AN:: Hey guys! I'm SOO SOO Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! I've been so busy with school, plus writers block...and to add onto that, I've got a few comic deadlines I'm trying to manage, and it's all a little stressful...But here it is!

I'm sorry if the Gore in the chapter is terrible; I'm actually REALLY bad at writing gore X'33 I'll try to get the next chapter up by...tomorrow, hopefully.

Don't forget to R&R~!

Chapter 20

Everybody could only stare in shock at Sarah. She had always been the quiet one; hell, she was even one of the first to offer to want to go on this trip. Now…now I just wanted to slap some sense into her, despite the situation. Accusing me of bringing them here? Of being the cause that nobody was going to survive? No. It was nobody's fault; everybody here wanted to come and get evidence. She knew just as well as everyone else in our group that it was a one way ticket.

Before I could even open my mouth to reply, Sarah jumped towards me; of course, all I had to do was take a step backwards to avoid her. She wasn't known for being that fast, honestly. I really wanted to take a swing at her, but before I could Marissa intercepted, shoving her back against a tree with an arm put up over her neck.

"God damn it Sarah, calm the fuck down!" She hissed, putting a hand over Sarah's mouth as she began to scream a string of cuss words. I winced as I saw her bite Marissa, but she hardly seemed to flinch. "Nobody here gives two fucks if you're scared; we're all scared! Blaming one another is going to get us nowhere, fucktard!"

Sarah had stopped struggling and was glaring at Marissa now, who removed her hand a second later. As she opened her mouth to scream again (at least, I think that's why), Marissa cut her off with a warning stare. "Scream one more word and I swear to you that I will cut your throat and leave you to the Slenderman." Everyone seemed a little surprised by her threat, but at least it shut Sarah up. She quickly shut her mouth and, with a nervous glance at Marissa as she let her go, shuffled back towards the others. She shot me one mutinous look before we started off again.

For some reason, I ended up in the lead; possibly because the others had taken Sarah's accusations into account and thought it was possible. Or maybe everybody was just scared out of their minds and my pace was a little faster, I don't know…I was more on edge than anybody else, though. Every sound made me whip around to face it, every mutter from the others I cut off with a hiss. I'm pretty sure my edginess was passed between them, because pretty soon every sound we made was met by irritated swears from the others.

The temperature was still dropping, too; I could literally see the frost forming on the bushes and leaves as we walked passed. (Or maybe it was just some illusion or something…?) I gradually began to drop back, my pace slowing before coming to a complete stop.

There was another set of footsteps farther back.

I could only tell because of the crunch of frosty grass…but who was it? I'm pretty sure Slenderman didn't make any noise whenever he moved…hell, did he even walk to get around? Did he teleport, or float, or…whatever. But the others obviously couldn't hear the footsteps; and if they did, they might not have noticed or put it off as their own.

I stood there for a few moments, my mind racing; I knew it was really stupid to just stand in the forest where my death awaits (literally), but the footsteps confused me; everybody in our group was with us, nobody had been left behind…who was making the sound, then?

The footsteps suddenly stopped, and I stiffened; where had the others gone? I turned around slowly, looking for their footprints, but all I saw was the frost stiffened grass. I was too terrified to call out for them, too…had I walked straight into a trap? The hand tapping my thigh sped up, and I began to tremble.

Was I going to be the first to die? Was I going to be the only one to die? Maybe I should try and find the fence again…maybe then I could;

Something cold grabbed my shoulder.

First instinct took over and I shrieked as loudly as possible, running away. I only took a few steps before I tripped over my own feet, stumbling forward before landing on the cold ground. I flipped over onto my butt, the breath catching in my throat.

I stared at his blank face for a few long seconds, completely stiff with terror.

But…no, something wasn't right. The fear ebbed; I sat staring at the figure incredulously. It wasn't Him…an illusion? A figment of my imagination?

"Twice in a row, huh?" I narrowed my eyes, hauling myself to my feet. It was the guy from the party; but why was he here? Did he follow us? "Remembering me now, huh?" He sneered, folding his arms behind his back.

"You fucking asshole!" I muttered, clenching my hands together.

"What's the matter? Little 'ole Slendy still scaring you?" He taunted, leaning against the tree behind him.

"S-Sierra?" I heard Marissa's shaking voice a moment before she stepped out of the bushes beside me, shrieking in alarm and falling backwards as she saw the fake Slenderman ahead. He laughed again, doubling over.

"What's the matter? Afraid I'm gonna kill you all?" He crowed, standing up and waving his hands. "Oooooohh, big scary Slenderman is gonna kill your families!"

I was either too pissed or too shaken to even move, so I just stood glaring at him. He turned towards me, and walked forward. "Aww, did you pee your pants? Too scared to do anything? Did -"

Maybe I blacked out for a few minutes or something…because I don't really remember what happened next. I remember seeing the fake Slenderman standing in front of us, then everything went dark for maybe…not even a second, and he was gone.

"What the fuck?" I heard Duncan's voice behind me as I stepped forward, looking around warily. "Was that all just some big joke? Was that really -"

"Slenderman." I said quietly, staring into the trees.

"You know that wasn't him, right?" Marissa asked, coming to stand behind me. "He w-"

"Slenderman got him." I stated bluntly, sweeping the flashlight around. "He's gone…good as dead." An odd silence followed my words. Maybe they were letting it sink in, or maybe just too scared to-

From not far off, there was a loud high pitched scream, a guy's scream, followed by the most gut wrenching, wet tearing sound. I bit my knuckle, putting one hand on my knee to keep from getting sick. None of us moved; we hardly dared to breathe as we all unwillingly listened. "HELP ME!" The man shrieked, but his voice was cut off near the end with a loud crunching sound. I stood rigidly, waiting for him to scream again.

But there was only silence.

Without thinking, I shakily started towards where his voice came from, the others following hesitantly. I could hear a steady dripping from up ahead, and refused to think about it as my hand tapped my thigh faster. I was the first one to step out into the small clearing where the voices originated from.

I was the last one to utter a sound or even move.

I stood frozen in terror as I stared at the scene in front of me. The Slenderman imposter was there, alright; his torso was impaled on a tree branch high up in the bare branches of the trees. Blood poured from the huge ragged gash in his chest, the intestines taken out and strewn across the trees around like some kind of string of sick Christmas lights. Blood covered the entire forest floor, dripping down the leaves and bushes and falling into dark puddles at my feet. His arms and legs had been pulled from their sockets, hanging only by a few tendons and the shards of bone that weren't shattered completely. His face stared down at the ground, directly where I stood; the eyes had been gouged out and blood poured down from the dark empty sockets; the jaw looked broken as it hung loosely.

I stared back at the dark eye sockets, stiff with terror. The sounds of the others screaming and retching sounded a long ways off, though they were all right behind me. I could only stare; I tried to move, tried to turn away, something, but I couldn't. I couldn't register the fact that this man, the man who was only playing a little joke on us, was dead. Dead at the hands of the real Slenderman. Finally my body reacted and I convulsed, grabbing the tree beside me as I joined the chorus of vomiting.

Sarah looked like she'd lost it; tears streaked down her face, her mascara making dark streaks along. Her hair was frizzed out and she was sobbing and blubbering uncontrollably, shaking so hard that she had to grab Marcus' arm to stand. Marissa's back was turned to me, but I could hear her trying to suppress sobs, as well as Duncan. Marcus' eyes were wide, the dark circles under them more prominent than ever; he turned and met my gaze, his bottom lip trembling a little.

"That's us." He managed to choke out, fear pulsing through his gaze. "That's what's going to happen to us. One by one. Piece by piece. We're all going to die just like this man."