"Help…me…"
Anne stared at the girl who crawled towards her without her legs. Her blue eyes were wide with fear and pleading for Anne to rescue her. Anne's own red eyes began watering.
"I'm sorry," she whispered as the Rake finished devouring the girl's legs "I can't. I'm so sorry."
Anne winced and covered her ears, closing her eyes when the Rake pounced on the girl, tearing her to shreds as she screamed in agony and pain. Blood splattered onto Anne's hair, clothes and face, making her shiver in disgust and fear. Tears finally streaked down Anne's cheeks as she slowly pulled her hands down from her ears, shaking and crying. Rake crawled towards her after devouring the girl, minus her head which was carelessly tossed into the corner with the rest of the decomposing heads. Anne looked up at his bright white eyes.
"I can't take it anymore," she whispered "All this death, all this horror, I can't take it any longer."
Rake crooned and tilted his head to the side curiously. Anne stared at the pile of heads and shook her head.
"I could have been one of them, one of your victims," she muttered "I was a human once, I could have been like them once upon a time."
Rake hissed in contempt when he heard the word human fall from her lips and Anne chuckled dryly.
"What makes a human, Rake?" she asked "What does something have to do to get the honoured title of being human? And what do you think Slenderman meant by calling me more human than the others? Other what, Rake? If I'm more human but not completely human, what am I? Am I a monster?"
Rake crooned and crawled closer, nuzzling her and laying his head on her bosom. His claws smeared blood on her legs as Anne looked at the pile of heads in dismay.
"I bleed. I weep. I fear. But one day, I'll be unable to bleed, weep and fear. And when that day comes, will I lose all the humanity in me? Will I become useless to Slenderman then? Will he kill me or just push me aside when I've lived out my usefulness?"
The Rake didn't answer, just nuzzled and made attempts to comfort her. As he did try to hug her, his claw ripped through her dress, leaving a tear in the side. Anne stared at it blankly but shrugged, hugging Rake back. They stayed like that until they noticed the sunlight disappearing from the small window. Rake got up and ran out, going to find more victims whilst they slept in their warm beds, under the pretence that they are safe. Anne got up and walked out of the room, staring at the bloody trail he left behind from his claws.
As she entered the cabin, she spotted Margret, her figure bulky and mean from all the decades of running and body building for Slenderman's purposes. Kate was probably out being used at this very moment, used to haunt the mines and snatch any unfortunate trespassers. Anne looked up at Margret's bloody mask, mostly hidden under her hood and sighed.
"Can you think for yourself, Margret?" she asked "Do you have times where you can just sit and contemplate your very existence? Or has he truly devoured your mind? Are you not Margret anymore?"
Margret didn't respond as usual. She just stood in the moonlight, staring at the door, ready for any trespassers or victims that had been chased up here by Kate and the other proxies. Anne shrugged and went upstairs, her hair trailing behind her like a bride's train. Anne stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down, her dirty, bloody yet still white enough to glow in the moonlight hair trailing down the stairs like a waterfall. Anne saw that her mane of white was long enough to cover the entirety of the staircase, all thirteen steps. She took a handful and began pulling it up carefully, feeling how rough but how silky it was. Her mane was immensely heavy but she had adapted to carrying the weight from her head. Anne cracked a smile.
"I always wanted to be like Rapunzel but this is ridiculous," she muttered as her hair picked itself up and flowed towards her, itself around her waist and making a nice neat bow at the back.
She walked to her room, opening it and stepping onto the paper covered surface. Piles and piles of papers of writing littered her room, some even stuck to the ceiling. One of those pages detached themselves from the wooden ceiling and floated down onto Anne. Anne caught it and began reading it.
"And Faith did the stupid mistake of diving into the lake from the balcony," she recited "As soon as her feet left the floor, she began screaming and landed harshly in the water. She cried for her daddy who rushed down to comfort her. Well, at least she never tried to attempt that escapade again."
Anne smiled sadly as she turned the page to see that she had done a rough drawing of herself, her supposedly husband and three of their children. A silent tear rolled down her cheek as she hugged the page to her chest. She knew it was nothing but a fleeting dream, a dream which she could hold onto for her sanity. Her little fantasy of never seeing Slenderman and having a family was the only thing to direct her attention from the murder, the blood, the gore, the screams and the stench of death.
"Why did you look?" she whispered "Why did you have to see him? Why, why, why?!"
She yelped as she slipped on a piece of paper and landed heavily, sending more pages flying up and land somewhere else. Slowly she sat up and like the little child she had always been, she began crying.
"Anne?"
Anne yelped and looked up to see Slenderman towering over her. He reached down and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Anne, what's wrong?" he asked.
Anne sniffed and hunched her shoulders.
"I slipped and fell," she muttered.
Slenderman chuckled as he took her elbow and helped her up. He pulled back one of the blankets, sending more pages flying around and Anne slipped into bed, hugging Alice to her. As Anne slowly fell asleep, Slenderman took one of the pages to read. The last words Anne had to listen to before she could dream were:
"If you had never seen me, I would have still hunted you down."
