What The Fox Said

Chapter 10 The End

I had left home to search for the killer. The only thing that fueled my hunt, was the thought of the killer slowly dying as I laughed at his/her agony as the murderer slowly and painfully die. A thought up many alternate endings of how I was going to kill him. Most of them ended with me (if it were a male) feeding him his own severed testicles or (of it were a woman) burning her face off by covering it with alcohol. Ha,ha,ha! S/He was going to pay and I will be laughing. I wasn't getting anywhere. Whoever killed him, was smart. Ugh, I looked at Jordan's dead body in the morgue after I killed some of the staff.

His body wasn't bloody, like I expected. He was unharmed except for a large mark on his neck. He couldn't of just be strangled though. The mark wasn't like a strangle bruise. The blotch was white and covered almost the whole of his neck. Do white bruises exist. His face had horror frozen in it. I found more bodies like this. No evidence though. I was almost going to give-up when something fell out of my pocket. It was the phone-case. I picked it up and opened it. Luckily the phone was unharmed. A piece of yellowed paper flew out, I grabbed it before It could fly away.

"Killer in wood."

I raced into the forest. Before I could leave, I felt a firm hand in my shoulder. I spun round to face, Flynn. His green eyes almost melted my resolve to fight fire with fire and be happy with him, almost.

"Poppy, what are you doing? " He enquired. He was trying to keep calm and was failing.

"Flynn, I have some unfinished business to do." I replied. He looked like he was going to argue. Flynn suddenly leaned back with so much force that I thought he was going to do a back-flip.He let out a cry of pain. He looked at me. I looked down and saw what I had done to him. I had stabbed Flynn; blood was covering my trembling hands. Flynn fell to his knees and I ran. I knew I shouldn't have. I loved him. I hated what I had just done. I raced towards the wood, too guilt-stricken to look back. I entered the woods. The trees were long and thin. There was a thick mist in the air. I couldn't see very far. It was really creepy. I continued to venture into the endless wood. I finally approached a shadow of a woman.

As she became clearer, I noticed some of the features. Her hair was silver; she looked about sixteen. She was wearing a short grey dress. She was smiling at me.

"You wanted to find me?" She said in a honeyed, toneless voice. It sent chills going through my body. I felt an unpleasant feeling of horror go through me. Was she the one who killed Jordan.

"Did you kill Jordan?" I stuttered in a wobbly and taut voice of unease. I couldn't help it, she was scaring me. I felt her grey eyes pierce into my soul. She gave a penetrating laugh that made me shudder.

"Oh, was that his name?" She laughed, abruptly."He had become too wrapped up in things, so Slenderman told me to take his life." Her, it was her. I felt for the knife in my pocket. "Oh I do not think that you should do that, Poppy." She breathed. She pulled out the knife that I thought I had in my pocket, still wet from Flynn's blood. I gasped.

"Okay, no more fun and games, what are you?" I said with unease.

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Luna." She answered in a plummy sort of way. I screamed as I saw silver tentacles appear somehow out of her back. I fell to the floor, I felt sick and I had the most painful migraine in the history of headaches. I saw stars, or was it black static taking up the whole of my vision? I felt a dark presence enter the space. I couldn't see it; I knew it was there.

"That will be enough, Luna." I heard a stentorian voice boom in my head. I couldn't hear it but I didn't imagine it either. Things were getting weirder by the second.

"I understand, Slenderman. I apologize." She sounded tight, almost as if she was afraid of this disembodied sound. The blackness was clearing from my vision and I felt a little less sick. I stared in horror at the creature in front of me. This figure or 'Slenderman' as Luna called that thing was 9ft tall with black tentacle appendages protruding from its back, like her. Even more shocking, he had no facial features, leaving a blank, white face. He was wearing a black, Armani suit.

"Leave us." He ordered, in a monotone way. She nodded and disappeared into thin, silver mist. I felt paralyzed. My legs wouldn't do what I wanted, which was to run as fast as I could away from that monster. If he had eyes, he would be staring at me. "Do you have business in these woods, vampire?" I nodded. It was the maximum I could possibly do. "Tell me why you have business here then."

"L-L-Luna killed my friend, Jordan." I stammered.

"Well, he was getting too close to our family. Our family is already being corrupted by these stupid humans. Jeff, Ben, Sally, Masky even Smile" He growled, grimace in his voice. I didn't know what he was talk/thinking about. "I mean, my family is being corrupted by nosy, stupid humans and fangirls. I only kill people entering these woods that I haunt. Anyway, don't you have a boyfriend to look after? You did stab him after all." He pulled out the knife I stabbed Flynn with. Flynn! Even though he is immortal, he must be in a lot of pain. I suddenly felt adrenaline rush to my legs. I ran out of the woods. After many violent bends, I was finally out if the woods. Flynn's body lay limp and lifeless where I had stabbed him.

"Flynn! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I cried, I started to cry again.

"You hurt me pretty bad. Sometimes Vampires don't regenerate, fast enough. " He coughed. He was worsening. Was it possible for us to die? Please no, he couldn't. "Tell me, Little Fox can you tell me one last thing before I go."

"Anything, please don't die." I was now weeping harder then I have ever wept because this time, it was all my fault. I hurt him and he didn't even do anything.

"Can you *cough* say 'hi' to Jordan for me?" Flynn smiled.His eyes closed. "What ever you do, Poppy, I still and always will love you, Darling." His voice was now a hoarse whisper. His eyes were watering ever so slightly. I bent down and kissed him. He died in my arms. I couldn't live like this. Without Flynn. I felt the knife in my pocket. It jabbed my finger as I touched it. I drew the knife against my throat. I gasped in shock. I fell to the glistening pavement. I looked to the sky as my mouth and lungs slowly filled up with blood. I died next to Flynn.

When I deeply contemplate the transient nature of human life, I realize that, from beginning to end, life is impermanent like an illusion. We have not yet heard of anyone who lived ten thousand years. How fleeting is a lifetime! Who in this world today can maintain a human form for even a hundred years? There is no knowing whether I will die first or others, whether death will occur today or tomorrow. We depart one after another more quickly than the dewdrops on the roots or the tips of the blades of grasses. So it is said. Hence, we may have radiant faces in the morning, but by evening we may turn into white ashes. Once the winds of impermanence have blown, our eyes are instantly closed and our breath stops forever. Then, our radiant face changes its color, and the attractive countenance like peach and plum blossoms is lost. Family and relatives will gather and grieve, but all to no avail? Since there is nothing else that can be done, they carry the deceased out to the fields, and then what is left after the body has been cremated and has turned into the midnight smoke is just white ashes. Words fail to describe the sadness of it all. Thus the ephemeral nature of human existence is such that death comes to young and old alike without discrimination. The story of my life. Maybe I will have an afterlife and be with Flynn again but who knows. I can only wait and see.