What Is Love?

Chapter Fourteen

Danny Dare

I woke up the next morning to the sound of birds outside my window, just like any other weekend morning. I yawned and started to stretch, but stopped and gasped aloud as pain shot through my body, head to toe. I hurt all over as if I'd run a marathon after getting the crap beat out of me with a sack of rocks. My bones ached with that dull, pulsing pain you got the morning after an extreme workout and my head pounded like I had a hang over. How strange...

And that's when I remembered.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed and sat up quickly - big mistake. My whole body screamed at me, not appreciating the sudden movement.

It was all coming back to me now - the video, the proxy, the chase, the fear, the escape, the capture, and finally the torture. I shuddered at the memory of the torture. That had been, hands down, the most unpleasant experience of my entire life.

But how had I ended up back at my house and in my own bed? Last thing I remembered was dangling in the Slender man's grip while he tortured me somewhere out in the wilderness of Florida. And why wasn't I dead? He'd had every opportunity to kill me last night, so why was I not skewered on some tree branch where no one would ever find me?

It didn't add up.

I sat there for a while running all the details through my head over and over again, looking for any detail I'd missed - any motive the Slender man would have had to keep me alive.

But it simply didn't add up...

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The Slender man

Noon time found me pulling into the gravel driveway outside young Danielle's house. A menacing grin spread over my face as I thought of the fun we'd had together last night, or rather, the fun on my part. The human had been terrified.

I'd had a great deal of fun playing with her. Her mind was quite strong, and it had presented me with a challenge, but I'd always loved I challenge. It had been thrilling to break her spirit after she had realized that there was no escape for Danny Dare. I'd enjoyed the smell of her own despair as she admitted she was going to die. No, the night before had not been a pleasant one for the little female.

And Danny didn't even know that the man now walking up to her door was the very one that had threatened her only hours before.

I didn't doubt that she was probably wondering why I'd let her live - it wasn't usually in my nature to spare my prey - but I had my reasons. I wasn't sure I wanted to destroy my newest play thing yet. And besides, there was still the issue of those eyes... It was those eyes that protected her from a majority of the unpleasantries I could bestow on my victims. In any case, what I had done to the girl last night was, in a sense, a form of my revenge against her for having those damn eyes. Yet, at the same time, I had to concede that it was those eyes that probably granted her life now. I chuckled to myself in dark humor. What a double standard.

The chuckled died in my chest quickly however. It wasn't a good thing that I felt this... weakness for her. It wasn't a good thing that I actually had enough interest in this human to keep her alive. I wouldn't go quite as far as to say that I was affectionate towards her... Or was I? After all, I was making plans to see her and talking with her as if I was another human friend. Would I be acting like this with her if I didn't have some sort of affection towards the poor creature? I certainly had never treated another member of my quarry like this before... treated them as a friend...

Friend. I thought about that one word hard. I had told the girl that we could be friends, hadn't I?

'Consider it an act of friendship,' I remembered myself saying. A soft, pondering, and slightly frustrated growl left my throat at the memory.

I'd never had a friend before. I was always above such trivial human relationships. I needed no companionship. Myself was the only being I depended on - that I needed.

Except for HER...

A mental wall block cut my thoughts off there. No. I would NOT think about HER. That was a long time ago. Ancient history. There was nothing that could be done now except learn from my mistakes... which gave me even more reason to stay clear of Danny - to not get caught up.

Or at least kill her before I COULD become caught up. I would not make the same mistake twice. That was a weakness I could not afford.

As all these thoughts raced through my head, for some reason it didn't once occur to me to turn around, get back in the car, and drive off. The Danny girl was waiting for me. I could not disappoint.

Softly I rapped on her door, and despite the inner battle I'd just had with myself, a small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

"Good afternoon Ms. Dare."