#slenderwoods

It was a cold night in the Slenderwoods; the sun had long set, and the only lights on were those in the proxy cabins deep in the woods. Tim and Brian shared a cabin with a spare room for Toby even if Toby mostly stayed at the mansion. Tim couldn't sleep tonight something just kept him awake something beyond the usual buzzing behind his eyes and the slow steady static radiating off that century old suit wearing creature which prompted him to stand at the porch of the Cabin in his. PJs with only his jacket slumped over his shoulders to hide from the cold, his mask lying inside on his bedside table. Marlboro Reds in one hand and a lighter in the other, he lifted one of the cigarettes to his mouth. A cheap thrill, the nicotine he always craved laid down in his body with the first inhale.

A light.

A light barely visible and definitely not held steady was across the tree line maybe a hundred feet away, and it was coming towards him fast, then slowly it flickered on the floor of the forest and on the trees, and as the light came closer, the sound of branches breaking came closer too, along with the sound of hurried footsteps tripping over each other. Whoever it was, they were running or at least had run; he couldn't make out much of their figure, but they didn't seem tall, and the big bag they had on their back also didn't seem familiar. He flicked the ash off his half-smoked cigarette and put it out. If it were one of the others, they would have made themselves known by now. The proxies who resigned in this area knew his cabin was there; whoever it was shouldn't be here, and he didn't know them. A threat. He should have woken up Brian or taken his gun from inside the cabin but something in him told him not to and as the figure came closer and closer they fell only a few feet from him along with their phone the flickering light of their phones flash that shined through the bushes when the figure had ran now layd on the forest ground with the figure but the figure didn't seem to get up Tim heard the heavy pants the figure let out, saw them trying to push themselves up gawning at the dirt beneath them and failing the bag on their back now too heavy for their legs and body to keep holding up. their body had given in and Tim stepped closer and closer without thinking the person was passed out or half passed out by now their eyes were barely open and their breath uncontrolled but they didn't look at Tim just up he leaned down hesitantly it was too dark to see He grabbed the phone off the ground and shined it on the figure the screen was cracked but Tim didn't pay attention to that right now and when he shined the light on the figure it wasn't just some tweaker or lost hitchhiker who had been trying to find a way out it was a young person face more feminine than masculine her hair was a mess and she had deep eyebags not the kind that came from one or two nights of bad sleep that ones that came from years of exhaustion. Even with the light shining on her she seemed too out of it to get startled her eyes slowly closing for final Tim didn't know what to do or feel everyone who stepped into Slendermans territory should be killed on sight the rules were rules after the years he no longer hesitated to follow them but this was a kid in front of him a teenager who clearly wasn't in a good condition and it was late it had been a long week for him and Brian he couldn't just leave them out here and get a weapon from the inside what if they ran? Told everyone what they saw in the woods? Maybe they already saw too much; the mansion wasn't too far from their cabin, and she had already seen him, but his gut wasn't letting him kill her; it just didn't feel right, not now.