Leave Us and Run

~

Everyone feels it when it happens. The foggy haze which they were so used to living with that no one remembered life without it, the heavy darkness constantly in the back of their thoughts, the mental chains binding them to this place. All lifted in an instant.

The Slenderman is dead.

Pitch black envelopes the sky as the stars that weren't really stars start to go out. The sounds of the forest have silenced, any creatures that were out there having enough sense to flee. The air grows colder by the second. Colour is fading from the trees, leaving what little can still be seen in the ever dimming light grey and lifeless.

This forest was never real. Just a fabrication, a fake little world created and maintained by a powerful entity. And now that there's nothing to hold it together, it's dying.

At the centre of it all, in the large house surrounded by now withering forest in all directions, is chaos. There's no time for anyone to really process what has happened or to feel any kind of emotions at having been so suddenly freed from their servitude. Not when they know what's happening and how little time they have to escape with their lives. Panicked yells are exchanged as people clamber to get out of the house, only to get more frantic once outside and able to see the world around them deteriorating.

The sky above has now become nothing but an empty expanse of nothing, revealing how fake this bubble of reality always was beneath the surface. Blue eyes are cast fearfully upwards as a raven haired serial killer steps outside, taking in the nothingness before darting panickedly around at his greying surroundings.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck-" Jeff turns from the quite horrifying scene of the entire reality in which he stands dying to instead face the house. "Hurry! Move!" He calls frantically to who he swears was right behind him when they had started to exit the building. "Ben!" He yells, just about to run back in before the blond finally steps out.

Contrasting Jeff's panic, Ben's movements are slow. He looks over what the growing darkness allows them to see, expression shifting from disbelief to solemn acceptance. He looks to Jeff, opens his mouth to speak, but no words form.

"No time to be in shock, we have to go." Jeff grabs Ben by the wrist and starts to pull him in the direction of the others, some of whom have already started to run through the trees towards the way back to the real world. Only a few still remain grouped near the treeline, probably waiting for them.

"Snap out of it, Ben! We have to RUN!" Jeff pulls harder, dragging an unmoving Ben behind him.

"Jeff," Ben, processing the reality of what is happening, finally manages to speak. He's ignored, however, the killer only continuing to drag him behind himself. "Jeff." He repeats louder, planting his feet firming on the ground and refusing to be moved further.

"Whatever it is it can fucking wait!" Jeff is growing even more frantic, pulling at Ben more aggressively.

"Stop, Jeff. Listen for once in your life will you?" The ghost's voice breaks. He laughs. A pained, sorrowful laugh. Red tears are trailing down his face.

Jeff pauses for a moment, face flashing with something briefly, before opening his mouth to again yell at the boy to start running. He's cut off before he can start, though.

"Think about it for a second." Ben pries the grip on his wrist free, taking Jeff's hand in his own and squeezing it lightly. "I can't leave this place." He lifts his tearful gaze to meet Jeff's. "You know that..."

Jeff stares for a moment, before choking out the closest thing to a laugh he can muster. "Wh- What the hell do you mean? It's not like you can stay here." He forces another laugh, a broken grin now plastered on his face as he goes back to trying pulling at Ben's arm. His denial is starting to crack around the edges. The psycho's long since damaged mind is doing what it tends to do when faced with something it can't bear. Ben can see this, but the really awful thing is that there just isn't time for it. The ground beneath them is starting to shake.