Don't Go To Sleep

Chapter 5: It Has Begun

Jeff found himself in the bathroom, he had no idea how he'd got there, but he didn't care. He started brushing his teeth like every other morning, he spat the toothpaste, before hearing a voice inside of his head.

"Do you remember what happened?"

The voice sounded inhuman, like one of those demons from a bad horror movie. Jeff was confused by the question.

"What happened...? Wait, who... who said that?"

"Look."

Jeff looked at the mirror, and stared as the horror and confusion started showing on his face. Jeff saw himself, with deep burn marks all over his face, as smoke and blood came out of his open wounds. He was horrified. His reflection started moving on his own, it broke the mirror and grabbed Jeff from his hoodie, before pulling him into the inside of the mirror.

Jeff fell to the dirt floor of the forest, next to a river. He threw up on the river and cough a bit, he looked at his reflection again, seeing the open wounds in form of a bloody smile on his face. Jeff stared at himself with fear, remembering what'd happened the night before. He remembered the fire, the blood, the pain. The desperation he felt every second of that torture. He remembered the horrified face of Liu, when he watched Randy slice Jeff's mouth's wide open.

He started hearing a ringing in his ears, which became louder and louder as the seconds passed. Jeff grabbed his ears in pain, he looked up, and saw something that he recognized inmediately. In front of him was a gigantic humanoid figure, he dressed a black suit, with a red tie. His face was empty, not a single recognizable feature was seen in the man's face. No mouth, no nose, no eyes. Jeff knew who this was, but he didn't want to believe it.

"Slender Man..." He whispered.

The ringing on his ears was unbearable, he started running in the opposite direction where the tall man was. He kept running, until something stopped him. His body didn't respond to him. Jeff was screaming at his limbs to move, but they didn't listen. He looked foreward, and saw what appeared to be a woman. She had a black hoodie, and was wearing a strange mask. The mask looked homemade, it was all black, with a red circle which was crossed by an x. Jeff stared at the woman, who didn't say a single word. Then, she rised an arm, and the forest started changing, the reality began to warp into something unrecognizable. Suddently, they were in the cabin where everything happened. Jeff found himself and Liu on the floor, Randy was there too, his arm was raised, with the lighter on his hand. Jeff knew what was about to happen, he tried to close his eyes, but they didn't respond. He was forced to watch as Randy dropped the lighter on him again. And the fire started spreading on his face, again. The screams started, and Jeff felt the pain again. But his mother never showed up. He kept burning alive, as the hooded woman and Randy stared at him.

Back to reality, Jessica was in the waiting room of the hospital. Her face didn't show any emotion. Ethan walked up to her with a cup of coffee.

"I got you your favourite." Ethan smiled trying to cheer her up, with no success.

"Thank you, Ethan..." Jessica looked at him.

"Hey, come on. I'm sure everything will go okay. Jeff and Liu are both really strong boys, they'll get through this."

Jessica tried to answer, but she was interrupted by a doctor.

"Jessica Blake?"

"Yes?"

"Jeff's surgery was a success, but for now he's in a coma, we don't know when he's going to wake up. I'm very sorry."

"Fuck... and how's Liu?" Ethan asked.