Masks

Chapter 15

Tim's shout was quickly cut off as he hit the floor under my unexpected weight. My surprise attack had caught him off guard but I could tell he was already recovering and worried he'd easily fight me off despite the head lock I'd put him in. A hard elbow to the ribs made me flinch before tightening my grip as he got back to his feet. It wasn't hard to keep hold of him due to being the same height but Tim was still stronger than I was and easily broke my grip before throwing me off balance. I grunted as I fell back into a wall before stumbling out of his reach, wondering if I should just retreat entirely at this point.

I didn't have long to think about it before I was tackled to the ground and received a heavy punch to the side of the head. The floor blurred momentarily and a brief ringing deafened that ear, though anger soon blocked out the pain only to leave just as quickly as it came. Not wanting to be punched again however, I managed to awkwardly kick Tim away and got back to my feet. I could've easily attacked him while he was still getting up but I merely stared at him, watching as he backed towards his things; his glare never wavering from my masked face.

"I'm closer to the door... he'll have to get past me to escape." I took a step back. "No. I should just retreat. I can't fight him head on like this... Even if my friends need me to- I just can't."

I stepped aside as he put on his backpack, hoping he saw I was giving up only for the lights to flicker and die seconds later. Fear cut into me before I even saw the tall form of Slenderman appear in the corner of the now dark room behind Tim with tentacles posed to strike. I was rooted to the spot as I stared at him while Tim fled from the room. The brief moment of him blocking my line of sight to Slenderman was enough to break the trance and I quickly darted after him.

"Gah-" My shout was cut short as I crashed to the floor and was dragged backward.

I struggled to get free of the grip and briefly heard Tim's footsteps slow in the hallway before picking up speed again and disappearing. I coughed and grimaced as the grip on my ankle tightened before feeling more tentacles tightly wrap around my arms and torso, trapping me completely to stop my thrashing.

"No! ...Oh fuck... no, I can't- It's going to kill me! It'll kill them! No! Please..." My head was pounding from the earlier skirmish with Tim and the whitenoise echoing from Slenderman's presence wasn't helping ease the pain. "...Dammit... I'm sorry... I failed- I failed them..."

It felt like an electrical shock was going through me, as if to back up the anger I could feel radiating off the creature standing over me. Between that and the pressure crushing down around my ribs I felt myself slowly going unconscious.

***

I woke up shaking with stronger tremors running down my spine every few seconds, which led to small twitching in my limbs. I could barely lift my head to look at my new surroundings before dropping it back down into the leaves beneath me. It wasn't hard to guess how I managed to get to a forest given who I saw before passing out, but it was going to be a challenge figuring out how to get out once I could actually stand.

"My head..." I groaned but ended up coughing instead.

Leaves crunched nearby, alerting me to the fact that I wasn't alone. My eyes darted towards the sound to find a masked figure walking over to me. I hazily recognized the masked man from the night I'd lost my friends, though in the light I was also able to make out recognizable sideburns and dark hair.

"Tim...!?" I tried to inch away from his casual approach but merely ended up on my side instead, completely at his mercy. "Does he know? Can he remember what I just tried to do to him? Or is he just killing me because of those things?"