Dear Child, do not be afraid

A Story by Anor

A SlenderMan story.

One winter evening, in a lush countryside far away from the troubles of the world, two children, a boy and a girl were playing.

The girl, Jane, felt very annoyed at the moment. She had been playing a simple game of Tag with her brother, Peter, and for what felt like an eternity, she had been the dreaded 'It'.

Her brother flew past her on his winged feet once more, and she fell on the ground with a resounding *thump*, and a cry of indignation. She looked around for a moment, but her brother had disappeared again, no doubt hiding behind a rock or a tree.
Anyone passing the field at this time would have seen a young girl of seven or eight years, wearing expensive clothes, sulking in the middle of an abandoned countryside with nobody else in sight.

A normal, kind, well-meaning person would have asked her if she was lost and needed help getting back home. A particularly keen-eyed person would have noticed certain striking similarities between the girl and the Lord Braden.

The stranger who had just emerged from the spindly forest behind young Jane, however, was neither keen-eyed nor was he kind. Young Peter saw him from his hiding place behind a rather large boulder, and wondered who he was. Certainly the man was not normal. Perhaps a small description of the man is in order.

He was evidently male. He was very tall, and very thin, and could almost be confused with the spindly trees behind him. A sudden rush of wind blew towards Peter at that moment, and as it caressed his hair, he could almost swear that he had heard it speak to him, and say 'Slender', in its rustling voice.

The man seemed to have a curious affinity for the colour black. He had on a long, black suit. He wore a large, black, hat which he had tipped forward to cover his forehead, and large sunglasses which concealed much of his upper face. The rest of his face was hidden by a black overcoat which he had pulled up to its extent.

However, as he walked, his overcoat fell slightly, and Peter gasped in horror as he beheld the man's face. Where there should have been a nose and a mouth, there was only an undulating expanse of blank, white skin. The stranger got closer to Peter's sister, and she finally became aware of his presence.

Peter began to cautiously make his way towards Jane, ready to help her if anything happened. The man bent down to his sister's ear, and it seemed as though he was saying something. As he spoke, Jane's eyes widened in fear, and she slowly stood up and took the man's hand. She had been frightened into submission.

Peter decided that the man meant to kidnap his sister, and he charged at the man, keeping his eyes trained on that sallow, ghostly face. He was energized by the bravado that only young children have, before the knowledge that comes with maturity tempers them and makes them less headstrong.

As he ran, something strange seemed to happen to Peter. His vision grew fuzzy, and he could hear static sounds in his head. The man's face kept appearing in front of his eyes, even though he was still several yards away. The stranger's joints seemed to be contorting at strange angles to Peter, and he quickly shut his eyes. He was scared, scared in that primal way that all humans are. This fear of the man was as basic as fear of the dark, of death, of bad things. It was as though his very mentality was scared of this strange man, for reasons that Peter did not understand. Even with his eyes shut the face kept appearing in front of him. Peter wanted to scream but he couldn't, he was too choked up with fear. He wanted to run, he wanted to hide, but it was all TOO HARD!

Then, with a sudden resolve, the child opened his eyes wide, if only to try to help his sister.
But he saw the man, and Jane, almost a mile away, walking back into the forest from which the slender man had come.