Chapter 15 : Into the Darkness - Part 5 : The Negotiation (And Epilogue.)
I can't believe it. All this time, Doppelganger involved us in this mess just for a starite?! I mean how could he? He kidnapped Sarah and Maxwell just for a single starite. I clenched my fist and let out a growl of anger, "Alex, calm down. We'll find them." Lily put her hand on my left shoulder.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I started counted to 10 while exhaled my breath, "One, two, three, four, five..." Well, sometimes I do this to calm myself down whenever I get angry.
"Feeling better?" She asked me.
"Yeah, now let's save Sarah and Maxwell." I replied.
I led the way to the exit and we walked to Anaphora Falls. My mind always focused to save Sarah and Maxwell. I mean, Doppelganger kidnapped them just for a starite. He also could collect it by making people happy, not stealing them from another Scribblenaut. I don't know how long we've been walking, and now we arrived at a safe house not far from the falls.
I kicked the door open, inside was dark. So I pulled out my flashlight and turned it on to shine the way inside. We searched for the sign of Maxwell and Sarah throughout the safe house, but it was empty, not even Doppelganger was here. When we reached the last room, I saw Sarah. Still wearing her white hoodie and laying on the ground, still unconscious. I quickly rushed to her to check her, luckily she still alive. Despite she got bruise on her right cheek and the right side of her lips bleeding.
I let out a sigh of relief when she woke up, she slowly opened her eyes and stared at me. "Alex?" She asked me.
"Sarah? Thank god you're alive." I hugged her, even she was an annoying sister too, I still love her. "Do you see Maxwell?" I asked her if she memorized something.
"Maxwell, Maxwell." She rubbed her forehead, "I don't know. Last time I saw him, he was with that evil guys and Slender Man." She replied.
Suddenly the door behind us was blown open, revealing Doppelganger, Schwartz, and Slender Man. Slender Man was dragging Maxwell unconscious body on the ground by grabbing his hood, I just hope Maxwell didn't died because choked with his own hoodie when being dragged.
"You bring the stuff?" Doppelganger asked.
"No." I replied.
"Why? Don't you want your friends to be saved?"
"What starite is you want?"
"That golden starite!" He growled, "Did you bring it?"
"No, because you didn't specific when explaining to bring the starite. Maybe Maxwell know what starite you want." I crossed my arms.
I tried to play with his emotions and messing around with him, I could heard Lily and Sophia chuckled from behind. He growled in anger and snapped his fingers, "Slender Man, give him hell."
"Does this is really necessary?" Slender Man asked him, he actually has a low and calm voice. Which is the one I never heard before.
"Well, of course it is!" Schwartz answered, "You want to go home right? Then we need that starite now!"
"Wait a minute." I said to them, "You actually tried to fool him to get you both a starite so he can go home?" I asked.
"Yea- no!" Doppelganger exclaimed, "And I had enough with you Alex. You really pushed me far from my patience limit!" He clenched a fist with his right hand and went to punch me in the face.
A hand grabbed his arm when he was about to punch me, it was actually a girl wearing the same clothes as Lily. Except for her turquoise rooster helmet, and skirt with pink shirt made the different, "Enough." She threw his arm.
"Why is it sis? When we got that starite we can be the most powerful person in the world!" Doppelganger said to her.
"I already know it. But not in this way, you led these poor guys in your own little game for getting that stupid starite!" She shouted at his face.
"You really getting on my nerves sis. If you want to defend them, so be it." Doppelganger pushed her to me innocently.
I could catch her with both of my hands at the right time before she fall to the ground, I stared at her face, she look a lot like Lily. "And I had enough with you too!" Doppelganger pointed at Slender Man, "You are just an incompetent guy who always asked for a such nonsense, really getting on my nerves, and you always prevent me from achieving what I want!"
Slender Man grabbed his throat with his black tentacle-alike arm from his back and lift him upward, "And you just like an incompetent people who always told me to do nonsense and never keep your promises." He said to him before threw him to the wall, Doppelganger fell to the ground.
He quickly got up and took Schwartz notebook from him, "Then, you all gonna die!" He pointed to us all with the pencil and wrote something on Schwartz notebook.
Suddenly a giant red cthulu with red eyes and sharp claws appeared in the front of us, "Damn, Mr. Slender, get Maxwell. We gonna get out from here!" I said politely to him.
He nodded and took Maxwell body and then swung him over his shoulder, the good thing is that Maxwell isn't faceless anymore. We quickly exited the house before it got blew up and we thrown to the ground.
"What it is fell like, being overpowered?" Doppelganger mocked us from his Cthulu. "Yeah." Schwartz followed behind him.
"You crazy!" I shouted to him.
"It's life Alex. Don't you get it? Sometimes, life can get unfair. Isn't it?"
When I was about to pulled out my notebook to write something, Doppelganger sister prevent me from doing it, "Don't. It's useless." She said to me.
I sighed, she was probably right. He could have add an adjective 'immortal' to the cthulu. Making it pointless to fight against it. "We better escape. Now!" We all got up and start running.
We headed to the falls to avoid the giant red cthulu that Doppelganger just spawn. Unfortunately, for all of us. It shoots fireball from it's mouth and laser from it's eye, also setting some trees on fire. We dodged fallen trees along the way to the falls, when we was about to reach the falls. The cthulu shot a fireball close my left leg, I was thrown to the ground. My left leg felt hot and hurt like hell, I almost can't got up. Lily helped me to stand and I forced the leg to run again. I ignored all the pain that came from it until we reached the falls.
We came across the fall's ledge, below us was the river that stored all of the Anaphora falls water. "What should we do?" Sophia asked us.
"I have an idea, but it sounds crazy." Slender Man answered, "We are going to jump to that river." He pointed to the river below us.
"You crazy?! I'm not jumping to that!" She replied.
I looked behind and saw Doppelganger and his Cthulu just getting close to us, "We have no more choice. Jump!" I shouted to the group and we jumped together to the river below.
It was a free falling sensation, you almost couldn't feel you weight while in the air. Weirdly, I didn't saw Slender Man jumping, probably he's cheating by teleporting to the bottom. Once we landed in the water, I quickly swam to the surface and checked the others. Sophia, with Sarah on her back already on the surface. Slender Man, well. He's already at the ground not far from my location now, no need to worry about him. Then I felt someone jumped on my back, I turned around and saw Lily put her arms on my shoulders. "Sorry, I can't really swim." She said to me.
I sighed, "Where's Doppelganger sister?"
"You mean Doppelily?"
"Uh... Is that her name?"
"Yes. She's right there." She pointed to Slender Man, who was holding both Maxwell and Doppelily over his shoulders.
I swam to the nearest ground, careful not to make Lily fall from my back. After I did it, I realized something, it just came suddenly. I quickly pulled out mine and Maxwell's notebook and only to find the worse. It was soaked. I groaned in frustration, I should have add an adjective waterproof earlier before we jump, now Maxwell and I would never able to use it again. But, the good thing is I didn't brought my phone, I saw Doppelily pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and wrote something in it.
Both of the notebook suddenly became dry, maybe she has a magic paper that have the same function as the magic notebook. "Where did you get that?" Lily asked her.
"From Schwartz. He gave it to me yesterday and he said it was for in case of emergency if I need it to defend myself." She replied.
I sighed, Schwartz was actually has some of my personality. Not completely the exact opposite of me. What make me confused is, Maxwell hasn't wake up yet. "How do we wake him up?" She asked while pointing to Maxwell on the ground.
"I know." I replied and smiled, I quickly approached him and heard him snoring loudly. Damn he was a heavy sleeper.
I knelt down and smiled, because I know how to wake him up in just a few seconds.
"Maxwell, wake up! Your parents is going to be mad when they find that you wet your pants!" I shouted at him.
He quickly jerked awake and sat, "What?!" He stared at me, "Alex, stop waking me up with that way!"
"Sorry, it was just annoying when I found out that you were asleep when we were actually in danger." I replied as I gave him his notebook back.
"Alright, so we escaped Doppelganger. Maxwell and Sarah is saved. Now what we going to do with Mr. Slender?" Sophia asked.
"So, first of all I just wanted to ask you real name Mr. Slender." I said to him.
"What for?" He asked back.
"Well, we can't just call you Slender Man or Mr. Slender all the time." I replied.
He stared at the sky, he seems thinking hard to remember his real name, after a few seconds he answered, "Mark. My real name is Mark."
"Alright then, Mark. What do you want? Do you want to go home?"
"No."
"Why? Isn't you wanted to go home?" Lily asked him.
"I actually bored at my usual life back at my home at the forest. Haunting and scaring the innocent people who dare to enter it, and then kill them. I quickly felt guilty, when I wished for a new life, Doppelganger and Schwartz brought me here." He explained.
"Then, if you don't want to go home. What do you want?" I asked him.
"If you could. I just want a home that very far away from civilization. Where I could be alone and relax."
"Well, we know where it is." Lily said to him.
She pulled out her globe and teleported us to Grave Manor. Where Slender Ma- I mean Mark. Could live peacefully in there. "There you go. Grave Manor, an abandoned manor and far away from civilization. It just need a cleaning and little touch and maybe you could like to live here." She said to him.
"Thanks. But I just have one more wish." He said.
"What is it then?" I asked him.
"I just wanted a couple for me and my life would be complete." He answered.
I pulled out my notebook and thought for a while, what would Slender Man need for a couple? So I just wrote 'Slender Woman' and a female version of Slender Man wearing the same clothes as him appeared in the side of him.
Both of them held their hands together, "Thanks, this is what I need. Thank you, to all of you. For everything." That's all he said before walking away to Grave Manor with his new couple.
We waved our hands for a sign of goodbye, and he turned his head around and waved back. Alright, now all our problems done. Slender Man has decided to change from his normal life as described in the legend. And now we could go home and relaxed our mind from all of this.
"Wait, how about her?" Sophia pointed to Doppelily with her left thumb.
"She could stay with us. Until we can get her back to Doppelganger." Maxwell answered.