“Your move,” I say, boldly.
Slender must be taking the bait, because here’s Leanne’s scream. It’s coming from my left, deeper into the woods. “Right,” I say. He must want me to follow Leanne’s calls. I do my best to not let fear overcome me, but I can hardly help myself. Every second I tell myself. “He wants me to be scared,” in an effort to calm myself down, and it does, if only a little. I walk into the woods, every step showing me another leafless tree.
Leanne’s screams get louder which means I’m getting closer. I walk for about another minute before I see Leanne lying on the ground. There is no light coming from her body, but she’s moving a little bit. I stand above her, and watch her body distort. She’s ghostly pale, and if not for her slight movements I would think she’s dead. “Leanne?” She distorts again, and I jump back as the once-prone Leanne is now standing face-to-face with me inside one flash. She looks angry, but her eyes are blank, and her body is emitting this shadowy aura. What’s worse is while she’s standing like this, she is continuously distorting, and in between the flashes she seems to have no face, but when she does have a face it’s set in that vengeful look, the hateful look I last saw her directing toward me.
I wait for her to make a move. She distorts again and now she’s on her knees crying for help. Confronted with this pitiful version of her, I can’t help but feel, well, pity. He’s showing me that Leanne is still here with us, even though he has total control of her actions. It’s the temporary release Shana had to fight to achieve the moment she told me to wake up, but Leanne isn’t as strong. She just wants help. She distorts again, and Slender-Leanne is standing less than a foot away from me once more.
“I didn’t come here for you,” I try, hoping that’s the right answer. Leanne does the scariest thing she could possibly do next, she laughs. As she laughs her body distorts- no contorts, violently, as if disjointed, and she keeps flashing between no-face and angry-face, while manically laughing, but her laugh is coming from all directions. I feel a sudden drop in my sanity and consider running, but where?
Leanne grabs my head and my shoulder and pulls herself forward as if she were trying to kiss or head-butt me. As her face connects with mine, there’s no impact, instead it feels like we are merging, and a deafening static shriek permeates the air. I feel the same vertigo and sudden weakness I experienced the last time. I pull away and catch a glimpse of what’s happening.
My light is dimming and it’s as if- Leanne is creating the same effect that the tree’s vortex did before. Only this time it feels like my whole body is being sucked in by the contact. My body distorts now, painfully. I jump back, and pull away as fast as I can, but Leanne won’t relent. I see light coming from her body now. She’s stealing my own energy from me! I jerk to my right and run, but my guitar strap pulls me back. I turn my neck and see she’s trying to hold onto me by my guitar. She pulls back as I pull forward.
In my current condition- dizziness, numbness, and nausea, I am in no shape to fight her back, and I hit the ground, but before she can grab me and finish me off, I slip under the guitar strap and bolt. Bolt may not be the best word for it. I am practically throwing myself from tree to tree, unable to balance for more than a few steps without falling over, at least not until the dizziness subsides. I can hear Leanne’s overwhelming laughter continue, and I turn to see she’s following me. She’s taunting me. As my vision returns- somewhat, I can run more steadily. I run for maybe twenty seconds before a hand makes contact with my face.
It’s Jason’s hand. I flinch, ready to be knocked back by the solid force of a punch, and although I fall over, it’s not because of any impact. When Jason’s hand comes into contact with my face, I feel the same draining sensation. Does everyone who touches me here steal my life-force? I wonder.
I push myself up to get off the ground, but Leanne has caught up and her added onslaught worsens my condition. The world is spinning so fast that I can’t even see, and it’s all I can do to pitch forward, onto my knees, and then try to stand. I hobble between the flashes of pain that come with every distortion, and I feel my light growing even dimmer. When they fully drain me, do I become one of them?
I jerk back and throw a punch at Leanne, but she doesn’t react to it. She’s just trying to absorb me. I dive away and end up rolling down the hill. The momentum, which I’m grateful for, rips me out of their grip. It’s perfect timing too, because there was no way I was getting out of there with my own strength, not when I can’t hurt them. I have no weapons here. Without even being able to see clearly, I move on aimlessly. My only desire is to put some distance between my attackers and me.
They siphon my strength like Slender does. They’re like variants of him—or maybe extensions of him. My mind starts calling them Slender Children. I noticed that they grow brighter as they drain me. Does that mean that if they steal enough from me, they can escape? Is that Slender’s game? Whichever one of them takes the most life from me gets released? Or does draining me sufficiently just trap me here?
I just want Adam, and since they drain my energy with contact, do I have to find Adam and give him my strength to help him escape? Shana hadn’t drained me this way, so this must just be an attack method. The only way to get out of here is to run. If I fail, then both of us are stuck here. I’ll have to take him to the edge like I did Shana and hope he still has enough strength to survive the transition. When I do that will Slender focus on me to make sure I don’t escape?
I keep running. I can see one of the girls Deputy Yew showed me a photo of approaching. I turn and run in the opposite direction, only to run into Lindsay. I want to apologize to her, because the first face I see of her is a pleading look on her face, but my judgment tells me to jump away, and I do in the nick of time. As soon as I leap, Lindsay flashes into her faceless form and reaches her arms forward. She wants to drain from me too. It’s a game of keep-away.
I dash as fast as I can down through the woods. I need to find Adam, but so far he hasn’t appeared. How will I find him?
“Adam!” I try to call, but the static is still distorting my voice.
“Adam!” I scream this time. I’m louder, but I doubt anyone more than five meters away would be able to hear me. A child catches my attention to my left. I stop and lean against the nearest tree to keep from falling over.
“Adam?” I ask, but it’s too dim to see from this distance. I hear the laughter of Lindsay, Leanne, Jason, and a few others behind me. If all of them dog-pile me, I’m finished.
I walk forward to illuminate the child, but stop as he comes into view. It’s Lionel, faceless Lionel. He distorts and becomes crying Lionel. I wish I’d looked away. I wish I’d turned as soon as I saw that it isn’t Adam. The face of a five year old child in pain, full of terror, trauma, and anguish will never leave me. I fight back tears as I run, knowing that Slender did that on purpose, and that Lionel will only grab me like the others. I came here to save Adam, my brother, and if anyone is going to siphon my life from me to escape, it will be him.
“Adam!” I call repeatedly. My voice is getting tired, but weariness isn’t an excuse. I bet I haven’t been here ten minutes, and I’m sure as hell not going to let being out of breath stop me from rescuing Adam this quickly. Now is not the time for tears. It’s not time to break down and admit defeat. “No time to cry,” I tell myself, as the song pops into my head.
“Adam!” I call once more.
I can hear Lionel laughing now. He may be the most helpless, the most innocent of all of the children I’ve seen Slender take, but his laughter is the most sinister. I’d rather have Chucky chasing after me than a giggling Slender-Lionel. “Just ignore it. Let it go,” I tell myself, knowing Lionel wouldn’t be doing this to me if he had a choice.