Misplaced Fear

These dreams have been pushing our character too far, now she wants to console in Slender, but will it turn out as she expects? I do not own the Tall One. ;)

I shivered a bit as the coldness of the night got to me through the hoodie I was wearing and I pulled it closer too me, determined to find Slender and try and put a stop to my nightmares. They were constant and a bother, they plagued me to the point where sometimes I didn't want to go to sleep...or even close my eyes. They always seemed to have events that have already occurred or people I have met in them, but some of my earlier ones had Slender in them before I had even seen him, was it a coincidence or was it his doing? Surely he wasn't making me have these bad dreams, he wouldn't do something like that to me, ever. I looked around as I walked down the slightly foggy and silent road, I knew where Slender usually was at this time of night so it shouldn't be too hard to find him, either that or he would find me. I felt chills go up my spine as I heard the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement echo in the night, who knew it could be so eery, so quiet. I turned as I heard the far off moaning of the dead and I tried to ignore it as I came up to a side path that led into the wood, I took out my flashlight as I went into the forest and I made sure to keep alert and ready for anything, I may have been immune to the infection but that didn't mean I couldn't be eaten alive.

"Ahhh!" I turned as I heard a slight whisper of a voice, I was sure it was there but I saw nothing. "Slender if your doing this then stop it, I need to talk to you." No reply was heard but I felt the wind whip my hair around my face lightly, I took a deep shaky breath and just continued on, trying to ignore the feeling of fear that crept into my heart. It made me uneasy and when I heard that whispery voice again my pace quickened, my fear pushing me a bit too far, and withing a few minuted I was running through the forest with wide eyes, keeping my flashlight pointed as steadily as I could.

I barely blinked as trees whipped past me and I kept my mind focused and steady so I could just get out of here, now I had forgotten what I had been out here for. But just as I was about to make a turn something wrapped around my leg and pulled me to the ground, dragging me through the leaves and lifting me into the air with ease. I whimpered as I looked around and I screamed as I saw Slender, but he must not have known it was me for his mouth was grinning twistedly and his teeth were elongated and he clamped down onto my arm, not hard enough to rip it off but it hurt pretty damned bad, and when he pulled back his mouth was covered with fresh blood. "Let go! Let me go now!" My screeching must have done something for he immediately dropped me head first onto the chilly leaf covered ground, stepping back a bit and his grin disappeared. "...Ella?" I said nothing as I backed away whimpering like a small child and before he could reach out to me I scrambled up and ran.

"Orella stop!" I didn't slow my running as I got back onto the road, holding my arm and looking around sporadically for danger while pushing myself to go as fast as possible. My mind only had two things on it, running fast, and I panted heavily as my lungs screamed at me, they were being pushed to their limits. I don't know how long I ran but by the time the house was in sight I saw Charlie standing out in front of the door, a few lanterns lit in the house, "Charlie get inside!" She looked confused but opened the door and waited for me to get inside before slamming it shut, "Orella what happened? Where did you go?" I didn't answer as I walked a few steps into another room and collapsed on the ground, partly from exhaustion and partly from shock.

"What happened what's wrong?!" She held me up and handed looked over me as tears flowed from my eyes and I looked around wildly, I was about to answer but all of a sudden Slender popped up in the front room sounding distressed. "Orella!" I saw Charlie get up in front of me and I scooted farther away from him, not knowing why but just following my mind and body's reaction. "Get away from her! What did you do?" He said nothing as he turned towards me and again I whimpered, "I did nothing!" She knew he was lying but she wasn't letting him near me, "Get out. Now. She is obviously terrified of something, now's not the time to push her." He growled dangerously and a few of his tentacles appeared from his back, I screamed. "Look just leave!" He looked at me one last time before disappearing quickly, Charlie came back over to me with a lantern, trying to get an answer out of me. "Did he try and hurt you or something? What happened-oh my god what happened to your arm?!" "Jus-Just an a-accident..." "What was?" But I couldn't say anymore for my brain had locked up from the shock and I just got up and laid in my bed without saying a word. Charlie didn't look at me as she cleaned up my arm and wrapped it, then she went and sat beside me.

I knew Charlie wanted to do something but I just ignored her questions and eventually she laid back down and went to sleep. I didn't.

(Next day)

I looked over at Charlie as she began too stir, I had dressed earlier and now I was going out to gather wood, better now than never. I moved stonily as the events of last night were fresh in my mind, what had made Slender act like that and why did I respond horribly? Of course anyone would flip shit if they were faced with death but it was like paranoia clouded all my thoughts and I was far from coherent, even seeing him set me off last night...I didn't like it. So many things have been going downhill lately, my dreams, my bond with the Tall One, and my connection to my sanity, it was all happening in a way that I couldn't change it. I wanted to see him because I knew that he thought I was afraid, but I wasn't, the way I acted like last night wasn't me...I didn't have control. I know it may have had a toll on our communication but I had to know where he was, "Slender?...Hey, can we talk about last night?" I heard no reply and that worried me, he always had something to say whether it be one word or a whole paragraph, he was never this quiet unless he was ultra pissed or he was in one of his emotion blocking holes. "Slender please...I'm sorry about what happened and I need to talk to you about it..." But there was nothing. I felt my heart clench a bit painfully and I let angry tears spring to my eyes, who did he think he was? Just ignoring me when I was trying to make an effort to communicate, he was such an ass.

I let all thoughts of trying to reach him leave my mind and I went about collecting all the wood I could for today, lifting an armful and walking the few yards back over to the back of the shack before going back and getting more. I continued this trail, getting wood and dropping it off then gathering more, before it felt like my arms were going to dissolve into nothing. I hadn't noticed Charlie watching from the window but I wasn't surprised when she came out with something for me to eat and some water, "Hey, take a break. You've been at this for like, two hours." I stared at her as she took the wood from my hands and traded the food off too me, then she grabbed two chairs from the side of the house and sat them next to each other, motioning for me to sit down. "We need to talk, I know I'm not the closest person too you but...what happened last night?" I looked at the ground for awhile, clenching and unclenching my fists a bit before walking over to the chair and promptly sitting down.

Another stretch of silence passed and by the time I finally spoke up it felt as if we had been sitting there for almost an hour, "I...had a nightmare...and it had you and Slender in it. I had been having nightmares about the same stuff lately so I wanted to see if he had any advice for me, so I went to look for him." "Are you crazy? Out by yourself and looking for that monst-" "He's not a monster!" She leaned back a bit at the fierceness of my tone and I looked back to the ground, "He...he's not..." She nodded and I waited another minute before continuing. "I walked along the road for a bit before veering off into the woods, I had a flashlight and a knife with me so I wasn't too worried, but I started to hear these whispering voices behind me and in my head. I tried to ignore them but they got to me and I just started running away like an idiot, hoping that they would leave me alone." She had leaned forward a bit more and was looking at me intently, I glanced over and tried not to snap at her for staring...I would stare to if I was hearing this. "I don't know how long I ran but when I stopped I was grabbed by something and I freaked out, but then I realized it was Slender. But he must not have known it was me...and he must have been hunting...it was just an accident, it was mostly my fault." "What Orella? What was an accident?" "...He had me with his tentacles, and he bit me." She had a look of horror on her face when she realized what had happened to my arm, "He's like a wolf Orella, they may seem like you can trust them but inside...their feral. Wild." I shook my head as she kept explaining about how this wasn't surprising and that I should have known better but I didn't pay much attention, I kept looking at my wrapped arm, thinking that what had happened wasn't real. I finally snapped back to attention when she grabbed my shoulder and shook me a bit, "You need to leave with me, we can just leave here and take what we can. He's going to end up killing you Orella." I stood angrily and looked at her in disbelief, "How can you say that? He's never done anything dangerous towards me and it was my fault what happened last night, not his!" "Then how can you explain me seeing you cower in fear and in tears when he appeared? You looked as if the sight of him was going to hurt you!" "It...I wasn't in the right state of mind...that's all." She shook her head and gave me a sarcastic chuckle of disbelief, "How can you sit there and say that?" I said nothing and she called Bongo to her, probably going for a walk to cool down, "Don't come looking for me when I'm right..." I watched her walk away soberly and I kicked a chair over angrily, why couldn't anyone understand? And since my dark friend was deciding to be an ass he wouldn't even talk to me about it...I just wanted to get rid of this underlying fear, I wanted it to go away.

(That night) Dinner that night had been anything but relaxed, ever since Charlie had gotten back from her walk we hadn't spoken. When I had changed the dressing on my wound she looked over at me with what looked like grief, I knew she didn't want me to get hurt but I wasn't going to leave my home...I wasn't going to leave him. I chewed on my food slowly, not really tasting it, and I looked out into the woods. I wanted him to be there but I saw nothing...felt nothing. Without his familiar presence I felt like half of me was gone, it didn't feel normal and I didn't like it, it was wrong. After my plate was partially finished I placed it near Bongo so he could eat the scraps and lick it as much as he pleased, I didn't feel so hungry now.

Charlie didn't look at me as I took up my journal and walked a bit away and sat under a lone tree, I was only a few yards from the house but it felt like I was much farther away. I opened it to a page where I had begun to write and I had scribbled out the page, so I started anew on the next page. Making sure ti date it first I began to write hastily, 'He's gone and I don't know if it's temporary or for good...I'm hoping it's not the latter. Life doesn't seem normal without him around believe it or not, he may be a bit rash sometimes but that only makes him...like me, us, humans. He's not the monster and killer everyone makes him to be he's only doing what instinct tells him, it's his purpose and I don't care for him any less because of it. Sure I don't agree with it but I'm not going to make him stop what instinct tells him because I don't like it. Last night scared me...and it made me afraid to see him, but I know he didn't know. Charlie disagrees and she says she doesn't want to stick around to see my end but I really don't want our time to end, having another human around is comforting. And as far as what I'm going to do about these nightmares and the upcoming winter...well...I'll just have to plan it as I go and hope for the best.'

I closed the small book silently and looked over to see Charlie leaning against the shack, probably not wanting to go in without me. I smiled slightly and stood, walking over to her and nodding as we both headed inside. We still didn't speak as we got ready for bed but the air around us was not tense anymore, "Hey Charlie?" She looked over with a questioning glance, "I...I'm sorry. I know you were just making sure I wasn't doing anything completely stupid, and I appreciate that. But I can't leave...I can't just leave him, it would feel wrong." She smiled softly and nodded in understanding, "I know, I see that. I just don't want one of the first nice other humans I met to be killed from stupidity...but if you trust him then I'll agree with it." I felt my spirits rise a bit as the feud with my friend ended and for the first time in a few weeks I was able to go to sleep, unafraid of what I might see in my dreams that night.

Dun dun duhhhhhh! How could this be? The Slender man is gone?! Nah he'll prob be back but we'll only know for sure when the next chapter is done ;) Please review for me so I know how I did. And this song goes killer with this fic in general, just reminds me of it.

watch?v=FniKuIxQ8ig&list=FLG9CaXXxOrIqFPmVCjNb1Kg.