Labyrinth

He sent them there a few months before I moved in with Lya, shortly after the accident.

He wanted to know if they were immune as well.

They weren't.

Lya woke up to find herself walking through a path from the school she used to go to to her house. Halfway there, she saw him.

The boy Slender had murdered the first time I saw Him.

I was going through those woods that day on a shortcut to get to the hospital where Lya was staying, after the boy, Kenneth, had attacked her. And attempted to rape her.

He was always a bully, and eighteen year old with sixteen year old twin brothers who would do anything to gain his favor. They ambushed her on the way home when she was only thirteen. If Matt hadn't come along when he did...

Nobody was brave enough to go to the cops. Those boys were strong, and determined to make the schools and woods there own little playground. Kenneth was a sick little bastard, and if he went to jail, his brothers would immediately go after us.

It wasn't until Ken was found in the tree that his brothers fessed up. We were finally rid of him, and while everyone was scared of what might have done it, nobody felt bad. He was hated. And he was gone.

But Lya saw him in the Labyrinth, all cut out with organs dripping, but the illusion, in her own words, "was just so real...he..grinned like a filthy old man, said 'c'mere, sweety, got something real nice for ya, little bitch' like he said that day..."

He chased her, and she almost ran straight into the creek while stuck in the delusion.

But she saw something else. She still hasn't told me what, but it was something strong enough to bring her out of the Labyrinth and back to reality. It was enough to convince Him that, while she wasn't immune, being in close proximity to Him for extended periods while caring for me wouldn't drive her mad.

I moved in about two months later.

While she was stuck, on the other side of town, He tested Matt, after learning he was planning to move in with Lya to help out when I arrived.

Matt went from working out in the yard to watching a sick, decaying infection slowly spread up his left arm. When big enough holes started ripping in the flesh, maggots started pouring out from inside. In a panic, unable to realize that it was an illusion, he went over to a tablesaw in his father's shed. In his mind, he was convinced the necrotic worms were going to spread up his arm and infect the rest of him.

Lya found him a few minutes later, after rushing over to tell him about her experience. He was about to cut even more off, but she managed to clear his head and wake him up.

Matt's arm had to be cut off at the elbow. Lya was able to call in a favor from one of her uncles working for a prosthetics company, and managed to hook Matt up with a hybrid myoelectric/body-powered prosthetic. He only ever takes it off at night, and never when others visit. He says acknowledging it means admitting Slender took something away from us.

That's why they believed me when I first told them. That's why they've so readily accepted that He hovers over us like a cloud.

They don't care that He did it because of me. The say that I shouldn't take responsibility for the actions of something I can't control.

But it still feels wrong...

-Sandra


There's something outside.

It's not Them.

It's not one of Their's.