Extra

Maybe I owe you guys a bit of background information.

I found out about the Slender Man by accident. I was talking to someone I had met while she was on holiday here six weeks ago. She was talking crazy stuff, about guys in suits with no faces, when I first met her. I managed to get her to calm down and stop panicking long enough for her to explain why the hell she was freaking out so much. I gave her a hot chocolate and called the hotel she was staying at with her boyfriend to tell him that this girl, this girl "Kaylee", was sitting on my couch raving like a lunatic and that he should probably come pick her up.

He did. He was real good natured about it. Kaylee asked for my phone number, in case she got lost and had another panic attack and needed someone in the area. I didn't really want to, but something about those huge, scared doe eyes made me. She also gave me a piece of paper with the Operator symbol on it and told me to keep it with me. I didn't know what it was at the time, so I threw it out.

Then they left. I went about the rest of my business, doing uni homework and stuff, made myself dinner and went to bed. Next day, early afternoon, they arrived at my house again to thank me for looking after Kaylee for a couple of hours. I invited them in because frankly, I was bored and they were an interesting distraction. Also, they got me food. I'm damn easy to win over.

I learned their names. Kaylee Dwyer and Lionel Wilson. They were from America. Massachusetts (did I spell that right?) to be more precise. We talked about inconsequential stuff and I gave them directions to a few tourist hotspots since they were leaving in three days and had done hardly anything. They left.

I promptly forgot about them altogether until three weeks later, when I got a panicky phonecall from Kaylee back in America about someone following her, someone tall and thin in a business suit. I tried to get her to calm down, to think, find somewhere safe, but she got more and more incoherent over time until she was just saying stuff like "he's here, he's found me, I'm running out of time, tell them, Genevieve, tell them that it was him, tell them the slender man."

Then she stopped talking and all I could hear was heavy breathing. It wasn't until later that I realised I had never told her my name was Genevieve. I introduced myself to them as Viv and never referred to myself as anything else.

I kept listening. Kaylee kept running. Occasionally she'd say something but it never made any sense. She told me to tell Lionel that she loved him, that she was sorry, so sorry. After about fifteen minutes of this, she screamed "His face! Where is his face?!" and then there was a weird noise down the other end, following by the phone going dead.

Lionel called me a week later, saying that Kaylee had disappeared, they'd found a body mauled beyond recognition next to Kaylee's cellphone and the last person she was in contact with was me. The police over there would have been suspicious of me but they called my provider and they said that the signal was coming from here, a several-hour plane trip away, the entire time. Lionel wanted to know if Kaylee had said anything. I told him everything I'd heard. How she was raving about the Slender Man, about no face. I told him she told me to tell him she loved him, that she was sorry.

He was silent for a little while and I wondered if this "Slender Man" had got him too.

He said he was going to do some research on the Slender Man, and not to worry because he was going to find the sick bastard who killed his girlfriend and bring him to justice.

I didn't hear from him again. I heard from the police, who said that Lionel had vanished for three days and then reappeared, alive but exhibiting symptoms of PTSD and constantly muttering about someone following him.

A week later, I got an email. One that didn't have any email address I recognised in the "From" Bar. The email was blank. It had one attachment. a 100x100 image of an operator symbol. I deleted it, it freaked me out so badly. Then I got another phonecall, saying Lionel had killed himself.

That was when I started researching the Slender Man. I guess I lied when I said I didn't know any victims. I had known some. Two. Lionel and Kaylee. I'm an atheist, but I hope you're in a better place, or that you're finally at peace.

I haven't seen him yet. I'm not sure if I'm safe or not. If I see him, I'm going to run. I'll give my cat and all my books to my sister and I'll run and run until I'm dead or it's safe to come back.

(Edit: My memory is faulty and I mucked up a couple of things. Fixed now.)