The Slender Man (12 page)

This isn't right. I never doubted anything paranormal was in
play here. Whether he's a ghost or a specter or something like that, I always
knew I was really seeing something. I take another. Now that I'm seeing him
though, now that I'm watching him... watch us, I feel a drop in morale. Is this
what took Shana, Jason, and the others? Is this… thing… coming for me too? I
can't let just let him stand there. I have the urge to yell and send the others
rushing over to attack him. The Willows have a gun right? Who in this town
doesn't? Even my Dad keeps a twelve-gauge that I'm only supposed to touch if
there's someone breaking in.

No, I know the game. If I panic, he goes poof, and people
will think I’m crazy. I won't be the crazy one. I do my best to seem like I am
taking pictures of the children, so he won’t see me noticing him. I think of a
better idea.

“Hey!” I call in no particular direction, but I look around
to find the perfect person. I catch the eye of one of the men. It’s Jamie
Willow, Lionel’s father. I think he's a postal worker, or no, maybe a teacher
for the elementary school. I think I’ve seen him once when I picked Adam up at
school before, but I'm not sure. All I know is that he's trying too hard to
look like he's still in his twenties.

“Hey you're the Redwood kid right?” he asks.

“Um, yeah, hey listen. This may be nothing, but I think I
saw someone in the woods over there watching the kids,” I say, keeping an eye
on the shadow-figure to make sure he's still looming around over there.

“You sure?” he asks. Wow, this guy is pretty dumb for a
teacher, maybe he is just a postal worker, or maybe he doesn’t feel like
looking.

“Well, I’m not a hundred percent positive it’s a person, but
I saw something over there. Will you check it out? Again it's probably nothing,
but with all of the missing kids and this being a kid's birthday party and
all,” I say.

He nods a bit, following my gaze to the trees. “Yeah okay,”
he says reluctantly. I guess his chivalry trumped his need to linger around the
highlight event of a dying party.

“What's going on Lyss?” Mom asks from behind.

“Oh I just asked Jamie over there to check something out for
me,” I say.

Mom gets that look on her face she gets when she hears what
I say but it doesn’t really make sense to her, you know, with her brows knitted
and one corner of her mouth raised in a subconscious shadow of a sneer.

“Huh, well hey have you gotten any good photos yet?” she
asks.
The photos! Of course. She will be able to see the static-creature
too!
I eagerly yank the camera off my neck and hand it to her, but not
before pressing the review button.

She looks at the photo and doesn't just flip through it like
I half expected her to. I look over toward Jamie and see that the entity is still
there, and he's getting closer. Wait a second, what if that fiend attacks him?
Will I have just sent a man to his untimely death? Then again, shouldn't he see
that dark fiend by now? I'm seeing him from over here, does that mean- “What's
wrong with the camera?” she asks.

I look back over. “What do you mean? It's fine,” I answer.

“No, these photos are all distorted…oh no these ones are
fine,” she says. I snatch the camera from her.

“Hey, what is the matter with you?” I look at the monitor.
She's on the photo I took of Lionel before the piñata; it looks fine. I flip
through, looking at all the photos I've already seen until I get to it, the one
of the monster. It's been blurred and blackened, as if someone damaged the
screen. I’m beginning to feel like I am stuck in a cheesy, overdone
psychological thriller movie.

I feel a push against my shoulder. “Answer me! What is with
your attitude? I've been nothing but nice to you,” she continues.

“Oh, I'm sorry- I didn't mean to. I didn't break the
camera,” I finally say.

“Well, I didn't say you broke it, you just had the dial
turned to the wrong setting or your finger must have been in the way is all.
Just be more polite. God knows your father wouldn't have tolerated that,” she
says.

“Take some more pictures though,” she adds.

I nod my head once while turning to look back at the man.
“Yes ma'am.”

Jamie is out of sight, but the fiend is still there. Did he
eat Jamie or something? No wait, there’s Jamie. He's like ten feet into the
forest, well past the monster. What's he doing? How would he walk right through
him, unless… Jamie couldn't see him? Did the fiend just not touch him? Maybe I
really am seeing things or it is just a tree? No, even hallucinations aren't
supposed to- the fiend is moving. He’s not walking, but he’s clearly turning.
My eyes sting, but I watch as he hunches over and leans forward, turning his
head and seeming to refocus his eyeless gaze. He’s found what he was looking
for-a new target. He’s looking at me.

The burning in my eyes suddenly becomes overwhelming and I
flinch, waiting for something to happen, but nothing does. Jamie returns with
an annoyed look and gives me a little shrug, like I'm just some paranoid little
girl making up stories for attention-

The feeling of being in a low-budget film increases. I can
finally sympathize with those female characters I always found so annoyingly
stupid. Of course you can’t just run for help, people will just think you’re
crazy. I know what I see right now. It's not my fault Jamie can walk right through
the shadowy monster. I try to ignore the entity, but now I fear I've caught his
attention. It can't be just because I noticed him can it? Lots of people have
noticed him, or something like him. Then again, everyone I know that has
noticed him is now missing. Does this mean it's my turn?

Some of my Bubbe’s advice rings in my ears. She has always
told me to be strong, and not let anyone or anything bother me. That's just
what I'll do. I look away from him and rejoin the party. It looks like the
candy has already been claimed by the few present children, but I snap a few
shots anyway- after deleting the damaged ones I took of the fiend. How did
those ones end up getting messed up? Is it that static I hear when he’s near;
does it cause interference? I know when I looked at him my eyes stung and I had
to look away, so does that mean he has a similar effect on the camera? I shake
my head. I need to just not worry about it. If Jamie was okay after walking
right through him, the least I can do is ignore him right?

It looks like the Willows are bringing out the cake. This
means one thing, the party has reached its climax. They are gonna sing happy
birthday, slam Lionel's face into the cake, open presents, and then we leave.
The sooner the better, because then we can get away from the stalking entity
over- he's gone. No, he's not gone, he must have just moved because I can
still... feel him... I realize I’ve sensed him since we got here, an almost
audible static noise running under everything. I hear everyone singing Happy
Birthday and realize I must have spaced a good few seconds. I join in, although
rather quietly.

I'm suddenly glad I decided to not bring my guitar, because
it feels like my singing voice has gotten worse due to the sickness. As we
sing, Karen Willow brings out the -of course- Captain America birthday cake for
Lionel. It's got a candle shaped into the number five burning on top of it.
It's actually rather small, but I can see her husband Jamie carrying a larger
cake behind her. That must be the one for the guests. She sets the cake on the
table and gets Lionel to blow out the single flame. I take a shot of that and
then I catch the next scene when Karen forces Lionel's face into the cake. His
face smashes the cake into a giant mush with only some of the outer edges
intact. 

Lionel jerks his face out of the cake, not fully certain
what just happened, and examines it. He's silent for a few seconds but then he
slowly but steadily begins crying. I feel a little guilt wafting in as I watch
Lionel, face completely covered in icing and cake, mourn the tragic destruction
of the treat he was so excited for. I snap a photo of it, and hope that in time
he'll look back and laugh at himself. I hate seeing little children cry, even
just Adam’s recent subdued persona brings me down. I can only imagine what it
was like for him.

As bad as I feel with Adam being hurt and my best friend
missing, he actually was physically hurt and had to watch as his best friend
and classmates died, and he's half my age!

Karen calms Lionel down a bit but he's still quietly
sobbing. He finally takes a bit of the destroyed cake as Jamie dishes out
pieces of the large plain white cake to everyone else. I don't take a piece
though. The cupcake was enough for me.

 As the cake is being eaten, Lindsay and Jamie haul out the
various gifts for Lionel to claim. At this point he's excited again, or maybe
excited for the first time. I haven't seen him really fully smile during the
whole party. The first present he opens is a very small one, but pretty
expensive- a small handheld game console. It's one of those educational ones.
Next he opens our gift, his big plastic shield. His eyes light up when he sees
what it is, and his reaction even causes me to smile. That’s something worth
capturing on camera. His other gifts consist of learning-to-read books, a
remote control monster truck, and things like that. His parents got him a
Captain America costume, which matches perfectly with the shield. Maybe our
parents collaborated on that one.

As I predicted, once the gifts have been given, the party
begins to die out. Of course, we're some of the last ones to leave. In fact,
Mom wants to stay and help clean up. Karen gave her a ride here, so we can't
just leave her, which means the only way for us to go home any time soon is for
Dad and me to help. I begin gathering cups, plates, and cans that were left
lying around the place. Did no one but me notice the big trash can that was
provided? I pile it all into the one trash can, getting as much into the overflowing
bag as I can, before Dad gets the bright idea to hand me an empty trash bag to
carry around. Smart me.

 I feel a little tension release as I clean up. I realize
that it is because the background static that was setting my teeth on edge is
gone. I look around. Is that monster still here? No, I can't see him. He must
have left, finally. I take a deep relaxed breath and continue my job. Dad hauls
both trash bags over to the dumpsters, and then begins to work with Jamie on
getting the tables, chairs, and tents put away. Mom's idea of helping is to
stand at the front door chatting away with Karen while the three of us do the
work. I guess since she came and helped earlier with the set-up, she doesn't
feel the need to help now, which sounds fair assuming it wasn't just Lindsay,
Jamie, and some of the other guests that set things up while she chatted with
Karen. Where is Lindsay anyway, and why isn't she helping? She must be inside
with Lionel.

I help Dad and Jamie by picking up plastic chairs and
carrying it out to the storage shed where they're storing the other items. I
keep an eye out for the fiend, making sure he's not about to ambush me or
anything, but there’s no sign of him. When everything including the canvas and
poles for the tent are piled in the garage, the yard looks strangely barren.

“I'm gonna get the car started. Go fetch your Mom,” orders
Dad. Good he's ready to go too. I walk up to Mom, still chatting with Karen,
and am about to speak when Lindsay approaches.

“Hey, didn't you want me to give Lionel a bath?” she asks.

“Yeah haven't you done that yet?” says Karen.

“No, you never sent him up,” answers Lindsay.

“Well then where is he?”

“Don't ask me. Last I checked he was with you.”

I realize what has happened before they do. I remember the
relief I felt when
he
disappeared. I must not have been his target after
all. He has taken Lionel.

“So he's been missing for less than an hour?” asks Deputy
Yew.

“Yes,” answers Mom. Karen Willow is frantically searching the
surrounding forest for her son, and Jamie is sitting against his house, head in
his folded hands. He probably feels like it's his fault, because I sent him
over to look for a possible kidnapper that he didn’t find, and now his son is
missing. It's not his fault though. He walked right through the fiend without
sensing him, so there is no way he could have fought him off. All we possibly
could have done better was keep an eye on Lionel at all times, like we should
have done. Of course that's probably what
he
was waiting for; an
opportunity to strike when no one was looking. Here I was afraid he was here to
take me, but he had his eyes on Lionel.

“Alyssa, can you give me a description of the man you saw?”
asks Deputy Yew. Oh right, everyone else thinks a
man
might have taken
Lionel.

“Yeah, I mean I didn't get a good look, and I tried to take
pictures but they didn't come out, but he was... tall, skinny, and all in
black. I didn’t see his face at all,” I say honestly, although tall; skinny;
and black are all abstract words in this case.

“So it didn't look like Jason Larch or Mario Douglas?” he
asks. I shake my head. This static entity is probably why Mario and Jason are
missing. Yew nods his head to me and begins speaking on his radio. I catch a
forlorn, almost apologetic gaze from Jamie and return it.

 “It's not his fault,” I repeat to myself. If anyone is at
fault, it's me. I should have kept an eye all on all three children knowing
that thing was near, but I didn't because I was worried about myself. I moan
inwardly-I wasn’t even keeping a close watch on Adam! At least he is okay, and
if I ever see that fiend again, I'm handcuffing Adam to me.

“I just spoke with the sheriff. There aren't very many
places he could have gone in such a short time period, so we are going to
initiate a search. In the meantime, we need the Willows to give us a list of
everyone who came to the party, that way we will have a good number of people
to talk to. Maybe one of them got a better look at this guy. Alyssa, do you
think you could give an accurate description to a sketch artist?” asks Deputy
Yew, hints of stress coming from him.

“No I, I really didn’t see his face. I'm sorry,” I answer.

“Right, okay listen,” he says, turning to my Dad. “You need
to take your kids and lock them up at home with an adult present at all times.
We've had more than one child disappearing in the same day, so it's best you
get your kids to safety,” he explains.

“You got it,” Dad says, and motions for us to follow him. I
can see Lindsay standing in the doorway. She isn't crying, but there's a solemn
frown on her face that shows that she is definitely worried about her brother,
just like I'd be if Adam had been the one to disappear.

“Eight kids. This man's taken eight kids. When we find him
he needs to be hanged,” says Mom from behind.

“Nine ma'am. If we don't find the Willow boy, he'll be the
ninth,” corrects Yew. I bow my head, putting my arm around Adam as we walk
toward the car.
Nine kids-ten people missing, this is absurd!
We get
into the car and I give one last sympathetic look back to the distraught Willow
family. Lionel was kidnapped on his birthday. The whole reason the Willows went
through with this party is because they thought it would be a morale booster,
but then the perp- the entity strikes. Is it a coincidence that he took Lionel
today of all days or did he take him today on purpose just to add to everyone's
suffering? 

The drive home is silent, and I spend the whole ride looking
out the windows to make sure that we aren’t still being watched. When we get
home, Bubbe greets us at the door.

“I've got supper in the oven, do you want-” she starts, but
then she stops when she sees our faces. =

“Oh Lord, what happened?” she asked, but one look from me
and she knows exactly what happened. I can convey messages to Bubbe almost as
well as I could- can for Shana. I won't give up hope that she's still alive.

She motions us inside. As I enter, the aroma of fresh
cornbread hits me. I am normally amazed by how well Bubbe's cornbread turns
out, but the bread reminds me of cake, and the cake reminds me of the
disastrous party we just came from, and that causes my appetite to plummet. I
head upstairs, unsure about what to do. I can get into my pajamas. I've already
bathed and I really don't want to bore myself with homework. I don't think I
have the focus for it anyway. Maybe I will do some web surfing.

The internet! Why didn't I think of it before? I can look up
the things I’ve been seeing and experiencing and see if it's some phenomenon
that has been dealt with before. I run upstairs with a new motivation guiding
my step. I go to my room and flip open my lap top. I have many objects that are
pretty old in my collection, but this laptop takes the cake. It's seven years
old, and in this day and age, seven years means a lot for technology. We bought
it refurbished from a pawn shop, but it’s running the latest version of
Windows, and has upgraded sound and video cards to boot. The only things it's
still lacking in are RAM and storage. It's only got a twenty gigabyte hard
drive and half a gigabyte of RAM, so it's not good for anything but storing
music and surfing the web.

The hibernation screen takes forever to load into the login
screen, and when it does I just press enter. That causes another slow loading
screen to play out, and it feels like minutes before my cluttered background
piled with different files of no particular organization, ranging from music to
funny pictures shows up.

Despite the clutter, I can spot the little Firefox logo
perfectly and click on it. Here comes another dull wait. Once the browser
finally shows more than a blank white loading screen, I immediately begin
typing into the search bar. I start with

“Shadow static disappearing children,” and hit enter. I wait
a little bit for it to load before it pulls up many different links. I was
hoping for an immediate flashing link that would take me to a site that
explained exactly what this thing is and how to stop it, but all that pops up
are links to a whole bunch of irrelevant multimedia productions. I do some
scrolling before deciding that I will need to be more specific. I try “Dark
shadow figure that kidnaps children,” I hit enter, but then my screen starts
fading. It looks like it's doing that whole 'Not responding' bull but then I realize
it's getting hazier as if something is wrong with the screen.

I wait a few seconds and then try clicking. The cursor is
moving but not opening anything that I click. Is it a computer virus? It could be,
I haven't updated my antivirus in like a month. I hold the power button until
the laptop turns off, and then I press the power button again for it to turn
back on. I sigh, ready for the even longer loading screen that will now be
accompanied by a system check. When the screen pulls up, it still has that
haze, and then it gets even worse. Now the whiteness fades into blackness,
taking all the pretty colors with it. I shake my laptop. No! Why would it crash
now of all times? I slam my fist on the keyboard before getting up. I'll just
have to us the downstairs computer.

I turn around and nearly faint with fright when I see a
silhouette outside my window. I scream loudly and fall backward onto my bottom.
It's
him
, and he’s contorting himself. No wait, maybe it's a tree? No,
that’s impossible-there are no trees outside my window, and even then my almost
opaque curtain wouldn't cast a silhouette. What I just saw was more like a
shadow cast from the inside. I crawl backward, still on all fours when my
parents rush into the room, Bubbe close behind. Dad looks around and assesses
the situation before giving me an aggravated look.
Well dude, would you
rather a false alarm or me be kidnapped?
I think to myself.

He looks at me for an explanation. I think of an overused
lie.

“There was huge spider. It was like a tarantula except, evil
looking,” I lie. My Dad purses his lips and exits the room.

“Are you alright?” Mom asks politely, but even she doesn't
want to wait for a full answer. I give her a quick little nod before turning to
face my knees. The entity is still here. It followed me to my house, and now he
wants me. I hear the door close and look up in fright, but it's just Bubbe.
She's closed the door with us inside.

“Hey,” I muster, not sure what this is about. She makes her
way through the mess on my floor and sits on my vanity bench and looks at me
with a serious look on her face.

“You don't scream bloody murder for a spider,” she says. I
shrug a bit, not quite sure what to tell her.

“Don't play dumb with me. There's no need for that. I know
what's going on,” she says.

“You... do?” I ask. “You're seeing things, aren't you?” she
asks. I'm not sure whether or not I should trust that she and I are on the same
page.

“You won't think I'm crazy?” I ask. She bows her head at me.

“Just because you aren't blind to what's going on doesn't
mean you're crazy,” she says.

“So you've... seen him? The static monster thing I mean?” I
ask.

“That's... one way of describing him,” she says.

“What causes it? What is it?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “He's something I hoped I'd never see
again,” she answers.

“Again?”

“Back when I was little girl in Poland, during the
invasion... you couldn't go an hour without seeing him,” she starts. “It's easy
to just disappear unnoticed when everyone around you is disappearing anyway,
don't you agree?” she continues.

“He took people during the Holocaust?” I ask.

“He took
children
,” she corrects.

“So, didn't people notice? Didn't the Gestapo think they ran
away or something and punish the parents?”

“Sweetie, those were the same men that threw kids on the
streets while shipping their parents off to camps. Those kids were left to die,
and many of the ghettos became feeding grounds for the monster.”

“So did he follow you?”

She shakes her head. “When I finally got away from there, I
never saw him, at least not until now. Not until the accident.”

“So he came and caused the accident?” I ask. That would make
sense.

She shakes her head.

“I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the accident is what
drew him here. If he was here before, children would have been missing a lot
sooner.”

“Why would the accident draw the fiend here though?”

“I only know what my old Rabbi told us about him when kids
began disappearing in my neighborhood. We had taken to gathering together as
much as we were allowed, to gain safety in numbers. I don't know much about
him, but I know that he thrives on human misery. The Rabbi said that there were
Jewish tales of the creature; that it loosely mimicked the form of a man, and
always appeared in times of suffering-which you know our people have had our
share of. Maybe it was the death of so many children at once, or the despair
the survivors felt and the way their families worried about their safety that
drew him here.”

“What about Mario? He's an adult. Do you think he-”

“I think the fiend has something to do with the driver's
disappearance yes. I've never- seen him take an adult, but with the amount of guilt
someone like Mario would suffer when he recovered, I think the monster wouldn’t
have been able to resist. It always claims the physically and emotionally weak,
and those who have been worn down by some prolonged strong negative emotion.”

I look at the ground. He takes the weakest. Jason was
strong, but he was so focused on his anger and making everyone around him pay,
that the anger had pretty much become his entire existence. Lionel wasn't
involved with the crash, but he only turned five today, and he’d been ill, so
he'd be weak as well. Shana was always paranoid, and felt doomed for the worst
as soon as she heard about the accident. Leanne was consumed with jealousy and
hatred for me just because Adam survived. Plus the others I don't know about. They
were all vulnerable in some way. They could be led or taken-

“So what does he do when he's chosen someone? I've seen
something watching us, but so do all the people it has taken. Except from what
I know they have seen it in the form of their deceased siblings.”

“That's what I mean by weakened. If it can get you to come
to it by using your own pain against you, it will. Once it’s chosen someone, it
marks them for its own. I don’t understand how, but according to what the Rabbi
said and what I observed many times in Poland, and what is now happening here,
I think he somehow attaches himself to those he wants and functions as a
parasite. Those he’s marked to take become ill, they begin to weaken physically
and… they always have nose bleeds. He uses their fear to keep them from
sleeping and wear them down more, keeping a constant stream of negative
emotion. That’s why he appears to certain people.”

I think about that. The static and vibration in my bones I
feel when he’s near…maybe that’s his energy interfering with mine-like the way
some types of electronics interfere with a television or radio and cause
static.  I wonder if once he has locked onto you as his next target, the static
becomes constant. The thought of that fills me with an even bigger sense of dread.

“But he’s everywhere. He was just outside my window. He’s in
my dreams, He's-

“The Rabbi said he’s not from this world, but from… ha’olam
tsil, a shadow world, and that his interaction with our world is limited. To
think of it in modern terms that you can understand, imagine its world as being
another dimension, parallel to ours. Pockets of human misery creates thin areas
in the veil between the two dimensions, allowing him to leak through… just as a
shadow at first, insubstantial. It’s very difficult for him to pass through in
corporeal form.