A Slender Dream, Part II

"Oh, God, please, no." I said quietly.

I sat in that forest once more.

I had no memory of where I was or how I even got here.

But yet I was still here.

I hugged my knees and shivered. It was brisk tonight. I looked around, surveying my circumstances.

There were trees all around me, black and unfriendly unlike the trees I usually loved to climb. The made me feel nervous.

I looked at the ground in front of me and fought the urge to start crying. I wanted someone to find me, but not the one who possibly wanted to find me, too.

I remembered my first encounter with the slender man.

Remembered the night-black suit and blood-red tie.

Remebered his empty, expressionless face.

Remembered the tentacles that writhed in the air behind him. Coiling around my body...

I shook the memory out of my head. If I kept thinking like that, maybe he would find me before I could-

I heard a twig snap behind me. I jumped to my feet and looked around for what might have made the noise.

Nothing.

"God, please, no." I was beginning to panic now, talking through heavy breaths. My heartbeat increased exponentially and I felt my muscles tense.

I looked around me again, and still nothing.

I thought it might be best to start running at this point. I turned around...

And ran into something that felt very familiar. Backing up, I saw my mistake in running. I had attracted unwanted attention.

I saw the familiar night-black suit and blood-red tie suspended from the collar of the suit. I looked up, and saw that the man must have been about ten feet tall; His head nearly brushed the second to lowest branches of the trees. His tentacles were writhing in the air behind me, patiently, expectantly.

He looked down at me from his great height, and my heart stopped. I wanted to back up, but my legs wouldn't budge, as if locked in place.

"No, no, no..." I whispered quietly. Two of the man's tendrils slithered through the air in my direction, but they didn't touch me. The stayed about a foot away from my body as they curled in the air, like arms would in a hug.

"Come closer, my dear," the man beckoned in a gentle, comforting purr. "I have something to show you."

I didn't respond. I was mesmerized as his hands reached up to unbutton his coat. The coat opened button by button, and when it was finally parted, I screamed.

Wisps, it looked like, attatched to his torse flooded out from his coat, wailing and whispering. They sounded like...

Children.

"Oh, God, no! Don't tell me that's what he'll do to me! NO!" I screamed in my mind.

"RUN, YOU IDIOTS, RUN!" my brain ordered my legs.

I tried to back up, but the tendrils reflexively snapped into my back, coiling around my torso so that my arms were pinned to my sides.

I yelped in surprise and tried to pull away, but the man's tendrils held firm and practically dragged me back to him. A few more tendrils curled around my head, so that I couldn't as much as shake it. The tendril forced my head back in the direction of the wisps.

Their mouths opened and closed, tasting the air. Then they turned their attention to me. The began to swarm onto me, their cold breaths brushing over my body.

I heard whispers in my mind as they passed me:

"She's warm."

"Poor child."

"She won't live long."

"So sorry."

I closed my eyes as tight as they would, and I gasped as I felt the wisps pass through my body completely.

"They miss being alive as much as the thirsty miss water," the man chuckled. "So as will you."

"N-NO!" I screamed. "You won't make me into one of them! I don't care if I die trying to escape, I-"

I was cut off as I felt a hand on my torso. I opened my eyes and saw the man was leaning forward so that our foreheads touched.

He stared at me for a moment, then his whole face split in half to reveal a tarry black dripping maw. The mouth opened and a long black forked tongue lolled out. I heard an inhuman screech and the last thing I felt was the man's tongue being forced into my mouth...

-

"Wake up... Wake up...!" a familiar voice echoed.

I groaned and shifted my head to the side. My throat ached and my body felt cold. My vision swam and I heard the steady beat of a heart monitor...

"Shit..." I coughed, and my vision swam into focus. I had a tube in my throat and another in my hand. I was in the hospital.

"Damn it, what the FUCK is wrong with you?!" my friend Jason yelled. "You were found in the middle of a forest with your throat run through!"

"Yeah, who did you piss off this time?" my other friend Jack quieried.

"I..." I coughed again, and the pulse of the heart monitor increased.

"Easy, don't strain yourself," another friend, Jarod, cautioned.

I laid back again, sighing heavilly. I didn't want to talk about what happened in that forest.

"Well," Jarod stood up, finally accepting I wasn't going to spill my guts. "We should leave you to rest. See you tomorrow."

And they left.

-

Later that night, I was sleeping fitfully. I kept hearing the voices of those poor tortured souls from the man's coat:

Slender Man, Slender Man, all the children try to run.

Slender Man, Slender Man, to him it's part of the fun.

Slender Man, Slender Man, dressed in darkest suit and tie.

Slender Man, Slender Man, you most certainly will die.