There's Something in the Woods - A Slenderman Fanfic (COMPLETE)

Log book entry 16

My blood turns to ice. I stand there, my eyes staring into his blank face. There is no noise apart from both of our heavy breathing. I start to back away, keeping my eyes on him. My heart beats at what seems like 100mph. I’ve never had a panic attack, but I guess this is what it must be like. Automatically, my bleeding feet step backwards, and I start to move slowly away from him. It’s starting to go well, but a tentacle shoots out behind his back and tries to make a grab for me.

It happens very fast. My legs spring backwards, like an animal leaping on its prey but in reverse. The glass window explodes into thousands of glass shards, which glisten all around me as I fall. I shoot through the window, my head screaming, my legs kicking, facing the sky. And then I tumble down the muddy hill, hitting my head off different rocks, cutting my lip on the bits of glass that escaped the house. I roll all the way down, getting dizzier and dizzier by the second. My arms try and grab tufts of grass and dirt, but all I manage to do is uproot some strands of grass from the ground. When I realise I’m probably dead and now I’m entering some dizzy Hell, I plummet into a bucket of ice, which I soon realise is the river. My head stops spinning and I throw a glance at the house, though it spins in small circles. Slendy is standing in the broken window, peering down at me. I am pulled across the river, at a rapid pace.

I try and swim to the bank, but my arms are too weak, and as for my legs, they feel like they’re going to need amputating. Then I remember. The weir. The gushing sound has gotten louder, like a billion buckets full of water being tipped over. As soon as I go over, I’ll drown. Frantically, I try and swim back the other way, but my body is just too cold, too tired. It’s going to be much easier to give up, now. I could just sink under, right now, and I’d be dead before I reached the weir. As I am about to shut my eyes and brace myself for my death, I hear shouting. My eyes flicker up to the river bank, and out shoots Dieter. He immediately sees me in distress and comes darting over to the bank. “Oh my God!” he’s shouting, jogging his way up the river with me. All I do in return is cough up water which made its way inside me, and continue thinking about my death. It’s clear we’ve been defeated. Dieter looks ready to die, coughing and spluttering, and clearly I’m not far off either. “Grab onto the rock!” he gasps, and I realise there is a large, sturdy looking rock coming my way. My hands reach out for it, and I manage to stay stationary. Dieter gets on his knees and reaches out his arm in attempt to grab mine. Our hands are literally millimetres away when the rock is uprooted by my weight, and is dragged down the river with me. The weir is so close now, and I can hear the birds tweeting.

It’s the end.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, in between mouthfuls of water. “We were so close”.

“We ARE so close!” he snaps back. “Don’t give up! Try and swim!”

But I can’t. My body is numb from cold and fear, and I just want to give up. Maybe being a child of the forest won’t be so bad. There are many others. I won’t be lonely…

The page floats past me, as if it were trying to escape my being. Wait. The page! Without thinking, I dart forward, trying to grab the soggy remains. Dieter is shouting something, but I’m not listening. Even if I die, I have to get rid of him. Set these souls free. I realise now that it isn’t about me. Or Dieter. It’s about all those other children trapped here, who were so hopeful on us to free their souls. Which is exactly what I’m going to do.

My hand makes a desperate grab for the mush.

It slips out of my reach.

I try again, and again, and eventually, the page is mine. I don’t need to read it to know what this means. We’ve set the souls free. There are no more children of the woods. No more Slenderman. No more children going missing from nearby towns. For just a moment, a feel a pang of relief, of joy, of pride.

Then I realise what Dieter was shouting about.