Trenton

I call Eric to the girls’ room.

“If what Nathaniel and Kathryn say is true, then Serena is going to die very soon. Stay by her bedside. Be there for when she wakes up. It will help her a lot.” He agrees and grabs a chair to sit next to her. I exit and call everyone to the middle room. I tell everyone my theory on the time-lock, then open my bags of supplies. I divide the food and water, then lay out the weapons. Nathaniel doesn’t grab any, claiming his fire will suffice. Dawson grabs a mallet and knife, and leaves two knives for Eric. Kylie takes a frying pan, and Kathryn takes the cleaver, along with her butterfly knives and small crossbow. I take a mallet and small knife. That leaves a knife for Serena. I hear a yelp, then see the darkness suck back into the small orb. It falls to the ground with a solid clunk. I jump up and tell the others to stay where they are. After a couple minutes, Eric and Serena come out, Serena with tear-stained cheeks. I jump up and hug her. Nathaniel runs outside and then rushes back in.

“Everything is the way it was,” he states. “Everything is moving.” We pack up our stuff, then leave the room and head to the elevator. We get out of the hotel as quickly as possible. We end up walking along the street to a small coffee shop down the road. We try to decide where to go next.

“Well, maybe Florida?” Eric suggests. We look at what money we have and find that there is enough to get us there. We buy plane tickets and head to Florida. The flight there was uneventful. Once we get off, we get a cab then a boat to go to a popular tourist beach, or rather island.

“Captiva Island?” Kylie asks.

“It’s a popular place because there are lots of shells lining the beach,” I say, reading the brochure. “There’s supposed to be a spectacular sunset later today. Let’s look for that note. Check everywhere. We split off into teams of twos and threes. Kylie and I are one group, Serena and Eric are another, and Dawson, Nathaniel, and Kathryn are another. We decided not to go alone at all if possible. Kylie and I take the southern end of the island, Serena and Eric the north-west end, and Dawson, Nathaniel, and Kathryn the north-east side. Kylie and I walk along the beach for hours, and by the time we get to the end, it’s almost sundown. I contact the others and tell them to rendezvous at the pier with the boat. As Kylie and I walk back, the sun sets. Some clouds lay low in the sky, and the sun reflects off of them. I grab Kylie’s hand and we continue walking. The sky turns yellow, then orange. It reflects off of the clouds with the reflection of the ocean, painting the clouds a light lavender. The ocean turned a deep cerulean, and waves washed up on the shore around Kylie and my feet. The palm trees dance and sway in the light breeze. I grab a flashlight out of my backpack and put it in my pocket. The sun finally comes to its lowest point and I stop. Kylie turns and looks at me in the eyes. The sunlight glitters in her eyes and they turn the color of the ocean behind me. I lean forward and hug her. The soft sea breeze chills me, but with Kylie, I feel warmth. We release and continue. I flick on my flashlight. I see the dying light of the sun and think to myself “This is how the world should be. No danger, just beauty.”  We’ve been walking for an hour or so when I hear another set of footsteps. I turn around and shine the flashlight behind us. Only black. I move my flashlight up and see a white oval. Right behind me. Then features pop out. Suit, tie, and pure black.

“Run,” I say to Kylie. “Run! RUN!!!” She turns and I see horror across her face. I whip out my sunglasses and push Kylie forward into a run. I reach into my pocket and pull out the mallet. I had just put on my sweatshirt, so I had less mobility. I rushed forward and swung my mallet at his knee. He moved swiftly backwards. I heard a screeching noise that I could tell was coming from the slenderman and his tentacles came from his back. Flailing around, they picked up rocks and started throwing them at me. I rolled to avoid the first volley, then swung my hammer and broke a few more for the second volley. All the while, I advanced towards him and swung my mallet. I connected with Dawson (I’d become very good at doing this subconsciously) and made sure the mallet connected with his knee. He collapsed on one knee and I brought down the mallet to connect with his head. It phased through, and he vanished on the spot like a hologram. My mallet continued and smashed into the ground. I heard and crack and leaned down to see that the hammer had cracked a shell. Lying in the remains of the shell on the sand was a crumpled up piece of paper. I smoothed it out and saw a tree, the slenderman, and the word “FOLLOWS” vertically written. I turned and ran towards Kylie. I caught up with her and told her what had happened. I tapped into Kathryn’s power and grabbed Kylie. We bounded towards our rendezvous spot and waited five minutes when we saw Kathryn’s group and Eric and Serena come from a distance. We met up and I showed them the note.

“Great. Let’s get off this island,” Serena says. We turn and find the docks barren. There were no boats. We were stuck on an island with slenderman.