A/N: "And every creature lends themselves to change your state of mind/ And the girl that chase the rabbit, drank the wine, and took the pill,/ Has locked herself in limbo to see how it truly... feels."
Gaara: Stop it! That song...
Okay. *to the reader.* Make sure that table is nearby, because this is the final chapter.
Gaara: And you'll need something to flip soon.
~Slender's Oldest

[Chapter Four: Her Choice]

There was the warehouse. It was abandoned, devoid of any sign of live. The two girls went inside. Joey had gotten from one of the Fighters and she had it in her hand.

"Slipt up." Joey ordered as she went through another door. As Gaara began to speak, the door slammed shut and there was the dread click of a doorknob locking.

"Joey!" She ran to the door and grabbed the doorknob, turning it rapidly. Some doors could be unlocked like that. "Joey!" She threw her weight into the door. Then she pounded her fists against it. "Joey..." A loud scream erupted in the air beyond the door. "No!" Gaara tried to roundhouse the door in a Resident Evil fashion. Pain shot through her leg and she went down.

Hello, Gaara. She know without turning who was behind her. Slender,

"Are you going to kill me?"

Why would I do that?He wrapped several tendrils around her and hauled her to her feet. I have a proposition.

"I just wanna save Joey."

That's part of my proposition, little one. Her eyes narrowed.

"Say it now. Time is of the essence." He chuckled.

Sparky. The his head went up and down. Become one of my proxies and then you can open the door. She looked thoughtful. Gaara could become a proxy and save her and her only friend or stay the way she was and they both die. With a silent apology to Munich and the others, she spoke.

"I'll be your...proxy."

Glad to see that someone has some honor. He vanished and with him, her pain and Slender sickness. Gaara roundhoused the door again, but this time it caved in. Instead of marvelling at her new strength, she stormed in. Joey was struggling on a fraying rope from where she was tied by her wrist on the second level railing. Seeing Gaara, she cried out to her.

"Gaara!" The new proxy started to run toward her. A figure dressed in slacks and a hoodie appeared in her way. His face was burnt white. Gaara backpeddaled to stop herself. The guy I saw in my dreams. She felt a stab of pain in her chest. Then she felt that she had no control of her body.

"Jeff, get out of my way." Her voice was a low growl. Jeff narrowed his eyes and didn't move. She drew closer and shoved him out the way before running to catch her falling friend.

"Gaara." Control was returned to her. She met her friend's baby blue eyes. "Your eyes... What happened to them?" Confused, she told her.

"I'm a proxy." Joey pulled away from her and stood. Gaara slowly got to her feet.

"A what?"

"A proxy." Joey looked distraught.

"You work for Him?"

"It was either work for Slender and saving you or not and us both dying."

"Is he going to kill me?"

"My Operator-" My Operator? I've been a proxy for all of minutes and I'm submissive. "Slender might, but before that time comes, I'll come and..." She swallowed in pain. "And...if you want me to, I'll make it all end. I'll make it go away." It might be a small mercy if she herself killed Joey and not Slender.

"Goodbye for now, Gaara." The proxy didn't move and Joey turned away from her.

"Goodbye, Joey." She muttered as her old friend ran off. The world seemed to be on fire. Everything was so painful.

And Gaara allowed herself to fall to her knees, tears coming from her now blood-red eyes.

Almost a month after become a proxy, Gaara spent a week watching her friend, Joey. She wondered if she was suffering like she had. When the end of the weekend arrived, she knew the end was coming for Joey. Jumping down to the ground from her perch, the red-head walked up to her old house and knocked on the door. Joey immediately opened the door.

"Gaara?"

"Alice." She corrected, addressing herself by the name that Slender had given her. Alice Human Scarifice. Alice: Madness Returns.So many insane Alices. Joey urged her to come in.

"So, he's close?"

"Most likely, it'll be tonight." Her blood-red eyes meet her baby blues. "Do you want me to..." Alice dreaded the question, dreaded finishing it, dreaded having to ask it. This was all her fault. Her fault that her Operator- Slender. Her mind retaliated.- was going to kill her.

"Will it be quick?"

"All you'll feel is a bit of pain from where the knife breaks skin." She pulled a hunting knife that she'd picked up out. The proxy quickly stabbed her in between the second and third vertebrae, killing her immediately. Then Gaara laid Joey on the couch, crying. "Goodbye, my friend." She closed the girl's sightless eyes. "Requiescat in pace." Taking the knife, she slipped out the backdoor of the house..

Alice saw the group of Runners and Fighters standing around Joey's grave site as she traversed over.

"Gaara!" There was the new girl and everyone turned at her declare.

"Gaara!" They all seemed happy to see her...until they saw her blood-red eyes and they gaspd.

"You're a proxy." The older Runner stated.

"I don't come on behalf of my Operator." She pulled out a yellow rose. Half of a playing card was tied to it by a ribbon. My smart older sister, the other half of the Yellow Alice. "I only came to pay respects to an old lost friend."

"What's that?"

"Half of the trump card of hearts." A smile came onto her face. Then she pulled out the other half and showed it to them. " 'The stubborn older sister and the smart younger brother'." She quoted Alice Human Scarifice. She then turned and started toward her borrowed SUV.

"You'll always be a hero." Alice stopped and regared the girl. "Gaara Montmorency died a hero." She smiled and tossed her Julian's/her journal and left.

May 28, 2013

So, I don't have to run anymore, but I'm still cursed. Cursed to serve the person who used to be my enemy. Cursed to follow my old friends...But until I die, in some way, I will defy him. Before Slender goes for them, an hour to a day in advance, I'll go to them... and if they want me to, I will end it for them. I guess that is a small mercy. Having a friend with them when they go. Be it a Runner or Fighter, I'll offer that mercy to them.
I can only hope that they'll run longer than me and not end up in my state.

A/N: Table been flipped yet? *laughs.* Okay. I kinda lied. Gaara didn't die, but this is the end. Since "Gaara" is gone and "Alice" has taken her place.
Proxy!Gaara: I hate you, Chanta.
I love you too, Gaar- I mean, Alice.
Proxy!Gaara: -_-
Love you guys. Caio!
~Slender's Oldest.