The Tall Man
Prologue
The small diner stood out on the side of the quiet southern highway. It was a stopping point for those who were making their way between the small rural towns of Alabama and Georgia. While the outside seemed run down and almost ghost like, the inside was bursting with activity. Waitresses moved with a certain practiced grace between the crowded tables filled with mothers and fathers that scrambled to keep their children sitting still, old couples that smiled at each other from across their tables, and the occasional trucker who killed a few minutes before they had to make their way back to their eighteen wheeler all while carrying full trays of food and silverware with only one hand.
Out of all the customers there were two young men who stood out the most as they sat in the old worn booth in the corner of the diner. The eldest was spending the time stuffing his face full of eggs and sausages while the younger absent mindedly drank down a fruit smoothie while clicking away on his laptop.
The eldest looked up after scrapping the rest of his breakfast off his now empty plate and threw a wink at the elderly waitress who came by to pick it up, earning a small laugh from the woman. He turned his attention to his brother as soon as the woman had walked out of hearing range. "Got any new leads?"
The younger spared his brother a glance before putting his attention back on the computer screen. "Nothing substantial. Most of these small towns have their own scary stories about swap monsters, ghosts haunting former plantation houses, and cattle going missing in the middle of the night. Nothing that really stands out as, you know, real.I hate to say it, but we might be done here. For now anyway."
"Sammy," the eldest while leaning forward across the table and lowering his voice for only the man sitting in front of him to hear. "We just took out a whole vampire nest back in Louisiana and, I'll admit, this small-town-apple-pie-in-every-diner-thing is really starting to grow on me. There has got to be something sinister hiding out in the woods that will keep us from heading back out west for a couple more days."
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's apple pie remark. "Dean, there is nothing here. But I did find something going down up north that may be a possible lead."
Before Sam could continue, a young girl came bursting through the door, the little bell attached to it frantically dinging as a result. Her waitressing apron snagged on one of the tables as she bounced between the rows and finally came to a stop at the front counter where two of the younger waitresses were watching her and only a few feet away from where the brothers sat.
"Did ya hear?" she wheezed out between breaths. "Remember Annie's Brother, Jimmy? The one who got accepted to UGA last year?" This caught the attention of the two other women as they leaned over the counter, ready to sink their teeth into the new piece of gossip. Gossiping was a fan favorite in small rural towns such as the one that the diner sat on the edge of.
"Last week he called and told his mamaw that he was goin' off to do some research for some paper, but instead him and his friends went out to Ashland and no one's seen them since." Both of the waitresses dramatically gasped at what the woman had told them and twittered their disbelief until the speaker continued with her story. "His roommate told the cops that they was goin' out to hunt for the Tall Man."
Right as the words left her mouth an older waitress walked by and, hearing the conversation, popped the young woman in the back of the head with her order pad.
"Hush child, we don' need talk 'bout such things in this diner, invitin' all them evil spirits in. Once they in they don' leave. Now hush up and get back ta work." The young women had the decency to look ashamed before they split apart to go check on their tables.
Both Sam and Dean, after overhearing the conversation, looked at each other.
"That seems like a good enough lead." Dean smirked across the table at Sam. A second later the young waitress that had come bustling in not five minutes ago walked by. Not even fazed by Sam's slight glare, Dean's hand shot out and gently grabbed the waitress's wrist. Matching his brother's glare with a smug look, Dean looked up, immediately noting the woman's name tag.
"Maggie," Dean smiled up at the young woman, her cheeks stained red at the nice looking man's attention. "I'm sorry, but my brother and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I was hoping you could tell us a little more about this 'Tall Man' who your friend went off to hunt. Sounds pretty interesting."
Cheeks still red, she glanced around the diner to make sure that the older waitress from earlier was busy before she plopped down in the booth next to Sam, pushing him closer to the wall in the process. She looked at both of the men before she began talking in a low voice.
"Over in Ashland, Georgia people been goin' missin'. Ain't nobody been able to find them. They go in the woods to hunt the Tall Man—right—and don' many of them come back out. The ones that do are usually so off their rocker that they get sent straight to Milledgeville."
"What's in Milledgeville?" Sam questioned the woman.
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise before realization spread across her face. "Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?" Both of the men shrugged in response. "Milledgeville is where the crazy house is. Those people who get away from the Tall Man ain't right in the head afterward. Always babblin' bout this tall, white figure playin' 'mind games' with 'em, always poppin' up in front of them when they runnin' away. That's where the name Tall Man came from!"
Dean looked at Sam, who just rolled his eyes as he realized his older brother wasn't going to dismiss this like he should, before he turned back to the woman across from him. "You wouldn't by chance have a map to Ashland would you?"
Maggie's eyes widened once more. "Why would you wanna go the Ashland? It's a one stop town and-" Before she could finish the old woman from before walked up behind her and popped her on the head again.
"I swear child, if I didn't know your maw, you would've been fired a long time ago!" Maggie gave the boys an apologetic look before rushing after the older woman to make sure her job was safe.
The table was silent for a moment before Dean looked to his brother.
"So…wanna hunt a Tall Man?" he asked with an innocently excited smile.
"Dad's journal never said anything about a 'Tall Man'," Sam pointed out.
The eldest shrugged in response and began digging into his back pocket for his wallet. "So? We can find our own monsters. I'm sure Dad didn't have a run in with every boogieman out there."
Sam let out a sigh and finally consented with a short "Fine." A second before the two stood from the corner booth an old worn map plopped down in front of them, and by the time they looked up from the folded paper Maggie the waitresses was already walking away towards another family packed table. She looked over her shoulder and threw a wink in Dean's direction before getting back to work.
Dean gave her a smile before turning his attention back to Sam, who already had the map opened and was leaning over studying it.
Looking up from the map, Sam raised his eyebrows at his brother before nodding towards the paper. One small word was circled on the map and several roads that would lead them off the highway they had been traveling and onto the back roads of Georgia had been highlighted. Dean grinned and snatched the map up, rolling into a cylinder as he practically skipped out of diner.
"Looks like we are going to Ashland!"
A few hours away from where the Winchesters were enjoying their breakfast, in a town called Ashland, a young woman sat in front of an easel. Her hands and clothes were covered in dark shades of greens and browns, a smudge of black paint was running down her left cheek.
She sat back and looked at the finished painting in front of her and sighed.
There was no question that the beautiful painting was of the woods that lie just outside of her window. The dark shades faded into one another, however even an untrained eyes could pick out the sharp point of every pine needle and individual leaves hanging from the trees and the small dots of fallen acorn, pecans, and pinecones. The woman's focus was not on any of these details though, only the small black shadow that stood out behind the trunks of the brown trees.
The shadow looked as though it could reach out of the painting and latch onto the person in front of it if they stared too hard. Only one long arm was visible, long bony white fingers protruded from the end. Only half of the shadow's face could be seen, but it was enough for an onlooker to see that there was no face or any features that would make the figure look human. It was obviously a hidden monster hiding in the shadows, waiting for its next prey.
The woman quickly stood from her seat and paced across the room, pulling her shoes on in the process. She needed to get out. To get away from the nightmare she had just painted.
To escape before he got her.
Within a minute she was out of her house and on the sidewalk, quickly making her way towards the only small general store in Ashland. Her walk ended faster than she had anticipated as she faced the doors to the store. With one heave of the large door, she made her way inside and down to the frozen food aisle. The store was so small that, despite being in one of the far corner of the store, the young woman could still see out the large windows. Thankfully, a small hunched figure wobbling along the sidewalk helped distract her from the strip of trees (part of the very same woods she could see from her house) across the street.
Roseanna Grant was the oldest inhabitant of the small town of Ashland. She was almost eighty-seven years of age, but she still bee-bopped around the town like she was twenty-five. Most of the town's people were skeptical of Roseanna as she was quite the character. The front yard of her two story home was cluttered in vines and various spices and herbs that she had been planting for years. Broken lawn ornaments littered the slightly over grown grass, and a fat lazy black cat slept on the front stoop, only moving when the old woman brought it out a bowl of cream.
Roseanna was always ranting about one thing or another, and it was this that unsettled many of the town's inhabitants. She would skip up to a young woman or man and tell them that their recently deceased parent had found their way to the light and asked her to tell their children that they were happy and at rest. She once sat in the middle of the town playground with a young boy talking and playing with his dog that had died some months before. However, it wasn't always happy things she brought to light. Roseanna had a knack of calling out some of the town's darkest of secrets, like how the mayor's wife was having an affair with the sheriff or how the principal for the local high school was funneling school funds in order to finance a hot tub for his back yard.
If it weren't for Roseanna's attendance at the local Baptist church every Sunday, where she sat in the front row with one hand waving a small paper fan and the other always in the air praising God, many would think she had made a deal with the devil.
Roseanna walked around the small town of Ashland twice a day, rain or shine, along the way stopping in every store to tell its workers hello and to wish them a good day. Today was no different. The old woman had just stepped into the general store when she noticed the young woman standing at the end of the frozen food aisle juggling two cartons of ice cream.
"Oh child!" Roseanna called as she hurried over to help the young woman. "Let Ol'Rosey help ya with these things. Ya need ta find ya a young man to come help ya carry all this stuff around." The woman smiled at Roseanna, accepting her help, and they made their way towards the front of the store.
"We don't all catch the eyes of men like you do Ms. Rosey," the young woman replied as she placed her items up on the counter. The cashier stood silent for a moment, only giving Roseanna a skeptical look, before ringing up the purchase.
Only after the young woman had paid and she and Roseanna exited the store did the old woman speak again. Her small wrinkled hand latched onto the younger woman's, halting her from walking away.
"You just hold on Miss Abigail," The young woman stopped and looked down at the short lady holding her in place. "You don' have ta worry no more child. The Lord's sendin' someone ta save ya from ya nightmare."
Abigail moved back away from the woman with a start and slightly pulled back on her hand, but the old woman just held on tighter.
"They gonna come an' make the nightmare go away, an' then you gonna sleep peacefully again. You hear me child? I said they gonna come help ya."
Abigail slowly nodded in acknowledgement as Roseanna finally let go of the younger woman's arm.
"Praise God!" Roseanna smiled, pulling Abigail into a tight hug then turning on her heel and making her way down the sidewalk, a slight skip in her step. "Praise God, they gonna be here any day now!"
Abigail watched, frozen in place, with wide eyes as the old woman disappeared down the street. Her heart pounded inside her chest, and for a moment she thought it would beat right out. She stood there, her cartons of recently purchased ice cream melting, until the faint sound of a twig snapping caught her attention.
Her eyes snapped up to where the edge of the woods began behind the general store, frantically searching the dark shrubby as her thudding heart skipped a beat. A dark shadow danced just within the tree line tempting her to move closer to it.
With a gulp Abigail bounced on her heels and began walking quickly back towards her home. Her nightmare just followed her from its place hidden just within the tree line, never leaving her peripheral vision until she was safely back inside her home, doors and windows locked and dead bolted.
As if that would truly keep it from reaching her.
AN: Hello! So this is my first Supernatural story and I;m really excited about it. Thank you for reading it this far! Please feel free to leave me reviews with comments/constructive criticism to help me along in this process. I just started college so there is no real update schedule that I'm sticking to, I;m just doing this for fun.
Fun Facts about this story:
1. It takes place in the time between season 1-3 because I personally liked those seasons the best and I prefer pre-hell Dean because of reasons
2. Ashland, Georgia is not a real place. I made it up because that's easier then researching for the perfect little rural Georgia town to fit the story.
3. I am from Georgia so I apologize in advance for my extreme use of the southern accent
4. My sister, LeaderPinhead, is my beta. Blame her for the crappy grammar and misspellings ;)
5. If you haven't already guessed from the title, the monster in the story is born from the oh so popular Slenderman story. I have put my own twist on the back story and the plot is totally mine. I'm actually surprised that I haven't read a Slenderman story in this fandom yet (though I didn't really look for one). So, if you need a visual of what the Tall Man looks like then just look up Slenderman. However, the looks of each monster are about as far as the similarities for these two go.
Thanks again for reading :)
-OhNoImAYoungAdult