Chapter Text
A large amount of police men all skewed about a room, most of them sitting in the front or standing in the back and even more standing at the doorways to see the room. The room was dark, and the mood was even darker. None of the men were smiling, no joking or laughing. One of the men finally stood up, deciding that it was enough. He would have no more of this waiting around until someone else did it. He made his decision. He walked toward the front of the room slowly, where the T.V sat atop a squared wooden table. Next to it? A tape. A single, black, tape.
The police man, a young, brave, boy, took in a deep breath. And picked up the tape. He took a step toward the T.V and had to steady himself before he collapsed. His feet were shaking. His legs were shaking. And as he slowly slid the tape into the VHS in the T.V, he realized his hands were shaking the most. He took three giant, quick strides back to his position in the back, a few of the men looked up at him in appreciation that they wouldn't have to do what he did and a few even pat him on the back softly. He turned to look back at the T.V. Everyone held their breath as the T.V crackled and static showed, a loud, deafening sound following while the VHS accepted the tape. The T.V crackled one last time with static before it turned black, the video starting.
December 13th, 2001. 4:42 AM.
A man was looking down at the camera lens. He was shaking, the view was shaky and blurry. His face was red, his eyes puffy, he had definitely been crying. He took in a shaky breath and let out a big sob, looking up at something behind the camera. It was dark out, barely anything beyond his camera light was visible. He looked down at the camera and took in one more shaky breath before letting it out slowly.
“What is your name?” He asked, his voice shaking just slightly. He looked back up at something beyond the reach of the camera. Silence ensued.
“ANSWER ME!” He yelled harshly, all traces of shaking in fear or sadness gone within seconds. A voice whimpered behind the camera. It spoke up quietly. “Ashley,” a little girl's voice replied to his shout, a quiet sob following her quivering voice. “Ashley Bourne.” She hurriedly corrected her name, not wanting to anger the already angered man before her. The camera view shifted as he moved, turning it so a little girl came into view now.
She was sitting on a wooden chair worn and chipped from years of misuse. Rope was keeping her feet together at the bottom of the chair, bunching up her clean white socks and most likely digging into her skin. Her blue and green Nike shoes had been discarded at her side. Her brown and amber skirt bunched up under her, making her light blue blouse get stuck underneath her skirts. The view did not show behind her back, but it was wise to assume her hands were tied with rope as well. Her clean blond hair was in knots and bunched up around her face uncomfortably at the clean white cloth covering her eyes. The girl whimpered again.
“What do you want?” The girl asked in a quiet, shaky voice. It was clear that not only had she been crying, but she still was. The man behind the camera drew in another quiet, shaky breath before answering.
“Listen, Ashley. I'm not going to hurt you,” the man said in what sounded like a strained, assuring voice. “Alright? Do you believe me?” He asked in a quiet, sickly sweet voice. Ashley whimpered quietly.
“Yes.” She replied, though her stuttering and sobbing said otherwise.”Good,” the man said in his sweet voice. “I need you to believe me. I will not hurt you, but I need you to do exactly what I say, alright?” He asked her calmly and patiently, effectively soothing her fears little by little and actually believing him. She took in a breath before nodding slowly at him. He sighed. “Alright. Come on, Ashley.” The view of the girl got larger as the man walked over to her quickly. He set the camera down beside the chair, facing behind them both. While he was working on untying the girl, he took in deep breaths to calm himself for what was to come. The video glitched, some parts of the video lagging and staying still for a few seconds before it stopped lagging and the video feed went back to normal.
The camera jumped and faced the ground, shaking as the man picked it back up and faced it toward the girl once more. The little girl was still blindfolded, but her feet were untied and she was standing up, her hands untied as well.
“Remember, do everything you're told and you will be fine.” Ashley nodded. The man took her arm and began leading her somewhere. As they walked, it's revealed that there was no one else around. It looked as though they were in an abandoned house, making their way outside of it. They walked in silence for a few minutes, the girl walking ahead of the man to ensure that she wouldn't run while his back was turned. Her ponytail bobbed behind her slightly as she walked. The crickets and birds tweeted around them as they walked among tall, unkempt grass to their destination. Another minute of walking later and they were standing in front of a large building, this, too, looking unkempt and broken down. They both walked inside, up a rotting staircase, and into a dark, empty room, mold growing on both sides of the walls and ceiling. They both stopped walking.
“Okay,” the man said quietly, more to reassure himself than to help the girl, Ashley. “Let's go,” he said, louder. He took her by her arm again and led her into the corner of the room, placing her there and patting her on the head once.
“What do I do?” She asked quietly, no longer shaking from fear but of the unfamiliar surroundings.
“Just stand there for me, Ashley. Stand there and don't move. Alright?” The man asked again, once again in his sickly sweet voice. She nodded and stilled herself. The man backed up slowly, all the way back to the door and then taking another two steps to ensure he was far enough.
The screen began glitching and lagging again, this time accompanied by static sounds, slowly increasing in strength.
“You can have her! Just give me my baby, please!” The man began shouting over the sound, as if it weren't just video static, as if he could hear it himself, too. “Give me back my daughter!”
The last thing the video projected before the camera had died from overheating was a white head-shaped figure well above the little girl's head, maybe around 7 to 7 and a half feet into the air, along with two white figures just barely showing around the girl's torso, in the shape of human hands with giant claws adorning each finger.
The policemen all were quiet in shock. Some looked down at the ground, their hands covering their faces or their mouths, while others continued looking at the screen in shock, trying to make out the figure that had ruined their lives. The figure that had ruined everybody in the whole god damned village's lives. The one figure that damned them all and ripped up their wished and completely fucking mutilated the definition of 'hope'. That. One. Fucking. Thing.
The SlenderMan. But, wait.
Let me start from the beginning.