Robert hated running.
But whatever kept him away from the computer made his life
so much easier, his friends had seen the state he was in and it had been
getting to them too, Rob had gotten angrier and more hostile since the summer
had started. His eyes were always blood shot and the bags under his eyes had
doubled from the last time he had come out into town, even then he seemed
pre-occupied and blank, staring in to the distance with an uneasy look,
sometimes moving erratically on his chair, shuffling from side to side as to
get a better view into the distance.
So his friends took him running, swimming, drinking all to
keep him away from an unknown pain.
Rob walked up the second part of the hilled wood, he was
pleased with himself because he always walked at the start of the hill, this
time he ran. He had more energy, more adrenaline, a will to finish the run as
quickly as it had started.
It was never enough.
His friends were slimmer and fitter than him and had run
ahead. They were already calling for him to take the next left down the hill so
that they could start the 2 minute sprint to the finish. Robert hated sprinting
as well; his belly and chest wobbled and shook as he ran, not by a lot but just
enough so he could feel it.
Robert came to the path that lead towards the downward slope
to the end of the forest. Out grown trees and bramble bushes clung to Rob’s
shirt and tracksuit bottoms, the clearing shrunk into a small and muddy
path. In the distance a dark cloud
brewed over the tree line and birds flew from the swaying branches, He was
almost alone in the forest now, it was late and all the dog walkers and runners
had all left to return home to their Saturday night TV and warm beds.
The only person left beside Rob was a tall man standing on
top of two tall stumps, his arms held onto two nearby branches and the two piece
suit he wore blended into the night, only his white under shirt could be seen
under the pressing light of the upcoming moon.
'Hey, are you alright mate?!' Rob had a feeling that the man
was out of place.
Not that he wore a suit in the middle of the forest or that
his featureless face seemed to blur into the surrounding trees and bushes. He
was just out of place.
Rob ventured forward, his friends voices dissipated into the
thick growth of the forest and soon all that Rob could here was the cracking of
sticks underneath his feet and his own heavy voice. Even the forest grew
deathly silent.
Rob came into the clearing, a perfectly spherical opening
with two tall logs crossed over each other, forming an X over the forest floor.
There stood the man, feet either side of the middle of the X. He was not standing on two tree trunks, his legs were the trunks, they were ridiculously tall, slim
and tall. His suit stretched over his twig thin legs that lifted him high above
the biggest branches of the trees to either side of him. His arms were not
hidden by the branches. They were the branches, both spread wide root like
finger tips filtered down each other and spread themselves wide, stretching
across the cold and harsh air.
Rob
looked up and cried, the figure had no face and no hair. The head sharply tilted
downwards, looking at Rob as if the creature had eyes and burned his very soul.
Rob fell to his knees and coughed violently. A piercing headache split his head
in two and his eyes dripped blood every time he blinked, soon his eyes were
full with tears of blood and his coughing had forced him to lie crumpled on the
floor. The figure contorted over Rob’s violently twitching body and pressed his
head against the crown of Rob’s cold and sweaty head.
A voice shot through Rob’s headache and spoke into his
deepest consciousness.
“You researched me, you wanted to know me. So I wanted to
know you, I have watched you in the darkness and in the light, I was with your
enemies and your family and your friends, I watched you sleep and eat and cry,
and I deemed you not worthy, not strong enough for me. You were a waste of my
time and now I will take your fear so that you can repay the time you wasted' His voice was cold, monotone, distorted.
Rob screamed through his coughs as the branch like arm
wrapped over his chest and his neck.
'YOU...WEREN’T...REAL! YOU... WERE... A.... STORY!'
The slim man spoke into Rob’s head once more.
'YOU Humans brought me to life with your thoughts and fears,
now I will use them to bring myself into this plain'
Rob spoke for the last time: 'You are Slenderman'
'I am Slenderman'
Edited by (EOM) Harry - 12 Jul 2011 at 22:25