Hello Reader, I know it's been a while since my last update; I've been working on a lot of Joker stuff and enjoying my time out of school, but I finally got inspired to write another addition to the Slender Compilation! Yay! This one is a little different than the others, so tell me what you think! Thanks for reading, and please review! –SevvyGirl

Now Do You Believe?

Always behind me. Always watching. Yet he has no face. How can that be?

Researching the Slenderman is my new hobby, ever since those two girls that were on the news decided to kill their friend in honor of the myth. No, he's not an internet meme like the reporters incorrectly call him. He's an internet myth; entity; force, but not a meme. They must have really believed in him to have killed someone for him.

I don't believe in him, well how could I? It's obvious that he was created for a contest on the Something Awful forums, but despite hours of searching the forum as a reference, I couldn't find the original post, so whether it exists or not is beyond me.

At first I asked myself, "What's so scary about a faceless man in a suit?"

A lot. First of all, he's not really a man, is he? He's too pale; too tall; he can't even walk because of his proportions, instead teleporting. No, he's some sort of entity. IF he WERE real, he would be demonic from a religious standpoint. He kills people, particularly children. I wonder if it has something to do with innocence. Some of the fanfictions mention that. He slowly drives his victims insane until they beg for death…he's not someone you want to trifle with. I mean wouldn't. Since he's not real, of course.

After watching a Let's Player play Slender: The Eight Pages, and trying it out for myself though, I'm leaving the lights on and the closet door shut for a while. I told my friends, all fangirls, what I was doing, and they welcomed me into their fandom with open arms full of fanfiction titles.

We're having a camping trip sleepover on the river campgrounds near the Mississippi. Ashley made authentic pages to hang up, and our tall friend, Dakota, is going to be Slenderman, complete with morphsuit and black suit and red tie. We left the tentacles off since we figured they'd get caught on the trees and torn.

I hear the doorbell and grab my backpack. Time to go; Dakota's picking us up in his Monster Energy Mustang. I run down the hall, then slow to a walk to make it look like I'm slightly mature. Ash is at the door, and Dakota waves from the convertible. I hop in the back with Lucretia and Ash jumps in the front. Dakota takes off, music blaring, and we hit the interstate, going north.

Upon arriving at the campgrounds, we unload the tents and stuff and set up. This time of year it's not too busy…actually, it's never very busy; most people don't want to camp out on set campgrounds so high up away from the river. The locals go right down to the bank, because we know when it's rising and falling, and where all the good fishing spots are. And they're not here.

Dakota changes in the bathrooms and sets off in his suit while it's still light to hide the pages from us and get ready to stalk us. We sit around the campfire and talk while he's gone. Lucretia texts her boyfriend the whole time, and I start hoping that the battery will die when she starts expressing her love woes to us, or saying, "Aw, guess what he said to me?" she asks.

"He told you he loves you, right?" I guess.

"Yeah, how'd you know?!" she asks, genuinely surprised. Ashley facepalms herself.

Needless to say, Lucretia is the definition of blonde, but we love her. We all have our moments.

As soon as the sun hits the horizon, the three of us set off in different directions to find pages. We each have a phone, in case we get lost, and to let each other know if we find pages. I hear a scream and then the delayed scream through my phone, and figure Dakota jumped out from somewhere and scared Ashley. While he's busy with her, I've found a page.

"Got Always Watches No Eyes," I say officially.

Lucretia responds a moment later, "Got the one with the trees."

I wander a little further and find another page. Wait, this can't be right.

This page says, "Always Watches No Eyes."

But I already found that one…I compare the two pages. A close match. I look around. Is someone else out here messing with us, rubbing paper in dirt and taping them to trees?

"Got Help Me," Ashley reports, and I figure I'd better get moving because Dakota's probably after me since neither of them have screamed and they're closer together.

I see a flash of white off to my right, and I hide behind a tree. It's Dakota, looking for me. I sidle around the tree and try not to crunch too much as he's faced in the opposite direction. I don't want to use my flashlight because that will give me away, but it's getting awfully dark. I hope I don't step on a rattlesnake or copperhead; there are plenty of them out here. I look to my phone and realize that it's dead. I charged it in the car…I don't hear the others, so I turn on my flashlight and look behind me.

I'm slightly startled by Dakota standing there.

"Something's not right," he says instantly. "My phone's dead too."

"I don't like this. Let's try to find the others," I say, and he nods, completely forgetting about being the Slenderman.

I show him the duplicate pages. "Maybe some other people played the same thing and just didn't collect all the pages up," he suggests, and I nod.

"Yeah, maybe."

I walk slightly ahead of Dakota when we try to get between two hanging thorn vines. I hear a thud and look back to see if he tripped. He's lying on the ground, and there's a giant snake wrapped around his mouth and head so he can't scream.

I scream and pull at it, trying to get it off; it will crush him! It's like a gigantic black snake or something. I try to see the end of it, and end up looking up. Dakota is dragged away from me, but I can only stare. Dakota passes out.

Slenderman leans down from his gigantic height of 8 feet or more, and says, "Do you believe now?"

And then he disappears, dropping Dakota. I bend down to check on him, but he's coming to. "Dakota!" I shake him, and his eyes flutter open.

"Wh-what happened? Where'd the snake go?"

"It wasn't a snake! It was the Slenderman!" I cry.

"What? No, I saw the head, you're confused," he argues. "How'd you get it off of me?"

"It just let you go!"

"Man, I'm never doing this again," he sighs and my phone blinks to life.

"Look, our phones are back on," I point out, and call Ashley and Lucretia.

"Where are you guys? We kept trying to call you back, but you didn't answer? We're back at the camp site!" Lucretia replies frantically.

"Our phones wouldn't turn on, it was really weird. Then a giant snake tried to eat me," Dakota replies.

"It was Slenderman's tentacle! He grabbed Dakota, and then he asked me if I believed in him now, and then he just disappeared!"

"What? That's crazy; come back to the campground!" Ashley scolds and we both run.

Back at the campground, I tried to tell them what I saw, but they didn't believe me. They were the fangirls; they of all people should believe that he's real, right? Nope. I tried to tell my parents, but they ended up taking me to a psychiatrist and forbidding me to hang out with my friends. I tried telling the psychiatrist, but she told my parents that I needed counseling.

I tried telling the counselor, but she said I needed serious mental treatment after evaluating me, so they sent me to a mental hospital, and now everyone thinks I'm crazy. This is why no one believes; the fangirls are free to go, and the ones who actually see him are put in the loony bin.

But I know what I saw, and I believe. I'm not crazy.


Don't forget to follow and favorite if you liked it! And review regardless if you liked it or not. Tell me why! -SevvyGirl