I've been a longtime subscriber of Markiplier, a content creator on YouTube whose channel had grown exponentially over the past few years. He's known on the platform for commentating on video games and short hilarious skits, the former being the reason he's been put on the radar. Particularly horror games, he's known for Five Nights at Freddy's, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Slender Man.
I like the horror games commentary the most, they could either be hilarious or creepy as all hell.
But, that's not the issue here. I'm writing this because recently, there's been a concern spreading like wildfire within the Markiplier community: Many fans claimed that Mark's more recent videos doesn't fit well with his usual style, as of 2018 his uploads has been spotty, he'd miss his daily uploads for two or maybe three consecutive days.
Countless theories came from the fandom: Some say he's having the notorious Creator Burnout, a phase wherein a YouTuber is struggling to come up with ideas for their latest videos. Others say that Mark is doing it on purpose because he likes to play with the minds of his viewers by acting all shady and out of character.
I concurred with both speculations.
Until I rewatched his videos.
This happened a few days ago. I got home late in the evening after a long stressful day at work and YouTube was a way of getting my mind off things for a little while. I launched the app on my phone and a slew of videos flooded my homepage.
As I scrolled, I stopped at Markiplier's section and saw that he had recently uploaded two new, roughly twenty-minute long videos of their trip to South Korea. One had a thumbnail of him and his girlfriend Amy standing in front of a large waterfall and the other had him holding a balloon with trees in the background.
The second one caught my attention. Because in the background among the trees, was a figure wearing a suit and tie standing still like a statue, face obscured by the branches.
Realizing that it's the beginning of October, I chuckled thinking it was just another horror gimmick for the season. I decided to tag along and played the video anyway.
The video began normally, Mark greeted the people with the typical, "Hello, everybody!, my name is Markiplier."
Ten minutes passed by and there was nothing odd about the video, not even the whispers Mark would often include when foreshadowing his demented alter-ego Darkiplier. Mark and Amy were having the time of their lives, with the couple taking turns in holding the camera capturing whatever astounding scenery they had encountered.
It was around the sixteen minute mark when the they passed by the small patch of land growing trees in the thumbnail. Mark had a balloon tied to his wrist and asked Amy to take a photo of him.
That was when I saw the figure again, this time much clearer and not blocked by the branches.
I immediately hit pause.
I set video quality at 1080p HD and the brightness was set high so I could get a close look at the stalker, a choice that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I rubbed my eyes, my mind debating if it was caused by my drowsiness or it was another one of Mark's ploys.
The man had no face, devoid of any expression to be even classified as human.
It was without a doubt Slender Man.
The thin man stood there, observing Mark as if he had eyes. I watched with my mouth agape, my gaze on the figure in the background as Amy's shaky camerawork moved around.
I racked my brain for a plausible answer. There was no way Mark would've gone the extra mile and put him there, and why would he even bother in doing it? The hype for Slender-man has long died down.
The video ended with the couple having a dinner at a local restaurant, Amy still being the one behind the camera. She had it pointed at Mark who slurped up noodles.
"So, how's your vacation going?" Amy asked.
"I still can't sleep. I think I have Insomnia." He joked.
However, there was a sense of uncertainty in his quip, and looking at the thick bags under his eyes further confirmed my suspicion.
Mark also looked thinner than I could remember, his cheekbones were more pronounced and his face had that gloominess in them, the once cheerful smirk was little to nonexistent. His black hair had grown longer than he would normally let it grow, and not to mention his skin, it was no longer that rich tan complexion but was rather pale, as if all the blood had drained out of him.
The vlog ended with a goodbye bid from the couple, then thumbnails of his other videos popped up showing the most relevant ones that might capture my interest.
As a matter of fact, they did, and I'd spent the rest of that night binge watching a bunch of Mark's vlogs, commentaries, and skits. Then I noticed that even in his older videos, the ones released in 2013, there were manifestations of Slender-man's presence: from silhouettes in the distance, to an arm sneaking into frame.
He was everywhere.
And the more recent the video was, the closer he got to Mark.
Then as if right on cue, a notification from him went off: he had started a live stream. I tapped on it and it immediately redirected me to the video, an overwhelming sense of dread taking over me, anxiously waiting for the stream to load.
It was in set in his usual recording studio with the familiar foam-padded backdrop. But instead of a giddy Mark welcoming the viewer with his contagious energy and enthusiasm, I was met with a man with bloodshot eyes. Mark appeared more unkempt, his hair was everywhere, thicker beard, and there were tear stains on his cheeks.
He was not looking at the camera, he was staring in blank space, his mouth hanging open as he struggled to find words.
"I... I've never been really honest with you people..." Mark croaked, "I think I'm losing it, guys."
My eyes darted to the live comments section. Some fans were going crazy with their theories about Darkiplier whereas the others were expressing legitimate concern.
His eyes were now on the camera, as if directly talking to me, "I'm losing control... I can feel it closing in on me."
It? My heart throbbed erratically as I stared back into those tired, tear-soaked eyes of his.
"Please..." He sobbed.
Tears were now trickling down the side of my face realizing that I couldn't do anything or have any concrete idea what he was going through. I was just one of the millions of fans on the Internet.
The only thing I could do is pray he'd be alright and this was all a joke.
"Help me..." Mark sobbed, his terrified whimper now apparent.
My stomach dropped when inhumanly long fingers slowly and menacingly make its way around Mark's face.
The stream was abruptly stopped just as the hands grabbed his head.
Then there was nothing but static and my scream of fright.
Posts on Twitter exploded the moment the stream ended, the fans were freaking out and telling everyone within reach of their social media accounts about Mark's latest stream, telling them about that thing that grabbed him.
I never slept that night.
________
Two days went by without a single news about Mark, not even a cryptic tweet. The fans all over the Internet were agitated now and one went the extra mile to start a search party just to make sure he was alright.
All the paranoia was cut short when a notification of him posting a video on his channel.
I scrambled over there as fast as I could, and as soon as it loaded, Mark stood there looking straight at the camera.
"Hello everybody," Mark waved at the camera, a casual smirk across his face, "I'm sorry for scaring you a few days ago. I know it's a bit early for Halloween but I just wanted to build up the suspense before the big scare. But... A lot of you were already worried sick so I had to drop the act of me losing control and shit."
Mark leaned closer.
He wasn't blinking.
"Everything's gonna be alright now that I'm in control." His eyes grew wider as he grinned from ear to ear. A gaze so unsettling as if he was staring into my soul.
I could've sworn a faceless man was peering behind him.