MONSTER

Who's Next?

SEPTEMBER 15

Police merely found a blurred image of the killer who invaded the Bones residency from the street cameras. There, however, was nothing to elaborate on, as the image revealed nothing about the killer.

The responding officer, Davis, arrived at the house to find The Slenderman had been long gone, but had left an unpleasant present. In the room Davis would later be told was the murder scene of Sarah Bones, he found the floor to be covered in fire, but the way it was on the floor was specific: gas had been painted in the form of letters, so that on the floor, "SLENDERMAN", was showing in hellish-fire. By the time the rest of the police arrived, the fire letters were instead scorch marks.

The coroner had taken away the body of Sarah Bones, who hadn't been killed violently; like Karl Ellis, it was very clean. The coroner thought that cause of death was rapid strangulation, and that the bruises on her neck indicated the size of the killer's hands. The coroner said that he would prepare the the hand analysis when he had the autopsy, probably by the end of the week.

The murder was announced to the press, where it especially hit hard when there was no foreseeable connection between Sarah Bones and Karl Ellis. The police were being overwhelmed by reporters for various newspapers. The police claimed that Dr. Raymond hadn't yet created a psychological profile of The Slenderman, which only frustrated the public further.

Mathew Bones and his family weren't available for comment, as they had left town to spare the agony. That only intensified the issue that two people from one of the world's safest schools had been murdered in less than three weeks.

Several School County officials paid respect to Bones and Ellis with a moment of silence. Many hoped it would stop here, that The Slenderman would leave.

OCTOBER 1

By email, all students were informed that school was canceled. Teachers were informed to stay home as well.

There was neither snow, nor any precipitation of any kind. On the contrary, it was mildly warm, 80 degrees Fahrenheit. So, in every way, this was against standard protocol. Of all the people who received this message, Eric Derns, who had been planning a class project, was bummed about this and wanted to see for himself what was going on.

Along the way, on the calm, bright roads that suited the obvious irony, Derns encountered police cars and ambulances, all of which he drove around of, keeping a close eye on them but keeping his distance nonetheless. His anxiety would only increase dramatically while he was driving alongside the long line of police. Now on the familiar intersection in which he would turn to directly see the front face of CliveWood, he slowed down to let the ambulances get there. 

What was going on? Was it another murder? A massacre of innocent children? Or, was it a teacher, like Geoffrey Bills. or a dear friend, like Coach Douglas?

He finally turned his car to follow the ambulance into a blockade of police cars. So many red and blue lights that much of the enormous school couldn't be seen. Parking next to a thin bushy tree, he scrambled out of his truck and crossed the road in front of him to see the police. He walked into a group of policemen watching the situation.

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to keep distance between yourself and the crime scene," one of them said to Derns.

"What's going on?" Derns asked, ignoring him. Before a policeman could reply, Derns finally saw it.