Dexter Morgenstern - The Slender Man

I begin screaming at him out of both anger and fear. I feel tears rolling down my face.

“What do you want from us!?” I scream, but my voice cracks. I can feel the numbness growing stronger. Each note of laughter sends a pulse in my direction. My heart is racing and I can’t think. I can’t move. Shana falls to the ground on my side and causes me to stumble again.

I scream as loudly as I can, trying to block out the ominous laughter that torments me. Covering my ears doesn’t seem to work, because even though the laughing sounds quiet, I can feel it pulsing through my bones. Each vibration sends another shock of terror and all I want is to get out of here. I’m in agony; he’s on me again. I feel myself being pulled back toward the tree. No! I didn’t come here in vain.

I fight him, throwing punches and kicks, squirming and wriggling. I don’t feel myself hitting anything, except for a few trees in my path, and I can feel myself being dragged back to the clearing at a sprinter’s pace.

“No!” I scream and continue fighting. I find myself on my stomach and manage to wrap my arms around the trunk of one of the trees. Using it for leverage against the pull of the monster, I pull myself forward, away from the fiend as hard and fast as I can, pain coursing through my body, crying. I’m trying to get back to Shana. I came here for her, and I won’t just leave her here.

I crawl forward, and every time I progress to another tree I wrap onto it to keep from the sudden backward tugs, but even though I’m so close to Shana that I can see her through the dark, the light grows dimmer with every pull. He doesn’t need me to go to the tree. He just needs to put out the light. He only does it faster if I’m closer to it; if I’m weakened, but now it’s too late. I can’t find the strength or balance to stand, and even though Shana is standing only a yard from me, the blackness will take me before I can get to her.

Wait… she’s standing! I feel a hand on mine. Shana’s reaching for me and soon I feel her hand on mine. I feel myself being pulled up to my feet, but at the same time I feel like I’ve reached the end of my strength. I have an overwhelming sense of dizziness. I can’t stand on my own, I can’t walk, I can hardly think. I can sense the fiend around me, and vertigo consumes me.

Humans aren’t meant to feel this way. Humans aren’t even meant to be here. I become lost in my thoughts, answering my own questions. Why am I here? I came to free Shana. How did I plan to do that? I tried to cut down the tree, but what now? I feel my body convulse, and although I can’t see it, I know I’ve vomited. I feel another tug, and hear a voice, but the voice is muffled by the shrieks of static. “I can’t…”

“Alyssa…”

“He’s calling my name.”

“Alyssa… Lyss!” I feel another pull. I realize I’ve been dragged a few feet since Shana helped me to my feet and I fell over.

“Alyssa… we have to go,” says Shana.

“Don’t let him claim you. You’ll never get out.” I look up and see Shana still pulling me through the woods. She’s not looking at me. Instead her gaze is a blank stare. I think she’s talking to herself as well as me.

We can’t give up. That’s what she’s trying to say, but what do we do? I have no strength. My only incentive to move is the thought of escaping with Shana? But how? The question repeats in my mind. I escaped last time didn’t I? Yeah, I ran. I ran out of his grasp and he couldn’t hold me. If I can put enough distance between us and the monster, then we should make it out okay. I have to keep fighting though. I have to fight through the numbness, dizziness, pain, and shrieking.

I gather my last bit of strength together and pull back on Shana’s weight, rising to my feet.

“We have to go,” she repeats. There’s almost no light, and all I can see is her face, less than an arm’s length away.

“Let’s go,” I say feebly. Her hand in mine, we run. I run with my free hand forward, pushing myself out of the way of trees that appear in my path. I can only hope I’m moving forward in one direction, and not in circles, but there are trees, slopes, and hills every few feet that we have to dodge. This involves many turns and twists, and with no light I have no sense of direction, and with my many stumbles I’m sure I’ve gotten turned around a few times.

I feel a rushing wave of howling static. It’s pushing from behind us.

“He’s coming,” mutters Shana.

“He’s coming!” she shrieks. Another wave hits me. It’s the same thing that happened when I was on my way to the tree with the axe. Except now, he’s faster. He’s not stalking. He’s pursuing, and I feel him getting closer. Shana does too. I can tell through her sobs. She’s losing hope. I wish I could get a good look at her face, but it’s hard enough getting her to keep up with me.

I feel another pulse. This one weakens me and causes my knees to almost buckle, but I keep moving. The wave must have affected her more than it did me because I feel her slipping. She’s lagging behind, failing to keep up. I can’t tell if she’s just too tired to run any faster or losing consciousness, but I think it’s the latter. I have to keep her talking. I cut her off from him and then she pulled me away from him when he had me. Now it’s a game of keep-away. I can’t tell who he’s targeting.

He wants both of us, but I think he can only take one of us at a time. He came after me while I was panicking, and now I can only feel him following us. This must mean he’s after Shana. She needs a voice to listen to. She needs to remember that it’s my hand she’s holding and not his.

“Shana, we’re gonna be okay. Just keep running!” I say, trying to shout, but I’m already breathless. He reinforces his laughter, as if emphasizing it in response to me, and I feel a static wave that almost forces me forward, but at the same time I feel Shana’s grip weaken as if she’s being pulled back. She needs to talk to me. I need to know she’ll make it.

She screams. I look, but I can’t see what has her. I can’t see what he’s doing. I run into a tree, and am glad that the numbness works to distance the pain. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stay on my toes.

I wrap around the tree, jerking Shana. I feel a lot of resistance and hope I didn’t just dislocate her shoulder or anything. She’s fallen to her knees, and is still screaming. It’s that same scream she gave me in my original nightmare.

“No, I won’t let you take her away from me again. You’re not going to hurt her anymore,” I say aloud. We’re not going to escape him with me dragging her like this. I turn around and pick her up. It’s nearly impossible, because I already had a hard to time getting used to running while almost completely numb, but without the numbness I probably wouldn’t be able to lift Shana at all.

I can tell my speed isn’t that of a sprinter, it barely would pass for a brisk walk, but I came here for her, and I’m not leaving without her. Her screaming fades into cries and I can tell she’s slipping. She’s close enough now that I can see her face. It looks like she’s dying right in my arms. “Shana!” I scream.

“We’re almost there! Shana, hold on! Almost!” but I’m not sure how true that even is.

In the nightmare I only ran a few dozen meters from the tree line where his presence was the strongest, and we haven’t even left the woods yet, but we’re going in another direction I’m sure. Does he have control over the whole forest, or just a certain distance? I hope that whatever the truth is, I can make it out with Shana.

I push one of the trees with my shoulder to work around it, and then that sense of vertigo hits me. The tree grabs me, but it’s not just a tree. It’s him, it’s his static hand. I scream loudly as he touches me. My body distorts with that meat-grinding pain at the contact point. I bite my tongue, so hard that I taste blood.