Caught In The Forest

Origins

I continued to live with the undead and never-lived-to-begin-with as casually as possible. It felt great to go more than a night without anger or tears. I decided to enjoy myself, to try a little more. To pretend this was always supposed to happen in the first place.

    I was outside with E.J., he was eyeing a plush turtle that always seemed to magically appear. I raised my eyebrows at him, what harm is there in a toy? "What?" He asked, noticing my skepticism. "Not everything is what it seems, especially when it comes to ToBy," he glared at the toy a little longer. I blinked and it was gone.

    "Wow," I said. "That's a weird little thing."

     "Yeah, he's living up to our title alright."

    I looked up at the blurry dark sky, it was only dawn. I stepped up onto a log began to balance on it, teetering side to side. "Creepypasta," I muttered. I turned and looked at Jack who was sitting on a rotten tree stump. Almost slipping, I caught myself and took the safer choice by just sitting down. "Where'd that name come from, anyway?"

     E.J. tilted forward in a surprised gesture. "No one's told you?" I nodded no. "Really? I thought someone would've told you by now." He groaned. "You're going to make me tell you aren't you?" I nodded, a tight smile on my face.

    Sighing again he began to speak. "Well, you see a while ago, before the site existed, we were in a bit of trouble. More like Slendy was. He liked the idea of an impending fear of him, of more than just the fear striking when he does. He wanted people to know, but to be doubtful at the same time, telling themselves they were safe in all. Then he came with the idea to spread the fear of us like an epidemic." I tilted my head, showing E.J. he had my attention.

    "I can see Slenderman wanting that." 

     "Well, you know how Slendy can do what he does, taking over minds and crap. That's some weird shit." I squinted at him. "Hey, what I do is an art! Don't look at me like that!" He huffed. "Anyway, he decided he'd find the people who like to talk, you know? And well he "visited" them in their heads. First it was only one person, happily they were motivated to create the whole website. I mean I don't know where they got the weird name from but we just accepted it, as crappy as it is. But from there Slenderman made his little trip like a messenger, planting our stories in a lot of people's heads, making them think they were only ideas or their own creations and nothing more." He smiled. "Sometimes I wonder about the person who received my story, thinking they were creepy all on their own. I wonder if it was a little girl or an old man who was more gifted when it came to using a computer. I won't lie, I feel bad for some of the other guys. They had little kids and teens who had a hard time with grammar write theirs, that's why you see all the errors and shit, and even sometimes drifting from the true story. Because they can't dissever the truth from their own imaginations. But eh, do what you can."

    "I'm guessing some stories aren't real, right?"

    He laughed. "Yeah! Of course! There's some crazy stuff out there. Some people who have been given the real stories sometimes don't even post on the website, they go independent and all. So those are the stories less believed."

    "I remember a Ticci Toby character, the same name as the turtle."

    "Yeah," E.J. scratched his head. "I thought that one was pretty cool, I liked the character but no, he doesn't exist. As far as I know." I heard him mumble something along the lines of, "the guy would probably be annoying, though." He breathed deeply for a moment. "Let's go inside, Slendy might get offended if you're outside for more than twenty-five minutes." I rolled my eyes."Cheer up. He's just happy you're back and doesn't want you to go. You're almost the equivalent of Sally, by 1 of 1000," he chuckled.

    "Yeah, Sally doesn't get beat up on and hounded, though."

    E.J.'s mask shifted towards me, but he didn't say anything. "Inside, come on you," he spoke finally.