I stared out into the busy parking lot, watching the cars come in and out without a care. They weren't worried about dying today. The thought probably wouldn't even cross their minds. But as I stood there, watching the normal citizens bustle around the busy family restaurant, I realized for the first time just how crazy my idea might be.
"Hey."
I heard someone greet and I back tracked through my thoughts to find reality again.
I smiled at the man before me, curious to know why someone who looked like they had so much ahead of them would come on this deadly adventure. "Hello," I nodded and held out my hand, "Piggy."
He took it and with a nod of his own replied,
"Human Destroyer."
It wasn't long before others started to show up,
Yates
was getting antsy from just standing around, so he headed into the diner to get some food.
fuzzybutternut
was starting to drive us all insane by continuously tapping his foot, so I sent him to get more food too.
I could tell everyone was getting anxious and I checked my phone again for the twenty-thousandth time. It was almost two and I had wanted to be on the road before one. I did another head count and there was definitely only eleven of us, one was missing.
"Maybe Slendy already got him." leviathan93
joked, and I shot him a glare. I had pledged to myself that I would do everything in my power to keep everyone alive.
I was just hoping we wouldn't be picked off one by one, but being the horror movie junkie that I am, I knew that that was eventually what it would come down to - I just hoped we could get him, before he started to cherry pick us.
I saw someone new walking towards us,
"Uh... Piggy?"
He asked nervously, or perhaps he was just curious, my own nerves had started to dull my perception.
I smiled with a nod, and he relaxed a little more,
"SafetyDance."
I sent
kiwieagle
in to fetch the others that had migrated into the air-conditioned building while
Mr_Ree
helped me fit all of our luggage into the two vans I had rented.
Lord Mhork
had insisted on being the other driver, and although I had been wary at first I figured that since I would have to trust everyone here with my life for the next week, I could certainly trust him enough to drive.
It took about an hour to drive to the secluded park. I had figured that if any place around here would attract Slenderman, it'd be this place. It wasn't that the place wasn't looked after or cleaned up, it was just that no one came here. And for good reason too.
The myths and superstitions that surrounded the place could write their own book. Stories of ghosts and zombies, runaway psychopaths and killers, home to vampires and werewolves - if there's a creature with a bad feeling associated with it, it either lived, or frequently visited this place.
Which is why I had been so hesitant to come here in the first place. We were trying to prove and destroy Slenderman, not some ghost or goblin or shape-shifting monster out for our brains. It wasn't that I believed in most of that, it was just that I didn't know what we would find out here, if we found anything at all.
serrapaladin
helped me find a clearing that was easily accessible from the main path which was a short five minute walk from the vehicles and the highway. We figured if we needed to make a quick escape, this would be the next best thing to everyone just sleeping in the vans.
I did a head count after the tents were all set up and
CareyHammer
had come back from collecting some sticks and wood. My eyes widened when I realized one of us was already missing.
I tried not to panic, I figured they had probably just gone off to do some business in the privacy of the trees, but as the time went on I started getting more and more worried. Just as I was getting up to go off to investigate,
Aj the Epic
stumbled back in, looking a little pale.
Most of us ran up to him, the rest keeping their distance either from lack of interest or a personal space thing. I helped him to one of the chairs we had set up around the fire, "What happened?"
He slowly recounted his walk in the woods. The sun hadn't set yet, so he had figured it would have been safe to scout out the area a bit. He had almost wished the sun had been down, since then he would never have seen the old abandoned building, hiding quite deep in the forest.
The rest of us pondered the idea of some wrecked building still standing in a park like this. The rest of the buildings outside of the forest used for the typical cooking and chatting with company during the day were all in pristine condition, so why would they leave such an old one still around? Why not tear it down, or remodel it?
I rationalized that perhaps it was in such a deep area of the forest and so far off the main walking path that no one had felt the need to bother with it. It had probably been some camping building - washrooms maybe - that had been worn away by the years.
Everyone decided to agree with my conclusion - well, the ones who were participating in the discussion anyway - but I still suggested we do the incredibly childish thing of pairing up and sticking in groups.
The rest of the night was peaceful, and I had just finished checking the perimeter cameras to make sure everything was working when I overheard a hushed conversation. I tried to figure out who it was, but it was so dark out and I didn't want to shine my flashlight on them to cue them in on my whereabouts. So I kept quiet and listened, a dreadful feeling filling my heart.
"We should take care of it tonight."
"No, you idiot, if we act too fast they'll get suspicious, wait until everyone settles in, then we strike."
"I guess... We definitely have to be careful of Piggy, she seems to be everywhere at once."
"Especially with all these cameras... He's definitely not going to like that."
"Should we take them down?"
"No, that'll cause even more suspicion. Just let things play out, you know the signal, right?"
I heard some rustling and then footsteps leading back to the tents. I stayed back for a while and wondered if Slenderman was really the biggest problem we were facing out here.