-Quick notice-

To add tone to this story, I suggest following this link -)

incompetech music/royalty -free/index .html? feels%5B%5D =Dark&feels%5B%5D=Eerie&feels%5B%5D=Unnerving&Search=Search+by+Feel

(Be absolutely sure to remove all spaces in the link, it won't allow me to post it otherwise)

Scroll down, and play the song titled "Bent and Broken". Read this at a leisurely pace.

Enjoy.

3:27 AM.

I lie there, awake, and stared at the clock. Sleep eluded me, for reasons unknown. Earlier that day, I had to run all the way home to avoid the danger I sensed on the bus. I had no idea what I felt, but I was not getting on that bus. It almost had an evil aurora, seeping into the children who sat inside it.

The principal tried to stop me, but I had already zipped out of the school grounds. I didn't stop running until I arrived home...not even to cross the street. Besides almost getting hit by a car twice, I was safe.

But that confused me. Based on the events that happened earlier, I should have been sleeping like a baby. Fast asleep. I shouldn't have been wide awake, almost uncomfortably so.

I got up. "Might as well embrace the fact that I'll lose another night of sleep..." I thought to myself.

In the past, I would always sneak outside onto the roof to get some air at times when I couldn't sleep. Something about this just...made me feel safer.

I walked across the room, but it was hard. I couldn't see a thing. I stepped based off of memory, but clearly, my room needed cleaning.

I finally found the wall...but...

...something is wrong...

My face became straight. My mouth didn't curve the slightest bit, my eyes lulled halfway shut, expressionless. I continued feeling along the wall, in search of the window. When my hands brushed across it, I proceeded to open it.

The air was cool and crisp, as expected on a fall night. Except...

This was the middle of July.

Confusion plagued me, but my face remained straight. I stood up on my roof, not bothering to shut the window behind me. Suddenly, something caught my eye. I tilted my head a bit to the side, trying to make out what it was. I saw a tall person standing across the street, with their head tilted down. I couldn't tell if it was male or female, so I studied it a bit closer. I could only see the outline of its figure. It was deathly pale, as if any blood had been drained out of its body. However, using common sense, this was ridiculous. Perhaps the person is just pale like that anyway! How rude of me to judge, based on a faint glimpse?

A city bus drove by. There were maybe two or three people on it; expected. There aren't many places to go at 3:30 in the morning.

When the bus passed by the figure, it was gone.

A beat of nervousness and fear pulsated through me. What had just happened? Was I imagining things again? Or was there really a person there?

I decided to investigate, my face remaining the same, aside from my eyes widening. I slid off my roof easily, onto the sidewalk. I walked down the alley, and turned on Washington street. It would make sense that the person would retreat to the left, or East, since that's the way the bus went. I slowly walked down the street, glancing to my side every once in a while.* The wind was chilling me to the bone...I should've brought a sweatshirt.

Only one streetlamp was on. The others were either busted, or burned out. As I walked under the lit streetlamp, I was struck with nausea, and a headache. It took me by surprise. The ringing in my ears...while it was always present, was roaring. I could almost hear nothing else. I slowed my walking pace to try to ease away the nausea. I felt awful...why was I out here anyway? Sense finally came to me, my face free of its expressionlessness. ((Heh. Expressionlessness.))

I turned around to go home. It made absolutely no sense to be out here, when I could be in the safety of my house.

But...as I turned around...

I saw the man again.

10 yards away, maybe. He stood there, barely lit up by the streetlight, and the moon itself. It was now that I got a legitimate look at him. Or should I say...it.

It was tall. VERY tall. Almost eight feet tall, with tentacle-like limbs on its back. It was wearing a suit, entirely black, save for the tie. The tie was red. It was also wearing a white dress shirt underneath.

Its face. Or...its lack of one. I was right; it was completely pale. Empty white, even. It had no eyes. No ears. No mouth. No nose. Nothing except a blank head.

It was staring right at me. Even though it had no facial expression, I knew that it didn't follow me for a comforting reason.

Adrenaline pulsed through me, mixed with fear. Before I knew it, I was sprinting in the opposite direction. The thin man was blocking my way home, so I headed in the police department's direction.

At the intersection, I glanced behind me for a split second to see the man closer. He wasn't moving his legs, but when I blinked, he moved closer. Almost like...a form of teleportation.

Now fearing for my life, I dashed across the intersection. I heard a car swerve, but didn't bother to look. The driver yelled out something about a stupid drunk teenager. Couldn't he see the monster chasing me?

The police station was on the other side of the block. My vision was beginning to blur, but I didn't know if it was because of the sprinting, or one of the thing's tricks. Either way, there was no possible way I would make it there using the sidewalks. I had to cut through.

Living in the area I lived in, the landscape was heavily forested. Deciduous trees were everywhere. I took a sharp left into the forest. Leaves were on the ground; many of them. Again...it was July! Why was the climate like this?

Before I could complete my thought, I slipped on leaves, tripped over a surprise tree root, and smacked into a tree. I backed away and kept running, ignoring the blood cascading from my skinned cheekbone, and my sliced eyebrow. My legs were turning to jelly, and the twisted ankle definitely didn't help. I was going to lose.

My vision was horrible now. Not only was it blurry, but my right eye's vision was completely blood red. I was breathing too hard, along with crying. My throat was sore from so much air, and from screaming. I kept getting various scratches and scraped from sticks, but I couldn't stop. That thing was right behind me.

As if the forest wanted to see me lose, a tree branch appeared at exact eye level. I ran straight into it. My feet came above my head, and I landed on my back.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't scream.

I just stayed there, and waited for the end.

I managed to open my eyes one last time, only to catch a glimpse of the monster towering right over me.

Its name emerged in my in my memory, engraving itself there forever...

Slenderman.

*I believe this is where my nightmare became lucid. Odd, yes. I could control my actions to an extent.

I had this nightmare a few months ago, maybe, but recently rediscovered it by playing Slender this past weekend. (I'm horrible.)

Happy Halloween!

-ZiE