2586

"Old people told us that here, nearby, there's another, different world." She said finally. "Same as ours. When we look into water, we see our reflection, but the rest is just blurry image of that other world." (…) "Sometimes when we stand in the evening on a waterside, we hear distant bells ringing in the churches of that other world." – Andrzej Pilipiuk "Wieczorne Dzwony."

Warning: Violence and its consequences.

Rating: T to M.

Pairings: none.

Disclaimer: Slenderman © Eric Knudsen (as Victor Surge), 2586 Kroków/Wieczorne Dzwony (and everything it contains) © Andrzej Pilipiuk.

Story and all OCs © Archer Black.

Raise and Shine.

oOo

Holly Cross Mountains. January 3rd.

Slenderman came to slowly, at first he just stirred and moved a little bit. It looked like he had problems with drifting back to reality which wasn't surprising taking that he laid in soft bed wrapped in warm duvet with a fluffy pillow under his head; he certainly was warm and comfortable. However gravity of the wakefulness finally pulled him back to the land of the living and he noticed that he was not in his lair.

Slenderman started to look around. He certainly was in a room, judging by how it was furnished it had to be human room. The walls were painted in soft but medium to dark blue and the ceiling was pale yellow. The window was covered with dark blue curtains. From his position he could not see the floor but he could see that the furniture was made of dark wood or wood-like material. There was a closet at the foot of the bed he laid in; on the wall across from him was a large chest of drawers, book shelf and a writing desk between them. A desk chair stood in front of the writing desk. All was neat but there was an air of slight chaos in the room – there were some things on top of the chest and the desk and they were in disarray. Finally on the same wall as the head of the bed he laid in were a door and a light switch.

The room was dark but judging by the light sipping through the curtains it was day so he chose to end his rest and get up. He made an attempt to sit up but the sharp movement caused him to whine almost inaudibly and fall back. It was his ribs. He reached underneath the covers to check on his chest and visibly stiffened. His ribcage was covered in elastic bandages – someone actually bandaged his maltreated bones. He slowly reached with both hands and gently lifted the duvet to see how bad it looked like but instantly pressed the duvet to his body while glaring at the ceiling. He was naked! He wasn't just bandaged but also stark naked. Someone has undressed him and taken his clothes away. He was naked and in someone's bed!

That seemed to do it and Slenderman rose again, this time slowly and carefully. As he did so he noticed that there was a carpet on the floor – dark blue and matching the curtains. He hissed as his ribs protested against moving but he was determined to get out of the bed and then to find his clothes and leave, reach the safety of his lair. If his benefactor had any self-preservation instincts they would not stand in his way.

Before he managed to sit fully however the door handle moved and the door opened. Slenderman froze. Nothing happened for a moment and then someone entered. Slenderman observed, ready for anything to happen.

It was a woman. Fairly young but certainly not a teenage, she was of the short and rather petite kind with short blonde hair. She didn't look at him at first but the moment she noticed him awake she froze too. He could now see that she had green eyes.

That gave him a moment to determine that this woman would not pose much of a threat. He was about to jump out of the bed, pain and dizziness be damned, but she was faster.

"Oh no! You shouldn't get out of the bed on your own!" She moved closer but stopped seeing him tense. "You may have concussion and cracked ribs. You should absolutely rest for a while, not walk around."

Slenderman didn't move but stayed tense.

"If you need to go... ehem… go to bathroom, I can walk you there. Do you want to?" She offered awkwardly. How one was supposed to ask the Slenderman if he needs to go to loo?

Slenderman glared at her for a moment and then looked down at himself. His meaning pretty obvious.

"Oh, well, yeah… "Michelle rubbed her forehead. Another thing: how to tell Slenderman that you have seen him naked. "I had to take your clothes off, they were wet." She explained. "I have found you yesterday, you were lying face down in the snow."

He calmly looked down at himself again.

"You will get them back when they're dry. I have washed them because they were covered in bloodstains." She gestured to his chest and head. "You were bleeding."

Slenderman touched his head and felt his eye ridge. The skin there was damaged and there was a scab. He started to sit again.

"Hold on for a second, I'll give you some slippers." Michelle rushed to the closet and dove in. She made a decision by bringing him home, and that decision was to tend to him properly.

Finally she produced a pair of carpet slippers. Slenderman 'glared' at them. They were large, soft and dark blue.

He tried to get out of the bed but suddenly his head started to spin. There was the concussion his hostess talked about.

"See?" She was suddenly next to him. "Someone tried to stomp your head into the ground, whoever they may be." She moved the duvet away but left the blanket. "I'll help you to the bathroom if you want to go there."

He didn't protest as she helped him to sit up properly. If he had to wait for his clothes then he might as well accept the hospitality offered and use that bathroom.

"I fully expected you to sleep at least until the evening or maybe even tomorrow morning." She continued to talk as he was slowly getting up. "But you being able to move as well as you do after the kind of beating you've got is good news."

Slenderman staggered a bit again but didn't sit down on the bed and allowed Michelle to slowly lead him to the bathroom.

The moment he left the bedroom he realised that he was in a living room conjoined with a kitchen. It wasn't overly spacious setting but it was practical and well illuminated thanks to two windows. He could see that it was snowing heavily outside; everything seemed to be covered in white. He glanced at a clock hanging above the door his hostess was leading him to and almost stopped in his tracks. It was an early afternoon, but in winter it meant that in mere hours it would start to get dark again. It was almost a day since his misadventure.

Outside the kitchen door Slenderman found himself in a dark hallway. The floor was concrete; this house was clearly undergoing some form of renovation. In the hallway there were four doors. On his right side Slender saw a double door made of what seemed to be solid wood, they looked heavy and old if an ancient looking door handle and lock was anything to come by. A hanger with a winter jacket on it and a pair of winter boots standing underneath indicated that it was the entry. Opposite of the entrance was another door, this one looking like regular room door. And in front of him he saw a pair of doors next to each other. Neither was marked in any way. His hostess led him to the ones on the right, lit up the light and let him in – it was the bathroom.

There was no window there but it was nice and well lit. A toilet, bathtub, washbasin and some cabinets were all that the bathroom was equipped with.

"I take that you will be able to take it from here?" Michelle asked, determined to allow Slenderman to do his toilet business on his own.

Slenderman looked at the toilet, then gave the bathroom a once over, turned to the woman and pointed at the tub.

"Oh? Oh! Are you sure? It could wash out the scabs." She wasn't sure if it was wise for him to take a bath.

Slenderman sighed and winced – Michelle noticed that it was real wince, his featureless face wrinkled in some places – and pointed at the tub again.

"Okay, it's your scabs, but you can't do it in the bandages." She said and lowered the toilet seat completely. "Sit here so I can unwrap them."

Slenderman stared at her for a second, she had a feeling that he would prefer to do it himself but it was obvious that he would have problems with doing it. He then sat silently on the toilet and lowered the blanket from his shoulders.

It wasn't a pretty sight, not because Slenderman looked bad but because of the marks on his skin. They weren't nearly as prominent as they would be on any human, but they were there. The bruises were healing faster than in any human, but were still visible.

"Fair warning, your ribs will hurt more without it." Michelle moved as fast and gentle as she could. "And one of the… umm… slits on your back is swollen."

The bandage was gone revealing the marks. Michelle didn't comment on how it looked, instead she plucked the bathtub and turned the mixer tap on allowing it to fill the tub. Next she opened a random hanging cabinet and produced a dark red set of towels and a matching bathrobe.

"The soap is here." She pointed at a shelf in a tall, standing cabinet just between the toilet bowl and the tub. "I'll leave you now, umm, I'll check on you in an hour." She took the bandage and left.

Slenderman waited for few seconds after his hostess left before he slowly stood up. The tub was slowly filling with steaming water and the bathroom was warm on its own so he discarded the blanket. Only now he really looked at it. The blanket was ugly and grey but it was warm too and it served its purpose well. He folded it and lay on the floor next to the washbasin and lifted the toilet seat.

After he flushed the water he walked to the mirror hanging above the washbasin to take a closer look at his injuries as while the tub was filling. His hairless eyebrow was cut, the scab wasn't large but he noticed a boot print on the side of his head. It seemed that his hostess wasn't joking when she told him that someone stomped on his head. When he looked down he saw that his chest didn't look any better, he was sporting bruises and scabs. He could see more of the boot prints on his ribs; some of the bruises were clearly left by a knuckle duster. There were few odd bruises on his thighs and arms – his attackers focused on his torso. Then he recalled about the tentacle slit that the woman mentioned and reached to his back to try and feel it. It took him few tries before he found it. It was the second left one; he could feel the skin raised around it, the slit itself was sore to the touch.

He looked at the bathtub and saw that it was filled enough. He turned the mixer off, took the liquid soap contained that his hostess showed him and walked into the water, slowly and carefully to avoid getting dizzy again. The water was warm and it lifted some of the aching from his battered body, he leaned back to get covered in it more and hissed silently when the water touched the raw tentacle opening. He would have to be careful with it until it healed a bit.

When his body accustomed to the water's warmth, Slenderman relaxed a bit and released his main tentacles and then his thinner feelers from his back slits. Except for the wounded opening that remained unused. The flexible appendages did not stretch to their full lengths but they slipped from the water and rested on the tub rim. At first they were black but they quickly started to change colour and in a moment they were as white as Slenderman's skin and the tub itself.

Slenderman sighed and looked at the water that turned pale pink. It was remains of the blood that his hostess didn't manage to wipe off when she tended to his wounds. He probably left some of it in the snow in that wood too...

oOo

The forest strip. The day before – retrospection.

Slenderman was returning to his old lair after spending weeks away. On any other day it wouldn't be much of an issue – he could teleport and under normal circumstances it wouldn't take him more than half an hour to travel from the great forests of Canada to Carpathian Mountains trough series of 'jumps'. This time circumstances were far from normal though. His ability to teleport was dependent on the weather – he needed to either see where he was 'jumping' to or know exactly the layout of the location. This was naturally purely practical limitations; blind 'jump' could land him inside of a mountain or worse.

This time the weather decided to make his life difficult, the snow storm practically rendered his teleportation powers useless, the visibility was too low for him to make 'jumps' of any decent length. It reduced his options to walking through the wind and snow.

He was almost there, it wouldn't take him long to reach his lair now, perhaps an hour of walking in this abysmal weather. All he had to do was to reach a road that would lead him past one village and a patch of trees, then cross some fields and reach another forest that held his hiding place where he could rest.

The first sign that something was off came when he walked into the village. Heavy snow and darkness hidden his presence from people living there, poor weather kept everyone indoors, no one sane would wander outside without serious need. And yet there was movement in the snow, someone was out there. Slenderman couldn't see who or what it was due to the same snow that hid his presence from humans.

The moment he left the road and reached the wood the weather improved, snow was lessening which could mean that he would be able to teleport the moment he'd be in the clear.

They got him when he was passing by an old dirt road. He never saw it coming distracted by the perspective of getting home faster. The first blow hit him in the back, sent him forward into the snow. He didn't expect them here at this time of year. They avoided coming to this realm during winter.

He counted six of them but there could've been more outside of his field of vision, hidden in the darkness. Those who attacked him were young, tall and well built. They didn't waste time in attacking, all of them at once.

With fleeing not being an option, fighting back was all that Slenderman could do. Should his attackers be humans he wouldn't have any problems, but they were not and on top of that they seemed to be well trained in group attacking single victims.

His first move was to deploy his tentacles. In the open he would just swing his powerful appendages in wide arcs and swipe the attackers off of their feet but with the trees around it wasn't a good idea. Situation called for different tactic. He tried to wrap them around the six assailants, two of them got caught, three ducked, but one grabbed the tentacle delivered a high kick to where it emerged from Slenderman's back.

They were strong on their own, but they also wore heavy boots and that kick was delivered flawlessly. Slenderman's tentacles trembles and withdrew, including the kicked one, the faceless entity gasped in pain. The six attackers didn't waste a second in jumping on him. He tried to increase his size which was yet another trick he could use but one of them managed to head-butt him before he started to grow. He didn't even shake the blow down when another kicked him in the back and then he felt another strike in the head.

They didn't pile up on him, but it was close enough. If he could stand up he would have better chances but they didn't let him get up, the kicks, blows, strikes and slogs rained on him continuously. His natural healing powers kicked in immediately, at first the strikes didn't do him much hurt, in theory he could even attempt to increase his size again and shake the assailants again. But in practice this wasn't an option. Growing consumed energy, energy that he was now spending on his healing powers and he didn't have any in excess. It wasn't that he was starving per se but it was hard to find proper nourishment in this realm and he was malnourished, all thanks to growing industrialisation leading to increasing pollution.

At first he was doing his best to block the hits and trying to throw the six brutes off of himself, but soon enough his strength started to wavering and his healing power withering away. His attackers however seemed to be untiring delivering their kicks and strikes continuously.

Finally Slenderman started to slowly lose consciousness. He wasn't trying to defend himself anymore and didn't pay attention how long it lasted. He didn't even notice where and with what they were hitting him with.

Next thing he knew was that they suddenly have stopped. He heard their reptile-ish voices, they sounded nervous. Slenderman tried to lift his head but received a kick in the side for his effort. It was strong enough to turn him to his stomach. He didn't bother to move afterwards, there was no point. One of them said something but it sounded more like an expletive than anything else and then they were gone. Slenderman didn't move anyway, he didn't have enough energy to do so and everything hurt. They didn't beat him to death but it didn't matter, what they have failed the weather would finish. Slenderman could've been a creature that an individual crossed only at their peril but even he wasn't invincible. The last thing he heard before sliding into darkness was an engine of a car.

oOo

Back to present moment.

Slenderman came back to the present when he felt that the water was getting cooler. It was about time to actually wash himself. The bruises would vanish and his cracked ribs would be healed in a matter of days provided he would be resting and allowing his healing factor to work its magic.

The soap was scented and smelled of fruits. It foamed nicely and stung when he washed his wounded tentacle slit. The towels were fluffy and pleasant to the touch except when he was drying his back and abused ribs. The bathrobe was soft and covered him better than the grey blanket. All in all pretty good conditions for recovery.

When he was putting the soap in its place he noticed that there were no man's items there. He noticed two boxes on the shelf. After careful inspection he found that one contained tampons and the other scented panty liners, he put the back as if they would bite his fingers off. He continued to look around and quickly came to a conclusion that this bathroom belonged to a single lady who lived alone. Interesting but also worrying, given who she did interrupt the previous evening. Would they come back for him? What would she do, how would she behave? How would they behave?

His musings were interrupted by his hostess knocking on the bathroom door. He limped to the door and opened it.

"Ready?" She asked.

Slenderman turned to reach for the blanket.

"No, leave it there. I'll deal with it later." The woman waved her hand dismissively. "Come, let's bandage your ribs."

He let her lead him back into the kitchen and living room. It was cooler there, but it was only natural that a bathroom would be warmer. His hostess sat him on the couch and brought elastic bandages.

"Okay, show me that ribcage of yours." She pointed at his chest.

Slenderman glanced down at his torso and hesitated for a second. Did she expect him to completely disrobe? Not like she didn't see him the day before…

"Oh, come on. Don't be a prude." She seemed to have guessed his reservations. "Juts slip it off your shoulders."

He did as told and Michelle sat next to him on the couch, inspecting his ribs.

"This looks better than it should." She noticed. "You have some sort of healing powers, don't you. "It wasn't a question. "Let's see how your back looks like."

He didn't move.

"Don't be a big baby." The woman scolded him. "I won't harm you; if I wanted I'd do it yesterday when I had the best opportunity."

He reluctantly turned to show her his back. It was in his best interest but it still wasn't pleasant experience.

Her hands touched the puffy tentacle slit and he jumped slightly.

"Sorry, it looks like it's inflamed. I think there's something sipping from it." She gently touched the skin around the swell and pressed.

"Stop! It's water."

Michelle stared at the creature in front of her. The voice… it wasn't a voice as such. It reached her but it wasn't sound so much as it was vibration. But this vibration was close to buzzing of so many insects, something with intensity of hornet hive and quietness of a single mosquito.

Slenderman stiffened as if he did something inappropriate of unplanned.

"You can speak?" Michelle asked in shock.

He didn't reply. Michelle stood up and moved to face the creature.

"Why haven't you done it before?"

Slenderman didn't reply just turned his head away. It seemed that he didn't want to say anything else at the moment.

"Fine, if you don't want to, I can't force you." She straightened.

In reply he reached and handed her the bandages.

"Okay, okay. I'll bandage, and will be extra careful with that tentacle slit." She took the bandage. "Now, sit normally and hold your hands up."

He did as instructed and before he knew; his torso was wrapped in elastic bandage. The aching ribs improved.

"You can lower your arms now." She said stepping back. "I don't have any man's pyjamas so you're stuck with the bathrobe for now."

Slenderman pulled the bathrobe back on. He didn't seem to mind being without pyjamas.

"You should return to the bed for not and rest some more. But since you're up already, maybe you'd fancy some tea?" She offered.

Slenderman nodded so Michelle put the kettle on and put two tea bags into a large mug.

"I've also made chicken soup." She said pulling a bowl from a kitchen cabinet and pouring some soup into it. "Would you like some? I think it'd do you plenty of good."

She offered the bowl to her guest but he didn't move.

"Of course if you don't want any… "

Slenderman reached with his both hands, signalling that he did want the chicken soup making Michelle laugh. She have him the bowl and a spoon.

Slenderman glared at the soup at first and put the spoon away. Then the skin in place where his mouth should be split and revealed maw filled with rows upon rows of sharp, needle like teeth. He took the bowl and just drank the soup taking sips and chewing the noodles. When he was done a long, red tongue slipped out of his mouth and licked what served as his lips for lack of better word. Then the maw melted back together leaving no trace that it was ever there.

"Oh man, you're gonna need some toothbrush." Michelle said taking the bowl away. "Do you want some more?"

Slenderman shook his head no and had to steady himself when his concussion made itself known due to the head shaking.

"All right, but now you should really get back to bed." The woman insisted. "I'll bring you your tea when it'll be ready."

He obliged. The broth he was offered wasn't the food ne really needed but it was something to put into his stomach and it held some minimal nutrition value. It certainly was better than nothing. The bed offered him physical comfort, that his body needed to rest and recuperate.

When Michelle came with his tea, Slenderman was wrapped in the duvet, sound asleep. He woke again later in the evening when he needed to go to the bathroom again, drank some tea, ate some more chicken soup and went to sleep again. His body needing the all the rest it could get.

TBC