Game on

Level 3: The first game.

"Ow. Jesus Christ in a wheelchair, that hurt." I rose to my feet from the rocky ground,still disoriented from my trip. "At least u didn't land on your ass, like me." Said a voice from the darkness. I whipped around. Ivan was kneeling on the grass under a tree. "So. You got pulled in too, huh?" "Yea. Look what I found." Ivan held up a rectangular grey object for me to see. "This was right where you are now. Pretty weird." When I got closer, I realized it was a old video camera. "Ivan, you do realize, that is what the character of this game uses?" Ivan dropped the camera as if it were hot, and it dropped into the grass. "Relax dude."I said as I picked the recorder up.  "This thing has nothing to do with Slenderman. You and I both know what does." Looking at the forest, we both shuddered. "Well, those pages aren't gonna find themselves!" I said, trying to regain my usual upbeat demeanor. As we walked to the beginning of the forest, I noticed a dead silence throughout the area. It was like walking in a sanctuary. We were literally where no man has gone before: we were in the forest of Slenderman, the mythical creature of video gamers everywhere. The deeper we got, the stronger the feeling we were being watched. The forest overhead blocked out the moonlight and stars, leaving us to feel our way along, trying to stick to the path. "You'd think they would give you a better way to go about this, but no. It has to be dark." Muttered Ivan."Dude. Horror game. Supposed to be dark, remember dude?" We went about this method for a good three minutes until we stumbled across a clearing. "That's one big tree." I remarked as we stared at this thing of beauty in such a horrible place."Look! A page!" Ivan pointed directly in front of me. A piece of paper was attached to the tree. As we got closer, I noticed that the page said don't look, or it takes you.  "Well.... That's helpful." I said. "Not as helpful as this!" Ivan said as he held up a flashlight. Grinning, I took the page."one down, seven to go!" Laughing, we walked away from the tree. We were laughing about our good luck when suddenly, I felt strange. Stopping, I felt a cold,drilling sensation in the dead center of my back. Shushing Ivan,I turned around. Besides a pile of leaves, the forest behind me was empty. Shrugging my shoulders, we continued on. After finding the second page on a broken down truck, and the third on a old,rusty tanker, we wandered over to a old bathroom area. "What was the point of this area again?" Ivan said. "Either A: the game designers were bored, or B: we are in some kind of national park or logging town." I said,trying not to crack a smile over the sheer absurdity of us going into the bathroom. As Ivan was trying to reply about the logic, I was doused with that cold,strange feeling again. "Ivan. You go in. I'll keep watch out here." Ivan looked at me as if I had said to dance the cha cha. "Just trust me." Ivan crept inside, sneaking looks over his shoulder at me. As I turned around, the tingling was moving with me. For a few minutes, I kept watch, wondering why I felt like this. Ivan came out of the bathroom, holding a paper triumphantly as I was turning back to face him. "We are half way there!" My eyes widened as I looked over Ivan's shoulder. "what?" Not bothering to say a word, I pointed behind Ivan,then taking off. I heard Ivan scream "SHIT!" Then, he catch up with me, even though he was a good 60 feet behind me "WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Shaking my head, I concentrated on running, thoughts firing wildly off in my head like fireworks.  I get Strange sensations before It shows up, Ivan gets freaking speed unlike normal human limits. Something tells me we got a bit of a upgrade. After stopping by a group of chopped up trees, Ivan smacked me in the back of my head. "You better have a good reason why you pulled that little stunt, McAuliffe!" "Ivan. Before you kill me, listen. When we got pulled in, I think we got like a upgrade or whatever the heck you call it. I can tell where tall,pale, and gruesome is before he shows up. You have some kind of speed boost that no man, let alone a 16 year old kid can accomplish. Whoever, or whatever, this guy is, he didn't want this little show to go out without his victims having a somewhat fair chance." Ivan stared at me as if I was crazy. "Dude. Adrenaline is a reasonable explanation for what you just said." "Well...." I faded off as I felt a pulling sensation. I followed the pull until I reached a gap in between logs. The pulling feeling stopped when I reached in between the logs. "Ivan! We got it!" Ivan rushed over and saw the  crumpled paper. "Good. Now we can work on finishing this up." As I was about to reply, the feeling that I got before Slenderman showed up returned with a vengeance. "Get in!" I hissed as I shoved Ivan in the gap. Making it in the nick of time was a understatement. I had squished myself in for not even four seconds, when the feeling stopped, and the sound of crunching gravel steadily approached. Squinting my eyes as to minimize reflection, I saw a tall, thin body standing not even touching distance from me. "They aren't here, Slenderman."said A familiar deep voice.  "By my count, they have five pages. You may want to hurry. They may head to the quarry." Slenderman let out a disturbing mixture of a howl,scream, and yell, before teleporting away to god knows where. The sound of crunching gravel came closer, and another figure stepped into my view. A man, wearing what seemed to be a sweater and torn up shorts,kept his back to us, but spoke in a gravelly deep voice. "You know, you two have been a pain in Big S's side for a while. I would hope you two understand the seriousness of your... Predicament." Not bothering to wait for me to answer, he slowly walked away, seeming to disappear from my hearing. "What the living hell was that?" Said Ivan. I slowly rose from our hiding place. " I don't know, but whoever, or whatever, he is, he has power over Slenderman. I don't know whether to be glad or terrified about that." "Well let's shut our goddamn mouths, and move, before..." A strong breeze filled the forest. Without a word, we half ran, half stumbled out way through the forest. After a few minutes, we arrived at a old silo. "Well... Get looking" barked Ivan, knowing I would have better experience here. After a quick investigation, I found a rusted ladder, which apon climbing, rewarded us with a blotchy paper. I whooped as I slid down the ladder, and showed Ivan."nice man! We're almost home free!" "Heck yea!" I was going to say more, but then a drop of something warm hit me on my arm. "What the..." I looked up at the tree we were under, and nearly threw up my dinner. Above me, staring with popped eyes, slack jaw, and a tree branch sticking through his sternum, was Shawn. "What the.... Holy shit!" Ivan noticed the trees gory decoration. "But.. He's at home... In his room!" I whimpered, noticing something else. The place where Shawns's belly was, I could see his intestines slightly swaying in the breeze, like macabre ribbons for a party. "I guess... When you die here, your soul is left behind." I said, slowly backing away. "Let's,go Ivan. Before we end up like Shawn". We both turned,heads held low, and walked into the forest, hoping to end this nightmare. If I only knew what awaited me, I wouldn't have been so slow.