Dexter Morgenstern - The Slender Man

I force myself to get up, push the book off my bed, and flick the light off. It’s a little warm, so I only cover up with my top blanket. While lying down, I close my eyes to go to sleep. With my eyes closed and my mind sleepy I should be able to fall asleep quickly, but with a heart full of anguish and worry, I don’t. As I replay the events of today over my head, I feel a few tears rolling down my cheek onto my pillow. From missing students, to failed essay, to Shana, whose only wish is for me to stay with her so she won’t have to face Denise or “him” alone. I’ve succeeded in nothing today.

After a few more minutes, I feel that I am almost asleep, but then I hear wind rushing and open my eyes. I can’t move. It’s happening again! I think. I repeat the process of sending movement commands to my body, but this time I don’t feel that slight twitch. Instead, I feel the static, or the numbing force that’s holding me down pulse. It’s like the more I fight, the stronger the force gets. Is he here? I look around with my eyes, probably the only part of my body I can move. I can sense him, but the room is empty.

Maybe he’s going for Adam again? I can’t see Adam in Bubbe’s room across the hall, and even though I can’t see the fiend, I know he’s going for Adam now. Maybe if I wake up, I can get up. How do I wake up though? Last time I screamed myself awake. My lips are open just a bit, and I begin to push my voice out, but there’s no sound. I try as hard as I can, to get that moan to come out, but there’s nothing this time. It’s as if he’s stronger than before. I close my eyes. Maybe if I try to go to sleep, I will wake up? With my eyes closed, I try and drift into sleep, but then it hurts.

The static screeches and the grip tightens. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t. No, am I locked in this blackness? I can still feel the bed pressing against me, but the static isn’t letting up, and I can’t even open my eyes. When I tried to drift into sleep, the grip tightened. Is this what Shana meant? Is this why she wouldn’t go to sleep?

It is, she was fighting him! I have to too. I do everything I can to squirm, scream, and open my eyes. I feel my body trying to obey the commands from my brain, but his force won’t relent. How long do I have to fight before he leaves? It feels like a minute; five; ten, but as I vainly fight I feel my heart racing, and my strength waning. Is he winning? I feel myself slipping… and then a tap.

I open my eyes and almost scream when I see something that looks like a shadowy hand disappearing underneath my bed. Not from around the bed, through it! I jump off the bed and hit the light switch in a single motion. I drop to the floor and look underneath the bed; nothing there.

“Adam,” I mutter. I rush to Bubbe’s room. Relief hits me as I see Adam in a pallet by her bed. He’s breathing, and he’s asleep. After splashing some water on my face, I walk back to my room. I consider falling back asleep. My body is tired, but what if that thing attacked, and won? I don’t know what to make of it. Perhaps it was part nightmare, part real? I hope it’s all nightmare and none of it is real, but I sleep with my light on just for the illusion of safety.

In what seems like only an hour, I feel hands pushing me. I violently jerk up and see my mother.

“Get up, something’s wrong,” she says. She hurries out of the room before I have a chance to respond. I hurry up behind her and my mind races. What could be wrong? Is it something to do with the static? Mom runs downstairs. I can see through the window that it’s early morning. Adam was fine when I went to sleep, so unless he took him after the attack it wasn’t him.

Maybe it left a message? I don’t know what is happening, so I hurry downstairs as quickly as I can. When I get downstairs I’m surprised to see Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorn are standing there speaking with my Dad. When I come from around the stairway, they all look at me. Mrs. Hawthorn has tears in her eyes.

“Shana,” I mutter to myself. Dad speaks first.

“Something’s happened to Shana.”

“Is she dead?” I ask horrified.

“We don’t know,” he answers.

“We were hoping she’d run away, and come here,” explains Mr. Hawthorn.

“She’s missing?” I ask. He nods.

All inside of a second, I feel a lump in my throat, my stomach gets heavy, and my heart begins pounding like a fist. I was right. I’d been right all along. Something bad was about to happen. Something bad did happen to Shana. Only when it did, I was worrying about Adam. Not once had it crossed my mind that the nightmare meant something was wrong with Shana. Maybe it’s because the nightmare took place here that I assumed the fiend was after me or Adam.

I feel a hand touch my shoulder and look to see Bubbe standing beside me.

“Please, Alyssa. Did Shana say anything to you last night? You were the last person to have really spoken to her,” asks Mrs. Hawthorn. I’m still not ready to answer. I’m not sure what to say. Shana’s missing, like the other kids. Jason said he was going to help Kenny right after he saw the fiend, and then disappeared. That might have happened to the other missing students too. Shana saw Denise though, but instead of trying to help Denise, she stayed home, and wanted me to stay with her.

“She wanted me to stay,” I finally say. “She, she didn’t feel safe at home and wanted me to stay. She begged me.” I’m saying this aloud for them to hear, but it sounds like I’m accusing myself.

“I’ve just phoned the police. They’re on their way,” says Dad, who I didn’t realize had left the room. I need to sit down, but I can’t command my feet to move over to a chair, so I plop down onto the floor right where I am. My head hurts, and as I look around the room I can see I’m not the only one in pain. The Hawthorn’s have already lost their youngest daughter, and they have only a shred of hope that they haven’t permanently lost their first born daughter as well. As yet they have no reason to believe she’s dead, but I know that she won’t be found wandering the streets. I have to tell the police what Shana told me about Denise and him .

It’s the only way I can help her, because even I don’t have any clues as to how to help her any other way. She said that Denise wanted her to go help her in the forest, and that the man wanted her to sleep. Does going to sleep enable him to attack you? Does he put you in a trance and make you walk to him, or does he just whisk you away? I felt something trying to force me to go to sleep last night, but neither of those things happened, so what does it mean? Was the fit I had related to Shana’s disappearance?

I sit here, thinking about what I could have done to prevent this. Maybe if I’d fought harder and stayed awake, Shana would be okay. Or maybe if I found a way to convince my Dad to let me stay she would be here now. If I hadn’t turned in those essays I’d probably have been allowed to stay with Shana. I can’t keep looking backwards though.

When I hear the knock on the door that can only mean the police are here I realize that the only thing I can do is try and help find her. I’m surprised to see that the sheriff personally came, and is accompanied by Deputy Yew, who looks utterly forlorn. He’s stressed too. It’s probably because he’s been dealing with the other missing students, and now there is another one for him to find.

The sheriff begins by questioning the Hawthorn parents, and when they can’t give him any information that might help, he comes to me. He doesn’t have to say anything.

“When we visited on Thursday, she said she was seeing things. She said she was seeing her sister,” I start.

“Like how you said Jason was looking for Kenny?” asks Deputy Yew from the corner. I nod, and continue on to explain how she said Denise wanted her help too, and that she couldn’t go to sleep without seeing Denise. I tell them everything I can recall, including how Shana was refusing to fall asleep because she was afraid that he would get her. I almost sound crazy myself telling them this, but when I explain how Denise kept telling Shana to go to the woods, they finally look like I’ve given them a shred of decent information, other than the fact that Shana needed psychiatric help.