The Slender Man Game of Myths Read online

  The Slender Man: Game of Myths

  J. Ernest Kallendrine

  Copyright©2013

  Smashwords Edition

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 1

  The cool breeze sweeps through Jessica’s long, brown hair, blowing the loose strands across her face and tickling her lips. She can still hear the music blaring from Mason’s house as she makes her way down the deserted street of the neighborhood, while checking the time on her phone.

  1:36 AM.

  The last time she broke curfew her mother slept on the porch, waiting for her to come home. It was cold that night and her mother was wrapped in a blanket, with a phone on her lap pre-dialed for 911. She also remembers how furious she was when she finally woke.

  That night, she was only 30 minutes late. Tonight, she is well past the 3 hour mark. Imagining how her mother will react to this stunt, she speeds up her walking pace.

  The heels of her shoes tap the pavement with urgency. When she returns to school on Monday, she’ll be the girl that had to leave the party early. While all the others are whispering in class and passing notes about the events that occurred tonight, she’ll be the one out of the circle of gossip.

  Cupping her hands and putting them over her mouth, she takes a deep breath and exhaled. The faint smell of beer bounces off her palm and into her nostrils. ‘My mom is going to kill me.’ she whispers into the frosty night air.

  The rusty smell of old cigarette smoke radiates from the fabric of her jacket. She thinks how stupid it was of her to sit in the room designated for smoking. But Kyle was there. Not only was he there, but he may have noticed her this time.

  She thinks about his freckly face and his messy red hair and how he only smiles with one side of his mouth, usually before using his fingertips to brush his bangs away from his eyes. If only she’d stayed, maybe she would have had built up the nerve to talk to him.

  ‘He’s probably all over Rachael now. I bet she already pulled him into some random closet and stuck her tongue down his throat.’

  She stops and opens her purse to search for her perfume and gum, ‘She’s such a bitch. She knows I like him. There’s like, 15 guys she could have instead of him. But she always wants to go after the guys I go after. What kind of friend is that?’

  She spritzes herself a couple times with her perfume and smells her sleeve again. ‘Great, now I smell like lilacs and smoke.’

  She sits her purse on the ground and shines the light from her cell phone into it, pushing aside eyeliner pencils, tubes of lipstick and tissues until she sees the light reflect off a small, silver wrapper. She takes the gum from her purse, peels off the silver wrapping and quickly chews it until the hard, ridged texture becomes soft. The mint flavor of the gum stings her mouth before the sugary after taste coats her tongue. She picks her bag up, checks her breath one more time and begins to walk.

  She turns the corner at the end of the block and her phone begins to vibrate in her pocket. She slowly pulls it out, hoping her home phone number doesn’t pop up on the screen.

  She stares at the display. It’s not her home number, but also not exactly the person she wants to talk to. Jessica contemplates whether or not to ignore the call, from Rachel.

  ‘Well if she’s calling me, it means her mouth is free.’ She thinks to herself as she presses the answer button and puts the phone to her ear. A cluster of laughter over the earsplitting music in the background emits from the speaker.

  ‘Hello?’ Jessica answers.

  ‘Hey bitch! Why’d you leave so early?’ Rachael replies. Jessica takes a deep breath, ‘Because my mom is probably pissed to the point of crapping bricks. She’s gonna ground me for a year after this.’

  Jessica can hear Rachael laughing loudly on the other end, ‘Well, if you going to get grounded anyway, you should’ve stayed. Turn around and come back. You won’t have to stay that long because I’m sure the cops will be here in the next hour.’

  ‘Nah, I should really get home before I make it worse than what it already is.’ Jessica hears a boy calling Rachael’s name in the background. It sounds like Kyle, but then again, Kyle sounds like a lot of the lacrosse players that goes to her school.

  ‘Ok Jess, I’ll talk to you tomorrow and fill you in on what you missed.’ Rachael says. Before Jessica can say goodbye, the phone goes dead. While putting the phone back in her pocket, she stops and looks around the dimly lit street, debating on whether she should follow Rachael’s advice.

  ‘I can’t be Rachael’s flunkie forever. And the only way to stop being one is to stop acting like one.’

  As the wind whips it’s lashings around Jessica’s coat, she imagines the scene at the party, and how Rachael is persuading Kyle to follow her to a quieter place in the house. She sees him kissing her lips and commenting how sweet her strawberry lip gloss taste. She wishes she was as confident as Rachael.

  Turning the last corner of the block and passes the last street light, Jessica makes her way down the gravel road toward her house. The wind begins to pick up. The golden leaves blow from the trees around her and crunch under her footsteps. Jessica zips her jacket to escape the cold air.

  While walking past the wooden fence, she sees a tan piece of paper stuck to one of its post. Jessica looks at the paper; the edges tattered from the constant flapping from the wind before dismissingly turning her head.

  ‘It’s probably one of Eddie Reinhold’s flyers for his band. Geez, that kid promos more than a strutting rooster in a house full of hens.’

  As she starts to walk away, a colorful streak of green scribbled pencil appears briefly on the tan tattered page before the wind blows in back against the post.

  Jessica walks over and plucks the paper from the post. The picture is a green tree, drawn and colored in wispy strokes of colored pencil. Above the tree is a scribbled, bright yellow sun. Under the tree is a little stick figure with curly blonde hair, holding hands with a taller stick figure.

  Jessica can tell by the sloppy drawing that it was made by a child. She remembers when she started learning how to draw, and how stick figures was the easiest way to draw her family.

  She rubs the texture of the paper between her fingertips. There is something familiar about the way it feels.

  ‘Is this the kind of paper they wrap meat in?? Who draws a picture on butcher’s paper?’

  She sees a name written in the lower right corner, but the signature is severely smeared. All she can make out is the “C” at the beginning.

  She folds the paper and puts it in her purse, ‘I’m sure this girl wants her picture back. Maybe someone at the elementary school can put this in the lost and found. I can make a trip after classes down there, no biggie.’

  As she turns to walk away, more papers
appear, blowing and tumbling in the wind behind the fence.

  ‘Those pictures probably belong to the same little kid.’ She thinks to herself. ‘It would be a shame if I didn’t save as many as I could.’ Touching the fence and looking into the dark shadowy forest, she jumps over the fence and begins collecting the papers.

  The first couple of pictures look like the one before, a stick figure girl standing under a tree holding the hand of another taller stick figure. The next few have a horse between the stick figures. As she looks at these pictures she remembers the news about a girl who went missing a week ago and if these papers might have a connection to that case.

  As she passes each tree, she thinks to herself how much she would like to help this missing girl, but hopes she doesn’t find her body or some other gruesome discovery.

  The further she walks into the woods, the fewer pictures she finds. The next couple of pictures are of the curly haired stick figure surrounded by 2 big stick figures and 4 smaller stick figures not as small, but not as big. The next couple shows a tall stick figure by a lake. She walks further, trying to remember the name of the girl on the news so she can call out to her.

  Jessica hears the rustling of the tree tops as she explores the deep recesses of the woods. She takes her phone from her pocket and uses the light to illuminate her path.

  ‘I don’t see any more pictures. Maybe they’ve all blown away.’ she says to herself. She shines the light along the trees. She sees another piece of paper tacked to a tree. She rushes over to the paper in hopes this one will have the name of whoever drew it. She takes the paper from the tree and turns it over.

  She sees a large circle, almost covering the whole paper, and an “x” chaotically drawn in the middle, bursting outside of the circle’s lines. This picture isn’t like the other. The colors on the others were bright and vibrant. This one was etched in coal, and whoever drew it pressed the coal so hard on the paper, you could feel the design pushing through the back.

  She hears a loud snap deeper in the woods. She drops the paper and looks behind her. The darkness of the forest fades between the tree trunks into an infinite cover of night.

  She bends down to pick the paper up and she hears another snapping sound, this time much closer. She shines her cell phone light into the woods and sees the shadows of branches sprawling across the ground. She shines her light higher and sees the long tree trunks densely cluttered together.

  She hears another snapping sound. She quickly shines her light in the direction of the noise. She sees more branches, and another piece of paper stuck to one of them.

  She begins to walk toward the branch. She can feel the heel of her shoe sinking into the rich soil. She gets closer and sees the paper is another drawing of a circle with a chaotic “X”.

  ‘Another one? This has to be some kind of joke.’ She thinks to herself as she looks at the page puzzled. She swings her head around and points the light toward the dense forest. A long pale branch stands out from the autumn brown branches of the trees.

  The pale branch is much smoother than the ones surrounding it. Jessica arches her neck and looks closer. The branch begins to dangle. Its twigs sway abnormally in the wind.

  Jessica takes a step forward. The smooth bark of the branch glows in the light. She takes another step forward. She sees the branch jerk. She sees the paleness of the branch suddenly become dark. Three shimmering circles appear. The branch lifts from its rested position and points at Jessica. She realizes…it’s not a branch.

  Jessica turns around and runs to the road. She can hear footsteps behind her, and something dragging through the leaves. The outreached branches of the trees tear at her jacket and her face. She fights through them. She snags her jacket on one the branches and she rips away. The steps are getting closer. She runs as fast as she can until she sees the fence post. She kicks her shoes off and runs with everything she has. As the fence is getting closer, Jessica runs harder.

  She reaches out for the fence. She snags the back of her shirt collar on one of the tree branches. She reaches back to break away, and feels the coldness of the branch. She feels the fleshy softness of the branch. She feels the branch pulling her back.

  She leans forward and digs her hands into the ground. She pumps her legs….but she sees the fence getting further away and her fingers leaving deep trails in the earth as she is being pulled.

  Jessica begins to scream, ‘Help! Oh God someone please help me!’ she cries out. She feels a hand tangling its fingers through her hair. Jessica grabs the hand and tries to get free. She feels something pushing her into the ground, burying her face in the dirt. She feels something pulling her neck back as she frantically claws into the ground.

  She can’t breathe. She hears the muscles and veins tearing in her neck. The grinding and crackling of her spine echoes through the woods. The hands keep pulling her neck back until it almost reaches her spine. She tries to reach back, but her arms feel separated from her body

  Jessica looks up with her last bit of strength and sees the moon. She feels the breath leaving her body. She tries to get up, but she limbs won’t move, her fingers won’t wiggle, she can’t breathe out. She gazes at the moon think how beautiful her last moment, wishing she could have had more. The moon gets closer to her face. She sees two craters on the moon, two craters where someone’s eyes should be. Her vision becomes fuzzy. Darkness begins to close around her.

  She hears another crunch. The pale hand lets go of her head and it falls to the ground, lifeless. The forest grows silent. All that can be heard is the dragging sound of Jessica’s body as it disappears in the dark.

  Chapter 2

  Kate pushes her foot down on the gas pedal of her 2002 Honda Civic almost to the floor. She tightens her grip on the steering wheel and she weaves in and out of traffic. She checks the time, 7:18. She clenches her teeth as she speeds through a red light. ‘God, I hope a cop didn’t see that.’ She thinks to herself.

  She switches her foot to her brake petal and pushes down hard as she turns by the post office. Her wheels screech as she bends the corner. She checks the time again.

  7:19 AM.

  Her school is still 2 minutes away. ‘Shit!’ she says while switching her foot back to the gas.

  As she turns down the street leading to her school, she is met by a long line of cars and vans. She looks down at the clock, 7:20. Her urgency to get to school disappears, she’s already late.

  She rolls down her window and sticks her head out in an effort to see past the cars. In the front, two wooden barricades block the entrance to the school. A chubby police officer is guiding the cars away from the school, into the nearby supermarket parking lot. Another officer, a lot skinner than the first, talks to someone through the driver side window of the car in front.

  Kate gets out of the car and takes a couple steps sideways to get a better view. She sees a skinny officer take a small, rectangular plastic card from the driver. He looks it over and hands it back through the window. The officer then nods to a chubby officer standing near the opening.

  The chubby officer waddles over to the long wooden barricade and picks it up. He waves to the car to come through. The car casually drives into the opening as the chubby officer pulls the barricade back to its original position. The next car pulls up to the skinny officer and he also starts to talks to the driver.

  Kate gets back in her car. She takes her phone from her purse and looks through her contacts. She finds the one she needs.

  “Jessica”.

  She dials the number, ‘I’m sure she’s here already,’ she says to herself, ‘she’s always early.’

  A car starts honking its horn behind her. She looks at the car through her rear view mirror. The guy behind her is leaning out of his window. His finger rigorously starts pointing to the officers. ‘Hey, move your car!’ he yells. Kate looks forward and sees she is next in line to talk to the skinny officer. She clutches the phone between her ear and shoulder and begins to pull forward.

&n
bsp; The skinny officer begins to walk toward her. She listens as a voicemail message directs her to leave a message. Kate waits to leave the message but the voice says the mailbox is full. Kate hangs up the phone. The skinny officer taps on her window with his knuckle ‘Roll down your window please ma’am’ he says firmly.

  Kate puts her phone back in the center console of her Honda and rolls the window down. ‘Yes officer, I’m sorry. What can I do for you?’

  The skinny officer leans into her window and smiles, ‘Good morning. Are you a student here?’ Kate nods her head, ‘Yes, I’m a junior.’ The skinny officer smiles again, ‘Do you happen to have your student ID with you?’ Kate begins to rummage through her bag, ‘I think it’s in here somewhere.’