Chapter 2

She ran through the darkened forest without abandon, her sharp breath stabbing at her lungs for more air. In her haste to get away from that monster her bare feet were caked with mud and her pajamas splattered with blood. But, not her blood. It was the blood of another. She jumped over logs, creeks, and ducked under branches, ignoring the prickling pain on the soles of her feet. Tears smeared across her cheeks from the fear penetrating through her body like pricks of needles.

A sharp noise sounded in front of her that sounded oddly like static on the radio. Skidding to a halt, she turned her head forward in time to see a rather tall human-like being directly in front of her. This being wore something akin to a business suit. He may have been human were it not for its freakishly tall height. The height may have frightened her, but that was nothing compared to its blank face. With no eyes and only a gaping mouth...So inhuman...

Pure unadulterated terror gripped her by the throat at the sight of him. Oh, God! Not him! Frozen with fear, she was powerless to do anything but stare at him with wide eyes.

The creature's long arms swung forward to grab at her throat. She gasped as she was suddenly raised into the air, with little oxygen entering her lungs, and thrown into the trees. A mind-searing pain erupted from her abdomen. Shaking tremendously, she looked down to see a long tree branch sticking out of where her stomach was. Her own scarlet blood ran down her bottom half like a waterfall. She screamed bloody terror and squeezed her eyes shut the moment the creature push her further into the tree, more of its branches slipping into her body like it was a pin-cushion.

Oh, God! Let it end! Someone, help-

"Kaitlyn Rivera, are you sleeping in my class?"

"No! I'm too young to die! Damn you, Slender Man!" Katy screamed. She jerked her head up, eyes snapping open and expecting to find Slender Man in front of her to disembowel her organs. Instead, she found herself sitting in her English classroom with her teacher scowling at her from the front. Everyone else stared at her as if they were about to burst out laughing. Oh, right. She wasn't running through a forest and being killed by Slender Man. She was still in school.

"Are you with us now, Katy?" Mr. Fletcher asked, irritated.

Katy laughed nervously. "Um, yes?"

"Good. Now, since you are sleeping, you must have stayed up late finishing your homework. Can you tell me why it was easy for so many adults to believe the girls or go along with their accusations? Why were they motivated to contribute to the events?"

"Um..." She quickly glanced down at her notebook, which bore an impression of her cheek where she had been napping. It was a good thing she actually did the homework last night. "The adults of Salem believed those girls 'cause some were afraid of the witches and their power while others were scared about losing personal stuff like land or power. That fear brought out the worst of the adults and made them reveal what they feared the most. So, they went along with the accusations to hide their fears and tried to get rid of them."

He stared at her for a moment like he was trying to tell if she was making all of this up. Finally, he nodded.

"Good. As Katy said, the adults of Salem were willing to believe anything the girls said in order to get rid of the witches they feared along with other personal issues that threatened them..."

As Mr. Fletcher turned away from Katy and began his lecture once more, Katy leaned back in her chair, relieved. Whew! She got away with that one. This wasn't her first time falling asleep in class, but Mr. Fletcher didn't really care as long as she did the work. Her other teachers weren't so merciful.

She ran her hand across her face, groaning. Damn it. Being the last class of the day, she was more prone to falling asleep. It didn't help they didn't get out of school until four o'clock, which wasn't for another twenty minutes. With the way her sleeping schedule was this was the worst class to be in. She couldn't help falling asleep.

Twenty more minutes. Just twenty, she thought. It was twenty minutes too long.

Sighing, she settled back to start paying attention to the teacher (this time, without falling asleep) when she felt a poke at her back. Katy shifted her head to the side to look behind her and saw her friend, Salem, grinning at her.

Slender Man issues again? she mouthed with a knowing look.

Katy nodded solemnly.

Salem gave an exaggerated wince and a sympathetic look before beginning to pay attention to the front of the room again. If they did not pay attention right after Mr. Fletcher caught Katy, they would be in serious trouble. Besides, Katy had a habit of telling Salem everything after class.

Twenty torturous minutes later, Katy was praising God for letting the bell ring. While Mr. Fletcher was yelling out what the homework for tonight was over the bell, Katy was already packing her things into her messenger bag. By the time he was finished, she was already out the door.

Katy ignored the usual traffic in the hallways as she normally does in favor of digging out her ITouch out of her bag. To the normal amazement of the others around her she managed to weave through the crowd without ever looking up from her bag. When she got to the school gates she had her ever present ITouch in her hand and popped the earphones in. Just as she was picking one of her favorite songs (Grenade by Bruno Mars) she felt a tap on her shoulder and the presence of another by her side.

"Jeez, how do you get here so fast? I thought I would be the one waiting for you to catch up," said Salem's voice from behind her. Katy glanced over her shoulder to see Salem step beside her with her backpack slung over her shoulder. Salem gestured at her attire. "I thought those wedges would slow you down, but you keep walking like normal."

Katy glanced down at her cute summer wedges strapped to her feet to compliment her white flowery dress. Since it was technically still summer and wouldn't get hot until late September, it was still okay to wear her summer dresses.

"I'm used to wearing wedges. Besides, they look cute," she said, shrugging.

"They make you look taller, that's what they do. Without them, you're a munchkin."

"Oh, ha, ha. Make fun of my Asian genes."

Katy stuck out her tongue at Salem, who shrugged it off. Salem was a good two inches taller than her and with her wedges Katy was as tall as her. It wasn't her fault she was half-Filipino. Most Filipino women were short. Hell, she was considered tall for her age among them!

The two girls began walking towards the sidewalk to cross the street. Their high school was surrounded by houses and apartments seeing as they were in the suburbs. They came to a stop at the crosswalk where a woman wearing an orange vest was waiting for cars to pass in order to let them go.

"So, Slender Man?" Salem asked, referring to earlier. "Don't tell me that guy is keeping you up again."

"Ugh, yes! I don't think he goes away even when I'm sleeping," Katy complained. Her fingers tapped against her leg to the beat of the song in her ear. "No matter how much I stay up I can still feel him looking at me. But, I don't know where he's looking at me from!"

"Didn't you say you don't feel like he's watching you in the bathroom? At least he's polite."

"Yeah, I feel so much better knowing he doesn't see me naked." Sarcasm lined her words as irritation sank in. She really had enough of this guy. He was driving her insane!

"You know, you've been feeling this guy watch you for the past year already. How can he still stay out of sight when he follows you everywhere?" Salem asked, curiously, as they began crossing the street with the other teenagers.

"I don't know. It's like he has the power of invisibility or something, because I never see anyone suspicious around me."

"Or, he could be a ninja."

"Okay, no. Even ninjas can't stay out of sight for long. Besides, why would a ninja want to stalk me?"

Salem shrugged. "To freak you out?"

Katy resisted the urge to groan. After this past year, she wouldn't doubt it. Maybe this guy was trying to freak her out.

Last year, Katy noticed she may have gained a stalker. At first she didn't know she had a stalker. One day when she was in downtown with her mother running errands she suddenly felt someone's gaze on her back. Whenever she feels like someone's looking at her the small of her back would tingle and race up her spine. So, when she felt it she looked around to see no one was looking at her. The feeling didn't go away until she was in the safety of her own home. She thought nothing of it in the morning, but when she left the house to go to school the feeling returned. The feeling persisted as days turned into weeks and weeks turn into months. It wouldn't go away no matter where she went.

Being the paranoid child she was, Katy knew instantly she potentially gained a stalker. Having a stalker was bad enough, but when said stalker didn't do anything except watch her back from an unknown location it reached her paranoia limit. Honestly, the stalker didn't do anything but stare at her back all the time! Most stalkers would have approached the object of their obsession by this point and reveal themselves, but her stalker decided to leave her be. As a result Katy couldn't concentrate on much except figuring out where he was staring at her from. Her grades almost dropped and she started falling asleep in class from staying up to see where he could be.

It had gotten to the point her friends noticed her strange behavior a month after she realized she had a stalker. Salem confronted her about it one day and practically forced Katy to tell her. Eventually, she did. After Katy confessed to her about her stalker, Salem said one thing.

"You've got Slender Man stalking you!" she exclaimed, jokingly.

Slender Man turned out to be an appropriate name for her stalker. Slender Man (the meme) was known to stalk his victims so they become overly paranoid about him. Since this is what her stalker was doing, and eventually accomplished, she started to call her stalker Slender Man. And, because she didn't know what her stalker looked like, she had the habit of imagining him just like Slender Man since he never revealed himself. This did nothing to help her fragile mental state when she started having dreams about Slender Man killing her.

Even now, she could still feel the gaze of Slender Man coming from somewhere behind her.

"You should really call the police if you want to get rid of Slender Man," Salem said, frowning as she watched Katy shift uncomfortably. The girl's strange muddy red-brown eyes scanned the area around her.

"And tell them what?" Katy asked, bitter. "'Hey, I've got a stalker I named Slender Man. Think you can arrest him? What does he look like? Well, officer, I'm not sure. He never actually showed himself. Then, how do I know I'm being stalked? I can feel him looking at me but I don't know from where!' Yeah, that'll go over well."

"Good point. I don't think they still trust you after that kidnapping story you gave two years." Salem winced at the dark look passing Katy's eyes.

"Yeah, I doubt they will. They didn't believe me and my best friend were kidnapped if I didn't know what the kidnapper looked like, so they labeled me a runaway child case."

"Well, they haven't really found a suspect. You know how the police are. Unless they have a definite suspect, they go for the obvious conclusion and that was you and your friend actually ran away."

"Too bad for them. I told them the truth so they can go suck it," Katy mumbled. Of course, that was a lie as well. She told the police a false story to cover the truth of what really happened to her and her best friend. No one would believe the truth anyway.

Her chest tightened at the thought of her best friend. No, no one would ever believe the truth. The truth of her best friend being a fictional character from another dimension/reality and they happened to appear there. Yeah, right. Like anyone but her mother and Aunt Mari would believe such a ludicrous story. She almost didn't believe any of that happened to her either, but the pain she felt was real. Oh, it was real.

They soon came to the heart of some suburban houses. They came to a halt where Salem turned to the right, which led to a cul-de-sac.

"Well, I hope you figure out what to do with Slender Man soon. I don't wanna hear you suddenly disappeared with no chance of finding your remains," Salem half-joked.

"I hope It comes to your house and eats your flesh!" Katy called back.

"It only comes after small children!"

"Not if It was stalking you since childhood!"

"As if! You're the only one with the stalker here!"

"Screw you!"

"Love you, too, babe!"

Katy rolled her eyes as Salem waved goodbye. This friendly banter was their normal goodbye. Who would have thought she would be exchanging banter with her former bully? A lot could happen in three years. Shaking her head, she began to make her way home.

The walk home was as silent as it could be with the traffic sounds nearby and the beat of a Vocaloid song in one ear. The late afternoon sun sent sweltering heat throughout most of the city. Trees were a godsend as they provided some shade on the sidewalk. Katy nodded her head to a song and ignored the heat to the best of her ability. This wasn't as bad as her vacation to the Philippines over the summer. That was hot. This was nothing compared to that torture even if it was over ninety degrees. It wasn't even as bad as the weather in Konoha.

She heaved a sigh at the thought of that place. Each time she thought of that home away from home, a pang would squeeze her chest. Although it's been a few years since she was there, she had so many fond memories of that place. It was where she learned how to more friendly and appreciate what she had. The friends she made there, the few happy moments she had...There were times she missed all of it. Where life was much easier and much harder all at the same time. She could live day-by-day working and living her life to the fullest while simultaneously worrying about living to tomorrow. She wasn't sure if she was a masochist to miss a place that could also cause her much pain.

I guess it's a good thing I'm never going back there, Katy thought. She arrived at an intersection with traffic lights. The other sidewalks were empty as it was the end of the day, yet there were multitudes of cars speeding by on their way home. She kept her eyes on the crosswalk signal, frowning. As much as I miss narrowly escaping death, I prefer being here. At least here I won't have to worry about getting turned into a freaky snake-man's body. All I have to do is worry about school, my future, and Slender Man.

Especially Slender Man. Her paranoia range, as she liked to call it, heightened in the past few minutes. This normally meant Slender Man was closer to where she was standing. It was an ideal chance to look around and catch the guy in the act, but she resisted. After all, Slender Man was a crafty man. He was great at hiding and fleeing to a safe distance the moment she turned around. Slender Man was surely an expert in hide-and-seek. She would have been impressed were he not using his skills to stalk her. She really must find a way to get rid of him.

The crosswalk signal began to beep and changed from the orange hand to the white stick figure walking. Katy began walking across the street, mentally plotting ways to get Slender Man off her tail. She was almost at the other side when she heard the distinct clunk out of her unoccupied ear. Freezing, she glanced to the side to see something that made her heart drop.

In the middle of the sidewalk, lying there innocently, was her new IPhone. Her brand new IPhone her mother got for her just last week.

Oh, damn! Katy internally screamed. Her mother would maim her if she found out she broke her new phone! And after she begged her to buy her the phone for months! That thing was worth as much as her PS3! Oh, dear God!

Without thinking Katy rushed back into the road despite the traffic lights turning to green. Luckily for her, most of the cars had already gone. To the best of her ability in her wedges she made her way over to the phone and bent over to retrieve the phone, quickly inspecting it for damages. After all, a simple drop could crack the screen. It was one of the things she hated about touchscreen phones. They were so fragile. Seeing it was fine, she straightened to hightail it back to the sidewalk when she heard roaring engines off to the side that were dangerously approaching.

While she was busy looking at her phone in the middle of the road, she never noticed the car turning in the intersection. She also never noticed the driver might stop but didn't because he, too, glanced down at his phone in one hand.

No, Katy looked up in time to see through the windshield the driver's head was bent and didn't look to be stopping anytime soon. She didn't have time to react and run like any normal person would.

This is gonna hurt, was all she thought in that time.

The next split second was a blur to everyone witnessing what would be a horrific accident. One minute most of the drivers waiting for the traffic light to change watch a car speed towards a young girl in the middle of the crosswalk about to be hit. Yet, the next minute it was a blur even to Katy. They saw a black blur jump out from nowhere and run at the girl, tackling her out of the way. But, the moment the black blur touched the girl they vanished.

Katy, who was too preoccupied with facing death via car, suddenly felt herself be tackled from the side. Her side went numb at the sudden pain, and she turned her head to see the flash of a single red eye with strange markings around the pupil and a slightly scarred face.

Wha...?

She wasn't able to think about that before the eye swirled, causing her head to mysteriously feel heavy. The next thing she knew there was the odd sensation of being squeezed before she blacked out.

XXX

And here is how Katy returns to the world of Naruto! Can anyone guess who Katy's Slender Man is? Really not that hard with the hint at the end. And, I have a feeling people are going to ask me why I would use Slender Man as a nickname for Katy's stalker. I actually did my research on Slender Man. Apparently, in his earlier stories he would use trees to put his victims on branches where they would slowly bleed to death. Then, he would disembowel their organs and put them in bags. Yet, the one everyone knows today is how he appears in forests and messes with cameras before his victims disappear, never to be seen again. Scary, I know. I like his older stories better. Much more frightening.

Oh, and it's really not weird to have dreams involving fictional characters. I have them all the time and I consider them normal. My cousin thinks I'm just that weird. So, does anyone else have dreams with fictional characters in them?

Please Review!