AN: Ok, ok, I know this took long, but school was really pressuring me last week for tests and homework and stuff, since this week is Thanksgiving Break. I couldn't even watch anime or anything. Buuuuuuut now here's the 16th chapter~!
I honestly don't think anyone reads this (and I'm running out of ideas), so...
I don't own Slenderman (aka Mr. Ray Of Sunshine)
Thanks for the reviews, and even if you don't leave reviews, thanks for reading :)
Chapter 16
Walking home, I notice that the leaves are falling off the trees. The ground has the crunchy leaves all over while the trees are showing their bare branches. It is November after all, the leaves should be falling off by now. Slenderman is walking behind Heather and me, and I could see his shadow looming over us. Heather is humming a song I don't recognize and is playing with the tip of her braid. I don't want to ruin the calm atmosphere by my awesome conversation starter. Good thing Heather starts it for me.
"So Slendy, what do you do while me and Andrea are asleep?"
How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?
"How many times do I have to tell you I'm not gonna stop?"
Stubborn human.
"Mr. Sunshine. Anyway, you're not getting out of my question."
How would I know when you two are asleep? You need to give me a specific time range.
"Night. What do you do at night?"
Just roam around the woods.
"That's it? All you do the whole time is just walk around the woods?"
If there's someone in my domain, I decide of they're allowed to stay.
"Like me?"
I'm hoping that's a rhetorical question. Even you would know if you weren't allowed.
"But I'm a mindless idiot, Slendy. You need to explain to me how would I know."
If you weren't disturbed in your sleep then you should know you were allowed.
"But Slendy, what if a squirrel woke me up? Then would that make me unworthy of staying in the woods?"
If I didn't disturb you in your sleep.
"So what would you do? Say, 'Excuse me miss, may you please leave the premises?' And walk them out of the woods?"
Would you really expect me to do that?
"Hey," Heather raises her arms in defense, "I don't know anything. You tell me."
You can say I… persuade whoever is intruding out the woods.
"Do you give them a lollipop if they leave then?"
Yes. Of course. I give a sugary sweet to the trespassers of my personal dominion.
"Ooh~! Guess who's gonna come here more often!"
That was sarcasm in case you didn't notice.
"What!? Why would you ever lie to me? If you don't do that, what do you do?"
Think about it, if you have the least bit of common sense. You already know that I feed on fear. Someone in the woods in the middle of the night would be scared, correct? So I just use that fear to sustain myself.
"What happens to the person," I ask him, "When you feed on their fear?"
When their fear is extracted, it doesn't hurt them. Meanwhile, I get the energy I need.
"So they don't get hurt in the process?" Heather questions, "At all?"
Maybe if they were extremely weak, they would feel a little pain while their fear is extracted.
"Yeah, but Slendy, both you and I know that there's more to this strange process."
Yeah, but Heather, both you and I know that is none of your business.
"Touché. You won this battle, but the war isn't over yet."
The exchange between the two ceases, and even though it was an argument, it made me smile. I didn't think that Heather would have given up so easily, but maybe she's just planning something. At least the Heather I know doesn't just hand over the victory to someone else. I wonder what she has in mind… But for now, she's back to humming the mystery tune. Looking ahead of me, there are the pine trees that I had come to know and love. I subconsciously start kicking any stray pine cones in my path. Without much thought, I kick one of them really hard, and it rolls if in the distance. Heather must've noticed it, because she goes up to the pine cone closest to her and kicks it even harder than me, causing it to sail in the air before it landed somewhere far off. Taking the challenge, I kick another one even harder than she did, getting some major air time. And soon enough, we were both kicking pine cones left and right, trying to see who got the farthest. Heather pauses on her turn and turns toward the silent tall man behind us.
"Hey Slendy, I bet ya can't get it farther than I can!"
Believe me when I say I can.
"Oh really? Prove it then!"
I'll more than prove it. First you do it and then I'll follow.
"Why me first?"
You will get discouraged when I get it the farthest.
"C'mon, is that really your only 'reason'?"
How does that human saying go? Ladies first, I believe.
"Woah there, Mr. Fancy Pants is showing some manners! Okay, but I'll change the rules. Let's throw it instead of kicking it. I'll most certainly beat you that way!"
Throw it, kick it, I will still prevail.
"We'll see about that."
Heather stretches her arms out before her and cracks her knuckles. I cringe a bit when I hear them pop, because my mother has taught me not to do that. She told me it would give me arthritis and make my fingers all crooked. She picks up a pine cone, and after swinging it around for a while, extends her arm behind her to charge up for a long throw, and launches. I have to admit, that throw was really impressive. It flies in the air then lands, leaving an astonishing distance between us. I clap in support of her, and she gives a bow. Heather then strides up to Slenderman.
"I bet you can't beat that!"
Oh, you'll see.
An inky black tendril appears from his back, and it picks up the closest pine cone to him. He leans the tentacle back, not showing much effort in charging up for the throw. As much as I like Heather, she's really underestimating what Slenderman can do. Finally, without a warning, he throws it. The pine cone makes a little whoosh sound before vanishing off far away. It's so fast I couldn't even see how far it exactly went. My eyes go wide and so does my mouth. After the initial shock, the fact that he beat her so badly makes me smile, trying not to laugh. But when I see Heather's face, it almost seem like her jaw would hit the ground, and now I can't contain my laughter. I start giggling like a mad person and tears are running down my face. Not sad tears, but I'm-laughing-so-hard-I-can't-breathe tears. I fall to the ground and I roll around, snickering and chuckling. I hear Heather grumble something, and that makes me laugh even more, if possible. Through my blurred vision I see Slenderman staring at me, his tentacle waving in what I guess to be amusement. Not that I can tell much how he feels. When I finally get up, Heather shoves me to the ground.
"Andrea! It's not that funny!"
"It is! You should've seen the look on your face! Totally priceless!"
"Stop it!"
"Slenderman totally beat you!"
"No he didn't, he just had a little luck, that's all."
I doubt that.
"You can just shut up, you cheater."
I didn't cheat. You just are so weak.
"So weak my ass. I'm incredibly strong; I just went easy on you. I spared you from humiliation."
"It's fine Heather, just admit you lost."
"Well he cheated and that's that!"
Somebody is a sore loser.
"Why is the while world against me? What have I done to deserve this?"
I have no idea.
"I don't need your sarcasm Slendy!"
"Calm down Heather, I'll get you a granola bar when we get back."
"Ugh. Fine."
When we arrived at my house, I took note that my mother isn't home yet. Slenderman didn't come in because he said that the ceilings were too low, but I had a feeling that wasn't it. I let it go, but I'll pester him with questions later. When Heather saw a Granny Smith apple on the kitchen counter, she snatched it and started munching on it. I noticed that we didn't really ate any snacks we brought with us to the woods because Heather was too busy annoying Slenderman and I was just laughing at their antics. I see that there's a bag of pan dulce, or sweet bread, on the table. When my father was still here with us, he loved getting pan dulce and dipping it in hot chocolate. My mother and me are it as well, and now that he's gone, we still keep up the habit. I look in the bag and grab a concha, and start nibbling on it, making crumbs spill all over the place. I ate it halfway when the phone rang. Finishing what I was chewing, I went over and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Is this the Castillo residence?" a deep female voice asked, "This is about Elizabeth Castillo."
I gasped. That's my mother's name.
"Y-yeah, it is. Um, my parents divorced, so it's Elizabeth Hill. This is her daughter, Andrea. Andrea Castillo."
"I see," the voice answered, "I'm here to inform you that your mother was involved in an accident. She's alive but she's at the hospital at this moment."
All I can say is, "Oh."
"If you wish we can send a ride to your house so you can see your mother."
"Uh, y-" I was about to accept the offer, but then I remembered Slenderman and his teleporting abilities. He can get me there much faster by avoiding the traffic. "No thank you. I have a ride already."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Do you know the address of the hospital?"
"Uh, no. Can you give it to me?"
"Of course."
She tells me of the address of a hospital I didn't know about. Hopefully Slenderman can take me there. I jot it down on the magnetic pad of sticky notes on the fridge. When I end the call, that's when I start panicking. Accident? As in a car accident? Is she okay? How about the baby? Questions and doubts fill my mind when the whole situation is trying to make sense in my head. Out of the corner of my eye I see the home phone blinking the light. That means that someone left a message. I hurry to play it. I hear some rustling before a woman speaks. Not just any woman. My mother.
"Andrea, sorry for the long wait, there was traffic but all looks okay now. I'm on my way home, so mak- OH MY G-"
The message cuts off there. If I wasn't panicking before, well I'm definitely am now. If my mother called me while she was driving, well, isn't that against the law or something? At least she shouldn't be calling while driving. I bury my face in my hands, terrified at this. I wanted to believe that it was the other person's fault, but in the end, was it really my mother's fault? No, it isn't, she just wanted to let me know that she was on her way home. That's it. Not a crime or something. I feel someone shaking my shoulder, and when I look up, I see Heather's sympathetic face. I forgot that she was here.
"Are you ok?"
"I am. My mom isn't."
"Where is she?"
"At the hospital."
"You think you can call a taxi?"
"I was thinking of asking Slenderman. To avoid traffic and all."
"He better take you there, I'll make sure of it."
"Thanks," I say, smiling, "I'm pretty sure you can."
What seems to be the concern?
Slenderman tilts his head as he asks us this. Heather and I went directly to the forest, and sure enough Slenderman came to us. We haven't even told him anything yet I can hear the concern in his voice. He can tell if something is off by the looks on my faces, or maybe he's just so smooth in reading my mind that I don't notice.
"Andrea here needs to go to the hospital."
For what?
"My mom is in there and I need to go see her, and you can take me there, right?"
I need to know the location first.
I take out the folded sticky note out of my pocket, the one with the scribbled address.
"Do you know where this is?"
He grabs the note with a tentacle, and stares at it with nonexistent eyes.
I have been around this hospital before, I can teleport you in the small patch of trees where there would be enough shade to seclude me.
"What, is this where one of your victims went to, Slendy?"
He gives her the type of glare one can do without eyes, but ignores her for the most part. I guess he's learning not to get provoked so easily. Wounding a tentacle around my arm, he's about to teleport me, until after a moment; he does the same with Heather. My vision blurs just like before while we teleport, like when I'm sitting down and when I suddenly get up, I feel a little dizzy. But that only lasts a second or two, before I'm behind a tree. Slenderman quickly retracts his tendrils and vanishes from sight. Heather and me step out into the sunlight, which in mid afternoon is dimming slowly. I see the hospital before me, and though it is big, it's small in comparison to other hospitals I've seen, which aren't many honestly. We walk across the parking lot, ironically almost get hit by a car (though that was my fault) and walk in. The smell of sickness and disinfectant reach my nose, almost making me gag. We go up to a lady with curly black hair sitting at a desk.
"Excuse me m'am?" I say.
She looks up. "Are you here as a visitor?"
"Yeah."
"For who?" she asks in a flat tone.
"Elizabeth Ca- Hill."
"We have Elizabeth Castillo."
"Her name is- yeah her."
"And who are you?"
"I happen to be her daughter," I return her tone, "And this is my friend, who also knew my mom."
She takes out two visitor passes. "Here's your passes. She's in room 240B."
"Thank you."
"Mhm."
When we clip them on and walk away from the desk to a set of stairs, Heather whispers in my ear that she didn't like that lady. I giggle and tell her I didn't either. We trudge up the steps, burning more calories than we would have on an elevator. We walk towards the area of where my mother's room is, and take note of all the sickly people I pass by. When I find 240B, I open the door. I see that there's my mother, but there's also someone else, not a nurse. I freeze in my tracks and despite my lack of expression on my face; extreme shock is coursing in my mind. Said person turns around and has a shocked face as well. With my voice cracking, I manage one word.
"Dad?"