The Exchange

Okay. Try to calm down. Third time I’ve tried writing this. I think my hands have stopped shaking enough to type now.

As per our plan, I had to get Arnold, and make sure nothing happened to him, while 330 stopped the exchange by stealing the bus the Noctis were transporting their sacrifices on. I’d been given a pistol “Just in case,” though I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use it.

Panicked the whole drive to where 330 had told me Arnold’s apartment was. What was I supposed to do when I got there? Break in and grab the kid? Politely knock on the door and try to explain the situation to the parents? Create a distraction and somehow get Arnold away in the confusion?

Politeness won out in the end. Don’t think I’d be capable of kidnapping anyway.

Knocked twice on their door, waited. No response, so two more knocks. Arnold opened the door.

“Hi, um, are your parents home?”

He just stared at me for a while, long enough to make me start feeling uncomfortable. When he did speak, it was in complete monotone. “The tall man came and took them away.”

There the Slender Man was, standing inside the apartment. A wind roared around it, throwing toys, newspapers, dishes, everything into the air. Yet through the chaos, it remained stoically still, suit unruffled and pale head reaching above it all. 330’s training kicked in: I pulled out my gun and fired several shots at it. Can’t say if any hit. My eyes were closed as I was pulling the trigger.

Even if one did hit, didn’t seem to have any effect on the Slender Man. I grabbed Arnold by the hand and ran to the street. He didn’t resist, letting me pull him along freely. I should have gone to the car, but I was so panicked that I forgot about it.

The streets we ran to were completely empty of people. Not even a single car drove by. Middle of the day, in the city of Chicago, and there was no one outside. Soon a fog overtook us, making it impossible to see where we were running to. We ran down block after block, with no idea where we were going.

Crossed another street, and it was standing in front of us, black form looming through the fog. Stopped, turned around, and tried running the other way. Only a few minutes passed until it was in front of us again.

Those few times I’d seen it watching me before were nothing compared to this. It was different here. When that eyeless gaze focused on me, for the only time since the day I first saw it, I felt as though it was actually looking at me. Something vaster than I could imagine had focused the entirety of its attention on me. I was a grain of dust floating through space, being watched by a star. I aimed my gun at it and tried to fire. The Slender Man twitched its head slightly, and the pistol turned into mist that melted in with the fog. I grasped at the empty air, for some reason thinking I could get the gun back. Arnold started to walk towards it, but I grabbed him and held him back. And it still stood across from us, unmoving. Tall. Proud. Terrible.

My legs started to bend on their own. I tried to fight the movement, but they were being controlled by a will stronger than mine. You can’t fight against your own body. Soon I was on one knee before the thing. Next my head began to move down. Kept trying to fight it, keeping my eyes on that blank face, but I couldn’t control my muscles anymore. Head was bowed, completing my submissive stance.

With my eyes down like that, I couldn’t see Arnold anymore. I heard his footsteps, moving away from me and towards the Slender Man. A long silence. Through it I tried to look up to see what was happening, but it wasn’t going to let me move an inch.

The sensation that I had control of my limbs again hit me suddenly. Quickly stood up and looked around. The Slender Man was gone. Arnold lay where it had stood, chest ripped open and organs removed. Yet he was smiling….

Almost vomited when I saw the body. Walked a few steps away from it, then I did vomit. Tears came too. I didn’t know him, really. Just that he was a kid named Arnold. But he was still just a kid. One who’d been murdered only a few feet away from me as I bowed to the killer.

Suddenly I was struck with a panic. 330. Was 330 okay? I ran in the direction I thought the meeting point was supposed to be. The fog made it nearly impossible to see anything. Didn’t pay attention to how long I ran. Didn’t even had a direction in mind. Just the hope that I’d find her somewhere in the fog.

Somehow I did. The bus 330 was hijacking was parked in the middle of an empty street. And… the roof had been completely sheared off. I saw 330 next, leaning against the side of the bus. Ran to her and hugged her, babbling relief to find her alive. She didn’t respond, not even to look at me. Her only movement was a slight trembling.

“330? Are you okay?”

“I couldn’t stop it.” She whispered. She said it again. Then again. Over and over, whispering those four words.

Hoping for an explanation, I looked inside the bus. It was…. Everyone inside was dead. Torn to pieces. I’d already thrown up everything in my stomach, but that didn’t stop the dry heaving when I saw the carnage.

Stepped back out of the bus as the wind roared to life. I looked up and saw the Slender Man again, standing on the roof of a two story building. The fog made the building nearly invisible, but it and its suit still appeared so strongly, contrasting everything around it. Black tentacles were coming out of its back, writhing and twisting. Several were holding something in front of it, which it carefully lowered to the ground. When the tentacles pulled back, I ran over to see what they’d dropped. It… it was Miss Sieppe. She wasn’t breathing, but there were no wounds on her. The only sign that something was wrong was a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

It disappeared and the fog lifted. People began walking down the sidewalk again and cars drove down the road. No one noticed the bodies or the wrecked bus. Pedestrians trampled over Sieppe’s corpse as cars calmly drove around the bus.

330 had stopped her mantra, but still was unresponsive. I had to gently guide her to a taxi, and then back to her room in the hotel. She stood in the center of the room without moving for a long time. Nothing I said made her react. Then… she screamed. Roared. She grabbed a chair and smashed it through the room’s television. Tore the pillows apart. Threw a lamp against a wall. She rampaged across the room, destroying everything she could get her hands on. She never touched me, but during the moment I was terrified.

330 only stopped when there was nothing left to destroy. Once more she stood in the room’s center, her head facing the floor and her shoulders shaking. Might have heard her sob once. Or maybe it was my imagination. I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to think of something to say. She spun around, grabbed me, and I got a brief glimpse of tears on her face before… before she kissed me. Then I was being pushed against a wall, with 330 alternating between sobbing and hungrily kissing me. I tried getting out of her embrace, but she clung to me even tighter, muttering, “Don’t leave me please you can’t leave me,” before the tears drowned it out.

More panic, I finally broke out of her grip and ran to my room…. Why would she do that, was she is she why would she anyone be interested in me I don’t even like girls, I don’t think so I’ve never been in a relationship Father never let me, I never actually thought about that okay fine that’s a lie I have thought about it she’s hot there I said it but I never actually considered it still why would she what do I do how am I supposed to be reacting I don’t but can’t just


Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I’m not calming down. Writing isn’t helping this. People are dead, 330’s gone crazy, and I can’t deal with this. I’m going to break open the mini-bar and see how long it takes before I pass out.

-Lisa