Darkness

Vivian VanDam

Chapter one

You don't know, what true evil is, until you look upon my featureless face. You don't know the end, until you see me. I'm what everyone fears, what your ancestors, uncles, aunts, grandmothers, and grandfathers warned you about. I'm the thing, you don't want to run into, on a cold night. While I listen to the breath seeping from your lungs. I just carefully watch you, run…yet I can keep up just as easy. And you can't see a thing. I'm the thing, which haunts you, and strikes without you knowing. I can make it last, watch you suffer. Or, I can make it quick, and very painless. I truly, care none about humans. I truly care none, for their well-being…within my home, I let the nighttime consume me in total blankness…and I listen to the ebb and flow of your blood. Your heart, running so wild. Oh how I can't wait to devour your essence, and allow my forest to thrive. Your screams are beautiful music, your cries, entice me further. Please, don't stop…I'll make the suffering last.

I'm the tall man, I'm nightmare fuel. I am, the Slenderman. And I shall haunt your very soul, until you too are swallowed into the darkness. The sweet escape I have longed for, for centuries, you would never understand. Your death, I can only taste for just a moment. Within that moment, I sense a release, which I had begged for. I didn't wish to be created, but I was. Humans have a saying, that everything is created for a reason. How does that explain me? How does that explain my wonderful proxies? Masky, Hoodie, and Toby? It doesn't. Our existence, was never meant to be. Never the less, we are very alive. Very powerful, and still, I can hear the heartbeat. The smell of her perfume. The softness of her skin. It was strange to me. Did you know, I have no heart? Did you know, I have no soul? I am the bane of darkness.

Yet, as she runs through my forest, down my path, to the empty, run down saw mill, I can't help but watch. Her heart, never once skips as she runs, she was nowhere near skinny, like most runners that I've seen in my time. And her hair was cut to her shoulders, and pulled back. A soft ash blonde, and her face was stern, in her eyes, I sense she was running from…something.

The morning dawn, casted a soft glow of red against her blonde, making a halo effect. I lean against a tree, watching her from the distance. She had ear phones in her head, completely oblivious to anything that was going around her. Once, I heard the soft huff of breathing. And I stood straight, taller than any pine trees, they confined me, protected me. Harbored me. I became one, and I followed her. The smallest scent of hydrangea lingered where she once was. She was sweating profusely, even in the cool autumn air. I couldn't help, but wonder, what her insides would look like, as I slowly fed them to my proxies, as I ate them. Devoured her, and the light she had carried with her. I don't understand you human's. I've never wanted too. Yet, as I watched this one, this…one female, run her course. Ever since summer of last year. I've seen many things, and I've seen plenty of changes. Time, doesn't exist for me, as it does you humans. I laugh, when I watch one die. And I grieve as another is created. And this human, this human female…had something about her, which made me ponder. What was time like for her? I've seen her run in shorts, I've seen her run in yoga pants. I've seen tank tops and hoodies. What I don't understand, is the scars that paint her body. Why, why do humans decide to put scars on one another? Why not just kill each other, and get it over with? It would be much easier, for me at least. One less pity party. One less thing, to deal with.

She was running from something, and I saw it written all over her. I, I'm not interested, in whom she is. Or the reason she is living on MY earth. Running in MY forest. Yet, those scars, make me wonder. What would cause a human, to do such things? When they, don't even know what the darkness feels like, or tastes like. And this woman, carries a light with her, which bothers me, each time she runs through my forest.

Is the light inside her? Does she emit it, because she wants to? Does she even know she has a radiance about her that's sickening? Each time, each dam TIME she runs through my home, I want to rip her stomach open, to see if she has a florescent light in there. The human's I have devoured in my time, I have seen…didn't have a florescent bulb in their body. However, she could be different.

When did all of these questions pop up? When did I question you humans? It was that damnable woman…who carried herself as if there was no one who could bring her down. It was a woman, which made me question the safety of the darkness. It was the one woman, I didn't wish to devour, yet bring her into the darkness, so she would not fear what lies beneath the surface. Yet, I can't harm her like that. She doesn't wish to see the beauty of night, I wish not to show her. Within the darkness, she had shown me, resides a light. A light that had confused me, since the birth of me. Never the less, it was easier to ignore then you think. I simply, pretended it wasn't there, that, that little light, had never been there. After a while, it was gone. It took years, and years of concentration, but I made sure, that light was gone.

Damn that woman.

Damn that woman and that smell. She always smelt like flowers. No matter, what I tried to do to ignore it. She somehow, comes back around, smelling of something else. This angel like creature, finally stopped running…and decided to just walk. Walk throughout my forest. And she had liquid coming from her sight holes. I was confused, why was she leaking? I still watch from afar. She had a long sleeve hoodie on, and tight yoga, or just tights…she had her arms wrapped around herself. I stood taller, taller than any tree. And I watched, it had seemed, she was the only one who ever visited my forest frequent enough to know the paths.

I watched her collapse, and lay her back against the rough bark of my tree. And she just sat there, holding herself. There was the faintest scent of blood, and it made my stomach growl. I was hungry. She was there. Perfect, easy…prey. And yet, as I make my move, I had to stop. She as too bright, and the darkness was calling back to me. I growled, a deep throaty growl.

Damn woman.

What was protecting her so easily? What about this human was moving me so easily? Making me…almost fear her. I felt the growl linger in my throat. I wanted to take her small throat in my hand, and pull out her spleen. I wanted to eat her lower intestine….disembowel her. Make her see, that the darkness, was a beautiful place to be. However, each movement I take to do such a thing, her head lifts up, and I could see…see in her face, in deep sapphire eyes, that could move any creature.

She was too innocent.

And as I look upon this human, she had a certain…a certain flow about her. That made me stop. This woman, had locked eyes with me, she stared out into the darkness, and she knew I was there. She couldn't see me, I was too perfectly consumed by the very thing I wished to be.

Poor woman, didn't even realize she was staring death in the face. Her death. But again, her sapphire eyes made me realize, there was something else about this woman, this woman was the light itself. I couldn't touch her. And this, this is where my obsession with the light had started. And how I wanted to bring her into the dark. This sapphire eyed woman, who knew not of the darkness, nor my existence. I wanted her to seek out the comfort of night. Even as I make her life a living hell. She will not escape me. She will not escape, the Slenderman.

…

I was sick and tired of running, running from everything. I had always come to this place just for the solace it gave me. I wanted nothing more than to stop running. I decided, today, I would just go on a small hike throughout the forest…and let everything on my mind go. Cry a little, scream a little…and just…go back to my boyfriend with a clear head. After all, I didn't need to get into a fight with him again, basically about not telling him why I was crying, why I was always so stressed out. It's not like I'm running away from people who want to hurt me again…it's just, not fair. I had collapsed against a tree, and let the sobs pour from my chest. I felt my chest cave, and heave as I cried.

It was freezing, and my breath came out in clouds. I laid my head back against the rough bark of the birch tree. And the tears were warm against my cheeks. I had closed my eyes, and felt the warmth of the sun against my skin. I couldn't help, but let another sob pour from my throat. I kept seeing my sister's face in my head. And, just like that…she was gone again. Slamming my fists against my head, pulling my hair, I screamed so loud, I heard birds flap their wings. My heart, was beating so hard, my chest aching…within the flashes, I watched it all again.

She was drinking just a little too much, I begged her to let Guy drive her home, she refused…we got into a huge fight, and she drove off…wrapping her vehicle around a lamp post. Just eighty feet away from Guy's house…and now, she was buried with mom and dad.

No…

"Oh god, No…mom…dad…" I curled against myself again. Shivering. It just wasn't fair. I couldn't even had said goodbye. They…they were taken so suddenly it just. I knew, I knew at the funeral, I kept saying it wasn't fair. I tried to stop them, all of them…not to leave. The house fire, and then my sisters binge drinking leading up to her death. And then…then grandma, and grandpa raising me. High school was the worst.

My face becoming numb, as I finally opened my eyes, I…I looked to my left, feeling eyes on me. Once again, nothing was there…nothing was waiting for me. Nothing staring, no creeper looking at me. It was me, the forest and the beautiful early morning. I reached over, rubbing at a late blooming flower. It was a beautiful purple flower. It was almost in the middle of fall, and yet, flowers still blooming…stunning.

A branch snapped, making me look up. Instinctively I pulled down the sleeves of my boyfriend's hoodie. My heart skipping. Fearful I was…I stood up, grasping a random branch, ready.

"Hello?" I called.

I waited…

A small rabbit jumped from somewhere out of the darkness, wiggled its nose and jumped to the side. I rolled my eyes, feeling ignorant and embarrassed. I chucked the branch to the side, and leaned against the tree. I didn't want to go back, I didn't want to go home. I loved the forest, I love the comfort it gives me. I wouldn't want to go anywhere else.

"Kari?"

I turned to the left, a tall well-built man started up the hill. He had carried a book bag, on his back, and I stood still. Keeping my chin up, and watched him step up to me. He had a cheeky smile, and brown eyes. There really wasn't much spectacular about him, this was Guy. He was, and is my best friend. Has been since I lost…everything. He had let my sister and I stay with him, he had let us eat his food…until we had started getting back on our feet. And he never once asked, for anything in return. He reached out, instinctively I flinched, and he winced.

"S…Sorry, forgot." He fixed himself, and gave me that same cheeky grin.

"Come on, it's cold. Let's go back to my house for some hot coco before school okay?" He laughed, and wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me close to him. He was warm, and smelt good. I had relaxed, and allowed him to guide me from my comfort zone, back to the hell, called life.

…

It was a man, a man I'm not used to seeing around my forest. And I felt that growl again. I sent out that rabbit to grasp her attention. She was even more attentive then I had let myself believe. She was, as I thought before. Something different. And that man, I had no idea who he was…and yes, I am confused now. And that makes me angry…angrier then I had ever been. I hate being confused.

The angrier I get, the taller I grow. My appendages reach out, reach out to something…for something to grasp and drain the life from them. But I grasp nothing. I can't feel anything. This human man, made me realize, there was less light out there…he did not have pure intentions for my forest. He had horrid ideas, for my home.

"Toby!" I shouted over my shoulder, my voice carried far. And I listened, his feet scurrying quick, and he was there. Bowing at my feet.

"S-s-s-s-sir." He said. I turned, becoming smaller, and smaller. Allowing myself to be no taller than him, by a foot or two.

"Stand." I ordered, and he followed, he wore his complete gear. And I liked that. Ready in a second. His back was straight, and he held a hatchet within his grasp.

"I need information." I started to walk, and he followed my steps with ease. And he nodded again.

"Take Hoodie with you on this one. I want to be sure, this human man won't come near our home." I tilted my head, the trees moving from my path. Toby, was ducking underneath branches.

"H-h-h-e?" He stuttered. I gave a light nod.

"H-hood-d-die? Why n-n-n-ot M-M-M-M-Masky?" I had gotten used to his stutter a long time ago, and it not once bothered me. I straightened my shoulders, to have perfect posture. The dawn was coming, and I needed my solitude of darkness.

"Because I need you two to be silent. Observe. Grasp any information you can before I strike." I replied.

Toby, only gave me a confused glance. He was possibly the only one I could trust. I liked Masky, and Hoodie. However, I wanted to be sure, my instincts were telling truth. I looked at Toby, before I stopped, I turned, and headed north. North to my home. Our home. My proxies and I. I had shared many nights, killing, and slaughtering those who I stalked, and made sure, they went mad…apparently, as they go mad, they tell others, that they're seeing 'Slenderman' in the woods. I had to laugh on the inside, little did those bastards knew…so little. I, I am the youngest of my brothers, the only one with no name. They, the humans gave me 'Slenderman'. I choose not to accept it.

I reached home, it was run down on the outside, but nice on the inside. For the exception of our little pets. Which just so happened to be field mice. I saw Masky sitting on the couch, as soon as I walked in. He was sharpening his knife, and I looked to my left, and saw Hoodie working at a video camera. They were silent, as I walked through. The cold following behind me, and none showed the slightest ounce of discomfort. They, had long since grown accustomed to Maryland's harsh winters.

"I need you Hoodie, to come into my office with Toby." I didn't break a single stride. I opened my door, and closed it. Hoodie looked to Masky and Masky looked at Toby

"I-I-I-I-I d-d-d-don't k-k-know." Toby shrugged.

I sunk deep into my lavish chair, linking my fingers together. The plan, was formulating in my head. And I was going, to make it work. That sapphire woman, will see, what true pain was like. And she was going to enjoy, the darkness I cast upon her.