What Is Love?

Chapter Eleven

The Slender man

Stupid, stupid, STUPID.

What was wrong with me? I strode through the forest, not really knowing - or caring - where I was going.

What was this human doing to me? I'd never done anything like this before - never acted so foolishly as this.

I'd been watching her today of course - I was always watching - and when she drove into Port Saint Joe, of course I followed her. When she parked and got out at the dock, an idea hit me.

A stupid, foolish, irresponsible idea.

Thinking irrationally, I teleported back to the paper mill and got into my Corvette. Between the mill's close proximity to the town, and my habit of driving too fast on the sun bleached roads, I pulled into the empty parking spot beside the human's old Pontiac in a matter of minutes and approached the girl, conversing with her like any normal human. Before I even knew what had happened, the girl had gotten me to agree to go eat with her at some Mexican restaurant.

I shuddered at the memory. Ugh. Human food.

After that, things started getting even more complicated. I was doing things and saying things in front of her without thinking - leaning in too close, telling her that knowing too much about me was dangerous. It seemed like every other sentence had some allusion to me being a killer in it. And then I even tried to pick up the tab like a human male would when he tried to be a 'gentleman.' What was even more strange is that it made me mad when she tried to refuse...

What kept plaguing me now, though, is what I said to her at the car. I made not just one, but TWO more mistakes, one right after the other.

The first was making plans to see her again tomorrow, as if going out to eat with her today wasn't a big enough mistake. I couldn't - shouldn't - be around her this much. I was a killer and a stalker and a monster! Those who fit that criteria didn't normally treat their victims in this way unless they were the sexual predator type, which I was not. In any case, I slipped up too much around her and let myself relax too much in her presence. That was dangerous. If I wasn't careful, she would find out who I really was.

I couldn't allow that.

Which lead into my second mistake: telling her that she should stay away from me - that I was dangerous. I may as well have just TOLD her that I was the Slender man! There were so many clues that I'd given already without even meaning too. My only hope now was that she wasn't very perceptive, imaginative, or observant.

This wouldn't be so bewildering if only I knew WHY I was doing this. If only I had SOME good reason or motive to explain my actions. But that was just it... There was none. I had no clue why I was doing what I was. It made no sense to me. A couple days ago I had been so intent on making her suffer for resurfacing old memories, but now... No. I would still make her suffer.

She had HER eyes.

I growled in frustration; I needed to vent. A good kill should do the trick.

Leaving the forest behind me, I slender walked to Panama City - a two hours drive from Mexico Beach, but relatively much closer for me. The population and tourism was higher here, and therefore it was easier to find prey and kill without drawing unnecessary attention. The increased crime rate from the larger population also helped mask my presence.

I waited in an alley between two condominium buildings and watched women and men alike walk by scantily clad in tank tops, swimsuits and sandals. Each person that passed by the entrance to the alley was just as unaware that I watch them as they were of the fact that their lives were in mortal danger.

"Tre, you bastard!" a human female shrieked.

I smiled. Dinner time.

I heard hysterical sobs as the source of the yell ran blindly around the corner and down the alley I stood in. I blended in against the wall so she wouldn't see me.

"Hannah, wait!" an adolescent boy the same age as the other human called, running after her. "It's not what it looks like!"

The human girl ran passed me and I shot a tentacle out to trip her. She never even saw it.

"Ah! Shit!" she screamed as she fell and hit the pavement, scrapping her body all over. Stupid girl. If she'd been wearing more than three little triangles of fabric there would have been more to protect her.

"Hannah!"

"Go away Tre!"

I wondered idley what they were fighting about. The two seemed to be a couple - or at least had been.

"Are you okay?" the human called Tre asked frantically as he drew even with the other adolescent.

"Don't touch me you cheating son of a bitch!" she snapped at him.

The sent of her bloodied scrapes reached my nose just then and I stiffened. Mmm. What an appealing smell. So much better than Mexican food.

"Hannah, let me explain- ahhh!" the boy screamed as I speared his torso with a tentacle. His life's blood splattered the girl's face and she scream too, in horror. The scent of his blood filled my head and made my mouth water. It had been days since I'd last feasted on human flesh. I knelt over his body as it died, not bothering to stay invisible now. The female's screams intensified when she saw me appear out of nowhere. It was annoying; I wished she would stop. I gripped her around her throat with one of my tentacles and quickly snapped her neck, ending her cries and her life in unison.

I laughed out loud, happy with the gory scene before me. THIS was who I was. THIS is what I enjoyed.

Killing.

Chaos.

Misery.

Pain.

Suffering.

Blood.

Death.

I was NOT some pampered, dressy, well mannered human. I did NOT offer a person walking home in the rain a ride. I did NOT offer to pay for a woman's dinner. And I did NOT ask her to go for a drive with me the next day either...

I dropped the adolescent bodies and stood after I finished eating. Their lifeless eyes stared up at me, disapproving, disappointed, and accusing. I was a monster, and yet, I HAD done all those things. This human girl was really getting to me...

Something had to be done.

I turned my blank face up towards the darkening sky, considering my options. I could kill her, plain and simple. With her dead, my issue of possible discovery would be nonexistent. Her death would also erase these strange, impulsive feelings I got when I was around her. Destroying the cause would, of course, eliminate the effect.

Or I could drive her insane - destroy her mind in ways that only the Slender man could. Not the slow, tormenting insanity that I usually imposed on my victims, not the madness that took years to fully instigate, but rather a quick, painless snapping of conscious. When the other humans found her in the state that my revenge would leave her in, she would be locked up. The rest of her days would play out in a padded cell that she wouldn't even see, in a straight jacket that she wouldn't even feel.

I could see both scenarios in my mind. I could envision the way her blood would feel on my hands and the way her pale, cold body would lay at my feet, shattered and mangled. Her startling green eyes would stare up at the sky, devoid of the life and character they had once held.

I could imagine her in a sterile smelling, white room in an asylum that reeked of death and madness. Her complexion would be as alabaster as mine, her skin lacking the pigmentation from the absence of sunlight since her admittance. Those same emerald eyes would be glazed over, lifeless and dead as if she wasn't really living, but rather just existing.

I ran my hand over my face in frustration.

It was the images of her eyes - her bright green eyes without their light, without their shine - that caused me to decide against both of those fates. After all, they were HER eyes...

Why did she have to have HER eyes?