I yawned and folded my arms against me as I walked. The park began to fade into view, drenched in a sleepy layer of fog. I grumbled. The fog just made everything creepier, I didn't see why it was necessary. Well, then again... I didn't see why anything about Slender was necessary. I yawned again and stretched my arms up over my head, pausing as I met the edge of the trees. I grumbled to myself.

"I should be in bed right now."

A gentle breeze slipped over me and my vision blurred. I saw the trees creak and moan and reach out their branches towards me, and Slender appeared, striding quietly out of the darkness. I squinted. Something was different. I couldn't quite tell what it was, but there was something different. I scanned him carefully. Pale as hell? Yep. Roughly six foot? Indeed. Tentacles writhing about? Check. I stepped toward him gingerly, waving away an annoying gnat and squinting harder. What was it about him?

It wasn't until I was standing right in front of him and staring straight up at him that I could finally figure it out. His face, he had one. Well, most of one. A pair of thin, crooked lips had formed over his usually blank head, along with a straight, skinny nose. Where his eyes should have been were two gentle indentations. I squeaked quietly. Had he done this on purpose? This was the way I first saw him, when he had been wounded that long while back.

"Always watches." He muttered, yanking my attention back to him. "No eyes."

He turned and strolled quietly back into the darkness of the trees. I followed quietly, my hands gripping into the fabric of my pants nervously. The air began to thicken and a mix of ice and gravel crunched under my feet. I whimpered quietly to myself. I didn't want to see more dead bodies... I really, really didn't want to.

The creaking of a door and sudden golden light flooding my vision caused me to yelp and look up. Slender stood motionless, an open door to a huge mansion behind him. I swallowed and glanced back over my shoulder. The gravel I had been walking on was the driveway of this grand house, a wall of wrought iron and brick pillars surrounded it, and it was tucked gently into the hillside, overlooking a peacefully silent valley. I gasped quietly and relaxed, smiling a bit to myself.

"Do come inside." I turned back around to Slender. He held his hand out. "The view is much better from upstairs."

I swallowed and nodded, stepping gingerly over the threshold into the warm and brightly lit mansion. The interior was stunning, decorated beautifully and fully furnished with antique couches, chairs, tables and cabinets. Though aged, everything appeared brand new and hardly used, as if they'd been frozen in time, not a drop of dust or use on them. I followed Slender up a flight of stairs and down a quiet hallway, until he opened a pair of double doors and bid me enter with a wave of his hand. My hands fidgeted in my pockets and I tiptoed softly into the room. Red velvet curtains hung from golden rods over the windows, a cheery fire danced in a big fireplace at the other end of the room, and a quaint set of chairs and a couch sat around an empty coffee table.

I stood quiet admiring the room in all its grandeur before speaking.

"Where are we?" I turned to look at Slender. He was standing quietly with his hands folded neatly in front of him.

"What is this place?"

He paused as if to think of an answer before speaking quietly.

"This is the Gorman Family Estate." He said simply, as if I should have known what that meant.

He strode quietly over to the fireplace and put his hands in his pockets.

"My family's estate."

I squinted curiously. So... what then? He had been normal once? With a family and all that? Or was there a family of other faceless creatures? It all rushed into my head suddenly and my knees buckled. I thudded into something and Slender put an arm around me.

"Best lay down, it's late."

He set me down on the couch and pulled my feet up for me. I mumbled my disapproval and pulled my ankles of out his grasp. The whole room was warm from the fire, so I didn't even need a blanket to be comfortable. Within minutes, I was asleep.

I had a dream. I was wandering the halls of the mansion alone. There was no light now, I could hear no fire roaring. Crickets chirped, owls hooted.

Then, footsteps. Panicked and uneven, someone was running through the house. I didn't want to know who it was, or what they were running from, but my body was pulled towards the noise as if drawn by a magnet. I tried to close my eyes to avoid seeing whatever it was, but I couldn't close my eyes. They stung from lack of moisture, but I couldn't bring myself to blink. Muffled screaming echoed down the hall and I whimpered. I didn't want to see.

A boy about my age suddenly appeared out of the darkness and flung himself against the wall, letting out a shrill yell and cupping his hands over his face. He thrashed about wildly, digging his fingers into the skin of his face and clawing at it violently. His muffled pleas were guttural and raspy, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. I could see where the pale skin had been clawed away, healthy, tan skin was visible. Pale, soft hair was tangled into a mess of quickly swelling skin tissue that attempted to cover the boys head. He dug his fingers through the skin tissue that covered his mouth and ripped it open, sucking in a deep breath and gagging.

"I didn't mean to look!" He screamed, hunching over and spitting out blood. His back creaked and shuddered and the skin tissue suddenly began to spread from his face to his hands. He yelled and flung himself backwards, his head cracking hard against the wall and flailing his arms around. A scream was muffled halfway through as the skin closed over his mouth again and he began to claw at his hands violently. He began to sob miserably and shudder, throwing his body against the walls of the hallway. Then suddenly, the skin on his back ruptured and blood soaked lengths of flesh shot out. He shrieked in pain as his body tensed and began to wail miserably. Blood ran down his back and drenched his clothes. Then the creamy skin tissue bubbled up and began to drip down his back, slowly encasing him in a molten heap of flesh, before hardening and tightening around the thin, sickly body of the boy. He went limp and hung there in the hallway, his broken body suspended by black tendrils shimmering with blood.

A sick giggle echoed down the hall.

"Be a good boy, or else Erlking will get you!"

Then I woke up.

Author's Note: Oh dear, that's quite the dream, Juno dear.

Ugh, okay so yeah hopefully chapters will be coming more often now. I have a few weeks off from most of my responsibilities. :D

Enjoy! Tell me what you thought please! :)

*chucks a cookie at you*