"Why would you come here? If you suspected me to be the target then why bring him straight to me? My parents live here. If he's going after you god knows he'll go after them. We've gotta get out of here. NOW"

"Look let's just go inside, calm down, and plan this out carefully. We can't afford any mistakes" Dale says calmly.

"No we can't do that. There's no time. I'll run in pack some things then we can plan in the car or something. OK I'll be back in one sec."

I run upstairs trying to pack as much as I can into one backpack. I grab my mom's atlas from the closet, a flashlight, and my sister's video camera. (Sweet! Full batteries. Now where's that charger?) I look around and start rummaging through drawers and closets looking in every likely spot. That's when I heard it, a little pop sound. Not loud enough to be a car or anything falling, so then what was it? *Pop* There it was again. It wasn't a noise I'd heard before. I looked down and realized it was coming from the camera. Its screen kept cutting and flickering and making this pop noise.

Reality struck me. I knew what this meant, and it did not mean good things. I had to keep telling myself (Don't turn around, don't enter any dead ends, don't look out windows. So long as I don't see him face to uh 'face' I'll be fine for now) I slowly keep searching for the charger only to find it right next to where I found the camera. (Duh, now I just have to get downstairs and I'm good…ish) Slowly I make my way to the stairs. (alright, let's take this one step at a time) *creak* (that's one, just sixteen more to go) *Creak* *BZZZZZT* my camera starts going crazy I forgot that I had left it on. (Oh No…) I had been looking straight down at the stairs as I was going down, but my camera was facing forward. I slowly lift my head and there he was, at the foot of the stairs, waiting like a gentleman caller.

His image will be stuck in my head forever. His suit was as black as the shadows he hid in, but they didn't quite look like clothes. It seemed as though his suit was a part of him, something he could never remove. Where his feet should have been, a dark shadow was cast. Even as he stood in full light I could not make out his shoes. His face looked so smooth, this was not just someone in a morph suit. There was no bulge where his nose should have been. His face had no cheek bones, no dimples, no wrinkles or blemishes, and it was dreadfully pail. I always assumed his 'face' would be white, but it's not. It's slightly darker, but not quite grey either. I almost wish it were white, that would have given me some feeling of hope, but there was nothing. Everything about him conveyed fear and dread.

I heard dale try to yell something to me and I finally woke from my trance. My knowledge of Slenderman mythos started to fly into full gear. I took one good look at him before I turned back up the stairs, made sure I had my bag in my arms, and jumped out the nearest window. I fell through some trees, the branches steadily breaking my fall before I eventually landed on a nice soft rose bush. Looking back I probably should have been scared that the fall would kill me, but all I could think during the fall was 'his tie was red.'

I ran to the front lawn, picking thorns out of my back. "Dale, Will, Where's the car we've gotta go now!"

"we don't have a car" Will responds

"how do you not have a, screw it just RUN. He's here." They understood immediately and we all started sprinting away. As we reached the end of the driveway I yell to Will "you lead, I don't know where you guys are hiding out"

Unfortunately none of us are exactly athletes so we don't get too far before we get winded.

When we finally get a few blocks away I ask, "What *gasp* happened to your car?"

"He knocked us out while driving it's in a pond a bit south of here." Will wheezes

"Along with our gps and food" dale adds "damn water almost destroyed my iPhone."

"Where is your stuff? Where's James?" I start to panic

"Relax! He's back at the base, along with Ryan"

"cool, glad they're safe." I said, starting to regain my strength

"We have a hotel room a little bit further down the road let's go while we're still safe."

"yeah"

We start to hear police sirens in the distance. Will and Dale turn right at the first street they see and start walking.

"I thought you said it was that way come on we have to hurry"

"calm down, If police come by and see a bunch of dudes running for their lives at one in the morning they're gonna start asking questions."

"But shouldn't we tell the cops what's happening?"

"We tried but I showed them the video I showed you and they just laughed and said 'hey that's cool how'd you do that?' They're not gonna help us here" Will said while calmly looking around to make sure we weren't being watched.

"Plus with your bag full, they're gonna think you stole that stuff and we're running from the scene" Dale adds

"Damn it. So we just play it cool?"

"No we actually have to hide somewhere, quick get in here" Will points down an allyway and we all sneak our way in. "most of us have been reported as missing to the cops. Think about it, you just jumped out of your parents' window and ran away from home. They're going to report that you've gone missing."

"Crap" I think for a second "Wait, James was never reported missing."

"Yeah he was smart and switched to online classes so nobody noticed him leaving."

"They'll probably call him to tell him what happened to me. If I answer the phone and we all come together to tell my parents what is happening we may be able to save them too."

They were both caught off guard by the idea "hey it's worth a shot" Dale proposed

"Okay the sirens are gone. We have to get to the hotel quickly, before they call him. Let's go!" We all ran into the night.