Slender
A/N: Oh hello there! I'm back with another chapter! This one is not as incredibly long of course, but I like to think it plays its own narrative while simultaneously setting the stage for the chapter that follows after this one. As always, please enjoy and remember that I own none of this!
...
Agent Jacobs sighed as he approached the asylum, and he half-mindedly beeped the Crown Vic behind him to make sure it was locked. He had learned long ago that you couldn't be too careful with using assigned vehicles, so he always double checked that it was locked when he parted from it. Usually the thought of someone pilfering through his transport was enough to put him in a dour mood for the rest of the day, but unfortunately for Jacobs, the details of today's assignment had already dampened his spirits.
Less than a day ago, another missing person case had sprung up, which brought the total number of cases up to twenty-five in the last month. That number by itself wasn't anything to be alarmed about, as statistically fifty thousand people were reported missing a month in the United States alone, but these twenty-five stood out specifically because all of these twenty-five cases had been children under the age of ten, and they all had been reported in a very small area: the Douglas State Forest.
Now, folks had been going missing in the forest for as long as Jacobs could remember, but twenty-five in the span of one month? And all of them children younger than ten? That was a very high number given the criteria, and at this point, the case was now above the pay grade of the Worcester County Sherriff's Office. It was time for the feds to get involved, and at first, Jacobs had been excited to have the case assigned to him. He hadn't had the chance to get out of the field office in a long time, and this was a great opportunity to solidify his reputation to the chief. If all went well, he could see more high-level cases coming his way soon, and after that…well, who knew?
The case, however, had proven to be as difficult as they came. Each time Jacobs ventured out into the field in search of leads or clues as to the crimes, he would always come back with almost nothing. The children would be walking home from a friend's house or biking on the road, but after that, they would just completely disappear without a trace. No bloodstains, no signs of struggle, no tracks of any kind. The best thing Jacobs had found was an abandoned bike on the side of the road that had belonged to one of the missing children, but that trail had gone cold almost as soon as he began following it. He had been stuck for quite a while, until just recently. Another child had been reported missing in the area, and this time, there was a witness.
Jacobs had been ecstatic to hear the news, as eyewitness evidence could give him a description of a suspect, which by itself opened many doors to possible ways to find the culprit behind this. Even with something as small as if the suspect wore a mask, Jacobs could work with it. It was his job to do so. The wind had left his sails in a heartbeat though as soon as he'd learned the nature of the witness:
Her name was Marie Tejada, the older sister of the child who'd been kidnapped, and she was the reason that he was visiting the insane asylum today. Apparently, she had gone into the woods looking for her younger sister, Sophie, who had not been home in time for dinner. During her search, she had apparently come across the one behind the kidnapping but had failed to stop them before they had taken Sophie away. According to the doctors, the event had stripped her of her sanity and left her mind in shambles, giving her horrible tremors in her limbs and greatly limiting her motor functions. She could still speak and listen, but she was not quite "all there" as the staff put it. When asked questions, Marie would never give a straight answer, or sometimes she did not answer at all. She seemed at least mildly aware of her surroundings, though, and the doctors reminded Jacobs that he may not be able to get much out of her, especially since the trauma of the event was still fresh on her mind.
Jacobs took another deep breath as he entered through ward's main entrance, and a polite receptionist welcomed him and took his name before informing him that they were waiting for him in visiting room B. Jacobs thanked the receptionist and quickly made his way over to the direction indicated. A doctor was waiting for him.
"Agent Jacobs," the doctor said. "I am Doctor Driskel. I am Marie's personal psychiatrist. I believe we've spoken over the phone?"
"Indeed," Jacobs said, exchanging a friendly handshake with the doctor. "I appreciate that you're allowing me time to speak with Marie. The F.B.I. also thanks you for your cooperation in this matter."
Doctor Driskel gave a courteous nod.
"Thank you for consulting me with this interrogation," she said. "Some feds I've worked with in the past have been more…forceful, shall we say."
"I see," Jacobs replied. "Well, I try to work with people on things, I find it often leads to better cooperation."
Dr. Driskel gave a small nod of approval, but then her face hardened.
"I'm aware that you came here to ask her about the incident, Agent Jacobs. And while I am trying to help you the best I can, I must remind you of the fragile state Marie is in right now. We are making progress with improving her speech and motor capabilities, but there is a small chance that reliving those traumatic experiences could worsen her condition. I know you can't make promises, so I am asking you to please not push a question if it unsettles her too much."
Jacobs sighed. This was the part he had been afraid of. If he managed to set off the witness somehow by triggering those painful memories of hers, then he could not only worsen her mental state, but also lose any chance of getting her to share more with him. Any way he looked at it, treading carefully was the best approach in this case.
"I believe that it is in both of our interests that such a thing doesn't happen, doctor," Jacobs said. "I will make sure to gauge her reaction to the best of my ability."
At this, Jacobs saw Doctor Driskel visibly relax at his words, and she nodded once more before slowly turning and opening the door to visiting room B. The room itself was circular with no corners. One curved wall stretched all the way around, and a painted landscape of small hills and trees were displayed proudly. Jacobs supposed that it was meant to put patients at ease.
In the center of the room, a young woman with jet black hair that went down to her shoulders was seated at the table. The woman was dressed in a baggy pair of pants and a large grey shirt to match, the mandatory apparel for all patients within the ward.
As Jacobs saw her for the first time, he noted that her description over the phone had been accurate. Her entire body seemed restless, and a visible tremor was in her arms and her legs, the erratic vibrations spreading even to her fingers as she inspected what looked like a rubik's cube in her hands. The woman did not look up from her cube as Jacobs and Dr. Driskel approached, and Jacobs noticed that she had a slight twitch in her neck as well.
"Marie…" Dr. Driskel said kindly. "You have a visitor! He's come to ask you a few questions."
At the doctor's words, Marie's gaze finally flitted to Jacobs, her eyes barely spending more than a half of a second on him before returning to her cube. Her eyes darted to him again after another half second, then returned to her cube.
"Suit…" she murmured; her words not quite as articulated as an average person's but still understandable.
"Suit…suity…suit…suit-and-tie…suit like him…suit like him…"
Jacobs shared a glance with Dr. Driskel, then took a seat across from Marie and gave her a smile of his own.
"Hello Marie! I'm Agent Jacobs. It's nice to meet you!"
"Nice…nice…" Marie echoed absentmindedly. "Nice day…sun is high…"
"It is a nice day, isn't it?" Jacobs said, noticing that Dr. Driskel took up a position leaning against the wall to quietly observe the conversation. Jacobs watched as Marie fiddled with her cube for a moment, then decided that it was time to delve into the weeds.
"Marie? You said I'm wearing a suit…like him? May I ask who he is?"
A tense silence fell, and Jacobs immediately knew that the "he" was somehow tied to his case. The only problem came from how Marie answered the question, or even if she chose to answer it at all.
"Bad…bad suit man…"
"A bad man in a suit?"
"suit…suit and tie…bad man…"
"Can you tell me what he looks like?"
"Look…no…no…don't look…or he takes…takes you away…" Marie shook her head.
Jacobs spared Dr. Driskel another glance to see if she was close to intervening, but the doctor gave him a small nod to indicate that he could continue.
"If you look at him, he takes you?" he asked carefully.
"Look…look is bad…I look…he try to take me…took…took Sophie…"
Marie seemed upset, yet she still seemed to be in control of herself.
"Did you see his face, Marie?"
"Face…" Marie echoed. "No face…face…gone. No eyes…still see…no mouth…still eat…"
"The man had no eyes or mouth?" Jacobs reiterated, taking out his notebook and jotting down a few notes.
"No mouth…no eyes…bright white…like the moon…"
Suspect described as male and lacking facial features, possibly Caucasian, and wearing a suit…
"Man…man like tree…tall man…thin man…"
…witness describes suspect as tall and slender.
Jacobs finished jotting it down, then looked back up at Marie and took a deep breath.
"Marie, can you tell me what happened the night you saw this man?"
…
Marie darted between the trees, looking frantically left and right as she called out Sophie's name. It was already well past ten, and the darkness of the night was thick upon the woods around her. Sophie was supposed to have been home an hour ago, and when she hadn't returned, Marie had assumed the worst. She had heard about the growing number of missing children, and she knew that the forest was Sophie's favorite place to play.
She had warned her never to go too far into the woods, and now, her worst fears were coming true.
"Sophie!" Marie called out desperately into the darkness, shining her flashlight all around.
No response came, and Marie forced back the hopelessness she felt at the vast emptiness of these woods. She shook her head and was just about to call out again when something caught her eye through the trees. Hurriedly, Marie ran over to the sight to find a piece of paper hanging on the trunk. The paper itself appeared to be old and stained, but it was the haphazard scribbling on the document that caught her attention. In the center of the page, there was a circle drawn, almost like a cartoonish face. There was no mouth or nose, and in place of the eyes, two large X's had been drawn. Above and below the drawing, Marie noticed that some words had been scribbled as well.
"Always Watches…No Eyes…"
Marie stared at the page for a moment, then frantically grabbed it off the tree. The drawing was cryptic and chilling to look at, but if it somehow held a clue to Sophie's disappearance, then Marie would take it with her. Anything to find her sister.
Marie hadn't made it more than a few steps before a sudden pain shot through her head, causing her to stumble for a moment as her brain throbbed behind her eyes. She cried out and placed a palm to her temple to try and ease the pain, but it only seemed to increase as she fell to her knees. Her vision blurred with the pain, and Marie also became aware of a distinct ringing in her ears that seemed to be growing louder by the second.
What was happening to her? Marie cried out again as the intense pain grew worse still, and her entire body began to tremble as she tried to force herself to her feet. Forcing her eyes open, Marie looked up to see a nightmare appear through her blurred vision.
Before her stood a man, but to call him a man would only be true in the loosest definition imaginable. The man stood nearly twice as tall as what could be considered normal, and his frame was extremely thin as well with unnaturally long arms that nearly only hung a foot off the ground. His frightening aura stole Marie's breath from her body, but it was only when she looked upon his face that her sanity left her.
A pale blank canvas gazed down upon her form, with no hair or facial features to speak of and no discernable humanity. Through her pain, Marie's mind knew that this was the one that had taken Sophie, and she screamed in anger and agony at the monster before her. In truth, she didn't know if she made any noise at all, as the ringing in her ears had gotten so loud that she couldn't hear anything else.
Her vision then began to fade slowly, but as she slipped into unconsciousness, Marie thought she saw a flash of light from behind the creature. And as the light faded, a silhouette emerged from the darkness and fell upon the creature…
…
"Someone saved you from the man in the suit?" Jacobs asked carefully. Marie's neck and fingers twitched, still focused on the rubik's cube even as she replied.
"Save…someone save…someone in suit…"
"There was another person in a suit? Was it like the suit that the tall man wore?"
"No…not suit and tie…hard…hard suit…green suit…space suit…"
Jacobs nodded with encouragement and continued to jot down his notes.
"How did the one in the space suit save you? Did they fight the tall man?"
"All dark…not see…bells ringing…no hear…but wake up…space man there…"
"You woke up and the space man was there with you in the woods?"
"Took me back…back to home…voice in suit…ask question…tell story…story of suit and tie…"
Witness describes being saved by a man in a space suit. Possibly cultist attire? Costume?
"What story did he tell you?"
"World…big blue Earth…Earth is page…one page…not book…book…book is many pages…and voice…voice different…space man different…from different page…"
Jacobs knew that these were just ravings, but often incoherent ramblings could be attributed to a real experience. He just had to figure out what this story meant.
"The spaceman is from a different page?" he asked, encouraging her further.
"Spaceman…different page…" Marie said affirmingly. "Suit and tie man…different page too…but not same…not spaceman page…different page…"
Witness describes the suspect as well as her savior as from different 'pages'. Possibly different countries? Perhaps two warring cults?
"And they are here, on our page with us?" Jacobs asked. "Why are they on our page?"
"Spaceman…voice…on our page…accident…accidentally come…"
Jacobson nodded as he continued to write down her words. Every piece of information, no matter how farfetched, was important.
"Tall man…tall man is different…came on purpose…came to find…came to harvest…"
Jacobs paused in his writing and glanced over to Dr. Driskel, who shook her head in response. Apparently, she did not know what Marie was talking about either.
She says the 'spaceman' came to our page by accident. The assailant did not, he came to our page to find something…
"And just what is here on our page that the man wants to harvest, Marie?"
Marie then became slightly unsettled and began rocking back and forth slowly in her seat.
"farm…harvest…harvest us…human…but likes younger…takes them back…back to his page…keeps them…saves them for something…"
Jacobs frowned at her words, but continued to write down her words.
"The tall man takes the children away." Cannibal? Trafficking?
"And what did the spaceman do to the man in the suit and tie?" he asked.
"Suit and tie…forced back…back to home page…not forever…voice says…suit and tie…come back…soon…find more…"
Savior drove off the attacker but told the witness that they would be back.
"What did they say after that?"
"Voice…spaceman…stay…stay until come back…then take tall man…take far away…away from home page…so no escape…tear away from page…no run…no escape…then rip…then tear…"
Jacobs frowned at that statement.
Witness claims that their savior will take the suspect away from his 'page' and then kill him. Says that he can't escape if he's away from his page. What page? Why can't he escape?
The rest of the interview proved to be unnecessary, as Marie had apparently told him all that she knew. Despite Marie's outlandish tales, Jacobs felt the interview had gone well. He had never expected the girl to be so lucid, and he had assumed that she would've screamed or broken down at the recollection of the event. Thankfully, that had not been the case, and Jacobs now had much more information to go off of. He had also learned that someone else was involved in this case, a 'spaceman' of sorts. As soon as he got back to the office, he had a lot of research to do. The prospect of possible cult kidnapping or human trafficking had been present from the start, but with this new testimony, Jacobs was certain that he was on the right track.
After thanking both Marie and Dr. Driskel, Jacobs exited the ward. The sun had already gone down, and Jacobs turned on his headlights as he pulled the Crown Vic away from the asylum. The hospital itself stood no further roughly a half an hour drive from the field office, but Jacobs didn't mind the drive, especially since the case had just taken a new turn. This gave him time to mull things over. Just when he thought he had reached another cold trail; the witness had given him some new insights. Marie's testimony was nothing but a fantasy when taken at face value, but if he could decipher the meaning behind her words, he might just have a chance to catch the criminals behind these kidnappings. With a long night of investigation ahead of him, Jacobs turned on the radio and—
Something suddenly struck the side of the Crown Vic, and before Jacobs could regain control, the car was skidding off the pavement and into the nearby trees, the force of the impact sending it shooting sideways. Jacobs slammed on the brakes and tried to right it, but the car slammed hard into one of the hardened trucks, and he was jerked hard to the right as the force resounded through the frame.
For a moment, Jacobs sat still and willed the world to stop spinning, then he raised his head and glanced at his surroundings. Shards of broken glass and distorted metal filled his vision, and he saw that the Crown Vic had been totaled by its impact when it had collided with the tree. Thankfully, the driver's side of the car had held up, and even though Jacobs ached all over, nothing seemed to be broken.
Fumbling with his hands, Jacobs managed to undo his seat belt and force open the now crumpled door, stumbling down onto his hands and knees once he was clear. He felt warm liquid blood seep down the side of his face, but the flow was weak, and upon inspection he saw that it was only a minor cut. Finally staggering to his feet, Jacobs turned his attention back to the Crown Vic to see what it was that had struck the side of his car.
Rounding to the side of the impact, he was startled to see that a massive dent had been punched into the frame, almost as though it had been slammed by a wrecking ball. In fact, the passenger's side of the car almost now ceased to exist, as it had completely caved in from the impact. Confused and in shock, Jacobs staggered back to the road to try to get a glimpse of what it was that had hit him. Following the skid marks back, Jacobs froze at the sight that greeted him.
It was part of a tree trunk, roughly half as tall as Jacobs but almost two feet in diameter. Glass and plastic lay haphazardly around the log, and Jacobs estimated that given the density of the oaks in this area, that log had to weigh no less than five hundred pounds.
The realization of the sheer weight of what had hit his car certainly explained why his Crown Vic had been totaled, but with one question answered, another took its place. Where the hell did it come from? Lifting a quarter of a ton was no easy feat, but to throw it? That was something nothing short of a catapult could achieve. But he was in the middle of the woods, where the hell could a catapult be out here?
Pulling out his phone and activating the flashlight, Jacobs squinted and searched the foliage, trying to see if he could make anything out against the gloom.
"Hey!" he called out. "Is anybody out there?"
Nothing but silence greeted him in return, the air now eerily still. Nothing was heard save for Jacobs's breathing as he waited for a response. He squinted harder to try and pick anything out in the darkness, and suddenly, he saw movement next to one of the trees.
No, the tree itself was moving…
Jacobs's blood froze in his veins next, as he saw that it was no tree.
It was a shape, the shape of a nightmare, and his eyes reflexively darted to the top of the form to see a featureless face staring back at him.
Jacobs gasped and back pedaled onto the road as the figure approached, snapping branches and twigs alike as it drew closer.
It was him. It was the man in the suit that Marie had told him about. He was here in the forest. Part of Jacobs's mind didn't want to believe what he was seeing before him, but as the figure emerged from the tree line, he found it impossible to deny.
The suit and tie stood out among its nearly blackened form, and Jacobs scrambled back further as he saw that the figure was almost levitating towards him. A sharp pain suddenly appeared in his head, and Jacobs cried out as the agony engulfed him. It felt like his skull was splitting open, and as he frantically glanced back at the figure, he saw it stretch an unnaturally large arm in his direction. Numerous tentacles had also spawned from the monsters back, and they too were closing in on him. A distinct ringing began in his ears, growing more and more insufferable as he felt his mind begin to collapse.
Jacobs squeezed his eyes shut and fell backward, but in the next moment, the pain remarkably receded, and a series of gunshots filled the night air. Forcing his eyes open, Jacobs saw the nightmare turn its attention to the source of the noise, and Jacobs followed its sightless gaze to see a figure rapidly approaching them. An automatic rifle of some kind was in its hands, and as it ran, rounds spewed out and sought home in the body of the nightmarish creature, who recoiled but did not fall as the bullets pierced its skin. Where the gunshot wounds opened up, a black mist seemed to spill out, and though the creature did seem bothered by its wounds, it did lash out with its tentacles as the figure came within range.
The figure evaded the tentacles as they struck, ducking and dodging left and right with ease despite the speed and number of appendages the monster attacked with. With its hands now somehow empty, the figure leapt up and grabbed the monster's featureless face with its left hand, causing the creature to stagger backward from the force of the impact. Tentacles made to grab at the figure as it held on, but the figure paid them no mind, finally sparing a glance to Jacobs as the monster writhed under its iron grip. In the light from his phone, Jacobs could see that the figure was wearing some kind of armored suit with a helmet covering its face, making it seem incredibly intimidating as it overpowered the nightmare in its grasp. As Jacobs looked on in shock, a voice came from within the suit.
"I would recommend vacating this area immediately, as I am only 95% certain of the effectiveness of what we are about to attempt."
Despite his state, Jacobs struggled to his feet, running back in the direction of the Crown Vic as fast as his legs could carry him. Millions of thoughts raced through his mind as he ran, but one stood out among the others. That man…that suit…he almost looked like a…
…an astronaut. A spaceman.
Jacobs's eyes widened, and he whirled back around in realization. His eyes met the figure's gaze once again, but in the next moment, a flash of blue light engulfed both it and the monster. A loud bang sounded from across the landscape, but when the light faded, both the figure and the monster disappeared.
Jacobs looked around frantically to see where they had gone, but the night had fallen still once more. Only he remained. After making sure that he was alone, Jacobs cautiously staggered over to where the monster and figure had stood not moments before. Against the light of his phone, Jacobs saw ash marks streak outward from ground zero, the only evidence that they had been there in the first place. Had they exploded? Reduced to nothing but atoms? Just what the hell had the spaceman attempted? Quickly, Jacobs snapped pictures of the scene with his phone, then hurriedly dialed his chief.
An annoyed and groggy voice answered on the other end of the line, and Jacobs hurriedly explained that he had been in a wreck and needed a response team out here immediately. The chief had quickly come to after that and asked what the hell had happened, but Jacobs stopped himself before he wove the tale. He would need to tell this story in person. He doubted anybody would believe what he saw, but if they did, then this case would likely be transferred beyond the Bureau, likely to some department that Jacobs didn't even know existed. An agency better equipped to deal with whatever that thing was perhaps. Or perhaps someone who could at least figure out who that guy in the suit was. Whatever it ended up being, it was not Agent Jacobs. He wasn't sure what it was that he had just witnessed, but this, whatever the hell this was, it was BIG. Of that, he could be sure.
A/N: So, what did you think? For this chapter, I found my way back into the straight horror genre once more, and I think I probably have a few other horror stories lined up for future chapters after this one. That being said, remember to leave a review commenting on any aspect of my writing and keeping me posted on whether you liked what you read or felt that it was bad and unnecessary. No matter what, I love hearing from you guys, so please don't hesitate. Until next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver