Can't Say

Chapter 9

            The leaves were much softer than you had expected them to be. Even the dirt seemed to be made of some sort of silk or plush fabric. The forest also seemed a lot darker than you remembered before tackling Eyeless Jack to the ground.
            No, wait. This wasn't the forest. There was no sound of the dancing leaves in the wind. Even Jack didn't seem to be there, since you were simply lying on your back without a single bit of struggle. The air around you was far too peaceful for what you could last remember had happened.
            Cracking open your eyes to the utterly dark surroundings that were the make-up of your bedroom, you found the vague bit of moonlight trickling through the sheer drapes at your window. As your vision slowly cleared, you noticed a pale orb hovering above the foot of your bed; or perhaps it was closer to the wall. You groaned, now feeling the stinging pains in your skin.
            “It's a shame that you couldn’t keep a clear mind during our last test,” the deep, honey-lemon voice of Slenderman rumbled around you, caressing your eardrums. “I suppose there must be some flaws with perfection; 'wabi-sabi', as they say.”
            You licked your dry lips, feeling a strange tug on the surface of your chin. Reaching to the odd sensation, your arm muscles begged to be left still. Everything in your body ached with soreness. You felt as though you had run miles, but had no memory of it. Still, your fingers made contact with your chin, only to find a bandage of sorts firmly plastered over a portion of it.
            Forcing a raspy noise from your throat, you attempted to ask, “What happened?”
            A chuckle escaped Slenderman, and the pale orb near your bed floated closer, letting the moonlight illuminate the tall man's otherwise black suit. White, bony hands fell onto your bed on either side of your legs, guiding Slenderman's lanky body toward you as he crawled over your form. It wasn't until the vague impressions of this creature's face became noticeable to you that he stopped inches from your nose.
            “What happened, my dear ____, is that you have proven yourself well,” Slenderman groaned in pleasure, ignoring your uncomfortable squirming underneath him. “If only you could have witnessed your talents. How I enjoyed it so.” The lower half of his face began to shred open into jagged flaps that shaped into a fearsome grinning mouth. From out of this mouth's depths slithered an inky black tongue, dripping with putrid saliva. “What happened,” Slenderman breathed, “was that you became my Proxy.”
            Despite your absolute desire to shove the large man off of you, your muscles refused to obey. They were just far too weakened and sore from the day's events. Instead, you quaked beneath your master, fearing what he had in mind. You cringed at the feeling of Slenderman's drenched tongue run from your chin and along your cheek. It reached the corner of your eye, to where it stopped and retreated back into the jagged mouth from whence it came. The tingling sensation of a foreign substance lingered where you had been licked. Its warmth gradually faded away.
            “Say it,” Slenderman hissed excitedly. “What am I to you?”
            Your lips quivered, afraid of what may happen if you obey or defy the being's command. Either way seemed like a horrible ending with the way he was acting.
            “Say it!” A terrible, searing pain waved through your brain, forcing out an utterance of discomfort. Your back arched and your muscles screamed with displeasure.
            Gasping and collapsing back into the softness of your bed, you whispered with a weak voice, “Master.”
            A pleased moan escaped Slenderman. He seemed to enjoy knowing that he was in charge. A dominant air swirled around him. With nonexistent eyes, the head of Slenderman stared at you, watching your expressions twitch between relief and distress. The jagged lips that formed his mouth resealed themselves, not even leaving a scar.
            He was gone.
            It took you a few seconds to even notice the change of scenery that was your master. Rather than straddling over your body, he was back to the foot of you bed, standing with a noble posture as though nothing had happened between the two of you.
            Parting your lips to ask if any of that really happened, you were quickly interrupted by Slenderman's deep voice, “Rest yourself. You've suffered many injuries, but have earned your place here. The Jacks will visit you here and there to monitor your recovery.”
            The Jacks? He must have meant Laughing Jack and Eyeless Jack. Were they the nurses of the mansion? Something about that didn't make you feel comfortable, especially with the thought of Eyeless Jack being alone in the same room with you. No doubt, he still hated you. Though, considering that you were now an official Proxy of Slenderman, you might be under some sort of protection, right?
            It was that very thought that caused your reality to sink in.
            You were now a Proxy of Slenderman.
            Part of you had expected some sort of ceremony or cult ritual that you had seen in films. Maybe that would come later when you could actually move on your own.
            That irritating discomfort of your legs lying flat out for too long began to make itself known in the back of your knees. It was an anxious sort of feeling, as though you needed to just move your legs and run off the strange burst of energy. Of course, you didn't need to run, but simply curl up into a ball of pain on your side.
            And that's exactly what you did.
            The very effort of twisting your body onto its side was a challenge in itself. You drew your knees level with your hips and wrapped your arms around your shoulders. Every muscle within you demurred your movements, but you eventually settled to a comfortable position. During that time of aching, you noticed other bandages and splints variously placed on your body. There was a splint around your left ankle, a gauze securely wrapped around your right thigh, and plenty of butterfly closures scattered on your abdomen and arms. The swelling of your right eye also exposed itself. You had a pretty good idea that it would be black if it wasn't already that way.
            It was then that, after some time of making note to each individual pain on your body, you lulled yourself to sleep.
            A coalescence of a dream and a nightmare manifested within the depths of your wearied mind. Your master's severed face staring down at you with lust and desire with the vague expressions in his muscles, though more apparent in the very air around him. The fear within you sent shivers throughout your skin, unsure of what tortures you may face. A sharp fingertip trailed along your cheek, testing the durability of your skin, which held up fairly.
            You raised a hand to return the gesture to Slenderman, tenderly running your fingers along the jagged lips of his abyss of a mouth. He didn't respond at first, then hesitantly nuzzled into your palm. You could have sworn that there was a gentle side to this entity; a side that he held deep within himself.
            His sharp finger ran down your jawline, trailing to your throat. The sensation of his gentle demeanor warmed you with unfamiliar feelings. You didn't even notice until it was too late that all of Slenderman's lanky fingers wrapped themselves around your throat, pushing up to pin you against your pillow. The weight of him threatened to crush your windpipe, yet you still managed to gasp in tiny breaths. Staring to his deformed white face for some sort of explanation, you watched in panic as that slimy black tongue slithered from your master's jagged mouth and reached down to your lips.
            The warmth of his saliva quickly cooled against the air as Slenderman's tongue swirled around your gasping mouth. At one moment, you expected things to become intimate, but you were quickly reminded of who you were dealing with when the entity's tongue darted into your mouth and shot down your throat, completely closing your airways. You tried to cough it out, gag, even squirm under your master's force, but to no avail. The clenching in your chest alerted you to how your lungs were straining to move air, and they were having as much success as you were to surviving.
            Darkness enveloped you. It was so sudden that you had almost forgotten about the dream entirely, especially when you woke up to the morning light in your eyes.
            You wearily sat up, only to collapse back down due to how your body protested with sharp and aching pains. A groan of frustration escaped you just when your bedroom door swung open without a single hint of respect that you were in there. For all anyone knew, you could have been changing clothes!
            It was Laughing Jack. He was carrying an antique silver tray full of medication and breakfast. With further examination of his physique, you noticed some cuts and bandages scattered over the few exposed areas of his body – particularly his face.
            “Please tell me you have pain meds,” you groaned your morning voice to the monochrome clown who approached your side of the bed.
            “What sort of mansion would this be if we didn't have full supply of drugs?” Laughing Jack rested the tray on the dark oak nightstand that stood against the wall next to your bed. He began opening the only two medication bottles and dumped a single pill from each. “Besides, I'd say you deserve them.”
            In the morning light, you only just noticed that Jack's cone-shaped nose was wrapped with tape halfway from the tip. A tuft of hair was missing from one side of his head, which left an obvious bald spot. As he handed you the pills and a glass of water, you hesitated to ask, “What happened to you?”
            Jack chuckled as you swallowed the numbing candy and gulped some water, “Slenderman said you wouldn't remember.” He watched as you arched a brown in question, hoping he would further explain, “You did this - to just about all of us, actually.”
             An expression of awe washed over your face. Never did you imagine to be able to fight back against any of the Creepypastas. Slenderman's words from earlier flooded into your head, making you question exactly what happened during that fight in the woods. All you remembered was when you tackled Eyeless Jack to the ground, then you woke up in your bed. “All of you?”
            Jack took your glass and sat it back on the tray, trading it for a bowl of cereal. “Almost. Slenderman was obviously unharmed, I managed to get out with minimal damage, and Ben was the one who stopped you with his fire.” You cringed at the mention of Ben's strange fire as you gripped the spoon for your cereal.
            “Should I watch my back from now on,” you asked, wondering if the others would want revenge for whatever damage you did to them.
            Humming to himself in amused thought, Jack popped his overall straps with his thumbs and grinned a devilish grin. “Oh, you won't have to worry about being killed by any of us. You're officially Slenderman's property now; however, that doesn't protect you from getting bullied around.”
            Your stomach sank at the thought of being bullied all over again. You had murdered the ones at your school and your abusive parents, but even here you had to face the horrors of physical abuse. There was no escape, it seemed.