Chapter 23

Ten hours ago

"Don't worry ma, I'll be home before midnight." Roberto groaned into his phone as he walked across the empty street.

"You better young man." His mother spoke sternly before she hung up. Roberto sighed looking at his phone for the time. It was twenty minutes till twelve and because the forest was gated off now, it would take him twenty five minutes one way, and a half-hour the other way.

"Shit..." He muttered, running a hand through his short brown hair. He looked at the gate that surrounded the forest. It wasn't that far up, and there was no barb-wire. It would cut the travel-time in half, and he's have time to take a shower. She he heaved his gym bag over the fence, and it landed on the ground with a thump. He fallowed it over, and landed a little less than gracefully onto the damp grass.

"Okay. Gotta work on that." He muttered, knowing he'd probably be doing it a few more time to get home late.

He picked up his bag, his eyes beginning to adjust to the darkness. It was mostly trees, with a few bushes here and there. It was just this rather HUGE area of trees that they called a forest because it would take hours to explore.

But it was gated off for a reason.

For a month, teenagers went missing in here. And one day, they found one... And she was... different. She was dead of course, but that wasn't it. Her skin was pale, her face frozen in fear. Her entire neck was red, and... her arms were missing.

That was about a month ago, and no one else had gone missing yet. Yet...

About half way into the forest, Roberto heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. He looked to the left, then to the right, then behind him. There was nothing. He looked in front of him, there a note was not tacked to a tree. It wasn't there moments before...

Now

"Bobby!" Koven called out. "Bobby!" Koven marched out of her room in Bobby's house.

After the blind man case, Dean suggested Koven stay at Bobby's for a while. It's been about a month, and Koven had been prescribed a bottle of pills by a fellow hunter who had a part-time job doing... Stuff.

"Yeah kid?" Bobby asked, not looking up from his work as she came down stairs, fallowed by Bob.

"Can I barrow your computer?"

Ten hours ago

Roberto frowned at the note and threw it to the round. He blinked a few times. He thought he saw numbers. 1/8.

Now

"This is... so goddamn slow." Koven whined, hitting the side of the computer screen. "Come on, load." She growled.

Ten hours ago

Roberto ran. There was no other way. He didn't know which direction he was running, but he had to run. Something was fallowing him. He'd seen it. It was tall... Very tall... and Skinny.

He turned and ran face first into a tree. He backed up, tearing a paper that his face had hit. 2/8.

Now

"No Koven, you are not going!" Bobby said. "We agreed that you'd stay here until you were well enough to go with the boys.

"But Bobby. This one, I know this one is important, please." Koven set Bob down onto the floor as she stood from the computer desk. "I think I know what's going on in this case."

"Then call the boys."

"They're busy Bobby, and you need to stay here." She said. "Besides, I'll be fine. I have my pills." She shook her jeans, so the pill container rattled in her pocket. "I got my gun." She opened her coat to revile her brand new .45. "I've got my knife." She pulled it out of her boot before shoving it back in. "I memories the exorcism, the holy water ritual, just about every thing. I got the tattoo.

"I'm gonna be fine." Koven sighed, looking at Bobby.

Ten hours ago

"What the hell, what the hell!" Roberto cried as he ran. The thing kept coming. He faced a tree and out of nowhere, he grabbed for the paper. ⅜. "No! Leave me alone!" He continued to run.

His vision became blurry. There was no way out… this all seemed so familiar to him… He had to collect all 8 pages, that was all he knew.

A little way back, he had dropped his bag, and his cell phone. There was no calling for help, or anything to chuck at the creature following him.

Roberto was most likely going to die.

Now

Koven slipped a screwdriver from one of Bobby's drawers, seeing as he had fallen asleep at his desk. She grabbed her bag, careful not to move anything too much, and slowly walked towards the back of the house.

"Sorry Bobby." She sighed, slipping into the driver's seat of a car Bobby never used, but it still ran. She positioned the screwdriver in the entrance of the keyhole, and using a brick she'd found outside, she smacked it as hard as she could, and the screwdriver jammed itself into the hole.

"I need to learn to hotwire these things." She sighed, turning the screwdriver.

10 hours ago

6/8. Roberto continued to run. The more pages he collected, the harder it became to get away from this thing.

Two more. He just needed two more. He kept nearly running into it. It was making him crazy.

He saw the next one and ran for it. Just as he grasped it in his fingers, something wrapped itself around his neck. It was cold and met, and it gripped his neck tightly, cutting off his air supply.

It lifted him up and his eyes began to see static. Then… nothing

Now

"Hello, I'm agent Marissa Nightwing, I'm here for the Thally Linemen case." Koven lifted her fake ID for the officers to see. One of the older man, in maybe his sixties nodded, and walked to her, lifting the police tape up so she could get through.

"Afternoon." He greeted her.

"Actually it's two minutes till noon." She smiled. He smiled sadly as he led her through the gate. "So. What's happened here?" She asked

"Well, Roberto Canemen's ma called sometime 'round midnight, saying he hadn't come home yet. then there were calls of someone hearing screams from the woods. We came to check it out. We found Mr. Canemen's bag, his phone. And about an hour or so ago we found his corpse."

"Was it like the other victim's?" She asked.

"Take a look." He motioned to a passing gurney, and the paramedics stopped. Koven lifted the white sheet and grimaced. A young boy about eighteen lay on the gurney, his neck crushed and red. The thing hadn't only suffocated him, it broke his neck in just about every bone and... his arms were... gone.

"Lovely." She said sarcastically before she dropped the sheet and nodded for them to continue on their way.

"Officer..." He turned to the older gentlemen.

"Crowley." He said. Koven had to hold back her giggles and nearly went red in the face.

"Officer Crowley, did Roberto have any enemies. Anyone who'd want to get back at him for something." Koven asked, fallowing him into the forest.

"Well, no. You see Mr. Canemen was well know around here. He was the captain of his high school Soccer, Football and Cross Country teams. Everyone loved him, but never more than his girlfriend and family." Officer Crowley said.

"What is his girlfriends' name?"

"Dannie Carton." Officer Crowley answered. Koven saw the blood splattered ground next to the tree. Koven walked over, careful not to step on the blood.

"Poor kid." She said, bending down to inspect it. There was a tall patch of grass just behind the blood, and in front of the tree. She reached over and grabbed the white paper that was crumpled behind it.

"Well, well. Looks like I just might be correct." She muttered, shoving it into her coat pocket before standing up.

Officer Crowley was speaking with a lady who was tall with dark brown hair, green eyes and tanned skin. She was dressed in a pair of pink sweat pants, a tank top, a grey sweater and black flip flops.

Koven walked over and the woman looked up.

"Agent, this. Is Mrs. Canemen, the victims mother." He said.

"Mrs. Canemen I am sorry for your loss." Koven said. She nodded slowly. "Now, I've already asked officer Crowley this, but did your son have any enemies, anyone who'd want to get back at him for anything?"

"No, I don't think so. Who would ever do this..."

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Koven gave her a reassuring smile. "Another question, did Roberto seam to be acting weird lately?"

"Weird?"

"You know. Not doing things he usually would. Had he done anything unexpected?"

"Well a month or so ago... He'd gone to a party. A party with all his friends. And he came home... He was... drunk." His mother's voice trembled as she spoke. "And he was scared. He said something about a game... A forest..." She got teary eyed. "Something about a man with no face... static and dying and... It was a game." She said.

"Did he happen to mention... Slenderman?"