boy's head to droop away from his face again. The rippling hallucinations that had moved across his pure white visage ceased, and his face became seamless once more. As CR's head finally dropped away from Slenderman's, he began to shudder and retch again. As reality set back in, the sickly warmth that had come from those twisted visions let him feeling cold and hollow, like a dying tree within the park. He shook violently, gagging a little.
"Don't you see it, CR? Everything you could've ever wanted! And I can provide it!" Slenderman continued enticingly, his long black tentacles sliding out of his back, twisting through the trees and dirt and towards CR. Like the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, one of the larger tentacles rose up until it almost seemed like it was looking at CR.
"Well? CR?" Slenderman demanded softly, the one tentacle waggling in front of his eyes while the others twisted around his back, ready to scoop him up and pull him into his eternal resting place. CR was hypnotized, eyes still slightly glazed even though the hallucination was over.
"Remember, I am no Devil nor demon, but a god, your god, ready to deliver you into paradise. You need only to accept me into your heart, and I will provide..." for a moment more, there was only silence. Then...
"Remember, CR, you have seen the Lord's angel in me. You have looked into the face of God. Now, get up and follow Him. Follow Me."
CR, absentmindedly, looked up in response to this statement. What he saw horrified him, repulsed him, scarred him... broke him. It was something he could not quite fathom or comprehend, and it was certainly nothing he could ever put into mortal words. All he knew in that moment was that to look into the face of God when unprepared or uninvited was to surrender the last of your humanity. That one little accidental peek sent CR over the edge and what he saw in Slenderman's warped and twisted countenance, though it could not be stated by mere mortal words alone, was enough to shatter his very soul to the core. His own face contorted in sheer terror as he saw the Truth and he sprung up to his feet with a power he had not ever felt before. He turned tail and fled, faster and faster and faster. Through the endless rows and rows and rows of long black trees, all of which looked just like HIM, CR continued to run, to flee. Screaming and crying into the night did he run.
Slenderman only watched him go. CR would not escape him. This forest literally had no boundary, no end. This was no real park of any sort, but a hallucination all wrapped up in CR's mind. CR's only way to escape would be if he could find the strength to wake up, but at the rate things were going, he was going to remain trapped inside of this nightmare for a very, very long time indeed. So Slenderman watched CR go, getting both further away and nowhere all at once. He could run, screaming into the darkness, and he would make no progress in this landscape. Not in the paradise that Slenderman, himself, had created.
But, CR would find a way out eventually. He would wake up, eventually. Find himself back in his own bed where he had been this whole time. But this was fine with Slenderman. CR would find a way out, but he would still not escape, not after tonight, not after this little encounter. For this one little encounter had left a very deep mark upon CR's soul. One that only Slenderman could fill. Now, no matter where CR went, Slenderman would always be with him. In waking or in sleeping, in action or in rest, Slenderman would always be there with CR, for CR's little encounter with them had tied them both together forever, and there was no escape from that. Or rather, there was only one escape from that. The only way to escape a god was through death. But a god was immortal. That meant only one individual could hide behind death's veil. Upon that night, the veil was very hot and very bright, red and orange. This time, though, the flaming light did not end in a new dawn, but rather, a sunset.
AN: This is the first chapter in an anthology that looks at Slenderman in a new light. He's still an eldritch abomination that feeds upon humans, but this time, there's more nuance to it than that. This particular chapter treats him as a god. Whether you want to write him as some old god from an old religion, or a warped reality of the Christian God, or some Lovecraftian deity is up to you. All that matters is that, in this story, he is no mere bogeyman, but a god. A primordial deity with powers beyond mortal comprehension, even though he needs mortals to survive. This story is just him, speaking with CR in a nightmare about some of CR's most twisted and secret desires...
And if you DO choose to read this in the terms of Christian theology, you could read Slenderman either as God, or a creature who has deluded himself into believing that he is God, or you could read it that Slenderman is some sort of angel. After all, only a brief glimpse into theology will tell you that angels are just as terrifying as demons. And it's not a new concept that looking into the face of a god, or an angel, could break a mortal's mind in half just because it is beyond human comprehension, or because creatures as flawed and fallen as human literally cannot look upon the Divine without dire consequences. So with this in mind, Slenderman could be God, or an angel.