Tics and Ticking-A TicciWork story!

Worthiness

June 7th 2013 8:07 p.m.

Tobias Erin Rogers followed behind the tall humanoid creature; it stood 10 feet tall, had pale skin, wore a suit and tie but the most alarming thing about the creature was it's lack of facial expressions or rather, a lack of a face completely.

Toby did not dare to ask anything, just followed behind. It was a long walk through the forest of his hometown but his legs didn't hurt. Through the silence, Toby asked, "Why are you taking me with you?" He feared the worst, would the Slenderman eat him? Lock him away? He didn't know.

"You are worthy." He said in a low voice, suddenly stopping in his tracks, Toby followed suit and looked at the park in the middle of the forest. "I need you to prove that to me." Toby listened carefully as he watched a group of children play on the park.

"Kill them." Slenderman instructed. "After that, I will take you to your new home." Slenderman said. Toby gripped his hatchets in both hands tightly, he tried to look at the Slenderman before rampaging but he was nowhere to be seen.

Toby watched carefully, there were 5 children; one child was walking around with his eyes closed, yelling the word 'grounder!' every now and again, while the other 4 kids would giggle and say 'nobody!' as they moved around the play structure.

A child in a red shirt with black pants, suddenly moved down from the structure. "I can't play anymore, I have to go home." He said, running off. "Be careful, it's a long walk out of the forest!" A girl in a yellow dress called out while the 3 other kids said their goodbyes. Red shirt walked into the bushes.

He yanked at the boy's arm before he could react and sliced at the back of his neck with a hatchet. Red shirt's eyes widened in terror as Toby's weapon made contact. The hatchet was long and sharp enough to kill him instantly. "Liam, are you okay?" The girl in the yellow dress called out when Red Shirt, whose name was apparently 'Liam', body hit the ground with a loud thud.

"I'm sure he's fine, he's probably a decent way gone by now." A boy in a black shirt assured her with a smile but his expression dropped when Toby stepped out from the shadows, him and his weapons covered in blood. "Guys, who is that?" A different girl asked in a shaky voice. Black shirt shrugged, paying no mind to Toby, seemingly not noticing the blood.

He walked toward the boy who held his eyes closed and was still walking around, yelling grounder occasionally. Toby twitched as he grabbed the boy by the hair and sliced the front of his neck open. The three kids left stared in horror. The girl in the yellow dress started to run, screaming for help. Unfortunately for her, this part of the forest was far away from any neighborhoods or people who could hear her screams and pleas.

Toby took notice of the girl's long dark blonde hair and chased after her until he got a hold of it and slashed the girl's head open with a few strikes. He looked back at the other two, both frozen in fear, unmoving. He made his way slowly toward them. "Please don't do this." Black shirt pleaded with tears in his eyes but Toby paid absolutely no mind until he said his name, "Toby...please." he tried to plead, "Lyra, she wouldn't-" Toby's hatchet struck the boy in the head and then he fell to the ground.

He took out the last girl, who seemed to have already accepted her fate when he slashed her stomach open. Toby looked at the young boy, whose body had slid off the play structure, closely until he realized who he was; a boy from Toby's neighborhood. His mother died a couple years ago and Lyra went to help out around their house.

Toby paid no mind to the corpses, he took his weapons and fled back to the bushes, where the Slenderman was waiting for him. "Where did you-" Toby started to ask but his vision went blurry and all he could hear was static until suddenly, he awoke.

He sat up on the firm mattress and removed the tiny blanket from his body. "It's all we had." A man says, Toby turned in the direction of the voice; a tall man in an orange jacket, with brown hair and long side burns stands with one foot against the wall, a cigarette pitched between his two fingers.

The man motioned for Toby to follow him. He got up from the bed and followed the brown haired man, he looked older, late twenties to early thirties, maybe. "I'm Tim but when we're out on the job, you call me Masky." He introduced himself. Right away, Toby didn't like his attitude. "Creative." He sneered. Tim turned his head sharply and shot a nasty look before turning back as if he hadn't.

"Uh-" Toby fumbled, "I'm Toby." He said flatly

"That's it?"

"Uhm...yeah."

Tim rolled his eyes, "You gotta be a little more creative than that." Toby thought for a moment before he'd reached a little far into his memory; before he was taken out of primary school and placed into home schooling, the kids had an awful nickname they stuck to him.

"Ticci Toby." Tim stifled a laugh at Toby's 'bright idea'. The two walked silently after that, the halls of the home were long and filled with doors, each one had a name on it.

The two walked down the stairs and Toby seen new faces, about 10 of them. One was someone Toby had seen on the news, about a year or two ago. The boy looked a little older and matched the description from the news; a white leathery face, black dead hair, neck length, white hoodie with black pants.

"Fuck are you looking at?" When his mouth moved, the large slashes that looked like a clown's exaggerated face paint would move along with his mouth. Toby shuttered at his appearance but he realized it wasn't much different from the way he looked after the crash, with the gash on the side of his mouth, exposing his teeth. "Nothing." Toby said quickly.

"Y-you're..." Toby said slowly, trying to avoid twitching. "Jeff." The leather faced boy spoke without missing a beat. "Jeff the killer." Jeff looked away after making his point, and Toby searched around the room looking at more of the faces.

Toby looked down and seen a small girl with long brown hair, big green eyes and a blood-stained pink dress but that wasn't the most alarming thing about her, the most alarming possible thing on the girl's body was the blood trickling down from her forehead that seemed to never stop, strangely enough, it just... Disappeared after it reached her chin.

"I'm Sally!" She said in a small voice, holding her stuffed bear in her arms and a big smile on her face. Toby began to wonder, that if Jeff were here and that Tim had spoke about 'being on the job', what that mean that they're all like him? Are they all serial killers? When the questions burned in his mind he could only look down at Sally, who seemed innocent enough, could she be a cold-blooded serial killer like the rest?

Toby looked around; everything looked like it hadn't been touched in hundreds of years. Even then there were several people living here, he began to wonder just how long they'd all been here. A couple months, maybe years, he truly had no idea. The only thing he could think of was to get used to living here.

He decided to ignore everyone else in the room and head off to find the Slenderman, the man who would be his boss from here on out. As he walked the long hallway down to the very last door, he could hear different people all in their rooms. When he finally reached the Slenderman's door, he knocked politely.

"Sir, the new one wants to see you." Tim said, making Toby jump almost out of his skin. He had thought that Tim had left, but the fact that he was behind him the entire time made him a little uneasy. As he stood outside the door, Toby noticed a list of rules.

They read;

1. Once you join the Slender man you do not age bodily.

2. No in-fighting-- hitting another proxy results in a 3-day food ban

3. Only kill the victims on your list

4. Feed your victims to the Slender man

5. Stay out of others rooms unless welcome

6. Do not enter the Slenderman's office unless called to do so

7. Never allow the police to catch you (do not kill people unless they are listed, cops included)

8. Respect the higher-ups (slashers->Proxys->Slenderman)

9. Never bring attention to the house

10. Avoid Zalgo and his minions (try not to kill them if you cannot escape)