The forest had settled into silence, the kind that hummed just beneath the surface. Slender Man watched from the trees, still as stone. He didn’t breathe, didn’t blink, didn’t exist the way other things did. He was part of the dark now, draped in its silence. The girl—fourteen, alone, wandering the edge of the woods—walked with her head down, wrapped in her own world. She didn’t see him. They never did, not at first.

She was close enough now. Her shoes crunched softly on gravel, the rhythm steady, unaware. Slender Man tilted his head slowly, a jagged curiosity in his motion. There was no rush. He could wait forever, but tonight, he didn’t have to. The wind moved around him like it recognized him, bending the trees just slightly in his direction. A branch snapped. She paused. Looked over her shoulder. Nothing. Of course. That’s how it began.

He moved without moving, stepping through shadows, folding into them. She picked up her pace, a flicker of worry finally blooming in her chest. He liked that. The tension. The moment their minds whispered to them that something was wrong, even if their eyes refused to believe it. She reached for her phone. No signal. Of course not. This place belonged to him now.

She called out. A quiet, nervous laugh behind her words. “Hello?” But no one answered. Slender Man stretched—arms too long, too thin, slipping from his sides like they had a mind of their own. She turned around. Froze. Her eyes widened, lips parting as she took a step back. He didn’t speak. He never did. He just reached.

By the time the scream tried to rise in her throat, he had already closed the space between them. The woods swallowed the sound. No one would hear. No one ever did. Slender Man vanished back into the trees with her in his grasp, as silent as he had come. The only thing left behind was her phone, blinking with no signal, and the quiet hum of the dark settling again.