Lost In Your Song (Slenderman & Proxy Fanfic)

Chapter Two: Fork in the Road

Willow was confused. Since she was in diapers, she's been told to stay away from dangerous things. Fire being one of those many things... But she learned that the hard way.

So why was her mother teaching her how to light a lantern?

"Mama? Why do I need this box for?" Willow asked her mother, holding the said 'box' by it's handle.

"It's not a box, sweetie. It's a lantern. It's like a flashlight." Her mama said with a smile. "This is what people used to use before electricity was even discovered."

Willow stood there in the dark, blinking her eyes. "Then why are we using a lantern if we could use the flashlight instead?"

Chuckling softly, Willow's mother pulled her daughter close and readjusted the black cloak the girl was wearing. It was Willow's sixth birthday and her mother was finally able to give the cloak and the lantern to her.

"Because... It's something your daddy, your mama, your brother, and you grandma do every day when they come home at night." Willow's mother said happily, her eyes traveling down the little girls body, making sure that everything was in order.

All black and white... Check... Lantern... Check... A cloak... Check... The song...

"Now, sing that song you learned today, sweetie. Mama wants to here you sing." The woman told the girl, covering the girls head with the hood before bringing her hand to her back pocket, pulling out a box of matches.

Smiling happily, Willow nodded and took a deep breath, soon letting a sweet tune out that rang into the air.

"Day to night,

Dark to light

Fall the sands of time

Let the gears like the years

Of a clock unwind"

Willow was stopped there once her mother told her to. Her mother smiled happily down at her daughter before she hugged the girl close, her heart pounding rapidly against her chest.

Check...

Slowly pulling away, the woman felt the temperature in the air change and realized that it was almost time. Willow's mother slowly opened the box of matches and handed her daughter the stick, smiling.

"Light it."

Having seen her papa use it millions of times, Willow nodded and quickly stroked it along the red side of the box. It didn't work the first or second time, but after the third stroke, it lit. She jumped back in surprise as the match lit into a tiny flame and danced in the wind, soon looking up at her mother with a huge grin. Smiling in return, Willow's mother led her daughter by the hand to an opening in the lantern and watched Willow's eyes sparkled once the lantern was lit.

"Pretty..." Willow said in amazement, surprised by how far the lantern illuminated the area around her and how beautiful the designs on the lantern was.

But as she looked up into the forest, she realized that there were masked people in the forest, all children around her age.

And the suited man being among them as well...

Gasping in fright, Willow hid behind her mother and hoped the people there wouldn't eat them. She clung to her mother before she was suddenly handed the lantern, catching the little girl by surprise.

"Don't worry, Willy. It's okay... They won't hurt you, I promise." Her mother said softly, petting the girls hair and trying to reassure Willow that she would be okay. "It's what papa does every day to go to work and how your brother goes to school. We all know how to get through the woods. And now, it's your turn."