Nature's Spirit Chapter 26 Guilt
We had been keeping up the plan of scaring people around the woods until the Slenderman myth had trully and profoundly set in the neighbourhood. It got to the point where other local teens were pulling off similar pranks, so we didn't need to do it as much. I got to know Jessie a bit more. It was true that, when she got a suit of her own, it was difficult to tell the difference between the slender pair. There was some differences though. Her face was more oval, her neck longer and when Tom stood at about 8 feet tall, she was only about 7. Only... I found out that, despite her mother being a pure blood slender, her grandpa on her dad's side was human. I also learned something else that made me feel overcome with tremendous guilt.
Winter had started and I was treading through the snow, wearing a greyish-blue jacket. I was out here with Jessie since Tom had caught a slight cold. We finally decided that it wasn't really a good idea to do anything today, seeing as it was pretty cold and Jessie was getting frostbite on her tendrills. She walked by my side in a surprisingly skillfull way for a girl in high-heeled boots. Her fancy designer black coat flapped in the wind that streamed through the branches, her sleek black hair flailing behind her like a dark tornado. That's when she decided to bring it up... "Sarah...that day at the zoo, you remember that right?" I nodded. It wasn't exactly a pleasant memory. Her amber eyes looked moist and her voice wavered a bit. "Do you know what day that was?..." I paused. Nothing came to mind. "I'm sorry, I don't." She opened her mouth, closed it again and looked away. "That was...it was...it was my birthday." My jaw dropped. There was a silence where neither of us spoke. I noticed she was crying. Maybe she acted like an idiot, and I knew that I did nothing wrong, but I still felt horribly guilty. She was clearly miserable and it was my fault. "I...I'm sorry." She kept walking, her expression stone cold and neutral.
I then felt Tom's mind reach mine, in a complete state of panic. "SARAH!" We both paused when he appeared right in front of us. He didn't have a coat on and instantly started shivering. "Y-y-y'know w-what Leo said about w-what would happen if I t-t-told my parents?" My eyes widened and I paled. Jessie looked between us and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a thunderous voice echoed through the forest. "THOMAS HENRY OAKSON! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I flinched back at both the sheer volume of the voice and the fact it spoke his full name. If he had eyes right now, they would have been huge. He stood in front of us protectively and we turned to see a very tall and very angry slender standing there. He had to be about 9 feet tall and wore a tan colored buisness suit and olive green pants. He was also shivering from the cold, but his rage obviously brought him to ignore that. Suddently, Tom didn't seem so powerful anymore. He was stiff and hunched over in fear, backing away slightly. "Dad..." Charles raised a few of his dark inky black tendrills, but his anger somewhat faded and he retracted them. Crossing his arms on his not-so-slender stomach, he now looked more dissapointed. "What were you thinking?! You just turned 15! How could you do something so irresponsible?." Tom lowered his head and me and Jessie looked at each other. "S-s-sorry..." He was shivering even more now, though I wasn't sure if it was entirelly from the cold.
Impulsively, I took off my blue jacket and handed it to him. He gave me a grateful smile and slipped it on, even though the sleeves only got to his elbows and the coat didn't reach below his belly button. Charles's features softened more and he only now noticed me and Jessie. "Oh...hello girls. I'm...sorry. I was just a little upset." Jessie put her hands to her hips and flipped her hair, looking at him with an indigniated face. "Huh, a little? Seriously, man! I am so out of here." She then changed to her slender form and fadded away. Charles looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek and looked back down to his son. "Y'know, in retrospect, I can kind of see why you left her." Tom greatly relaxed at this and was now smilling. The older slender was still dissapointed though, and with reason.
The cold was starting to get to me and I felt numb. I was shivering. My mind started to slow a bit but I still stood with them. Tom must have noticed me and tried to call to me, but I couldn't really register his speech so well. "Sarah? Sarah you're too cold! I'll get you out of here." I numbly nodded and he took my hand and brought me back home. I immidiately felt an awful stinging sensation when I was dramatically brought to so much warmth. He took the jacket off and placed it on my bed. I looked at it and chuckled. I think my senses were returning to me. "What's so funny?" "It's the same color as the shirt you were wearing the day I found out what you were." He looked at the jacket pensively before smirking. I grabbed a blanket from my bed and wrapped myself up in it. Tom wrapped his long, pale arms and a few dark tendrills around me too. I sat in my computer chair, enjoying the warmth. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard Skype. "Hey Angie." She looked us over, raising a brow as she silently judged the way we looked. Tom released me from his grip and returned his tendrills to his back. "Well, I have to go settle some things with my parents, I'll see you girls whenever." And with that, he fadded away, like smoke in the wind.
Now that I was alone with Angie, I let all the guilt rise to the front of my mind. She noticed my distress almost instantly. "Sarah, what's wrong?" Tears started to well up in my eyes. "It's my fault..." Angie sat up. "Your fault for what?!" I looked away. "So many things... You know when Jessie attacked us in the zoo? That was her birthday." I heard a slight gasp from Angie. When I dared to look back up at my screen, I saw that she had brought a hand to her mouth and looked at me with a concerned expression. "And now Tom is in trouble because of me. Because he picked me rather than a slender and now his parents are upset. Sometimes, I think it would be so much better for everyone if I wasn't here." Angie actually showed anger now. "Don't you dare say that! You're my best friend...I couldn't live without you! And don't blame yourself if Tom chose you, if anything, it means you're a great person. As for the zoo, you didn't know it was her birthday, and SHE attacked us. It's not like we did anything bad to her." I felt a tear slide down my cheek and I smiled faintly. Even after all this, even after sharing my very mind with Tom, Angie was still my best friend and she's the one I trusted most out of anyone.
I think I must have caught a cold too, as I was assaulted by a horrible headache that night. I felt Tom's mind reach me through the pain and gently try to calm me. I felt a pressure on my bed and a cold hand placed on my forehead. Calming static filled me and I felt a finger trace the side of my cheek, making me smile lightly. He was sick himself yet he still took time to take care of me. Before he left, I heard his voice resonate through my head, dispersing the pain and the negative emotions. "Please don't blame yourself for anything, you made my life so much better.".