AN: Hello everyone! This is the first story I've put up on here! YAAY! This is a Slenderman fic, so I hope you enjoy it! Constructive criticism is happily received and please give me feedback on what you like and don't like! No hate stuff if you could be so kind. Feel free to PM me!

A MASSIVE thank-you goes out there for Master-Roku and OroKabuLover for inspiring and encouraging me to write! And a huge thank-you to Outakurebecca for putting up with all my questions and helping me post this, I had some trouble with the instructions.

I recently updated this-just rewording some sentences and spell checking. I also added slightly more plot, so I hope you enjoy the changes I made. Please enjoy!

Game of Obscurities

The weather was slightly cooler than usual and a chilly wind was blowing through the streets. The girl shivered on her bike seat, but continued looking straight ahead. Slenderman looked down at her and wondered why she had been so compliant with him. It was strange; he hadn't even done anything to win her over. Not a little playful trick, not something funny to make her smile or even his mind altering ability. Perhaps she just really needed a friend. He looked away and continued walking, side by side.

Foolish girl, he thought, too naïve for her own good. They continued walking in silence until they reached the girl's house. Slenderman noted that there weren't any cars in her driveway. She hopped off her bike and let it fall to the clatter onto the concrete. She ran to her front door and Slenderman followed closely behind. She stopped him just outside her house and said,

"Umm, my parents aren't home…so…will you play with me in the garden? I get awfully lonely here on my own," She looked down nervously at the floor, kicking her shoes around making her shoelaces flop everywhere. "I have keys to let us in." She pulled some keys out of her pockets and jangled them.

Slenderman smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder before nodding his head. "Of course, child."

She smiled, craning her neck to look up at him. She unlocked the front door and walked inside. He followed her and shrunk to fit in the door frame. The girl ran around the house and Slenderman followed behind, perhaps a little too closely. Slenderman was standing extremely close to the girl- her back was almost touching his legs. She spun around after slipping on a coat and yelled in fright, falling over. She looked up at him with a scared expression. Slenderman, realizing the mistake he made lifted one of his impossibly long arms to her and helped her to her feet. Patting her gently on the head messing up her already dirty blonde hair, he said,

"Do not worry child, I won't hurt you."

He noted she was wearing a very dirty white dress with a large grey jumper; it would have been pretty if it wasn't so filthy. He also saw that her hair was disgusting and full of knots. Slenderman didn't particularly care if the people he hunted were aesthetically beautiful or not, but he liked to note what every person he ended up killing looked like. Slenderman had mastered his memory perfectly; he could remember every child and adult since the early 1200's perfectly.

There were many different old myths and legends from all around the world concerning him. He had travelled everywhere by teleport. There was not one country he had not stolen a child from. His favourite continent was Europe. He loved all the forests and the cold weather, he had gotten used to the chill in his early child hood and heat just tired him out, making him grumpy. He especially loved Germany; it was the country in which he grew up in.

Slenderman was yanked out of his train of thought when the little girl tugged on his sleeve, and he realized she had led him to the back garden. It was getting close to sunset, the garden full of shadows. She looked up at him shyly again and said,

"Well, my garden is really, really big, so it's good for Hide and Go Seek. Can I count?" Slenderman focused his gaze on her and nodded his head. He slowly started walking away, his long, sharp fingers scraping the ground as he ambled over all the leaves and dead tree branches.

Directly outside the back door was a row of pot plants along the brick wall and a few meters away from the house, there was uncut grass and bushes that had become overgrown. Then the forest started, it had tall trees that looked as if they had been there for a hundred years, quite possibly even more. There were tall and thick oaks, pine trees, willow trees, beech trees and some even Slenderman didn't know the names of. It was incredible the diversity the forest held. They were quite far apart from each other, letting the fading sunlight flow through its leaves, until further in the forest, when they became too close together and you wouldn't be able to walk a metre without tripping over roots. He loved his forest and fiercely protected it.

He walked to the edge of the trees and stood in amongst a clump of tall, dead looking beeches. They had very tall trunks and browny-grey branches sprouting at the top, tangling with the other ones. The crisscrossing branches made it impossible to tell where one tree ended and another began. Slenderman stood in amongst these and elongated himself to be just as tall and thin as the rest of them. He couldn't do much about the colour of his suit, so he trusted the darkening sky would blend him in. He stretched his arms out and made them as long as possible, developing hundreds of small thin limbs from his back to imitate branches.

It was getting close to the end of sunset and the moonlight was illuminating parts of the forest. Slenderman exhaled. He felt very calm. He listened to the leaves rustling quietly and peace overcame him, he couldn't wait for the slaughter to begin. He heard the girl shout,

"TEN! Coming, ready or not!" and she moved away from the brick wall she was leaning against. She began wandering around the property, checking behind bushes and looking all around her; searching for her new best friend.

Slenderman ignored the girl walking around far below him and prepared himself for a long wait. She was only looking around in her backyard and didn't get close to the forest. She didn't even look up. He shifted his footing so he was more comfortable and looked around himself, inspecting the trees around him and the house. He was much taller than it now and he could have comfortably walked over and sat on the roof, much like on a tall stool. He thought it an amusing mental image, as he had never exactly sat on a house before. He wouldn't break the home; though maybe crack a few tiles. After approximately seven minutes of Slenderman standing in the trees, he heard a distant voice shout,

"OKAY! Fine, I give up! Can you come out now? I'm getting cold!"

The girl spun around and stood in amazement as she watched one of the trees walk out from her forest. It moved away from the others and brushed itself down, showering bark and leaves upon her. Large branches fell and one landed close to the girl, making her jump. She looked up at the tall tree and noticed something strange. The tree had a very small, very white dot on top. She snickered realizing it was her friend. He was so tall! He walked with long, impossibly thin legs over to her. She was mesmerized by his gait, it was hypnotizing. His long legs ambled over the grass and leaves languidly, but with a sense of precision, as if the ground moved underneath him. She began feeling dizzy as he sauntered over to her.

He bent down and rested his knees on the ground, bringing his face right up to her. She noticed his proportions were completely crazy. His head had become about double the size of a normal one, but his torso and limbs were many, many meters longer than any she had even seen in her wildest dreams! She stared up in wonder at his featureless face, only a few inches from her own and she thought he looked positively marvellous!

It's like a fairy tale! This can't be real, she thought, It's wonderful! She watched in astonishment as he stood up again, his head almost too small to see if it weren't for the moonlight, making the pale skin light up. As he stood up and turned around to straighten some of the trees he had bent slightly, the little girl noticed the tendrils coming out of his back. Some were helping him fix the branches and the rest were swaying in the breeze against his long spine and legs. Some of them nearly touched the muddy ground, others only came up to his knee and some shorter again still. She stood transfixed as she watched them slowly be retracted into his shoulder blades, disappearing to show the smooth black suit he wore. Why doesn't his suit rip when he gets bigger? She wondered.

Once Slenderman finished straightening the trees, he looked at the sky and gauged what time it was. The moon was not quite above them, so it must've been a few hours to midnight, or a few hours past. He assumed it was before midnight. He looked at the girl on the ground, so very far away and decided the imaginary friend tactic would be a good way to become close with her. He enjoyed taking children by force and making them play his games, but he had found in past that watching them happily walk into his open arms was much more…pleasurable.

He shrunk himself down back to his normal height of seven feet, walking closer as he did so.

He saw that she was staring at him avidly; her wide eyes were roaming him as he shrunk, and he knew this was going to be entertaining. He held out his hand to her and she giggled (then yawned) before taking it. She yawned again before saying,

"Thank you for playing with me Mister! That was fun!" She smiled again and hugged his long arm before letting go and running towards the house.

He ended up following her into the house simply for the reason that he was curious. The girl slid open a glass door and shut it behind her, locking it out of habit. Slenderman walked up to the door and slid it open once more, the lock somehow undone again. The girl had run into another room and Slenderman looked around him. It was very simple, yet homely. There were wooden floors, fur rugs and leather chairs with a fire place in a wall. The girl rushed back into the room and gasped in shock, surprised that her friend had gotten in. He laughed kindly.

"Don't worry yourself, child," he said softly. She relaxed and sat down on a chair. "What would you like to do before I go?" She pouted.

"Aww, do you really have to go? Why so soon?" She crossed her arms, soon undoing them again to yawn once more. He knelt down on one knee.

"What do you want to do before I leave?" he asked again patiently. She thought for a few moments before suggesting,

"Tuck me into bed?" She reached up her arms for him to pick her up.

"Do you really want me to?" She nodded eagerly, arms still outstretched, "Then I will. Will you show me the way to your room?"

She jumped up and took his large hand eagerly, dragging him out of the room. His long steps were still too slow for her running and she let go, rushing ahead. He followed her through a hallway and up a flight of stairs. Slenderman hated stairs; his long legs and feet always got in the way and made it difficult. Once she was up and out of the way, he teleported silently to the next floor. He continued walking and just caught a glimpse of her running into one of the rooms. She poked her head out and said impatiently,

"Come on! This is my room!" She rushed back inside and Slenderman could hear her rustling about. He smiled to himself as she spoke with a thick Welsh accent. As he pushed the door open gently, he saw it was labelled 'Mary' in green curly writing. She was moving clothes and random clutter from her bed onto the floor. The main colour of the room was white, though there were splotches of green on the walls and on the furniture. Slenderman leant against a white wall, quietly observing as she sprinted around the room.

Once she was done, she started rummaging through her closet ripping out her clothes and tossing them on her bed. Slenderman saw her stretching to get at her pyjamas which were on the top shelf.

"I'll get that for you." He said, pulling her back down onto the bed. Mary sat down and watched closely as he folded up the clothes on the floor and put them back in the cupboards before taking out a pair of clean flannel pyjamas. He handed them to her and took out a hairbrush, asking for her to turn around. She did so and he started brushing her hair, getting all the knots out.

"Ow! That hurts!" Mary whined as Slenderman brushed the tips of her hair.

"Maybe if you stopped moving, it wouldn't hurt so much." She wriggled on her bum, grumbling, "You need to stop squirming." He said patiently. After a few minutes Mary's blonde hair was smooth and free of tangles, but still quite dirty. He put the brush down on the table in her room and helped her remove her dress.

He had seen many children naked before and the girl seemed unconcerned as he removed her dirty dress and jumper. She then clothing herself in the soft, clean pyjamas. Slenderman was pulling up the covers of her bed for her to get in; when he looked up and saw she had disappeared. He poked his head out of the doorway, looking around the hallway for the missing girl. He heard the sound of tap running and scrubbing, a few seconds later Mary came running around the corner again, a grin plastered on her face.

"You always have to brush your teeth before bed!" She said enthusiastically. Slenderman just nodded his head and held the bedroom door open for her. As she walked past, he placed his hand on her upper back and guided her to the bed to make sure she didn't run away again. Mary felt the coldness of his hands through her clothes. He held the covers open for her and she jumped in, effectively messing up the blankets that he had straightened out. Slenderman sighed and fixed them up again using his tentacles. He sprouted several and along with his hands, she was tightly tucked in within seconds. He then sat down beside her on the bed and asked,

"Do you need anything else before I go?" Mary snuggled down into her thick blankets and nuzzled his hand which had moved to grip her shoulder. He shifted his hand and touched her head.

"No, I'm okay. Will you come back again?" She whispered, "Please?"

"If that is what you want." Mary nodded eagerly. Slenderman straightened out the blankets once more and nuzzled her forehead with his.

"Goodnight." She said. Her eyelids were drooping and she was struggling to stay awake. Slenderman stood up and walked over to the door, holding it open. He watched for a while as her breathing slowed and became deep. He briefly wondered why a girl so obviously cared for by her family (going by the beautiful bedroom, ample clothes and food in the cupboards) was on her own when he found her and so completely filthy.

Slenderman picked up a blank piece of paper and a black crayon from Mary's desk. He leant against the wall and drew his mark, a circle with an 'x' going through it. He placed the paper on the desk again and after taking one last glance at the sleeping girl, he teleported soundlessly from the room. He reappeared in his forest, the moon directly above his head now. He wandered along a trail, his footsteps completely silent. He planned how he would lure her into his forest, he wasn't quite sure yet. He would have to see how the next few weeks panned out.

"Sweet dreams, Mary." He whispered to himself, a toothy and crooked grin opening on his face.

AN: Don't forget to Review! They're like Jam and Cream for me!