Chapter 10: Sophia's Perspective
TJ is so annoying! How dare he even think about blaming himself! Honestly, what a moron!
Even after my speech telling him to stop being a baby, I was still angry. I mean, after all we've been through I can't believe he had the nerve to blame himself. It was infuriating.
I was annoyed, but as TJ's house came into view, the annoyance quickly dissipated.
We rode up to his driveway, and stopped our bikes. We dismounted and gently set our bikes on the grass of TJ's front lawn. Our helmets were carelessly dropped next to them.
I looked up at the house, the once welcoming place that I'd grown to consider my second home had a foreboding atmosphere. The house seemed to radiate two words, Get… Out…
A strange feeling of dread that washed over me, and I shivered. I suddenly felt a cold, much deeper than the normal November chill. It sunk into my bones, and made my entire body feel heavy and lifeless. Like I was a corpse, already dead, buried, and paralyzed.
"Does anyone else feel… Cold?" I asked, my voice sounding weird in my ears.
The others nodded, and my sense of dread increased.
I swallowed, "Alright, let's go inside," I said.
TJ lead the way into his house, and James and I followed.
Why did it feel like the further we ventured into the house, the farther we strayed towards the point of no return?
I was being ridiculous. I'd known TJ so long, his house was like my second home. There was no reason to be afraid of it now. Denying our dread, we made our way to the front door.
TJ fished around in his pocket until he found the house key, and opened the door. He put the key into the lock, but faltered halfway through turning it.
He frowned, "What the hell?" He muttered.
"What's wrong?" James asked.
He turned around to face us, his face confused and a little scared, "It's unlocked," He said.
Immediately, I felt the same chill of dread that was made apparent by his expression.
"Did you forget to lock it?" James asked with feeble hope.
TJ shook his head adamantly, "I never forget to lock the door when I leave the house! Especially lately…" He trailed off.
I knew what he meant. Ever since we summoned the Slenderman, and TJ told me about his nightmares, we were all very cautious. We set a sundown curfew for ourselves, and always triple checked that our doors were locked at night. There was no way he would forget to lock the door.
James was still hopeful, "Are your parents home? Maybe they forgot to lock it," He suggested.
TJ shook his head again, "They're working a night shift tonight, so they won't be home until about 10:00. And no, they're nuts about home safety, they wouldn't leave the front door unlocked,"
James was confused, "Then how could the door be unlocked?" He asked.
We thought for a while, but couldn't come up with anything close to a reasonable, or even unreasonable, explanation.
After a while, I gave up, "Come on guys, let's just go inside. Sitting out here thinking all day won't do us any good," I said.
TJ nodded, "She's right. We need to just face whatever unlocked my front door," He said.
"Guys, this is a bad idea! I don't think we should-" James started to say.
"Too bad!" TJ and I simultaneously interrupted. We pushed him inside before he could protest any further.
As soon as we crossed the threshold of the front door I felt the same chill of dread that I felt outside, but much worse. I shivered, the cold penetrated deeper in my soul than any force in the world should be able to do. It was invasive, cruel, and unrelenting.
My vision became tinged black around the edges, and I felt my knees go weak. This force was too much for me to handle, it was too much for anyone to handle! No human could be subjected to this and live through the trauma!
Just as whatever resistance I had left started to disintegrate, I felt a spark of determination. No! I couldn't die here! Not while my friends still needed me. I focused on that spark of hope and clung to it like my life depended on it, which it did.
That spark soon grew into a flame, and it fought off the inky darkness. I concentrated on everything that gave me hope in life, and poured my soul into the flame.
TJ and James.
Cats.
Books.
Ice Cream.
Chess.
Video Games.
Pancakes.
Soccer.
Tae Kwon Do.
Piano.
Cute Girls!
In a Herculean feat, I snapped out of my trance.
Suddenly, I was back in TJ's foyer. I could detect the dark force, but it was distant. I didn't need to worry about it… Yet.
The dizziness was a more pressing matter than the distant darkness. Currently, I was swaying on my feet, struggling to stay standing.
Unfortunately for me, I lost the battle. With one last feeble attempt to steady myself, I fell on my butt.
Sitting on the floor, still dazed, I noticed that TJ was already out of his trance.
I frowned, "How did you already get out of that?" I asked.
"Meh, I don't really know." He said, "Everything went black, and instantly I awoke on the floor. Don't worry, it took me awhile to get up too."
I look back down the hall and see James just getting up.
"Is he okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, It was just harder for him to get out of his trance, the-" TJ was cut off.
James shushed us and put his ear to TJ's room.
TJ whispered, "What are you doing? Did you hear something?"
James's face fell into a look of shock and he tip-toed his way to TJ and me.
"G-guys…" James stuttered.
"What is it!?" TJ and I hissed, trying not to let anyone hear us, but impatient for the information. .
"S-Someone is in y-your room" James finished.
TJ, fearing for his belongings, (or maybe something else), grabbed James and me. hauled us to the door, and let us go.
"TJ," I cautiously began, "Maybe we should call the-"
I noticed him open the door a crack, Good, he's being careful for once. I thought.
BAM! He kicked down the door, and yelled, "FBI OPEN UP!" Sounding angry and confident.
I leapt a mile, then facepalmed. Well, I suppose TJ doesn't really do careful.
TJ stood in front of James and Me, holding up a finger gun. He stood confidently, fully prepared to fight the evil in our room with imaginary bullets.
After he got a good look at who was in his room, he lowered his imaginary firearm.
I peeked over TJ's shoulder, only to see an extremely startled, Jeff, BEN, and Toby. BEN seemed to have jumped so high, his ghostly form disappeared in the ceiling. Toby, who must've formerly been perched on the window cill, started to fall.
And Jeff, poor Jeff. When he realized what was happening, he simultaneously grabbed Toby, pulled him up, pulled out his knife, and faced us.
TJ was staring in disbelief, James was cowering behind me, and I prepared for a fight. When Jeff noticed who we were, he lowered his weapon, "Jesus Christ," He exhaled, "You scared the hell out of us," He said.
Before we could speak, Jeff looked up at the ceiling, "BEN, you can come down now. It's just them,"
Cautiously, BEN sank back through the ceiling and sat on the bed. He scowled at TJ, "You scared us," He complained.
TJ finally found his voice, "I scared you?! What are you doing in my room? How did you get in my house? How do you even know where I live in the first place?" He demanded.
Jeff held up his hands, "Calm down, I wish that I had time to explain everything, but that will have to wait. For now, I only have time to tell you everything that concerns your immediate survival," He said.
"What?" I asked. My head, again, was spinning from too much information at once.
"Save all your questions to the end," Jeff said.
What is this, a powerpoint presentation? I thought, irritated. I didn't say anything, though. If the information he was about to give us was vital, I didn't want to interrupt him.
Jeff cleared his throat, "Ahem. Let me start from the beginning. When I was a young lad, there were these little jackasses named, Randy, Troy, and Keith-" He began.
I interrupted him, "We know, Jeff. You don't need to start that far back. How about starting at the part where you tell us how not to die a horrible death," I suggested.
Jeff seemed to consider this, "Okay," He agreed after a moment.
He continued, this time with useful information, "You three are in grave danger…."
And thus began the conversation that would change our lives. From that moment onward we were no longer the three good children from Wisconsin. We were the three proxies who would bring down the Slenderman and Zalgo once and for all. We would masquerade as cold blooded and heartless killers, who answer only to their master. When, in reality, we would slowly destroy their organization from the inside. Look out, Slenderman. You're about to get your ass kicked.
