Over the next few weeks, Slenderman had his proxies out scouring near and far for Claudia. Seeing as Masky, Hoodie, Skully and Toby all were human and could relatively blend in with the world, the three of them had been given this task, while Slenderman spread the word to his many, many family members, hoping one had seen or heard of where the three-year-old could be, and if they could keep an eye out.
Some of the Slender Family were concerned and promised to look out for Claudia, others just didn't care.

BEN decided to travel through technology in hopes to spot Claudia on the other side of the screen, while LJ searched the abandoned theme parks, Jeff took Smile to search the forests, and Eyeless Jack scoured fields and burrows with the Seed Eater. Everyone else searched for little Claudia in their own way, each desperately hoping to find her quickly, before anything bad happened to her.

Meanwhile, Masky was in charge of the group of proxies that were searching out in the public. He lead the group down to the main street with Hoodie following beside him, Toby bounced along energetically behind them - still buzzing from all that sugary syrup he'd eaten with his waffles this morning - and Skully mopingly trudging along behind them.

"We should split up," Hoodie suggested as they walked.

Masky nodded.

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Can I-"

Masky turned and shoved Toby towards Skully. "You two go look in the parks and recreational grounds - farms and whatnot," he said, just wanting to get Toby out of the way, and somewhere where he can't screw everything up. "Hoodie and I will stay in town and scout out the houses and stores and see if we can find her here."

Toby looked slightly disappointed, but Skully didn't seemed to be phased, as usual. Skully was the only one who never got to meet Claudia, so he wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. Dragged along on the search, he was past being frustrated by now, and had opted for being as uselessly mopey as he possibly could, hoping that someone would just tell him to forget about it - though he was starting to think that no one would.

Toby grabbed Skully's arm and towed him in the direction of the nearest park, while Hoodie and Masky breathed a sigh of relief just before starting their own search.

Everyone had tried their best. They scoured every inch of the town and surrounding areas at least twice, but with no sign or hint that Claudia had been there. Finally, after a long tiring day, they all came back to Slender Mansion to report their sad news. No one wanted to hear it, but when Claudia didn't walk through the door along side any of the pastas, they knew that she was still missing.

"Gone," Jeff breathed as he sat at the dinner table, poking his food absently with his fork. "I can't believe it. . . nothing. . ."

The whole table stayed silent, remorseful and, in a way, they were lost. How could it have ended up like this? Not even Slenderman knew. The words to describe what they felt fell utterly short, feeble and understated.

"You look so. . ." Skully began, but stopped as all eyes fell on him. He was going to forget he said anything, but he noticed Slenderman's eyeless gaze, and decided to continue. "It's like a room. A small dark, cold room. Then someone brought in light, which warmed the place for a while. But. . . but then the light was suddenly gone, and now the room doesn't know what to do, because it's dark again - and cold - and it wants the light back so it could feel better, but how can it find the light when it wasn't theirs to begin with?"

"That's deep," BEN murmured.

"But true," Jane said. "A great metaphor, though."

Jeff looked up from his plate. "So, we represent the room? And Claudia is the light?"

Skully nodded.

"The light left when Claudia did, so now it's dark," EJ mused softly. "But we can't find her, because she wasn't ours in the first place. . . Yes, I see. She's different - not like us - so she doesn't belong with us. Maybe it's best that we don't find her?"

"Are you saying we just forget about Claudia?!" Jeff snapped.

EJ looked up, his eyes widening beneath his mask. "O-oh, no! That's not what I-"

"It better fucking not be!" Jeff growled, his fist curling around his butter knife angrily.

EJ rose his hands defensively. "I am just saying, maybe she shouldn't have been here in the first place," he tried to reason. "We can't do anything about it now, but I do think we should still find her. I may be a killer, but I do have a heart you know."

Eyeless Jack is right, Jeff, Slenderman said telepathically to them all. We must find Claudia, and then we shall decide what we do with her. Although, I think it may be best that we find a relative of hers, and let her go.

"YOU CAN'T BE FUCKING SERIOUS, SLENDY?!" Jeff barked. "Just - just let her go? This isn't a fucking Passenger song!"