Soundtrack: Slender the Arrival OST – Distance

Sayaka shivered as she held the bat out in front of her. Enchanted as it had been by Mami, it still did not give off light, so Sayaka was mostly just turning in a circle at random, hoping to see any attacker before they came at her. The darkness pressed in on her and she breathed heavily. True, she didn't feel like something was going to leap out and attack her at the moment, but there was still a paranoid dread on the edge of her senses.

She edged forward, trying to move sideways from where she'd been originally running. She reasoned that, if they had all run at different angles, then she stood a better chance encountering someone if she moved to intercept them. Of course, she couldn't be sure in the dark if she really was moving in the right direction, but staying still was almost unbearable.

And then she heard something moving through the trees. She froze. Something was walking towards her. Fear spiked inside her as she pressed herself against a tree. Her mind filled with visions of that Slender Man. She wasn't even sure why it should be so terrifying, but something about it had exuded such a feeling of wrongness that she shuddered at the thought.

The thing coming through the trees was almost upon her now and Sayaka, acting on instinct, held up the bat. The thing came by and Sayaka swung, but too early and too hard. Her swing went wide and the weight of the bat carried her out from cover in front of the thing she'd been aiming at. She stumbled, trying to whirl back around to face the unknown person. The person in question grunted and help up their hands.

"Easy, it's me!"

It was a man's voice and, once Sayaka managed to get her balance back and turned around, she saw that it was Fuminori. This wasn't particularly comforting to her, as this was the guy who was mentally unstable.

She held the bat in front her, not quite knowing what to do. Fuminori however, was looking around.

"We are in quite a situation, aren't we?" he said simply.

Sayaka blinked. Fuminori did not look entirely calm, but she was sure that that could be said of herself as well. What was a bit odd was that Fuminori in spite of looking unsettled, was still able to give a semi-nonchalant air. It was as though this sort of situation was something he was used too. Not appreciated, but used to.

"You're calm," Sayaka finally said.

Fuminori snorted, "now at least. Trust me, this sort of ambient horror isn't nice for me either, but I've lived with this sort of thing for months now."

He was looking around, completely ignoring Sayaka holding her bat at the ready. After another moment, she put it down, reasoning that she could probably trust him not to attack her. Fuminori meanwhile was looking pensive.

"Have you seen any of the others?" Sayaka asked.

"No," Fuminori said. "No, once I got out of range of that thing I started searching for the rest. You're the first person I've seen so far."

Sayaka nodded and both of them looked around. Now that they were trying to get a bearing on their surroundings they noticed something. The trees seemed to be thinning out a bit. In a certain direction, it almost looked like the forest was ending. Sayaka pointed this out and Fuminori agreed. Then they heard something, it sounded like a tree branch snapping in the distance.

Sayaka and Fuminori glanced at each other.

"Might be a trap," Sayaka said blandly.

"It might be one of our companions too," Fuminori said, just as blandly.

There was nothing for it. So they moved off towards the sound. They had to take care with their footing, as neither of them had any light, so that they didn't turn their feet on a stone or some damp grass.

Then suddenly the forest (or at least the section they were in) ended and they came upon a dirt and rock path. It was definitely one that had been made by human hands and, furthermore, there was someone on it. Ryoko was moving along the path and she wasn't alone. She partially held up Lauren, who was leaning on her. The Doctor appeared to be comforting the younger girl and helping her get her courage back. As Sayaka and Fuminori came through the trees, Ryoko heard them. She immediately drew her shotgun and whirled around, pointing the weapon at them (a flashlight attachment flaring in their eyes). She stilled when she saw who it was, then she sighed with relief.

"Thank God. I thought we were never going to find each other again."

Lauren was wobbling a bit, but then she seemed to pull herself together and shone her flashlight around.

"Have you seen any of the others?" Ryoko asked the two new arrivals.

Both of them shook their heads and Ryoko softly cursed.

"It's no coincidence I'm sure that those of us without powers have been herded into a group."

Sayaka frowned worriedly, "but then, where's Madoka? If that were true, shouldn't she be here? I haven't seen her, have you?"

Ryoko shook her head. "No, I managed to find Lauren and we were moving along the path here. She said she thought there were some buildings around here we might be able to take refuge in."

Lauren nodded. When she spoke a moment later, she sounded like she was having trouble breathing, "Kate said there were . . . some supply sheds and . . . other buildings for this land and the mining operation nearby."

"Should we head back to the house?" Fuminori asked. "Does this path lead back there?"

Lauren shrugged, "I think it might . . . but I can't be sure. Even when I came here before I mostly just stayed at the house. I didn't walk the whole length and breadth of the woods."

After a few more moment's pause, they moved off in the direction that Lauren and Ryoko had been going originally. The path wound on for a bit, the woods looping around it. Sometimes closer, sometimes farther away, but always the woods were present, standing like sentinels to mark their passing.

After a few minutes walking however, they came across something interesting. A boxy machine on wheels, that had a hitch that indicated it had been towed there by a vehicle and then set up. They walked up to it and, after a moment, Lauren spoke.

"It's a generator" she said, "I think the miners used these when they needed to take a look around after dark."

"Why would they need that?" Sayaka asked, wondering why anyone would want to be within 10 miles of this place at night.

"Potentially they had quarters on site and worked in rotations" Ryoko explained. "One group works a week or two and the next group works the next week. Some businesses cycle workers like that."

"Or this was just emergency equipment" Fuminori suggested. He ran his hand over the top of the device. Then he turned to look at the others.

"Perhaps we should turn it on" he suggested, "the light might show the others where we are."

"Or, it might attract that thing back to us," Ryoko replied direly.

The group stood silent for a few seconds, each glancing at each other, before Sayaka shrugged and spoke up.

"I doubt that it's going to make much difference. I didn't get the feeling that that thing would have a harder time finding us in the dark than any other time. Besides-" she gestured at the flashlight Lauren was holding as well as the light attachment on Ryoko's gun, "-you two have been waving those lights around so much that that thing would've probably come after us already if he cared about it."

The others mulled this over, but after a moment, they nodded. Lauren reached over and flipped the power switch. The generator sputtered, and for a moment they thought it hadn't had any gas in it. But then it found its rhythm and suddenly they were all bathed in light. Floodlights turned on, one after the other. They reached off into the distance, but the closest illuminated what looked like a building project. There seemed to be a concrete foundation as well as several pallets of building material simply stacked up and left out.

". . . must've been left behind after the mining company pulled out." Lauren theorized.

"Most likely," Ryoko agreed.

"What's that though?" Sayaka asked. She pointed at a building in the distance that had a fence coming off it.

"It looks like . . . the entrance to a park?" Sayaka asked blankly.

They looked at Lauren who just shrugged.

"Like I said, I didn't know this property well. I have no idea what that is."

Drawn by curiosity, they moved up to the building, which turned out to indeed be an entrance to a small park. The gate was locked, but there was a door open on the side that they could use to get through. There wasn't much to speak of inside, just some tables and papers that indicated that the park had been shuttered for a while. Nothing of note stood out, right up until they got into a room that had a door opening into the park.

There, on a table in plain sight, was a notebook. It was open and there were familiar scribbles inside it.

IT CAME FOR ME

WHY DIDN'T I

LISTEN

he was right

he said this would

HAPPEN

HELP ME

NEED CR

HE KNOWS

HOW TO

END THIS

come find me

Don't LET

HIM IN

"Kate . . ." Lauren said softly, sounding worried.

The others glanced at each other. Then Sayaka felt something prickle on the back of her neck. She whirled around, but saw nothing but the dark room behind them. The others seemed to have felt something too, for they were also looking around in apprehension.

Sayaka, afraid but forcing herself to remain calm, walked slowly to the door and peered out back at the way they had come.

It was there. Standing perfectly still amongst the building materials. Staring in her direction with that blank white face. As Sayaka looked, a ringing started on the edge of her hearing that slowly increased. Instinctively, she looked away and backed up as fast as possible, breathing heavily. She held the bat out in front of her as if to ward off a blow.

"What is it?" Ryoko said, catching Sayaka as she stumbled.

"He's . . . out there!" Sayaka panted, pointed at the door.

Lauren gave a soft cry and looked like she was ready to bolt, but Fuminori grabbed her shoulder. His face was grim, but determined.

"No running, not yet. We don't want to get separated again.

Ryoko nodded. She steered Sayaka towards the door leading into the park and Fuminori did the same with Lauren. Sayaka forced herself to walk, not wanting to hobble Ryoko as she kept looking back with her shotgun at the ready. The fear that had come upon them eased up slightly as they walked and the Slender Man did not appear directly behind them. Still, they could not shake the feeling of being stalked. The feeling only increased as they came upon what seemed to be a map of the park, which was overtaken by a graffiti picture of the monster himself.

For a moment they stalled, staring at the picture. But then Sayaka noticed something pinned to the side of the sign. Trying to push her fear down, she walked around and grabbed it, examining it.

"What is it?" Fuminori asked as he tried to peer over her shoulder. Sayaka held it up and the others saw. It was a piece of notebook paper, disturbingly alike to the one's they had found in Kate's bedroom. It had text scribbled on it very roughly.

DON'T LOOK . . . OR IT TAKES YOU

"Oh Kate" Lauren moaned, "what happened to you!?"

No one could answer as they stared. Then they felt their necks prickle again and they looked around. No one saw the Slender Man this time, but they could not shake the feeling that he was around. They also could not help but notice a pattern in recent events.

"It appears our faceless friend is in the mood for some games," Ryoko said grimly, checking her gun to make sure it was functional.

"Did Kate make this note too?" Lauren asked in a nervous voice.

Fuminori glanced around at their surroundings, though as of that moment, nothing distinct could be seen in the dark.

"We did theorize that something had gotten into her head, didn't we. That Marethil person said that some creatures like this might play games with their prey. Maybe we're at the start of a new 'round' as it were."

There was silence as they digested that theory, none of them liking it much. After a few seconds, Sayaka shook her head.

"We're not going to get anything useful done if we stand around. We still need to find the others and try and regroup. Hopefully they're having better luck than we are."

"Is it likely, though, that they've wandered into this park?" Ryoko asked.

The others stared in silence for a moment, then Sayaka pointed towards the map.

"Look, there are some exits around the perimeter. Maybe if we can find one of those, we can loop around and find the others. I mean-" she looked at her three companions with a nervous expression, "-I . . . I can't think of anything else to do."

Silence again, then Ryoko nodded, "it's as good a plan as any other we can make. I say we at least look."

Soundtrack: Slender the Arrival OST – Shadowed

There were a few nods all around, then they moved off as a group, making sure to stick together. They had been walking for a few minutes when they came upon a concrete floor with several large metal shipping containers stacked on it, each filled with outdoors materials. They also found another note stuck to the side of one of the containers. More scribbles as usual.

LEAVE ME ALONE!

Lauren moaned softly, but they didn't linger and struck out again, trying to locate the fence line. It was hard to find their way and as they moved, they began to hear something. It was almost as if there was a soft pounding noise, as of some giant machine underground. It started quietly, almost unnoticeable, but slowly grew on them as they moved further and further on.

More pieces of notebook paper were found as they wandered, each one containing some disturbing picture or message. The pounding grew louder and louder, though none of them acknowledged it.

Then, as they found another note, the 8th one in fact, the pounding suddenly stopped. The woods suddenly went silent. Even the rustling of the leaves seemed muted and they all blinked and looked around. It was as though the sound had been switched off.

Suddenly, they all felt themselves compelled to turn around. Too sudden to resist, they did so and it was there, right behind them. It towered over them, seeming to have almost grown to giant size. Tentacles, black and sinuous, flared out behind it as it leaned over them. Each of their visions seemed to distort and blur as a ringing came into their ears. For an instant, they were held in its gaze. But then, out of sheer instinct, they all turned away and began to run flat out, each breathing heavily. Sayaka barely had the presence of mind to look to her sides and saw the other three running beside her. At least they were all running in the same direction this time.

Over small hills and through the trees they ran, each breathing like a bellows. The presence behind them did not diminish and the ringing in their ears reached fever pitch.

Then Sayaka stumbled and fell on her face with a cry. The bat she'd been carrying flew out of her hands as she hit the ground. She turned and saw that a blackened tentacle had grabbed her foot and was holding her in place. The creature advanced, though she couldn't look at it long enough to tell if it was walking or simply floating along. She cried out in terror, grabbed at a stick and threw it. It must've went wide, because the creature didn't stop, though its tentacle did seem to twitch a bit, as though in surprise.

Then, a pair of hands had come under her shoulders, someone else had moved in front of her and blocked the thing from her view. Stunned, she looked up and saw Fuminori, his face screwed up but defiant as he tugged on her, trying to pull her from the tentacle that had ensnared her. Looking back, she saw that the person blocking the creature from her was none other than Ryoko.

Sayaka couldn't see her face, but though Ryoko shook, she still managed to raise her shotgun and fire. Once, twice, thrice the sound of buckshot rang out. The tentacle twitched each time, but did not fall dead. Sayaka heard Ryoko swear, her voice hoarse. Then her Shotgun turned to point at the ground.

For a moment, Sayaka thought she had succumbed to fear, but then the shotgun blasted once more and this time, the tentacle reacted.

Failing at hitting the creature itself, Ryoko had aimed at the one part she could see clearly. The tentacle let go of Sayaka and withdrew. Fuminori dragged Sayaka back, away from the Creature, and Ryoko formed a rearguard.

Whether out of hurt or surprise, the creature didn't advance anymore. There was a thrashing sound of something hitting against the undergrowth repeatedly, but no roars or sounds of vocalization you might expect from a creature in pain.

After several minutes of running (Sayaka having managed to struggle to her feet) the three of them suddenly came out of the woods and to the foot of one of the largest hills of all, perhaps the largest. The moon was out for a change and was illuminating the world in a bright cold light.

"Wh- . . ." Ryoko coughed and wheezed. Like the other two, she seemed to be trying to breathe through a throat full of water.

"Wh-where's Lau-auren," she finally managed.

There was a soft movement of leaves and a whimper and the three whirled around. But to their relief, all it was was Lauren peaking out from behind a large bush.

"I-I'm s-sorry I r-ran! I j-just s-saw i-it and . . . and . . . and. . ."

Sayaka coughed, "we were . . . all trying to r-run. It's f-fine."

She put her hands on her knees, then cursed.

"I dropped my bat! The one Mami enchanted!"

They all looked back at the woods. There was no sign of the Slender Man, but none of them had the slightest wish to go back in to look for the object.

"Nothing we can do about it now," Ryoko said consolingly. "The important thing is that we got away. Who knows? Maybe with its focus on us, it will allow the others to find each other unobstructed."

She turned towards the hill.

"Now, where are we?"

There was a bit of a valley that sloped up. They'd obviously left the park at some point because they'd found the dirt path again. It had likely looped around the park and come to here. As they walked, they saw some scattered buildings and sheds, but the most notable thing of all was the place that the path lead up to.

It was obviously the entrance to a mine. The entrance yawned wide and high, leading off into darkness. Right before the entrance, there was a shack on the outside which was obviously some sort of storage hut. As they peered inside, they also found that it contained some papers and maps, as well as a notice informing the workers that the mine was shutting down unexpectedly and to not worry about their last paycheck as it would be mailed to them.

"Think the creature took them?" Fuminori asked grimly. He seemed to have recovered the best of them from the attack of the Slender Man.

"I doubt it," Ryoko said shrewdly. "A disaster of the sort that kills a whole mining operation, that would've been national news."

"Unless the creature did something to hush it up," Fuminori countered.

Sayaka narrowed her eyes, "it's more . . . toying with us right now, I think. Or it underestimated us. But maybe it just likes going after a few people at a time. Marethil made them sound like the sort of people who fry ants with a magnifying glass to get a laugh."

"But in that case" Ryoko continued, "did it drive us here purposefully, or was it random chance?"

There was a silence as they stared at the opening to the mine. It was not an especially inviting place, but then again, neither was the wood they had just come out of. Then Lauren gave a cry. She had been looking around the outside of the shed and had found a piece of paper stuck to it.

It was an email from an unknown sender, though the receiver was Lauren's friend Kate. It's content was in-keeping with the experience they'd been having so far.

I tried to find my way back to you when I tripped and fell down that slope, but my flashlight hit one of the rocks down there and broke. It was pitch black. I heard sounds all around me. Screaming. It sounded like you. I tried to follow it back but I was lost. I fell. Everything collapsed around me. I could feel it crushing me. Everything was moving so fast. I was drowning in water I couldn't see. Every fear I've ever had came back to me at once. Monsters surrounded me. My stomach inverted, my eyes shriveled out of existence, and my heart caved in. I don't know what happened after that. I woke up in some tall grass today and found my way back to the house. I looked through the window and saw you sitting on the couch, staring at your TV. I couldn't get your attention so I left. I can't write anymore. I can't think straight. I need to

It cut out after that. Clearly there was more, but there was only one page to read.

"I think it's from CR" Lauren said breathlessly as the others looked at the note. "He was Kate's best friend. He must've been trying to help her get away from that thing!"

"It does seem similar to our experience," Ryoko said pensively.

"Sure, but if this really is an email, then this was probably happening for awhile now," Sayaka theorized.

Lauren's eyes widened, "what makes you say that. Even if it was, why wouldn't they tell me?"

Fuminori grimaced, "people going through something horrible-" he looked a bit shifty eyed, "-sometimes they don't want to burden their friends with it. So they try and act as normal as possible, or they just cut their friends out of their lives. Especially if their sure their friends won't 'get it.'"

"As far as their encounters probably taking place over a period of time," Ryoko added, "obviously whoever wrote this was able to survive this encounter and get to a computer. Perhaps that creature, as Marethil said, simply loves to drag out the game over a long period of time. For example, why was this hung up here where we, or at least some of our group, would obviously end up seeing it?"

Lauren looked uncomfortable. But then she spoke again.

"Maybe . . . maybe that it was hung up means he's still around here?" Lauren ventured hopefully. The others glanced at each other, none of them wanting to voice just how remote the possibility was that either of Lauren's friends were still alive and unchanged at this point.

After a moment, they all looked around again. A minute or so later, Sayaka gave a small cry and called them over.

"Look," she said excitedly pointing at a manual that had a map of the mine. "It says that there's an elevator just inside the mine that lets out near the top of the hill!"

"So what?" Fuminori asked.

"So," Sayaka looked annoyed at the interruption, "they clearly say that the Radio Tower has all sorts of floodlights and stuff like that. It's sort of meant to be a Lighthouse in case of emergency. If we can get that running, maybe we can get all the others to gather at the radio station and we can regroup."

"Will the elevator even work though?" Fuminori asked skeptically.

"Probably," Ryoko said. She held up a sticky note that had been attached to a board. "Some of the notes left say that they should just leave all the infrastructure intact, including gas for the generators. Seems they were in that much of a hurry to get out of here."

"That fits with what Kate told me, last time we talked about it," Lauren confirmed. "She said that they seemed awfully eager to leave, though they didn't seem outright nervous. Just that they had to stop mining for some reason."

"Maybe the creature just made some sort of powerful suggestion to them," Ryoko theorized. "Something of a subconscious urge or demand so they felt like it was their own idea."

Silence fell again for a few minutes before Lauren, who had been looking over a plan of the mine, gave a small sounnd.

"What's that all about?" Lauren asked curiously.

She pointed to a section of the mine on the plans. It was clearly denoted that the miners had been digging in that direction. But there were no other notes of what was found. It seemed like they had just dug halfway and then given up. The thing that made it interesting however, was that there were notes marking that no one was allowed in that section anymore. No specific warnings of dangerous materials or gas were given as might be expected in a mine, but it was made very clear that the Miners were barred from going there.

"No idea," Ryoko said.

A silence fell as they all pondered their next move. It appeared to be, either go back into the forest that still in all likelihood had that Slender Man in them. Or into the Mine.

"What if this is a trap?" Lauren mentioned concernedly.

Another short silence fell, but then Ryoko shook her head.

"It may well be a trap," she said confidently, or as confident as she could sound. "But it may not be, too. We can't start second-guessing everything, we'll just end up attacking each other in the end if we do that. This is the best lead we've had since we all got separated, so there's not much we can do but follow the building plans we have here to the Elevator and get it running. Then we find the Radio Tower, turn on the lights and alarms if we can, and signal the others. Then we'll see how things go. Any objections?"

There were none, as no one had any better plan. Each of them took some survival equipment from a locker in the back of the hut and then, with flashlights at the ready, all four faced the entrance of the Mine.

The black opening yawned wide and almost seemed to loom over them as they walked forward. Darkness fell around them as the moon's light faded almost instantly. The only method of sight now came from their flashlights. Their footsteps seemed unnaturally loud as they walked forward, though nothing obstructed their way.

They almost could've sworn they heard a soft pitter-patter of feet behind them though.


Author's note: Less material this time, but on the plus side, it only took me 2 weeks to get this out to you, which is near instantaneous compared to my normal length of several months in between updates. Got most of the unpowered people together in this one as well as the first actual attack by the Slender Man. I'll leave it up to you if Ryoko actually managed to hurt him, or if he was simply surprised that someone actually had enough mental strength to fight back. Or then again, considering who it is, it may just be letting them think they've succeeded to make their despair later all the more deep.

Mailbag (just one this time, so it shouldn't artificially inflate the word count, lol):

Zack24

Slender the Arrival ?

Yep, they are indeed in Slender: The Arrival at the moment. When I decided to include it, I did stress a bit over how the game almost certainly takes place in America, but Madoka Magica is in Japan. I eventually just decided to wave my hands and say that the Characters from Slender are Americans living in Japan. Not the cleanest explanation, but I did my best. lol