No one was quite sure where he had come from. Not even he really knew. All he remembered were forests. And a lot of them. Across time and space, forests were all that he remembered, and everything that he did within them. He remembered all of the children he had ever preyed upon, luring them into the shadowy groves of leaves and trees, never to be seen again. He remembered all the weary, wandering souls who stumbled into his domain, only to become permanent residents thereof. He remembered the death and despair, the darkness and destruction. He remembered the screaming and the bleeding. The horror stories that they told about him, spreading across the globe as he terrorized the land of the living.
He remembered burying his story deep within the heart of humanity, leaving bits and pieces for those foolish, curious creatures to find, like a trail of bread crumbs that would lead them not to their homes, but to his. He left traces and clues across the globe, and, just like clockwork, those clues were found. His reign of terror reached a worldwide scale. As more and more people answered his calling cards, the stronger and stronger he became, a legend among legends, and a monster among monsters.
Then at last, one particular little family summoned him all the way up to some place that they called "Canada". He wasted no time in becoming a scourge unto their lives, destroying everything that any of them ever held dear. Only a few escaped his wrath, but it was not due to luck or skill. Instead, he allowed them to live, knowing that they would one day grow up to reproduce, having children of their own in order to keep their bloodlines alive. This was how he ensured himself a steady supply of prey.
The next time he came to wreak havoc upon this family line, he found himself attacking a family of three. Their names were Charles, Diane and Charlie Jr. They were the Matheson family, and they were next on his list. He lured Charlie away first, seducing him into the forest just half a mile away from their family farm. Then, he drove the father, Charles, into madness. The loss of Charlie was a heavy blow to Diane and Charles both. First, Diane divorced Charles and moved away, never to return to that part of the world again. Then, left alone, with only shadowy memories of his son and wife, Charles went insane. In his despair and anger, he burned down his entire homestead. The house, the farm, the nearby chapel. Everything went up in smoke. And so did he. He set the place alight, while he, himself, was alive inside.
But in time, the remains of the Matheson family farm became like a grave, and a pleasant little park was built around its ruins. This was Oakside Park. He took up residence within that forest park, and kept Charlie with him. The boy was not dead after all, but rather, a mindless slave to him. It was a fate far worse than death, but there was no hope for the boy. Instead, he remained under the creature's cruel control, trapped within the burnt remains of his own home. While the creature roamed the park freely, seducing victims into the trees and keeping them trapped inside forever, Charlie existed only as a puppet for him to use, to help lure unsuspecting people right into his kingdom once more.
The next time he came to wreak havoc upon this family line, his victim was a young girl named Kate Milens, a distant relative of the Matheson line. Kate was a relatively normal girl, all things considered. She was feisty, playful, intelligent, and adventurous. But that was exactly what made her such a perfect victim. As a child, growing up, Kate had loved ghost stories. Little did the poor girl know that these ghost stories would someday become far more than just myths and legends to be told around a campfire, or while snuggled up underneath bedsheets.
It had been sometime during Kate's freshman year in high school when she first met him. She and one of her best friends, Carl Ross, though he liked to be called CR, had been exploring Oakside Park in search of some spooks, or ghosts. For the first time ever, they got exactly what they had come for. Kate met him, and he challenged her to a little game of wit, endurance, strength and courage. Find the eight pages he had hidden around the park, or die. Through his grace alone, Kate won the challenge, finding all eight pages before collapsing from sheer physical and emotional shock. When she woke up again, she found herself in a nearby hospital, and the first thing she said to her doctors was:
"Slenderman!" The monster had had many, many names in all of his eons of life, but for Kate and CR, it appeared that his new title was to be the Slenderman, and so it was. He never let Kate go after that first challenge with the eight pages. That was not the game, not even close. That was hardly even a warmup. The real challenge was yet to come...
But Slenderman was a slow creature. Though his attacks could be swift and brutal, sometimes, he preferred to allow large gaps of time to space themselves out between his appearances. This was the decision he made in regard to Kate and CR. After that one little incident with the eight pages, he all but vanished from their lives, and he did not return again until nearly four years later, leading into their freshman year of college...
The year, itself, began just fine, but it didn't take long for the first signs of trouble to start. For one, Slenderman had returned to the edges of Kate and CR's dreams, always just barely out of their line of sight. They began to feel his ethereal presence again, haunting their every move. His first major attack, however, was against Kate's mother, Beth Hayes. In order to get to Kate, and by extension, CR, Slenderman chose to attack Beth first. Break down the mother, and you can reach her daughter. He caused Beth to get sick. Deathly sick. And Kate finally dropped out of college altogether in order to try and help look after her. It was a sacrifice made in vain. No mortal cure would've ever saved Beth. Only Slenderman could've undone this nightmarish disease, but he chose not to, and instead, Beth finally perished, dying in her sleep about half a year after showing the first signs of this new, unnamed disease.
After Beth's death, it was all downhill from there. Slenderman became more active in the lives of Kate and CR, his haunting and taunting increasing in frequency and intensity every single day. Kate began to rely heavily on CR for emotional support, and vice versa. Slenderman isolated them from the rest of the world, making sure that each person was all the other one had. It would make the final step in his sick, sadistic plan so much easier, and so much more darkly satisfying.
For that entire year, it was just Kate and CR, alone against the Slenderman. CR had since barricaded himself within his house, allowing no one to enter, and hardly ever leaving it himself. Kate was much the same way, too frightened to leave her mansion anymore, even though it was such a lonely old building. They were not living, so much as they were surviving, but with nothing else to do, they carried on and tried to hold out for as long as possible. But finally, Slenderman got tired of tormenting them and decided to proceed with the next step in his master plan...
In what should've been an enjoyable summer, spanning the gap between freshman and sophomore year, things finally really kicked off.
"Kate, I found a way to defeat the Slenderman. Bring these items and meet me in the radio tower at Oakside Park in one hour!" CR told Kate in a note that he had sent to her. Attached was a list of several items, including kerosene and a lighter. Kate couldn't deny some level of concern with this list, and with CR's mysterious plan, but she figured that if fire was the way to stop the Slenderman, then Kate would send the entire forest up in blazes if it would do the trick. She was too excited by the idea of finally getting rid of that nightmarish demon to care what CR had in mind. So long as he would leave her and CR alone, that was all that mattered! He had just tormented and tortured both of them too much for Kate to care anymore.
In fact, crazy drawings of him lined the walls in Kate's house. She didn't even remember drawing half of them. All she knew was that, every single day, more and more haunting sketches of him in the forest would be scattered around her house. She just couldn't wait for this to all be over! In fact, she was already in the process of selling her house. She had no idea if it would be of any use at all, but she did know that she couldn't live there anymore. Not in the place where her mother had died. Not in the place where Slenderman had tormented her sleeping and waking hours. The house had to go. Now, she could only hope that Slenderman would follow suit.
"OK, CR, I hope you know what you're doing!" Kate whispered as she read his note, retrieving all the items that he had requested of her before taking her first steps out of her home and into the forest that surrounded it.
An hour later, at the radio tower, Kate finally got the full picture of why CR had called her there. This was to be a double suicide. CR had this crazy idea in his mind that Slenderman was fueled by a person's knowledge of him. If every last person who knew about him was to die, he might follow suit. So in CR's deranged mind, the only way to kill the Slenderman, and to escape from his torturous grasp, was to die. They had to kill themselves if they wanted any chance at peace. The only place they had left to go that would be safe was through death's door itself.
"Kate please!" CR begged as he coated himself in the light fluid Kate had brought to him.
"I can't," Kate gasped, tears flooding down her face as she watched CR pick up the lighter she had brought along with the kerosene.
"It's the only way," CR passed her the fluid. "If we want to beat him, if we want to be free, we have to die!"
"I CAN'T!" Kate screamed, yanking away from CR and backing away as he flicked on his lighter. "I can't!"
"Kate," CR tried one last time to get Kate to understand that this was literally the only way they could hope to escape, but it was too late. Kate had already turned tail and fled. CR watched her go before dropping the lighter, the first sparks catching upon his clothes almost immediately.
"I'm sorry," he cried as the flames began to spread. "I'm so sorry! Forgive me…" and then he said no more as he screamed his life away.
CR's dying screams were agonized and psychotic. A burning gold light encased his entire body, charring his skin beyond recognition and searing him down to the bone. Kate could hear his screaming follow her as she ran right out of the radio tower and back into the forest. She sprinted all the way home and didn't stop until she was back inside her house. Then, she collapsed right there in the doorway and began to sob. Her screams were as loud and wounded as CR's had been, and she could still hear them echoing in the back of her mind as she continued to scream for him, the tears as hot as the flames still devouring CR's now-lifeless body.
A few days after the traumatic event of watching CR kill himself, Kate knew for sure she wanted to sell her house and run. She knew it would do no good, but the idea of suicide scared her as badly as the idea of Slenderman and she knew that she couldn't just stay. Maybe running away would give her enough time to come up with a solution. Even if it wouldn't do much in the grand scheme of things, it would at least buy her some more time. Anything would be better than staying here or killing herself. So Kate's efforts to sell her mansion redoubled, and she finally dared to reach out for advice and support by going to the one other friend that she had left in this world: Lauren.
Kate and Lauren had been best friends their whole lives. Even before CR, it had been Kate and Lauren. The two of them were constantly hanging out and having sleepovers with one another. They would go to Lauren's house to watch cartoons or make arts and crafts. Or they would go to Kate's house and play on her swing set for hours and hours. Then, even after CR came into Kate's life, Lauren had remained her very best friend. It was only after Slenderman's arrival onto the scene that a rift between Lauren and Kate started to grow. Because Lauren had never witnessed the Slenderman for herself, there was always some level of disconnect between her and Kate upon that particular subject matter. It was this disconnect that slowly tore them apart, Kate spending less and less time with Lauren until they were practically like strangers.
Their relationship did repair itself after Slenderman took his first exit from Kate's life, but when he returned, this time starting with Beth before moving onto Kate, the friendship between Kate and Lauren disintegrated almost immediately. Kate still loved Lauren deeply, but with Slenderman back in her life, she knew that Lauren would be of no help to her. That was why she had turned to CR so quickly. He was the only other person in the whole wide world who understood.
Lauren was pushed to the sidelines while Kate and CR struggled against Slenderman's evil influence. But now, with CR dead and Kate at her wit's end, she was daring to call Lauren once more. After so long apart, Kate was giving it one last shot to bring Lauren back. Even though she knew this could likely backfire and put Lauren in grave danger, Kate did not care. She was far too desperate at this point.
"Lauren, you're my only hope," Kate whispered as she readied herself to make the call to Lauren's phone. She hadn't dialed the number since a few weeks after Beth died. "I'm so sorry. Forgive me..."
At the same time, Lauren was oblivious to all of this, resting on her couch back home while watching a movie. Kate was far from her mind at the moment. Sure, the two had been closer and tighter than sisters, but ever since Kate had dropped out of college in order to look after Beth, the pair had slowly drifted apart. It was a painful thing to see happen, but it could not be helped. Kate seemed to have no interest in rekindling her bond with Lauren, and Lauren had had no luck in trying to get Kate to respond to her either. Despite her best efforts, Kate was slipping faster and faster away from her. Lauren hated to think about it, but what else could she do?
Once the movie was over, Lauren headed up to bed. She had just gotten into her bed when she noticed that she had a new voicemail on her phone. Kate. Lauren's heart raced in excitement as she pushed the button to listen in.
"Hi Lauren, it's Kate," the message began, Lauren clung to every word hopefully. "Just wanted to call and say hi, especially since it's been so long since last we've talked. And that's all my fault, I know. But I just wanted to get a chance to talk to you again... maybe even see you, if you would be up for it..." there was a long pause and Lauren had the feeling that Kate was about to make a more formal request of her. She silently urged Kate to continue, wanting to know what the request was.
"Anyway, I, uhhhh, feel really bad about doing this, but... I'm planning on selling my house... soon... and I was wondering if maybe you could come up and help? I don't know. I guess I've just been feeling rather lonely, of late. It would mean a lot to me if you could come. Maybe stop by in three days? But I understand if you're too busy to..." there was another brief pause. "Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say for now. Sorry it's been so long. Talk to you tomorrow, maybe?" one last silence. "Well, goodbye, and see you soon... hopefully," then the line went dead.
Lauren set her phone down slowly, trying to wrap her mind around the message Kate had just left her. She had known Kate was selling her house because the "For Sale" sign had been up in her lawn for quite awhile now, but where had this sudden request for help come from? After so much radio silence from Kate, Kate was suddenly begging for Lauren to come visit her in person and help her sell the house. It almost seemed suspicious… But that didn't matter. Of course Lauren was going to help! Just because she had a strange feeling in her gut didn't mean she was going to ignore her best friend. No matter how much Kate might try to push her away, Lauren would never truly leave her, and if Kate ever called, asking for help, Lauren would always be her first responder. That was a promise.
"Don't worry Kate. I'll help," Lauren whispered as she shut her eyes to sleep. "Best friends forever, right?"
Three days later, Lauren was driving to Kate's. They lived close enough to have gone to the same school, yet Kate still lived a good distance away from the rest of the town. Lauren didn't mind though. It would just be so nice to see Kate again after so long. It had been about three months, if Lauren could recall clearly, since last they met. Yeesh, three months! And to think there had been a time when they couldn't go three hours without seeing each other! But Lauren shook her head. It didn't matter now. As strained as their friendship was, this call might be the first step to mending their bond. It was a first step Lauren was more than willing to take. All that mattered now was that Lauren was going to help Kate, and everything would be ok again. But if it was really so simple, why did Lauren feel so nervous?
AN: This intro chapter was just to outline the plot and timeline of the game and to give insight to the characters and their relationships before the game. In short, Slenderman first appears in Kate's freshman year of high school, which is the Eight Pages and hospitalization thing. Then he kind of steps away for four years. The second attack occurs in her freshman year of college. This is when he kills Beth and continues to haunt her, leading to CR's suicide and Lauren's arrival (LOL) into the game.
Update as of 3/3/19: I was rereading this fic and I realized how... poorly written, it was, so here is me reediting it. I hope this time around, it isn't quite as cringey or immature.