Him: The Slender Man Files

Chapter Two

31 October 3:20 PM

Once Dom walked on the bus, he knew immediately what proceeds. His mission was to get to an empty seat as soon as possible before he reaches maximum shamefulness. But even hiding his face won't stop the haunting laughs. His cause of all agony sits right next to him. In a 1980's Batman suit.

"Tonight is going to be sick!" Jack exclaims. Dom was only half listening. He was just hoping the bus would swerve through traffic faster, or off a cliff to save him the trouble.

"Of course it is," says Dom. 

"You know who you should be?" he asks as he fixes his muscle pads. "The joker!"

And match the laughing stock of Halloween? Dominic nods, "Yeah I should."

A moment of solitude rose in between them. Either it was because Dom no longer wanted to talk about his costume reflecting comic characters or he was spooked on what they experienced just hours before.

Dom was in the locker room with fresh teenage odor lingering the air. His physical education shirt and every visible body part is doused in perspiration. Fog that uncontrollably spilled onto the track made it impossible to see an arm's length, and since he was one of the only few without a costume, he had to navigate through the wall of mist in sheer loneliness. It was a miracle he found the finish line.

His body reeking of sweat and condensed fog, he halfheartedly decided to take shower. At least his school has the decency of individual showers, otherwise he woul've stuck with the smell. Stripped to his boxers, Dom closed the curtain and turned on the shower for a quick scrub down.

The lights faltered and failed. Dom jumped slightly, but kept his sanity.

"Turn it on!" he called. Drops of water bead down on his chest, but the darkness is quickly swallowing his eyes.

He struggled for the nozzle. The steady flow reduced to just drops that clatter on the tiles like a heartbeat. His head swiveled out of the curtains. "I told you to..." But he couldn't find anyone in the dark corridor. The hallway to the locker room seemed corrupted in pitch blackness as well. 

Dom managed to find a towel and wrap it around him. Setting aside the curtains, he stepped cautiously into the dark. He had no sense of direction, no sense of where his coach was. How badly he wanted to shout for his name, but his voice didn't seem to work. His words fell out of his mouth. 

"You guys are not," Dom stuttered. "F-funny."

As his night-vision senses kicked in, so did the whereabouts of something else in the shower corridor. Someone who is much taller than him. And it was coming closer.

He slipped on the floor, but despite his retreat the figure glided across the tiles as though it were hovering. Dom slammed on his bare back, the air dispelling from his lungs. Choking for oxygen, Dom grovelled on the ground. His feet could not work properly. 

It came closer than ever. His heart froze in place. It was at his feet.

And as suddenly as it flickered off, the lights were restored by an aggravated coach Miller.

"Knock it off, guys!"

Dom tried to laugh the whole situation off, but couldn't have a chuckle with the boy who almost gave him a heart attack.

"HELLO?" Jack pulled him back to reality. "Did you hear me?"

"What?"

"I said we can go to the costume store to get you a joker suit!"

"I think I'll pass, Jack."

"Well, you won't get candy dressed as an angst teenager!"

Besides Jack's sassy remark, Dom had other things on his mind. Not only was Jack poorly convincing him to become a hero/villain duo, but he was distracting him for overhearing a conversation just a seat ahead of him, with two girls rapidly running their mouths. He can only catch snippets of the heated debate.