Neither Lost Nor Forgotten

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I waited for a response to my questions but nothing was heard, just the ominous creaking of the trees as the wind blew through them. "Uh Orella, no ones here. Who were you talking to.?" "The voice! Did you not hear it?" He eyed me suspiciously and looked around to try and see if anyone was around, but when he couldn't seem to find anyone he sighed and began to lead me towards the lake that was just up ahead. The whispering may have stopped but I could feel something there...a presence that was following me and the nagging in my head told me to run; suddenly lightning flashed through the sky and lit up the forest.

"Ahh!" The thundering boom that followed afterward was more terrifying and ear splitting than any I had ever heard before and I quickly smashed my hands against my ears to block it out. "What the-" John tried to say something but I couldn't understand him as ran began to fall and quickly soak me to the bone, this wasn't like any storm I've ever seen before. I tried to run towards John and just bury my face in his jacket, to find comfort from this terrifying storm and to try and calm down; but just as I was about to run into his arms I saw something rise up behind him.

The figure loomed over us both, standing at about 7-8 feet tall and taking on a menacing stance. "John run!" But it was too late, I watched in horror as the figure reach a clawed hand towards my friend and grabbed ahold of his jacket and hefted him into the air. "Orella run now!" "But John-" "Now!" I took one more second to watch in fear as he was attacked before letting out a gasping sob and turning to run, the rain stinging as it hit my face. My feet were heavy as I splashed through mud and muck trying to get away, the forest began to blend together as I tried to push myself further and further; doing anything to get away from what was almost certain doom.

"Orella...stop. Come back to me." The voice sounded so familiar and I wondered if it was someone from my dream, trying to reach me or tell me something important, but I ignored it as I continued to run. It was probably my own stupidity that I was running against the rain when it was whipping around like this, impairing my vision and causing me to hold my hands in front of my face. I was bound to fall or trip but what I didn't expect was for me to fall into the lake. I hadn't realized that I had been running directly towards it and when I reached the now muddy and slippery slope that lead down to it I couldn't stop.

"Ohhh Shit!" I dug my feet into the ground but all it did was dig up mud and cause my body to twist at an odd angle before plunging heavily into the murky lake.

(RealWorld)

Charlie watched anxiously as neither of them moved, Slender had been still for over an hour and she wasn't sure whether she should try and wake him or wait and see what happened. She had fed the baby and put her down for a nap but nothing could calm her frayed nerves. What if neither of them ever woke back up? She couldn't do all this by herself and she certainly couldn't take care of a baby alone, they're going to be alright...they have to.

She was about to leave once more and get something to eat but all of a sudden Slender jolted straight up and yelled, almost as if he was in pain. "No! Orella stop!" "Slender what is it? What's wrong?!" He was breathing heavily and shaking almost as if he was actually...well...scared. And that never happened. Charlie ran up and shook him a bit before repeating her questions. "What's going on?!" He turned his faceless head towards her and gripped her shoulders so tight that it was almost painful, what was frightening him so badly?

"Her mind rejected me as I tried to reach her, at first it was merely making her nervous but then she, well her mind, reacted violently. The last thing I saw was Orella running off down some forest path whilst a storm, borderline hurricane, raged on around us...Charlie...I've seen something like this before and if we don't get her out soon, she may be trapped in her own mind forever.

(Dream)

Is drowning supposed to be peaceful? Because the way I felt right now drowning didn't seem so bad, in fact, it felt as if I was weightless; suspended in air without gravity or worry to weigh me down. Was this how my life would end? Drowning in some disgusting lake while my best friend was being murdered by...what ever the hell that thing was, I don't even think it was a man. I just wanted to escape to that dream again, sure it was in a shitty apocalyptic world but I was happy...I wasn't alone. The people I knew didn't judge me on who I used to be or what I used to do, they judged me for who I was now and they accepted me. And now when I look back on my life now after waking up I realized that this wasn't anyway to live, I loved someone and without that meaning in my life...this world didn't hold any pull for me.

As I came to this realization I was suddenly very aware of the water all around me, I could feel the mud and muck from the bottom of the lake as my body sank like a stone. "Uckkk ahhhh!" I opened my mouth to scream for help but water rushed into my mouth and down my throat, making me panic even more and gurgle as I tried to breath in. Now I take back what I said about this being peaceful, this was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.

I tried to swim up to the surface before I passed out from lack of oxygen, my lungs burning as water rushed into them; but just as I was less than a foot from the surface I felt something wrap around my ankle and pull me back down. No no no no! Let me go! I screamed inside my mind for the thing to let me go but I realized that nothing could help me now as I was brought close and closer to the bottom. It was funny how I no longer felt the burning of my lungs from the lack of oxygen or how I no longer had my mouth closed. I simply closed my eyes as I slowly descended.

'Sing to me slowly, sing to me soft. Sing while sad mothers hold their children and sob. Don't let your own demons run rampant inside, while you sing to me slowly and sing to me soft.' That lullaby...seemed so familiar...like I've heard it somewhere but I couldn't pinpoint where. My mother had never sung something so dark and depressing to me as a child and she certainly didn't sing to me at the age I was at, where did it come from? And who was the one who had sung it?

(RealWorld)

This...this is the work of a demon named Sharia. She works deviously and you couldn't even tell she was here if you weren't careful. She slips into the nightmares of those vulnerable enough and tortures them slowly before killing them; showing them what their life would have been like or what they most desired after they person had been through something traumatic such as a death...or an apocalypse in our case. I must reenter Orella's mind and confront her before she drains the life from her body, and that seems no more than a few hours away.

Slenders voice was coated with worry for his loved one, but also laced with venom as he spoke of the demon who was doing this. She was always causing an uproar in the demon community and now she had taken a step too far. Charlie stared wide eyed as she took in the information and cradled the now awake baby to her chest, trying to stay calm for now. "So can you do it? Save her I mean." "I'm going to do whatever it takes...or die trying. If saving her means trading my life for her own...I'll take it. Try and keep the baby calm and stay close in case something happens. Sharia is no threat to you but I don't want her lingering around." And with those last words he moved back towards Orella's still form and laid a hand softly onto her neck, caressing the soft skin, before grabbing onto her wrist and slipping into her mind.

He came to his senses a bit more slowly than he expected, but the scene before him was sickening. The body of John lay strewn in several pieces along the trail, his head stuck on a pike and displayed as a sign of warning and his entrails hung like tinsel among the bushes. She was really outdoing herself this time, she must know that he was here.

He quickly made is way down the path as he followed Orella's footprints that had been imprinted in the mud, his fear level spiking as he soon realized that they stopped as he approached the drop off into the murky lake. "Oh no..." He could see where she tried to stop to no avail and slid into the water. Without another thought he dove into the water and began to reach out with his enhanced senses, searching for anything or anyone with a heartbeat.

"Well well well, if it isn't the faceless horror himself. What brings you into my world?" He turned and peered into the darkness to see Sharia swim up grinning like a sly fox, her sharp teeth making her appear deadly and snake like. Her pupils were thin slits as she stared at him and waited for an answer. "You know why I'm here Sharia, I'm not in the mood for any games." "Me, playing games? How dare you accuse me of such childish behavior! All I'm doing is what I was made to do, feed on the sad and hopeless souls of poor humans such as this one."

As she said this she pulled her arm from behind her back and revealed a seemingly unconscious and ragged looking Orella, not being gentle as she shook her awake and then yanked her head back by her hair. Slender seethed with rage and cringed as she did so but Orella made no move to stop her, nor did she show any sign of discomfort. She merely stared off into the murky depths and made no movements what so ever. "She was so afraid that I didn't think I would be able to have any fun with her, but then I figured out that if I just dulled her mind and made her into a useless zombie then she wouldn't ruin my good time.

No...she couldn't be gone. He didn't want to believe that Sharia had simply taken away everything that made Orella who she was, but as he stared into her unseeing eyes he knew that there was not a single shred of recognition or sentience. "Fix her now! You have no right to take her life away!" "Oh don't I? Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my victims?" "Now Sharia." "Why do you even care about whether she lives or not? She's just a petty little human who's going to die soon enough. Unless...do you care for her?" "I'm not going to sit here and play questionnaire with you release her now-" "You do! You actually have feelings for a human! But why? They're so flawed and frail."

He said nothing for he didn't feel that she had earned the right to hear why he loved Orella, how could she possibly understand what he felt? Orella made his dark and evil filled heart beat with a fiery passion that he had never once in his life felt before, she lit up the dark corners in his mind where his true demon resided. She was his everything, his light, his hunter.

For minutes they stared each other down as neither knew what to do, one waiting for the other to make a move. Slender knew that he had to get Orella out of Sharia's grasp if he wanted to have any chance of getting her back to normal, but it was a lot harder than it sounded. But before he could even try and make a move the dream demon flashed her eyes and hissed in annoyance, "I'm tired of waiting for you to make pitiful attempts to save her, no more with she walk with the living!" He watched in utter and complete horror as Sharia's eyes turned a soulless black color and she wrapped a clawed hand around Orella's throat, squeezing it harshly. "I will devour her mind and soul until she is nothing but a pitiful husk!" Her hand began to glow and Slender saw black poison run through his love's veins, tainting her very being.

"Nooo!" He roared louder and more violently than he could ever remember in his life as he lunged for the demoness, wanting to tear her apart limb by limb until there was nothing left of her. His tentacles shot out and he aimed for her torso, she dodged all but one and as the black appendage pierced her ribcage she howled in pain and barred her teeth. "I will kill you for what you have done to her!" Sharia, momentarily forgetting about the woman she had been holding, released Orella to grab hold of the tentacle and try to break it off to no avail.

As Orella slipped from her grasp and floated downwards towards the abyss the spell that the demon had cast upon her, which had paralyzed her, began to fade. She suddenly became aware that she was rapidly sinking towards the bottom of the lake and tried swimming upwards only to find that her muscles could not function enough to move her body. "Help me!" She screamed as loud as she could both physically and mentally hoping that somebody, anybody, would hear her cry and rescue her.