AN: Hello my little violet blossoms! I'm kidding, I'm not gonna call you anything creepy like that XD But anyways, here's the twelfth chapter!

I don't own Slenderman, but I do own Andrea... *evil laughter*

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Chapter 12

"Hold on!" Heather yelled, "Where am I gonna stay at? Andrea, you think your mom would let… oh never mind."

I thought this to myself. Heather needs a place to stay, and I'm not sure if my mother would be ecstatic to let someone else in the house. But doesn't she only need a place for the night? Maybe we can pull this off. Hopefully it wouldn't occur to my mother to take a peek in my room at night. With this idea in mind, I get Heather's attention.

"Maybe if you only stay during the night," I reasoned, "My mom wouldn't even notice."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Heather replied, "If I have no concern at all for my personal hygiene. I need to take showers, and I'm pretty sure your mom would find out if it was me who was taking a shower in your house."

"Save your sarcasm for later," I tell her, "I'm going to think this through."

"Okie Dokie Artichokie."

Heather takes a granola bar from a pocket she happened to have in her dress, and begins crunching on it. Where did she even get it? Now's not the time. Wait a minute. I think I know where. Slenderman's cabin is isolated in the woods, so nobody could find her there. Not even I know where it's located, because Slenderman took me there when I was unconscious. Now the hard part. Someone is going to have to persuade Slenderman, and that's not exactly an easy task.

"Can we take this outside?" I ask. "I don't want my mom to come up here, and some fresh air would be nice."

One reason I didn't say out loud was that Slenderman seemed uncomfortable in my small room, and he might not take my idea so well, so he's going to need some space. He just teleported us outside to avoid waking my mom up. I thought that he would just take us to my backyard, but when I look around, it's the woods we're in. Doesn't matter, besides, this is better. Heather stepped to the side to do whatever she was going to do. I want Slenderman to hear this first, so I take the opportunity.

"I have another idea," I begin, "But I'm not 100% sure if you're going like it."

He nods for me to continue.

"You think, maybe, if it's possible…"

It's my cabin, isn't it?

"Wait, how did you know?" I questioned, "You didn't read my mind… right?"

You could probably say that. Like how you were able to receive some of my thoughts. You made it obvious too.

"I wasn't that obvious!" I exclaimed, "Believe me, you would have no idea what I was thinking if you weren't some super cool mind reading being."

Whatever you say, little one.

"So…?"

No.

"What!? Why not?"

That human is an idiot.

"That human," I imitate his voice, "Happens to be my friend! Plus, she isn't an idiot! She's more like…"

I search around my surroundings as if the answer would happen to be floating about. My eyes fall on Heather, trying to find the best adjective to describe her. She's doing cartwheels right now. I see her do a pretty impressive cartwheel. And run into a tree. She gets up, yells at the tree, and kicks it. Not such a smart choice, because now she's hopping on one foot holding her other injured one. Come on Heather, you're not helping me out here.

You were saying?

"She isn't an idiot," I defend her, "She's just special. Ha! That's it! She's special. You just can't see what potential she has."

You're right. I don't. Please enlighten me.

"It simply can't be put into words. That's how complex her brilliance is."

She still can't stay in my cabin.

"Give me one good reason why she can't."

She's an idiot.

"That's not a good reason!"

That's good enough for me.

"Well, according to The Rules Of The Universe, by definition it's unacceptable."

What's the definition?

"Classified. So where can she go?"

How about she sleeps in your house, and if she needs to take a shower like she said, she could do so at my cabin.

"That's actually a good idea! I don't give you enough credit."

You should. Where is the lunatic now?

"She has a name, and it's Heather. Wait, wasn't she just doing cartwheels over there?"

I look around for Heather, but she wasn't where I last saw her. I call her name a few times, but despite my efforts, I don't get an answer. She couldn't have gotten that far. Slenderman is looking around for her too, his pale head turning this and that way. I clear my throat before calling her again, and this time I do get an answer… from somewhere above me? I look up and my jaw hangs open from my surprise. She climbed one of the tall trees and is standing on a branch right now. How did she even climb that fast? She's waving her hand like a maniac. What is she up to now? Oh Heather…

"Heather! What the heck are you doing up there?!"

"Aw, c'mon Andrea, you have to embrace life to the fullest!"

It looks like you're embracing death.

"Slenderman has a point, you know. Why are you… hey, what are you doing?!"

"YOLO MOTHERF-"

"Heather! Oh my God!"

I interrupted Heather just as she jumped off. Is this really embracing life? She's crazy! For once, I have to agree with Slenderman. Her braid is waving in the air as she makes her decent to the ground. In a flash, inky black tendrils reach towards the sky, and grab Heather just in time. She makes an "oof" sound as they make contact. Slenderman lets go of her a few feet off the ground, seeing that she wouldn't get hurt. And even though she's called Heather the Feather, it's kind of misleading seeing her "graceful" fall to the ground. More like tumbling in the air somehow and landing on her face. She looks up not with pain on her face, but a goofy smile.

"That was so awesome! Oh yeah! Living like Larry!"

"Living like who?"

"Never mind. But did you see me? I was falling with style!"

Even when I caught you and let you go close to the ground, it didn't look like "falling with style".

"Aw shut up. But I wanna do that again!"

"No way! Are you nuts?!"

"Hey! That reminds me."

Heather reached in her pocket, and behold, there was another granola bar. Did she just stuff her pockets with these? She rips open the wrapper, spilling some bits all over the ground. How was she reminded of that? Oh wait… granola bars have nuts. She munches on it like if it was all she had to survive on. She gobbles it all up in less than a minute. Noticing me staring at her, she takes another granola bar from her pocket as if by magic. She stretches her arm out, offering it to me.

"You want one?"

"No thanks, but where did you even get those?"

"I stole them from the pantry back at my house when I ran away. Granola bars give me energy, and they're so good too! I like granola bars as much as you like…"

"Blueberry pancakes!"

"Yeah, sure. So, what's the plan?"

Both Slenderman and me explain the details of the plan to her. She nods once in a while to show she understands. I shiver a bit when I feel like it's getting cold. A breeze blows through the trees, swirling and twirling multicolored leaves in the air. The sun is setting, not totally, but enough to notice. The day just flew by so fast! But it's not over yet. Heather sneaks closer and closer to me until she suddenly jabs me in the arm. I was about to complain until she runs away giggling like a mad person while spitting out a few words.

"Tag, you're it!"

"Are you kidding me?"

I don't think she is. You better go after her. That is, if you don't want her to get away with this.

"Can you teleport me to wherever she went? You can do that, right?"

I can do that, but that would be cheating. I'm sure it says something like that in those rules of yours.

"You mean… The Rules Of The Universe. And yes, it says to help a friend in times of need. And this serves as a great example."

Tell me the truth. Would you feel so good about yourself when the reason you were able to catch up to her is because of me?

As much as I hate to admit it, Mr. Wise Guy has brought another good point. Seriously, he needs to stop doing this, it makes me look bad.

I believe your silence means I'm right.

"Don't get so full of yourself. I was going to go after her anyways."

You should go now. She has a major lead.

"Okay, here I go!"

I make a mad dash in the direction Heather went. The air feels so good flowing through my hair, and I love the feeling of flying over the ground beneath me. Before I know it, I'm laughing out of control and I have the same goofy smile Heather had before. I snap twigs and crunch fallen leaves, making a lot of noise, but I don't care. I'm having the time of my life! This is truly embracing life. I'm not even chasing Heather anymore, I'm just zooming at light speed. I think I close my eyes at some points, but I was lucky enough not to run into a tree. I reach the pine trees, but I keep on running on an infinite amount of energy. I close my eyes, but this time I do run into something. I open them.

I see rocks. A lot of rocks. Not small, ones, but big ones. I tilt my head at this, and I walk around it, looking for a mark or something. There's a small opening, but I'm not sure if I'll fit. I shrug. Why not? I crouch land wiggle my way through the entrance. By a miracle, I was able to squeeze myself inside. Looking around, I see that it's pitch black. Okay, not exactly, but is still really dark. There's some sunlight peeking in through the spaces between the rocks, allowing me to see some things. And when I focus on them, I suddenly remember everything. Me and Heather have been here before. This was the place she led me to when we were little. My memories were confirmed when I see what completes the jigsaw puzzle that is my mind. All over the walls are the Operator Symbol. My eyes widen when I remember a dream I had one night. How what I thought to be Heather's house was covered by these symbols in the inside.

"And I thought that you wouldn't find me here."

A small candle lights up, and Heather's cheery face is illuminated. She's smiling like how she always does, but the candlelight makes her appearance look ominous. If I didn't know her as well as I do, I would have gotten out of there as fast as I can. Realizing that she said something to me, I try to respond, but I end up stuttering.

"Oh," I say, "I just, well, I don't know."

"It's okay," Heather assures me, "I came here without thinking about it either. By the way, so you know what these are?"

She points to the symbols marked all over the walls.

"Yeah, they're the Operator's Symbol."

"Right! But do you know who's the Operator?"

Come to think of it, I don't. I never thought about it really. So I slowly shake my head to answer her question. I don't know if she noticed the slight hesitation in my answer. But nevertheless, she sees my lack of knowledge in this topic. She doesn't answer me right away, though.

She just smirks.