Trenton

I started to get more and more paranoid about this whole Slenderman thing. I hadn’t realized that it was such a big deal until that note came. That was when my whole world flipped upside down. I asked all my friends to meet at our school and then told them about what was happening.

“Slenderman is after me,” I said shakily. “I know what you’re about to say. This is all fake. But it’s not. I received this after playing Slender with Dawson. The lights were going wacko and then there was this inhuman laugh. Here’s a note that appeared afterwards.” I displayed the note to them and they all gasped. Only Serena didn’t seem surprised. In fact, it seemed to prove her suspicions, her jade eyes glinting mysteriously. She tossed her light brown braid over her should and said that she had been experiencing some paranormal activity also. She also showed us a note that read “NO NO NO NO” multiple times with a small figure in the middle and “CAN’T RUN”. I started getting a bad feeling about all of this.

“We need to get out of here,” I stated flatly to Serena. “Maybe if we get far enough away, he’ll just leave us alone. I don’t even know why he’s after us in the first place.” Everyone started objecting at once.

“You can’t leave!”

“That’s a bad idea.”

“What if he doesn’t leave you guys alone?”

“We’re coming with you.”

“Okay,” I reply to that last statement. “I’d rather you guys don’t, but if anyone was by my side, I’d want it to be you guys.” I gave them all a little half smile. “It’s probably going to be dangerous. Not all of us may survive,” I say seriously. And so we embarked on our perilous journey. Little did we know that not all of us would survive.

We set out going north towards San Francisco. It seemed as good a place as any, until we realized it was very far away, and that we had almost no money. I typed in “Slenderman” on my phone and searched until I found an informational article.

“It says here,” I told everyone, “that it uses fear to ensnare its victims. It stretches out its limbs to abnormal lengths and is claimed to have been seen with six to eight tentacles. Anyone who stares at it too long will feel an odd sense of numbness wash over them, and, in a trancelike state, will walk towards him, feeling as though they must reach him. So whatever you guys do, don’t look too long, or it will take you.” We were camped out in an abandoned warehouse for the night, because the weather outside was a biting 22ºF outside. We had all brought something to sleep on. Pretty soon everyone was asleep except for Serena and me.

“So what do you make of all this?” I ask tentatively.

“I don’t know,” she replies quietly. “I never knew anything about this thing, and now, after playing it once at the park with my friend, it wants to track me down and kill me.”

“Wait. You’ve played it before also?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I freaked out and screamed when he popped out. Then the day got a little bit darker, and then my little sister started screaming. She said she saw a tall man, but only saw his black pants. He gave her that letter to me.”

“When did you first play?”

“This morning. At about 10:30. Why?”

“That’s the exact same time I played it too! This is getting really strange.” However, before she could respond, there was a slight scraping sound, like friction between two sheets of sandpaper. Then a piercing scream rent through the air. Everyone was awake. Kylie was screaming, “HE’S COMING! HE’S COMING!” We were on our feet in an instant, surveying our landscape through bleary eyes. We were lying on a broad catwalk, and had two ways of escape- well, three if you counted jumping, which I definitely was not planning on. As we looked, a wraithlike apparition was gliding toward us slowly at one end of the catwalk. We started backing away from it, not knowing what was before us. There was a thick, black cloud surrounding it, and when the cloud dissipated, a figure was standing before us.

“Don’t look!” I yelled. We all shielded our eyes and back away. However, Riley kept staring at it.

“Riley,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “What are you doing?!” She murmured something about tentacles. I tried to grab her, but when I did, she resisted and pulled away, her long blonde hair trailing behind her. She started walking towards the Slenderman. I tried to stop her. I turned around, and what I saw before me would haunt me forever. I saw Riley, slumped to the ground, and the Slenderman, tentacles writhing, behind her, holding something that looked strangely like a pulsating red stone. He had ripped her heart out.