The Slenderman

Chapter 2

I hurried home and began packing immediately. I grabbed everything I could think of: a few changes of clothes, shower supplies, iPod, cellphone, camera, and laptop. I said good bye to my parents and my dog, Winston, and I left.

I drove to Leslie's house in about twenty minutes. It wouldn't have taken that long if it wasn't for the fact that I hadn't driven myself there before. She lived out in the middle of nowhere so it was hard to find my way when practically everything looked the same.

I parked on the edge of the driveway and knocked on the front door. I admired the yard while I waited. The front yard was large with little shrubbery in contrast with the backyard which opened up to a huge forest. It was quiet where they lived, far away from the rest of the world.

Leslie's dad answered the door.

"Hi Mr. Jeff!" I greeted him, nearly getting tackled by their German shepherd, Charlie, in the process.

"Hi Megan. It's nice to see you. Come on in. Leslie is upstairs in her room," he said.

I walked upstairs and let myself into Leslie's room. She was sitting on the bed drawing. She was a great artist, especially in comparison to me. I could hardly draw a straight line.

"Leslie!" I shouted, startling her in the process. I'm known for being able to sneak up on people.

"Hey, Megan!" she replied. "Manage to find your way all right?" she asked.

"Yeah I got here without too much trouble. Only got turned around once. I think I could make it here again without too much trouble." I replied.

"That's good," she said. "It would be awfully scary getting lost around here."

"Yeah, no kidding," I agreed. "Especially if you got lost at night."

She shivered at the thought. We were both silent for a moment.

"Anyway, what do you want to do tonight?" I asked, attempting to change the subject.

"I don't know. Want to watch a horror movie?" she suggested.

"Works for me," I replied. "Is there a plug down there I can hook my laptop up to?" I asked.

"Yeah, there's one right by the couch," she said.

"Great, if the movie's cheesy I'll have something to do," I smirked.

"Yeah, sure," she laughed. "I'll make sure to find a movie that's extra scary just for you."

We went downstairs and set everything up. Leslie made some popcorn and set up the movie "Jeepers Creepers", and I plugged my laptop up and hooked up my camera. We settled down and prepared for a night of fun and relaxation. I started out watching the movie, but I had already seen it before so I soon got bored and started uploading pictures.

My computer was notorious for being slow so it took longer than it should have to get all of them organized. The movie was halfway over before I got the last picture in its proper place. Leslie was so exhausted that she fell asleep. I didn't want to be in the dark, especially with it being so quiet here, so I let the movie continue playing.

I started to look through all of the pictures. I was going to go through and select all of the decent ones and email them to Leslie. There was something off about the pictures, but I couldn't tell what it was. I looked a bit closer at one of the pictures I took of Leslie and me, and I noticed there was some strange, blurry figure in the background. I looked at a few others and saw that the figure was in all of them. I quickly became nervous. I selected the first picture again and zoomed in on the figure. I yelped in terror, dropping my laptop to the floor and startling Leslie in the process.

"What is it?" she yelled.

I picked up the laptop and showed her the picture. The figure which seemed to be male, had on a black suit and a red tie. He was very tall and very thin. His skin was pale as snow. His long, bony fingers stretched into menacing claws. But the scariest part of all was that he had no face.

At first, Leslie sat there, dumbfounded. Then she began to laugh. I creased my brow in confusion.

"What are you laughing at?" I questioned.

"You!" she cackled. "You really expect me to believe that's real? I commend your effort, I really do, but come on! That's obviously photo shopped."

"Leslie, this isn't a prank," I pleaded. "This is real. I didn't edit the photos."

I showed her all of the others.

"I couldn't possibly have had enough time to do all of these, you see. And you know I'm not artistic or techie. This is real."

She frowned when she heard the seriousness and fear in my voice.

"But how is it possible?" she asked. "There's no such thing as faceless men who appear in random photos."

"Yet, here his is," I whispered.

"M-maybe it was just your camera malfunctioning," she stuttered. " I bet mine wouldn't do that," she said.

"Well, why don't we give it a try?" I suggested. "Take some pictures of ourselves and see if it happens again. If he doesn't show up you can call me out on it."

"OK," she agreed. "Let's do it."