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.

Breakthrough?

I know I only posted a few days ago, but I think I've made a discovery. It came at the cost of great idiocy, though.

Something came up last night, and I needed to take a walk this morning to clear my head. I didn't really watch where I was going, and I ended up in the city park, on one of the nature trails. Surrounded by trees. Slender Man, trees, and me alone. Not my best idea.

Anyways, While I was out there, I found something odd. I snapped a few pictures with my phone, so I'm sorry for the quality of the images:









































This wouldn't have struck me as out of place, except for the fact that this shelter looks exactly like what Dom and I used to build when we'd play in the woods when we were little. Dom is the more 'outdoorsy' of the two of us now, and I know she'd be able to build something like that pretty easily. I'm going to start checking it out on a daily basis to see if I can find her.

Nobody, signing out.

Merry Christmas?

I'm sorry about the lack of posts, but things are...well, things are wierd right now. I was really counting on snow for Christmas, but I've got absolutely none. I didn't want it just for the fact that I've had a white Christmas every year since I was born, I also wanted snow to test a hypothesis: Slender Man is never depicted or sighted outside in the snow, to the best of my knowledge, so maybe there's something to the 'Slender Man is a tree spirit' theory and he can't be around in the snow, as it represents some sort of death for him.

But there's no way of knowing right now. I fully expect a Christmas with Slendy staring in from outside. I don't have to worry about other people seeing him; the bastard is always invisible to everyone but me. When everyone around me starts to see him, I'll know that he's tired of playing his little game and is coming for me.

At any rate, I haven't heard anything from that asmodeus freak, so I suppose that's a good sign. I have, however, noticed a black four-door Sedan parked outside my house since December began. No one in the neighborhood drives a vehicle like that, and it's always gone in the morning and back by the time I get home from school. I'm probably just paranoid; one of my neighbors could have a visitor. ...a very, very frequent visitor who hates the hours between 6:30 and 3:00.

But, I digress. I'm still looking for the journal. Dom, if you're alive and reading this, please come back. We had a promise for this Christmas, remember? And if the Slender Man is what made you run, I swear we'll find a way to fight him together.

Merry Christmas, all; Nobody, signing off.

Reality

I went on vacation last weekend to apply for college, figuring that it would help me clear my head. I thought the break might also help me find out where Dom is. She has to be alive and safe, so I'm not really that worried about running out of time.

What I am worried about, though, is the guy in the suit. I saw him again, but not in town. He was outside my hotel, a good five hours away from where I live. Clearly, he's following me or my family. Judging by the fact that he only seems to venture out into the open when I'm by myself, I'm going to guess that I'm the lucky target.

In the sighting I described Tuesday, he was far enough away that I wouldn't have been able to distinguish any facial features. Up at the hotel, though, he had his big ugly head pressed right against the window, showing me quite clearly that he has no face, just a pale, smooth spot of skin.

Well, he's freakishly tall, grew about four extra arms in a suspicious fire, gave me nausea and a headache when I got too close to him, and he has no face. All the traits are there. What I thought was fiction has become reality. That stupid thread in that stupid forum, those stupid movies, and those stupid blogs; they're all real. I was reading and watching them for fun, laughing at the protagonists as they faced some huge force of evil that they couldn't beat (yeah, I consistently cheer for the villains in books and movies), and it's come back to bite me in the ass.

I really hate karmic justice.

Wait a minute...Dom. I showed her the movies. I showed her the blogs. Her journal was about him. I thought she was just giving creative writing a try. This is all my fault.

I need to find that journal.

Nobody, signing out.

18 Ain't So Bad

Well, I'm eighteen now; birthday was yesterday. Got some cool stuff: free supper, a zombie-related shirt, some duct tape (that crap holds the world together, you know), and an awesome knife from Dom.

Speaking of that, Dom seems to be a lot more subdued than usual lately; doesn't really talk anymore, and as best I can tell, hasn't even visited the blog for a few weeks. I want to ask what's wrong, but I'm not sure it's my place. It could be parental problems, but those are usually brought to me instead of me asking about it.

I got the strongest reaction out of Dom (a bit of a freak-out) when I mentioned using a morphsuit and my 'Sunday best' to be Slender Man for Halloween (which is like my Christmas, by the way). Come to think of it, Dom was also fed up with the Slender Man-related post earlier...

I guess I'll have to buck up and ask Dom if something is wrong, after all.

Nobody, signing off.

Guess Who's Back?

Look at the title. Now look at me. Now back to the title. Now back to me. Sadly, the title is not me, but I wrote it, therefore it is something akin to a child of mine. I'm on a horse. Riding backwards.

Anyways, I'm back home and wishing I were still up in Duluth. Something about waking up, looking to the left, and seeing just an endless expanse of blue beats waking up, looking to the left, and seeing the floating gas ball people claim is my sibling. That and not having to deal with teachers and too many other kids my age. That was almost heavenly.

Now I just want to go home and take a nap. Beyond that, my English teacher mixed up my journal with Dom's (they look similar). I looked in Dom's and saw something along the lines of "Well, 'Nobody,' are you trying to turn your Slender Man obsession into a story? I'd like to see you move on now," but it was taken away before I could read much more. In mine, she'd written "Wow, Dom, you really seem to be learning! Not a single correction this time! Good job! A+" (The scores are actually out of ten, not letters, and it's worth pointing out that my journal entries are pretty much spotless when it comes to corrections.)

I'd like to make sure everyone knows that I don't have a Slender Man 'obsession.' I've only seen the video series, I haven't read any of the blogs. Sure, for a while I was stuck drawing Operator symbols all over and drawing the lanky bastard himself when I got bored, but I'm not obsessed. He's a cool idea, but nothing more than that. I'm not going to get paranoid about something that was created on a forum. I've moved on to bigger and better things; the only abomination that will ever terrify me on any level is a zombie, and it will stay that way.

And for the record, I'm not afraid that collective belief in him will create (or has created) a 'tulpa.' No one I know has that kind of imagination, anyways. (Well, Dom was a little scared by the video series, but seems to be completely over it now. Hasn't complained to me about any lingering paranoia, anyways.)

In conclusion: I'm no 'Slender fan,' not to an extreme anyways. I'm more likely to watch Red vs Blue or another machinima (yeah, I'm a Halo fan; deal with it) than catch up on whatever I've missed on the video series.

But, I digress. If I keep going like this, it just might turn into a Slender Blog anyways. I'll try to get more updates at some point, and possibly even post an excerpt of one of my ongoing projects for your viewing. Gotta have some sort of fanbase established before I head off to a publisher, after all.

Nobody, signing out.

My Long Weekend

I get a long weekend this week. Instead of sticking around in school for all five days, I'm heading up to Duluth, the greatest city in the world, for a wedding. It just so happens that I'll be getting my senior pictures taken up there, so when I get them all developed (or, more likely, downloaded), I'll post one of them here. Dom's too paranoid to do the same, no matter how persuasive I try to be. Moron doesn't even have Facebook.

(For the record, I do know that Dom can read this)

Anyways, I've been really getting into the topic of the Slender Man lately. If you don't already know (*cough*Dom*cough*), Slendy is a tall, faceless man that stalks you and kills you. He can't be seen unless you 'trap' him in place with a camera (there's a whole theory into how that works, but I can't be bothered to write it all up here), or unless you're his target. He also only goes after people that know about him, apparently, so since I haven't seen him, I'm going to assume I'm safe for now.

Being a writer and all, I've thought at a few points that I should start writing a horror story revolving around the Slender Man, since it hasn't been done yet (to my knowledge), but I've already got a lot on my writing plate. I'm almost done with a manuscript that I hope to get on to the editing stage soon, and after that comes the second draft that I can send in to a publishing agent. Maybe when that one sells a bazillion copies and makes me a gazillionaire, I'll start a Slender story. Until then, though, I'm going to stick with what I've got.

But, I digress. I'll be bringing my laptop to the wedding, and unless the hotel I'm staying in pulls an 'Embassy' (my term for the motels that claim free wireless but really make you pay), I should be able to do some posting from there. If not, I'll leave any critical updating to Dom.

Ciao.

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