When New Years came, I thought it would be a year better then last year. No Rakes in closets, no missing memory or blood on me. Just... as normal as possible. I don't think that's too much to ask for really. After all, don't we deserve a break for once?
Apparently we don't.
I stumbled through the forest of thin and tall, bare trees as blood covered my hands. I kept rubbing them but the stains would either stay or get bigger. I would nearly stumble now and then because all focus was on the scarlet on my hands.
"C'mon, get out damn it. Get the fuck off me, damn stain!", I muttered as I walked further and further into the woods. I paused when I heard something. Like.. .running water! Finally, something to wash the blood off my damn hands!
I lightly jogged, following the direction of the sound. It had been difficult slightly at first since I had heard it only faintly, but as I walked further it became louder which raised my confidence of there being some source of water for me to wash my hands in. I was right since I soon saw a shallow river going steadily along and knelt down beside it as I began to scrub my hands in the water.
"Come on, come on", I grumbled as I continued to wash my hands, but the blood remained. If anything, I think the stains got bigger.
"What the hell?" I couldn't understand why the blood wouldn't get off my hands as I looked down at them. There had to be an explanation for this? I stood back up and turned around but I the sight before me made me stumble back and fall into the river.
There were people there with bloody wounds. I'm not sure how many people exactly, but I put the guess somewhere below fifty. A majority only had a single wound. Possibly from a stab, but a few had more. Others even had gnashes and missing body parts but every single one of them had blood on them. They all stared at me with accusing eyes.
"Wha- what do you want from me?", I asked, too scared to stand back up.
"Don't you like our blood?"
"You seemed disturbed for some reason".
I couldn't tell who was saying what. I did however see a lady who seemed familiar, with the brown hair, looking so sad. But why do I... Wait... She... She's the one Witch murdered, saying she was a bear!
"Your an evil witch", she murmured and my eyes went wide.
"Wha- NO! I-I- It wasn't me! It was the Witch! I'm innocent!"
"Why did you take us from our mommy's and daddy's?" I looked behind me and I saw some kids, but they looked sleep deprived and had shadows under their eyes.
"No. No, I didn't! It was the Witch damn it! She's the one you want!"
"But you are the Witch. You have our blood on your hands", the adults said in a monotone voice.
"No, no...", I just shuck my head before holding my face in my hands. ignoring the blood on them. "I'm innocent I tell ya. Innocent!"
"Claire?"
I looked up and the forest was empty again. Except for the person in front of me.
"Evan?", I asked. I would have wondered why he was here, but with everything else I wasn't going to question. However, the grin on his face unnervered me a little. "Er, Evan, why-"
"You know what happens to witch?", he asked, a bit of humour in his voice as he knelt down in front of me and put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it painfully tight.
"Er..."
"They die", he said before he pulled a long knife from behind his back. I felt my stomach knot up when I saw it and heard his words.
"Well. Have a good one", he said cheerfully before he raised the knife up and brought it down.
"AHG!", I nearly jumped as I woke up and panted a little.
"Jesus, you okay?" I was startled but when I looked around Evan looking from the front passenger seat of Vince's car and next to me, Jeff looking concerned. "You nearly made Vinny crash the car with that yell".
"Don't exaggerated", Vince told him, with some dry humour.
"Sorry, fell asleep", I mumbled sheepishly.
We were going to Jim Thorpe today to see Jessie who had just returned home from a trip. We were just going to hang and chat with her, maybe find out some more on Corenthal if we could.
"Yeah, we know", Evan said with a small roll of his eyes. "You were mumbling in your sleep".
"Was I?"
"Something about, 'I'm innocent'?", Jeff told me.
"...Oh", I mumbled and looked outside to the passing trees.
"Was it a nightmare or something?", Vince asked me. Thinking about it, I nodded my head.
"Yeah, it was", I said
"What happened?"
"Er...", I was hesitant to say, but I should say something. Just not too much. "Well, there was blood on me, people were saying I killed them, and then Evan shows up and went to stab me before I woke up".
"Even in your dreams I'm crazy", Evan laughed as he looked outside.
"I think that's for all of us", Jeff chuckled.
"So how far until we get there?", I asked.
"Well, we're still kinda lost", Jeff answered. "I think the GPS is faulty".
"Wouldn't be surprising", Vince muttered. We were quiet for a few minutes before Evan asked,
"So has anyone talked to Noah or Rachel lately?"
"I was talking with Rachel about a...week ago, I think", I answered. "She and Noah seem to have calmed down at least a good bit from their separate little birthdays adventure. Whatever exactly it was".
"Do you think any of us would trade our situation for theirs?", Vince asked.
"I don't... Maybe. I mean, they've had a couple deaths but not as much or as close as us, and we would still be stalked", Jeff said thoughtfully. "It would be played out differently, but be kinda the same in a sense".
"Except the consequences would be different I think", I added in.
"Yeah, the consequences would be different", Vince agreed as he looked out for the signs as Evan pulled out his phone which I could very faintly hear vibration from. "We may not even be on the... we're not on the right street. There's 22. We're on the wrong street".
"It's Jessie. Hello?", Evan said to the phone while the rest of us talked.
"What if we got lost out here?", asked Vince.
"Yeah, right?", Jeff scoffed. I would have said something before Evan's words made us silent.
"Woah, woah woah, calm down. What? Where? Did you call the police? No. No, stay exactly where you are, don't try to leave", Evan told Jessie. The tone alone made it clear something was wrong.
"What happened?", Vince asked, but Jeff ignored him.
"If you're already hidden then just fucking stay there. We are on our fucking way, we'll be there in a few fucking minutes.
"What's going on?", Jeff asked. Evan slowly put the phone away from his ear and looked at it.
"Evan?", I asked.
"Drive faster", he simply told Vince.
It felt like five minutes later by the time we got to Jessie's house in the middle of the woods. Vince hadn't even fully stopped the car before Evan pratically flew out the door and ran towards the house.
"Should stop recording?", Jeff asked as the rest of us got out quickly as we could.
"No. Give me the camera", Vince said before he took the camera from Jeff and we looked up at the deck of the house where Evan was, looking in through the open front door. We could faintly hear music coming from it but I couldn't make out the song except it was by the Decemberists.
"What the hell is he doing?", Vince muttered as Evan slowly entered the house, a knife in hand (unsurprisingly).
"Yo, Evan", Jeff called out to him. But Evan ignored us as we stood outside.
"We should go in. We can't leave him to go inside alone", I muttered as I walked closer to the heart jumped when we heard a thump against the window on the ground floor.
"What the fuck? Ev?", Vince questioned as we began to run towards the the window we heard the thump from.
"Jessie?", Jeff yelled as he tried to open the doors but they were locked from the inside by the looks of it. We could hear struggling inside and there were more thumps against the window.
"Do we have anything in the car? A knife?", Jeff asked, trying to keep his cool. Vince answered,
"We've got our clothes. He's got the only knife".
"Maybe we should find a way to get in without alerting... whatever is in there we're there", I suggested just before we heard a sound of breaking glass.
"Oh, shit", Vince yelled before we all ran around the side of the house where the sound was. We looked up out of instinct and we could see Evan looking out the broken window. It was a bit hard to tell, but he had an injury over an eye I think, and his nose was bleeding.
"Evan! Are you okay?", I yelled up at him. He ignored me though since he just walked away from the window. I could only guess it was to find Jessie.
"Holy, shit". Vince's voice made me look down from the window and my breath hitched when I saw the Rake lying there. Did Evan seriously just throw it out of the window? It just... It just seemed unbelievable considering...
"Jeff?" We both looked over at Jeff who was looking freaked out and scared.
"Fuck this shit man", he said before he ran away-
Wait a minute, he ran away! Bitch!
"Where are you going?", Vince asked with a wide eyed look as Jeff ran to the car.
"Jeff, what the fuck?!", I yelled after him.
"I'll be right back", he called to us.
Damn straight he better be back!
"Oh, God. Oh, God". I was going to ask what Vince what the problem was before I heard snarling and looked to see the Rake recovered and back up, and making his way towards us.
"Oh shit", I mumbled under my breath before the Rake jumped on Vince. I quickly ran around it and put my arms under the Rake's and tried to keep him off Vince as long as I could until help came. I t was difficulty since the Rake was stronger, and it might have gotten some hits on Vince but help did come.
In the form of Jeff's airhorn. The Rake turned to looked at the sound briefly before it swung me off of it onto the ground before it ran away into the woods.
"Jeff! Claire! Jeff! Claire!" Vince was coughing and I pushed myself off the ground and made my way quickly to him. I was a little sore from being thrown to the ground, but it was nothing I bet to how Vince felt.
"I'm here, what's going on?", Jeff asked once he got back to us.
"What happened? Did Evan come back?", Vince questioned us as he still coughed I only noticed when he looked up how his face had a couple bloody scratches as did his arms and right leg.
"The thing's... gone, man, I don't know", Jeff answered.
"He's gone?"
"The thing is, yeah, I don't know where Evan is".
"He's probably still in the house", I muttered while Vince groaned.
"Help me get up".
"Let's go get that fucker", Jeff said once Vince was up.
"Now your talking", I said as we made our way back around the front of the house. We called for Evan and we soon saw him leave the ground floor doors that were previously locked. Everything from his elbows down on his arms was covered in blood. There was more on his neck, shoulder and lip and his shirt was torn a little.
"Evan! Shit, are you alright?", Vince asked as we looked at him in shock.
"She's gone. She's gone. She's dead", Evan told us. He looked haunted and he seemed to be struggling to keep himself from crying. "Thing tore her the fuck apart".
"Is she still in there?", Vince asked as he looked to the still open doors and moved towards them.
"No. No! Vinnie!", Evan yelled at him.
"Evan, we can't just leave her like that", Vince tried to reason but Evan wasn't having it.
"I said she's fucking dead", Evan told Vince in a low voice.
"Well, we can't just leave her like that. Are you kidding?"
"You can't just go the fuck in there with your fucking camera. We're leaving", Evan told him.
"I... I think Evan's right", I agreed hesitantly. While I couldn't deny we couldn't just leave Jessie, but what could we do for her?
"She's right there, we can't leave her", Vince insisted, still being stubborn.
"Vinnie, that's all that's left of her. Can we please go?", Evan practically pleaded. He seemed very close to crying now.
"Let's get out of here", Vince said, finally admitting defeat as we slowly made our way back to the car. "I'm sorry".
Back in the car, Evan was in the back next to me sleeping, and Jeff was driving the car while Vince was in the passenger seat.
"Hey, listen. Thanks for driving Jeff", Vince told him.
"I don't... you know I don't mind. I'm glad he's finally out", Jeff said as he looked back at Evan.
"Yeah, me too", Vince agreed.
"I don't think I've ever seen him cry like that at all", Jeff said.
"Me either, but it's to be expected. I mean, he just lost one of his closest friends".
"Yeah, what more do you expect?", I rhetorically asked glumly.
"It's not fucking right", Jeff muttered.
"I know. I know. I mean, I lucked out, me and him. Me especially. He only got me once. Kinda have to thank you for holding him off as best you could Claire. Can you imagine? What he did to Jessie?"
"Nah, dude, I... I hope you know I wasn't leaving either of you back there. That thing chased me after I used that... Alex's horn, you know? I just wanted to get it away. Get it away from the property. I don't know", Jeff explained himself.
"Don't worry about I appreciate it, I-"
"Dude. I was out in the woods?", Jeff interrupted Vince. "You know, being tracked? The other thing showed up and stopped it. I mean, they-"
"It tried to save us?" I was just as surprised as Vince. Why would Slenderman try to save us?
"It's not... It wasn't benevolent. It just..."
"We haven't seen him in months and all of a sudden he pops out of nowhere?", Vince asked.
"It is pretty weird", I commented.
"I don't know. It's... I heard the siren and the other one was gone. It was gone", Jeff told us.
"Well, whatever's going on with that, there's one thing that I have an issue with... as long as he's asleep...", Vince reffered to Evan. "He doesn't want us to upload what happened after I got attacked. And I understand completely".
"Yeah, I can..."
"We all can", I said after Jeff.
"But to all the people who care about Jessie and all the people who have been helping us they deserve to see the full story. They deserve to see what happened. We can't just leave it where it ended. We have to upload both. Both parts", Vince told us.
"I don't care man", Jeff admitted to us. "You know? It's all out there. You know, there's pictures of my brother getting cut. I don't... it doesn't matter. I'm indifferent. I know where he's coming from".
"Yeah. I understand completely", Vince agreed.
"It wouldn't be fair to anyone, to any of the people who knew her. It would be kinda of an injustice to them. But if Evan doesn't want us to, I'm going to have to side with him until he gives the okay. It's only fair since he was close to Jessie", I told Vince.
"Exactly", Vince said. "I don't know".
"Fucking thing", Jeff mumbled.
"Well, we'll see. I mean, I hope that we can upload it, and as long as I can get, you know, both of your okays and eventually his okay", Vince said.
"I don't care man". Vince gave a small chuckle.
"Okay. I'm going to try and take a nap".
