Totheark felt something pushing its way into his mind. At first, he was able to resist whatever this force was. Slendy had taught him how to guard his mind to some extent. While he certainly didn't have the same control over guarding his mind as the Slenderman, he knew enough to hold his own against those who wanted to take full control of him. But, this force was something that he had never experienced. It was far stronger than anything he had ever encountered, and it was able to work around the wall he was putting up to defend himself. The force began ripping its way through his mind, overwhelming him, sending his mind spinning. This certainly was not going to end well.
When Totheark's screams began to fill the room, the mother found she was being held up to the impressive height of the Slenderman. Stop it. You will not harm him, do you understand me? He would not lose the boy. He cared for the boy too much. He had promised to always keep Totheark safe, and he planned to keep that promise. There had to be some way to get his mother to stop this, to make her give him enough of the antidote to save both Ellaina and Totheark. There had to be a way to convince her to tell him how to decode the chemicals. Slowly, he came to realize something. She loved control and power. If he could offer her some kind of power, perhaps she would allow his friends to live. He didn't even like the idea that she might get her hands onto Anne. He might hate the woman, but he didn't want to see her dead. What an odd thought that was. He had promised that he would kill her, and now he didn't like the thought of her being dead. Clearly, his humanity was coming back to him. What is it you want? I will give you whatever you want, mother dearest, if you allow them to live. If you chose to kill either, know that your death will be something you beg for long before you are allowed to have it.
Finally, she thought. Her plan had worked perfectly. The boy had always been far too compassionate for his own good, and it appeared that despite his change into a monster he still held that trait. "We never finished with our little tests on you, my son. The Lab had so many more experiments for you in order to test the human genome. I want to finish what they started. And with technology being improved now as compared to then, there is so much more that I can do to you. Let me complete the tests and I'll let your little friend live."
You will let both of them live. He certainly didn't like even the thought of going through those tests again, but he would be willing to do just about anything to keep Ellaina and Totheark safe, even Anne for that matter. It still confused him that he was willing to defend her, but he was not about to focus on that fact right now.
"Now, how do you expect me to do that when one of them is already dead?" She smiled as she sensed the fear of loss fill her son's mind. If she could only break his will, she would be able to easily control him and finish the testing. It would be wonderful, and the death of his pathetic friends was just the thing to break that will of his.
The screams had stopped. They had completely stopped. The room had been quiet outside of their conversation and Slendy had not even realized it. As if in slow motion, he turned to face the one who had been pinned to the wall and froze. Totheark's body now lay limp against the constraints, his head lolled down to an odd angle. No, this could not be happening. It couldn't happen. He had promised the boy's father and the boy himself that no harm would come to him, that he would keep the child safe. Totheark could not be dead. There was no way that he could die so easily. The masked man was stronger than this. Surely, his will would have been strong enough to overpower the mental attacks from the mother and keep himself alive? Slowly, the Slenderman approached the boy he had raised and considered to be like a son to him. He couldn't bring himself to come any closer when he could not sense any life force in him. The boy appeared to be dead. His mother had taken the life of the masked man, the one Slendy had treated as his son. Pain he could not describe filled his heart as he turned to look back on the woman, who was laughing at his heartache.
What have you done?! How could you?! He was like a son to me! Why did you have to take him from me?! he screamed, actually screamed, at his mother allowing her to feel the utter loss and pain he was experiencing. He never did this, never allowed an enemy to know what he was feeling. There was no way to control his emotions now. There were too many feelings warring inside him for control to be able to keep them at bay. He knew how badly he could hurt humans when he simply allowed his emotion to overtake him, and that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted to utterly destroy this woman before him. This woman, his own mother, had destroyed his life, harmed the one he loved, and killed the one he treated like a son. She had forced his father to ruin him, and she was responsible for why he had killed the man. He had always wanted his father's love as a child and he had unknowingly had it. The man was dead because she had been controlling him. Blind fury took him over as he forced his way into her mind and made her feel the torment of all of the people he had killed in the past in addition to the pain he had gone through in his life. He let her know that their suffering, and even his own pain, would be nothing as compared to her own.
The tendrils began to rip away flesh and even bone. Her blood splayed everywhere as his hands added to the torture. He didn't care if her blood covered him from head to toe, didn't care if he would have her death on his hands. She was the lowest scum of the earth and he would rid the world of such filth. She would never harm another human, or being, ever again. He simply planned to make this woman feel the worst pain she had ever experienced before she would die, before she would feel the burn of hellfire. Both the physical and mental onslaught continued until she was no longer able to scream, for her vocal chords had been torn from her throat by her son's hands. She was surprised when the attacks suddenly ceased and she was able to sink down to the floor in a pool of her own blood. She looked up at him, hoping that perhaps he was finished. She had thought that she knew how to cause pain, but she had been painfully mistaken. Her son was capable of so much more than her. His power was something she could not understand. She knew now that it had been a mistake to draw him out and to this place. But, he had stopped his attacks. Maybe he was going to allow her to live. She was mistaken once again. The last thing she saw was her son tilt his head ever so slightly before two tendrils came down upon her, tearing the defining features of the human face away.
No one can hear you scream, only you. He forced an image of the tendrils coming through his back into her mind, made her feel his pain and feel the desperate need to be able to physically scream out only to be denied that. No one can see the expressions you would put upon your face, only you can mentally picture them. Another image came to her of him looking upon a lost camper in the woods and him wanting to act kind to the person, wanting to smile at the person, in order to get some food for the young Totheark. People look upon you in fear, even when you have done nothing to them. A sight of that same camper looking at him in utter terror came into her mind. You have to become a murderer in order to fend for yourself and those connected to you. An image of that camper being killed and the anguish he felt at becoming a killer entered her mind. And the worst part is that you know there is no escape from it. You are forced to become a monster in order to survive. Images of all of the people he was forced to kill entered her mind and she felt the pain it caused him to do so. But, you eventually grow numb to it. You no longer care that you are killing people. You get used to it, and you start doing it for fun. Those described images came to her mind. She could see and feel his killings become more out of habit and fun than anything. Killing becomes a sport and you enjoy the thrill, the rush, it gives you. She could see him hunting humans within the woods. She could feel the rush he got from treating them as prey, from toying with their minds. Do you now understand the suffering you have put me through? But I managed to hold on to a small amount of my humanity. I found love and friends. She saw images of Ellaina caring for him, telling him she loved him. She saw Totheark joking and laughing with him. You have failed and you will never harm me again. But for causing those I care for pain, you will pay with your life. Know that I will revel in your death, mother.
The tendrils wrapped themselves around her bloodied, thin body once again and pinned her to the wall. More of the tendrils began to come to her, driving themselves under her ruined flesh to rip away blood vessels and internal organs. She was mentally begging him to stop the onslaught, to simply kill her. She tried to apologize for all that she had done, but he would have none of it. His attacks merely continued, pushing her pleading presence out of his mind. Despite the torment the mother reached out to the one pinned to the wall, finding that a small part of his mind was still alive. With what little strength she had left, she gave it a spark. His life force came rushing back, bringing the body back to life, but her son didn't notice this. Her mental screams became worse as he began to tear away her limbs. Her blood was everywhere and she could feel herself slowly dying. He dropped her to the ground and knelt in front of her, that blank face seeming to be staring into her soul.
Why? Why would you ever do these things to me? I loved you, mother. His hand came to touch her broken face, cupping her chin. I did nothing to you. Answer me!
The woman gasped when that touch suddenly became far too strong for her weak bones to handle. Her bones cracked under the strength of his grip. Her mind reached out to him and found that it was open, waiting for her answer. I'm sorry. It was the only thing she was able to send. She was too weak at this point from loss of blood to say anything else.
No you aren't, came the response. He removed his hand from her broken face and with a quick swipe of a tendril, her head was removed. Her head rolled away. He slowly pulled himself to his feet, feeling utterly spent. It was time to take care of Totheark's…body. A tremble ran through him at the thought of needing to bury the masked man.
There was no pathogen; it had been his mother's final thought that he had picked up on before taking her life. It had just been nothing but another lie. He sighed, as he made his way toward the unmoving body of Totheark. How he had failed. He had been tasked with keeping the child safe from harm and he hadn't even been able to do that. It shouldn't have been difficult to keep the masked man alive. It should have been a relatively easy thing, considering the power he had. But the child was dead, gone from his life forever. The masked man would never be able to joke and laugh with him again. He turned away from the body. He could not bring himself to go to him yet. The pain of loss was too much for him to stand.
As he was about to leave the room to try and find Ellaina, he heard a soft, weak moan come from the man behind him. It couldn't be his mother moaning, but it couldn't be Totheark. Both were dead. He had sensed the masked man's death once his screams had died away. But, Ellaina had survived when he had thought her dead. Could it be that Fate had decided to smile on him once again, to give him back yet another loved one from Death's cold embrace? Slendy turned to find Totheark very slowly raising his head up. He felt his heart leap into his throat with something that might have been joy-he didn't know exactly what the emotion was. Totheark was alive. The boy was alive! He stood rooted to the spot, unable to move for the moment.
Totheark didn't know how he was alive; he had felt Death leading him away. Something, though, had entered his mind and pulled him back to the real world. Yes, he was in pain, but he was not about to complain. He was alive. Slendy stood there at the doorway, staring at him. He could only imagine what the Slenderman could have felt if he thought that his little masked friend was dead. It probably wasn't something he wanted to focus on. The young Totheark managed to make himself say, "Hey, I'm not dead, dad," before he passed out.
Slendy was immediately at his side. He knew that Totheark only gave him that title when he was really hurting, be it physically or mentally. Carefully, the stakes were removed and the young man was pulled into the arms of the Slenderman. He held the boy closely to him, happy beyond words that he was alive. Even unconscious, the masked man leaned into his embrace. He sent calming images into the boy's unconscious mind, letting him know that the pain was over and that he was now safe. He began to carry the boy into the family room, covered in blood and looking as though he had survived some sort of epic battle. Thoughts of what his mother had done to him and those close to him made him hold Totheark closer to him as he walked through the destroyed hallway towards his destination. It had been a taxing day for all parties involved, and now it was finally over. They could all finally rest content knowing they were safe from harm's way.
A/N- This is the longest chapter that I wrote for this story. Wow! I hope you all enjoyed it. Finally, everyone is safe. Again, some of you have told me what you wanted for that later chapter, but I would like a few more votes. Do you want Ellaina to answer in a positive or negative way? Let me know. ;D