"This is the final night of my vlog," I say to the camera of my phone while standing in the center of Lacy Park. "I have decided to stop trying to prove that Slender Man doesn't exist. Dorothy McGee and I have become a couple. I still don't believe in the Slender Man, but she does, and it would be bad for us if I continue trying to prove my new girlfriend wrong online.

"I actually don't feel too bad about giving the vlog up for her. Dorothy is a great girl. She's totally worth it. And I was never really into vlogging to begin with anyway. I don't know what the chances of our relationship are. She's planning to leave Lacy Town to be a famous actress, and I'm planning on staying to become the next sheriff. But who knows? We might just make it.

"I want to thank everyone that took the time to join me in this short adventure, including that asshole, Tim Wright. You and I may disagree on the Slender Man, but at least you took the time to watch my videos and even leave a comment. A mean one, but whatever.

"I was also wrong about you being a keyboard warrior. I have to give you credit. You can take a punch. You fight dirty, but I'm bigger and in better shape than you. There was no way you could have beaten me in a fair fight, so I guess you had no choice."

I stop recording when I remember something. I got so distracted by the attractive redhead I met at Lacy Bar the other night that I had completely forgotten to show the footage of Mr. Townsend and his guest to my dad. He's still at work, so I just send the video to his email.

Afterwards, I think of what else to include to Night Four of my vlog. Dorothy mentioned how the foreigner in the suit I had met sort of resembled Slender Man. I figure an interview with him would be a neat way to end my last video entry. I could ask him if people usually mistake him for Slender Man and what that's like.

O

I continue recording with my phone while walking deeper into the park. I don't expect to find him. After all, why would a tourist visit the same park for three nights. But I get lucky.

My phone acts up, but only a little, and I find him right where I last saw him. He just has long arms instead of tentacles tonight.

"Yo!" I call to him. "Hey, man! How you doing?!"

He turns his bald head to me but doesn't reply. Maybe he doesn't speak English. Maybe he's French. Do the French have faces? I'm not sure. I walk a little closer to him when I start coughing.

I clear my throat and ask, "Hey, you mind if I interview you for my vlog?!"

He still doesn't reply. I don't know how to speak French. I could try to speak English in a French accent, but that would probably piss him off. I take another step closer, and the coughing becomes really bad. What the heck's wrong with me?!

Then, I feel a sudden and painful smack against the back of my head. The phone falls from my hand. My vision blurs, and I fall on my face. I nearly pass out but don't. Whoever hit me must have been pretty weak. I turn around so that I'm lying on my back. When my vision clears, I see Max standing over me. His face is twisted with rage, and instead of a knife, this time, he has a lead pipe in his hand. I can see my blood dripping on one end of the makeshift weapon.

"Yo, Max," I groggily greet him. "Have I got news for you."

He stomps his right foot into my stomach.

I curl in pain on the floor and groan, "You know Dorothy McGee? We're a couple now."

Max snarls, "You should have stuck to sports and cartoons, Melvin! But you just had to play detective and interfere with the Operator's plans for me. I am his chosen one! I won't let you spread lies about him in that blasted vlog of yours."

"Wait. Slow down. You lost me. I don't understand."

"Of course, you don't. You're a fucking idiot."

He raises the pipe above him with both hands to cave my skull in.

Suddenly, from outta nowhere, Tim Wright tackles Max to the ground. My best friend grunts as he falls hard on his back and loses hold of his weapon. Tim starts hitting him in the face with lefts and rights.

My head is pounding with more pain than I've ever felt before. Strangely, it's at that exact time when I figure everything out. All the pieces magically fall into place, and I see everything clearly for the first time since Night One. This whole thing with Slender Man was a mystery all along. And I'm the one that solved it.

O

This is what really happened. Let's start from the very beginning; when the two bodies were discovered in Lacy Park. They weren't bodies. They weren't even real people.

They were obviously…sex dolls! Not those cheap blow-up sex dolls. No. These were realistic, expensive sex dolls.

And Tim Wright? He's obviously a pervert with a fetish for outdoor sex. Unfortunately, he's short, fat, and not very attractive, so he couldn't find a living, breathing partner to fuck. So he brings his sex dolls to Lacy Park and starts fucking them.

Unfortunately for him, he gets spotted. Some guy yells, "Hey you," or something. Tim panics. So he hurriedly spills ketchup all over his dolls to make them look like dead people. Afterwards, he runs away, goes home, and starts to cover his tracks by writing a blog about how Slender Man killed those people in the park. That's why he was so furious when I successfully proved in my vlog that Slender Man doesn't exist.

But there was another loose end: the eyewitness. Who was this eyewitness? None other than my best friend, Max Kato! Max tried to explain this to me the last time we met at the park. But I was too distracted by Mr. Townsend's death. So Max had no choice but to pretend to stab me with a knife to get my attention.

As for Mr. Townsend's death? That has nothing to do with anything. He wasn't even really murdered. The last time I saw him, he was choking on his food and was trying to ask me for help. I didn't realize it at the time, so that's on me.

But what about the guy in the hoodie behind him? That's the most obvious piece of the puzzle. I'm surprised it took a hit to the head to get me to realize it. The guy in the hoodie was not Mr. Townsend's dinner guest.

He was Skeletor!

O

Armed with the undeniable truth, I now know exactly what I must do. I spring back to an upright position and yank Tim off my best friend.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" the pervert yells. "I just saved your life!"

I wrap my arms around his and lock them behind him.

Then, I shout, "Now, Max! Get im!"

Tim shakes his head and sighs, "Aw, you moron."

Max groggily forces himself back to his feet. His face is a swollen, bloody, black and blue mess. But that murderous rage returns to his eyes almost in an instant. He roars and hobbles towards us with his arms stretched forward like a zombie.

"Lemme go!" Tim yells at me. "You're gonna get us both killed!"

I wisely pay no attention to him. He's gotta do better than that to fool me. But before my best friend could reach the pervert, Tim kicks him in the chin. Max falls back down.

Then, Tim swings his head back and breaks my nose with the back of his skull. The pain is unbearable. It causes me to release my prisoner's arms. My legs turn to jelly, and I collapse. Before I completely lose consciousness, I see Tim snatch the lead pipe from the ground and strike Max in the head with it.

O

I wake up in a bed that is way too clean to be mine, and the first things I see are Dorothy's beautiful green eyes.

"Baby, are you okay?" she worriedly asks me while gently stroking my forehead. Before I can answer, she turns around in her chair and shouts, "Sheriff, he's awake!"

My dad is standing near the foot of the bed with his arms crossed, a grim expression on his face. That don't mean nothing. He normally has a grim expression on his face.

"Dorothy, go get the doctor," he casually commands.

My girlfriend affectionately whispers to me, "I'll be right back, baby."

I manage to smile at her before she bolts up from the chair and runs out the door.

I clear my throat, but when I talk, my voice still croaks, "Dad, there's something I gotta tell you. I figured it all out."

"I know," he replies.

I frown and ask, "You do?"

"Yes. I watched the video you sent me on my email. It shows Max Kato attacking Townsend with a knife."

"It does?!"

"Yes. Well, his hoodie was partially hiding his face, so we weren't sure. But somebody gave us a call on your phone earlier. He told us that you and Kato were unconscious in Lacy Park and that we should send both an ambulance and a squad car because Kato is a murderer."

The information stuns me silent. How could my best friend be a killer? There were no signs whatsoever. He seemed like a really cool guy.

My father continues, "When we got there, Kato was wearing the exact same hoodie from when he killed Townsend. A search of his home later produced the murder weapon, but we didn't need it. He confessed to everything."

"He did?!" I screech.

"He was fucking proud of himself, too. We didn't even need to interrogate 'im. Says he did it to appease the Slender Man."

O

I had a nasty bump on the back o my head, but it wasn't serious. Turns out my nose wasn't busted up as badly as I thought either. So the doctor made me stay overnight just to be sure, then let me go home the following day.

At night, I sit in a chair at the porch and drink beer from a bottle while looking at the darkness and listening to insects chirp. I'm thinking about a lot of things, which I admit is rare for me.

I think of Max. I'm wondering if I should visit him in jail. You know, hear for myself why he did the things he did. It's funny, but if he apologized for trying to kill me, I think I could forgive him. Not sure I could forgive him for killing Mr. Townsend though.

Then, I think of Tim Wright. He's not from around here. I asked about him earlier today and learned that he drove into town only after news of the Lacy Park murders spread. So much for my sex dolls theory. He checked out and left town while I was in the hospital. My instincts still tell me that he's responsible for this whole mess somehow. And I've got good instincts.

And finally, I think of my faceless friend in the suit. I bet he was the one that called the police on my phone while I was unconscious. Although I wonder how he was able to talk to them without a mouth. Anyway, I went back to Lacy Park to thank him, but he was no longer there. I guess he's decided to visit some other small town in America.

Well, wherever he is, I hope he's doing well. Maybe I'll get the chance to meet him again one day.

THE END