The Slender Man

When I was a kid there were a string of disappearances in my small town. Children were disappearing, most never to be heard from again. Apparently this year is my year for answers on the subject. I thought this movie called "the tall man" was in reference to the old phantasm horror movies only for it to turn out to be more or less garbage, along the lines of a B movie psychological thriller with no relation to the horror movies of old. Though in looking up info about it again to understand how I made my mistake I found my way to answers I didn't think existed. This is where I found my answers. The myth goes that the Slenderman has no face, tendrils that it sometimes moves about with and wears a business suit. It's tall and thin and can be seen and depicted in stories from centuries old up through modern day.

Learning about the story had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end for hours I simply couldn't put them down. They were almost as strong as needles by how hard they stood out, similar to how I imagine they would be if encased in rubber cement and let dry. This is because what I thought was a childhood imagination turned out to be real. Over the years I've tried to rationalize it away and overcome the thoughts with logic and reason telling myself that what I'd seen simply wasn't real. I wonder now how I was so lucky that I did not disappear like the others?

In reliving that time I remember when it started. I noticed something while playing baseball with my friends, an object moving in the nearby woods in contrast to the trees and plants around it. We had a small baseball diamond in my back yard behind a church at the end of the forest where the town really begins with a small creek. I remember how it caught my attention and the attention of everyone else in the field because of how big it seemed to be or simply had to be to stand over some of the plants. It truthfully wasn't that far from the diamond at all. It seemed to show up with some level of regularity there after which caused our parents great concern as after the first disappearance they were convinced it was a pedophile. We stopped playing there after that and this once popular diamond to my knowledge has rarely been used since. I visited not too long ago and it was clear that nobody has used it in a long time, I believe since that day it just holds that negative energy. Even still I would sometimes see that thing from time to time until one week it seemed to gravitate towards me. I saw it outside my house at night and sometimes dreamed of it, one night I was even convinced it had entered my room at watched me as I slept. I could feel it there it's presence looming in the air. Then one night I was convinced it was evil and that it was coming for me. I was at my kitchen table enjoying some cereal before bed. I heard some noises at first, strange noises I don't quite know how to explain they seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere. That's when I noticed the smell, it was like something burning a kind of smoke. I don't remember if it was the smoke smell of meat, wood, leaf, or something else but it definitely reminded me of that light gray smoke that is almost appetizing making you wonder where it's coming from. Then a calling out of sorts, I knew it was for me but I didn't understand it. Like a gentle creaking smoothed over not sharp in the least. I've heard the sound of whales before and dare I suggest it was not horribly far off perhaps more rounded and short, it almost was musical in nature like a harp. Then I saw it! A reflection off the window in front of me I could see it standing right behind me right over me. Though I've tried to forget so hard it's an image that has lived with me my entire life. I was paralyzed with fear knowing that if I moved even the slightest it would take me, my only hope was that it didn't realize I was there. Remember that I was a child and that the thought did not occur to me that it was there for me or that I was in the open, all I could think was don't move, don't breath, don't show any sign that I was there and perhaps it would go away. I could hear it moving closer it's every step like a screaming heartbeat pounding in my ears, and yet it never seemed to move.

I sat there all night and through the morning transfixed on this reflection too afraid to scream. When my mother came in the room she was clearly worried but it seemed as though she didn't see what I did. I screamed for her to get out before it got her and continued for some time until the police arrived and cleared the house. I can't say when the reflection disappeared or if it ever was there to begin with for sure, as it's possible that it really was all just in my head. But the question to me then is how? How could I have imagined this slenderman as a kid? How could I know precisely what it looked like? I know the truth now and I finally have some closure, the only problem is that it has come at the cost of opening old wounds and I can't seem to purge the thought from my head. I've had a hard time sleeping the last few days. I imagine I'll see it standing there around every corner that it knows I know now and that it will finally come for me. Almost as if it was waiting for me all along. I keep all my lights on now and I'm beginning to learn to function by only sleeping as much as I have to a little bit at a time. It's good for me that I am used to sleeping in the day already and simply sleep as much as I can afford during daylight hours with my windows open and light shining in. I've begun research into upgrading my existing cameras for live streaming so that if something does happen that the world might know the truth. I haven't seen it again and I hope not to but it's still a feeling I can't shake. I review the footage on a regular basis looking for anything different, even a slight change in shadows outside. My hope now is that it won't come to the city and that it's forgotten about me, in particular now that I'm older.

I don't know what it is but I know it isn't human. Which makes me question what else might exist? If we're not the only intelligent life on this planet then what are we sharing the planet with, let alone the local systems clusters and galaxy. My firm belief was always that we are not alone in the universe however we were alone on this planet as alien life not unlike ours had not yet mastered intergalactic travel. Imagine if you will that this is the case and we're not alone on this planet, what then should we do to protect ourselves should the unknown turn out to be less than friendly?