Past Lives

Expiration

~Third Person POV~

     Heather groaned and rolled over as there was a knock at her door. She had another hour before she had to get up for her classes, and she would like all the sleep she could get. However, the person at the door persisted, making Heather sigh and get out of bed. She grumbled as she threw on a pair of pajama pants and her glasses before walking over to the door and opening. Her demeanor changing as soon as she saw the campus guard's uniform.

"Are you Heather Rose?" asked the guard. Heather nodded, signaling for the guard to continue. Though, as the guard continued, Heather felt her heart shatter and break into millions of pieces. Instinctly, she rubbed her thumb over the ring on her hand, wishing for this to be a nightmare. But as luck would have it, this was not.

The guard left when there was nothing more to talk about, leaving Heather standing at her doorway. Girls were standing at their doors. listening and watching as the guard told Heather that Jack was presumed dead as the scene was gruesome and they found his blood there. Some girls gave her sympathetic looks, others gave her ugly smirks.

Before she realized it, she was crying. She silently shut the door to her room before walking over to her bed and burying her face into a pillow; hoping to stifle the loud sobs that now racked her body. Images of him ran through her mind, making her sobbing worsen, until there was a knock at the door. She stopped for a second to see if whoever was at the door would give their name. Deep down, Heather wished that it was Jack, coming to apologize for that horrible joke.

"It's Greg and Jacob," said a voice, "can we come in Heather...?" The two shuffled their feet outside of her room, knowing that there was only a slight chance she would allow them to enter. They had gotten the news before her, but knew it would be much harder for her.

They knew that Jack was planning on marrying her the second their second year of college came around. He kept asking them what he should do as the two themselves were engaged, and in the end, they decided to keep it simple. Once he asked her, the next day they all celebrated by going out to dinner together. They could see how much they meant to each other, as Heather was practically glued to his side the entire night.

Greg and Jacob looked at each other, Jacob shrugging as the attempt didn't work as well as they hoped. They were about to walk away when the door opened slightly, making them face the doorway. They could see that Heather's eyes were already red and puffy and there seemed to be something broken within her. Her eyes weren't showing her happy-go-lucky shine and she had the aura of a kicked puppy. After a second of silence between the three of them, she let them in before going back to her bed and curling up, hugging a pillow.

~A Month Later~

Heather walked down the street to no place in particular. After the incident with Jack, the school faced a shut down, causing student's to get sent home with refunds as a police investigation went underway. However, of the sixteen participants of the cult, fourteen students and two teachers, only six students were able to go home. seven students and a teacher were killed while one student and a teacher were sent to an insane asylum.

Heather had been called down to the police station multiple times before she went home, being asked questions about Jack or asking the six student's why they did what they did. Though, no one gave an exact answer, stating that they were forced by their leader and teacher's to participate. Yet, the student's did say that the cult was based around Chernobog, a Slavic god and were used Jack as a sacrifice. It made her stomach turn when she thought about what they did.

Heather sighed as she walked down the empty streets. As far as she could tell, there was no one following her, until she heard something hit a trashcan in an alley she just walked by. Heather squinted her eyes and backed up, looking down the alley, not seeing anything. She played it off as her imagination and continued to walk down the street, hugging one of Jack's old hoodies tighter around her.

It wasn't long before she felt a presence behind her. She attempted to continue on, pretending that it was just her imagination, but couldn't. After a while she looked behind her, only to see a tall man duck into an alley way. Heather slid her hand into her pocket and pulled out her pepper spray as she walked back towards the alley and peered around the corner, seeing something she couldn't explain.

In front of her stood a man around teen feet tall, scribbling something down in a notepad. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a black vest and black suit pants. He was also wearing a brown hat with a small piece of paper in it that covered most of his hair with and smoking a cigarette. But the most worrying thing about him, was that his skin was snow white and he had no face. Heather gasped before backing up from it.

The thing looked up, seemingly confused. "You can see me?" spoke a man's voice in her head. Her eyes widened and her breath hitched in her throat. "Hmm, that's unusual."

"Wh- what are y- you?" she questioned, feeling her back hit a lamp post.

"Why, I'm Slanderman. You may have heard of my nephew, Slenderman?" it chuckled, "I'm not like him though. No, I'm a reporter. I happened to be tasked with your fiance's case."

"Why would you be on his case?" Heather asked, more venom in her voice than she thought she could muster. "Y- you're not even human!"

"Well, under the... circumstances... that your fiance died under, I was tasked with learning more about him and the people he was close too," Slander spoke, shrugging his arms. "Though, I am curious as to why you can see me."

Heather thought about what she would say next. She knew that Slenderman wasn't real, but seeing his so called 'uncle' in front of her, made her question a few things. "I.. I don't know why I can see you, but what do you mean by 'circumstances' in Jack's death? What was so special about his death that you had to report on it?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't say anything..." Slander started. She could hear the nonexistent smile in his voice. "But you intrigue me. So I'll tell you this. Jack is alive, but isn't the person you know. He's... changed, in a way."