Years after the Silhouette Murder and Diseased Night Raven incidents...

"Der mann ist-" He was cut off by the tall man's appearance.

"Ernst," the girl seemed afraid, "Hilfe!" The tall man grabbed her, keeping a grip so devastating that it caused the girl's humerus bone to break in half.

"Nein!" The boy chased after the two. "Ich will Sie toten! Ich will Sie toten, Nachtmann! Grossmann!" The tall man sneered something that was not in German.

"You should listen to your parents, child!" And with that, he and the girl disappeared into the night.

"Sarah, another one of those German kids was lost last night," Anna told me, "The ones in the forest village."

"I think it'll be Schlankwald or the Grossmann," I suspected.

"A boy survived; he said that it was a tall, distorted man with the strangest face and it couldn't leap into the sunlight. Fits the Tall Man's description."

"Indeed. The Tall Man it is. We'll hunt tomorrow for the child."

"And if we encounter the monster?"

"Don't mistake him for the Suited Man; he only attacks children, not elder people. Of course, if we do encounter him, run."

"Right."

We finished lunch and Anna went out to buy bolt ammunition for our crossbows at the black market. I started reading the article about the boy who survived. Apparently his name was Ernst Junker and the girl who was lost was his sister, Sophia Junker. Ernst confessed of robbing from a gunsmith and said that he wanted to kill the Tall Man. He also confessed that he hadn't listened to his parents who said that he should stay inside at night. In the end, he ran away to search for his sister. He wasn't found.

After a while, Anna returned home near sundown.

"I asked around the village," Alice informed, "And I found out where in the forest the girl was taken."

"Okay," I replied. Anna went into her room to probably take off her equipment. Once she returned to the kitchen, I asked, being cautious, "Hey, Anna, how's Alice?"

"Hm," she slowly hummed, "Last I heard, she was still insane." She paused. "How's Joseph?"

"He's fine. The infection is slowly overtaking him, though. I fear I may have to put an end to his misery sometime soon."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"And I'm sorry to hear about your sister."

"Hm." She walked to the refrigerator humming 'Dango Daikazoku'. "Music is nice, you know?"

"Yeah, sure." I watched as Anna continued to hum while grabbing some bread.

"Did you eat anything?"

"Yes, I ate some bread and cheese."

"Why didn't you eat anything else?"

"I hadn't felt like it."

"Well, you might not have enough energy for the hunt."

"Did you eat anything?" She noticed me trying to change the subject, but obliged.

"Yes," she responded, "I went to that one seafood restaurant."

"Okay, then." We were silent, then we seemed to notice the time.

"If we want to start the search in the early morning, we should go to sleep now."

"Don't say those words. Say 'get to sleep'." She giggled slightly, probably thinking that I was too paranoid. "And yes, we should get some sleep."

"Okay. Have a good night."

"You, too." With that, we went to our rooms. I made sure my knife was under my pillow, like I always do. I laid down on my bed and slowly drifted into sleep. Soon, I was nearly asleep and only heard the crickets outside.

I awoke with a dizzy feeling. Once I remembered that I had been confronted by the Suited Man only three months prior, I ignored the feeling. When I entered the living room, I saw that Anna was just about ready to go; she only had to grab her hat.

"Hey," she greeted, "I'm ready to go. You should get your stuff ready."

"You forgot your hat," I mumbled, yawning.

"Oh, you're right. Well, then..." She went off to her room. I proceeded to the bathroom.

I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was perfectly fine; it was still a nice, long ebony with the streak of white down the left of my hair that reminded me of Cecil. I've tried to dye my hair, but the memory refuses for me to do so.

I went into my room and grabbed my equipment. I hooked my crossbow on my right side on top of the quiver; I grabbed my knife and sheath and put that on my left side; lastly, I slipped on my leather steel-tipped boots. I was ready just like that.

I entered the living room again, seeing Anna in her full getup: red baseball cap, crossbow and bayonet in hand, quiver on her side.

I motioned for us to go through the door. We walked out of the door and saw tall trees several leagues away, and fields of grass split by a road in front of us. We entered the car with Anna driving and me in the passenger seat. She drove for the route to the forest.

After about a half-hour of driving, Anna pulled the car to a stop at a treeline. She told me that this was where she was directed to find the Junker kids. We both got out of the car and readied our crossbows. We started for the forest.

After minutes that seemed like hours passed by, Anna finally found something. Well, actually more like something found her. It was a girl that had a bleeding left arm.

"Wo ist es?" she questioned, looking afraid.

"Mir ware es lieber, wenn wir uns auf Englisch unterhalten konnten," I told the girl. It meant 'I would prefer it if we would talk in English'.

"Yes," the girl started, "Then where is it?"

"It?" Anna asked.

"Der Grossman. The Tall Man."

"I don't see it anywhere," I responded.

"Where is my Ernst?"

"He went looking for you," Anna answered.

"Who are you?"

"I am Sarah, this is Anna," I told her.

"Why did it let me go?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Anna looked a bit peeved.

"Ich bin tot."

"What?"

"She said," I began, a bit creeped out, "She said... that she's not alive. Du bist tot?" That meant 'are you dead?'.

"Ja," she answered. That meant 'yes'.

"So she's a ghost?" Anna asked, looking pale.

"Did the Tall Man kill you?" I asked the girl, not paying attention to Anna.

"Ja," she answered once again, "There it is." Out of nowhere, it appeared.

"Du bist Deutsch?" it slurred, staring at us, distorted face burning through the very fabric of space.

"No, Irish and English," I told it, then grabbed Anna and began to run. After only seconds of running, however, we came across a boy with a rifle in hand.

"Bewegen!" the boy commanded, "Move!" And so Anna and I moved, and the boy shot.

"You can't kill it like that!" Anna yelled.

"No, but I can give another some peace." I looked to where he shot. The girl was on the forest floor, her stomach bleeding. I heard the boy mutter under his breath, "Forgive me, Sophia."

"Well," I started, "That's that, but where's the Tall Man?" I looked around the woods, but only saw the three of us and the girl on the ground. I saw Anna doing equally the same.

"I do not know," the boy said, "But we have to leave here." Just as he said that, the Tall Man appeared behind the boy and ripped his head off of his body.

"Hah," the Tall Man chuckled, "Children should listen to their mother and father, should they not? Hm, Anna? Sarah?"

"How do you know our names?" Anna asked, looking quite terrified and insane.

"Oh, Alexis and Cody have told me about you two."

"My twin? But she's dead!"

"And my brother," I said, involving myself in the talk, "He's gone."

"No, no," it objected, "Alexis is simply an insane Faceless Shadow, and Cody the same. My brother, Slender, and cousin, Raven, have made sure of so."

"What do you want with us?" I tried my hardest not to shoot at the thing.

"Me? I want nothing. My brother and cousin? They want you yourselves."

"Screw this!" Anna intruded, "I say we kill this... thing!"

"And why? I only mean harm to children. And also, I mean good for you two, as I wish not for my brother and cousin to grow more powerful than me."

"Why would we believe you?!" Anna looked as if she had snapped.

"Because I am not the one who killed your parents, Dan, Cody, Cecil, Alexis, and others close to you. And I live here, in Germany, so it would be invalid if you said I had."

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "But you need a better explanation as to why we, humans and prey, would oblige to believe you, shadow and predator."

"You need not to believe me. Of course, I am only telling you to watch your back because my relatives are hunting you."

"And how far away are they," Anna told, bitter and emotionless.

"Perhaps they are here with us, listening, damning me for telling you this. Perhaps they are countries away, having a nice coffee or two and a little child's head on top. I do not know where they are, but I do know their intentions."

"Well, Mister Tall Man, I think this is enough chatter. We're leaving." With that, Anna grabbed my hand and we marched from the scene toward the car.

After a few meters, though, we saw villagers marching toward us. They had guns, tire irons, rakes, and other tools that could deem worthy of murder. After seeing this, Anna and I tried to slide away unnoticed. We did, and entered the car unscathed. I however, was exhausted. I felt rather hungry.

"What do you think will happen to those people?" Anna questioned me, looking a bit more calm.

"The children will die, and the adults will become insane," I answered her question, and we both shrugged it off as the correct prediction. We hadn't seemed affected by that matter, since we've already seen so much death. We also had more complicated things on our minds. She probably was thinking about what just happened, but I was thinking about our past; or rather, my past. When things first started with me killing Cecil.

Before I knew it, I was in bed, hair wet from a shower, and still thinking about the past. Anna sealed up the windows and doors just in case. I giggled to myself, because she was now the paranoid one.

It seemed that I was so exhausted, that I forgot to keep my knife under my pillow.

At the beginning of this story, the dialogue roughly translates to:

"The man is-"

"Ernst [boy's name], help!"

"No! I want to kill you! I want to kill you, Night Man! Tall Man!"

I would have done "I will kill you" but I don't know how to write future facts like that in German, only intentional statements. I only took a few months of studying German, so yeah.

Schlankwald means "Slim Forest" and Grossman means "Tall Man". Schlankwald is actually a poem (and very interesting; look it up) and the Grossmann (or Der Großmann) is a myth that originated from woodcuts quite a while ago (his story is interesting as well; look that up, too). NinjaCacti gave me the idea of doing Der Großmann, so thanks for that.

Alexis is Anna's twin, if you hadn't caught onto that. And, have you recalled the characters' names from the previous chapters? Anna, Alice, Dan (Silhouette)? Joseph, Sarah, Cecil, and Cody (Disease)? Yes? No? Maybe so? Okay.

-Jas