The Beach

I’m sitting on a beach of grey sand, watching a still sea as the sky burns from the remains of a dead universe.

What happened to that optimism? We were going to attack. We were going to take the fight to the Fears. Start killing them off. Turn the tides. Win the war. Now… this.

We had been preparing to leave. The Red Cap had suggested we kick our counterattack off by attacking one of the Fears’ pocket universes. If we all attacked one together, we might have been able to kill it before the other Fears arrived to help. The first target was going to be the Black Dog, as that’s the Fear I seem to have had the most success physically fighting.

The Red Cap had started to distort spacetime around us to transport us, when a total silence fell over the temple. Like a switch controlling all the ambient noise had been suddenly switched off. The distortions the Red Cap had been creating vanished, as spacetime reverted to its usual order.

“Oh.” The Red Cap muttered. “Fuck.”

It pushed me away just as black roots broke from the marble floor where I had been standing. The roots wrapped around the Red Cap, and crushed it into a puddle of blood. More roots came out of the ground, impaling the Convocation’s birds and encircling the Brute and Bride. I scrambled across the floor as the roots tore through the tile, coming toward me. Had to stop when my head bumped against the side of the fountain. I looked up, and saw that the blood coming from the fountain had turned black. Cracks were spreading along the marble woman, which quickly reached her eyes. Black branches burst from those eyes, followed by more branches from all over the statue, tearing apart the fountain and splashing that black blood all over me. Had to wipe it away before I could see again, and when I opened my eyes, in place of the fountain was the Slender Man.

It looked down at me, and I felt frozen to that spot. Its hands reached toward me, and started to grow, slowly coming closer. I knew I had to get away from it, but my body couldn’t move. Its hands were almost at me, when a wave of blood hit it, knocking it back. The blood formed into the Red Cap, who quickly shouted at me to run before turning into liquid again and wrapping around the Slender Man.

With the Slender Man pushed back, I could start moving again. Jumped to my feet, and started running away from it. A pillar had been knocked over by one of the roots, so I jumped behind it, using it as cover so I could look at what was happening. The Red Cap was flowing through the air around the Slender Man, changing between humanoid and liquid as it tried to press the Slender Man back further. The Convocation and Brute and Bride had joined in, shooting lightning and fire at it. None of it seemed to have any effect; the Slender Man stood still, unfazed by the attacks hitting it, not once looking away from me.

A bird landed on my shoulder, and started tugging at me. I slowly followed its pull away from the fight, but kept looking back at the Slender Man. As I moved away, it followed after, slowly taking each step, without a care for the Fears trying to stop it. The Red Cap appeared in front of it, and blood poured from every nook and crack of the temple behind it. The blood came into a huge wave that towered over everyone, which thundered toward the Slender Man, shattering the roots and pillars in its way.

The wave hit the Slender Man and completely enveloped it. But when the wave had passed, it was still standing. It pointed an arm at the Red Cap, and black branches rapidly grew out of it, impaling the Red Cap. The Red Cap struggled against the branches for a few moments, and then dissolved into a pool of lifeless, inert blood.

The Convocation swarmed around the Slender Man, completely covering it in birds. Sparks flew between their wings, turning them into a mass of lightning that roared around the Slender Man. Hundreds of branches exploded outward, tearing the birds off the Slender Man and ripping them to shreds. As the blood and guts rained down, the branches retracted back into the Slender Man.

A stream of fire roared across the temple, exploding around the Slender Man as the Burning Bride appeared. The Brute appeared behind the Slender Man, swinging one of its massive fists. Branches came out of the Slender Man’s back, wrapping around the Brute before it could finish its punch. The branches brought the Brute to the ground, trapping it. The Bride unleashed another stream of fire, but as it approached, the Slender Man held out a hand. The fire stopped, then started to flow into its hand. It condensed into a small ball of fire, which vibrated and glowed with all the energy being compressed into it. It almost looked like a star was growing in its hand.

The bird that had been pulling me earlier started tugging at my sleeve again, and I let it guide me. As we got away, spacetime around us started to distort. Before we teleported, I looked back once. The Bride had been trapped to the ground by more branches, and the star in the Slender Man’s hand was violently shaking as more fire was drawn into it.

There was a burning flash of light and a roar just as we teleported, and we appeared on a grey beach that stretched on and on. The place looked like it was shrouded in twilight at first, but then a sun exploded into existence in the sky, bathing everything in burning light. Trails of flame leapt from the sun, leaving burning gashes across the sky.

The bird that had taken me there, the last of the Convocation, let go of me. It tried to fly, but fell to the ground. After a few more attempts to flap its wings, it became completely still. Leaving me all alone on this grey beach.