Survival
Chapter 25
Face to No-Face
...
Seven young people stood in a triangle around a towering eighth, decidedly non-human figure. The Slender Man's limbs moved slowly, rhythmically as he silently 'spoke' with his Proxies, tilting his head toward each in turn. As he directed his eyeless gaze upon one, that individual would nod in agreement, or, perhaps, submission, and head off in another direction, mission clearly understood.
Soon The Slender Man stood alone in the peaceful forest, surveying the area serenely with his featureless face.
...
Beacon Hills High,
In third period English literature, Sean Walcott felt a sudden urge to stand up.
The teacher looked up, "Mr. Walcott, is something wrong?"
"I don't know." He blinked and shook his head.
He waits.
He turned to Stiles Stilinski, who was sitting nearby.
"He's here. At the school. He's trying to get me to come to him."
Stiles' eyes widened.
"Whom may I ask is 'He'?" The teacher inquired. It was strange of Sean Walcott, a well-behaved, highly intelligent student, to behave in such a manner, as if the rest of the class wasn't even there, and the look on Stilinski's face...
"We have to go to the bathroom!" Stiles yelled loudly and grabbed Sean by the hand, pulling him into the hallway and nearly knocking over Greenberg.
"Wait, you need a hall pass!" The teacher called in vain.
...
Lydia Martin simply walked out Chemistry class as Scott watched in shock.
"Lydia?" He ran out into the hall after her, only to see Stiles and Sean.
"Where is he, Sean?" Stiles asked.
"The boiler room. It's the 21st century and this school has a boiler room..." Sean spoke with an odd cadence, compulsion, confusion and fear.
"Stiles, what's going on?"
"He waits." Lydia replied.
"Oh crap, this is bad," Stiles began, "You don't want to go to him, either of you. You're afraid of him, remember? No face? Like The Mute. Well, The Mute had eyes and a nose but still..."
Lydia picked up her pace as Sean slowed down, holding his head.
"That's right, you do not want to see him. You said so yourself. You-"
Sean looked up, his eyes silver, his teeth large and sharp in multiple rows.
"He wants me to come to him. I wonder if he knows there are two of me?" He growled. Sean rushed forward and held Lydia in place. "We're not going to him, Lydia."
"Let me go, or I'll scream. I'll tell them you attacked me."
"You really have no choice, either go to Him, or He will come to you."
Everyone turned to see a figure in a gray hoodie. In the school's bright lights it was clear that it was a girl.
Scott growled, "If you and your faceless freak think we're going to let you take our Pack-"
The girl laughed, "Why would He want your pack?" She looked at Sean, "How were you able to fight off His call? Was it your Wendigo nature, or your fear?"
"Both, and Stiles helped." He snarled, "And I have a problem with murderers without mouths."
"He is not a murderer. He is beyond your comprehension. Even we do not truly understand His wisdom."
Stiles fumbled into his pocket and pulled out a $20.00 bill, offering it to the Proxy. "Tell him to go to town with this."
"He has no need for money, He wants for nothing."
"Then why the Hell is he here, killing people?"
"I am but a humble servant, I understand what He needs me to understand, and I do not ask questions. now come to the boiler room, or He will come here and all of your schoolmates will see Him and know true terror."
Sean hissed and released Lydia as Stiles and Scott looked at each other.
"Okay."
...
The strange girl lead the way, followed closely by Lydia and Scott, and more reluctantly by Sean and Stiles. She refused to answer any questions about who she was or how she came to be a Proxy.
It went against every fiber of Sean's rational being to follow that girl. His life experiences, his sense of self-preservation, his intellect, his upbringing to run from danger, to avoid conflict at all costs. His common sense. But he was pack, and that meant something. He was family. He belonged with these people, even if they were marching into the belly of Hell to confront a faceless nightmare given form. He couldn't run away, he couldn't leave them to face this alone. Wendigo might not be brave people, but they were loyal people. The Pack had saved his life, cared for him, helped him through the fear and grief, when, by all rights, they could have killed him on spot, or left him, injured and helpless, for The Mute. He thought of David, dying to defend their parents.
He couldn't run out on his family.
Not again.
Never again.
"What does he want from us?" Scott asked.
"I do not question him, neither should you."
"I'd rather like to know if he's waiting down there to drag us off to some kind of extradimensional Hell." Stiles snarked.
The girl ignored him as they reached he locked door to the boiler room, which was no longer locked. They walked down the darkened stairs into the old, dirty, dark room, long since rendered obsolete by technological progress, yet still here, a relic of the past.
"He is amused that you are in your shifted forms, Sean, Scott." She said casually, "Do you really believe that you could fight him with brute strength?"
"No, but the illusion of strength makes me more comfortable." Sean replied.
There was the sound of footsteps in the darkness and two figures appeared, one a teenage boy with long hair and a truly creepy smile, the other an 8' tall nightmare come to life. The Slender Man's head was perfectly smooth, like a marble, hairless and featureless. He was clothed in darkness, his long limbs hanging loose at his sides. Several black, shadowy appendages, either tentacled or spider-like limbs, it was impossible to tell, writhed around him.
It seemed to study them, 'face' turning at angles indicating observation.
Sean wanted nothing more than to flee the room and run like a madman, but he knew it would be pointless. One cannot hide from such a creature. He'd never seen anything so... Inhuman in his life. The Mute was the stuff of nightmares, his image burned forever into Sean's mind, but The Slender Man was just unnatural, as Deaton had said, a 'Thing That Should Not Be.' A creature that didn't fit into reality as he knew it, a thing that did not belong to this universe. Terrifying and mystifying at the same time, a dark puzzle that could not be solved by the mortal mind.
The girl walked over to join the boy, standing on the opposite side of the creature's body.
"Okay," Stiles tried to sound brave as he observed Sean shakily pulling out his Ativan and swallowing two dry, "Who are you, what the Hell do you want, and does it involve us dying, because, even though my life sucks, I don't want to die, and neither do any of the others."
"We're not here to harm you." The smiling boy said.
"Oh, you want to convert us?" Stiles said, "Church of The Slender Man? Slenderology? Do you have a Slender Bible? Do you have any holidays, because I like-"
"He wanted to see you."
"Well he's seen us, can we go now before we all end up in Eichen House?"
"I am His Voice. You are correct, Stiles Stilinski, someone does seek to use The Slender Man's power for their own gain. A scientist has been tracking The Events around him, seeking to capture Him..." The boy broke out laughing, a bizarre sound that echoed through the dark room, "He is in no danger. No human can stop Him, no matter how clever."
"Why are you killing people?" Scott growled, "You murdered those kids-"
"That was not us. That was not Him. The last one, the girl, died of fear when she saw Him, the others were murdered by a human."
Stiles was skeptical, and looked The Slender Man right in his non-face, "And you expect us to believe this why, exactly? You're not exactly considered a 'friendly' monster like Bigfoot or Nessie, you're more like El Chupacabra or your average Congressman."
"You have courage." Hoodie noted.
"What human committed the murders?" Sean growled.
"It was Greenberg! I knew it!"
"Shut up, Stiles. It wasn't Greenberg."
"The Scientist has agents, even as He has us. One of them is quite the sociopath. He enjoys killing." Voice observed.
"Names would be nice."
"He will deal with this personally." Hoodie stated flatly.
"These people deserve a trial, at least!" Scott objected.
"Why, when He has seen them commit these crimes in His presence?" Voice asked. The question was genuine, the answer was obvious. He had seen the crimes, the treachery, what need was there for further complications?
"Why didn't He try to stop them, then? Is He afraid? Or does He just not care?"
"Not even we know." Voice admitted.
"What's with the goofy smile? You look like The Joker."
The Voice smiled even wider, "I'm quite the sociopath as well, at least, that's what my psychologist used to say. Something about 'Dissonant Serenity'."
"That's just great. It's Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Happy Noodle Boy!" Stiles moaned.
"Do you enjoy working for him? Or are you slaves?" Scott asked.
"That is in The Eye of The Beholder. We simply serve."
"I'm more concerned about your minds and safety than appearances."
Voice eyed him curiously, thought the grin never left his face, "You are an unusual creature Scott McCall, filled with compassion. We are in no danger, do not fear for us."
The Slender Man examined them all carefully, as if shopping for a new suit.
"He has seen you now. His business here is over."
"What? He just wanted to look at us?"
"Yes."
"GET AWAY FROM THOSE KIDS!"
Everyone, even The Slender Man, turned to see the School Resource Officer standing beside a mass of pipes. She had noticed that the door to the boiler room was open and heard voices.
This was not she expected to see.
Sheriff Stilinski had briefed all of the officers on The Slender Man, and she knew what she was looking at, as far as any of them could know.
A pity SROs aren't allowed to carry any weapons.
Then again, perhaps it was a good thing, as both Scott and Sean were in their transformed states.
"Scott McCall? Sean Walcott?"
"Oh crap." Stiles face-palmed.
She looked up at the creature, who merely stared back, despite lacking eyes. Or any other facial features, for that matter.
Without a sound The Slender Man and his two Proxies were gone. She turned back to see Scott McCall and Sean Walcott looking perfectly normal.
"She must have seen one of his illusions," Stiles said loudly, "Who knows what he made this look like..."
"Y-You kids get out of here. Go the the principle's office and wait for Sheriff Stilinski." She pulled out her cell phone, "I'll be right behind you." She didn't want to stay down here either.
...
Sean was getting pretty drowsy from the Ativan so they took him to the nurse's office and let him rest while the others spoke to the police.
"And it affected my mind, made me see things that weren't there... Scott McCall and Sean Walcott looked... Well, inhuman. Scott looked like a Werewolf and Sean looked almost like a shark, with shark's teeth and silver eyes. I looked at The Slender Man, then back at Scott and Sean, and they looked perfectly normal."
"No one is perfectly normal." Stiles said under his breath.
"And it looked at me, it didn't have eyes, but it looked at me. Then it vanished, taking those two strange kids with it."
"Thanks. Maybe you should go home and get some rest. I'll take over for the rest of the day. If you don't think you can come back-"
"I can come back, I just don't think I'll ever be able to go into the boiler room again."
"That makes five of us." Stiles said, "Sean had to force himself to go in the first place, he was scared, but he wasn't going to let us face Slender Man alone."
"We'll have the place searched an padlocked." John assured them.
For all the good it will do
...
After the officer had left, John Stilinski shook his head, "Maybe we should call in an exorcist."
"I don't think that would help." Lydia said quietly. "He's something... Else. He's not a demon but he's certainly not an Angel."
"He went to all that trouble just to look at you?"
"And to tell us about The Scientist."
"Whose name we don't know, only that he's a man."
"If he's studying Slender Man, he's probably either a parapsychologist, an occultist, a physicist, a cryptozoologist or a biologist. If he wants to take Slender Man's powers for himself he must have knowledge of biology and theoretical physics, he was studying the energies radiating from his body, so he has some knowledge of radiobiology..."
"Maybe you should write it all down, because I lost you after 'he's probably a para-something..." The Sheriff rubbed his forehead.
"Sure, of course, science-speak, nobody understands me. Do they ever?"
"Did either of the kids gave their names?"
"No. But the boy called himself 'Voice'. He said he was the 'Voice of The Slender Man'."
"Like Mr. Sleep and Mr. Hand ..." Lydia observed. "Just a part of the whole."
"They may not know who they are anymore, or they may be too insane to care." The Sheriff mused sadly. He wondered if their lives with Slender Man were any better or worse than Stiles' with Nogitsune.
"They felt wrong, like Slender Man, but still human at the same time." Lydia recalled, "Of course, I was under his power and might have missed something, you'll have to talk to Sean when he wakes up."
"Did you notice anything different about him this time? Any of you?"
"Besides getting a good view of him, no."
"He had no heartbeat, but something was running through his veins, or whatever passes for veins in his body." Scott stated, "I couldn't understand the emotions he was giving off, if they were emotions. His body language said he was comfortable, confident and calculating."
"Of course, considering it's not human and possibly not even a native of this dimension, it could mean that he's got the hots for you, Scott... Or me, or Sean, or maybe the boiler, that'd be a love story for the ages... Slender Man marries school boiler! Gives birth to steam pipes!."
Even Lydia couldn't help chuckling at the picture.
...
Scott carried Sean to the jeep while Stiles called the rest of The Pack and Lydia went to their respective classes with notes from the principle excusing them for walking out and skipping. Sheriff Stilinski and a deputy searched the boiler room, but found nothing, not that they expected to.
Sean stirred in his sleep as Scott gently set him on the passenger seat and buckled him in.
Stiles came out and walked up to the jeep, "I'll run Sean home while you take Lydia in her car, she probably shouldn't be driving right now." 'Home' in this instance was the McCall house, as for all intents and purposes Sean lived there now. "I'll come back for the others when school lets out."
"Sounds like a plan to me. Here comes Lydia now." He smiled, "Don't let Malia see you driving Lydia around, she'll go Kali on you."
"Kali, Hindu goddess of Death and Rebirth." Sean murmured from the car, "Wife of Vishnu..."
"Yeah, you better put him to bed. Don't forget to tuck him in." Stiles shot him his patented mischievous grin, "But you better get there before me, there's no way I can lift Hannibal here, muscle weighs more than fat, and he's solid muscle."
"You can follow me then." Scott replied.
Stiles shook his head, "I'm perfectly happy being human, but knowing that Liam could carry Sean into your house, up the stairs and into his bed while I can't even pick up Liam is pretty bad for my self-image. You Werewolves set an unrealistic standard of masculinity. You're the Barbies of the supernatural world."
"I guess that makes me Clawd Wolf..."
...
To be continued...
Notes
The girl in the hoodie is canon in some stories, I just call her 'Hoodie' The boy is OC, and he's called 'Voice'. He is not Jeff The Killer from Creepypasta! He is not Mr. Scars, either. He's just a boy with a creepy grin and a strange strange sense of humor.
When I have to take Ativan, I take one, taking two would probably be dangerous, and I wouldn't recommend testing it.
Mr. Sleep and Mr. Hand were two characters in the fascinating and bizarre movie Dark City. They were two members of a race of parasitic aliens in dead (apparently naturally dead, not murdered) human bodies, who enforced the alien rule/control and social stability over the inhabitants of the city by switching and altering people's memories every few hours to keep them from realizing something was wrong. Mr. Sleep was in the body of a small (bald) child played both by a boy and his twin sister... Mr. Hand, Mr. Book, Mr. Wall, Mr. Sleep and Mr. Rain are among the named aliens.
In Florida police officers working with schools are called School Resource Officers, I have no idea what they are called in California.
Clawd Wolf is a Werewolf boy from the Mattel Barbie-based Monster High series. There are several figures/dolls of him.