Here's chapter 2. If you aren't already very interested in the story, then maybe this will grasp you a little better? I'll try to make my chapters longer. Perhaps it will grasp you as well as Slendy's tentacles. Tee-hee.

Stalker

I had to convince the parents to get back to their house, and the only way to do that was to convince them that there was no more Jayden. That was the hardest part of the night.

"A monster?" The mother, Cheryl, was too stressed over her lost son to be skeptical about my report. I only nodded to confirm that she heard me right. She looked to her husband, Dayle, eyes bloodshot and pouring tears as she held a tissue to her nose.

We had made it back to their cozy home without any further encounter with the well-dressed monster, and so I sat on the sofa across from their own, a glass coffee table separating us.

Dayle asked the question that Cheryl was afraid to find the answer to, "What exactly happened to Jayden?"

For the umpteenth time, I recalled watching what I didn't think was possible, and I lost whatever bit of eye contact I had left with the parents. I answered, "From what I could make out, he was absorbed into the monster. He no longer," I gulped down the lump in the my throat, but it did no good to stop the pain, "exists."

Cheryl began to cry harder while Dayle pulled her closer into his arms, crying silently to himself. My fists clenched, and I cursed that slender man in my head; I even cursed myself for not being able to move. What sort of hero vigilante was I, not able to act for the sake of another? A bad one, that's what.

There was a knock at the door. It was the police that the couple had called. This was going to be a long night, considering the story I had to tell them. I slipped my swords under the couch, looking at the couple to make sure they were okay with it. They were. Dayle answered the door, and two cops walked in.

They first talked with the parents, and when they were told I was the one who witnessed Jayden's "disappearance", it was my turn to be interviewed. What choice did I have but to tell the same story I told Cheryl and Dale? I couldn't just lie in front of them, even though I wanted to, since I wanted no chance of the police finding out about my "night job". Good thing I didn't mention my battle with the slender man.

So, I told them what I saw happen to Jayden. I described the monster, tentacles and all, and as I did, I felt a chill run down my spine. The sudden urge to glance up to the window across the room came over me, and I froze mid sentence.

There he was. The faceless stark white head staring at me as the darkness of the night framed it. I saw him much clearer now than in the woods. He wore a black suit jacket over a button-down collared shirt just as white as his skin, and under the collar was a perfectly placed black tie. From what it looked like with the angle of his torso, he was hunched over, too tall for the window. I don't know how I knew that he was staring at me; perhaps the horrible feeling I had in my gut, or the fact that I had cut most of his tentacles. I'm sure he wanted revenge.

"Ma'am?" One of the policemen tried to get my attention, but all I could do was continue staring at that empty face as if he had some sort of grip on my very eyeballs. I could only notice the vague movement of the cop turning to see what I was looking at, and when he saw, he jumped back into his partner, knocking both of them down, and breaking me out of whatever sort of trance I was in.

I stood and looked to the policemen, who scrambled to get up, the first one sputtering gibberish about the monster being real. "It's right there! It's right there!" He pointed to the window, only to have myself and everyone else in the room see nothing but darkness beyond the glass. I ran to the window and locked it, then closed the curtains.

"Lock your doors; lock your windows," I commanded Dayle and Cheryl. One cop ran to the front door and locked it, the other took his CB radio microphone from his shoulder and called for back-up with a bunch of codes.

Or rather, he tried.

The radio responded with screeching and static that scratched our ears with its high-frequency vibrations, then stopped.

Cheryl and Dayle didn't have to deal with the radio feedback, but they did have to deal with something just as disturbing. I heard Cheryl scream first, and so I ran down the hall leading to Jayden's bedroom. Dayle dashed across the hall from the door opposite where Cheryl was, and I heard him tell his wife to get away from the window as I entered.

There on the window was an etched symbol on the glass. A circle with an X crudely drawn through it. What on earth that meant, I had no clue. I'll have to do research on it later.

I approached the window, knowing that it needed to be locked, though it was odd that the monster used the time to draw rather than enter the house. Just as I grabbed the latch to lock it, I saw Him. He stood there at the edge of the woods, staring at me, and I stared back. That thing must have been eight feet tall! His arms were incredibly long, too, stretching down past his own knees. One arm slowly raised up so smoothly that for a second I wondered if this was all just a bad dream.

But it wasn't.

His hand curled all but one boney white finger, and He pointed at me. I panicked, for some reason thinking that I would instantly die if I let him point at me any longer, so I locked the latch and jerked the window blinds down, blocking all view to the outside.

He wanted me. I was certain, but I couldn't act. Not here, not now. If the cops were to find out who I was, then I wouldn't be able to see the end of this... Slenderman.
We finished closing up the house, and when back-up officers arrived, they found nothing around. Nothing. No footprints, no trace but the etching in the bedroom window. Cheryl, Dayle, and I were taken to the police station to stay safe for the night. My swords were left under the sofa.

I felt vulnerable.

If the Slenderman was afraid of them, then I needed to keep those swords with me at all times. First, I had to get the cops off my back. I needed to get myself out of this "missing child" case, and that might only be successful if they feel I have no further information (and that I'm not a suspect).

By morning, I gave all of the information I knew, which wasn't much. I did, however, plan to do research about this strange supernatural being as soon as could; the police could do their own research, so screw giving them anything else. In the light of the day, I still didn't feel safe, so once I was released, I headed out and bee-lined it for my neighbors' to retrieve the swords. I managed to break into the house through the front door without damaging it. My dear swords were still under the sofa just as I had left them, so I scooped them up and immediately ran to my own house, locking the neighbors' behind me.

Being a vigilante had its price: not much money. Whatever the criminals had in their wallets, I took for myself as payment, unless, of course, the money was their current crime. Drug dealers were my favorite, since they held plenty of cash in their pockets, but as big as the nearby town was, there weren't too many dealers at one time. Thus, I typically live on just enough earnings to afford a house and utilities. Internet was a definite luxury that I couldn't keep.

Oh well, at least this way I couldn't be tracked as easily when researching for the Slenderman. The problem, though, was having to carry my swords with me into public, and I wondered if the library would be okay with that. Even worse, if the cops saw me with them, they might connect me to the dead criminals they keep finding.

You know, I still haven't gotten a hero name yet. I'd give myself one, but I'm more curious to see what the public will call me. Maybe the police won't allow the press to suggest anything so not to encourage me. Pfft, screw that. If I have to go nameless, then that's just as good – even less to track me with.

So, after a long thought process, I took the risk of leaving my swords at home. My windows and doors were always locked, so I didn't have to worry much about their safety. Heaven forbid someone take my swords, because I would hunt them down to the ends of the earth.

Ahem. Right. Library.

I strolled my way to the small library in my district with no run-ins with danger, though I did have the feeling that I was being watched – constantly. Maybe I was paranoid? I mean, that monster was fast and creepy as Hell, but he seemed more of a night hunter.

I hoped that, anyway.

The library was quiet and hardly occupied. A shame that kids don't use libraries as much as I did back in the day. Guess that's what happens when you get the internet, which was exactly what I came for. I sat at one of the four open PCs and began searching for woodland monsters that were well-dressed. It felt stupid, but I didn't have much to go on.

Then I remembered the strange symbol on the window.

Not hesitating to feed my curiosity, I searched for images of "circles with Xs" and "crossed-out circles" and so on, until I found a nearly exactly replica of the window etching. I followed the link attached to the image and read what it had to offer:

The Operator Symbol, signifying that He is near.

He? Does He have a name?

No one knows any other reasons why Slenderman uses this symbol or what culture it originated from.

Slenderman? Ha! I'm good at this. He had other names; most looked German, which I wasn't very good at pronouncing, so I simply stuck with the the first name I dubbed him. It was odd, though, that He originates from Germany. What was He doing in America?

For the next two hours, I watched videos of His sightings, which all ended with the camera fizzing out into static and white noise. What he did with those victims, I wasn't sure, and I could only assume they met the same fate as Jayden. I found it odd that most of these victims were adults. Does Slenderman just attack whoever he can get his hands on? What was his motive? Did he even have one?

I felt stuck. Lost. I wanted to know why the Slenderman exists, and why He did what He did.

And then the computer monitor distorted. The pixels twitched and flickered into pink, white, and light blue vertical lines. I jumped out of my chair and looked around frantically. Was it Him? Where?

Nowhere.

Not that I could see.

I needed to get back to my house.