Slender Man Chronicles (Matched Collectors)

Chapter 15

After school, and before practice started, I was kicking a soccer ball around with Brody, Ryan, Sean, Emily and one of her teammates named Ivy. We were getting schooled by Emily is more like it. I was in serious awe of her skills with the ball. I knew she'd been playing since she was like four, going to camps, all that. I wished I'd taken it as seriously as she had over the years.

We were off to the side of the building, and we heard yelling coming from the front of the school, and Emily was the first one to run around the building. Brody swore a bit, then took off. I was faster and kept up with her.

As we rounded the corner, we stopped. I almost ran right into Emily. Standing there was the slender man. We had wanted to find him, but not like this. He was holding Lauren by the throat and was lifting her up. The girls around were screaming. I had to assume they had become affected by the slender sickness already. The guys around weren't doing much better, and I felt bad for them.

Everyone stood stunned as we watched the slender man with Lauren. He now had her face level and her eyes were wide. Some of the teachers and even our principal had come out of the building, but they didn't make it much further, they had to have been affected too. We all watched in stunned horror as Lauren's hair started to turn from brown to gray to white. She was trying to scream, but the sound died in her throat. I didn't know if she was too scared to make a sound or if his hold was that tight.

Her body started to age. That's all I could think at that moment, was how old she looked. When she was just a husk, he dropped her. By that point, Emily had come around and had her hand out. She grabbed mine and held it up, and I knew what she wanted. We both sent some energy out toward him. I'm not sure how much, but he looked at us, shook a finger, like he would scold a bad child or animal, then disappeared.

"You're going to have to hold him," Brody said as he looked up.

In moments, Odin was there, and had waved an arm. Lauren was still dead, but she didn't look like a husk. No one seemed to remember that they watched her be scared to death. Literally. I'm not sure I could imagine a worse way to go. I grabbed Emily, she was shaking like a leaf.

"Are you ok, baby?" I whispered to her.

"Yeah," she assured me and turned in my arms. "I need to go over there and touch the spot where he was."

Odin made it possible for her to touch the spot without anyone getting suspicious. She had her hand on the ground for a minute, then looked up at us and grinned. She and Odin had an exchange, then he fixed it so people just remembered that the man came and killed Lauren. He didn't want to get into the whole bringing back from the dead thing. That was overstepping his bounds and the other pantheons of gods would get all pissed off. Last thing we needed was a god war.

Beth was finally out front and saw what happened. She fell to her knees, and cried over her friend. It was typical, I thought. I wasn't sure if Beth was really upset that she'd lost a friend, or if she was doing it for the pity she'd get. The way some of the more "popular" senior girls rushed to her, my vote was for the pity. This was confirmed when Beth looked over toward Emily, like everyone wanted her attention. Emily was paying no attention, so the girls led Beth away.

The soccer coaches came out and cancelled practice for the day. Everyone had a cell phone out calling their parents, and the principal sent all of us home. I drove Emily, and Charles was waiting for us when we got there.

She led the way to the study and pointed to a place on the map. "There, that's where he is now."

"Are you sure?" Charles asked.

"Yes," Emily nodded. "I got to touch the spot where he was. That one I saw clearly, but he's keeping the kids in other houses. At least, that's what I got jumbled glimpses of. I have to be honest, I was afraid to touch it for very long."