"And then the bee said, 'But I want to sting you!' and I was like, 'Nooooo!' Then I ran away and never saw the bee again." I finished my story, stepping over a fallen tree branch.

"Wow. That's so interesting." My friend, May said, rolling her eyes and following me.

"It was, though! That dream was very vivid and if it weren't for the talking bee, I wouldn't have known it was a dream!" I exclaimed.

"Well, stop taking drugs and you'll really know." May retorted.

"I do NOT take drugs." I glowered at the green-haired girl.

May smirked. "Sure you don't; thats why you are always so… different."

"You're different, too!" I pouted, looking away.

"Well, then, I must be on drugs." She said with a smile. "Now, what drug will it be?"

"JUST BECAUSE I LIKE SLENDER MAN AND DREAM OF TALKING BEES DOESN'T MEAN I'M ON DRUGS!" I shouted, feeling blood rushing to my cheeks. "And it would be weed for you!"

"Do you have dreams about him? I do, like all the time." She looked a little scared.

"... Yeah, I do... I heard that's one of the signs he's following you." I giggled.

"STOP! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" She screamed looking around.

"And just thinking about him attracts him."

"20 dollars a hug." May said trying not to look or act scared.

"GIMME 20 DOLLARS!" I danced. "Gimme 20 dollars! Gimme 20 dollars!" I giggled, stopping my dancing.

May smiled and said "You know what?"

"What?"

"If we were to look and find Slendy, we can give him a hug or 20 dollars.. or run away screaming."

"Or the notes we find." I shrugged. "It's getting pretty dark out. We should head home."

"Okay, lets." May smiled grabbing her water bottle and taking a drink.

We began making our way out of the forest. Stepping over fallen trees and tree branches, and around bushes, we finally found the gate of the tall fence that surrounded the entire forest. I paled at what we found.

"WHY THE HELL IS IT LOCKED?!" May screamed.

"I... I don't know! It's not supposed to be locked until-" I checked my watch. "Ten thirty, and it's only seven! Let me check my cellphone. My watch might be wrong." I pulled out my phone, turning it on to check as I had turned it off to preserve the battery. A message popped up on my screen and May peered over to read it with me.

Can not update date and time.

I immediately looked at my internet access, seeing that I had none. I began panicking.

"Let me look at mine." Her eye widened as she searched through her small backpack. "I left it at home." As she uttered those words, a weight fell upon my shoulders.

"I do not want to be trapped in a forest at night time!"

"You KNOW the boogeyman and Slender Man aren't real."

"So?! Axe murderers and rapists wait for this opportunity! There has GOT to be another way out!" I wailed.

"There's another way, across the forest on the other side." May said with a frown.

"Well, then we'll have to get across there-" I began.

A scream tore through the night air and May took off without a second thought. "MAY!" I screamed.

"Come on!" May screamed over her shoulder, fading into the darkness.

"..." I was speechless. "I guess... I should follow where the scream was to find her..." I shook myself, trying to fling the fear away from me to no avail and began my tread into the forest in the direction of the scream. Once I entered the forest, darkness enveloped me completely. I could hardly see, however my experiences playing Slender held me from using my phone as a light source.

Pulling out my folded, handmade map - that I had made when I was eight years old - from my pocket, I unfolded it, glanced at my surroundings and stared hard at the map. "Okay, so I'm near the entrance... The scream came from that way, so it probably came from..." I frowned. "Around where the cottage is?!"

I took off running, worry coursing through me. Who would be there?! It's abandoned! Plus, since it was a scream, what if it was a murder taking place?! And May went!

Just as I thought those words, another scream I immediately recognized as May's scream tore through the night air. I gasped and began sprinting through the trees. "MAY!" I shouted, hoping she could hear me.

"IN THE COTTAGE!" Her shout answered.

Breaking through the second row of trees around me, I dove past the swing set and to the unusually open door of the small cottage near the center of the forest. "Wha-" I began asking before my eyes saw the answer in front of me.

A puddle of fresh blood was on the floor by the unusually window of the cottage, a trail leading to the door and trailing just an inch away from my feet where another pool of blood was. Blood was also splattered everywhere in the cottage. The only weird thing - other than the blood - was that there was that the body the blood belonged to was nowhere to be seen.

"Who could this blood belong to? Who could have this much blood loss and still walk around?" May asked, horrified.

"Considering it's a trail of blood, they were dragged. But there's two blood pools that are connected and no body... or other trail leading to it."

"One question remains: where are the bodies or body?" May whispered. "I would say that we can follow the blood trail but it ends."

"And where is the person who did this?" I paled. "What if he's still walking around? What if he's watching us?!"

"Lets go to the treehouse; you can quickly climb up first and I'll climb in after you, but you better climb fast." May said.

"What if he's in there?!

"Then I'll climb first. That way if he is, he'll kill me and you can go and hide in the cave." May said, trying to look fearless and epically failing.

"With bears," I deadpanned. "Great."

"Bears love you! Remember that baby bear we saw when we were kid?"

"We still are kids! We're only fifteen!"

"Okay, so I climb first just in case he is in there?" May asked.

I deadpanned. "I'll go first." I stated, closing the door to the cottage and stalking past the swing again to the big tree with our treehouse and taking hold of the latter.

"What if he's in there and stabs you in the eye?" May asked. "Let me go first. That way if he's in there and I get stabbed there is no real loss."

"Stop being so morbid!" I chastised her. "There's a better chance of Slender Man being in there!" I began climbing up.

"Listen, murderers are real, Slendy is NOT real." May snapped. "Let me go first." May grabbed my foot.

"Too late!" I yanked my foot away from her, threw open the door and popped my head up, looking around wildly.

"Suicidal fool!" May yelled to me.

"Back to you!" I shouted back, finishing my little examination. "No murderer and no Slendy in the premises of the inside of the treehouse." I stated, climbing in and allowing room for her to climb in as well. I crawled over and lit two candles, which quickly illuminated the treehouse enough for us to slightly see.

"Look! Some kid was drawing a picture in our treehouse." May said, and I heard the sound of a paper rustling. My blood ran cold at her next words. "'Follows'? Is this kid on drugs or is this kid freaking insane?" She snorted. I slowly turned around to see her back towards me as she sat on the wooden floor.

"... Let me see that note." I whispered, eyes wide. May handed me the note.

It was the classic Slender Man "FOLLOWS" note, the tree, slender man, and sideways word and all.

"... This is one of Slender Man's notes..." I began sweating.

"Slender Man wanna be." May said. "Why can't people just be themselves and stop with all the damn copycat thing?"

"Or Slender Man himself. HE'S ATTRACTED BY PEOPLE THINKING OF HIM AND BEING AFRAID OF HIM. And now that we found and picked up the note, he's following us..." My hand tightened slightly on the note.

"Wow, you're as crazy as my little brother when he eats too much candy." The green-head said. "Slender Man is not real."

"C'mon! There's been a murder! Blood is everywhere and there's no way someone could survive that much blood. There is no body and Slender man eats people! Not to mention you just found the note! And we dreamt of him a lot recently, and people dream of him before they see him and he gets them! It's the Slender sickness!"

"Listen, a killer killed someone, dragged his body over there, then picked it up…" May began "Slender Man is not real."

"There still would have been blood drops leading to where the killer went!" I scowled, turning to look out the window but freezing in terror once I didn. "M... May... Look." I whispered, breathing heavily as my eyes connected with a white head with no face that was staring up at me.

"What?" She snapped, suddenly annoyed.

"S... S... SLENDY!"