Just Another Creepypasya Fanfiction

9. Good News, Bad News

        I take a moment to press my head against the door. The interview took more out of me than I thought it would. I allow myself some time to breathe in the quiet and reflect. When I feel calm again, I straighten myself back up and open the door. I walk into the house and calmly close the door behind me. Ben and Alisper both turn to look at me from the kitchen bar. I give them a slight wave before walking toward the back of the house. I set my jacket on the bed, then trade my professional clothes for a more relaxed look. When I return to the kitchen, Ben asks me how the interview went. I consider answering him, but instead decide to get myself something to drink first. I grab a bottle of milk from the fridge and ask Alisper if I can have one of her cookies. She immediately passes the plate to me. I take one, take a bite, drink some milk, and lean against the bar to look at them. They stare at me dramatically.
"I got it. He told me I got the job."
Ben cheers while Alisper starts to clap. "That's so great! Congratulations!" He yells.
"Thank you. I'm a little surprised, really. I thought that they would at least take some time to think about it. But the guy said that I seem like a perfect fit and pretty much promised the position to me. I should be getting a call later today or tomorrow so we can set up my training schedule." I get a paper towel to clean the cookie crumbs off of my hands. "I told them I'm available anytime except for late notice, so I might have to hire you to be a full-time babysitter for us. But when the guy found out I have a kid, he seemed pretty open to the idea of finding me a shift that lines up with her hours."
"Which would mean...?"
"Which would mean that we wouldn't need you to babysit. I would leave for work when she leaves for school and get back when she did. With Liu moving in, I shouldn't need you for anything. You can come over just to hang out instead of to make sure everything stays okay."
He smiles. "That's great! Don't get me wrong – I don't mind helping out. It's no bother to me. I just, you know, I feel like that's the only reason I come over so it would be nice to have more 'hey, I'm going to visit my friends' moments. You know what I mean?"
I nod and tell him that I understand. Alisper chimes in to let him know that she understands too. We both chuckle. The three of us continue to hang out in the kitchen area talking for a while. Ben tells me that him and Alisper had leftover pizza for lunch, which is perfect because I got myself some fast food on the way home. I was feeling rather guilty for getting myself something and not them. Ben asks Alisper if she's excited to start going to school. She tries to pretend that she doesn't care either way, but there's this big smile on her face that gives her away. We both act like we can't tell though. We'll let her believe she's being coy. It would probably be embarrassing for her to be called out on it.
After a while, Alisper gets bored and leaves us to watch some movies. I motion for Ben to follow me out onto the porch. He's confused but gets up to join me. When we're outside, I close the door and lean against one of the rails. The first thing he does is ask me if I'm okay. I answer him by saying that I'm not sure, then I tell him about how I saw Slender at the park yesterday. There's not a lot to say about it, after all I only saw him standing at the tree line, but I tell him about it anyway. Ben tenses up at the mention. It's comforting to know that it's not just me who feels nervous about the run-in.
"Slender didn't say anything about you yesterday," Ben says. "At least, not that I know about. Have you seen him anymore?" I shake my head. "That's good. The fact that he didn't try to communicate with you is another good sign. Did he try to talk to her?"
"I don't know. She never told me that she felt weird or that she heard any voices in her head, but it's still a possibility."
"Okay. I'll have E.J. ask her about it when he does his evaluation." I agree that it's a good idea. "Speaking of, he told me that he would have to do it at the mansion since that's where all of his stuff is. I can help sneak you and her in, unless you want to try a different doctor."
I shake my head again. "No, I trust E.J. We'll just have to be quick getting in and out. Did he tell you when he wants to do it?"
"Nope. Just told me to tell you to let him know the night before so he's prepared."
We stay on the conversation for a short while longer before switching back to Slenderman. Ben tells me that he's going to let Clockwork know and he'll make sure to come by the area more to patrol for us. We come up with plans for what we're going to do in the event that he tries to attack or begins stalking us. It's not a conversation I enjoy, but it's good to be prepared. Still, I'm frustrated. I shouldn't be worrying about this. I shouldn't have to worry about this. I just wanted to create a normal life for myself and some kid.
"Am I dramatic?" I ask Ben.
He looks at me surprised. "What?"
"Am I dramatic? Do you think that I'm being dramatic with all of this, with Slender? Since he hasn't tried anything, I'm beginning to feel like I'm blowing this all out of proportion and misunderstanding him. I know he's a bad guy, we all are, but is he really that bad? I'm just wondering if maybe I'm the problem here and not him, you know?"
He sighs. "Jeff, do you mind if I tell you a story?" I shake my head. He jumps up to sit on the porch railing. "Do you remember when you moved in and everyone was really on edge?" I nod. "The day before, two of Slender's proxies died. They were some of the best. They did their jobs quickly and efficiently, they got along well with everybody, and they helped out around the house. We all loved them." He takes a breath and continues speaking.
"Well, one day, Orion came home and told us that he had fallen in love. He met this girl some time before while walking through the woods and they got to talking. They went on a couple of dates and were really hitting it off. He waited to tell us until they had officialised their relationship to tell us about her. And, dude, she sounded awesome. Funny, charming, apparently a professional model. Everything you could want in a woman, she was. We were all happy for him. Polly told him to invite her over for dinner and he was very hesitant. That was how we found out this girl was a human. We all convinced him to talk to Slender about it and see if he'd be willing to bend the rules for just the night so we could meet her. Orion took our advice. He spoke with Slender about her, and Slender told him that his relationship with her needed to end immediately. Orion took that to mean that she wasn't allowed anywhere near us. We all did.
"The day before you arrived, Orion found out that Slender had murdered Jessica, his girlfriend. Instead of letting him have even a distanced relationship with this girl, Slender decided to kill her. That was his solution to a 'problem'. Orion was pissed. Jessica was the first girl that he had ever loved, and he was very distraught over losing her; especially because of Slender's own issues. Slender refused to apologise or admit that it was the wrong way of handling things, and an argument broke out. Slender got so mad about being told that killing a human who didn't even know about us was a bad move that he tore Orion in half. Literally. He picked him up and pulled him so hard that his torso became a twoso. Polly lost her fucking mind about it - reasonably, by the way, since he was her brother - and he ripped off her head. The living room was covered in blood and guts. He didn't even care. He ordered us to clean it up for him. Then he left to get new ones. When he came back, he warned us that if any of us ever engaged in any kind of relationship with a human that we would face the same fate." He pauses and gives me a very intense look. "Jeff, you are not being dramatic or making him out to be the bad guy unfairly. The concern you have is justified. He is literally a monster and it's very possible that he will attack you or her or us or everyone. And if he does, it will end in murder."
I take a moment to process the story. It's quite horrifying to consider. He loves having proxies, so the fact that he was so willing to kill them over a relationship with a human is really surprising to me. I'm not a proxy. Who knows how quickly he might come for us? The confirmation that I'm not just being paranoid is appreciated. But now that paranoia is worse.
"That's good to know," I finally say. "That's fucking horrible, but it's good to know."
He nods. "That's why Clockwork and I are so involved with this. It's probably why everyone else is keeping their distance. The threat is very real."
I can feel the hair on my neck start to stand up and insist that we go back inside. To my comfort, Alisper is just fine. Ben immediately gets distracted and jumps onto the couch to watch Scooby-Doo with her. I think about watching it with them, but I decide against it. I need to create a plan so we can start working on our defenses. Right now, we're okay. But I want something better. Slender is fully capable of doing his own dirty work, but he often doesn't. That's what the proxies are for. Serena and Hyde are just people. We need cameras. Zalgo will remove the house from this dimension if we're murdered in it. He probably won't even clean it up first. Cameras would get them caught and possibly lead the woods into the dimension. I don't want to screw over my family like that, but if it becomes necessary, I will. That won't be a problem for me. I'll already be dead.
I get on my phone and start searching for security packages. We don't need a large system. Since our section of the world doesn't have police, one that calls them wouldn't do us any good. The call wouldn't go anywhere, making it a waste of money. An in-house alarm would most likely be helpful for us though. If a door or a window is opened or broken, it would let us know. I would just need to find one that only does that rather than alerting a company or emergency services. And again, cameras. We need those.
After refining my search a little bit, I'm able to find a few options that sound exactly like what I'm looking for. I save them, thinking that it would probably be best if I spoke to Liu about it first. Since he'll be moving in, I'm sure that he'd love the right to share his opinion. We want to be a democracy, not a dictatorship. It's just good manners.
Alisper runs off to her bedroom after the movie is over and Ben starts to stare at me. Well, I'm not quite sure if he's staring or not. I just have this feeling that he is. I get my confirmation when I set my phone down and look at him. He is, in fact, looking back at me already. "Can I help you?" I ask him sarcastically.
He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't think so. I'm just bored." I shrug back at him before getting back on my phone. I'm on it for maybe thirty seconds before he interrupts me again. "What are you doing?"
I look back at him. "Security cameras and their systems. What are you doing?"
"Gazing at that pretty face of yours." He winks at me playfully.
"I'm flattered."
"You're welcome." He sits up a little straighter. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Alisper's official adoption paper came in the mail today. It's on your bed. It's legal and what you'll take with the birth certificate when you go to enroll her in school."
"Seriously?" He nods.
I jump up and run to my room. As promised, an envelope from his lawyer with the word "adoption" is resting on my blanket. I immediately open it. Lo and behold, he was telling me the truth. Alisper Jones is now officially Alisper Hodek. I place it into the drawer with her other papers and then go back out to the living room. I sit back down on one of the living room chairs.
"So she's all set to be enrolled in school?"
"Yep. All they should tell you now is that they require you to pay for her lunches, if you make above their 'free lunch' amount, and that she needs a doctor visit. Otherwise, you shouldn't have any issues."
There's a part of me that's surprised that Ben knows so much about this, but I suppose that it makes sense. His demographic is mostly children and teenagers. It's kind of expected that after a while, he'd pick up on some information about how to do this. Stalking someone isn't just about them, but also the people around them. With the way he operates, it's probably easy for him to gather information on the others in his victim's lives. With that, you learn things. About them, about life, some skills and tricks. It just happens. I'd be surprised if he knew about this as a result of anything else. He's been out of school almost as long as I have.
"How am I going to get her in to see E.J?" I wonder aloud. "Slender can read any of our minds at any time. There wouldn't be a good time for me to talk to him directly or come over to the house without the big man finding out about it."
"We've been calling you C." Knowing that he's referring to my middle name, I glare at him. "If someone asks, we say that it's a newer pasta; a solitary. No one bothers us after that, not even Slendy. As for you coming over, I can teleport you both when Slender isn't going to be home. It gets you in and out quickly, with no privacy infringement."
I take some time to think about it. It is the easiest way of getting away with a visit to the mansion. But depending on why he's gone, it could be twice as stressful. We would have to be prepared to rush out as quickly as possible. I could take her to a different doctor, but I don't think that would be a good choice. It's bad enough that I'm sending her off to school. By now, word of the Jones murders has to have gotten out, along with news of their missing daughter. The more she's in public eye, the more suspicious I appear. It'd probably be best if I didn't stray from the original plan. E.J. will know what to do. I don't think the school will question me too much. Or, I sure hope they don't. Again, unnecessary stress right now.
"Do you think that he'll mind checking her out on Thursday?" I ask him. "Slender won't be there and I'm sure that Liu will want some help with his stuff. We could take care of three things in the same day. Then we can immediately come back here. No one has to know a thing about it."
"I'll ask him for you. I'm sure that he won't mind that though."
I make a note in my phone's calendar. I have reminders set to make sure that I don't forget to enroll Alisper in school, to take her to E.J., to help Liu pack, and to make sure that I'm all ready to start working. It's doesn't look like too much on a screen, but it's still a lot. It's definitely more than I've ever had to deal with before.
My phone shuts down suddenly. Ben tells me that I need to relax. There's a brief feeling of annoyance that builds up inside of me, but I don't dispute it. He's right. I've been tense and on edge since yesterday. I need a break. An actual break. I leave my phone behind on the chair while I get up to join him on the couch. He flips through some titles for a while before putting on some comedy show. When Alisper hears us laughing, she comes back out of room. She joins us on the couch and enjoys the show with us. During the boring moments, the three of us talk about mundane things; like video games and ancient history. It feels like the first time in a few days that I let myself stop thinking about the future, no matter how near or far.