Falling In Love With Slender Man

Chapter 10

--CHAPTER TEN--

Ash walked as fast as he could, taking the turns of the long corridors with a sharp precision. His feet made no sound as he glided along. His breathing was abnormally heavy, though not from his speed.

The picture of Sage stamped his brain, lingering on the back of his eyelids. Her blonde hair a wild mess from his hands being tangled in it, her vivid eyes with their hazel specks looking confused and slightly upset. Her pointed cheekbones had turned a deep scarlet and she had quickly averted her eyes after he had abruptly pushed her away.

He couldn’t control these new feelings for Sage. Ever since he’d first seen her, struggling to help her brother, he’d been enticed. The way she seemed to taunt you with the secrets she held behind her eyes, the set of her shoulders as she walked, how her pale skin flushed easily with every flattering word or embarrassing moment. She couldn’t be taller than 5’2”, but she held herself with such arrogance, as though she were 12 feet tall, as though nothing could knock her down.

Oh, how he had wanted to be the one to knock her down. He wanted to strip her of that self-pride, kill every last hope she ever had.

But what had happened to him? He told himself the only reason he had protected her from those retched boys was because he didn’t want them taking away his newest toy. Then if that were true, why had he kissed her just then? Why would he do such a thing? The answer stared at him like a snarling dog, mocking him with the truth.

He had saved her from the burning town because she looked like her. A tear bubbled up behind his eyes. He refused to allow it to escape. He would never show such weakness. But thinking of her always seemed to tear at his heart, ripping apart the stitches and making blood ooze from it like a fresh wound.

God, it had to have been nearly five hundred years now since he’d last seen her. Her pale hair, so much like Sage’s, falling out of it’s pins, plastered to her neck and forehead with her own blood. Her eyes—which weren’t as green as Sage’s, but still as beautiful— were entirely eaten up by the whites, her iris’s nearly gone. Her body was limp as he held her in his human arms, his true form long forgotten. Her lips had turned a sickly white as she whispered her last words to him, words he would never forget.

“Pourquoi? Je vous ai aimés. Je ne vous pardonnerai jamais.” Why? I have loved you. I will never forgive you.

The words were simple and bitter coming out in her naturally sweet tone. He always remembered them in French, her native language; because it was exactly the way she spoke them. He couldn’t imagine her saying them in English. The words would’ve sounded harsher and foreign on her lips.

He had fallen in love with her, so desperately in love with her. Her death had been on his hands. The acidic memory lashed at him again like a steel whip. He pushed it back.

He had known she was a mortal. Meaning she was breakable. Death could and would come for her. He should not have fallen in love with her. He had sworn to never be that idiotic again. He vowed to cause destruction. From the day of her death he had started burning down towns. Never had he saved one of the residents from his own obliteration. Until Sage.

He never believed those feelings could resurface. But knowing Sage now, he felt like burning himself at the stake for taking away her family. He couldn’t even kiss her, though he so desperately wanted to. The guilt—something he hadn’t felt since the death of her—was too over powering. And soon enough her memory would return and she would flee. And he would allow her. He did not deserve such a pleasure as Sage.

He stormed out of the underground tunnels below the vacant church; opening the secret doors nobody else could see with his mind. He needed to be out in the fresh air. He needed to be himself, not masquerading as some human. The human Sage new him to be, though it was only a lie. Only one of the small lies on top of the rest he had told her.

He could hear the ruffling through of papers; no doubt from the Hunters Jonathon had sent to capture him. They had tried so many times. Jonathon had tried when he was the age of the children, and now he risked his children’s lives to try and get me. All the ancient families had been tracking him since he had first come to exist. Had they not realized the Slender Man could not be caught?

He passed by them without being detected, holding back his irritation at the fact the Hunter children were going through the research in his study. He would have to start tracking the historian all over again. He wondered idly if William Johnson had released any more news on the burning of Edison. He batted away the thought as soon as the cool night air touched his skin.

He stared up at the stars blinking in the sky. He breathed the scent of fire, someone near by having an outdoor party, he suspected. The burning wood tingled his nostrils, familiar and holding the memory of all the deaths he had caused.

He darted into the woods at a full sprint, feeling his legs elongate with each stride, until he reached the treetops. His arms burst out of his torso, tearing holes in his neat suit. He could feel his mouth fading away, along with any other human features that were on his face. He let all thoughts of love and guilt, hate and desire, fade away from his mind. He gave in completely to the exhilaration of truly being himself.