Slender[]
ONE
What is a nightmare, but a small vision in the mind of the fearful? A nightmare; a thought in the mind which causes such paranoia, and sometimes leaves a message. A sometimes unclear message—which leaves those without thought of it to ponder what it means. The children of Saint Mary’s Orphanage were all victim to a similar nightmare; the nightmare of a very tall and slender man. This tall man stalked them through the forestry, lurking behind trees and refusing to move when looked at. They all ran away, hunting for a shelter to hide in until someone sent out a search for them. All the same, no changing details of their dreams. They all began to live in fear, as their nightmare soon came true.
Zachary Cross, Cassie Samson, Zoey Shoemaker, and Ryan and Paige miller—were the children of this epidemic. They all were lost in the woods nearby to the orphanage when playing a game of tag. As night fell, they managed to meet up in the woods near an old abandoned cabin. They found a book containing only eight pages, all of which had drawings of a man named “Slender”. Soon after reading one page, they began to feel frightened. They had a reason, though, as they were beginning to be stalked by the man in the shadows. The man lurked outside, waiting for the children to leave.
Eventually, they did. They went off to find their home together. This was the time in which Slender found them. The nightmare began, as they all ran for the cabin to hide. After a day passed, the man vanished and a search party came for them.
Days after, a small child heard a noise off in the distance. He went off to find it, but came back with nothing. He brought his sister down with him to look for this curious noise, but to no avail. It wasn’t long after that the two were never seen again. It came one year down the timeline when they did find a body. Only one body—the body of a mangled up child, with a slight frown on his face. He was coated in blood, and had a symbol imprinted on his back. This symbol was burned into his skin…a circle with an ‘S’ in the middle.
The children of the orphanage told their story, but were never believed. They nicknamed him.
“Slenderman.”
Zach, now 23, was in a deep sleep. His blonde hair covered his eyes, blowing up in every exhale. He turned over to his side. He’s in a deep, deep sleep. He’s dreaming—about the forest. He’s lurking around the trees, searching for an unknown goal.
In moments, he sees the tall, slender man with no face. He’s in his black jacket, towering above Zach. He’s motionless, until he feels a sharp stomach pain. He looks down to find that he’s been cut on his stomach.
He awakens to the darkness of his bedroom. He looks around to find a diary he kept when he was a small child. He reaches out of his king sized bed and pulls out the drawer of his wooden nightstand. He opens it up and looks inside for someone’s phone number.
He gets out of the red bed sheets and walks over on the brown carpeting. He grabs a landline phone from a white container and dials the number.
“Hello?” A familiar feminine voice asks.
“Cassie? I had…I had the dream…” Zach says into the phone.
In minutes, Cassie is darting out of her front door with car keys in hand. Her blonde hair flows down to her shoulder. She’s in a pink nightgown, speeding down her home street and nearby to the woods.
The two meet up at Zach’s small townhouse just a few feet away from the forest. She knocks on the door, to which Zach answers to her. She comes in and sits down on the couch.
Cassie and Zach have been boyfriend-girlfriend for a while now. The two have had the same secrets forever now. He sits down next to her and holds her hand.
“Are—Are you sure it was the dream? I mean…did you see him?” Cassie asks.
“I did…He harmed me in my dream. Do you think it meant anything?” Zach asks.
“Why do you think I sped down here like I did?” Cassie asks.
“I was thinking of calling the others. But we haven’t talked to Ryan and Paige in forever…” Zach holds out his diary. He opens it up to the numbers of his old friends.
“We should reunite. We need to,” Cassie holds onto Zach’s shoulder.
It was when they were small, five month old babies, that this Slenderman killed their parents. He’s come back, generation by generation, to haunt them. The Slenderman has one reason to kill them mainly—they are the owners of the pages. Each one has a page of the old Slenderman journal. Each parent did as well.
It was that night that they all had decided their similar dreams meant something. What would it be though? Is he truly back to haunt them for their past? Or is he here for another…different reason?
Paige is a brunette with blue eyes. She’s in a pink tank-top and is in khakis shorts. She’s in flip-flops and looks like she just saw a ghost. Her brother, Ryan, is in a punk-rock T-shirt advertising some band. He’s in sweat pants and tennis shoes. He has a buzz cut and has green eyes.
“Zoey’s on her way.” Zach says, greeting his past friends.
“It just had to be this week, didn’t it?” Paige walks in, pulling out a note from her pocket.
“What’s that?” Cassie asks, looking over Zoey’s shoulder to see her note.
“Don’t run.”
“What does ‘Don’t Run’ mean?” Cassie asks.
“Oh…hi Cassie. It’s been forever, it seems. This note was found in my lunchbox when I was a small child. They never had a meaning for what it was—but I did. I knew who it was from. The same reason I know what the pages are for. This is my page. You have the others.” Paige says to the others in Zach’s home. She sits down on the brown couch with Cassie.
“Pages?” Zach asks, walking over to her.
“We ripped pages out from the old journal. We each kept one as a promise we’d reunite if he ever came back.” Ryan says, also walking over.
“There were five of us and only eight pages. Three remain in that cabin.” Paige says.
There’s a sudden knock at the door. A woman nudges the door open, stepping inside.
“Zach?” She asks, stepping in. She has long black hair. She’s in a pink jacket and blue jeans. She looks quite well dressed.
“Zoey…you haven’t changed a bit.” Zach runs up and hugs her.
“It’s good to see you too. Tell me what’s happening.” Zoey says, looking around at the others.
“He’s back. He’s…he’s coming.” Zach says, staring into her eyes.
“I…I can’t do this again…” Zoey backs up.
“We made a pact. You have to help us, Zoey.” Zach begs her to stay in the house.
“No…No!” Zoey throws down the page she had crumbled up in her pocket book. “All you ever need are those stupid pages. Burn them. Do something!” Zoey leaves Zach’s house in an instant.
“No, Zoey!” Zach runs outside to find her taking off in a crying fit. She drives off into the darkness of the surrounding forestry. She drives down the roads crying her eyes out.
She pulls over in a small ditch and gets out of her car. She places her right temple on the car door and slowly wipes her tears. She never wanted to experience the fear that she felt when she was young. She thought it was over. But alas, she was wrong. She gets back into her car and turns on her headlights. She looks forward to drive away.
He stands there, menacingly. He stares her in the eyes with his soulless body. He extends his right arm only to terrify her even further than he already has. Her headlights cut out with a burst of flame. She screams, trying to get out—only to find the doors have locked themselves shut.
He inches towards her. Every terrorizing moment, she blinks hoping it’ll go away. He inches ever closer whenever she looks away.
Zoey crawls to the back of her car and turns her back. She busts out the back windshield using her boots. She turns around the front of her car and he’s gone. She looks around her, scanning her surroundings. She turns back to escape from the car to find he’s been standing there. In moments, she’s ripped out of her car.
The Slenderman now has his first victim.
TWO
“Okay…we’ll go in the morning.” Cassie agrees with the others sitting on Zach’s couch.
“We’ve got five out of the eight pages we need. If we can just get to that cabin—‘” Paige is stopped by the sound of broken glass. Zach peers around the corner wall to find his window has been smashed open. He finds a video tape that’s been recorded on a VCR tape. He picks it up and walks back to the others. He goes to his closet to pull out and old VCR and invites the others to his room to watch this odd video. He puts it in after plugging it up to his TV. It comes onto the screen, with a haze of mist.
It clears, showing an unknown cameraman recording someone working in an office. A tile plate in the back reveals it to be the Marlow Mansion, home of Sam and Mary Marlow—the owners of Saint Mary’s Orphanage. Sam appears to be filing paperwork on his desk. The camera zooms into a picture of Mary, the original owner. She passed away a long time ago, leaving Sam in charge.
Two hours ago, Sam was sitting in his office. He had yet to change out of his suit for the day, as he was about to go to an important business meeting flight. He’s filing paperwork on the deaths of several orphans at the old orphanage.
It’s unknown to the others, but Sam himself was tortured as a child. The same man—Slenderman—has been stalking him for ages as well. He’s sitting there, alone, near a bay window looking out onto the forestry. He’s let his black hair flow down over his green eyes. He’s shoeless and half casual dressed-half business. In one hour he is to make his flight.
He glances up front his paperwork not once but twice. He sees an odd red light beaming from his closet door. He gets up to investigate. He finds there’s a camera taped to the closet. He turns to see a familiar face staring at him through his bay window. Sam screams, staring at him.
The lights in his room flicker off. The room goes dark. He hears a shatter of glass to find his window has been shattered. Sam dives down to the ground to find an air vent which is just his size. He rips it off the hinges in pure terror. He tries his best to climb in to get out of there.
On the other side, he finds an old room, hidden from view. This wasn’t an air duct. This was a hidden room made by the two a long time ago in case there was need of escape. This old room leads downwards to a secret passage. He knows it should lead to his pool’s pump room where he can get out through an old shack used to hold the pump.
He walks down a set of stone stairs without making a sound. Meanwhile, Slenderman is already watching him from behind. Sam crouches down underneath an old walkway to reach a door. He opens it and walks into another passageway. He continues along, thinking he’s safe. He finds a way to a hatch in the ground which he opens up and climbs up through to the pump shack. He walks out into the open world and runs off.
Amidst his running, he trips.
On the VCR at Zach’s home, it shows Sam leaving. The lights are out. The window is busted. As soon as Sam escapes through the hatch, they see Slenderman appear through a doorway. He walks forward, turns to the camera, and then turns back.
It turns to six minutes of silence. At the end of the video, the bloody face of Sam smashes the camera screen, knocking it to the ground next to Sam’s dead body. The last thing seen is Slenderman’s head as he crushes the lens.
“That was…Sam…” Ryan says.
“He must not just want us…” Paige holds onto her brother’s arm.
“We’ll sleep in the same room.” Zach says, walking over to his front door to lock it down tightly.
“And I suggest we do it now so we have daylight to burn.”
Outside, he waits. He watches. He stands next to the garage door, waiting—his hands, covered in Zoey’s blood.
THREE
They awaken the next morning with the sun beaming in.
“Huh? Oh—guys! Guys!” Zach awakens the others.
“We need to get ready to go now. Brush your teeth and grab something from my cabinets—I don’t care.” Zach gets up to prepare for the day’s uneventful up-comings.
Preparation time occurs, leaving them at twelve o’clock. They get outside, eating granola bars and clutching their pages close to their hearts, hoping to God they survive the next hours.
Cassie drives. Zach sits next to her. They drive off into the roads, going down into the forestry road to leave the small town and go back to the Orphanage.
“Oh my god!” Cassie slams on her breaks. She pulls the car off to the side.
There lies Zoey’s body on the roof of her car, sitting in idle. Her throat—well, her everything has been sliced into bits. She’s passed an overkill. They wonder, “Call the police only for them to suspect us of murder, or keep going to end it all now?”
“We need to go. We don’t have time.” Zach says.
“But she’s been murdered!” Ryan exclaims.
“By him.” Zach remarks.
“We…” Paige thinks to herself. What does she do?
They come to the decision of leaving. They get back in the car and drive off.
At the old orphanage, they find the place is abandoned. It hasn’t been used in years. So, what was Sam doing? Was there a new orphanage? They certainly hadn’t known.
They drive the car into a small parking area near the forest. They get out and say quick prayers. It seems like the time has flown, as it is suddenly five o’clock. Daylight savings time is over—the night grows soon. They take out flashlights and go into the woods.
Their mission is to find the cabin they once found. To find the journal.
“It’s on the path.” Zach says, feeling the chill of winter’s night.
They walk onwards to the trails behind the old orphanage. The trees of the forest seem emptied. No life seems to be there.
“It’s so…quiet.” Paige says, looking around.
“Help!” someone cries.
“What the…?” Ryan turns around.
“Ignore it. It’s a trick.” Zach says.
“What?” Ryan asks.
“I know him. He’s playing with us.” Zach says to Ryan.
“I need to pee.” Paige says.
“Ryan. Take her. We’ll stay here—but don’t go too far. Just go behind this tree or something.” Zach says. He nudges Cassie to turn around. Ryan takes her behind a large tree that’s just behind them. He turns around, and Paige squats. Ryan walks to the front of the tree.
He watches. He waits. He stands in the distance, seemingly staring Paige directly into her eyes. She doesn’t even notice. He vanishes--then reappears even closer than before. In seconds he’s in front of her.
She looks up and screams.
Ryan turns around to see him. His back is wriggling with something. It seems to be…growing larger? No…something’s protruding from it.
“Oh my god!” Ryan backs up and runs to the others.
Paige is ripped apart.
“Just go!” Ryan runs back with tears in his eyes. Without asking questions—just taking Ryan’s glances—they go on to the next part of their journey.
They run along the trail to find the cabin. Once they see it, they find the cabin is in far worse condition than ever before. The fireplace is surprisingly lit. It’s…cozy.
They find a journal inside sitting on a table. Cassie picks it up and opens it. She puts in her page.
“Inside. Now.” Cassie passes the journal around. Zach puts in his and Zoey’s pages. Ryan puts in his.
“There’s one missing.”Cassie looks around.
“…Paige!” Ryan sighs.
“We have to go back. Together.” Zach says to the two.
“We…We…” Ryan can’t think. They just go, but Cassie is carrying the journal. They go out into the woods to find Paige’s body has been strung out on the ground in front of them. The page is still in her pocket (to Ryan’s discovery).
“He’s following us.” Cassie says. She slides the paper into the journal and runs back into the cabin with the others.
FOUR
They prepare the finale. The final moment of truth. They’re going to burn this journal. The only thing they know they can do to kill him is to burn them. They make him angry every time one is touched.
“Do it, Cassie. Stop this.” Zach looks at her with confidence.
Cassie raises up the book and prepares to drop it, when something black and sticky bursts through the cabin window. Tentacles. Like a squid.
“Throw it! Throw it!” Ryan shouts.
He walks in. His back has been ripped open to let go his tentacles. He slumps over on his back, walking towards them. The tentacles surround the house, destroying the windows.
Cassie, scared, throws the book and misses. Instead, she hits a burning log which flips across the room and lands on a carpet. It burns quickly, setting fire to the wood below. Cassie grabs the book.
Several odd shrieks and screams emerge in the room. It’s only a scare tactic.
“You’ve…you’ve followed us our entire lives.” Cassie says with pure rage.
He inches closer. The floor suddenly bursts into flames, catching Slenderman on fire.
“You’ve killed my friends. You’ve made us all look crazy.” Cassie holds the book in her hands.
Slenderman tilts his head, sending in a tentacle behind Cassie. It sweeps at her feet, locking them together.
“Well,” Cassie smiles.
“Welcome. To. Our. World.”
She drops it into the flames, burning it to a crisp. Every second, the Slenderman shrieks. The tentacles let go of Cassie’s legs.
“Come on!” Zach rams his body into a back wall of the cabin which is yet to catch fire. Ryan joins in.
The boards come flying off. Zach sends Cassie out first. She falls on her feet on her way out.
Zach jumps off next, then motions to Ryan. He leaps.
Then he falls. The tentacles wrap his body up, leaving him to scream. He’s got one last fight in him. He drags Ryan into the fire. His last words were, “Go!”
Zach and Cassie hold each other close and dive out of the woods. They run along open trails and through the trees.
It burns. It burns to a crisp. Ryan lies inside—a burned corpse. There’s only one thing remaining beside him.
A suit and tie.
Outside the forest, Cassie and Zach get into the car.
What now? They think. They have to find some way to explain the murders. They know only they could see Slenderman. Only he would let them see him. So what? Random murders? Do they admit to Slenderman?
“Let’s just go…wait for them to find us.” Cassie says. Zach nods.
They drive off. Away from the orphanage and back to Zach’s home.
They walk inside and share one quick kiss before Cassie notices what’s behind him.
Hanging there, on a doornail, is the single most terrifying thing in the world.
A suit and tie.