Push and Pull

I'm trying to write these a bit faster since the first chapter took so long, and I think that you all have been killed enough by the suspense :) No Slender rights

(At the Cabin) Charlie yawned and stretched her tired limbs, she must have been looking for any clue for hours. After she had gotten back to the house she hadn't seen Slender so she ate something light and turned in for the night, that was usually the routine, look for Orella, eat, go to bed. A never ending cycle that made her hope slowly wane day by day, sometimes she didn't know whether it was still worth looking...but she could never tell him that. For the first few weeks he said nothing, only ghosting around as silently as death itself, hardly going out to hunt and not trying to sleep. All he would do was sit in their room and hold her journal tenderly, as if hoping that she may come into the room and scold him for trying to look through it...but she never did.

Then one day he spoke once more, though it was quietly and his voice sounded broken and heavy with grief, "She thought of you as a sister, you know that right?" She had nodded and let him continue, not wanting to make him fall back into an unspoken silence, "She even said she loved me...me...but I never got to say it back..." "Slender...we will find her, I promise. But how do we know she isn't too far gone?" He growled lowly and he curled his hand into a fist, "She promised...it said she would come back, she won't break that promise. So we will wait for her." But Charlie was shaken from her thoughts as Bongo barked and she looked down to see Artimus, still a kitten but not so small, and he was meowing hungrily, "Aw, is the kitty hungry? Well lets get some breakfast shall we?" She lept up and threw on some day clothes before walking out to the kitchen and pouring food for each animal into their respective bowls, smiling as she watched them eat contentedly.

It must be nice to live so carefree, to not have to spend your day worrying if you would die on a supply run or if your friend was dead...or just simply gone. She soon realized that she was slipping into a state of thought that she had intention of going to and shook her head, today she would find something, she could feel it. Moving towards the kitchen she grabbed the peanut butter and made a quick sandwich before throwing on her light jacket and rushing outside, only to run into a wall of black. "Ugh, watch out there broody, ya almost killed me." Slender sighed and set Charlie back onto her feet with a few of his tentacles, "Trust me, if I really wanted to kill you, you'd be dead." She just chuckled and brushed off her jacket before looking up to him, "I was just going to start over a bit farther from where I was yesterday, I figured that she might have went off trail-" "She's not near that direction Charlie." Charlie looked to him confused, "How would you know?"

He went silent as he reached into his slightly muddy jacket, which surprised her greatly, and slowly pulled out a tattered piece of cloth. Her eyes widened as she realized that this wasn't just any piece of scrap clothing...it was Orella's shirt...she was alive. "Where did you..." "It was at the bottom of a slope in the woods to the west, a crashed bike was near it as well." "Then she's still alive right? We have to go there and search!" He nodded and placed the shirt on the porch before wrapping a tentacle around Charlie and hefting her up a bit roughly, "What are you doing?" He smirked toothily before replying, loving the slightly scared tone she had, "We getting there my way, it saves time." And they disappeared.

(First person, Orella) I opened my eyes to find myself standing on a silent open hill...wait...why was I on a hill and why don't I remember coming here? I looked around to find nothing other than a single tree behind me, odd, you would think that since I had just been in a forest there would be more trees. "Uh...hello? Anyone there?" There was no reply, only the wind blowing softly through the tree and making a few leaves float down, I turned and began to walk towards the sun, maybe it would lead me back to the forest. But my hope began to wane as I walked for what felt like hours, only to find more hills ahead of me, this place couldn't be real, wasn't real. "Lost my Wren?" I turned at the sound of a voice and saw John waiting by another random tree, but I ran over not caring how weird it was at the moment, I just wanted to get out of here. As I reached him I let him pull me in for a hug, feeling the need to be comforted, "John where are we? And how did we get here? Where's the camp?"

He chuckled as I shot out question after question without getting a single breath in, "Now calm down, one thing at a time." I closed my eyes and nodded, taking a deep breath, and then I asked again, "Where are we?" He simply smiled and stated matter-of-factly, "We are where we belong, somewhere where we can be together." I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion, what was he talking about? "But John, we were already somewhere that we could be together, in the camp. What about out friends?" "Don't worry about them Wren, they're where they belong now too, where they can be together as well." I was beginning to get frightened and I tried to pull away from John, but he held my arm tight and grinned at me, showing his teeth. "Are you trying to leave me again? You promised this time you wouldn't go." "I'm just going to find out where we are, I'll come back I swear!" "Sorry, liers don't get a second chance." My eyes widened in horror as thunder sounded over head and dark grey clouds rolled in, casting dark shadows over the two of us. His teeth began to elongate and point and his eyes turned completely red with black cat like pupils, I felt his nail grow out into dagger like points and they cut into my skin, making me cry out in pain and try to pull away again.

"Let go you monster!" This time I was able to break free and I began to run the opposite way, and this time there were actual woods in the direction I was running. "Just have to keep running..." I chanted the mantra to myself as I ran, tripping over a few stones and I looked behind me to see if I was still being chased...but there was no one there. I slowed my running and eventually came to a stop, thunder still rolling over head, and I looked around in confusion, I could have sworn I had heard voices and footsteps following me. But maybe I was wrong, maybe they had stopped. I took one last look around before turning to keep walking...big mistake. I didn't get to think twice as I was met with a glowing red gaze, fear running through my veins and freezing me, before he roared loudly and then my world went black.

(Reality) I awoke gasping for breath and clawing at the sheets on my makeshift bed, that was the worst dream I had dreamt in months...did it mean something? None of the other nightmares had been about John, they had only consisted of the same wooded area and something dark with tentacles chasing me, and each time I could never escape. But my train of thought was broken as a head popped into the tent and I saw that it was Katrina, a shy smile on her face, "Hey, thought that you might still be in bed. Sam and Danny are waiting for you for patrol and hunting, might wanna hurry." My eyes widened with realization and I nodded as I scrambled for my clothes, shooting Katrina a quick 'thanks' as she left, I never woke this late, what the hell was up with me. I think I broke a record and was dressed in about two minutes before I quickly walked out of my tent and jogged over to where Sam and Danny were standing, Sam being about 8 inches taller than Danny and looking over him didn't help me not laugh as I got over to them. "I see you wasted no time in making us wait Red, good going."

Danny elbowed Sam in the ribs and smirked at me in a boyish way, the kid was only 19, "Don't listen to him Wren, your worth waiting for." I smiled sweetly and patted his arm before walking towards the path out of camp, all the while listening to Sam make kissy noises at Danny and tease him, "All, little boy has crush on his mentor how cute!" "Shut it Samuel!" I smirked as I heard him groan at the use of his full name, how he hated it when I called him that, but it was the only sure fire way to shut him up. "Now, we're going to sweep the area closest to camp then try and grab some food alright?" They both nodded and we began to walk the perimeter. We had only come across about 2 or three dead before we finished the main part and we walked further into the woods, going to check the traps we always laid out for the night. "Danny come with me to check the deer traps, Sam, go check the rabbit traps alright tough guy?"

He rolled his eyes and shoved me a bit before heading off in the right direction, leaving Danny and I to head towards the first trap. I sighed as I saw nothing but the trap had been triggered, damn crafty animals, and I bent over to hook it back up and place some more foliage over it. As I was finishing I could feel Danny hovering a bit and shifting his feet, "Something on your mind Dan?" I saw him shrug out of the corner of my eye and I finished it up and began walking to the next one before he spoke up, "I was just wondering, are you and John actually married?" I scrunched my eyebrows up in confusion, why would he ask that? "Why so curious?" "Oh uh, I just never seen a ring on either of your fingers." "Well, we were never actually married, only engaged, but I guess my ring was lost at some point."

"Oh, sorry." I shrugged and again sighed in disappointment as the second trap was empty as well, just one more to check. I let Danny reset this one but as he tried to tie it off he couldn't finish the knot, I crouched beside him and showed him an easier way to tie it. "All you have to do is loop it twice instead of trying to knot it here and there, alright?" He seemed dazed for a moment but then snapped out of it, "Oh, right. Thanks." I nodded and we proceeded towards the final trap, hoping to get lucky and hopefully it had a catch. But just as we were nearing it I felt something in the air and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "Danny stop...there's something out there." He stopped mid step and pulled out his sawed off shot gun and point it behind us, "What do you mean? I don't see anything." I didn't move as my eyes scanned the trees for any movement, waiting for something to appear and attack, but nothing came. I knew I felt something I just knew it, it couldn't just be my mind, "...lets just get the deer and go okay..." He nodded and moved towards the average sized doe that had been unfortunate enough to get caught in the trap, quickly cutting it free and dragging it towards me.

"Aren't we going to gut it before bringing it back to camp?" I shook my self slightly from my daze and glanced over to the teen, "No, we can do it at the edge of the woods...I don't like the feeling of this place." He nodded and I helped him heft the deer as we made our way back to the edge of the forest...the tension following me all the way out.

Not the best chapter but it wasn't so bad, it is going to be a bit slow at first so bear with me. Love all my reviewers and followers!