She had the most horrible headache of her life. Everything was too intense. She was weak, starting to cough up blood. And all the Slenderman did was sit in the corner of her bedroom and watch her suffer in her bed. She had already quit her job at the library. All she could do was drink water and vomit. This reminded her of what she read about Slender sickness. She turned to her side and looked to Slender.
"If this is a psychological thing… why is it having a physical effect on me? Why is this happening to me? I just want it to stop." She asked.
"It's not just a psychological thing, Echo. The two species that you are split between are fighting. When they settle is when you will be able to decide what you want to do." He told her. She groaned.
"You can't make it better?" She asked weakly. He stood.
"Perhaps." Slender stood and approached her bedside and gently took her head in his hands and tried to send some healing energy through her.
"Does that feel any better?" He asked quietly. She sighed and nodded.
"Thank you. Maybe I can eat something now." She said, trying to get out of bed. Slender tried to keep her where she was but she gave him a glare. She stumbled to the kitchen and leaned heavily against the counter.
"Echo you should stay in bed." He told her while following her into the kitchen. She shook her head.
"What and have you serve me like a freaking handmaid. No thanks. I'll be fine." She told him with hostility that he wasn't unfamiliar with. She went from depending on him to wanting him gone about every two hours. He could tell by the way she staggered around that she wasn't going to last twenty minutes before collapsing again.
She had become terribly skinny in the past few days. Her cheeks were hollow and eyes were sunken, her skin was the sickest yellow he had seen in years. Echo's hair had started to fall out. Her pillow was covered in chocolate strands. She trembled constantly. To be honest Slender didn't know if Echo was going to make it. He was almost certain that she wouldn't.
Echo ignored him as she pulled out the chicken noodle soup and dumped its contents into a bowl and microwaved it, her knees nearly gave out but she gripped onto the handle of the stove to keep from hitting the ground.
"At least sit down?" He asked her pushing a chair towards her. Echo glared at him, but sat down, her eyes fluttering closed. She shakily sighed and started to tremble more violently. The microwave beeped but she didn't get up. Her head drooped to her chest and she passed out. He was right.
"Echo." He said, giving her a slight shove. She didn't stir. Slender took her into his arms and returned her to her bed. He gave a heavy sigh and sit down against the bed.
"All I had to do was appear in your bedroom as a child and ask you to come with me. You wouldn't have hesitated. We never intended for your mother to die. What kind of person would I have been if I had taken the only thing a man had of his lost wife from him? How could I have lived with myself if I did that? I'm too soft. Some of my people have killed the fledgling's family just to have the fledging. Taking you would have been much easier on you. You wouldn't have to endure this." Slender told her. He had been watching her for days now. Not eating either. He didn't feel right doing so if Echo could not.
To be honest Slender didn't care what she chose. He just wanted her to stop suffering. He also knew that her death was very likely in this situation. If she died… he really would never forgive himself. He was the reason she was like this. If she didn't at least pull through…. He couldn't stand to be there anymore. He stood up and left. Slender did all that he could to get his mind off of Echo, but nothing work. Guilt riddled his very being and he couldn't stand on his own two feet.
Echo woke again. She was in her bed. Telling her that Slender had carried her there, not having any recollection of eating and returning to her bed, and memory loss wasn't one of her symptoms. She found this both sweet and disgusting. She had sat down in the chair and that was all she remembered, the microwave was still whirring when she sat. She felt bad. He was just trying to help. She groaned and buried her face in her pillow. How could she ever come to love someone if she found disgust in being held in their arms? But he had never hurt her, despite that day when she provoked him, not even then really. She realized with a sad audible gasp that she couldn't do it. She couldn't do what she was apparently born to do. She couldn't be Slender's mate. He deserved someone that had the backbone and heart to do it. He didn't deserve being stuck with her whether he wanted that or not.
Echo turned to her side and curled up, bringing the blanket up to her chin and closing her eyes. All she wanted to do now was sleep. Maybe everything would be better when she slept.
Slender sat at the edge of the cliff again, watching the ocean crash against the wall of rock far below him. He wondered whatever happened to the body of the insolent fool that incidentally brought Echo there to his forest, back to him. Did it wash up on coast somewhere? Or is it still below the surface, trapped under the treacherous rocks that caused the death of so many people?
"I knew you were dramatic but I never expected to this extent." Maximus said, appearing at his side and sitting down next to him. Slender shook his head.
"Maximus, please." He said tiredly.
"That bad huh?" Maximus replied.
"Yes it's that bad. Why wouldn't it be that bad? The fledgling dedicated solely for me is dying slowly in her bed because the Slenderbeing in her and the rest of her is at war with each other. You haven't seen her have you?" Slender asked sharply.
"Never." Maximus answered..
"If you knew her before this you wouldn't recognize her as the same person." Slender replied. "She's terribly thin. She's started coughing blood. If she doesn't stop soon… it means her death. I can't live with that on my hands." Slender finished.
"Well from what I was told she was never too thick in the first place." Maximus replied. Slender only buried his face in his hands and sighed.
"What? I meant she was lean." The older of the two defended.
"You aren't very good with your words, are you?" Slender asked. Maximus only chuckled.
"Things'll turn out eventually." Maximus said, thumping his younger brother on the shoulder.
"I know that. But will I like the outcome?"
"You have three options, she dies, she lives and accepts you as her mate, or she lives and denies you as her mate. From what Mother told me about your attempted act of passion last week, you will. The odds are in the favor of her living. If I know you, you don't care if she accepts you or not, you just want her to live. And I admire that in you. That's a trait I never had. I intimidated Elizabeth into accepting me. The same could probably work with your little fledgling, but you've got a heart there, buddy." Maximus said, elbowing his brother in the ribs. Slender hissed and pushed his brother away roughly, then rubbing the now sore spot on his side. Maximus lounged back, laying down in the grass, his arms behind his head.
"That's something Father and I have never understood about you. Why you care so much. You're the punisher out of the family; you're supposed to be the head of the family because of that. You should've had three children with Echo by now, but no. You let her go when she was a baby and now look at the mess you're in. You know you're the only Slenderbeing that's a punisher that has had this problem?" Maximus rattled on. Slender barely listened. He didn't care much what his brother had to say.
"You know, now that I think about it, our uncle had the same problem." Maximus clipped, kicking Slender's thigh.
"Did he?" Slender replied, turning and looking his brother in the face.
"Yeah. And Aunt Regine is all fine and dandy isn't she?" Maximus commented. Slender had fond memories of Aunt Regine. She was a platinum blond with deep blue eyes, and a pale complexion that was almost as white as Slenderbeing. Aunt Regine was a first generation fledgling. She was kind. But Slender always noticed she acted sad. She was happy but sad at the same time and that always confused Slender as a child.
"Are you saying there may be hope for Echo?" Slender asked.
"Perhaps. Depends on how strong she is. If she can survive the battle her body is raging with itself then yeah, maybe. But I know you; you aren't going to get your hopes up are you?" Maximus asked. Slender shook his head.
"You want her to deny you, don't you?" Maximus asked.
"I'm perfectly grateful for Echo. But I was foolish when she was a child and she assimilated into the human race. I don't want her to be like Regine, Maximus. Regine is and most likely never will be fully happy with her life. She's only carried to full term once and all of us know why. The emotional state of the mother during a pregnancy directly affects the offspring, far more with Slenderbeing that humans. If Echo is with me, I want her to want to be with me, not feel obliged to do so. If there is something wrong with that then I don't want a mate at all." Slender replied. Maximus was quiet for once, giving a hum of intrigue.
"You're strange you know that? Maybe you should go talk to Uncle." Maximus said, starting to get up. Maximus may be annoying most of the time but he did give good advice on occasion.
"I'll go check on Echo then I'll go see him." Slender said standing and leaving his brother on the cliff.
Echo was asleep, peacefully this time. It gave him a small glimmer of hope; he couldn't help but brush a lock of hair out of her face.
"I do hope you come to accept me. But the major flaw in me is that I care more about your happiness than I do my own. My brother, Maximus, forced his fledgling to be with him, and didn't even bat an eyelash, as the saying goes. But I could never do something like that to you. Let your peace reign, Echo." He told her quietly before leaving her plane.
He entered the library, no one was there. His whole family lived in the same house. His childhood home would rival the Biltmore Estate should a human see it, impossibly grand and almost unnecessarily large, but to the Slenderfolk, a house like this was the usual, with several wings, one for each branch of the family. He set off for his Uncle's wing.
Upon entering he was greeted by his one and only cousin. Yet another prized female with the usual long platinum blond hair, hers was unusually curly. He nodded at her respectfully.
"Hello cousin." She told him as he passed. He stopped.
"Where is your father?" He asked.
"In his study." She answered with a voice that seemed to be made of delicate crystal.
"Thank you." He replied and went to the room he was very familiar with. He knocked and the voice of his uncle called for him to enter. Slender did so and saw his aunt and uncle. Regine was a delicate thing, tall but fragile, an old, wan face, stuck with the appearance of youth. He nodded at them both.
"Operator, how nice to see you." His uncle greeted warmly. He had grown almost unaccustomed to being addressed by his birth given name.
"Thank you, Uncle, I need to speak with you, alone would perhaps be more favorable. No offense to you, Regine." He told them. His aunt merely nodded, patting her husband's forearm affectionately and gracefully leaving the room, seeming to float across the dark stained floorboards. The door shut behind her and his uncle gestured for him to sit down.
"What is on your mind? Is it your fledgling? I wondered when you would come to me about her." His uncle asked kindly. Slender nodded.
"What's her name again? I remember it's an unusual one." He continued.
"Echo. Maximus informed me that I am in the same predicament you were in with Regine. I just came to ask a question." Slender replied.
"By all means, ask. All we want what is best for her, now don't we?"
"Do you regret it? Taking her as your mate when she finally recovered? Is it something you would do again if you had the opportunity to?" Slender asked. His uncle was quiet, not replying for a moment seeming to think very intently on the question.
"I would not. I love her, and I love our Clarice. But because I love her, I would not do it again. If a fledgling has so much confusion over what she has to do, so much so that her body literally starts to break itself down, she will not be completely happy as the wife to a Slenderbeing. I know what your brother has been telling you about Elizabeth. I know he has been saying it is strange that you do not do the same, because you are a punisher and he is not. He thinks because of that you are weak, strange. But it is because you are a punisher that you are having this crisis. You and I have had this crisis because we care about the human race. That's why we kill the ones that do harm to others. To protect the innocent. If I were you, I would let Echo go. No one would be ashamed if you did. Do what is best for her, not you."
In that, he knew that his decision was final. Whether Echo wanted to be his mate at the end, he wouldn't take her. He had every right to deny her. And she had every right to live as the normal human she believed she was for so long.