Shit, where is everyone?! Are we the only ones here? Did an earthquake really happen? Did everyone take shelter? Is mom okay?!

Ah… calm down… First of all, it wasn’t a big one. Nothing’s damaged, and we didn’t see anyone running away from the retail center.

…

For now, I should go meet up with them. Maybe they found someone.

Huff, huff… I haven’t even run that fast yet. Why do my legs feel heavy? Am I scared? Fuck! Don’t think. I gotta meet up with them.

It hasn’t been half an hour yet. Am I the only one here?

Wait, that’s Tony.

“Tony, did you find anyone?”

“No! My parents aren't home. I didn't see anyone else on the way.”

“Same here. My mom was just here before we left.”

Charlie and Matt should be here soon. On second thought, maybe we shouldn’t have…

Separated…

What did Matt see?! Did he know about all this? No way, right? Shit like that only happens in movies.

…

“Alright, we gotta stay calm. We can't panic-”

“Fucking run!”

Huh? Who said that? Charlie?

“Something’s chasing me! Run!”

I don’t see anything. Is he just trying to scare us? I’m really not in the mood to mess around.

“There's nothing behind you, and stop shouting!”

He slows down and eventually stops. How can he run that fast?! I could’ve sworn gravity had merely gotten a little stronger.

“Fuck, thank god! I almost shit myself.”

Why is he sweating so much? Stop sweating, it’s gonna flood! Maybe gravity did increase. That’s sounds unbelievable, but it's the only answer I can come up with.

“So, did you find anyone?”

I ask, still looking for whatever Charlie believed was chasing him.

“No… We can’t even call anyone. There’s no fucking service!”

“For now, calm down. We still gotta wait for Matt.”

Still, why is it taking him so long? It's about to get dark. Damn it, there are too many questions at once. I have a feeling Matt knows something.

“Hey!”

Everyone tilts their heads in the direction of the voice. We see Matt running towards us.

Ugh, why is the sun directly behind him? Only his silhouette is visible to me. It reminds me of a movie's end credits sequence. It’s kind of beautiful. Wait, there’s something behind him. Someone?

Charlie jumps up and begins pointing as I'm trying to figure out what's behind Matt.

“Look it’s Matt- There’s something behind him… What the fuck is that?!”

We all slowly start backing away, and eventually,

“Run!”

Matt is dragging a tall, dark figure behind him by the hand. It is hard to tell if it even has a face because we could only see their silhouette. His limbs are abnormally long.

For some reason, he was adamant about bringing this creature to us.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Wait! Why are you guys running? I found someone!”

Someone? Could that be a person? What’s with his appearance? Something is not right with this ‘person’.

Argh, my legs are so heavy! I’m out of breath! I'm desperate for Matt to let go of this… thing. I need to send him a signal that doesn't aggravate the creature.

“Huff, huff, that’s a tall dude!”

This way, he’ll notice that something’s off with this person. Damn, I’m so smart. As long as no one says anything else,

“That's not a dude, that's Slenderman!”

“Stop, that’s copyrighted!”

Oh my god! Why would you shout that, Charlie?! We’re dead… If I get the chance to be reincarnated, please god I don't wanna be friends with these dumbasses.

What am I thinking?! We need to get away from this jerk as soon as possible.

What do we do? Charlie has already reached his limit. I’m about to pass out too.

I’ve had enough of this. How can this fucker run so fast?! Please think of something, Tony.

“I’m surprised he still thinks that thing is a person.”

“Tony, what do we do?!”

“Alright, I’ll try something out. Just keep running!”

What is he going to do? I have no time to think.

Charlie then collapses on the ground. Shit! I make the decision to just drag him away.

I feel adrenaline is running through my body. Every pain and soreness I had vanished. I look back for a second to take a glance at the monster. Tony is right next to Matt, trying to force him to let go of it.

“Matt, let go of it!”

“We can’t just leave him here. We have to help him!”

Tony keeps trying to pull Matt away, but he keeps on being persistent. Charlie then stands up and snaps out of it,

“Matt, I swear to fucking god... You better let go!”

“Dude, if you can run, then run! I’m not gonna keep dragging you.”

Matt eventually lets the monster go. We all grab Matt and bolt as quickly as we could.

We ran for what felt like half an hour, although it was only about ten minutes. Without paying attention to which direction we were heading, we find ourselves in a section of town we've never been before.

There is still no one…

The majority of us collapse to the ground.

“What was that? Did you see it’s face, Tony?”

“I- I don’t know…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It looked… human. But, my head can’t process it’s face. I’ve never seen something like that before.”

Can’t process? Does he mean he can’t recall what it looked like? Was he so scared that he didn’t really look at it?

Matt stands up and cuts off our conversation,

“What're you guys talking about? It was human.”

What did Matt see? What is he seeing? He's been saying things that don't make sense since this morning. I feel my frustration, crawling up my chest. I need to get this anger out of me, but I don’t want to snap at Matt.

“Dude, stop fucking around! I thought you were a pussy. You took that thing a walk around the park!

There it is! I knew Charlie was gonna lose it.

I’m sure Matt is as confused as we are. For now, I need to fish out answers out of him.

“Matt, did it really look human to you?”

“Yeah, he’s a bit older than us. He didn't talk much though…”

There is a brief silence. We all stare at each other, perplexed, trying desperately to save our sanity. I never imagined my legs would become paralyzed with terror. Matt seeing the monster as a normal human is very unsettling to me.

I could see Tony starting to grasp the gravity of the situation. Under all of the circumstances, he is forcing himself to say,

“Maybe it's a clue to all of this…”

“Like what? Why we're the only ones here?”

“I don't know. But maybe something like that.”

None of us want to accept this fact, and none of us know how to deal with it. The uneasiness that we all feel is incomparable to how Matt feels.

“What, so we're just gonna ask it where everyone went?!”

Charlie blurts out the question that we are all thinking. As time passes, Matt is getting more uncomfortable, yet confused,

“What's going on? Charlie, explain!”

“Look, Matt, that thing, was not human. I don't know why it looked like a person for you, but it didn't look like one for us.”

The tension is so intense that I feel as if I'm going to suffocate at any minute. Charlie seemed to be on the verge of punching Matt in the face. I have to stop him.

“Looks like some creature from a game... I can't really explain it.”

I push Charlie away from Matt while interrupting their conversation.

“Wait. Then why am I the only one that- Shit, I held that thing!”

“Calm down! We can't freak out. For now, let's just stay together.”

We have to think of something. Clearly, we are not in a familiar location. I'm not even sure we're still on Earth at this point.

Who took us here? Took…

“So, what’s next?”

Tony's voice broke me loose from my line of thought. I want answers to these questions. I want to get out of here. But…

The fear of the unknown…

The Loneliness...