Chapter 10
You awoke to someone shaking you rather violently, saying, “(y/n), you’ve got to wake up! Toby is missing!!!!” You sat up groggily, thinking the person was playing a joke on you when you looked up to see who it is. Slenderman stood above you, with everyone else standing behind him. You yawned asking, “Do wha..???” “Toby is missing (y/n)...here, read this, we found it attached to the front door,” Slenderman said as he handed you a note. You woke up enough to read the note, and as you read it, your heart began to fill with dread. The note read:
“To Slender’s new little b***h,
I have your precious Toby. If you want him back, come to where it all began.
No weapons, no back up.
Come alone, or he gets hurts.
-Z”
You started to cry as you read the words written on the paper, barely rasping out, “Who is Z? Why did he take Toby? and what do they mean, ‘come to where it all began’????” Slowly everyone started to hug you as you cried, with Slenderman hugging you last, saying, “(y/n) I know this is hard, but if that note is from the person I think it’s from, then we have to hurry before it’s too late.” “Too late for what?” You asked, the fear evident in your voice. “Slenderman thinks it’s Zalgo, a guy who really hates him and our family, and he’s always trying to find ways to hurt us,” Ben explained as he helped you to stand up, “And if it is Zalgo, then that means we have to hurry, or Toby may not be around for much longer.”
You started to feel anger boiling up inside you, and as Ben’s last words fell from his lips, you dashed to your armor mannequin, donning your armor and weapons, and ran out of the house with the entire family close behind you. “(y/n) slow down! Do you even know where you’re going??” Slenderman yelled as they all chased after your. You slowed to a stop shaking your head. “No,” you replied looking up at him, “all I know is Toby needs me.” “Let’s try to figure out what he meant in the note before we go randomly running off then ok?” He suggested as he sat down to re-read the note.
As you all stood there, you all came up with possible answers to what he meant by where it all began, but none of them really stuck. Suddenly, Jeff piped up, “What is that flowery smell?? It’s driving me and Smile here nuts!” Smile dog whispered, and as you sniffed the air, you smelled the flowery scent to, and then it all clicked.
“The candles!!!!!!!” you proclaimed. Everyone stared at you confused until you explained what Toby’s present to you last night had been, adding, “They must have been really strong scented candles...We had all the windows closed last night, which also means that Toby must still be wearing the clothes he wore last night, so we can track him!!!!!” Everyone smiled, congratulating you on your idea, and you headed out again, with Smile Dog leading the pack.
Smile started to slow down the further you went, and as you started to come up to a clearing, he howled. Everyone looked ahead to see a figure standing in the clearing with another figure hanging on a tree nearby by the hands. “What did I just lead everyone into?” You thought as you started forward, ready to confront whatever it was that had Toby. Then you thought about what the note had said. "Come alone." you thought, and before you walked out into the clearing, you asked everyone to stay hidden in the shadows, just in case you needed help, and after everyone agreed to stay behind, you headed out into what felt like your doom.
