Welcome Home, My Child

There it was. The fence. Why was she doing this? She had to be insane. No, the stories didn't scare her. After all, it's all fake. No one can do that. They can't see like that. They can't find you if they can't see. But what if there was someone out there? Someone... real.

She remembered hearing on the news about pedophiles running around at night taking people. She didn't exactly know where the pedophiles were, which added to her nervousness. Her anxiety seemed to get worse the more she thought about it.

Her mother was strict, constantly watching over her making sure she didn't stray from the "safe zone." She's not sure how she escaped tonight. She made more noise trying to find her flashlight than she did any other time she tried to run away. For some reason, her mom didn't wake up this time.

"Remember, once you have them, jump the fence and use your walkie-talkie to let us know where you are," said the boy in the group. She swallowed and nodded, then looked at the fence. It seemed intimidating. "Is there a gate?" she asked quietly. "Not that I know of. We didn't see any when we checked this morning. Alright. Got everything?" he asked, and she nodded. "Yeah. Let's get this over with. Mary, please don't signal in. Only I can send a message to you. If there is anything in there, I don't want you to give away my spot. That goes for all of you."

She looked up and sighed. The fence was creaky, she noticed, as she put her foot in the diamond shape. She climbed the fence carefully and as quietly as she could, until she managed to swing over the top. She jumped down, letting the inertia pull her down into a crouch. It was a rather graceful attempt to land, but wasn't the quietest. She stood up, brushed her hands off on her jeans and pulled out her flashlight. She held her breath as she flipped the switch. When nothing was there, she exhaled slowly, then looked back at where her.... friends... were. She spent enough time on that fence to give them a chance to hide. Well, that was quick for them.

The path went in two directions. To the left, and to the right. She didn't know exactly what a good strategy was... Heck, she didn't even know what she was looking for. Her hand was shaking slightly, but she held herself still, and started walking... apparently to the right.

There was really barely any sound. The crickets were quiet, and the trees didn't move. The only sound she could hear well was the sound of her feet shuffling against the leaves and grass. The trees in the distance were eerie, fading out to just pure blackness. She noticed that she was alone. There weren't even eyes looking back at her through the trees from the wildlife. Where was everything?

The path split again, so she decided to go left. There wasn't any particular reason, but she felt like starting from the middle area and working out would be a better idea. Especially if there was anything there, she could get that last bit of... whatever... and hop the fence.

She could see what looked like a building in the distance. The thought of potentially getting lost in a labyrinth wasn't too appealing, but she hoped that this would be her chance to finally start this thing... It wasn't started until she got that first clue.

Carefully, she took a step into the building, her light glistening off of the tiled walls. She looked in the closest room, but to no avail. She scoured the walls, the chairs, the floors and the ceilings. She didn't know what she was looking for, but whatever it was, there were many of them.

Quietly, she entered the third room... or so she thought. It may have been the first room. The way this building was set up, it was easy t get lost. She looked on the walls, feeling in each crevice, should it be hidden. Then she spotted something laying on the chair in the corner. It was peculiar, but creepy. It didn't say anything on it, but it was a scrawled out drawing. Trees were scattered over the paper, and in the middle stood a man.

She heard something move behind her, so she turned. She was afraid of what she might see, so she turned off her flashlight. There was no one there, however. Her heart started racing. She wanted to curl up in the corner, but she couldn't. She picked up the note and walked to the door. When she looked around, there was still nothing there, so she scurried out of the building and onto the next object.

She sensed something watching her. Not like a mountain lion or a wolf, but something bigger. much, much bigger. She felt like something was right behind her, towering over her, watching her. She didn't know if she should look behind her or not.

"don't look.... Don't look... don't look," she thought to herself and kept walking. She didn't want to stop, because that made her feel vulnerable. She decided the more she moved, the quicker she could get out of there.

There was a sort of maze up ahead. It seemed to be made of oil tanks. There wasn't much to them, but with that persistent feeling of being watched, it wasn't exactly a place she wanted to be in. She decided it was better to anyway, because she didn't know the layout of this place, nor how large it was.

Quietly, she walked in, looking on the tankers for anything white. They were rusty, so seeing the clue would be fairly easy. Slowly, she breathed, trying to calm her nerves. She didn't know if there really was anything behind her or not. If she just took one peek... no. She shook her head. If something were following her, she didn't want to now what it looked like. If it had to kill her, she'd prefer to die with the image of the trees, not whatever or whomever was her murderer.

Finally, the note was within sight and she quickly examined it. "Don't look or it TAKES you" it read. She let out a quivering breath and nodded. Of course. If you acknowledge it's there, you're dead.

Suddenly, that feeling of being watched intensified, and it was almost as though after every note, whatever it was that was following her... if there really was anything following her... got angrier and stronger.

She kept her head low. She couldn't tell where it was, but she didn't want to see it. If she did get out of this alive, she didn't want to see it in her dreams. She was sure it wouldn't stick around for weeks. It would be there for the rest of her life.

She followed a path. She wasn't sure of what path, but it was definitely a path, and all paths lead to somewhere. She half hoped it would lead her to the fence so she could get out of there. She didn't care what her friends thought of her anymore. She wished she had just stayed at home. She would've been under her warm blankets and having good dreams right now. No, she had to take her friends up on the bet.

Suddenly, her walkie-talkie started going fuzzy, like someone was trying to radio in from another station. She stopped to pull it out of her back pocket, but when she twisted around, she saw it. She stood there, frozen before him. He stood tall, his arms at his side. He had to be at least seven foot. She noticed his head... there was no face. No eyes, no mouth, no ears.. it was as though an artist had made a freakishly tall sculpture, but never quite got around to the face.

Slowly, she felt her vision going blurry, and the man's strangely long arms moved out, as though he wanted a hug. The more she stared at him, the blurrier her vision got.

Fighting the force this creature was pulling upon her, she closed her eyes and turned away from it, then started running. She opened her eyes only to see where she was going. She didn't know if hiding would lose him.

After a short distance, her breath failed to come to her, so she walked. It seemed like she just couldn't catch her breath, no matter what. She kept going though.

She only had two notes. How many were there? There was something straight ahead, so she walked toward it, dodging behind every tree she could in an attempt to make him lose sight of her.

The building looked to be an old abandoned silo. There wasn't much to say about it, it was all old and red. There weren't necessarily any pieces missing, but there was a note pinned to the side. "Always watches. No Eyes"

Well, no duh! How could this... thing... even see anything without eyes!? Suddenly, as she took the note, the feeling got even stronger. After each note, it seemed like the feeling of being watched got more intense.

Her walkie-talkie started going static again, and she didn't know what direction to run. She looked for the closest, easiest to access trail and ran for it. The static became louder and louder as she ran, but then it seemed to peak, and fade.

Back at a walk, she caught her breath. Three notes. That's all she had.. "You have to get eight notes," she remembered the boy say. Well great. Three out of eight. Well, where was the fourth one? If she could at least get the fourth note, she'd feel confident she could get the rest.

Suddenly, she noticed a note on one of the boulders nearby. She walked up to it and looked at it. It had a drawing of the man in the middle, with a bunch of "No" written around it. "Well, that's accurate," she thought ant picked it up.

Fourth note at last! Still, the pressure and suspense grew stronger as she followed the path to the rest of the notes. She hoped she could get out when she got the eighth note. Was this some sort of curse? Was this... man attached to these notes somehow? How did they get here?

There was a wall up ahead. She could see the note already. She decided that quiet wasn't working, so she ran up to it. The note was frantically scribbled. It was easy to make out the words, though. "HELP ME," it said. Chills ran down her spine. Who wrote these notes?

She didn't want to turn around, but didn't want to walk around, either. She walked along the wall, using the corner to turn. When she saw he wasn't there, she walked quickly to the path.

She wasn't too far from two more things. This was her fifth note, so that meant only three to go. If these two had the notes, she'd be free.

The first place was a felled forest. There were six stumps in two rows. On one of the stumps, was a note. "Leave ME Alone" it said. "Sure, you leave me alone, too" she thought. She wouldn't dare speak, not even when she was close to it. She didn't know if it was in fear that others would come, or if it was the fact that she was too scared to say anything.

Six notes. The pressure grew even stronger, it felt unbearable. She darted toward the other building, a tunnel. Her radio buzzed quickly, then fell silent. she walked briskly through it. She found the other note, but something told her not to stop, so she grabbed it and kept going. Seven. "I can do this!" she thought, and continued walking. She found a truck ahead, but her radio buzzed again. She wasn't alone. He was right behind her, she could sense it.

There it was! The final note! She ran up to it and grabbed it. The pressure lifted, and that drone she had been hearing in her head since the first note stopped. It fell silent.

She pulled out her radio. "I've got them, but I'm not out yet." she said "Good! Find the fence! Quick!" Mary replied. "Alrigh-" she began to say, but suddenly he appeared in front of her. She screamed, her hand still on the talk button. Whispers could be heard, and the Slender Man wrapped his arms around the girl. "Welcome home, my child," he said in a slow, eerie, echoed voice.

"Lilly!? Hello!?" Mary shouted over the radio. Nothing was heard from then on. The radio fell silent, and the man laughed, then vanished.