Getting on Track

Well no big comments on this one I suppose, but I thank all that have reviewed so far and that have Favorited or followed. You keep me writing! I own no rights to Slender.

'Well I will admit that he was right, I do feel better today. I don't know if it's on account that I kept taking medicine or that he stayed with me so I could sleep...either way it works. My fever is barely here and all the aches have disappeared except for my headache, I can't wait to be up and moving again, especially with Halloween being just a week away. I wonder if Charlie and Slender will do anything to celebrate with me? Oh yea, Charlie has decided to stay, she's such a good person...even if she and Slender don't get along all too well.' I was about to continue in my journal when I saw Charlie come back in from hunting with Bongo, "Hey, how'd it go?" "Well...we caught a bunny." I laughed and shook my head as I closed my journal and put it under my bed along with the pencil, "Now that's something. Hey could you hand me a few advil and a drink? My head is killing me." She nodded and tossed me the bottle and got some of the cleaned creek water in a Styrofoam cup for me, I took it gratefully and popped three pills before downing the cup thirstily.

She eyed me for a moment before placing her weapons down and sitting in a chair quietly, meanwhile Bongo took it upon himself to jump onto my bed and lay directly in the middle, making me shoot him a dirty glare. I noticed that Charlie was staring at me again so I stared questioningly back, "What?" "Oh nothing...he seemed really worried last night.." "Who, Bongo?" She rolled her eyes and sighed, "No dummy, your dark creeper. He practically tore my face off when we got back to the shack because of the state you were in, then I yelled at him for leaving and being stupid. Then he left." "How did he get all the stuff back here?" "He took you while I took the car back, he wouldn't let me near you for a few until I explained that I needed to help you."

I looked down at my hands for a moment and grimaced at the way I must've looked, I already had a scar on my jawline from the meat locker incident and I had bandaging on both my arms and chest now. "Yeah, sorry that happened I should have known not to stay out that long anyways." "It's alright, we're both alive and that's all that matters...but back to your creeper." I rolled my eyes at the nickname, "He seems pretty close to you huh? I mean, after I had him leave the second time he was back that morning with you-" "You were awake?!" She grinned evilly and nodded, "Ohh yeah, the whole time baby. But don't interrupt. He's always so gentle with you, it's unlike his character in every way...is there something going on between you two?" My face instantly reddened and I stammered repeatedly, searching for the words that wouldn't pop up in my mind, "What?! N-no no no no no no, of course not! W-w-w-why would you think something like that?!" She held up her hands and chuckled a bit, looking at me like she didn't believe a word I said, "Hey calm down, it was just a question. And by the way you got worked up over it I'd say there's something."

"There's not!" And again to my frustration she chuckled and waved her hand in my direction, "Alright alright I believe you..." "Whatever..." I stayed in a arm crossed position for about a minute and continued to glare out the window until a familiar voice popped into my head, "She is quite the pest, why can I not take care of her?" "Because that's wrong, and as much as we get frustrated at each other sometimes, she's still a friend." Charlie must have noticed that I uncrossed my arms and I had a faint smile on my face for she crossed her legs and raised a brow, "You talking to your creeper?" I turned and the smile left my face as I narrowed my eye, "Shut up shorty, go live in a hobbit hole." She just stuck her tongue out and got up to make some food while I laid back down and turned towards the wall. "May I kill her now?" "No." "Very well...have it your way..."

(Later that day) "Pleaseee do Halloween stuff with meeee." "No Orella. That's final." "But why won't you give it a chance?" "Because it's ridiculous and repulsive that's why." I crossed my arms and grumbled as I turned away from Slender, I heard Charlie chuckle from the other side of the shack as she looked up from a drawing, probably wanted to watch us fight. I continued to ignore him as he stood there and I could feel the tension building up, he had a short temper sometimes, "Why must you be so stubborn child?!" "I just thought that maybe for once we could focus on something other than death, sorry I asked for too much!" I felt my emotions get the better of me right now, sure it wasn't so bad but Halloween was my favorite holiday pretty much and I never missed celebrating it with my family...and now I was going to break that tradition. Charlie stopped her mild laughter and must have gone back to her drawing, trying to ignore the tense feelings in the room to no avail, "...Orella please turn around." "No, I want to be alone right now so I can eat something and rest some more...I need to be in better condition so I can hunt tomorrow." He said nothing and I heard Charlie move a bit and all of a sudden she was on my bed, "He's gone, so we can talk now." "Again?" "Yes, you definitely need it. Then you can go outside for a bit." I sighed reluctantly and nodded as I uncrossed my arms and turned towards my younger friend, not too eager to talk things over at this point. "I guess you could say that Halloween has just been a big part of my childhood, my family was always did a haunted house every year and I was always a part of it. I just wanted to do something to celebrate so I didn't break away from the tradition...I don't want to lose the memories...not all of them." I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see my friend smiling sweetly, "Well, if it makes you feel any better I'll try and do something with you too celebrate." "Really?" "Yeah, it's what friends do right?" I felt my mouth turn into a smile and I chuckled lightly and nodded, "Yeah...it's what friends do...I just wish he would open up a bit more and try to do something too..." I heard Charlie sigh and she walked over to the wall to lean against it, "Why do you insist on trying to act like he's a regular human? You can't change him into something he's not Orella." "Just because everyone says your something doesn't mean you have to act like it, like I've said before. He's not a monster." "I'm not saying he's a monster but your trying to fit him into a type of world where he doesn't belong...sometimes it just doesn't work out." I knew what she was saying and she was mostly right, but it didn't mean it couldn't happen. If I would be willing to try than I know that he would too, it just takes a bit of convincing on my part.

Shrugging off the heavy stuff I decided to ask her about something we haven't talked about since we left for supplies, "So, are you actually staying?" "I guess, I don't think that I could make it on my own right now and with winter coming up I'd be as good as dead. Besides, I can't just leave you when you were all beaten to hell and back." I smirked and nodded while petting Bongo softly, making him lick my face and his tail beat against the bed quietly, "Well...I'm glad then." She nodded back and opened the door before turning slightly towards me, a now sobered look on her face that made me confused, "I'm just gonna check around for any dead, just a small perimeter check." "Ok be-" But she shut the door before I could get the words out of my mouth, well I had no idea what made her act so strange all of a sudden but it was best not to pry right now. I decided that I was tired of resting so I threw on a new shirt and pants before pulling on my boots and heading out to the creek to wash up a bit and do some laundry, I made sure to grab the dirty clothes in a bag. "Stay Bongo." He just rolled over and continued to lounge on my bed with a sigh, making me laugh and roll my eyes before grabbing a weapon and heading outside. I breathed in deeply as the fresh air took away that cramped feeling I had, it felt nice to be outside again and I knew that soon we would be stuck inside most of the time. As I walked down to the creek I found a few dead lumbering around the edge of the tree line, more so than usual. It concerned me a bit because I had noticed that there had been an increase in zombies over the past week, I hoped they weren't migrating of some sort. If the numbers continued to increase than it would probably force Charlie and I to move to a different area, somewhere safer.

I continued on with these thoughts as I stripped down and waded into the water, carrying the shampoo and conditioner with me so I could hurry this up. I set them down on the large rock and dunked my head under to get my hair wet but all of a sudden I felt something grab my leg. I screeched and tried too move away as fast as I could, scrabbling onto a rock as the hand was still on my leg, and as I pulled up I saw it was one of the dead. I panicked because I didn't have anything near me and it's teeth tried to take a bite from my leg. Luckily there were a few branched to my left and I grabbed one, jamming it into its eye socket and pushing it away. It went still after I hit it a few more times and I pushed it over down past my spot so the current would carry it away, I still didn't trust the water enough to get in now so I just quickly grabbed my wash supplies and splashed over to the bank before getting redressed and walking quickly back to camp.

Charlie was just getting back as I walked up to the shack and she got a look of concern on her face when she saw the fear etched on mine, "Are you okay? What happened?" I put the hair products down against the shack and rubbed my face with my hands, "I went to go take a freakin bath and there was some nasty zombie in the water, it grabbed my leg as I was wetting my hair and I flipped out. I'm fine though." She breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, probably happy I didn't get myself hurt again...I was too danger prone. "Well then from now on we shouldn't go there alone." "Agreed." We decided to start some dinner so while Charlie went to grab the food I went to grab some firewood from the pile, but just as I was about too walk back over to the fire pit I was stopped by a tentacle spinning me around, "Hey whadya do that for?" "I am tired of you ignoring me whenever we have ,an argument, your not a small child." I narrowed my eyes and opened my mouth to shoot back a retort, but then I heard Charlies words ring in my head, 'You can't just act like he's a regular human, it doesn't work out.' I sighed and nodded up at him, "You're right, and I'm sorry. It wasn't fair of me too get angry at you just because you didn't want to do something." I turned back around and started to walk back to the shack, thinking about how nice the sky looked as the sun set, turning the clouds into a mass of white, red, pink, and orange colors. I glanced to my side as I saw him walking beside me now and I smirked, "I am...surprised that you said that. Are you upset?" "No, why would I be?" "I...I don't know...would you like some help?" "It's alright, I can carry it-" But of course just as I said this a spider crawled out from a piece of wood and onto my arm, making me freeze in fear. Now I wasn't deathly afraid of spiders but I didn't want them on me either, "Slender...Slender please get this off of me please." He got a teasing tone to his voice and he smirked as he eyed the medium sized spider, "Hmmmm, should I?" "Yes!" "I suppose...will you allow me to help you?" "Yes yes! Just get it off!" He sighed in amusement and I watched as he brought his hand over to my arm and flicked the offending arachnid off and into the grass, making me relax and breathe a sigh of relief, "Oh my shit thank you." He simply nodded and took the wood from me with a tentacle while another hovered near me, since he wanted to play that way I decided to do a little meddling myself.

I lightly but firmly took hold of his tentacle and held onto it as we walked back, making him stop and I looked over with an innocent look, "Why did you stop walking?" He must have caught onto what I was doing and he merely 'hmmed' before looking forward and walking once more, but he flipped the tables on me when he actually wrapped the tentacle end a bit more around my hand, making a light blush creep onto my cheeks. Nothing was said as I saw the cabin and Charlie was just walking around the corner, and as I suspected his tentacle removed itself from my grasp quickly, he then handed me the firewood but he continued to walk with me. Bongo barked and trotted right past me and sat in front of Slender as I placed the wood in the small pit, making me laugh as they just stared at each other. "Why does this beast insist on pestering me?" "Uh maybe you should pet him, then he would leave you alone."He looked at Charlie ,and if he had eyes I'm sure he would have been glaring, and then he turned his head back down to look at Bongo, watching as the dog happily wagged his tail and sat down.

I suppose I should have figured that he wasn't going to pet the dog but then again I was curious as too why the dog liked him so much when he clearly didn't show affection towards him, maybe it was a dog thing. I went back to starting the fire as the sun went down and the temperature went down a few degrees, I made a noise of success as the match caught the dry grass I had placed around the wood on fire and it started to burn. "Alright Charlie hand me the fish." She had managed to snag a few earlier in the day surprising us both, but I wasn't complaining, food is food. I placed them on the make shift grill top and watched in satisfaction as they cooked, I noticed that Slender was standing near as well but he was somewhat enveloped in the shadows so I just turned to Charlie. "I've noticed an increase in the number of dead around here and I'm worried that there will be more, I just hope it won't be enough to make us move." "But if we do have to where would we go?" I thought about it for a minute, there was no way I was going into town and I wasn't going back the way I came...maybe... I glanced at Slender for a moment before looking back to the fire, deep in thought about what actions would need too be taken. "Well, we need to keep everything slightly packed so we're ready just in case, I'd hate to leave all this stuff behind...I'd just hate to leave in general...but we will do what must be done if necessary." I saw her nod and again Slender said nothing, I assumed he was either indifferent about the situation or he was in thought as well. It was a still silence for another few minutes as the fish finished and I took them off of the grill top, then he spoke up from the dark making me jump a bit. "I believe there is a place that you could go too, Orella knows." I nodded slowly as my thoughts were confirmed, the cabin was going to be our best chance if this place was over run, "Are you sure it would be any better there than here?"

"Yes, believe it or not I've noticed that my aura keeps them at bay and that is where I resided almost all the time. It would be safer there than here." I looked over to my friend and nodded, knowing that it would be the right choice, "Alright, then we should leave before it gets worse here. Better safe than sorry." We were quiet after that, silently eating our food and thinking about what the winter season would be like for us and whether or not we would survive it.

There we are, Orella really wants some Halloween fun but she also has to think about prep for winter...but can she do both? Please review about what you think!