My Queen

Chapter one: Was that slender man?!

      Isla twirls, picking a flower in her beautiful forest. She whistles, hearing the birds mimic her. She smiled. She walks around, listening to the cicadas buzzing. She twirls again, slamming into a wall. She whirls around, looking at the wall. Isla sees nothing. She softly touches her hands to what she hit her back on. She feels something as hard as rock, although theres nothing there. She turns around, sighing. She freezes. She begins to feel dizzy, her vision blurring. White skin, no face, black suit- that was slender man. She screamed, running away.
      She sprints away, turning around until her vision clears up. Slender man was far behind her, so she stopped, picking up a backpack. She slung it over her shoulders, running further. When she can't see slender man at all anymore, she unzips the backpack. She feels inside, identifying matches, a thick newspaper, a few slices of kindling, a few thick pieces of juicy steak, a knife, and an empty metal water bottle.
      Isla looks around. She notices a plant that she and her mom pick all the time for salad. She plucks it, stuffing it into the quite large backpack. She pulls out the knife, beginning to skin the bark off of trees. She breathes deeply, getting a large slice of bark, and quietly slides it into a different section of the backpack. She looked around. She saw plants, starting to wither. She saw not the beautiful forest she had grown to love, but the forest behind her old house that was rotting and disgusting. She checked a different section, unzipping it. A sleeping bag.
      Isla zipped it all back up, doing a once-over of her forest. She could hear the faint hiss of Slender Man's snakes. She hastily picked up the backpack and pulled it back onto her back, dashing through the forest. After a few minutes of sprinting through her forest, she was out of breath. The forest around her looked like her forest before. She pursed her lips. She sped away. Isla noticed a stream. She grabbed the water bottle, putting it into the stream and waited until it was all filled up before closing it and putting it into the backpack. She ran right into the corner of the forest.
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      I groaned. My legs were tired from running. I lifted myself easily into a tall tree. I continued climbing, and when I was very high up, I laid out the sleeping bag. I took off my belt, wrapping it around the tree and the sleeping bag. My forest. Slender man is in my forest. Why decide to become real in my forest while I was in it? This is dumb. I stare at the sky. The stars twinkle, and the sky slowly darkens. I yawn, slipping into my sleeping bag.
      Thank goodness I don't snore. It would be the death of me if I did. And I mean that literally.
      I stretch my arms up above my head, flattening my auburn curls underneath my head. I twirl my earrings until I fall asleep, and when I do, it feels like I was sleeping for a few minutes instead of until morning time.
I look at my watch. Nine o'clock. I wiggle out of my sleeping bag, sliding my glasses onto my nose. I scratch my head. What happened again?
Oh, right. I got trapped in a forest with Slender man. How could I forget? It was just last night.
I look at the ground below me. I cough, unzipping the pocket of the backpack with the water bottle in it. I open it, gulping down the tasteless drink.
I take the belt off of the tree, sitting up. Oh, the reason I did that was because of when I read the Hunger Games. Awesome book. Great read. That was Katniss's thing. I slid the belt into the belt holes in my jeans. I stuff the water bottle into the bag. I tie my hair back into a braid with the elastic around my wrist. I have to start a fire. I've got what I need- paper, wood, kindling, and matches. I begin to carefully climb down the tree, after stuffing everything back into the backpack and slinging it around my shoulder. I begin the fire, lighting a match with my teeth. I pile kindling on top of each other, rolling up the newspaper and sliding it inside of the kindling pile. I throw the match in, lighting the fire. I smile, satisfied.
      I find a stick, wetting it in the river. I stab it into one of the slabs of meat, holding it dangerously close to the fire. Every few minutes the fire would crackle and die down a little bit, so I dropped some dry leaves in. And then the worst possible thing happened to my meat.
It set on fire. I shrieked, but held my hand over my mouth. I was in the hands of Slender Man now, and he will do just about anything to kill me. He'd probably keep my skull on a mantle.
He would. If he was going to kill me. Which he's not. He's got my mind all optimistic. Ugh.
Although, I'm naturally an optimistic person.
Back to the meat on fire. It was only on fire for a couple seconds, because I blew super hard and it went out. It wasn't burnt, so I took it a little further away from the fire. When It looked cooked, I cut it with two sticks I had cleaned. It was perfectly cooked. Good job, Isla.
I heard the screams of another girl. I got up immediately, finishing the meat. I stuffed everything in the backpack, re-zipped it, and sprinted towards where the screams were coming from. I hid behind a thick tree, peeking around it. Slender man was there. He chuckled.
"I will find Isla. You won't be the only one in the palace. Isla will be the queen of the palace." I gulped, knowing he sensed me behind him. "Isla, I know you're there. I'm gonna kill you." The sounds of snakes echoed in my ears.
      "Oh crap."
I immediately fled, hearing the girl say, "Isla, don't let him kill you..." her voice faded away. I turned around, seeing a name-tag on her. 'Isabella.'
After seeing Isabella, I was determined to stay a live. What kind of monster kills a girl who looks to be about thirteen? I'm only seventeen, I'm not old enough to be a so called queen! I pitied Isabella. They would never find her body. What kind of lunatic would go into this forest? A lunatic. There are many lunatics, idiots, proud people who think they can live through a so-called joke.
      I take deep breathes, controlling it as I dart away. I take a sharp turn and know I lost him. I fist pump the air. I gulp down some water. Hearing the sound of snakes fade away. Isabella. My mind couldn't stop going to that girls small figure, her skin paling as we speak. Well, as I speak. You're just listening.
      I sit against a tree. My eyes sting, tears pricking the corners. That poor girl. Isabella. What if more people came in? I would have to keep them safe. If I die, too bad. If they die, I know I would never have been good at being one of those people who keeps murderers away from people who get death threats. That had always been my dream job. I was a weird kid.
      But now my dream job was not being an imbecile and staying alive. Kind of good job, right? I seem to be doing good. I might get a promotion. I might get fired. I love thinking of metaphors of me dying from Slender Man. I rub the back of my neck. I lean my head back, draining my water bottle. I take a big swig, emptying it. I get up, hearing a little boy squealing. I see a kite in the air. Oh, crap. This little guy is dead if I don't beat Slender man there.
      My stomach rumbles. Food, or saving someones life? I choose saving their life. In any other circumstances, like some kid on the street fell of his bike and got hurt, I would choose food. If someone started crying because they got hurt. Food. You know what, I'll just get on with saving this kids life.
      I sprint towards the squeals. I lock eyes with Slender man, which is weird because he doesn't have eyes, so lets say I saw him and he saw me. We were at an equal distance to the boy. If he got there first, we would both be dead. If I got there first, we would both live. I decide to try to get there first. Smart move, Isla. I flinch as I see Slender Man get to the boy. I tackle slender man, pushing him to the ground. I scream at the boy, "RUN!" He nods and races away. I sit on slender man's back, keeping him down. I am one hundred percent going to die.
      I gulp, risking getting up and running after the boy. It takes slender man a few minutes to get up, because I see his huge tentacles flopping him back down. I pull out my phone and snap a picture before running off after the boy. I'm out of breath when I catch up with him.
      "Hi." I choke out, my throat feeling dry.
"Hi. What's your name?"
"Isla. What's your name?"
"Marcus." His pea green eyes shifted towards mine.
I shake his hand, firmly. "We need to stay alive."
"I have a question." He says. I nod, motioning for him to ask it. "Was that slender man?!"
"Pretty much."