Slender Man Chronicles (Matched Collectors)

Chapter 16

Fun. Right. I was going to have to tell Sean to never wish us good luck again.

We were standing in the park that Charles was talking about, Emily again huddled in my hoodie, looking sexy, and was kicking her legs back and forth on the swing. She'd agreed to be bait, to see if that would draw the slender man out. I was standing close by, clenching and unclenching my fists because I was pissed. I knew nothing would happen to her, but it didn't make me feel any better.

"Dude," Brody popped me on the arm. "You've got to stop. You're going to distract her."

"I can't help it," I was practically snarling. "What will happen to me if something happens to her?"

"If she's hurt, nothing," Brody shrugged. "You'll be upset, but it's not going to like kill you or anything."

"And if she dies?" I turned to look at him.

"Let's not talk about that now," he pointed across the parking lot.

The only thing that could have distracted me from the fact that he didn't answer me was the slender man. He was walking up from the river, and getting closer to Emily. My heart started racing. I wanted to zap that thing, but Charles told me to wait, that Emily needed to hold it still first. And we had to hope that would keep it from jumping away and going back to where ever it was.

We didn't need that at all. The wolves were currently saving the children that had been taken, curtsey of Sean's visions. I really hoped we killed this thing tonight so that we wouldn't have to worry any more.

As the slender man got closer, everything seemed to start happening in slow motion. I reminded myself to ask later if he could control time, or if I was just that nervous about something happening to Emily. Slendy didn't so much walk over to where she was as he glided to her. He tried to get to her but he couldn't quite make it. I looked at Brody, and he was concentrating on Emily, had to be that shield thing he does. This bone chilling screech come from the slender man. He was pissed that he couldn't get to her, that he couldn't kill her.

"Now!" Charles yelled. That was our cue.

I stepped forward, and could tell that Emily was concentrating on Slendy, he was still attempting to get to her, but it wasn't working. Just like we had before, I held my left hand out, then decided to hold my right one as well, and the energy flowed out of me and straight at the slender man. He started shaking, I was unleashing fury into him as well. This was the second time that he was coming after my girl, my other half, and I wasn't going to stand for it. I was beyond pissed, and was hopefully showing I'd do anything to protect my girl, the fact I was protecting everyone else in town was kind of secondary.

The stupid thing just wouldn't die, and he screeched again. "Try fire," Brody said. "If the energy isn't doing it, your fire should. Just concentrate only on him so you don't burn the whole park."

"Got it," I said.

Concentrating again, I started the fire right where the bastard's heart should be. I made sure he burned from the inside out. The fire was black tinged with red, it was, simultaneously the scariest thing and the coolest thing I had ever seen.

I burned him for a good five minutes while Emily held him in place. There was no walking away from that, and when I finally let the fire go, there was nothing but ash. Emily was walking over to look at it when we heard another screech. My first thought was that there was another slender man, and we'd need to repeat what we'd just done.

"What did you do?" Beth, of all people, came running across the parking lot. She was clutching her chest like she was in pain. "You killed him."

"Of course we did, idiot," I made it over to Emily and pulled her behind me.