Serena

The next morning, when we awoke, we found Quixote busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast for us. She gives a reassuring smile and I can’t help but giving her a hug. Then I go over and sit at the table with the others. A few minutes later, she brings out plates of pancakes and glasses of orange juice. We thank her and begin to devour the food. For the week or so we’ve been on our own we haven’t had very much. As I swallow a gulp of juice, I realize something.

“Quixote, where are your parents?” I ask curiously.

“They will be on a business trip for the next few weeks,” she replies. I nod, but find this very curious. I get up and walk over to the sink to clear my plate. When I return to the dining room, I find Quixote talking with the others.

“What were you guys doing in Alcatraz anyway?” she asks. Kylie makes a sad noise and I feel my eyes fill with tears once again. I bury my face into my sweatshirt, when Dawson speaks up to explain.

“We aren’t really sure ourselves. We’re from Thousand Oaks and somehow we found ourselves up here. Well, actually, we are trying to escape from…from...” He can’t go on.

“Slender,” Trenton finishes. “I know you probably think we are crazy but its true. He has been stalking Serena and I. We don’t know why, but it started when we found these.” He reaches into my bag and pulls out the notes we have so far and hands them to Quixote. She examines them carefully.

“That’s really weird,” she says as she hands them back. “I don’t know what to say, but tell me more.”

I speak up this time. “To try and keep our families safe, we decided to travel up north. We landed in Oakland and camped out for the night in an abandoned warehouse. Slender found us there and not all of us escaped.” I wipe away the tear that rolled down my cheek. “Our friend Riley wasn’t as lucky as we are right now. Slender ripped out her heart.” I burst into sobs and bury my face into my sweatshirt once again.

“There was nothing we could do except run.” Kylie says quietly. “The next morning we set off for here, San Francisco. We figured that this might be like the game, that we should try and find the notes. We determined that Alcatraz was a likely place to hold a note. When we arrived there, we found a note in the tunnel that the two prisoners used to escape. But almost the exact second we found it, Slender came. It was terrible. Our friend Megan tripped and hurt her knee. Two zombie-like creatures emerged from behind Slender and started to tear her apart. T-Trenton tried to f-fight them off, but it w-was too late.” Her voice gives and she buries her head into Trenton’s shoulder.

“They killed her!” I cry. “ The little demons tore her to shreds! My best friend, gone!” I can’t go on start to sob into my hands even harder.

Dawson sniffles. “She was always a fighter. She didn’t go down without a fight.” Megan had been his girlfriend. He must be feeling horrible. We must be feeling the same pain. Quixote nods sadly as we all sit there in tears.

“You guys have had a rough week. I’m really sorry,” she says quietly. I try in a feeble attempt to pull myself together as I excuse myself from the table and up to our room. I sit down on my bed and put my earphones in. Music has always made me feel better. I leave one ear open just in case. I turn on my phone and the music instantly makes me feel better. As I rest against the wall, I hear someone come up the stairs into the room. Kylie comes and sits next to me on the bed.

“Hey can I join you?” she asks with a small smile.

I nod and hand her an earphone. She puts it in and we sit in silence for a few moments.

“So are you ok? You seemed really torn up down there,” she says consolingly. I nod again, but instantly start to cry. She holds me close and I finally feel like I have a big sister to take care of me. Even though she and Trenton are only a year older than me, I always felt so young.

“I’m really sorry. I knew you guys were really close.” She tries to comfort me.

“Thank you so much. It really means a lot that you came to check on me,” I say drying my tears.

“No problem. The others will be up in a minute or so. Quixote is just giving them something before she leaves.”

“Leaving?”

“I guess, she just said we can stay here for a bit, but she must leave.” I nod and then a couple minutes later, we hear the front door close and then Trenton and Dawson bounding up the stairs.

“Look at what she left us!” Trenton says excitedly. He shows an envelope full of money.

I stare at it awestruck. “No way! How much is it?!”

“I think she said about five hundred dollars and she said everything in this house is our to take on our journey!” he replies happily. We argue as where to go next and Dawson gets an idea.

“How about New York? It’s a pretty popular place, and we’ll be safe from the Slenderman in the crowds.” We all agree and I buy four airplane tickets online. We gather some food together, the money, and our few belongings and catch a bus heading to the airport. We arrive just in time to go through the security check and to make it to the plane on time. I sit with Dawson while Kylie and Trenton sit in the row across from us. I put in my earphones, and turn on my music. The music fades as I fall asleep.