Trenton

Eric and I walked around, hoping, but not hoping, to find Slender. I held a flashlight in my hand, the light shining in front of us as we meandered aimlessly throughout the forest. A small path was all that we had to go off of, and eventually we came to four brick walls, about twenty feet tall, in the shape of a plus sign. We walked around on all sides, finding nothing, and continued along the path. After a couple minutes, we came to a small clearing dotted with totem poles. Strange faces were carved into each pole, but something about them all looked the same. They were afraid. As we walked around, marveling at them, I heard Eric gasp. I rushed over to him, and he stood shocked, pointing at one of the poles. This one looked newer, with brighter paints and was barely chipped. The faces were strange, but had an air of familiarity. I stepped back, looking at the whole pole, and realization hit me.

The face was Riley’s.

It was shaped strangely, but it still bore a resemblance to her. I looked up the pole, my mind putting names to the faces. Riley, Megan, Jordan, Nick, Kathryn, and at the top, Aly. About that was wood long enough for four more faces.

Four of us.

Above Aly, the wood was shifting, like liquid, slowly making features of a face. It was still too misshapen to figure out who’s it was, but I stopped looking at it. I turned away and looked at all the others. Several more totem poles filled the clearing, some taller than the other, some still blank. Eric was staring blankly at the one with our friends, so I walked over to him and tugged his arm.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered faintly, as though the totems were sleeping.

“Yes,” he replied numbly, “please.”

We continued to trudge along the path, waiting for the hour to be over, to be reunited with the one’s we loved, but time dragged by. My mind kept straying to the shaping totem, the incomplete piece, wondering who it could be, and then I realized one feature that allowed me to realize who. The color of the eyes. Green-blue, almost a turquoise.

The color of the ocean.

I stopped in my tracks, and my mind exploded out, searching for Serena’s mind.

“Where are you?!” I asked urgently. I felt her consciousness shifting for a moment before replying.

“By a truck,” she responded. “We’re trying to rig it so we ca-“

“Teleport us to you,” I demanded.

“Why?”

“Just do it. I’ll explain there.” I felt a moment of weightlessness, and suddenly we were standing by Serena and Kylie. I turned to Kylie.

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah, I feel fine,” she said, looking at me strangely.

“Trenton, what is this about?” Serena asked me sharply. I looked Kylie in the eyes, and I saw specks of black dotted around her irises.

“We really need to leave,” was my response. I turned to Serena, but before she could reply, the ground shook and the wind picked up. The trees rattled and swooshed as the wind blew through them, moaning like ghosts. I looked around, and the open space before us seemed to tear like paper. From the rip came Slender.

“So you finally figured it out,” he laughed.

“Figured what out? Trenton, what is going on?” Serena yelled over the wind.

“The girl is dying. And nothing can stop it. She will die, just like the rest of you,” the Slenderman roared in reply. All eyes turned to Kylie. She looked frightened, but her expression hardened.

“We’ll stop you!” she shouted.

“No one can stop me! The forest is my domain. I purged the light from this forest millennia ago, bringing only darkness and chaos. There is nothing you can do!”

“You’re forgetting,” I told him, “that I am light.” My hands started glowing. “And there is no way that my girlfriend is dying. Not today, not ever!” I shot a beam of light at him, blasting him back. I yelled at everyone to run, and I grabbed Kylie’s hand. We sprinted into the darkness, lit only by my light, running for our lives. We finally stopped, panting and thirsting for water.

“How can I be dying?” Kylie asked. I turned and put my hand on her shoulder, staring into her eyes.

         “When we trapped Slender, part of his essence escaped, and he was resurrected in Dawson’s body.”

“Yeah, I know that part. I was there.”

“That’s not all. When that happened, not all of him entered Dawson. The excess was transferred into you. It wasn’t strong enough to take over you, but part of it creeped into your subconscious, feeding off of your life force. As soon as it gets enough energy, it’s going to shut your body down, organ by organ.” She paled.

“How… how long do I have?” she asked shakily.

“You don’t have a time limit because we’re going to save you.”

“How?”

“We’re gonna kill the Slenderman. I figure, that with a concentrated enough beam of my light, I should be able to burn him up.”

“Then let’s finish this the way we started,” Serena said. “Together.”