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March 11, 2012

No Turning Back

After my last post I called a "meeting" of sorts out on the campus nature trail.  Fortunately for my that thing isn't used very frequently anyways, and no-one is ever there on nights when there's class the next morning.  I met Phillip at the entrance and we went to a more isolated part of the trail where the Slender Man was waiting.  He was standing under a tall tree off the main part of the trail, illuminated in the moonlight.  As soon as Phillip saw him he knelt on the wet mud, and for a surreal moment I felt compelled to mirror the action.  Just something about the scene, the light, the intensity, the silence, just the image of a fellow human knelling before something so much more powerful than him, something so sure of it's right the rule, it called to something primal in me.  You know He's old, but if you've never seen him standing over someone he owns, you can't realize just how old he is.  But I've refused the kneel before him in the past, and as long as I remain in control of my own mind I will continue to refuse.

After Phillip stood I revealed my plan to them both.  I was... unsure about how the Slender Man felt, for some reason I wasn't able to read him as well as I have been in the past, though talking with him has never been easy.  Phillip, on the other hand, was ecstatic, though it's become obvious that's he's accepted his role as my subordinate and it's unlikely he'll ever appose anything I'll say.  So after a few minutes of collaboration with the two of them I left them to go walk the rest of the trail by myself.  I needed to contemplate some things, and the trail was still the safest place for me to let Cage take control for a while.  I've been keeping a tighter grip on him lately, because I can't allow myself to slip up, now more than ever, but the downside is that sometimes I need to simply give him complete control for a while, to balance things out.  Free does not approve, but he doesn't approve of much of anything I choose lately, then again, neither does Cage, neither do I.

So Friday, yesterday assuming I start typing this faster, I met Elizabeth.  That seems odd to say, because I do in fact meet her every day, as well as some others, I do have something of a social life after all.  But this time I met her with a specific purpose, one script in my mind detailing what what going to happen.  We "ran into each other" outside the student center, where Phillip had managed to delay her usual schedule to force a confrontation, and I asked her how she was feeling.  She naturally responded with deliberately vague answers about how she had been a little stressed out, maybe a little tired, how it was nothing to worry about, and then she asked me why I asked.  My response was also deliberately vague, I mentioned about how I was just feeling on edge for no particular reason, how I was tyring to figure out if there was something going around; I choose my words and tone carefully, designed them to set the idea in her head.  We walked for a few minutes, talking uneasily, dancing around the thing we were about to address.  When He showed up I started coughing, I almost ended up on my knees from putting so much force into it.  Elizabeth turned to check if I was alright and saw Him standing in the trees, watching.  When I recovered from my practiced episode I joined her in staring into the trees, still partially crouched.  Then I repeated the question she asked me not two weeks earlier: "Do you see it?" When she answered her voice was dripping with fear:

"Yes."

Then He was gone, having full filled his role in a plan he had agreed to, the Slender Man was content to leave the rest to me.  My dorm was closer, and my roommate was already gone for the weekend, so we went to my room and discussed our options.  I played some music to try and get the image out of her head and calm her down and asked what was going on.  She only told me things I already knew: She was being hunted, she couldn't sleep without having nightmares, she was receiving threatening messages and signs, and she was trying to find an answer, but I listened as though I was hearing it for the first time.  At first I pretended to join in her fear, to make it seem as though I was even more confused and lost than she was, I even acted as though I couldn't believe it was real.  Then I got angry, I told her that we couldn't lose to Him, that we would find a way to escape whatever was going on.  As we discussed options she mentioned that she had stumbled across a few blogs that seemed to be dealing with him, at first acted was skeptical, but then I had her tell me all she knew about the blogs.  I convinced her to go home for the weekend, and I told her that I would take over looking at the blogs for her, that she should focus on watching the various vlogs instead to see if she could find out anything there.  With our labor divided so that there was no risk of her finding my blog I decided it was best to wrap things up before she could suggest anything different.  I told her I had one last class I had to go to (which was, incidentally, the truth) and that she should go ahead and go home, that maybe getting out of the area would provide some relief for the time being.

So now I'm being "Hunted" along with Elizabeth, the good news is that I can keep her from finding out who and what I am, but the bad news is that I now have a much greater role in her active psychological torture.  And now she knows, for better or worse, that I can see him too.  This means that I'm now entrenched in this mess no matter what, there's no walking away to save myself and still not serving Him, the two options before me are more clear than ever before, and I'm far closer to having to choose one of them.  Somehow it seems that this happens every time I try to buy myself time, but my options beyond that are have always been few anyways.  I suppose that if I have to dig myself a deeper hole than there's something comforting about being the one holding the shovel.

See you around
-Cage

18 comments:

  1. If I hand you a rope, will you stop digging that hole of yours and CLIMB THE FUCK OUT OF IT? No? Damn it. I figured I'd at least try.

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    1. That would depend on where you got the rope, and how sturdy it was, how just how well succered it is. I'd hate to try to climb out only to have it give way and break my back.

      Not that I don't appreciate the thought, but right now my best bet is to just keep digging.

      See you around
      -Cage

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    2. You think I'd let you fall because of me? Only for me. Wait, no. Not that either.


      Looks like you're stuck at the bottom of that hole. Would you prefer to have a shovel, instead of just your hands?

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    3. Not because of you, but then I'm not an extremly trusting person anyways. Let's just say... I don't trust well dressed gentleman watching me dig to not cut it when I'm halfway out. But I have my own shovel, and the hole isn't completely virtical, so I have that at least going for me.

      Of course, you are the expert gatherer, if you want to come and give me a hand I don't see how I could stop you

      See you around
      -Cage

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    4. I'm not well dressed (unless you count lace and stockings...), nor am I a gentleman. Or a lady for that matter. The jackass in the fedora isn't going to fuck with you if I were to help.

      I still think you're fucked. And that I'm vaguely tempted to kick your ass right about now, CAGEY DEAREST! -facedesks-

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  2. So, you basically are going to pretend to be hunted by him along with Elizabeth just to...see what happens?

    Can't you just ask her out for coffee or something?

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    1. Pssst. tl;dr His attempt to cover his ass with her is slowly turning him into the villain.


      ...............at least in my headcanon.

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    2. But couldn't he have just not said anything? Could he have said, "Hey, I know all about the Slender Man, let me see if I can help you." Or maybe something that doesn't involve a convoluted plan that sounds like something out of a sitcom but with an eldritch abomination.

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    3. No, because then he kills both of us and any chance of my pressing my narrow advantage or ever getting back to neutral goes away. I still have some cards up my sleeves, and he knows that, it's basiclly the only reason I haven't been told to kill her or die myself flat out. I can't let her figure out that I know about these things, as complicated as things are now, they get substaintially worse if she knows who I am.

      See you around
      -Cage

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    4. Oh right, I seem to have forgotten to adress the "say nothing" option. I can't do that, because if I do that then she keeps reading the tutorial, if she doesn't start following me from there she might follow me from my comments on The Mystic, or she could be inevitably led back to The Messenger's blog and find me through my comments there, or maybe from my activity on Take The Myth, or my many discussions with Gargoyle on Beneath Stone Skies. If she keeps reading blogs then there's still a chance she could stumble on this one, if that happens I lose the ability to protect her or myself effectively. Maybe I would have been lucky and she never would have found this, but I'm owed a lot of bad luck, and I'm not about to leave that up to chance.

      See you around
      -Cage

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    5. One last thing I forgot, and this is simply a formality I try to follow.

      Welcome to my blog, Skeptic always glad to have another person commenting around.

      See you around
      -Free

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    6. Thank you. I don't mean to pry, it just seems like this is needlessly complicated. Or perhaps it is needfully complicated.

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  3. I does not seem likely that such deceptions will be able to help your friend. You do not want to serve him, so why do you?
    S

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    1. I don't serve him, and I won't, trust me, if I was serving him things would be diffrent. I'm just trying to survive here, preferably without selling a freind of mine down the river. As long as they aren't mutually exclusive I'm going to do both, and when they aren't mutually exclusive, well look at my handle, look at my url, I'm a paradox, I'll find a way.

      By the way, welcome to my blog, two new readers in a single night, I must be doing something right.

      See you around
      -FreedomCaged

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  4. Risky and complicated plan but hey, complicated seems to have a chance to work. What with everything I've been seeing lately.

    I hope everything goes okay.

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    1. Since when has simple and safe ever worked for anyone? Thanks for the support.

      See you around
      -Free

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  5. Hopefully your luck turns around FC and you can somehow get her out of this. Good luck.

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    1. I've always been startinly lucky, past couple of months excluded, if I can get some of that luck back it would be fantastic. If I can find a way to get her free of her His influnce safetly I will, but right now I'm just trying to draw things out. Thanks Anna.

      See you around
      -Cage

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