The Slender Man (16 page)

“We’re almost there Shana! We’re there! We’re free!” I can’t
say it above a whisper though. I don’t have the breath. We emerge onto a road
and I hear a honk and turn to see a police car. I close my eyes expecting to be
hit, but the tires screech with no impact. I look to see Deputy Yew step out
and run over to me. I laugh a tired, tortured, but triumphant laughter, and
fall to my knees.
Who’s laughing now shadow?

“We made it Shana, the police are here,” I say. She doesn’t
respond.

“Shana?” I look down at her. She isn’t moving.

“Shana!” I yell. She’s dead.

I can’t hear anything. I see an ambulance has pulled up with
its siren’s blaring. I see men shouting at me, trying to pull Shana from my
arms, and I see Deputy Yew. He’s also talking to me, but I can’t tell if he’s
helping the paramedics or trying to comfort me. It’s hard to tell from the expression
on his face. Most notably of all, I can’t hear my own screams. I don’t want to
let go of Shana. I’ve made it this far, how could I fail? She was alive only
moments ago, and now that we’ve escaped she’s not even breathing. How could I
make it when she couldn’t? I put all the work into getting in and getting out,
I was almost beaten, and yet I escaped-and I thought I’d freed Shana.

Even still, the monster made sure that there was no truly
happy ending. I won’t be escaping to Michigan with peace of mind knowing the
people I care about are safe. I was so close…

 Shana is wrenched from my desperate grip and I fall
forward. I don’t have the strength or willpower to hold myself up, and yet I
don’t hit the ground. Deputy Yew has his arms around me and is pulling me to my
feet. He’s still saying something to me, and even though I’ve stopped
screaming, I still can’t hear him.

I watch as the paramedics try to resuscitate Shana. She’s
not bleeding and there are no wounds on her, so they believe there may be hope
for her, but I know there isn’t. I know that whatever the monster did to her
won’t be undone by CPR. Deputy Yew puts me in the back of the police car. I
can’t tell if I’m being arrested or just given a ride. I’m not in handcuffs and
I haven’t done anything illegal-well, aside from minor theft of the axe, and if
the police know about it I’m sure arresting me isn’t a priority.

Throughout the car ride, I lay lengthwise across the whole
backseat, crying. My hearing slowly returns but everything is still distorted.
I can hear Yew saying something on his radio, and I can hear my own sobbing.
Shana... I failed her. The car stops and seconds later the door opens. I’m not
immediately yanked out, but I guess they figure out that I won’t be moving on
my own, and some police officers remove me from the car.

We are at the sheriff’s station. It’s a short brick building
with a small cement flight of stairs leading up to a set of dark brown wooden
double-doors. I’ve never actually been inside before now. Yew and one of the
other officers guides me in and has me sit on a plastic chair near reception. I
look around. There’s a lot of running around going on. I can’t tell if this is
how they’ve been working since the cases of the other children, or if they are
doing this in response to finding me with Shana. I can hear everything that’s
going on, and eventually I hear footsteps approaching me.

“Lyss,” says Mom. She puts her arms around me, but I don’t
hug her back. I can’t. I feel like I’m frozen in place by grief. If I wasn’t
surrounded by people, I’d be a perfect victim for that fiend, no strength
physically or mentally.

“As soon as we found you missing we notified the police. We
feared the worst! What the hell were you doing?” she asks. Maybe the police
haven’t told her about Shana yet.

“Ma’am,” speaks Sheriff Fraser, emerging from the sheriff’s
office. “We need to talk. Will you step into this office for a moment?” he
asks.

“I’m not leaving my daughter,” says Mom. “Alyssa, answer
me.”

Dad walks from around the corner and puts a hand on my
shoulder. I immediately think he’s going to come off as angry and try to scold
me, but he has a look of relief on his face. Bubbe and Adam are here too. Bubbe
has her poker face on. She knows what was involved with this and isn’t going to
waste time scolding me or announcing her relief just yet. Adam looks blank. He
must have just been wakened and with him still being sick, he probably doesn’t
fully comprehend what’s happening.  I lock eyes with Bubbe for a moment, but
then I see figures emerge from behind her.

Here comes Deputy Yew and another person. I haven’t seen the
man behind him before. He looks like he was just awakened too, but is fully
dressed in a grey business suit and shaven. The expression on his face shows me
a man that hasn’t had his coffee yet. Both of the men step into the sheriff’s
office behind where the sheriff is standing. “Well, it’s very important in
regards to your daughter,” continues the sheriff.

“Then talk to us right here,” snaps Dad.

The sheriff pauses as if to ponder the situation for a
moment, and then finally spurts out. “Alyssa was found with the Hawthorn girl.
One of my deputies found her carrying her corpse from the forest,” he says.

My mind blanks for a moment at his words. His recap brings
the memory back up, masking all sound in the area. I close my eyes as more
tears pour out. I remember trying to look at her face while carrying her. I
told her we’d make it, that we were almost there, but I couldn’t see her face.
Was she dead then or dying? If I’d just run faster.  If I was just a minute
faster my friend would be alive. I hear static, and open my eyes.

“No... I don’t want you. Go away,” I mutter aloud. I know he
can hear me. I open my eyes and look for it, but all I see are looks of worry
and bewilderment from my family and the officers within earshot.

“You think she was involved with the disappearance? Shana
and Alyssa were like-”

“Sisters, I know. Every summer my niece comes to visit and
brings her best friend along with her. I know what that bond is like. Those two
are inseparable. They’d take a bullet for each other. I think that may be why
Alyssa was able to find her. It’s the only explanation considering that we’ve
scoured the woods for days with no luck. Alyssa is the person we
least
suspect,
but we still need to question her.”

“About what? Where she found Shana? She’s speaking gibberish
for crying out loud she’s not going to be able to answer questions like that in
her state!” says Dad.

“We know, but we need to get all the information we can, so
we need to help your daughter. In this office is a psychiatrist, Doctor
Filbert, and with your permission we’d like to have him speak with your
daughter. This could help us both,” he explains.

A shrink? He wants me to see a shrink? For what? I just
watched my best friend die, of course I’m going to be upset, that doesn’t mean
I’m crazy! I want to shout it, and I even try to, but all of my anger dissolves
into further sadness, and all I can do is hold my mouth open for a few seconds.
My parents agree to it against my will. I don’t need a doctor, but there’s
little I can do to resist being guided from my seat into a private
interrogation room in the back corridor of the building.

As I’m being escorted through the hallway, I see glimpses of
him- the static fiend that took Shana from me. Every time he appears I want to
scream out of both anger and fear, but each time it’s more anger than fear. He
wants me to be afraid, and he’s even more hell-bent on stalking me now. He’s
appearing around every corner, every corridor, and every window. He’s not in
the interrogation room, though.

 I always imagined these rooms were supposed to be mostly
white, but this room looks just like every other room in the building. It still
has the blue carpeting the rest of the station does, and the walls are more of
a beige than white. The table is grey and the chairs are blue metal foldout
chairs like we have at our school. Dr. Filbert, the bald shrink, sits at one
end of the table, coffee in hand. He motions for me to sit opposite him, but
even so the officer escorts me to the chair to help me sit. There is a giant
mirror on the wall. That must be one of the one-way windows. I’m sure the
sheriff and Deputy Yew are watching, but I’m wondering if my family is too.

Just how many people are interested in how I found Shana? It
can’t be hard for them to piece together even without me. I wandered into the
woods and found her. That’s far from the truth but still something they can go
by.

“Can you tell me your name?” asks Doctor Filbert. I’m
surprised by his voice. It doesn’t sound aged or deep or anything you’d expect
a man of his stature to have. Instead it’s soft but high, like someone who’s
trying to coo a child.

“Maybe I should start,” he continues. I want to cringe at
that voice; it makes him sound like a pedophile.

“My name is Dean Filbert. I’m a psychiatrist and I’m here to
help you,” he explains. I look down at the table. I can’t watch him when he
talks.

“I need you to talk to me. If you want you can tell me what
happened in your own words, or I can ask you questions?” he tries. I stare at
the table. I feel a wave of static pass through me again. That fiend- he, is
watching. I grit my teeth behind my lips.

“Alyssa, how are you feeling?” What kind of question is
that? My best friend just died and I’m being haunted by a monster. How does he
think
I’m feeling?

He says a few more things but I just tune him out. What am I
going to do? I couldn’t get Shana out and now the entity seems to be following
me. Will he wait until I’m alone and then strike? Is he strong enough to pull
me into his domain now? I imagine he is basking in my pain right now. If only I
could push my emotions away like a sociopath. If I could not care, then maybe
he won’t desire me so much.

I look up and catch a flash of annoyance flit across Doctor
Filbert’s face, but he wipes it off. I guess it’s unprofessional for a
psychiatrist to seem angry with one of his clients. There’s a knock on the
door. “Enter,” says Filbert in that peevish voice. I actually do wince this
time. I am surprised to see that Bubbe is the one at the door. Sheriff Fraser
is behind her.

“Let me talk to her a bit. I might be able to help,” she
suggests coolly. Doctor Filbert sizes Bubbe up before reluctantly agreeing. He
waves her in. “In private. That means just the two of us. No one needs to see
or hear our conversation. Am I understood?” Bubbe asks the sheriff. Sheriff
Fraser doesn’t show any sign of disagreement. He gives her one of those
‘whatever works’ nods and then escorts a now-openly-very-annoyed looking Doctor
Filbert out.

Bubbe sits down across from me. I’m wondering what she’s
going to say, but she doesn’t speak immediately. Maybe she’s giving them time
to clear the adjacent room out. I wouldn’t give them the benefit of the doubt
though. Then again Bubbe probably already told my parents, who are making sure
there are no eavesdroppers.

“That was a very brave thing you did,” Bubbe starts. I look
in her in the eye. “I can’t say I would have let you do it, but you did the
right thing. I want you to know that.”

What is she saying? I endangered myself and failed to
succeed in my mission.

“You can’t keep blaming yourself. I know you did what you
could. I’ve never seen someone succeed in the way that you have,” she continues.

“Succeed?” I ask feebly. She nods her head.

“When this thing takes children, they never return. Shana is
the only person I’ve known to come back. You saved her.”

I shake my head. “She’s dead... she died just before I
escaped,” I say.

“You’re right, she’s dead, but is that such a bad thing?”
she asks.

I look at her with bewilderment. What is she talking about?
Of course her dying is a bad thing. “Wha- what are you saying?” I ask.

“I don’t know the details. I don’t know how you did it, but when
you went in and found Shana, she was alive. Wasn’t she?” she asks. I feel my
head throbbing with the painful reminder. I nod my head.

“That means she was alive the whole time she was missing,”
she continues.

“I imagine it wasn’t pleasant... in
his
world. How
did it feel?” she asks.

I find her order of questions odd, and not in a good way,
but I answer her, sincerely hoping that no one else is watching lest I be
pronounced certifiably insane.

“It was dark, and painful... he was laughing at me. I couldn’t
see or feel anything... except pain and fear,” I explain.

“And how long were you in there?” she asks.

“It was around... less than an hour... I don’t know. It felt
like days,” I say.

“Now how long was Shana in there?” she asks.

I pause for a moment. “...days.”

“If minutes feel like days to you, how long do you think
days felt to her?” she asks. I bow my head. Shana was subject to that- no, he’d
absorbed her until I cut her off, so she was subject to worse than I was, and
for days at end. Her screams... they were very real.

“I think your friend would thank you if she could. She may
not be alive to do it, but you did the next best thing. You saved her from him,
and gave her death. If she’d remained trapped in that monster’s world, her
parents
would have been prevented from
having closure. Now they can sit shivah for Shana and eventually make peace
with her loss instead of being tormented by not knowing for the rest of their
lives
,
” she says. I shake my head.

“He still killed her though. He probably still has her
spirit in his clutches.”

Now she shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I think he needs
them alive, weakened, yes, but alive. If he tries to take them when they’re too
weak, then they’ll only end up dying, and he’ll lose them,” she says. I close
my eyes. Do her words ring true? Have I really saved Shana from a fate worse
than death... by bringing her death?

The thought sounds dark... in fact I think I actually feel
worse for a few minutes. That means she was tortured all that time... how I felt...
she felt that and much more and for a longer period. I shake the thoughts out,
now- hopefully, all that is behind her, and she can rest in peace like Bubbe
just said.

“You can’t keep ignoring the doctor like this though. You
and I may both know you’re not crazy, but if you don’t prove that to him, he
can have you locked up, and then there will be little we can do to protect you
from
him
,” she says.