Slenderman

Chapter 9

"Leo, calm down!" I said, trying to reassure my brother. He was in near hysterics. I didn't understand how he could've gotten so worked up. Behind me, I could hear James whispering to Hazel.
"Leo- Leo, what happened?" I asked.
Please don't say it was a faceless man.
He gulped and shuddered. "Th-there was this thing- this thing, okay? My headphones started acting weird and made this loud noise so I took them off and I turned around and- and it was just standing there! It was really skinny and it had this mouth and-" he broke off, trying to catch the hitch in his breath.
"Okay, okay," I said, wrapping him in a hug. "It's okay. It's okay."
Leo had just come sprinting out of the trail like hell itself was after him. He had kept screaming my name and he kept glancing behind him like he thought whatever it was had followed him. It freaked all of us out.
He pulled away from me, shuddering.
"Cassie? Is Leo okay?" Hazel whispered to me.
I nodded. "Yeah, he's okay. He just got a little scared at some...animal out there."
Her eyes widened. "It's not gonna find us and hurt us, is it?"
"No." I shook my head and tried to smile reassuringly. "No. We're gonna go home now, anyways."
Nobody argued or complained. Hazel ran over and gripped my hand so tightly it hurt. For a kid her size, it surprised me just how strong her hold was.
As we started walking away, I shot a glance over at the trail. There was nobody standing there, thank God. I probably would've broken down into hysterics too if there had been someone there.
We hurried home and Leo retreated to his room while Hazel and James stayed with me in the living room. I turned the TV on for them before I went to Leo's room.
He was on his phone when I walked in.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked.
He sighed. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I mean after the way you ran out of the woods..." I trailed off.
He exhaled. "So? What about it?"
"Do you..." I paused, trying to find the right way to word this. "I saw that thing before- what you described was in the trail."
At this, Leo looked up at me in surprise but I continued. "It sounds crazy, I know. But I think that he has to be real- I mean, think about it. We're all dreaming about him, and maybe Hazel and James saw him too. I don't know. But-"
Leo cut me off with a fearful look.
"James told me a couple days ago that he saw a man that looked similar to that thing in the park. He'd been on the edge of the schoolyard, watching the kids. When James told his teacher and the principal, he said he pointed right at him and neither of them saw him. Only James could."
My blood froze. "What? W-why wouldn't you tell me?"
Leo scoffed. "The same reason why you didn't tell us. You would've thought we were trying to mess with you."
I nod. I hate to admit it, but that would've been true.
"Castor," Leo looked at me. "Who is he?"