The Truth and Fear of the Slender Man

Third's a Charm

Finally I'm home again, which means camping. I've already arrived and set up camp, now all I need is to wait. I got a larger flashlight just in case he goes raging again. I just hope my latest dream doesn't actually happen, that would be fucked up... literally. 

"There's almost a full moon, it's extremely bright tonight." I say to myself looking upwards

"It is bright." I hear and look down

There he is, just standing there, his voice is mellow, the one I hear usually. I slowly step forward to him, again the little bag of rocks in my jacket pocket. As I reach him, he kneels down. Instead of greeting him as I should, I go straight to the point.

"Why did you give me the rocks, knowing they would harm you?"

"I cannot always be myself, I cannot always control my instincts as a Slender Man." He said standing up

I stepped back.

"But today I'm alright." He said reassuringly

I felt he was telling the truth, so I smiled and walked over to the rock to sit down, where he joined me.

"Are there more Slender Men? Or is it just you?" I asked curiously

"There's many more, but some have let their instincts control them, killing uncontrollably."

My eyes widened. For some strange and unknown reason, my latest dream flashed in my head, and I tried to shake it off. But then I heard him laugh, and I knew he had read my mind.

"Hey! That's personal!" I covered the sides of my head, like if somehow that stopped him from seeing what I had thought, failing at it of course.

"So that's what you think of me!" He mocked

"No! That's just a messed up dream!" Damn...

After a while, it got quiet, and just as I was about to speak, he covered my mouth.

"What's going on?" I thought

He put his finger over where his mouth discreetely is, telling me to stay quiet. I shrugged, quietly asking why. He pointed over at some bushes afar. There were a few people there.

"Hop on." He said, turning his back to me.

He grabbed me and while giving me a piggyback ride, he teleported closer to the people, extremely quietly. We saw they were gangsters, they had guns and drugs. Ugh, disgusting.

James turned his head to me, again giving me a sign to stay quiet.

"I'm going to put you down, just don't be afraid."

"Why would I be afraid?" I thought

The tentacles sprouted from his back. Oh that's why! But I stayed as quiet as possible, and with them he put me down without rustling a single leaf.

"I'll scare them away." He said and disappeared.

I hid and looked at the young men get high, covering my face with my jacket sleeve. Leaves rustled behind them, they turned around, taking out their guns.

"Who's there?!" One of them yelled

"Show yourself motherfucker, or we'll shoot!!!"

Boom! James popped behind them, but they had not noticed, until they turned again to sit down. Each of them let out a yell at his sight and began firing. I couldn't look, I knew he could not get hurt, but still. Then, I remembered Johnny's dream. Fuck! Gangsters looking after him! But these don't have any voodoo magic, I sighed hoping I was right.

The shooting stopped, he had taken their guns away and had grabbed them all with his tentacles, except for one. That last one was looking at a gun and thinking of reaching for it. James threw the guys away and at that moment the remaining one grabbed the gun and continued shooting. James was in the way, so I moved a bit to see, making sure to not make any noise. Then, one of the bullets hit my shoulder.

"AH!" I fell to the ground wounded, it hurt pretty bad, but it wasn't gonna kill me.

James turned and saw me bleeding, then he got freakier on them and showed them his pointed mouth, roaring loudly. I didn't know he could do that. The men ran terrified and got out of there faster than cheetahs with rockets on their feet.

Afterwards, James grabbed me and we returned to the campsite.

"You're hurt."

"Yeah, just a bullet on my shoulder, but it's okay, I'll live." I struggled to say, it still hurt like hell.

"I'll fix it, you'll be fine. Just close your eyes." 

I hope I don't wake up in my bed as always, because if I do I'll...

"AAAAH! What the hell?!?!"

With one of his tentacles he had pulled out the bullet.

"Sweet Jesus! That hurt!"

I looked at him menacingly; like if I could do anything, pfft.

Then, with the pointed edge of a rock he cut open one of his tentacles and let the blood drip on the wound.

"What are you doing?"

He didn't reply. I looked at the wound and it had sealed shut, just like the ones he had gotten. Gone, like magic, except for a light scar.

I moved my arm, it was okay, it didn't hurt.

"Get some rest, I'll stay here." He said

"Fuck that shit! I'm staying here talking!" I was excited now, I hugged him.

We talked until 3 or 4 in the morning. Then I got in my tent to sleep a couple of hours. He said he'd stay there for a while more, but I didn't notice how long. I fell asleep quickly.