Renegade

- Chapter II -

- Chapter II -

I stood in the woods, watching my mother finish up dinner. Our small house backed straight up to the forest so my father would have easy access. Access for myself as well, for that matter.

Mom stood twirling around in the kitchen, each tentacle holding something she was using to cook. I had heard the story a thousand times:

Your father and I fought... Stabbed in the neck... Became half-Slenderfolk with his blood... Lived happily ever after...

I saw my father Slenderwalk into the kitchen and as he hugged Mom he faced the back window which looked out to the woods. Even without eyes our gazes locked and he gestured for me to come inside.

A knot tightened in my stomach. I had decided months before that I wanted to attend human high school in the fall, but now that the time had come to ask my parents I was reconsidering.

It's either that or four more years of home schooling, I reminded myself with a shutter. My mother wasn't a bad teacher at all, but the days got lonely.

"Junior, come inside!" I heard her sweet voice call out the back door. I Slenderwalked to be just behind her back in our dining room and she whirled around without even a flinch, "Your father has tried that trick once too many. I'm unscareable."

I shrugged in reply and sank into a chair at the table.

"You should not leave your mind so open, son. Anxiety is dripping off of you." Dad said as he sat across from me at the table.

I had to look up to see his face even when I stood at a towering seven feet. I nodded, not really in the mood for conversation.

"What is it?" He asked once he realized I wasn't going to saying anything.

"What is what?" I replied, trying to play dumb.

The shitty thing about having a dad as old as time: you can't lie. Ever.

"Why are you so anxious?"

"I don't know."

"Junior..."

Mom sat down at the table then and passed me chicken salad. Human food wasn't terrible, but sometimes it left a sour taste in my mouth. My father never ate. The white porcelain plate merely sat in front of his chair at the head of the table, collecting dust.

Thankfully Dad decided to drop the subject, "I saw you in the woods today." I had been thankful too soon.

I choked on my bite of food and erupted into a coughing fit, "How- Where?"

"You were in that human form again." It's funny how the very air seems to cringe when his mood darkens. The atmosphere around him thickens and is almost suffocating unless you grow up with it, "I've told you before to keep that part of you hidden, Junior. This is the third time I've seen it."

Third time? How often was he spying on me? Or- "You're sending out a proxy, aren't you?" I growled, "You have a human form too, you know."

We had both discovered just a few years ago that Dad wasn't permanently stuck as a human-Slender hybrid like he thought. Just like me, he could walk back and forth between forms. Unlike me, however, he chose not to.

"Yes, but this form is what I am used to and what I like." He growled. Wow, I had really gotten him going.

Well, maybe I like being human! I yelled back to myself. Having a father who had the talent for reading minds was no treat, either, but I could find my way around that.

"Stop arguing at the table, both of you." Mom growled, pointing her fork at each of us, "This is supposed to be peaceful time."

We ate in silence until finally I couldn't hold it in anymore. It came bursting out like someone had attached it to fireworks in my throat, "Can I go to human school?"

They were silent for a moment as they both stared at me in shock. "What?" Mom asked gently after the moment of extraordinarily awkward and tense silence.

My mind had fallen to pieces and the arguments that I had been preparing for months fell out of my mouth in pieces, "I- Home schooling- lonely. The- The human high school... Enrolling new students- I thought maybe you would let me go... And-"

"Human high school!" There it is. The good old Slenderman everyone talks about in horror stories. The tall demon in the woods, "Human high school, Claudia."

"Junior, that's a very outrageous idea. If anyone ever found out about our family's secret-" Mom began.

Before I could hear her finish I had unwillingly been Slenderwalked to the woods just out of sight of the house. I looked around in the dark and saw Dad standing behind me, tall and ominous.

"You listen to me, boy." He growled, leaning down so that we were eye-to-eye, "Besides your mother, humans are worthless beings. They are selfish, cruel people who are pathetic excuses for the dominant species of this planet."

"But how do you know, Dad?" I asked, throwing my arms out in frustration, "If you're not ever around humans other than Mom how do you know they're awful?"

"I've been in this world for a long time. Longer than you can even imagine. I've watched humans for a long time. You, however, are fourteen. You know nothing of what is out there and your image of the world is very different from the real thing." He growled, venom seeming to drip from his words. He Slenderwalked away again, leaving me alone in the woods.

"Well, that could've gone better." I said to myself as I walked back to the house. I figured walking would give Dad longer to cool down, so Slenderwalking was a bad option.

Later that night I sat outside the door of my parents' bedroom in the darkness. My father's temper combined with my own short fuse and insane idea caused the power transformer for our street to blow. Another thing about Slenderfolk that's a bit aggravating: We effect electricity. Badly.

"Is it me?" I heard Dad ask beyond the creaking springs that said someone was rolling over. They were both too occupied with their own thoughts to notice that I was listening.

"No, not at all. He's just trying to find his place in the world, and he thinks doing time in a human life will help." Mom answered in a soothing voice.

Doing time, I chuckled to myself, as if it's a prison.

"But why humans?" Dad asked, "Why can't he be fascinated with proxies or things like that?"

"You seem to forget that he is half human." Mom replied, "He might just not be ready for real life yet."

My face contorted in anger at her words. Not ready?! I was very ready! Every other parent with a fourteen-year-old would be sending their child to high school in the fall because they believed their child was ready.

Let's just show them how ready I am, I grinned evilly as I silently went to my room. The power was out, but my old, fossilized laptop would hold a charge.

I waited for the slug-like Internet to load and found what I needed. I printed out the forms (thankfully the printer was in the kitchen and my parents were still talking, so they didn't hear) and began filling it out.

The first blank was for 'Name', and I figured Junior Slender wouldn't do. I rolled through a list of male names I had seen in books and in movies until finally one came to me that made me chuckle.

Name: Jay Delgado

The rest of the paperwork was easy to fill, even if half of it was lies. I peaked in my parents' bedroom again to see that my mom had fallen asleep and Dad had gone out. Perfect.

In the kitchen I dug up an envelope and stamps. On the way to the mailbox I checked all around just in case Dad or a proxy was watching, but all was silent except for the hum of bugs.

Slenderwalking to the mailbox, I quickly shoved the envelope in and popped the red flag up. Lying in bed that night, a grin of satisfaction refused to leave my face.

Jay Delgado was officially enrolled at Mercy Creek High School.