Things Change

Oh wee another chapter, I like this story the more I write it. And even though there's not very many who have followed or liked this I thank them for trying it out. :) This one does not own Slender.

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I was silent as he moved towards one of the doors and slowly opened it to reveal the now darkening outside, still holding me gently with a tentacle. I was relieved that I was finally out of that mess but seeing what that man did to that kid...I didn't want to think about what was going to happen to his sister. "Close your eyes." I blinked and looked over to him, "Why? You going to kill me now?" " .Them." I shrunk back a bit but compelled, gasping as I felt the oddest sensation overcome me and the wind moved my hair slightly, and when I reopened them we were inside me shack. "What was that?" He grinned showing his dangerously sharp teeth, "It is how I get around young hunter, just as you have your ways of stalking prey I must have mine." I shuddered a bit at the thought but brushed it off as I realized that he was still holding me, "Can you put me down now please...now." He looked over to me and almost roughly set me on my feet, I looked at him confusingly until he spoke, "I did not mean to offend you by touching you human." I blinked at the venom in his voice but none the less I went over to a cabinet beneath the small counter top in there and brought out my bag of medical supplies, as I got out what
I would need I answered him back plainly. "You didn't offend me, I just wanted to get myself taken care of so I don't die of a concussion or infection, is that a problem?" He was silent and I smirked a bit as I took that as a no, feeling the aura in the room relax a bit but his tense aura seemed to stick around. I poured a bit of bacterial cleanser on a cloth and began to clean out the wound on my face and shoulder, hissing a bit as the cleanser burned them a bit, and then I began to press against my aching ribcage to check for damage. "Looks like I just have bruising but the wound on my shoulder hasn't stopped bleeding yet."

I removed the cloth I had pressed against it and was frustrated to see it soaked in blood, I took a few painkillers already to deal with the headache and pain but if I didn't get this shoulder wound under control then it could be my death...literally. I had almost completely forgotten that Slender was still in the same room, seeing as he had shrunk in size to about 6'0 to fit in the short roofed shack, and I grabbed a pair of tweezers and a small mirror so I could try and pick out the two pieces of shrapnel stuck in the wound. Luckily it had passed through but getting these pieces out was going to be a living hell, I picked up a biting stick from my bag, for situations such as this, and bit down on it, getting ready for the pain. But just as I had the tweezers about an inch from the wound his voice stopped me, "What are you doing?" "Uh getting pieces of bullet from my shoulder so I don't bleed out...seems like a pretty good idea." He said nothing as he walked over and lifted his hand, placing it slowly and firmly on my shoulder making me cry out in pain. "Ouch! What the hell-" "Shut your mouth and just let me show you!" I clamped my mouth shut and bit my tongue to keep back a sharp retort as I watched him a bit agitatedly, he didn't move or anything but I felt the oddest sensation in my shoulder and when I looked down at it I saw that it had stopped bleeding. "What is this?"

"I have the power to heal and regenerate myself if wounded, but I can heal others as well if I wish. I cannot heal fatal wounds but this is far from that." I nodded and said nothing as I watched the wound push out the shrapnel and heal up until it was nothing but a bad memory, "There, now I won't have to watch you complain and cry about getting them out." He quickly removed his hand and backed away as if I had burned him, making me stare for a moment but seeing as how he wasn't going to say anything else I went back to cleaning up then I put all my supplies back under the cabinet before grabbing a water. "I...appreciate what you did for me...I probably would have died." "Yes well, no one else is allowed to kill you but me. I was not going to let that crazed man kill you over someone elses pathetic life." I sobered at that, remembering what that man had said about it being my fault about what he was going through...how he felt. Then I remembered Tyler...what was going to happen to his sister now that her older brother was dead? In my mind all I could picture was a lost child in the dark crying out for her brother as the dead moved in...I nearly retched at the thought. I didn't notice that Slender was trying to get my attention until he shouted my name frustratedly, "Orella! Why are you so distant? Is it because of Tyler?" I said nothing and looked out the window as I collected my thoughts, this seemed to anger him a bit and he rose a few inches. "Now, Orella."

I still stared out the window but I responded quietly, "He had a little sister...and she's probably going to die because of me. I am going to have that on my conscious for the rest of my life, I was the reason a child died..." He sighed and rubbed his face wearily before answering me, "It's going to happen, it's been happening that way for awhile. People, men, women, and children, die all the time, trust me. I'm the monster that has killed some if not most of them lately." I furrowed my brow in anger and turned to look at him with a serious and determined expression, "But your not really a monster, your only surviving the way that you can...and you saved me from that sick twisted guy." "Only because you weren't his to kill, don't try to tell me that what I do is perfectly ok." I rose a bit from my sitting position and crossed my arms, "It may not be but no one is perfect, every one has flaws. Your not the monestrous killer you think you are. Your not even really scary." This seemed to anger him and his tentacles waved about dangerously as the tension in the air grew, and he walked up to me until he was only a few inches from my face, showing his teeth a bit. "Yes, Orella, I am." "Not."

He growled lowly and his teeth grew a bit, "Alright, don't think I'm scary? Don't think I'm a monster? Maybe this will persuade you!" I gasped as my vision went white for a moment and all I heard was that static noise, but then all of a sudden it was like I was watching a dream, memories perhaps. "No please, don't hurt me!" I watched as a young girl, maybe 18, was cornered up against a large rock face, tears streaming from her eyes. She begged for mercy but none was given as she was torn apart, then my vision flashed and another scene appeared, a young group of three kids, looked about 16. They were separated by fear and chased down like animals one by one until there was only one small boy left, he cried as he spoke his last words. "I-I-I just want to go home, please! I want to see my mom!" But no mercy was given as he cried out in pain and sank to his knees, holding his as as if it was about to explode and he suffered the same fate as the others. I felt my emotions get the better of me and all I felt was dismay and sadness, why was he doing this to me? But before I could try and say something one last memory appeared before me, a dark, quiet, summers night and I saw a backyard with a small play set. On that play set was a small girl, about 7, swinging happily as her father told her he'd be right back, he was going to get a flashlight. She simply continued to swing contentedly but as soon as the dad went inside the back porch light went out, making the girl stop swinging.

She looked around and called out, "Daddy?" But there was no reply, so she hopped off the swing and ventured a little further into her yard, not noticing the shadows moving in dangerously. "Daddy is that you?" Suddenly she looked straight ahead a the tree I was currently looking from behind and she moved a bit closer, "Who are you? What are you doing in my yard?" Nothing was said and all of a sudden the tentacles shot out and wrapped around her mouth before she could utter a scream, and she was taken out into the forest without problem. It was about to show me more but I closed my eyes tightly and yelled my loudest, "Stop it! Stop! This is cruel! Get away from me!" I opened my eyes to see my normal vision had returned and he was standing a few feet away with an angered sneer on his featureless face, "Do you understand what it is I do now?! I kill without mercy whether it is a child, teenager, adult, it doesn't matter! If this was the only way to get you too see the monster that I am then so be it!" I felt a tear trail down my face as I let the severity of what I had just seen sink in, was he really as bad as he said he was?

We didn't have much of a problem getting along honestly and I'm not as wary of him as I once was...maybe I was wrong. "Is that really how you want me to see you?! And what about all this 'Oh I'm going to kill you raaaaa!' what the hell is up with that plan? Are you going to kill me or not?!" He clenched his hands as he practically snarled in rage, "You petty ignorant creature! How dare you say that to my face! Your death will come when I deem it! Not at your will!" I backed away a bit as his tentacles seemed to move towards me but then he stopped, he didn't relax but he didn't advance any further. I was about to ask him why he was stalling but then he spoke with venom practically dripping off of every word, "You're not worth the time or effort, you are already broken." And with that he disappeared.

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I hadn't spoken or said much after that night, the following day I had went to get the supplies I had dropped then I just stayed inside, not feeling up to even going to hunt. Over the next week I was like a robot, going to the creek to bathe and even being careless about checking for the dead. It was like my mind was in a state of depression and there was no way to get through it, the thoughts weighing me down. Nightmares hounded my sleep and I myself looked like a zombie during the day, dark circles under my eyes and I had a bit of a shuffle to my walk from the lack of energy I had. I hadn't seen Slender the entire time but I knew he was there, I could sense him watching me, burning a hole in the back of my head with his sightless stare. But I never responded to it, I just went about doing the primitive tasks of my everyday life, now and then writing a few emotionless sentences in my journal to pass the ever grinding time.

I had always looked at my life as a nominal thing after this whole zombie thing went down and as far as others go the less people I have to deal with the better...I had thought it was better. But know I was questioning whether or not this was the right tactic for survival, giving the world the cold shoulder may have been natural instinct but it didn't mean it was right. I was constantly at war with myself over these things and as I finished checking the perimeter of my house today I decided that I would write down all these conflicting feelings...maybe it would help. I headed inside and grabbed my worn journal and a new pencil before flipping a bit more than halfway through the book and finding the page I had stopped on, it ended in a half scrawled sentence reading, 'just want it to stop'.

I ignored it and began my new paragraph with a slightly clouded mind, 'Sometimes I don't know if I'm really in reality or if I'm just trying to pass a test my mind has conjured up for me...testing my humanity, my sanity. Seeing how far I can be pushed before I fall and how far I will fall. All I want is to be innocent again, to not know how many I've killed or how many suffered because of my selfish actions...it's not who I am. My dark friend...well if you can call him that, has been gone for about a week and a half now. Not showing up anywhere or saying anything, just his presence alerts me that he's still around, I don't know why he bothers. Like he said, I'm already broken...I'm not worth killing at this point...' I placed my pencil down as rain started to thump against the wooden roof, making me jump slightly in surprise. "Damnit, tired of all this rain..."

The rain had made the creek rise the past few days and it was dangerously close to flooding the surrounding area, including my home. I would have to make sure to be ready to move if necessary, but a loud moaning pulled me out of my thoughts and back to the world. I looked outside and saw one of the dead walking around...except this wasn't just a regular nobody...it was a 16 year old girl that I had helped a month or two back...she must've been heading the same way as me and had gotten caught. I felt my insides churn in sadness as I watched her shuffling form, but then something inside of me snapped, and my eyes clenched up in anger and rage. I grabbed my machete from behind my bag, thank god that man had left it in that room, and I forcefully pushed my door open, making it hit the side of the house. The rain continued to down pour as I made my way around the back and saw the girl loping around, as if she was lost. My anger only increased though as I saw her turn around and look at me with those now soulless eyes, her teeth gnashing together in an endless hunger. Her dirty blond hair was matted and torn and her t-shirt was ripped down the side where she was attacked.

I lifted my weapon slightly as I made my way through the mud towards the once radiant child, feeling tears spill over the edge violently. "Ahhh!" I yelled as I swung my blade down and hit her in the side, making her stumble but continue to come at me, so I gave another rage filled swing, clipping her throat and making old blood spray every where. She made a disgusting gurgling noise but she still persisted, making me choke on my cry, wanting to just end it for her. I pulled my blade back and swung with all my might, taking her head directly off her shoulders and making roll and sink into the mud. Her body stilled and dropped to the ground with a wet squishing noise but even then I didn't stop, I stood over her body and just kept swinging blindly. I don't know how long I stood there and pummeled it into the ground, but by the time I stopped it was nothing but a pile of mush and mud, being washed away by the rain. "Why can't you just let me die?!"

I knelt into the mud and screamed to no one in particular, just hating the situation I was in and how it had gotten to this point. But what I didn't notice while I was grieving in the mud and rain was a tall and dark figure observing from the woods, a small frown plastered to his blank face as he watched his 'young hunter' crumble before him.