Free The Slender Man by Dexter Morgenstern Page A

ten
miles from the school, and if I don't call Dad from the home phone, he'll
probably head down to the Hawthorns himself. What does he know? If there is
really a reason to be worried about Shana (and to be honest, with her visions,
there is), then having me there will help her.
    I realize I'm only wasting time- although to be honest I am
not really worried about making it home within an hour. I jump up to my feet
and lean forward against a tree. My vision goes fuzzy and I feel a wave of
dizziness hit my head. I must have gotten up too quickly. When my vision
returns, I still feel fuzzy and shake out my limbs.
    As I do, I notice something. The tree I was just leaning
against looms above me. It's not as tall as the other trees, only around
fifteen feet tall, but it's very... slender. It's so slim I can probably wrap
my hands together around it. It's dark, almost black, and its bark is very
rough to the touch. I don't recognize it at all. I look around to make sure
that I'm in the right clearing, and aside from the excessive amounts of fallen
leaves, and this tree, everything looks familiar. I take a step back to examine
the tree.
    “What kind of tree is this?” I ask myself aloud. It only has
six branches. Two of them hang down perpendicular to each other and almost
reach the ground. They are both angled at the same point, as if they're
jointed. The other four branches have the same joint shaped, but are angled up
and all point away from the tree. At the top of the tree, or head of the tree,
is huge, gnarly, bevel. It sticks out like a large tumor.
    “There's no way I wouldn't have seen this tree before,” I
say aloud, and it's true. If I saw a tree this weird-looking before I would
have noticed it, just like I do now. It's very creepy.
    I realize I've wasted more time and begin to resume my walk.
I find my way down the slope, consciously recalling the locations that any
roots may be hidden. I'm at the bottom of the hill when I sense something, and
turn around. I only look for a second, but there stands the monster at the top
of the hill. In that second, so much terror fills my gut, I forget who I am. I
just run. I'm not worried about the hair in my face. I'm not worried about the
ripping sound my skirt is making, and I'm not worried about the slippery thuds
of my Chuck Taylor's landing against the leafy ground. I twist and turn and
angle around trees, tripping on roots, but my stride is so wide that I simply
land with my next foot before I fall. I feel as if I have to make myself breathe,
because if I don't consciously demand it, I'll forget.
    I want to look back, to see if it's chasing me, or maybe to
see if it's just a trick of the mind, but I'm too afraid to, and with the loud
sound of leaves crumbling, branches snapping, and the wind rushing past my
face, I'm lucky to hear myself breathe. I run for who knows how long until I
see the light at the end of the tunnel. The end of the forest! I have a leaden
weight of terror in my stomach as I draw near though. What if it's just
toying with me? What if it's waiting to pounce and drag me back into the
woods, just as I'm about to emerge? I sprint faster, if that's even possible,
and close my eyes as I clear the woods. If it does grab me, I don't want to see
that horizon dragged away from me. I hear something. It sounds like something
screeching. Oh no! It's coming .
    I hear a loud honk, and open my eyes just in time to see
myself run right into a car. It had already stopped moving before I hit it, but
my stomach tells me I still ran into it too hard.
    “Alyssa? What is the matter with you?” I hear. I open my
eyes. Karen Willow is standing before me, frightened as can be.
    “You look like you've seen a ghost. Are you okay?” she asks.
The throbbing pain in my stomach subsides a bit before I'm able to speak.
    “I thought something was chasing me. I'm not sure what it
was,” I finally answer.
    She looks back at the tree line, eyes wide. “Well I don't
see anything, you