Holy shit it's done.
Writing this was kind of weird. When I first got the idea, it was near the end of 2016 and I was getting into Slender Man because I'd just bought Slender: The Arrival, and I'd watched Markiplier go through a bunch of the games. So I kept toying around with the idea of somehow novelizing The Arrival, and expanding on it.
But looking into the Slender universe, I realized I'd never have the time/patience to research all the insane stuff that goes into that lore. It's surprisingly expansive, and complicated.
And then it came to me. Why not just do what I always used to do? Cross it over with Halo.
I got that idea in January and got started posting on February 1st. I'm sad it took me this long to write twenty chapters.
How do I feel about it? Now that it's done?
Well, I don't know. About six or seven chapters in, I started realizing that the story just wasn't turning out the way I had hoped. I'm not really sure how to explain that, or even what about the story wasn't coming out right, but it just didn't feel...correct, I guess. I obviously had to finish it though, there was no way I wasn't going to.
I hope it turned out okay. I wanted to return to the Halo section after four years with something solid, which is also why I'm kind of disappointed in this whole thing. Honestly, I didn't get anywhere near the reaction I thought I would. Horror in Halo is actually very rare, and I thought it was something people liked. Given how well my Rookie Chronicles did, it seemed I was right.
Maybe it's because the Slender Man has already long since passed culturally, or maybe the story just wasn't that good, but whatever. It was fairly fun to write, and some people seemed to enjoy it, so that's good enough for me.
As for the ending? I imagine some of you might be interested in knowing if Kane is ever going to come back. I left it a little ambiguous. Well, all I can really safely say for now is that if I'm going to write anything for this again...it'll be awhile. Like, a long while.
I hope you enjoyed it!
-Sean
YOU ARE READING
Gathering Darkness✔️
FanfictionA small team of battle-hardened Orbital Drop Shock Troopers are given a strangely simple assignment in an isolated region of space. As they settle into orbit over a small colony world named Darkholm, Corporal Ashton Kane feels his suspicions growing...
