Anxiety

If the snow is really what's been keeping tall, dark, and faceless away from me, or at least out of sight, then I'm running out of time; the weather's getting warmer, the sun's coming out, and everything's getting a hell of a lot wetter. I'd guess a week or so is all I have left for snow cover if the weather keeps up.

But that's not all that's been on my mind. I got an e-mail on Monday from someone calling herself 'Ellie,' saying she wanted to meet. Now, I know that this sounds a lot like some stupid e-mail dating scam, or just pointless spam, but... Well, read for yourself:

"Nobody,

I know what you're going through. I know what's chasing you. I know where Dom is.

You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but I can prove that I'm a friend:

'Blame your fate.'

We need to meet. I'll be waiting for you at [redacted]. Be there at 7:00 sharp on January 27th.

-Ellie"

You might be confused by the 'proof' she has, so I'll elaborate: Dom and I used to play Tales of Symphonia all the time when she came over, and we'd always fight over who got to control Kratos Aurion, one of the characters in the game. One of his post-fight quotes was 'Blame your fate!' That became a bit of an inside joke between us; if something went wrong, we'd do our best Kratos impression.

Her other interesting piece of information is the date we're supposed to meet up. January 27th is also Dom's birthday. If this were just spam, I'd put it up to coincidence, but since she had reasonable proof that she's talked to Dom...

I'm going to meet up with her. I should be safe while there's snow on the ground. I don't know if I'll be able to make any posts between now and then; it's the end of the first semester of my senior year, so there will be a lot of work that I've got to do. If I don't post anything after that, assume the worst and add another dash to Slendy's body count.

Nobody, signing out.

I Need Help

I'm sorry I haven't been posting very much, but I've been running myself ragged trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to locate Dom. If this were a movie, I'd suddenly have an amazing lead to follow, some earth-shattering breakthrough that would have been brought up by something someone said, but I've got nothing. Maybe I'm not talking to the right people.

As for the 'friend' on the college campus, it turns out she'd seen the symbol floating around on the internet and thought it looked cool. She looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if she'd been seeing tall, faceless men in suits hiding in the trees. So much for a companion.

I mentioned before that I read the blogs about the Slender Man, but I wasn't being entirely truthful; I skimmed them. Unless there was mention of the lanky bastard directly, I wasn't interested in the post. On The Tutorial, for instance, I skipped over a lot of the posts detailing survival because I thought it was all fake. Hell, I think I skipped most of that blog because I figured Slendy wasn't real, so I didn't need any survival tips for dealing with him. Suffice it to say, I'm going to start going back and reading as many of the major blogs as I can find links to, with The Tutorial first and foremost on the list.

I'm turning to anyone who's reading this now for help. Any way you can think of that I might not have tried yet for finding Dom would be appreciated. The police have given up, and I've already explained what her parents are like, so I don't imagine that they're going to be much help at all. I'm the only one looking for her. The only one looking for her that doesn't want to spread her entrails in the forest, I should say.

...I can't believe I just said that about her. I can't believe I even let myself think about that. That only happens if he finds her before I do, and he can't. He just can't. That's not an acceptable outcome. And if anyone can help me find her before he does, please speak up.

Nobody, signing off.

Out of Town

I'm out of town for a few days, and when I get back I'll do one last check of the shelter down in the park. Even if Dom was hiding there, she hasn't been back for over ten days, so the likelihood that she'll return at all is negligible at best. I don't want to waste my time any further, so I'm going to try and find some other lead.

In the meantime, I feel very vulnerable here. I'm staying on a college campus and, lucky me, one side is surrounded by forest. As long as I stick to the buildings and in groups of people, I think I'll be safe. Note to self: check whether or not 'safety in numbers' applies to Slender Man. Seems to me that more than a few blogs stated that rule is essentially null and void when it comes to tall and faceless.

Since I'm on a general use terminal, I'm getting some annoyed looks from one of students that actually attends this college for school, not a vocal festival, so I'd probably better get off. I saw someone I wanted to talk to, anyways; someone was wearing an Operator Symbol on their hoodie. If I can happen by a friend here, I'll be much better off.

Nobody, signing out.

Nine Days

I've been observing the shelter for nine days (counting today; I'll check it out again after school today), but Dom is a no-show. We got some snow a few days back, so I was hoping that I'd be able to find some footprints or something, but there was nothing. I'm starting to think that I'm barking up the wrong tree with this shelter. It could be a result of some kid messing around in the trees. Or a resourceful homeless guy.

I'm going to keep watching for another week or so, but if I don't find anything definitive, I'll begin looking elsewhere. It's driving me crazy thinking that Dom could be out there somewhere dying because I'm wasting my time with some pile of wood in the city park.

However, I think my snow theory has some weight to it; since the snow started to fall, I haven't seen the Slender Man at all. No faceless skull staring at me from the trees, peeking in my window; no inky black tendrils snaking across the dark corners of the room. He's mercifully absent, and oddly enough, that gives me a little hope.

Nobody, signing out.