The following day I met up with Josh at the cafeteria again to discuss anything he found out in Andrew's journal. I got to the table a short bit before he did, and as I saw him walking towards me, he looked like he'd been through Hell.
He sat down across from me, pulled out the journal, and slid it to me as if it were some top secret government file. I could tell he was uneasy, so I got straight to my question, "Did you find out anything?"
Josh shook his head in disappointment. He then said, "Nothing we could really go on, but it looks like things were pretty deep by the end of September. That Slenderman or whatever you called it was in his house by that time."
"It was?!" Josh quickly told me to keep my voice down, so I put myself into a calmer tone and continued, "It didn't attack him did it?"
"Nope. It just stood there, watching Andrew from within his own room. I wonder how he managed to sleep that night; knowing that some stranger had easy access to my room would scare me into insomnia."
"I hear you man." I really couldn't understand what this Slenderman was after, since it doesn't seem to do a whole lot but stare at people. "Was there anything else?"
Josh hesitated for a bit before saying, "I think I saw him again, this time in my house."
"Are you sure?"
Josh shifted his gaze to the table before looking back at me. "I was looking into this mirror that my mom bought and I saw the thing just standing at the edge of the table. My mom was more concerned with me dropping the mirror, so maybe she didn't see him."
"Best case scenario: You were just imagining things. I'd call that a win for the day."
"Maybe you're right."
"Alright then," I said as I put the journal in my bag, "you've had enough of this journal for one day; I'll take it this time and see what I can find."
"Sure thing, man, thanks." Josh's look changed from his near-dead expression to something more relieved and relaxed. I guess taking this journal away from him helps him in ways I can't understand.
Soon, lunch was over and the remaining school day quickly followed. I chose to head straight home to get started on reading the next entry in the journal. On the way home I was on the constant lookout for any sign of the Slenderman. Sure, my path home didn't include that many trees, but there were definitely plenty of dark alleys for suspicious folk to be lurking in.
I finally approached my front door and after fumbling around with the keys for a bit I made it inside. Through that whole trip here I didn't even see the Slenderman. I don't know if I should be more afraid of that or relieved. I went straight up to my room and threw my stuff down.
Instead of distracting my mind with homework or video games like a smart person would, I went straight to reading the journal; it was as if the thing was calling out to me. I wanted to see what happened next, to see if I could find any clues.
September 30, 2009
Okay, so I don't know if that thing is looking at this as if it's a game or something and I don't care; this thing has left me out of my damn mind now. Ever since my last journal entry, I haven't seen the creature at all. Normally, this would be a time to celebrate, but in its place I have gotten the worst cough of all time and unbelievably annoying headaches.
Taking medication doesn't seem to be helping at all, but I guess these ailments are better than seeing that creature again. I haven't hallucinated or anything like that, so maybe this is just the stress coming down on me. If that is the case, then damn, stress comes down hard. Maybe now I can finally put this all behind me and be done with this nightmare.
I closed the journal after reading that entry. The implications of what obviously went wrong after its writing scared the Hell out of me. If the nightmare was over, Andrew wouldn't have had to kill himself. "I'm even more afraid to think about how worse things got."
I sighed as I looked to my closet door, which was open. I normally close it after getting my clothes out of it but I guess I forgot to do that this morning. I got up and walked to the closet, staring into the pitch black void inside of it, expecting some annoying "screamer" face to pop out at me; I really hate those things. Even horror movies are excessively using them now.
"Jump scare bullshit," I angrily said as I threw my closet door shut. I turned around to see my room, still empty as it should be, with that journal sitting on my bed. I put it back into my bag and pulled out my homework, fully prepared to solve two math problems and reward myself with two hours of internet time; such is the life of a high school kid.