A/N: I'm really sorry for the late update everybody. Next installment will hopefully be on schedule.
Echo looked lovely as he watched her. Slender did not want to interrupt her but he did not want to trust her to the human men that went to the local bar. She had no idea what she was, thinking she was asexual for not being attracted to human males, or even females. Slender wondered how he was going to tell her that she was a Slenderfolk fledgling. He appeared in her bathroom at her side, frightening her on accident. He laughed inwardly. The two held a pleasant little conversation and he convinced her to come to the woods. To be honest he didn't want any human men to see her looking this lovely. The two walked in the woods as she timidly asked Slender about him and his kind, being thoroughly surprised when she learned about how old he was. But she was unaware of the natural fear that was making her shy away from him.
The two approached a river. It cut through the town and made its way into the surrounding forest. Slender liked to spend most of his time here. Animals usually convened here and he rather liked their company. The only creatures animals feared were the humans. Slenderfolk and animals got along rather kindly. Deer usually allowed him to pet them.
Echo latched onto his arm instinctively as they heard the pained roar of a mountain lion. This grabbed his attention.
"What was that?" Echo asked quietly.
"Woodland creature sounds as though it got in a trap. Hunters are always leaving traps around for animals to get into and slowly suffer until the hunters return to kill it. Let's go. I like to free it. I believe in the chase and kill. What human hunters do with these traps is positively cruel; at least I give my prey the chance to escape." He said. Echo stared at him; she was so small, having to crane her neck to look Slender in the face. It amused him; most fledglings were at least six feet. Echo was a whopping five foot five inches. He found her precious.
Slender led the way off the path, bending down occasionally to avoid a head on collision with a low hanging branch. He followed the current and came to the poor suffering animal. He grew angry at the sight of this and henceforth his tendrils shot from his back, quivering with irritation.
"Stay back. I'll be alright if the creature attacks me, but I don't want you to get hurt, alright, Echo?" He asked, turning to look at her. She nodded. Echo's eyes were wide with wonder and fear, this dampened his spirit. There was a reason fledglings were taken at young age, so they could get used to the Slenderfolk. Slender feared that perhaps it was too late for Echo. She may have been too humanized by now. He slowly approached the wounded lion and knelt in front of it. He studied the trap, and then bent the clamps back, freeing the mountain lion. Slender quickly took a hold of the lion's foot and healed it before the big cat ran off.
Slender returned to Echo. She had a bright smile on her face.
"And they say you're pure evil…" Echo told him teasingly. Slender shook his head, looking at his hands, they were cut from the teeth of the trap. Slender willed them to heal, watching the bites shrink and fade away.
"To everyone else I really am." He told her. Echo paused, gazing at him curiously. Her mouth was slightly agape and a shaft of moonlight had fallen upon her face, illuminating her in a mysteriously beautiful way.
"Then why me? What makes me so special?" She asked, her eyes glittering with curiosity again and her head titling.
"Another story for another day, Echo, time to get you home." Slender told her, extending his hand out to her.
He watched her walk back to her apartment from work the next day. Echo walked everywhere. He didn't like that. Echo was gorgeous, and some human males didn't know not to take what wasn't rightfully theirs. He secretly followed her to make sure Echo was safe, the last things Slender wanted was the fledgling traumatized or hurt. So he was with her a lot more than what she thought.
Slender breathed a sigh of relief when Echo go into her apartment. That was something else about her that puzzled him. She was a fledgling of Slenderkind. Echo shouldn't enjoy living in an apartment, especially one within city limits. But there she was…blissfully entering her apartment. Slender had wrongly assumed that once she got into town she would start looking for a place to live near the woods away from the hustle and bustle of Haven Junction. She was content in her apartment, the only time she really ever got irritated with it is when her neighbors get disruptive.
Echo put the bag of fast food on the counter. She never cooked but she could. When she was invited to a friend's for dinner Echo would make an entrée or side dish to take with her; otherwise her kitchen utensils were never used. This was on account of the fact that Echo hated doing the dishes.
She spent two hours at the gym to cancel out all the fast food and soda she ate and drank. Echo didn't know it but the hours at the gym were unnecessary. Being a fledgling of Slender's kind she was actually consuming less than what she needed, which was why she was always grazing, fresh vegetables were her favorite snack.
Echo took her supper out of the bag, stuffing a few fries rather unceremoniously in her mouth she turned on the television and sat own in her green bean bag chair. Slender left her to herself, his own hunger demanding to be extinguished with a knot boiling in the pit of his stomach and he growled. He didn't hunt just anybody, only human monstrosities. He found himself regretting clearing out that prison so fast. Sometimes he let his instincts get the best of him…
So Slender went to the run down part of Haven Junction. If any human was caught in the act of a rape, murder, or abuse, Slender had permission to immediately kill. The streets were crowded but where Slender was going after dark it wasn't a good idea to be out. In cities areas like this were his hunting ground. He Slenderwalked to the run down outskirts of the town, where back alleys crisscrossed and twisted into a bit of a labyrinth were scum liked to wander. Sometimes he got lucky here, and others, there were minor crimes, but nothing that would give him permission to kill and devour without being prosecuted by his people. But tonight was a good night. The scream of a woman rang into the night. Slender's attention perked and he went off after his future meal.
Coming around the corner he discovered a man pushing woman against the wall, Slender appeared into the material plane and sent his tendrils after the offender. They twisted around the man's neck and tore him from the woman. She screamed in fear and ran. Slender slammed the human male against the walls of the abandoned buildings. Hard enough to do damage and cause fear but not to kill. Slender preferred his meals with fear and adrenaline running through its blood. He let the human fall to the ground, allowing it to run, to let the fear build, he waited for a few moments, tracking the pounding footfalls that reverberated through the alleys.
Punishers like him survived off of fear. The more fear the more energy but punishers ran through energy fast. The longer he waited, the less he could control himself. The more he put Echo in danger. She may have been a fledgling, but on a few accounts, she had made his mouth water. Like when they first got into the forest the other day… fear had been seeping from every pore and smelled tantalizing. He still felt ashamed about it.
Slender went after the human, appearing in the corner of his vision; causing more and more terror to course through his prey. He appeared twice directly in front of the human, once causing him to fall back, that was when Slender ended the hunt, he leapt upon his prey.
Echo looked up from the laptop screen as she heard a knock on the door. She closed the computer and placed it aside, standing up she went to answer the door. Checking the peep hole she saw her neighbors, Jenny, and her husband, Roger, both looked well dressed. Echo answered the door with a smile on her face.
"Hello you two! Looking very nice, going on a date? You two need it after taking care of little Robin." She told them warmly. Jenny smiled with a nod.
"Yes, but the baby sitter cancelled last minute, could you watch Robin for us? You're the only person I trust with her right now." Jenny replied.
"Oh, yeah, sure, I'd love to, any instructions?" Echo asked. Jenny nodded.
"Yes, they're on the counter. Thank you so much." She told Echo.
"I need to turn off my TV, but I'll go right over, so go on." Echo told Jenny, waving her blonde neighbor off. Jenny nodded and turned to her husband and the two went disappeared down the hall. Echo went into her apartment and turned off the television, grabbed her phone and went to her neighbor's apartment across the hall, she found it unlocked and went on in, going to the counter and picking up the instructions.
Robin is already in bad; if she wakes up just go hold her and rock her gently until she falls back asleep. You can watch the TV, but no pay-per-view please, don't record anything either. Help yourself to the sodas in the fridge. There are snack packets in the cabinet too. Thank you.
Echo tuned and went over to the couch and turned on the television, turning down the volume. Echo mainly watched cartoons or crime dramas, she didn't like the shows that most people her age watched. She thought they were trashy, too much alcohol and stupidity.
She was watching Tom and Jerry when she went to check on Robin. The sweet squishy little girl was still asleep. Echo smiled and returned to the living room, she jumped when she saw Slen standing in the living room.
"What are you doing in here?" He asked her, Echo put her finger to her lips.
"Babysitting. She's asleep, so please be a little quieter. I'm not afraid of taking care of a crying infant, but I don't want her to start and disturb the complex." She whispered, sitting down. Slen nodded and took a seat in the arm chair. The television screen was snowy for a few moments while it adjusted to Slen's appearance, but eventually evened out and Tom and Jerry continued on with their funny yet violent antics.
Robin woke at about ten, crying softly, Echo stood up and went to the nursery. She bent down and picked up the wiggly baby girl, cooing soothingly to her. As Echo brought Robin close to her the baby stopped crying. She smiled at the little girl; she did always have a way with children. The baby soon went back to sleep and Echo put her back down in the crib. Echo reentered the living room to see Slen gone and Roger and Jenny entering the apartment. Echo smiled at them.
"Hey you two! Robin was great, she woke up just a few minutes ago, but she went back to sleep real quick." Echo told them Jenny nodded.
"Thanks Echo, this meant a lot to us." Jenny said, taking Echo's hand in a friendly way. Echo squeezed hers then let go.
"I'm going to go back to my apartment now, Good Night." Echo said, leaving the apartment and going home. She went to her bedroom and got into some pajamas, settled down in her nest and went off to sleep.