I walked around the furniture store, finally giving up on waiting for my old furniture to come. I was looking at a leather sectional. Slen had been around a lot recently, the floor was kind of unforgiving even for a supernatural being, and any other couch or sofa would be ridiculously small for him, you know with him being wickedly tall and all that jazz. Despite the name 'slender' he was actually kind of wide, broad shouldered at least.
"Hi can I help you?" I looked up and saw a worker with salt and pepper hair and a name tag on his burgundy shirt that read 'Jean'
"Hi… I don't know… I don't have over a lot of company, but I have one person over a lot and he is like crazy tall… Would a sectional be too much?" I asked, feeling almost stupid. The friend store clerk smiled kindly.
"No, if your boyfriend is as tall as you say he is you could arrange this footrest here and put it on the end; on the piece you're looking at, and make one long couch." He told me, not noticing the violent blush that spread across my cheeks. I swallowed tightly, feeling all sorts of wrong at the moment.
"H-he isn't my boyfriend… just a childhood friend… We could never, and I mean never be in a relationship like that." I managed to choke out softly. Jean's eyes went wide.
"Oh my God, I'm sorry." He replied. I waved my hand sheepishly, trying to dismiss the subject.
"Okay, so how much is this one?" I squeaked, embarrassment clenching my throat tightly. My blush was growing by the minute. My heart was palpitating and I had no idea why. I swallowed as Jean asked for a moment to go find out. I sat down heavily on the end of the sectional, groaning softly and burying my face in my hands. I willed the flush to go away from my face. I heard approaching sneakers on linoleum and looked up, Jean was approaching me.
"This one is nine hundred and forty-nine dollars, for an additional fifteen we can have it delivered for you." He told me. I nodded, standing.
"Good. I'll take it." I replied. Jean smiled a little wider and asked me to follow him to the register. I paid for the sectional and I went home. I had already bought a recliner for myself, and was curled up in it half asleep when I noticed Slender appeared in my sleep fuzzed vision. He seemed to look at me, possibly not noticing I was awake. I closed my barely open eyes the rest of the way and let him think I was asleep. But I found that he didn't leave, the almost unnoticeable buzz of static was still crackling in the back of my head. Did he watch me sleep? If I confronted him about it would he deny it? Was it even a good idea to confront Slen about it? I sat up and opened my eyes.
"Did you know I wasn't asleep or do you watch me when I sleep?" I asked him, locking my gaze on the pale blank canvas of a face.
"I knew you weren't sleeping. Why were you ignoring me?" He replied, turning the blame onto me. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I'm tired, I want to sleep." I answered.
"Then why weren't you in your 'nest?'" He asked.
"Because I got new furniture. I'm gunna use it." I replied. I knew it was kind of a stupid reason. I couldn't bring myself to care much. I got out of the recliner and started towards my room.
"I see. Would you like me to leave?" He replied.
"Do what you want, Tall Man. I ain't your boss." I replied shortly. I took off my top and undid my bra, throwing the articles to the side. I went to my dresser and pulled out my Jack Skellington pajamas and relieved myself of my Daisy Dukes. I pulled on the bottoms and then the gray tank top with Jack's face on it and then crawled into my nest and went to sleep.
I had been a bit distant with Slen for some reason. I mulled over reasons why. Did he scare me too badly at the forest? Or were my instincts finally working at making me try to keep him away from me? I mean, he was a supernatural being that lived off of the flesh and fear of humans? I wiped my hand across my forehead. What was wrong with me? Any sane person would either get an exorcist or a psychiatrist. Or both. Or check themselves into a mental hospital. My eyes opened. I wasn't tired. Not anymore.
"Well damn." I muttered. I stood up and went out to the balcony. I leaned against the railing and looked out over the complex.
"Helluva view, Echo. I guess maybe some woods would be a bit prettier." I muttered, running my hands through my hair. I gave a hiss of pain and pulled my hand back. I gasped at the sight of a circle with an x running through it, it looked as though it had risen from underneath the skin on the back of my hand, it was ugly and red, bleeding a little beneath the surface. I had seen this symbol before. But I didn't remember where from. I racked my brain. I knew this symbol. I stared at it for a good five minutes until the tall shadow of Slenderman consumed me. I looked back at him, hiding my hand behind my back. His tendrils were out, flicking curiously this way and that.
"Hello Slen." I told him. He bent over me a little, making me take a step back; I bumped into the railing of my deck.
"What is it you're hiding, Echo?" He asked simply, his voice was soft. I blinked at him, not noticing the tentacle moving towards my back until it wrapped surely around my wrist. I gave a squeak as he pulled my hand into his, which completely enveloped mine. He turned it over, palm side down.
"Oh, I see." He muttered.
"What is it?" I asked. His face turned up fixating on mine.
"It's about time I tell you the truth, Echo." He replied. This didn't answer my question. Slen only pulled me into the apartment, a tendril swinging the door shut behind me. Slen sat me down on my new couch. He stood before me, his arms were shorter, proportionate to his body. Which was actually really strange, for him at least. He crossed them over his chest and stood up straight, standing at seven feet tonight.
"There was a reason I was in the woods surrounding your home as a child, Echo." He told me. I titled my head.
"What? Of course there was. They were your home. Before I was even born." I replied. He sighed softly and shook his head.
"Nothing is as black and white as it seems, Echo. You see, you aren't completely human. You're something called a fledgling. A human born with part of what I am entwined into their genes." He told me. I stared at him in confusion.
"What?" I asked. Slender hung his head slightly.
"You're part Slenderfolk. A fledgling. My people have never had enough females to guarantee survival. Generations ago, a Slenderbeing successfully reproduced with a human… but it died." Slender told me. The pieces were slowly falling into place.
"Wait, it?" I hissed. Slender looked at me; a bit of a stern surge of energy put me in my place.
"The human female died. Slenderfolk aren't supposed to kill humans, or lead to their death, if they aren't punishers. My people's scientists found a way to make humans strong enough to have Slenderchildren. We've seeded the human race ever since with ones like you. Up until I was old enough to reproduce it was just first come first, serve with fledglings. Whoever found one first got her. Sometimes my kind killed each other over a fledgling. When the body count became too high the council started assigning fledglings to my kind. You were assigned to me. I was in those woods when you were a girl to be sure you were safe." He told me. I had a feeling of confusion and even disgust boiling in the pit of my stomach.
"What, so you just hung around me to make sure your baby maker would be in pristine condition for when you wanted to have children?" I spat at him with anger. I was hurt. I thought he was my friend. But all I was to him was a mere incubator? Slender stared at me for a moment.
"No, that's not it at all." He replied calmly. That made me even angrier.
"Then what? Because that's all it fucking looks like to me!" I nearly yelled. An angry static invaded my head. Slender's tentacles started to fritz out. I jumped and sunk back into the couch. Slender loomed over me in a second leaning over me in a predatory fashion, each arm gripping the back and arm of the couch boxing me in.
"This is why fledglings have to be taken at a young age. So they don't become brainwashed like you have." His words stung. Tears burned in my eyes. I flinched away from him and tried to put as much space between the two of us as possible but he kept leaning in. Two of his tentacles wrapped around my stomach and tightened like a constrictor, pulling me closer to him by the millimeter.
"This is much more than a mere animalistic reproduction strategy, Echo. You don't just produce children for me. Humans don't do that with each other do they? Why would my people be any different? Is it because we're like this?" He roughly gripped my face and made me look at him. The tears in my eyes fell. I didn't know what to do. I was confused and hurt, and he wasn't helping any. Slender's fingers uncurled from my chin and went to wipe away the tears.
"You're just confused. You don't understand." The static disappeared and Slender stepped away from me. I stared at him.
"I'll just let you take what I've told you, and if you ever bring yourself to understand, and wish to discuss things further with me, I'll meet you on the cliff we met at, sunset or sunrise. If you don't contact me I will understand. You've assimilated into the human culture quite deeply and should I never see you again I won't hold it against you. Goodbye Echo. I do hope to see you again however." He told me, his monster mode going out faster than it came on. He brushed himself off almost sheepishly and his tendrils vanished before my eyes, and then so did he. I coughed; the air had been slowly squeezed out of me. I looked around. I was alone. The apartment felt empty. He was gone. He really was gone.
Now the question was… was I happy that he was gone? I couldn't tell. There was a swarm of emotions raging in my mind and I couldn't sort them out no matter how hard I tried.
He knew he shouldn't have said a damn thing about it. But his symbol… it appeared on her hand finally. How could she not have been ready to at least know the truth? He lashed out and struck the tree nearest him. It shuddered and snapped. The top fell to the ground with a loud crash and he felt a pang in his chest. He always hated it when trees were destroyed for pointless reasons. And his rage was no exception. If he could have healed the tree he would have. He scowled and sat down against the tall stump. His anger towards Echo's reaction didn't help her any either. Every fledgling had some sort of dismay at discovering what they really were, no matter the age.
He audibly groaned. He could hear the breaking of the waves against the cliff from a few miles away where he sat. If Echo came she would have to pass by him to get there. He half hoped that she wouldn't come. She didn't deserve to be forced with a Slenderbeing. Especially after believing she was a human for her whole life. He shouldn't have abandoned her. He should've taken her when she was a child. Echo would've understood then. She was so much more open minded then. Even if she didn't…. He was getting soft.
He wasn't going to undo what he had said. Echo was a free person. There was no law saying that Echo had to be with him. That was the last thing the Slenderfolk wanted was upset fledglings. His race literally depended on them. Without them, his kind would have gone extinct long before Slender had even been born. He gave a heavy sigh and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead.
"Screwed up with her again, didn't you?" Slender looked up to see his older brother.
"I don't need you to lecture me even if I did." He replied. His brother shook his head.
"You're the only one out of the three of us that hasn't gotten his fledgling in order yet." Maximus replied. Slender sent him a wave of hot anger.
"I don't need to get Echo 'in order' Maximus." Slender said, standing. His oldest brother scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Maximus had been born in the Roman era, he was the first born, and their father had allowed their mother to name their first child. So he had the name of a human in the era. He wore a suit similar to Slender's it was the uniform for his kind wore if they were to come to the human's plane of existence and investigate. They weren't allowed to wear anything else.
"Seems like you do, Operator." Maximus answered.
"I'm usually happy to see you, but I don't feel very much in the mood to deal with your condescending attitude, Maximus. So please, if you have nothing else to say, please leave me be." Slender asked. Maximus laughed, revealing his own mouthful of razor sharp teeth.
"Look at you, being all even headed about this. I know when Elizabeth first rejected me I nearly killed her." The thought of laying a harmful hand on Echo was enough to make Slender sick.
A/N: I don't how if anyone was hoping for Splendor or any of the other canon brothers. But I felt weird enough writing a Slender fiction, using them would've been a little uncomfortable for me. So I made Maximus. Sorry, this is what I am comfortable with, sorry if I've made anyone upset.