Heya guys!

Hope you're ready for this chapter! Some things are explained and more of the plot develops!

Just to let you guys know, this is going to be a very long story and I hope you all stick around for it! I love all your comments and feedback, thank you so much for taking the time to read. :3

Anyhow, I could only edit half of this chapter at the moment because I have work soon, but I'll try and edit the other chapters ahead of time.

With that said, I hope you enjoy!


I woke up the next morning at nine and nearly had a heart attack. I was rushing to get my school stuff together until my mom came upstairs and informed me that she'd taken me out of school for the day. I frowned at that, not because I wanted to go to school. I just didn't want to be home that very moment.

Apparently my aunt left late in the night to go pick up Cory and she'd be back 'as soon as she could'. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

Then there's Slender, whom decided to stay. He was at the table when I walked into the dining room with some toast, a cup of coffee sitting beside him.

"How can you drink that without a face?" I asked and I earned a chuckle from him.

"Child, I do have a mouth." He replied, actually taking a sip right in front of me. It was like watching someone with a mask put a drink to their lips, but the liquid didn't run down his face. He actually drank it.

"What the fuck?" I muttered as I looked away, causing him to chuckle again. I frowned and took a bite of my toasted bread, munching thoughtfully as I looked back at the Tall Man.

"…so do you really have a mansion in the middle of the woods?" I asked and he turned his head towards me.

"Excuse me?" He inquired, sounding confused.

"You know, the 'Slender Mansion'?" I asked again, using my fingers as quotations. "Where you house your proxies or whatever…"

"Ah, you mean the house that the 'fans' seem to be so very fond of." He replied with amusement. "Much to their disappointment, no. I do not. I am a traveler, I do not stay in one place. As for proxies? Yes, I have many of them, but I allow them to roam as well." I blinked.

"Oh." I murmured. "I see…" I looked down at the table. So Slender Mansion wasn't a thing? Too bad for all his adoring fans.

"Hey, wait, how many proxies do you have?" I asked, looking back up at him.

"Many." He stated simply. "I have eyes and ears everywhere. Although, some of my 'proxies' are merely acquaintances I've met over the years. They've earned my respect and I have earned theirs."

"Oh… is Jeff the Killer one of them?" Slender barked a laugh, startling me as I jumped.

"Jeff? No, not an acquaintance. He's one of my so called proxies." The Tall Man replied. "He is an arrogant fool and nothing more than a child. Although he's grown the past few years…" I blinked at the explanation before something clicked.

"Whoa, wait." I said. "So, the little follower that my aunt was talking about that wanted to kill her was Jeff?"

"Ah, yes, it was." He replied. "He's got an insatiable bloodlust and he threw a fit when I told him to leave your aunt alone. She is one of the first humans to earn my respects." I furrowed my brows.

"Seriously?" I asked and the man nodded.

"Yes. She's a brave woman that seeks the best for those around her. It's admirable and I honor that." He replied and I snickered lightly. He turned towards me again and tilted his head slightly.

"And this is funny… how?" He inquired as I shook my head lightly.

"Nothing… just seems like, oh, I dunno…" I replied vaguely. "Sounds like you really admire my aunt." I could feel the confusion coming from the entity and I laughed again as I got up and went into the living room, turning on the TV to see what was on.


"Allie!"

I groaned as my mother called me, making me hit a wrong chord on my guitar. I put the instrument back in its cradle and started downstairs.

"The house better be burning down this time." I stated as I reached the bottom step, hearing a very familiar scoff.

"Yeah, didn't know you'd wanna go back though that, kid. Don't expect me to save you a second time." I looked over and saw LJ and Cory standing in the living room. LJ looked very annoyed while Cory just looked at all our electronics and décor. My mom really loved decorating the house.

"Wow, never thought I'd see your mug again." I smirked and leaned against the wall while LJ growled. Dalton seemed to wander in from the hallway beside the stairs and stared at me as if I grew a second head.

"Who the fuck is my sister talking to?" Dalton asked, looking around confusedly. Cory seemed to perk up and looked at my brother.

"She's talking to my friend Jack!" He said excitedly.

"Jack?" He muttered, running a hand through his hair before shaking his head. "It's too fucking early for this shit."

"It's nearly 5 o'clock." I pointed out.

"Too early!" He repeated as he walked off into another room, probably the kitchen to eat all the food. Cory watched Dalton walk away, confused.

"So… what the hell are we doing here?" LJ asked, crossing his arms as he looked at me. I shrugged.

"You'll be ecstatic to know that the Tall Man himself requested your presence, sir." I stated sarcastically while LJ just frowned.

"The fuck does he want?" LJ growled and Cory looked at him in shock. LJ looked at the boy and muttered a small 'sorry', probably for using the f-bomb. I shrugged again just as Slender decided to make his presence known.

"Good. You're here." Slender stated and LJ rolled his eyes.

"Cory, how about we go upstairs for a while." My aunt suggested. "Allie's got a sister around your age that you can talk with." Cory looked at my aunt and nodded excitedly while she took Cory's hand and started up the stairs. LJ glanced around through narrowed eyes, studying the situation.

"So… what the fucking hell do you want?" LJ pressed heatedly. Slender looked at him passively.

"I wish to know your half to the story about the orphanage fire." Slender replied calmly while LJ bristled.

"Why? What the fuck does that have to with anything?" He snarled.

"Oh, it has much to do with the situation." Slender countered. "Now, Allie says she pushed you out of the way of a falling beam, is this true?" LJ was silent, glaring at the Tall Man before looking away.

"Yeah." He muttered. "So what?'

"What did you do after she blacked out?" He asked. LJ didn't reply at first, shifting on his feet uncomfortably.

"Why the fuck does it matter?" He retorted bitterly. "The kid's alive, isn't she?"

"Laughing Jack, answer my question." Slender said sternly, causing the monochrome entity to stiffen before snarling at Slender.

"I'm not one of your fucking proxies." He snapped. "I don't take fucking orders from bastards like yourself." The atmosphere tensed, almost painfully, as the two of them had a stare down. I watched quietly from the side, eyeing the two with both interest and irritation.

"LJ, come on." I interrupted, causing both of them to turn to me. "I've been kind of curious myself. What did you do after I blacked out? That and, why did you pull me out of there? You could've just left me to burn to death." LJ frowned again before shaking his head.

"I was just returning the favor, kid." He muttered. "You saved my life, so I saved yours, got it?"

"Hm, I have a feeling it's much more than that." Slender inferred. LJ snapped his glare back to Slender.

"And what makes you say that?" He growled and I looked at Slendy with curiosity. The Tall Man said nothing as LJ just silently fumed and turned away, refusing to say anything else. Slender merely sighed deeply and looked between the two of us.

"It's not important right now." He stated. "What is important is that the both of you are in danger." We both looked at him in confusion.

"What?" We mimicked before looking at each other with the 'really' look.

"Yes." He replied and I felt a huge speech coming on. "You see… bonds are developed when certain actions are taken. Spending time with friends develops bonds, doing courteous acts. So on and so forth. But, a special bond takes place when something is sacrificed for another. And when two beings sacrifice something for the other, it binds their very souls together."

"Your point?" I asked slowly, raising a brow.

"When you pushed Jack away from the beam, you sacrificed your very life." Slender stated. "When Jack took you from the building, he not only sacrificed his life, but his very existence. Your aunt is smart enough to know how to permanently remove him, but he took a risk to save you."

"Are you saying what I think your saying?" LJ deadpanned.

"You two have unknowingly become soul bound." Slender concluded. "And because of this, demons and evil entities seek you out to destroy you. Because they want the inner power that Laughing Jack wields." I blinked a few times, staring at the entity.

We what?

Became soul bound?

"You're kidding me, right?" I said and Slender shook his head.

"No." He replied. "This is a rare occurrence, but it has indeed happened to the both of you."

"What makes you so goddamn sure?" LJ scoffed.

"Allie, how did you get that bandage?" Slender pointed out and I looked at my shoulder. I remembered Gym and shrugged.

"Um… I don't know?" I replied, unsure. "It literally just appeared."

"I see… Jack… how did you get that wound on your shoulder?" Slender turned to LJ causing the entity to stiffen and glare. I didn't notice before, but LJ had a fading bite mark on his shoulder, looking a lot like the one I had.

"I don't see why this has anything to fucking do with what's going on." LJ hissed. "Some fucking thing attacked me and bit my shoulder, that's it. Kid probably fucking hurt herself and didn't realize it."

"Excuse me?" I snapped. "I was in Gym standing next to a friend when my fucking shoulder started burning and a goddamn wound appeared before me and my whole class's eyes!"

"You're fucking exaggerating." LJ argued, turning his glare on me.

"Am not, you dickbag!"

"Enough!" We both turned back to Slender as his voice boomed, making me feel a bit dizzy and my ears started ringing. He composed himself and looked between the two of us.

"Being soul bound, you both share certain physical… senses." Slender began. "Pain is one of them. If one of you gets wounded, so does the other. This said, if one of you dies…" He trailed off and we got the point. Well, I did, LJ just seemed pissed off.

"We're not fucking soul bound!" He snarled while Slender looked at him again.

"Do you need a… demonstration, Jack?" He questioned plainly. LJ just scoffed again.

"I don't need your fucking—"

One of Slender's tendrils lashed out, sharply catching me on my cheek as I yelped, stumbling back a bit and holding my face slightly. It didn't hurt too much, it just surprised me. I heard LJ grunt as I looked over, seeing a small line of black on his cheek.

The same place where Slender just tagged me.

We just kind of stared at each other for a few moments, confused and a bit irritated that Slendy just attacked us.

"Do you understand now?" Slender asked and we both looked away, nodding slowly. "Good. Now then… we should discuss your training."

"Whoa, whoa, what fucking training?" LJ asked, looking at the Tall Man. Slender gave an amused scoff.

"Of course you need training." Slender replied. "You both need to learn to defend yourselves. Together."

LJ and I looked at each other with raised brows before looking back at Slender.

"Dude, I can defend myself just fine." I stated. "I have other things to do in my life, you know."

"Same here, I don't need a fucking kid tagging by my side all the goddamn time. I've already got a kid to watch over." LJ agreed, but Slender shook his head.

"I have no doubt you two can fight by yourselves." He said. "But the point of this is not how well you fight alone. You two will be at your strongest when you are together. After all, you are each other's weakness now, you must guard each other with your lives."

"What the fuck?" LJ snapped. "You expect us to just drop everything because of a fucking mishap at the orphanage?"

"Slendy, there's no fucking way." I said. "You can't expect us to do that."

"I can and you will." Slender stated dully. "The longer we delay this, the more dangerous the situation will become. The demons? They will get worse, more savage. They will stop at nothing to kill you both."

"I can handle goddamn demons." LJ muttered.

"Yes, but can you handle what they will do to the boy? Cory? Will you put his life in danger because you're being hunted?" Slender turned to me. "Will you risk your family's life to ignore this problem?" We stood in silence, mulling over our thoughts. I furrowed my brows and thought of my friends. My family. If something happened to them because of me, I would never forgive myself.

"No." I said. "I don't want them to get hurt because of me. I'd rather die." I looked at LJ. "If keeping them safe means we gotta work together, than guess we got no choice."

LJ was quiet for a moment, studying me intently before sighing in defeat.

"Yeah, fine… guess you're right, kid." He muttered and glared at Slender. "That doesn't mean I'm taking any fucking orders from you though." Slender laughed lightly.

"I never expected you to." He stated. "But your training needs to start immediately. I will let you and Cory get settled in the Michalis home, Jack. But tomorrow, we will start." With that, the man left in the blink of an eye. LJ and I looked at each other before looking away again. Training? Soul bound? All the information that had just been brought down on us just confused the hell out of me. Sure, some of it made sense, but other parts just… didn't.

I didn't like where any of this was going, but it looked like we had no choice but to try and work together now.


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Until next time everyone!