H-hey...um...you guys are gonna hate me. Please don't freak out when I tell you this, but...this is gonna be in three parts. Yep. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! *hides and whimpers*

There were just too many good cliffhanger opportunities and I really didn't want to waste them! Plus, I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for too long. Please enjoy! :D

Also, I just wanted you guys to know, that when I'm stuck on a story and I just have absolutely no idea where to go with it, I go back and read all of the lovely reviews that you guys have posted. I'm not even kidding, you guys make me blush like a kawaii desu anime girl. So thank you, all of you, for your lovely amount of support throughout this! :')

Vhere is your precious disclaimer now, dummkopfs?!

"The Haunting of DeGroot Keep, Part 2"

All Scout could hear was the crunching of his feet on the grass and dead leaves, mixed with the chirping of crickets. He walked slowly and nervously, grateful that he had found an abandoned flashlight that still worked.

With every passing moment, Scout regretted venturing into this forest. All he wanted to do was investigate these notes a little, but now it had gotten pitch black and he couldn't find his way out of this damn place.

He shined his flashlight left and right, trying to see through the trees and locate where he was in relation to the keep. But all he could see were trees, trees, more trees, a huge fuel drum, note, trees–

He snapped his attention back to the tall cylinder container, and, lo and behold, a bright white page was tacked up onto it. He raced over, hopeful that it might tell him the way out of the forest. But, much to his dismay, it was yet another cryptic message, just like the last two had been.

"Follows..." Scout said nervously, beginning to piece together the situation. He scanned the area to make sure that nothing that had been watching him with no eyes was following him.

"What da…?" he squinted into the distance, trying to tell if that was just a tree or not.

No, no, definitely not a tree. It appeared to be a slim man clad in a black suit and a blood red tie. He could tell that the man's skin was completely white, but… he couldn't make out any of his features, but maybe that was because he was just too far away at the time.

"Ow, shit!" Scout cursed, pressing his free hand against one of his eyes. What the hell was that? All of a sudden his vision was filled with static, and he got a little woozy. But the feeling was gone now, and he should really be trying to get out of–

He looked up to now find that the man was not fifty meters away from him, but stood directly in front of the Bostonian. The man's facial features were now clearly discernable, in the sense that he didn't have any. There were dips where his eyes should have been, but other than that, his face was a blank canvas.

"AAAHHHH SHIT SHIT SHIT!" the Bostonian shrieked, jumping away. Had his reflexes been a millisecond late, the tentacles that had sprung out of the mysterious man's back would have captured him.

"Oh my god oh my god, fuckin' hell, HOW DO I GET OUT OF HERE?!" he cried, beginning to go into hysterics.

"Come on, you've gotta tell me somethin' else! Please be a hidden message somewhere or somethin'!" he whispered as he sorted through the pages he'd found. He flipped them upside down, read them backwards, tried to find words in the pictures, but he couldn't decipher anything other than the clear message.

Finally, when he had started to break down into panicked tears, he found something on the backside of the first page he collected. It was a small message, written in tiny font, but it was still readable.

"C-collect all eight pages…" he stuttered, his voice cracking. "Beware of da Senderman… O-okay, I can do dat, I just gotta–AAH NO, NO NO NO!" he screamed as he caught sight of said Slenderman.

Scout sprinted faster than he ever had in his entire life. He weaved and darted between the trees, hoping that his trail would be lost. He checked behind him cautiously, taking a breath of relief when Slenderman was nowhere to be–

"MOTHERFUCKIN' HELL DAT'S HIM! RUN! RUN!" the runner shrieked to himself, hoping that his exhausted body would listen to his pleas. His legs sprang to life once again and he dashed away.

When Medic came to, he saw Heavy with one hand on his shoulder as he lightly shook it.

"Doktor?" he rumbled softly.

Medic's vision started to become less blurry, and he now realized that Heavy had placed him on the bed and covered him with a few of their extra blankets. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, making his Russian comrade's expression soften a bit and he took his hand off the doctor's shoulder.

"Vhat happened?" Medic asked groggily, looking around the room and accepting his glasses back from his comrade. Archimedes fluttered up to him and landed on his shoulder, nuzzling affectionately against the German's cheek. He smiled tiredly and held up his hand, allowing the dove to perch on his finger.

"Well," Heavy started, "I am downstairs with Engineer, and we hear Doktor and Pyro scream, so we run quick to destroy puny monsters."

"Screaming?" Medic asked, a confused expression forming on his face. "I don't remember scr…" he trailed off as he caught sight of someone standing at the door.

Creepy Crawly Sniper sauntered in, but Scrubby was nowhere to be seen. "How're ya feelin', doc?" he asked innocently.

Medic couldn't do anything but stare blankly as memories of recent events flooded back into his brain. Archimedes chirped nervously and fluttered his wings, causing Creepy Crawly Sniper to scowl at him a little. The doctor instinctively held his bird closer to his chest, stroking his head comfortingly and not daring to take his eyes off the man at the door for one second.

Heavy had noticed this, and concluded that an introduction of sorts was in order. "Dis man is kredit to team!" he stated, beaming. "All I know is I find Doktor lying on floor, pale as ghost. You give Heavy big worry! Did not know what had happened to you or how to fix. But he says you are sick, and he tells me secret remedy!"

Medic still hadn't broken his gaze from Creepy Crawly Sniper, but listened to every word his comrade had spoken.

Heavy continued on. "He says name is Creepy Crawly Sniper. Is easy to remember, is just like our Sniper, but creepy and crawly!"

"Heavy." the doctor said quietly.

"OH! And he makes delicious sandvich!"

"Heavy."

"And he give me Dalkhos bar!"

"Heavy!" Medic finally said a little more sternly, make the Russian discontinue his ramblings.

"Da, Doktor?"

"Do not associate vizh zhis man any longer." he said simply.

Heavy looked rather confused as to why Medic didn't approve of his new friend. He had saved the German's life, after all. But then again, he thought, Medic always had some sort of motive behind his actions, and, even though it usually took some time, he always revealed his reasons.

"But… he is friend…" The Russian stated as-a-matter-of-factly. "He is kredit to team."

"Nein, Heavy, he's not." Medic growled, still continuing to stare at Creepy Crawly Sniper, who still stood patiently in the doorway, a small smirk on his face.

"Come on now, mate, is that any way to treat the man who just saved your loife?" he chided.

By this time, Medic had gotten up from where he sat and was walking up to the man. "You had better leave mein family und mein team alone or I svear to Gott I–"

"Doc! You okay?" Engineer asked as he brushed past Creepy Crawly Sniper and burst into the room.

Medic looked curiously at his teammate. "Uh… ja, I'm fine, Herr Engineer, vhy do you–"

The Texan grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door and down the hall, catching the doctor quite off guard. Medic could tell that Engineer's actions were panicked and frantic, so he followed the man through the halls and into the dining room. From there, they proceeded through the North-West hall and to an open door leading to the basement.

"Oh mein Gott, vhat happened here?!" Medic cried as he caught sight of the firebug lying at the bottom of the stairs.

Pyro lay flat on its back and motionless on the ground, its arms wrapped around its torso and breathing raggedly. The doctor rushed over, gingerly pulling its arms away from its body and placing them by its sides.

"Pyro?" he whispered, softly stroking one gloved hand with his thumb.

"…mmmph…" it managed painfully, whimpering slightly.

Medic turned back to Engineer, who was biting his lip and wringing his hands in worry.

"Herr, do you know vhat happened?" the German asked, not taking his hand away from Pyro's.

"To be honest with you, doc, I don't rightly know." he answered quietly. "I just found Py lyin' there, and the feller looked hurt, so I went to find you." Engineer looked hopeful at the doctor. "You think he'll be okay?"

While the Texan had been talking, Medic had been trying to assess Pyro's condition, gently prodding at its ribs with his fingers, eliciting a small whimper from the firebug whenever he hit a sensitive spot.

"Ja, I zhink so," the doctor concluded, "it's only a few bruised ribs, a few bumps, maybe a concussion, but I don't zhink there are any broken bones."

Engineer let out a sigh of relief. "Well thank the Lord." he breathed, letting his hands fall to his sides.

Medic nodded in agreement. "It vas probably just a fall down zhe stairs." he suggested, helping Pyro sit up and slinging its arm over his shoulder. "Herr Engineer, could you help me, bitte?" the doctor asked, gesturing to the pyromaniac's other arm.

The Texan had been in a sort of trance at the time, obviously deep in thought. He snapped back to reality when Medic called for him, and made his way over to his fire starting comrade's side.

"Y'know, doc, I think there's more to it than just fallin'." Engineer stated as they made their way up the stairs.

Medic quirked an eyebrow. "Vhat do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, when Heavy 'n' I were in the dinin' area, we heard you and Pyro scream. We went off to find you two, and the only way I found Pyro was because I followed the multiple screams that came after."

Medic listened intently to his teammate, not saying a word and waiting for him to continue as they slowly walked down the hall.

"That's when I saw him at the bottom of that flight of stairs. I had no idea what had happened, but the more I think about it, the more I want to say that somethin' was chasin' him." Engineer finished, his brows furrowed in thought.

Pyro made a muffled whimper and squirmed as best it could, breaking both men out of their thoughts.

"Py, what's the matter?!" Engineer asked urgently as he and Medic tried to keep their hold on it's arms without hurting it.

A soft moaning behind them caused all three BLUs to freeze in place, slowly turning their heads to the source of the noise.

"Muuuu…" another groan, this one making Pyro whimper a little bit.

The mercenaries sprung into action, their first call of duty being to get their injured teammate to safety. Medic helped Engineer sling Pyro onto his back, apologizing to the firebug that they weren't able to be more careful at that moment as it winced and yelped in pain.

They ran down the hall as fast as they could, still hearing the soft moaning behind them, but not knowing what it was or where it was coming from.

Around the corner, the undead man limped slowly after them as bits of rotting flesh fell off his face and arms. He looked as though an entire half of his face was ripped off, including part of his nose and lips, and the eye on that side seemed to be completely gone.

Slowly but surely, it made its way toward the dining room, and ominous chuckling could be heard in the background.

Demoman swore that he wasn't going crazy.

He bloody well knew that the voices speaking to him were not just his imagination.

"Taviiiiiish…" one of them whimpered softly. "Why did you do this to uuuuuus?"

"I told ye, I'm not th' one who did it! It was me great-great-great-great grandfather's fault!" he retorted angrily.

"We were your people…" another moaned. "Why, Tavish, WHYYYYYY?!"

Demoman couldn't help but cover himself under his sheets. Cripe, these ghosts were starting to get mad. Where's Emma when you need her?! He could almost feel their cool breath on the back of his neck as he tried to pretend they weren't there.

"Priiiiiince TaaaaviiiiIIIIIIISH!" they called ominously and angrily.

The Scotsman could feel himself quivering. Holy shite, he had dealt with a few ghosts before, but not with ones that were seeking revenge on his bloodline! But he was a DeGroot, and no DeGroot was scared of a measly little ghost!

He took a deep breath, closed his eye…

...and made a mad dash for the door.

"COOOOME BAAAAACK HEEEEEERE!" they screamed after him, wailing and moaning the whole time.

Demoman would not stop sprinting, not until he made it back to the dining room to prove to Engineer and Heavy that he had been right the entire time, and that the team needed to get the hell out of this place.

When he finally got there, he felt like he had run a marathon. It was a scary thing, having a bunch of vengeful ghosts chasing you. He ran to the dining table collapsing and panting beside where Heavy and Engineer sat.

Well, where they had been sitting. Much to the Scot's dismay, his teammates were nowhere to be found.

"Cripe, you're bloody kiddin' me here!" he yelled before letting out a string of curses.

"TAVISH." a chorus of sad and angry voices rang out from behind him.

Demoman slowly turned around and froze, eye wide and staring at the army of semi transparent figures before him.

There were men, women, children, each looking like they had caught a disease that mixed the effects of leprosy and the Black Plague. Their skin was rotting and had gaping holes through it, and some areas of their skin were covered in small red rings. They looked so sad, so angry, so…

…betrayed.

It looked as though the Scotsman was doomed. They were closing in on him, each one's eyes starting to glow an eerie red and purple and brandishing some sort of pitchfork or torch.

But, ever the stubborn man, Demo rolled backwards off the table and made another break for it, screaming for help from anyone at all.

The ghosts did not follow him though. They simply disappeared into thin air, chuckling ominously all the while.

Soldier sloshed through the water, his legs sliding past several hundred years' worth of algae with every step. This place was disgusting! Even an ancient slime –secreting creature wouldn't want to live here.

By now, the American had waded almost to the end of the large room. As he had gone farther in, the water level had gotten deeper and it was now up to the bottom of his chest. He could hardly see anything, and he was about to give up his search entirely until he felt a little something move past his leg.

No, it couldn't be anything relevant, just strings of algae.

That's what he'd thought until he felt something wrap itself tightly around his stomach and flip him upside down, then proceed to throw him up against the wall.

Soldier fell into the water, sputtering and coughing as he came up. He whipped his head around in all directions, trying to spot the being that had dared just do that to him.

It is vital to realize that in this situation, Soldier was a total disadvantage. The factors of water and lighting were on the creature's side right now, and if Soldier was a sane person, or at least not as ignorant as he is, he would try to get out of that basement, pronto.

But this isn't a sane person we're talking about here, this is Soldier, and god dammit, America is on his side!

"Get out here and FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN, CUPCAKE!" the patriot yelled, putting up his fists.

A very dark sounding chuckle was heard from across the room, followed by only a small sloshing sound. This raised cause for a bit of concern, but nothing was going to stop him now! Not even a creepy sea monster.

It was very silent for a while, and Soldier soon became quite bored of this cryptic behavior.

"Uh… hello? I don't have all day." he complained. "What, are you just gonn–AAAAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed as a tentacle that shot out of the water lifted him up into the air.

Another tentacle sprang up and grabbed his other leg, pulling him down into the water and holding him to the bottom of the pool. Soldier tugged and pulled at them with all his might, but they would not budge.

All of a sudden, they just went slack and let the patriot wriggle out from underneath them. Soldier took this as a golden opportunity to get the hell out of there. It only counts for so much to have America on your side where you're dealing with something that shouldn't even exist.

As soon as he was free, Soldier began swimming as fast he could back to the door through which he came. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to check if the monster had left him alone…

Big mistake.

What Soldier saw in that two-second period of time was probably one of the most terrifying things he'd ever experience.

It was definitely chasing him, and oh man, was it ever enjoying it. The thing had let the patriot go in order to make the chase more thrilling, that much was evident through the look on its face.

Wait, he recognized this thing… he'd seen it before… somewhere…

Soldier's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he finally made out the features of the creature.

He had invaded the home of a Tentaspy.

He needed to get out of there. Fast. If there were two things that scared him, they were Tentaspies and snakes.

The American swam and swam as fast as his arms and legs would paddle, but right when he thought that he had escaped, the Tentaspy had grabbed him by his ankles and somehow managed to get him pinned down on the pool floor again.

This time, the Tentaspy did not let go, but savored the look of utter horror on his prey's face with glowing, yellow, cat-like eyes that bore themselves into your soul and razor sharp teeth that would haunt your nightmares, should you survive.

Scout continued at full speed until he came to a small clearing, containing what looked like an oil tanker. He slammed up against the truck, using his hands to brace himself before he plucked the note off of the back.

"No no no no no no no no…" he read, breathing heavily. The only word that the note contained was 'no' scrawled multiple times beside a picture of Slenderman. Scout exasperatedly threw his arms up in the air. "My fuckin' thoughts exactly!"

He quickly whipped his head around to check if his stalker was still in the dense forest, a relieved smile spread on his face. "Aw yes, he fucked off!" the runner laughed. "Who's da Slendahman now, huh? Can't catch me ya bastard. Oh watchya gonna do now, Slendy? Huh? You gonna cry? You gonna cr–NEVAHMIND IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION YOU DON'T HAVE TA ANSWER DAT!" he screamed as his taunting was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the faceless man.

He continued to sprint at full speed, tripping multiple times in his haste. His instincts kicked in, causing his senses, including his sight and hearing, to be heightened. He was always checking behind him, taking in and memorizing his surroundings… maybe a little too well.

"Ok dis fuckin' tree was NOT here before." he said, pointing an accusing finger at the tree standing beside three large boulders. "Hey, Slendahman, did you move dis tree you asshole?!" he called out into the woods. "I fuckin' swear, if you moved da tree just to freakin' mess with me, I will fuck your shit up."

"Daniel, that tree was always there. Don't be stupid."

The runner stopped talking for a moment, staring blankly ahead of him, but that look was soon replaced with an annoyed grimace.

"Shut up, conscience! What da hell do you know?!"

Scout's conscience sighed. It was so difficult when the boy got like this. "Just trust me for once, you're jumping into this situation and you don't even know what you're dealing with."

"Uh, excuse me? I'm dealin' with da freakin' Slendahman here, I know what I'm doin'"

"No, Danny, you don't know what you're doing. You're making assumptions."

"Dude, I'm gettin' all da pages so dat dey'll tell me a way outta dis freakin' forest! Try ta keep up, doufus."

"How do you actually know that they'll show you a way out? The only instructions were, 'find all eight pages, beware of the Slenderman.'"

This was a little piece of information that Scout hadn't come to realize until now. Had he really collected all those notes for nothing? Did he actually need the messages to get out? Why the heck was this creepy faceless molester following him anyways? Nothing made sense right now.

And when things don't make sense, what better thing to do than ignore your conscience, right?

"Just get outta here, you aint helpin' anyone!" he yelled.

"But –"

"I said get lost!"

Scout's conscience sighed and settled down into his frontal lobe, watching and waiting to see how this situation was going to work out.

"Dumbass." the Bostonian muttered as he searched the rocks for any notes. Eventually, he did find one tacked up on the rocks.

"Help me…" he read out loud. "Okay, seriously, who da fuck put up all dese freakin' pages anyway?!" he growled, annoyed.

His flashlight flickered a bit, and Scout noticed that it was significantly dimmer than it had been when he had first found it. Damn, the batteries were probably running out! This was just perfect, now he could barely see anything, let alone watch out for the–

"NOOO! DUDE, GO AWAY! JUST GO AWAY!" he wailed as he stumbled backwards, trying to avert his eyes from his oppressor.

Miraculously, the Bostonian was able to successfully turn in the opposite direction and run for his life.

"Don't look or it takes you, don't look or it takes you, don't look or it takes you…" he whimpered to himself, making his way through the trees. He breathed a sigh of relief when he caught sight of a small building in the distance.

"Oh yes, safe house, safe house, nice safe house." he laughed nervously to himself.

The runner quickly entered the building, noting that there was no door, and the floors and walls were tiled, so this was most likely some sort of public bathroom.

"Why da heck is dere a bathroom in the middle of da freakin' forest?" he murmured to himself, still nervously looking around. "Maybe dere's just so many people dat got lost in here dat one of 'em decided to build it for da convenience of everyone else."

He continued to walk along the tiled floor, listening to the soft tapping of his shoes as he made his way through. He really didn't know what he was looking for, but the house made him feel safe in a way.

"Hey, maybe he's da one who put up all of dem freakin' notes dat don't tell me nothin'!" Scout growled. "You fucking asshole! I hate you! YOU'RE DA REASON I'M STUCK IN HERE!"

"Actually, Danny, your unbearable amount of curiosity got you into this."

"SHUT DA FUCK UP, CONSCIENCE! NOBODY LIKES YOU!"

He rounded the corner, seeing a small chair at the other end of the hall that was knocked over. For some odd reason, the chair was extremely unsettling to him. It was as if it was trying to give him some sort of sign…

He shrugged it off, continuing further into the bathroom. Scout came to another corner, but this time, it led to a small room. Tacked up on the wall was another note!

The Bostonian was there in a flash, snatching the piece of paper and reading it to himself. "Can't run… well dat doesn't…"

His eyes grew wide as he realized just what this note was trying to tell him.

This was a dead end.

He was stuck in a dead end with Slenderman following him.

The only way out was to go back the way he came.

His hands started shaking, his eyes were wide, his pupils completely dilated, and his breath wheezy and labored as he came to realize just how screwed he was.

"I-it's… it's a dead end, it's a dead end," he said, breathily and shakily, "can't run, c-can't… r-run…" he whimpered, curling up in the corner, his eyes never closing or leaving the entrance to the room.

He continued to murmur silent nonsense to himself, shaking violently as the anxiety in his stomach grew and grew. He knew he wasn't going to come out of this alive, there was just no possible way.

It's a hard thing, to accept death. Especially when your career includes a machine that will bring you back to life ten seconds after you're killed. Death–real death–is something that was completely beyond what Scout's brain could fathom.

The only thing the boy could do was watch in silent terror as the all too familiar white face slowly, but surely, peered in the doorway.

Aaaaaaaaaaand insane get mad at Jinny for killing Scoot time. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review! :D