Author's Note: Just wanted to quickly say that the main reason this story isn't in the Doctor Who crossover section is because there is no Doctor in my story and that I'm only using/borrowing very few themes and characters but not enough to justify this being a Doctor Who centric fic. This is a Slender fic that happens to have a character from Doctor Who and I'm writing this in a way where you don't need prior knowledge of the show. I plan on making this story long. You have been warned.

"Loneliness is engineered into your brain before birth, and though you might try your hardest to show love, it always backfires. You are left alone to fight your own monsters, demons, to fight off the angels that swarm around your head and tell you what is right, and the ones who you are wishing to prove love to just happen to be those said angels."

- Unknown

...

Being left alone for the night was not a new concept to Amelia Pond.

Her Aunt Sharon had said she'd be back in five minutes. That's what her parents said too but they never came back. She's been waiting a long time now and it was getting harder and harder to believe that they'll come back at all.

Sometimes Amelia thinks she wouldn't mind if Aunt Sharon never came back for she was hardly at home anymore these days. But it wasn't a nice thought for her Aunt Sharon was her guardian and who would look after her then? Maybe Mels' foster parents or Rory Williams' father, Brian.

In the end what did it matter? There was always food in the kitchen, new books and clothes when she asked, and while her Aunt Sharon did threaten to make her an appointment for the psychiatrist when she mentioned the crack in her room, she always made sure she was alright by the end of the day. Usually.

The crack in the wall in her room was continuously growing. At first it was just an ordinary crack and she hardly noticed it at all. It was just something that was always there as far as she could remember. Then one night when her Aunt Sharon was out, the crack split open with a blinding light and a monstrous voice shouted at her.

When she mentioned her fear of the crack, her Aunt Sharon tried to reassure her that it was just an ordinary crack and nothing to be afraid of. However, her fear that it might one day swallow her whole never faded. Aunt Sharon noticed this and attempted only once to tell her that she was just having nightmares. After that, she began to threaten her with the psychiatrist appointments.

It was becoming increasingly apparent that her Aunt Sharon wasn't going to be of much help to her. Amelia decided to ask someone of a higher authority to help instead.

"Dear Santa," Amelia began as knelt down by her bed, "Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you. But honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack but I know it's not. Because at night there's voices. So please, please could you send someone to fix it. Like a Doctor...or a policeman...or a police operator...or-"

The sound of tree branches snapping and a loud crash interrupted her. "Back in a moment." She went and grabbed her torch then ran toward the window. The shed in the back of the garden had toppled over thanks to a fallen tree. The sight that was behind the fallen tree was what made her smile. "Thank you Santa."

She ran outside to investigate and get a closer look at what she saw behind the tree. The fallen tree narrowly missed the tulips that grew near the shed, Amelia noted with relief. Her Aunt Sharon wouldn't be too pleased about the broken shed but at least the tulips were alright. She turned on her torch and pointed it towards the other trees, hoping that whoever was there earlier would appear again.

Suddenly a tall lithe figure stood right before her. Her gaze started from the legs and worked up towards its face. Or lack of one. Where there should've been eyes were only little indents. There was no mouth or nose or ears. There was not a single hair on top of its head. It was incredibly pale. Amelia thought it could use some colour to offset the black suit it was wearing. The red tie was not enough.

She realized she was staring at a blank slate and it was staring right back. But that was impossible. It had no eyes and yet she could feel its gaze. But she never took her eyes off of it. Behind the tall man were black tentacles that were ferociously moving in all directions, waving madly. She got the impression that it wasn't going to be of much help. All it was doing was just standing there completely still aside from the tentacles that reminded her of worms.

"Are you a Doctor?"

No answer.

"Are you a policeman?"

Still no answer.

"Are you an Operator for the p-"

A low rumble started to emanate from the strange tall being, causing her to stop speaking. It sounded almost like a laugh but she dismissed the idea. A loud ripping sound came from its face as a mouth appeared on its blank palette. Rows of sharp teeth greeted her behind the jagged gap.

"Some call me the Operator. I am more commonly known as the Slender Man, however." Amelia didn't question his name for it made perfect sense. If she were to give this tall man a hug she'd probably end up getting a paper cut from how slender he was. Not that she'd give him a hug in the first place since she still had no idea if he was here to help or not.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"What crack?" Slenderman tilted his head at her, mouth still ripped open and tentacles still flying about madly.

"Are you alright?" Amelia referred to his current state. To her, he looked upset about something.

"I'm-" Slenderman retracted his tentacles and his mouth stitched back closed at her question. "I'm fine." He looked at her in a questioning manner. "Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird." He was still able to talk despite his mouth disappearing from view. Amelia wondered why but decided to save these types of questions for later.

At her answer, Slenderman lowered his height by a few feet. He was now only seven feet tall but to her, he was still a giant. "Now about this crack in your wall...does it scare you?"

"Yes." In that simple word he heard her tone change drastically. There was no doubt in his mind that she was absolutely terrified of this crack. His curiosity grew.

"Let's have a look at this...crack in your wall, shall we?" Relief and happiness overcame her initial hesitation towards the Slender Man. She gave another silent thanks to Santa and began to lead the way back to her house through the garden. As they went through her house and ascended the stairs up to her room, Slenderman couldn't help but notice the lack of other humans and the absence of noise.

Before they could enter her room, Slenderman suddenly stopped in his tracks behind her. He looked a little wobbly and ready to collapse. "Mister, are you alright?"

"Yes, I am just simply...hungry." There was a reason he was hunting late at night. It had been a long time since he's last visited England. It was supposed to be a simple scare. Something to sate his appetite. He was beyond killing at this point in his long life. There was no need to be excessively violent and be a brutal murderer, unless the occasion called for it but even then, the activity was boring. He could live on fear alone. At times however, he misses it but refuses to relish in the gruesome memories...for now.

"The kitchen is back this way." Amelia would offer him something to eat. It was the least she could do since he seemed willing to help her with her problem.

Slenderman was about to interrupt to tell her that he had no taste or interest in human foods but decided to indulge the little human. So far she had proven quite interesting.

She showed him a chair he could sit in at the small table in the middle of the kitchen. Amelia watched as the tall man awkwardly attempted to get adjusted before he gave up and shrunk down to six feet. He looked a lot less imposing, sitting at a kitchen table like he was some normal person waiting for their breakfast to be served. But he was far from normal. Not that Amelia had a problem with it.

Finding food that the Slender Man liked was no easy task. He had refused to eat anything she put in front of him, saying something silly about how his hunger was different. She took this as him having a craving for something specific but he wasn't being very helpful as to what he was craving for.

Anything that was edible in her kitchen, she put on a plate in front of him. From yogurt to beans to bread and butter and apples, Amelia was starting to run out of ideas. Eventually she dug through the freezer and pulled out a batch of fish fingers to cook. As they were cooking, she dumped several servings of custard into a bowl and set it in front of him. She couldn't be sure but it appeared as if he was raising an eyebrow at her. If he had eyebrows that is. She told him to wait a minute. When the fish fingers were done, she set them on two plates for them to eat and managed to convince him to at least try it.

"Why are you so..." Amelia trailed off as she poured him tea to drink.

"Why am I so what?" Slenderman didn't want to admit it, but a small part of him rather enjoyed the fish fingers and custard. Not that he would ever eat it again. But he had to applaud the child in her attempts to feed him. She even went as far as to fry him some bacon earlier.

"So weird," Amelia finished with a giggle. She was trying her best to be serious but she couldn't help it. She liked this Slender Man.

"You find me to be weird?" After a pause, he asked, "What sort of weird do you find me to be?"

"Funny weird." Another perplexing answer from the human child. He could only assume that being 'funny weird' was a 'good weird'.

"What is your name?"

"Amelia Pond," she replied earnestly.

"Hm. It sounds a bit..." He tried to think of the right word. The name sounded to him like something out of a storybook. "...fairytale."

"What about your name?" Amelia asked in return. "Why do you have two names?"

"I have far more than two names. Many places around the world have different names for me. In Scotland I am called the Fear Dubh, The Dark Man, the Dutch call me Takkenmann, Branch Man, and the Germans' legends call me Der Großmann, the Tall Man."

"I haven't heard of you back in Scotland." Amelia liked reading history books but hadn't been given the opportunity to hear or read about legends and myths.

"You lived in Scotland?" He wasn't sure why he was still talking to the girl like it was some normal occurrence that happened often. It was a rarity to be interacting with a human this long for him.

She shook her head yes in reply, taking another bite of the fish fingers dipped in custard.

"Amelia," Slenderman waited until she was done eating to continue asking, "where are your parents? Are they asleep?"

"I don't have parents. Just an Aunt. She's out." The nonchalance in her voice shouldn't have concerned him at all but for a brief moment, it did.

"And she left you alone? Aren't you scared?" His curiosity was soaring now.

"No."

"No...of course you're not. I don't think you're scared of anything. You hear a loud sound from outside at night, you go and investigate said sound by yourself, you find a tall man in the dark, you ask him for help and make him food...and look at you now, just sitting there as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Do you know what that tells me?"

"What?"

"That it's time for me to take a look at the crack in your wall..." At this, Amelia left the table to take him back upstairs but he stopped midway on the staircase.

"Amelia..." His voice was a whisper that she had to strain to hear, "...are you sure there is no one else in this house with you?"

She saw him look behind them and around the hallway. "Why? Are you scared?" She was ready to flip on the lights or even take his hand but she did not want him to know she was afraid.

What sounded like a scoff answered her. "No. Let's keep going."

They ventured further down the hallway until they reached a doorway that she hesitated at entering. "Is this your room?"

"Yes. The crack is in there." Moments passed and yet she still did not move. Slenderman entered her room first and stopped in the middle when he saw it. She stayed right behind him when he got closer to it, leaning his nonexistent ear against the wall.

"Do you hear...?" There was a faint voice but he couldn't make out the words.

"All the time." How she hasn't gone mad at this point perplexed him. Finally he heard what it was saying.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Who is that?" He asked her, his blank slate of a face contorted in bewilderment.

"I don't know. That's all it ever says."

Silence fell upon them. The only sound the two could hear was the voice behind the crack, repeating and echoing its message. After several minutes of this, Slenderman left the room and went down the stairs out of the house.

"Slenderman...?" Amelia followed him back into the garden. When she finally caught up to him she asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to teleport around the world to find out what the message means," he stated simply.

"Can I come?" There was enthusiasm in her voice and that bothered him.

"No...I'm afraid that isn't a good idea. Give me five minutes and I'll be right back."

"People always say that." Her parents had said five minutes and they never came back.

That gave him pause. Turning back around to face her directly, he looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I'm not people."

Before she could respond, he disappeared into thin air. Amelia frowned but went to go sit on her swingset. She was too scared to return inside, remembering that Slenderman had asked if she was sure there was no one else in the house with her. She could feel dread pile up in the pit of her stomach, absolutely terrified to go back.

The Slender Man had said he'd be five minutes and while one may never come back in five minutes, Amelia decided she could trust him.

Being left alone for the night was not a new concept to Amelia Pond, but on this night she no longer wanted to be left alone and so she waited.