Strange Arrival

The Spell

Suddenly, then, the girl were running through the forest once again. This time, though, they were headed to the Matheson Farm.

"But wait!" Max stopped Lauren before she could get too close. "The last time we were here, Slenderman attacked us. Is there any way can get inside without him sensing us?" she asked. Lauren bit her lip and shook her head uncertainly. Maybe if they had Kate... But they didn't. In this place, there was only Charlie Jr. But then again, last time Lauren met Charlie, Charlie had jumped her... Oh, speak of the literal Devil! Charlie suddenly appeared in the doorway of the farm, looking at the two girls intently.

"Should we reverse?" asked Max the moment his little skeletal body appeared.

"Not yet," Lauren responded. "Let's see what happens. Slenderman hasn't shown up yet..."

A few more moments later, Charlie began to limp towards them.

"Oh crap!" Max muttered, stepping back. Lauren did likewise, carefully stepping in front of the other Caulfield. Neither of them moved until, at last, Charlie stopped right in front of them and spoke.

"Lauren?" he asked, voice warbled and broken. This stunned both girls into silence.

"Oh crap!" Max repeated, but this time with a different intonation.

Following the stinger that Charlie was free, could talk and knew who Lauren was, the duo became a trio. Charlie confessed that he, like Kate, was a proxy, but wasn't under Slenderman's control all the time. Instead, it was only when Slenderman needed him, or was nearby.

"But if he's busy somewhere else, it's just me," Charlie explained. "Now come on! We've been watching you for quite some time and we need your help real bad! Follow me!"

"Wait. We?" Max interrupted. Charlie looked up at her and she tried not to hurl as she saw his face up close and personal in all its gory glory.

"Yes, Maxine Caulfield," he said. Then Max almost hurled again just out of pure shock that he knew her real name.

"How did-?" she began weakly.

"Kate told me," he explained.

"Oh," Max laughed nervously. But then Charlie said something else that made everything just a little bit stranger again.

"Kate told me, and so did Chloe Price."

Charlie then explained how, ever since Slenderman had come to the forest many generations ago, more and more people had become trapped in this Hell of a park. Kate was the most recent prisoner, the one preceding her being Chloe Price.

"She's here?" Max gasped, looking like she was trying to keep herself from sprinting back through the entirety of Oakside just to find Chloe.

"Yes," Charlie nodded, head looking like it was about to flop off. "She came in a few weeks ago!"

"That sounds about right," Max muttered darkly.

"Yeah. Slenderman brought her in, bullet hole still in her head, but he fixed her. Sort of..." Charlie frowned, a horrific sight. Then he elaborated.

After being brought in, Slenderman made Chloe into his proxy, named Blueblood. He resurrected her, closing that bullet wound in her head. From that day forward, her sole purpose was to wait. She did roam the forests and kill several travelers, but she wasn't a heavy hitter. Not yet at least. Lauren didn't meet her during her exploration for Kate. But she certainly met Kate, the Chaser.

"I think he's been hunting you longer than you think," Charlie muttered at Max, who shuddered in agreement. She wasn't sure just how long Slenderman had been after her, but given that he knew enough to set up an elaborate death trap to kill Chloe to test her mettle meant that it had been for quite awhile. In the back of her mind, Max began to wonder if Slenderman was the reason she got taken into Blackwell Academy. What if he had rigged her acceptance into the school just to get her back into Arcadia Bay because of Chloe? It might've sounded like a stretch, but given who Slenderman was, something like that couldn't have been too hard to do.