Survive him, Thrive with him.

Chapter nine.

I pay the pizza man as he comes by, holding the extra pizza with a blank face.

I might as well drop it off. My dad will be upset if I'm spending 'his' hard earned money, which is just the money mom gives me in pity.

Hard earned meaning 'I terrorize your mother enough to make her give you money so I don't have to.'

I slip on my shoes and take a deep breath, opening the door and carefully looking out. I could feel Slenderman's eyes, somewhere. He was watching me, but I just couldn't see him in the vicinity.

My first step onto the sidewalk was hesitant, but the rest got calmer as I made it to the garage, taking my bike and swinging a leg over the seat. I pedal down the street and past the crazy woods, wondering how far in we went, and how nobody ever suspected the place Slenderman had to himself.

It was a mystery.

I skid to a halt at Jacob's house, pizza in hand still, and dismount. Something about the lack of activity in the windows, and the multitude of bikes in the front, made my suspicions rise and I knock on the door.

Turn around.

I fight the feeling in my mind and stay strong, Jacob answering the door lightly, peaking through.

"Yes?" He asks.

"The pizza." I remind him, showing him the box.

"Oh good." He remarks, opening the door further and I take a step inside. Will randomly appears from behind the door as it closes and holds out a gun like object.

My skin explodes in fire before the world goes blank.

************

Something was annoying me, something in my mind.

My brain was pulsating, throbbing, but under that I felt an instinct to wake up.

I crack my eyes open and fail to find light, alerting the rest of my body as it fights to understand why I was laying on top of dead leaves and small plants, a stick uncomfortably stuck under my back. Nothing comes into my vision as I blink, a few stars eventually coming into view.

"Where am I?" I as the world, as if it would answer me.

"She's waking."

"Shut up!"

The random voices fade away and I look around for the source, sounding like Derek and Jacob.

"Jacob?!" I call out, but nothing answers. Tenderly, I start to get to my feet, a prickly sensation coming from my chest. I move my shirt out of the way to see two burn marks.

Those bastards tazed me!

"Will! Will, I'm going to kill you!" I scream into the apparent night, clenching my fists and getting to me feet shakily.

"What are you trying to prove?" I yell out, still no answer. When nothing happens, I search my body for something, anything. There isn't a phone, or anything in my pockets, which is great because I have no idea where I am, since they just ditched me.

I growl in anger and kick the stick on the ground, my head still throbbing. Did they drop me on the ground? I turn in a full circle as my tired eyes start to adjust to the darkness, the air silent and cold.

This makes me think of...

I see a tree and dash over to it, rubbing my hands across the bark and trying to make out what the branches look like. The moon lights the world just enough for me to see the mangled way the branches spread out, and the hard to make out oath in the woods on either side of it.