Forests were scary places. A new forest strangely popped up in Ultimatum. This new forest caused rumors and myths to pop up. Anything from Bigfoot, to creepypastas like Hoodie and Jeff the Killer. However, one rumor, in particular, attracted Ness the most, Slenderman. He was deep in investigating what Slenderman could do. And when rumors started coming up of Slenderman being in the new forest he just NEEDED to check it out. However, he didn't want to go alone. He knew just the person to go with. He snuck out of his house, with a duffel bag of items. He ran over to Lucas's house.

"Hehe, hopefully, you're dressed and ready, babe," Ness started climbing up the side of the house. Soon enough, he made it to the window. He knocked on it, which didn't cause anything at first, so he knocked a second time and actually got a response, Lucas being scared and falling off the bed, showing he was only in tighty whities. Lucas quickly recovered, staring out the window and growling.

"THE FUCK!" He mouthed.

"Just let me in." Lucas rolled his eyes and opened the window. Ness crawled in and smiled at him.

"You're such a dick. I was having such a lovely dream about sunflowers and omelets and kitty cats. You just had to ruin it."

"Oh shush, it's time!"

"Time for what?"

"To go find SLENDERMAN!" Lucas rolled his entire head as he walked over to his closet.

"You do know Slenderman isn't real, right?"

"Says who?"

"Says science. There's no way a blank white creature in a proper black suit standing at 10 feet tall with freaking tentacles exists."

"How do you explain, oh I dunno, Ridley, or Bowser, or Lucario?" Lucas stayed silent. "Exactly. I'm right and you're wrong, Douche."

"Whatever." Lucas grabbed some warm clothes and put them on. "Do you have the stuff?"

"You bet." Ness tossed the duffel bag onto the ground. Lucas ran over and the two of them searched through it. They gathered bottles of water, flashlights, and….steaks? Lucas grabbed a steak and held it up.

"Steak?"

"What if we get hungry?"

"So you brought full steaks and not like, I dunno, pretzels or crackers or like any other type of food?" Ness snatched the steak.

"I like steaks, so shut up."

"Ugh, such a child." Lucas grabbed the bag of Chex Mix that was surely in there just for him. The two of them left the house, Lucas ensuring to close the window as they did. They carefully climbed down the house and toward the edge of town. This was where the creepy new forest was at. There was overall a darker aura within the first, with the trees being a mix of the regular ones the two boys were used to, but also creepy ones without any leaves. Lucas stepped up to the entrance of the forest and gulped.

"Is this really a smart idea?"

"Are you suddenly scared, Lukey?"

"N-no! I'm just saying, look...this forest is marked as off-limits." Ness looked over and did indeed see some markings that showed the area was off-limits and no one should be going in there.

"Pffft, that's not what that means." Lucas crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? What does it mean then?"

"It means….no one can NOT trespass. Simple." Lucas rolled his eyes.

"You're quite the unique person, Ness, I'll give you that."

"Thanks." Ness grabbed Lucas's hand and rushed into the forest, against Lucas's protests. Even while being dragged into the very forest he was trying to convince Ness not to go in, he was protesting and whining. After being fully in, Ness let go and smirked back at him.

"God, so rude! We're literally breaking the law!"

"Oh fuck that, they can't control us."

"They literally can. That's like the entire point of their job, is to control us."

"Oh….well still, fuck that." Lucas groaned before turning his flashlight on.

"Let's just get this over with." Ness chuckled, having finally gotten to him. He turned his flashlight on and both of them started going deeper into the forest. A dark mist came over the two as they got deeper and deeper, but the mist was still slightly visible. Lucas was getting a bit anxious, prompting him to get closer to Ness. He gulped. Ness giggled and he continued to fearlessly walk deeper into the forest. The mist seemed to be growing thicker and thicker, turning more into a fog over just a mist.

"Why's it so damn foggy?"

"Are forests usually like this?"

"I don't think so." The two of them walked further and further into the forest, taking smaller steps than before. And suddenly, every ounce of fog disappeared. The two boys were looking around. "Ok….fog doesn't work like that."

"No duh." Lucas pointed his flashlight into the ocean of trees. He stared at one particular tree. He tilted his head. "Hey, Ness, that tree….is it just me, or does it look different?" Ness walked next to Lucas and looked at the same tree Lucas was pointing the flashlight at. After squinting his eyes, Ness confirmed that the tree was indeed different from all the ones around it. And in fact, there was a weirdly placed circle of….of well nothing directly around this weirdly grown tree.

"Wanna get closer?" To Ness's surprise, Lucas grabbed his hand. He looked at the blonde. His eyes were fixated on the tree, his pupils dilating, and an overall mesmerized look. Seeing this made Ness smile. It was working. He was making Lucas entranced. Ness finally stepped forward, breaking Lucas's stare on the tree. The two of them walked closer and closer toward the strange-looking tree until Ness felt Lucas resist. Ness turned and looked at Lucas. He was looking at the ground. "What is it?"

"Blood?" Ness looked down at it and saw the small puddle of blood. Lucas crouched down and touched it. "It's cold."

"It's been here for a while." Lucas took his hand from Ness's to explore the immediate area. "Lucas?"

"I want to find who this blood belongs to. We may need to call the cops."

"Hehe, quite the hero you are, huh?" Lucas looked back and blew Ness a kiss. He continued his exploration of the area, with Ness joining in. Soon enough, though, Ness tripped on seemingly some wood. Lucas helped Ness up but noticed the odd shape of the "wood". After a silent agreement, Ness crouched down and messed with the "wood" finding it to be oddly….human like. "If I move this wood...you're going to need to be ready to see something….surely nasty."

"I have a stronger stomach than you may think, especially with Claus's cooking." The light joke was what Ness needed to feel more at ease, making him realize just how nervous he was prior.

"I bet." Ness shakily moved his hand to the wood and was able to peel it off, showing a body. Ness shot up as Lucas fought the urge to gag. The body didn't belong to anyone they knew, it was some girl. On her stomach, which wasn't fully uncovered by the wood, showed signs that something was cut into her skin. Lucas lowered and scrapped the rest of the wood on her stomach to show that some type of symbol was cut into her skin.

"Jesus…"

"What do you think that is?" The symbol looked like 2 eyes intercepting with a single eyeball in the intersection. Lucas tilted his head, trying to wrap his mind around what this symbol could mean.

"The Rune Of Severance," a deep voice came from seemingly every single tree. The boys jumped and frantically shifted their flashlight around. The two of them backed up into each other causing them both to jump again. They looked at each other, as if to say sorry, then worked together scanning the nearby area.

"Who's there?!" Lucas yelled into the trees. There wasn't a response. "W-we shouldn't have come here." Soon enough, there was some movement in some trees. But the movement was unnatural. Ness grabbed Lucas's arm and ran out from the area. Lucas didn't protest as Ness ran toward the exit, or at least where he thought the exit was. He was amazing at directions and being able to find where is where...but the exit seemed to have just outright disappeared.

"What the hell?"

"Trespassers don't leave unchanged," the voice once again came from the trees. Lucas clung closer to Ness. Ness kept in front of Lucas, glad to have Lucas want him to be protected. "Boys who don't follow the rules need to be taught a lesson."

"What does he mean by that?"

"I-I dunno, Luke."

"Did you pack any weapons?"

"No."

"WHAT! Why?"

"I didn't think we'd need it."

"We're were going into a strange forest dark at night….of course bring dang weapons! At least your bat." Ness looked around before running over and snapping some sticks off the tree. He tossed one at Lucas.

"There, these sticks will be our weapons."

"Are they effective enough?" Ness looked down at the stick. They weren't the sharpest and most durable, but they were still…..sticks.

"We can just aim for their eyes. Yeah, their eyes!"

"I guess that'll work."

"I'd like to see you try," The voice chimed in. The boys weren't even surprised.

"Yeah well shut up, stupid trees." Ness's grip on the stick tightened as he walked into view of the oddly shaped tree. Lucas joined him and they all held the same idea. "Alright, you think that tree is it?"

"I would suspect." Lucas looked at Ness and saw that even he was a little on edge. Lucas gulped. "Don't chicken out on me now."

"Pfft, as if. You're the chicken, not me."

"Maybe you're right." Ness gulped before stepping forward. The two of them walked further and further and soon made it to the tree-less circle around the odd tree. The same symbol on that dead body was all over this tree. "The Rune of Severance was it?"

"Pretty sure, why?"

"Doesn't Severance mean basically to end something? Like a job…"

"I dunno, you're the nerd, I'm just the geek. Big difference." Ness's face grew annoyed before smacking the back of Lucas's head.

"Not even going to back me up, are you?" Lucas rolled his eyes.

"Fine. You're right, that's what it means." Ness smiled before looking at the tree. Ness took a few careful steps closer before hearing a strange static sound. He shot around but the static disappeared. "Ness?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It was...staticky."

"Maybe you hit your head or something." Lucas stepped forward and grabbed Ness's head with both of his hands but froze when he too heard the static. He lowered his arms. "Ok, now I heard it." The atmosphere grew darker.

"Howdy, fellas," a new voice said. The two boys looked around, and after moving their flashlights around, they found a guy standing with a metal bat and curly brown hair with a black sweater with the sleeves cut off. Ness took a step forward and swung the stick around to intimidate the man. The man just chuckled. "Cute. I've seen worse than you could even imagine."

"What do you want? Kill us?"

"No shit. Of course, I want to kill you, but Boss wants to have a little fun with you."

"Boss?" Ness asked.

"No matter. If you can beat this game, you'll be let out, alive. Fail...and you'll be soulless little proxies."

"Proxies? Of who?"

"Of the ruler of the forest, the bringer of death, the one, the only, Slenderman." Lucas looked at Ness, who also seemed confused until his research came bombarding into his mind.

"Oh right, Slenderman has proxies that do his bidding."

"And you never thought to tell me that?" Ness nervously chuckled.

"I-I kinda forgot." The man walked over to the boys, his evil smirk spreading across his face.

"There are 8 pages. Collect all 8 and you win. Fail, and get caught by Boss...and be ready to work for him. Or die, depending on what he wants."

"We just need to find the 8 pages? That's it?" Lucas asked. The man nodded.

"Yup, simple huh? They'll be hidden all over the forest, have fun boys." The man giggled before teleporting away. Lucas looked at Ness.

"What did you get us into, Ness."

"I dunno. Let's just go find those pages. I kinda just want to head back home." Lucas nodded and the two of them went out to start exploring the forest, unknowingly being followed.

They made it to a section of the forest that was oddly filled with different large….batteries. It was battery-shaped. Ness walked up to one of the battery-shaped things and knocked on it. "Water? Why's something like out in the forest."

"Don't ask me. Nothing about this forest makes sense." Lucas shrugged and walked around the area, looking at the rest of the structures until one of them, which they were all identical to the first one they saw, had a page with a drawing on it.

"Ness, come over, I think I found the first page." On the page was "HELP ME" and the writing looked to be from someone who was afraid, frantic pencil strokes. Ness walked over and saw the page.

"That's….creepy."

"For sure." Ness grabbed the paper and twisted it to look at the back. There was nothing there so he just shrugged.

"Let's just go find the others." Lucas nodded and they ran off into the field of trees and darkness. They were able to find a pretty uninteresting page in the middle of the forest on a random tree. They were able to make their way to a strangely placed tunnel though. The tunnel looked long, longer than a tunnel in the middle of a forest should be. However, they could see a single white page in the tunnel. Lucas ran in to go grab it. "Hey, be careful!" Lucas waved him off as he got closer to the page. He grabbed it and smiled. He showed it off to Ness.

"Three down!" Ness smiled before noticing something. At the end of the tunnel was a tall...something. His body looked to be black but his head was white. Lucas froze as the earlier static came back to him. Ness knew what this creature was. It was Slenderman.

"Crap, I told you to be careful idiot!" He ran over, and as he got closer to Lucas he too heard the static. He was able to force his way through it and grab Lucas, dragging him out of the tunnel. Ness looked back through the tunnel, Slenderman was gone. Lucas shook his head.

"Ness...my head?"

"It was Slenderman...we need to hurry up and get the other pages."

"WHAT!"

"He's the one hunting us. He's the one causing that static noise. If he gets to us we won't be able to get the other pages!" Ness's voice was of pure fear. Hearing his tone was enough to cause a shiver to go through Lucas. Lucas cleared his throat.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's get to finding the other ones." Ness smirked before shaking the nerves from his body.

The two of them ventured into the forest, both of them feeling watched as they rushed through the forest. They were able to find three more pages just randomly scattered. They soon made it to a map that seemed to be surrounded by a campsite. This was a map of the entire forest. There was actually a page on the map, and when Lucas grabbed the page, the feeling of being watched grew stronger. Ness started scanning around as Lucas read the map. Both boys started hearing static. Ness screamed a bit as he fell down to one knee. He took a single look around and saw Slenderman levitating closer, black tentacles were coming out of his back. Ness's vision started getting distorted. Eventually, he couldn't tell if Slenderman was closer or further. His head felt like it was breaking.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Lucas smacked Ness across the face. Ness shook his hand and found himself behind some bland, boring-looking building.

"L-Lucas?"

"Oh thank God, you're ok." Ness stepped away from the wall but stumbled. Lucas helped him up. "You looked at Slenderman in the face, you're not supposed to do that." Ness rubbed his head as he looked at Lucas.

"H-how do you know?" Lucas pulled out a page that said to not look at his face.

"It was on the map. You started acting weird and I could tell Slenderman got to you, so I retreated."

"Wh-what about you, did you get hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, don't worry."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I mean it, you want to inspect my body?" Lucas winked. Ness rolled his eyes before standing up.

"Be serious, Lucas. Are you ok?"

"Ugh, yes, I am, I promise." Ness sighed in relief.

"Good, now we need to find the final page, fast."

"I have a potential area, follow me…."

"What's wrong?" Lucas grabbed Ness's arm before shooting around.

"Don't look back." The static started coming back, telling him just what made Lucas act up. "Let's just go." Lucas ran off, holding Ness's hand and dragging him off. Lucas led him toward another bland and boring building. It was actually a bathroom. Lucas fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath. Ness could tell it was taking a lot out of him to protect him. He crouched down and rubbed his back.

"Thanks, Luke."

"H-he's…..he's been constantly….o-on our butts...n-no time….to relax." His speech was broken up by his trouble breathing.

"How long before he usually appears?"

"2 minutes."

"Good, that should be enough to search this place. I need you to count down from 60, loudly, I'll get in, look around, and leave. Got it?" Lucas stood up, hand on his chest, and nodded. "Good, I trust you." He ran into the bathroom and started kicking down the doors of the stalls. No signs of any page. He continued to look around until Lucas loudly yelled "0!"

Ness ran out, and sure enough, the sound of static was very faint, so he grabbed Lucas's arm and ran in an indiscriminate direction. Once they stopped, at yet another bland and boring place, Lucas fell. "This….is too much…"

"You've never been this drained before, are you sure it's just from running?" Lucas opened his mouth but stopped himself from saying anything, confirming Ness's fears. "He got to you, didn't he?"

"I-I tried….t-trying….to fight him...i-it's so hard...everywhere….he's everywhere. Seeing me….eating me….I-I can't get away." Lucas curled up into a ball. "He's going to kill me….I'm going to die….there's no point...he's hidden the final page….he doesn't want us to leave….he made it unfair….we lost, Ness….we lost…"

Ness felt broken. Lucas was panicking. Slenderman's power was overtaking him. But Ness couldn't focus on that as the static came back. He stood up straight as he tried to bear with the noise. He turned around and saw the blank-faced tall creature. The tentacles coming from his back were wriggling and writhing around as Slenderman slowly got closer and closer. The static was getting painful as his eyesight was being distorted. Ness needed to stick with it though. He suspected something about Slenderman. He was a creature bent on killing, but Ness suspected he was also one for potential. If he could just stick through it, bear with the unbearable, he would get the final page. But that was obviously harder than expected. Ness's ears started to bleed as the static got to deafening levels, his eyesight so distorted he couldn't tell if Slenderman had created hundreds of copies of himself or if it was his eyes were playing tricks. His limbs felt weak, he wanted to run away, he wanted to sink into the ground and get away from Slenderman, but it was his idea to come into the forest in the first place, he needed to make sure he'd do anything to keep Lucas safe. He felt Slenderman's tentacles around him, partly hoping Slenderman was just a fan of tentacle porn, but he knew wishful thinking wasn't what was going to happen. Ness stared at Slenderman's head, or at least as best as he could. He started hearing a strange distorted breathing or groaning as if coming from Slenderman himself. Then he swore he could hear a deep, distorted, and demonic voice saying "Good," before blacking out.

Ness shot up, out of breath, in his bed. He looked around frantically before Lucas woke up next to him. "Ugh, Ness, the hell?"

"Wh-what?"

"Why're you waking me up? I need my beauty sleep."

"B-but...but we were in the forest….S-Slenderman was-"

"Slenderman? No way you actually believe in that damn story. It's a myth, Ness. You just had a bad dream." Lucas fell back in his bed. "I'm going back to sleep."

"B-but you were there. H-he wrapped his tentacles around me…."

"Maybe you just wanna get man-handled by tentacles."

"Sh-shut up! This is serious!" Lucas sat up and hugged Ness.

"I promise you, you just had a bad dream. We were in no forest. We've been home all night." Ness lowered his eyes, deciding to believe him.

"Y-you're right. Sorry, it just felt so real."

"I understand. Nightmares always feel more real than dreams." Lucas closed the gap between their lips and continued to kiss him for a bit. After the kiss, he smiled. "That's just the reality of life." Ness nodded his head, wanting to believe him but feeling like he shouldn't.

"Ok, babe, go back to sleep. I'm just...going to go get some milk then come back." Lucas nodded before laying back down. Ness got off the bed and went straight to the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of milk. "Yeah...just a nightmare." He took a drink.

"Am I?" The voice he heard at the end of his "nightmare" came back. Ness stiffened up.

"Wh-what?"

"I admire your...perseverance. It'd have been a waste to let you die." Ness couldn't say anything. "Go to the mirror." Ness didn't want to. He didn't want to be confronted with the truth that has suddenly become known...he was grabbed by Slenderman. Slenderman owned him now. He wasn't quite a Proxy, but he was still due to do his bidding. Ness couldn't entirely fight against Slenderman's grip. It was painful for him to disobey Slenderman. In the end, he couldn't bear it. He walked over to the mirror but didn't see himself. Rather, he saw Slenderman.

"Wh-what is this?"

"You're mine, Ness. You and that boyfriend of yours. Of course, it's fun that he doesn't know. He was so easily manipulated, but you….you were holding strong. It was because of him, wasn't it?"

"Don't hurt him…."

"I don't plan to. But if you disobey me. Refuse to do what I say. You will see me tear him to pieces right before I rip the soul out of you, turning you into a soulless Proxy. And trust me, both are equally as painful. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes….I understand." He couldn't believe it. He was essentially being held hostage.

"Now then, what's my name?"

"Slenderman."

"No! You will call me Slender! Understand?"

"Yes….S-Slender."

"Good. Now go to sleep. We'll be talking more soon." Slenderman dissipated and Ness's reflection was shown. Ness looked down at the ground. He was trapped. But it was his own fault. He endangered Lucas because he was too up his own ass to learn about the potential backfires of if Slenderman was real. But he was, and now he had to deal with said backfires. He was Slenderman's human toy, whether he liked it or not. And Lucas was caught in the crossfire. For Lucas's protection, he needed to follow Slenderman's orders. No matter what was ordered, he would need to do it. For Slenderman is more than a simple entity. He is a God. And he rules over those stupid enough to doubt his existence and try to prove themselves right or wrong. Ness….is just one of many. One who follows the God, Slender.