Slender Man

By: Shadow of Malice

Summary: When Naru accepted the case located in the middle of nowhere, he never excepted to have anything more than a residual spirit. But he was wrong. Very wrong. Set a year after Eugene's found.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or Slender Man. No way. Nup. No can do. Enjoy~

Chapter 5: Run – The Hunt

Mai blinked, taking in the empty space the figure had just been standing in. The blank, featureless face burned into her mind. Fear, senseless and overpowering, dominated her mind and sent adrenaline rushing through her veins. She couldn't control it. Her breathing picked up and she felt as if her heart was about to beat through her chest. It consumed her. Told her to run. To run as far away as she could. As fast as she could. But even then, a little voice in that back of her mind told her it was futile… And a conscious level, she had to agree.

The moon still smiled down on her viciously, turning the shadows into horrible figures. She took one last look at the tree when she realised she was holding another page. Just like the first, she was unable to release it. But her struggles were interrupted when a faint white light caught her attention and she gasped when she turned to look. It was the boy from her vision, his figure hazy and faded but unmistakeably real. Or was he, she questioned…

His small hand moved as if through water, slowly motioning her forward, towards him. A frown was set on his face, worry etched on his young features. But the illusion was shattered when long black tentacles, like what took Dazo, suddenly leapt from the darkness.

She dodged just as they slammed into the decrepit tree, the sharp ends piercing it like paper.

Mai scrambled across the ground, stones and sticks stabbing her skin as she forced herself up, avoiding more tentacles. She shoved the second page into her pocket and took off into the woods, the darkness playing tricks on her eyes. Trees seemed to reach for her, their limbs bending unnaturally, clawing at her skin. It felt like she had run for hours, but logically, she knew, Nadoru Camping Grounds wasn't that large.

"Mai!"

A sudden yell broke through her panic and she stopped dead, using a tree to brace herself. A beam of light shone into her eyes and she turned to find the source. Just ahead were two beams of light breaking through the endless night. A sense of foreboding overtook her the more she stood still and a chill raced up her spine. The wind howled past her ear and she took off, jumping and weaving through the woods. Her mind blank , her body moving on automatic. The air whipped at her face, but she kept going on, unblinkingly towards the light.

~X-x-X~ Monk and Naru ~X-x-X~

"Mai!" Mink called, shining his light through the dense forest, "Damnit Mai."

"Takigawa." Naru's voice was stern and drew the blonde's attention towards a set of parked trucks, "These will do us no good. We'll have to keep going on foot."

"Well, it shouldn't be that hard. If this is the workers stop area then we should be at the edge of the camping grounds." Monk thought aloud, trying to recall the map in his mind, "Which means, there should be a camera around here…"

With a nod, Naru lifted the walkie talkie from his belt and spoke, "Base. Come in."

"I'm here." Lin's voice crackled through the static.

"We've found the area the workers park. Tell me where the camera is around here."

"Walk forward. Yes. To your left. I see your torch. There. I see you now."

"Good. We'll keep in touch. Guide us from here. Also, has Mai shown up on any camera's?" His question was cut out by static before Lin's voice broke through,

"Naru! Behind you!"

All of the sudden, the bushes behind them parted, a figure lunged out of the shadows, a solitary black tentacle following close behind. Monk acted quickly, slicing through it with his Tokkosho. It turned into black smoke before it even hit the ground. "What the hell?" He yelled, turning to stare at the figure sitting on the ground.

The figure looked up at them, her eyes wide and filled with tears, body shaking.

"Mai?" Naru asked, taking in her battered form, leaves in her hair and cuts all over. He took careful steps towards her and crouched down to her level and watched as her lips trembled as she finally found her voice.

"Help me. Please. It's there…"

The men were shocked at the fear in her voice, her eyes wide and panicked as she scanned the woods beyond them. There was an insanity to the chocolate orbs that was never there before. It horrified them as to what could have caused such an emotion in the brunette in only a few hours.

"Mai… What happened?" Monk asked, wrapping his arms around the young woman, the cold literally seeping through her skin into his, chilling him almost instantly.

"It… it was so terrifying. At first…"

"John. Masako. It's this way." Mai said, leading them through a thick section of bushland, "I felt something… terrible. I think it came from around here."

"Wait Mai!" Masako called, drawing the brunette's attention, "I feel something too… Something not of this world. Be careful as you tread."

With the warning in mind, they kept moving, watching everything they touched until they found themselves in front of a large set of ricks, jagged and sharp, they reeked of evil. The air seemed heavy and Masako leant into John, using his arms are a barrier. Light seemed to avoid the cleaing like a plague, making it seem like the sun was nowhere to be found. But the breaks in the trees further away proved otherwise, with sun rays piercing through the leaves. But no birds sung. No animals frolicked in the bushes. Not even people, the forest carers, seemed to be out. It was as if death had swept through and taken even the happiness out of nature. Not even the wind disturbed the grey bushes around them.

"This place…" John whispered, feeling a chill work its way up his spine, "There's something not right about it. Look, even that grass is dying!" To prove his point, he dug his shoe into the ground and watched as the once green grass fluttered away into dust, leaving nothing but dirt on his sneakers.

"We should leave. Before anything happens." Masako agreed, dread filling her gut and making her mind scream to get away, "I can hear them. Spirits. They are crying. Screaming. Warning us. I can't make it out. There's too many voices!" She was quickly overwhelmed, holding her head tightly in a futile effort to block out all the noise. Not even her friends calling her could distract Masako from the sorrow that invaded her mind. Young children, adults, all their voices merged into one cacophony of sound that threatened to make her pass out from the volume.

"Masako!" Mai called, grabbing onto her friend before she hit the ground.

"It's… so loud, Mai… So loud." Tears leaked from the corners of violet eyes, wincing as her voice cracked.

"Let's get out of-"

"Hey you! What do you think you're doing?" Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, Detective Dazo was before them, glaring down at them, "I'm not having you lot make my fiancé's camp an attraction for psychos. Stop this nonsense at once!"

Mai's brain stuttered to a stop at the term fiancé, the only one possible to have that connection being Yumi, "You mean, you're engaged to Yumi?" It was a question she couldn't control and she quickly covered her mouth.

"You will address her formally. Now I'm taking you three back and making sure you leave! I'm going to find her and I won't have you getting in my way!" He was getting angry, his aura shifting slightly before going back to normal.

"You don't understand Detective Dazo. We understand you don't believe us but we feel we can help you." John tried to reason with him, making sure to support Masako as he stood from the ground, his arm around her waist.

"I won't hear this anymore!" He yelled, his face growing red with anger.

"No! We came to help!" Mai retaliated, a small part of her mind telling her she was stupid for yelling at a police officer, but she kept a strong face, "John, Masako! Run!"

The priest didn't hesitate to hoist the medium along with him and take off into the forest, praying that he would meet up with Mai again. He could hear Dazo yelling after them, but he didn't follow.

"Damnit girl! Why won't you just leave?" Dazo screamed, as Mai took off around the rocks. A piece of paper caught her eye and she grabbed it without thinking before running into the trees, hearing him take chase after her…

"Oh god! The page! That's what started it! I grabbed a page!" Mai yelled out suddenly, her eyes frantic as she pulled away from the men and stood, pulling things from her pockets without care. A torch, a pen and a hair tie all fell to the ground before she gathered two crumbled pages from her cargo pants pockets and one from her vest, which was now tattered and torn. Before her was the first page she collected that afternoon, without even having realised it. Scrawled across it harshly were the words…

'Help… Me…"

~X-x-X~

Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry for the wait. I had such writers block and finding a job has been really stressful. But I've been chipping away and so here it is. Chapter 5! And dun-dun-dun-duuuuunnnn! The connection of Dazo and the case is revealed! I know you've been waiting for this Kagome Pureheart. Not the richness you were probably hoping for but it was more of a reason to forget his job protocols. And thank you SeetTarts4U for telling me about the German mistakes. It's not my own language, so I had to use translate. Haha. Anyway, a big thank you to everyone for their support and for giving me a total of 61 reviews for Slender Man! And a special thanks to those who reviews last chapter:

14AmyChan

xAutumn101

Ghost loves Japan 77

RosetheWolfgirl

Tabbie1999

Kagome Pureheart

Icefox94

Shayrulz

SweetTarts4U

GhostCoyote

I'm still running a Q & A, so ask me anything. PM or leave a question in the reviews. To do with anything. If you need help I can do that too. Stay tuned!