Some Creative Title

So yeah, I haven't been posting much lately, partially because I don't really see much of a point in telling you all about every thing I protect Elizabeth from, and everything I have to do to put her in further danger, and partially because most of that isn't interesting enough to relate anyways.  But I suppose there's no point in hiding this, so I might as well make another post while I'm here.

Elizabeth is in the hospital.  In all likelihood she'll be fine, though, with luck she'll be a little fuzzy on what happened.  I'm here, too, waiting for her to wake up.  The doctors say it's a concussion, nothing serious but that they wanted to keep her for observation.  I know I should be concerned for her, worried if she's o.k, but all I can think about is how stupid it was that she got it in the first place, and how if she had actually thought things through this wouldn't even be an issue.  Instead she elected to take an action that could have major repercussions for both of us, when it would clearly have been safer to back off.

Right, you probably want the whole story.  Elizabeth and I had been at the library studying, because an eldritch abomination isn't really proper motivation to ignore your schoolwork, is it?  Well when we reached her apartment Phillip was leaving it.  Now ignoring the fact that Phillip was being an idiot and should have told me about his plans to leave yet another creepy message in her apartment, I'd have to say that any one's first reaction to a masked man leaving your apartment late at night should be running in the opposite direction.  That is, of course, even before you realize that said masked person is a servant of an incredibly powerful monster that just happens to be stalking you on a regular basis.  And yet, she chose to chase him.  I honestly had no idea she could even run that fast but Elizabeth almost tackled him before they reached the stairs. After barely a minute of wrestling she had gotten his mask off, and it was clear she recognized him.  I'll give Phillip this: he knows how to take advantage of a shocked opponent.  When she paused to wonder why he was behind the mask he kicked her legs out beneath her and threw her against the railing.  The sound of her head hitting the railing was not a pleasant one, but her loss of conciseness solved a lot of short term problems.  Unfortunately, Phillip, genius that he is, wasn't finished, evidently still in full on survival mode he took out a knife and was about to bring it down on her chest.  Fortunately, I had moved close enough to grab him at this point and prevent that.  I had to break his nose again, but I don't really consider that to be a negative thing at this point, in fact, I found it thoroughly satisfying.  But at the end of it all, I sent the proxy on his merry little way and called an ambulance, and now I'm writing this on a tablet in a hospital room waiting for her to wake up.  If she remembers too much I may have to have a Tall Gentleman ease her memory a little bit.


Speak of the literal dev il.  Well I guess that m eans I don 't hav e to arran ge an ythin g m yself.  I'll fin ish this later.







So yes, Elizabeth is fine and awake, and it's too late for me to care enough to go back and edit this post to reflect that properly.  Basically she doesn't remember enough to point Phillip definitively, but it's looking like she knows "her assailant" from somewhere.  I guess it's good they never actually interacted beyond being in the same class.  But he's still probably going to be receiving a visit from the cops shortly enough, so there's one useless helper down the tubes.  Not like he was ever really an effective proxy, I'm almost hoping they send someone competent to replace him.  I'm just wanting this whole thing to be over now, it's getting tiring.

One last thing: bloggers new system for writing posts sucks, someone make them change it back.

See you around

Caged

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

Running Interference

You know, throughout my life I've found several things that should require effort or concern are in fact relatively easy for me to do.  Murder, for example, is easy, you just stand there and push the blade into someones chest, you don't even have to know their name.  Lieing is incredibly easy, you just need to imagine that you truly are speaking the truth, and false information flows from your lips without so much as a waver of the voice to betray your dishonesty.  Running is far easier than some of you make it out to be, you just forget what you had and who you were and go.  Manipulation by itself is not all that difficult, identifying a target, predicting a persons reactions, leading them where you want them; these are all things you can learn without too much difficulty.  However, doing any of those things becomes difficult if your goals include not letting anyone know you're doing them, and when you're trying to exert complete control over someones life, over multiple people's lives, without anyone realizing that you're trying any harder, that isn't easy.  Though I suppose that when one of those people is Hunted and the other is Hollowed that helps.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to a class that I share with both Phillip and Elizabeth.  I sit maybe 15 feet away from either of them, and spend the majority of my time trying to figure out how to trick them both into staying away from each other.  Honestly it doesn't really help that things are accelerating faster than I had planned.  Elizabeth pretends that nothing is wrong, she hasn't mentioned the Slender Man or anything resembling him to me or any of our other friends, yet, but I can tell she's already seeing him on a regular basis.  Phillip, on the other hand, is very vocal about his plans and schedules and ambitions.  He can talk for thirty minutes straight about how much work he put into the letter he slipped under Elizabeth's door (I retrieved it before she saw anything), or how honored he is to be working for "Father," but beyond that he seems incapable of casual conversation.  I've had him go on at length about his agenda, but as soon as he's done he just stops talking and stares off in the distance, unable or unwilling to react to anything else for a very long time.  Sometimes I'm really glad I can't see what he's looking at, I promise I'll never envy anyone whose mind has gone through that much trauma.

It's complicated keeping both of them at arms length while trying to make sure neither one is ever within arms length of the other.  I have to monitor my calls with either of them, and I try to never interact with Phillip when Elizabeth is around, if she ever figures out what he is then I don't want her jumping to any conclusions about me.  I've found that as a neutral party I'm not capable of being a very effective buffer, but I'm still faced with my original dilemma of being unable to directly show support for Elizabeth.  This has ended up with me doing a lot of very minor sabotage of Phillip's activities, of course because my role in our perceived partnership is to keep a closer eye on Elizabeth and gauge her reactions I'm able to convince him that the notes he's been trying to leave around have reached her.  The good news here is that Phillip is very easy to manipulate and deceive, he's a predictable element with nowhere near the amount of creativity or depth your average human should posses.  The bad news is that Elizabeth isn't, even with as much as I know about her I can't prepare for her every reaction, and being Hunted makes her much less predictable.

Also in the bad news pile is the fact that she's started doing research.  A couple of nights ago we were with a few friends at her apartment for a movie night.  I'm never very comfortable in groups, but I went anyways, both for the sake of seeming normal and to use the opportunity to keep an eye on her.  Throughout the movie I saw her look out the window several times, even though her antagonist never made an appearance.  Part way through the movie I excused myself to go to the bathroom and covertly checked the search history on her computer.  She had been looking up Slender Man.  If she finds the blogs I'm in trouble, I haven't said anything here that could guarantee she would know it was me, but that's not something I'm willing to risk, I have to find a way to control what information she gets.  I have a plan set up, but it's not one I'm excited about putting into action.

I haven't been Hunted in a long time.  It hasn't been long enough.

See you around

Cage

What really happened

I might as well say right now that the other post did get at least some of it right, even if those bits were still partially inaccurate.  I may as well just skip forward.

Sunday afternoon Elizabeth and I were walking near the campus nature trail, not on it, but we were going to the student center, which is located somewhat in front of it.  She was stressed, and beginning to feel the paranoia that eventually afflicts all the hunted before they realize what they're dealing with.  She wouldn't tell me exactly what she was feeling, but I knew enough to guess it.  I noticed right away when He showed up; I was annoyed, but I'm fairly decent at concealing my emotions, so Beth didn't notice anything.  Until she noticed Him.  I felt her reaction right away, she backed away and griped my arm, staring into the woods.  At that point I really didn't have much of a choice, I pretended I couldn't see anything, I tried to convince her that she was just imagining it.  I can't say I was very effective, but I did manage to calm her down a little.

After she had recovered a little we returned to her apartment.  When we got there we discovered someone (who I later confirmed to be Phillip) had broken into her apartment and spray painted an Operator's symbol over her bed.  That one's just brimming with originality, he is.  Anyways, this disturbed Elizabeth even further and so I convinced her to talk to the police and stay the night with a friend, not like it makes any difference, but it's probably a good idea for her mental state right now.  She did not spend the night at my dorm, she stayed with a different friend of ours.  I was hesitant to involve anyone else, but I thought it wisest to keep her away from me for the time being while I tried to get into contact with Phillip and confirm his involvement.

That's basically it, not much of a story, I know, but there really isn't anything else I can add.  However, just to be sure, let's recap some things:

• I was with Elizabeth when she saw the Slender Man for the first time on Sunday.
• I did  not plan any part of it, I merely recognized the situation and played along with it.
• Elizabeth's apartment was broken into.
• I was not the person who broke into her apartment.
• The break in could not be qualified as a ransacking.
• Elizabeth did go to the police.
• I was not present when this happened.
• Elizabeth did stay with a friend that night,
• That friend was not me.
• We did not stay up all night discussing our hopes and dreams, or any BS like that.
• My blog was apparently hacked.
• I am probably going to stab or shoot somebody as a result of this.

Any questions?

See you around

Cage

The Other Side of the Coin

Did you guys notice I have a title now?  Apparently I'm a batman villain now, and unsurprisingly I'm kind of o.k. with this.

Well I was, but after this week, I'm pretty much sick of all of this.  You think I would have been able to hold this off a bit longer, but no, I'm clearly not the only one playing this game, and apparently I'm not even the only one cheating.  You know what, that's not even fair, I've probably had a better week than any of you, possibly excluding some of the proxies in the audience, but I really don't care all that much.  Because this is the week I betrayed a friend.  It's not like I didn't see this coming, like I haven't spent this time mentally preparing myself for when I had to make this choice.  But then it's not like I ever really had a choice, is it?  Do or die isn't much of a choice, really.

So yes, my  good friend  the Slender Man payed a visit to Elizabeth this week.  How do I know this, you might ask yourself, well I know it because he payed me a visit shortly prior, good friend that he is, to let me know he wanted a "favor."  Obviously I'm paraphrasing.  He wanted me to introduce him to Elizabeth, or rather, he wanted me to help set the mood.  I didn't exactly have the necessary cards to say no.  Both of us know there is a line, a constantly shifting, moving, unseen line that he can't cross and another equally unstable line that I won't cross.  The day either line is broken one of us gets hurt... and I get killed.  I don't know exactly where either line is, but that wasn't it, so I agreed to his suggestion.

So Saturday I broke into Elizabeth's apartment.

That's not true, I ransacked her apartment, I flipped furniture, I destroyed her television, I stole her computer, I emptied her trash all over the floor, I made sure the place was a complete wreck.  My final touch was to add an operator's symbol to her mirror in blood.  This is a point where having a school with a good biology department is a mixed blessing.  I made sure that no one saw me entering or exiting from the apartment, and I made sure to stop by the security room and destroy all of the recordings from that day.  Fortunately not many people stay on campus during the weekend here, so I didn't have to worry too much.

After that I returned to my dorm and waited.  I just sat on my floor and waited for what was going to come, I might have passed out at some point, but I honestly don't remember either falling asleep or waking up at any point in all that time, so maybe I didn't. maybe I've been awake for almost 48 hours now.  I'm going to sleep after I finish typing this.  It was around two in the afternoon when what I was waiting for happened: Elizabeth called.

She had just gotten back from visiting her parents for the weekend, I can only imagine what went through her head when she opened the door to her apartment and found the chaos waiting for her.  The chaos I had left for her to find.  She called me before she called the police.  Is that ironic or just sad?  I ran there to make sure I arrived before the campus police did, the ones I told Elizabeth to call.  I found her in the apartment's parking lot, waiting for me.  She was holding herself and shivering, even though it was probably the warmest day in a month.  I don't even remember what I said, but somehow I calmed her down as quickly as I could, and I got her to tell me what was wrong.  When she told me someone had broken into her apartment I rushed up there as quickly as I could, telling here to stay behind.  She didn't, just like I knew she wouldn't, but when we got to the door and I went inside she waited outside, just like I knew she would.  I should have made a mistake, I should have thought up a worse plan, but I didn't, I knew exactly what I was supposed to do and I did it.

I made a big show of flipping over the furniture, burying through piles trash, and looking in ransacked cabinets. I made sure to put my hands as many places as I could, to leave as much of a mark behind as possible.  To contaminate the crime scene.  I found a wrench where I had left it in my original mess, under the last piece of furniture in the room.  I picked it up and held over my shoulder like a bat and moved towards the bedroom door.  Elizabeth called after me nervously, asking what I was doing.  It wasn't difficult to make my voice nervous and uncertain, it may of been for different reasons than she believed, but I was barely holding myself together at that point.  Have you ever had to destroy the very sense of security and peace of someone you cared about, then had walk through the shattered bits of their happiness while trying to convince them you're just helping?  It isn't easy.  But I told her I was going to look in her room to make sure whoever did this was gone, and I said it with a straight face.

I didn't have to do as much to her room, after I opened the Elizabeth couldn't see me any longer.  Still, I made a point to move the bed and open the closet, just to make it clear that I had examined the room.  However I tried to avoid wasting any more time than I could afford, in my mind I could see the campus police pulling into the parking lot, and preparing to take control of the situation, the real police right behind them.  I exited the bedroom and moved to the bathroom, making sure to gasp loudly enough for Elizabeth to hear.  I heard my name called from the doorway, then the voice of a man asking what was going on.  I quickly touched the blood on the mirror, completing my claim that any evidence of my involvement happened after the crime.  The blood was mostly dry, but I still managed to get enough on my hand for what I needed before the campus police officer came and piratically dragged me out of the apartment.

After we got outside he turned to say something, and stepped back after noticing my eyes; for a brief moment I was acutely aware of how easily I could have pushed him over the second floor balcony.  But he recovered and proceeded to ask what I was doing in the apartment and give me a lecture about disturbing a crime scene and going into a potentially dangerous situation that lasted until the real police showed up and took over.  Elizabeth and I both had to answer several questions before we were allowed to leave, and by that time Elizabeth was even more uneasy and scared.  This was the plan, she had to be as vulnerable as possible, she needed to be scared and confused and hopeless, and I needed to be there to save her.

So I suggested we go somewhere to calm her down.

I suggested the campus nature trail.

I walked one of my only friends into a trap I had meticiously laid out for her, and I did it knowing full well I would have to watch her lose every shred of hope drained from her eyes, and I did knowing that I would be lieing to her and pretending I was really helping her all the while, and I did it anyways.

Because the nature trail was where it happened.

That's where the Slender Man made his move.

I saw him standing off behind the trees, and I saw her see him.  I watched the color drain from my friends face, I felt her grab my shirt.  I heard the fear in her voice as she asked if I saw what she saw, as she asked if the monster she only knew from a fictional series on youtube was really standing there, watching her.  That's when I did the most despicable thing I did that entire day: I smiled.  I gave Elizabeth the calmest, most reassuring smile I could manage, and I told her nothing was there.  I pretended convinced her that what she was seeing was just stress or shock or anything but what she thought it was.  I told her she was the only one who could she the darkness about to consume her mind.

I told her she was alone.

I took her back to my dorm, I convinced the RA to let her stay the night, and I told her to get some sleep.  I got online and looked at a few things, but it wasn't even an hour before she woke up from her inevitable nightmares.  We spent the night talking, neither of us slept, even though my roommate passed out long before dawn.  We both saw the man in the window, I'm sure, but neither mentioned him once.  We talked of life, fate, the future, hope, dreams, we spoke of these things as though we had them, we acted like they were obtainable for us, rather than just illusions that would ultimately serve to crush us even further.  I even spoke like I meant them, even though I didn't.

When the sun took to the skies I left Elizabeth in my room to get some sleep, to descend further into the madness of her nightmares, and I went to class.  When I got back she was gone, so I sat down and typed this up.  I just betrayed a friend in the worst way possible, and I wrote it up to put on a freaking blog read by a mix of stupid victims that don't even realize what's going on, and egotistical psychopaths who live to hunt down the victims.


I can't publish this.  I'm erasing this and going to sleep.

This needs to be seen.

Insects of Stone

Hey there, I know I haven't been around much lately, but to be fair, the most I'm used to on this end is classes and tests and the occasional social obligation.  Lately, however, I've found myself running interference between Elizabeth and Phillip (fortunately the run away mannequin from Men's Warehouse hasn't gotten involved just yet).  I've already talked about my first technique to buy myself some time: introducing Elizabeth to Marble Hornets.  So far that has worked about as well as I had predicted it would: Beth has admitted to me that she has felt a bit paranoid because of the videos, and even experienced a nightmare based on them.  I was concerned at first, but after listening to her description it sounds like something concocted by her own mind, rather than a dream implanted by, well, I can't think of a clever moniker right now, but we've all read some version of this sentence before.  We only got to about entry #18 before she decided she was too creeped out to continue watching.  It's not that surprising, considering we were watching it at night, some of those videos even creeped me out a little, despite the fact I've dealt with the real thing.  Still, I think we might watch some more entries this weekend, Elizabeth said she wanted to see where it was going, so I guess I have no choice but to ride this decision out, hopefully it won't backfire too terribly.

On the other hand, this seems to have given me a little leverage when dealing with Phillip, which is now an almost daily chore.  I'm going to be honest, Phillip isn't that clever.  I suspect he's been hollowed (or whatever term you want to use) enough that he can't think that creatively, on the whole he's actually been inclined to believe whatever I've told him.  When I told him about Marble Hornets it was enough to convince him to back off his own plans (breaking into her apartment and leaving cryptic messages, like I said, he's not that clever).  Right now he looks at me like I'm a superior, he was led to believe that I was going to be his partner and handler for this assignment, and that it was my job to train him.  He's still a little upset that I broke his nose and forced him to walk a mile to the nearest road, but "infecting" Elizabeth has convinced him I'm on his side (thank goodness he doesn't actually check this blog).  He remains loyal to me and what he knows of my plans, and I can use that to my advantage in the future.

I've considered talking to Him about all of this, but right now everything is still fairly safe and simple, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, at the expense of potentially finding out more on the situation.  Look at me, taking the safe route, aren't you all so proud.

I know I haven't been active much lately, but I'll try to get on more often in the future.  Hopefully I'll even get better about making posts about what's happening, even though I haven't gotten much practice at that until now.  You know, I always knew this was coming, I had just never let myself believe it would be happening so soon.

See you around

Free

Not A Coincidence

I learned something interesting today, I learned who was being hunted in my class.  Sadly it was not the teacher, it might of been amusing to watch his lectures and examples slowly become filled with ramblings and operator symbols.  Instead it was someone else, someone I knew of all things.  Her name is Elizabeth, and we've been friends for a while now, she is, in fact, the only person in that class that I actually know.  Naturally I refuse to accept this as a coincidence, I believe in luck, but it's looking more and more like He's trying to force my hand.

Now the curious are probably wondering how exactly I know this, and the epically observant might even notice that I discovered this on a Friday when the class we shared was on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Elizabeth didn't come to class this past week, evidently she was recovering from a mild cold.  This morning she texted me, asking if I wouldn't mind coming over to her apartment to share notes from our mutual class, I of course accepted.  When I went over there I didn't notice anything at first, and when I did it was so subtle that I couldn't even identify it right away.

Perhaps I should explain here.  I'm sure that by now most of you know what Mr. Talls presence feels like, there's the paranoia and fear, yes, but there's more to it than that.  It feels like he's physically projecting something.  I believe he is, I'm not sure what, but what ever it is leaves something behind, it's like this smell that just lingers long after the product is gone.  It's like radiation that never goes away, a sensation that something is wrong, and if you know what it feels like, you can figure out when someone has been hunted by him.  That feeling was there, with Elizabeth, and it was so faint I almost missed it.  I'd be surprised if she had even seen Him yet.

After I realized what was going on I realized what was going on: He wants me to choose.  The Slender Man is tired of having this little neutral person off in his own corner making a ruckus, and he's devised a lovely little situation designed to either bring out the worst in me, or the best.  He knows that this is something I can't ignore, I know the victim, and that means I have to get involved, one way or another.

Like I said, I can't just ignore this, it will be literally impossible to ignore this because Beth and I are close (as much as that can mean for me).  When things start getting worse she will most likely come to me, and I will either have to help her or sabotage her, the line between those options is so narrow even I can't maneuver it safely.  If it comes down to it I'm not sure I would be able to sacrifice Elizabeth for my own safety.  On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll ever be willing to surrender what I know, knowing full well it would mean a quick death for the both of us.  For that matter, I'm sure any kind helpful behavior would be bad for both of us.  So, this time at least, I took a different route: I introduced her to Marble Hornets.

I know that what I did didn't really buy me much time, if anything, things will escalate more quickly now that she knows what she's dealing with.  But now she knows what she's dealing with, she'll have some idea of what's going on and what she needs to do.  I still earn points because this does drag her in deeper, it does make her an easier target, and it does make her more paranoid.  But in the end, she won't be flailing when He starts showing himself, and she'll know where to look to find more information.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull something off like this every time things start to escalate, but right now I don't know what I'm going to do, so I need to find a way to put off this confrontation for as long as I can.

EDIT: You know, looking back on this a few days later I realize that this was written up pretty poorly.  I suppose it's good it's an account and explanation of what I know, rather than a piece of fiction brought before an audience of talented writers for the sake of entertainment.  That would be rather embarrassing.  Still, I'll try to make future updates more acceptable, I do try to hold myself to a certain standard of writing, even if it is a personal story.

See you around

Free

Did I say seven?

Oh, I must have misspoke, I meant five.  Seriously though, because this isn't really supposed to be a blog about me I'm going to go ahead and work a little moral into this story:  When announcing plans online for dealing with someone in an aggressive nature, always lie about your schedule and/or specific plans.  If you take them early they will be caught off guard before they're ready, and if you take action later than you said you would, then they will either be burned out from anticipation or believe you to have forgotten your plans.  This is true for both the Hunted and Proxies, by the way, just so that's clear.  Anyways, I'm sure you lot want the story so I'll go ahead and share it now.

It is astonishingly easy to find out all you need to know about someone when you know their name and location, which is why I've never been running around sharing mine (though the notably observant should have narrowed down my location to four or five states by now).  Anyways, I was able to find Phillip's (that's the proxy's name for those of you wondering) room quite easily, and conveniently enough he didn't have a roommate.  It was easy to ambush him after his last class, a rope around his neck cut off his oxygen supply, and when I had parked close enough to his dorm that getting him to my car without anyone noticing was simply a matter of timing.

You know the economy really has taken it's toll.  It's almost a shame there are all these neighborhood filled with empty houses.  After driving to the place I had set up for our talk I dropped off Phillip and made sure he wouldn't be leaving or alerting anyone in the area of his presence anytime soon and returned to school for a couple of hours, just to make sure there wasn't anything I missed.  Around 3:00 in the afternoon I returned to the house to find my proxy friend awake and confused.  The following conversation is not verbatim, but it is close enough to get the general idea across.

Me:  (while removing a gag) So you're awake, good, we can have our conversation now.

Phillip:  (glaring) What do you want?

Me:  I want to know why you're here.

Phillip:  (struggling against the ropes) I'm here because you kidnapped me you physcho! (remember this isn't verbatim, some of it has also been strategiclly edited to be more family freindly.  In case you haven't noticed I'm not a very profane person.)

Me:  There's plenty of people out there that would call you a physcho just as quickly.  ( I retreived his mask from my backpack (yes he had a mask, it was in his room, not even well hidden))  I know what you are, I knew from the second I saw you, now why don't why try again? ( I flipped open my knife) Why are you here?

Phillip:  (He showed surperise at first, followed by a breif flash of fear before he answered with an ovbiously false bravado) Oh so you're a runner  ( Somehow it was both refreshing and annoying to be mistaken for a runner) you'll never get away with this "Father" (yes, he's one of those proxies) will protect me (he sneered).

Me:  (rolling my eyes) Oh well, good for him.  (I moved behind him so he couldn't see me)  Do you know who I am, Phillip?  Have you heard of (I said me real name here, I will of course not repeat it to the masses).  Or perheaps "FreedomCaged"

Phillip:  (he shook his head) No why should I?

Me:  You shouldn't, and it's fortunate for you that you don't.  (I leaned forward and put my knife against his neck) But I still need a reason to let you live, I've come this far, and to let you leave here would be a waste.

Unfortunately for dramatic timing this is when the Slender Man himself decided to make an entrance.  I mean sure it was a good place for him to enter, but if I had been in charge of his timing he would have appeared a few lines later at a much more dramatic moment.  Still, I suppose it was good enough placement to present adaquate theatrics.  After I was informed it would be in my best intrest to let Phillip go I gladly cut him loose and sent him on his way.  Admitadly he didn't have a car, and I may have been less than skillful when removing his binding, but I have no doubt he made it to a public road long before there was any risk of death by blood loss.  After that the big guy and I had a little talk about boundries, by the end we of course hugged and made up, or at the very least neither of us treid to fattaly wound the other, so I'm calling it a sucess.

Long story short: it turns out the proxy was simply a spook, asigned to someone else in that class (I'm not sure who, yet, I haven't noticed any Hunted, but it gets easier to tell the longer they're exposed to Slender shenagians, so I'll figure it out.).  So that's the story, I bet is was just riviting.  I'd add a soundtrack, but my next class begins rather shortly, so I'll just say so long for now.  The next post will be about someting other than myself, so rejoice in that.

See you around

Caged

A day of mild disapointment

Well, I guess its time to call it, 11/11/11 was a bust.  I suppose it wasn't a complete disappointment, after all, Elaine, Shaun, and Konaa pulled of a daring rescue, A harassed someone, and the good Doctor Ciaro had a bad day.  There may have even been a few other occurrences of activity, but those that have surfaced since have not specifically mentioned that they happened on the 11th, and while things like this aren't an everyday occourance, it seems that this much activity isn't entirely rare, either.  So it looks like my acquaintance The Gargoyle was correct, the theme of repeating numbers is not a necessary facilitator of "Slender Activity."  Its annoying when theroies are debunked, espically when I subscribe to them, sometimes I think he does stuff like this just to screw with me, and by me I ovbiously mean people, because I'm not so vain as to think everything he does relates to me.  Seriously though, we "talked" just tonight, and I swear he was screwing with me the whole "conversation" becuase I kept bringing up the whole repeating numbers deal.  Still, even theroies proven wrong are new information, and Idid get some intresting facts out of the few events that actually did occur, so all in all not a bad  week.  Sorry for the short post I'll try to do another code post soon, since my stats tell me the last one was fairly well recived, now if you'll excuse me I have to go bug a few people that have been way  to quite recently, followed by just the wrong amount of noise.

See you around

Cage

A Return

The blogger A has returned!  Now some of you may not know who this is, I myself have never actually seen any of his actual work as his previous blog (Defining) seems to have been mostly erased, but it seems he is back after over a year of silence.  I have no idea what A is actually like, I honestly haven't looked into him all that much, but from what I have discerned he was once someone important, and so I will, of course, be watching to see what this develops into.  Of further interest he claims that he is "Going to kill the Slender Man", wonderful, it's not like anyone has ever tried that before... I could provide more links, but you get the point.  Also his URL is "overcoming my humanity", which is daunting or concerning in the slightest.  I don't know why I'm complaining, if he succeeds than maybe my life can be just a little less dark, and I can spend less time trying to make a decision that will eventually kill me.  Who knows, maybe he knows something I don't, maybe he knows something I do, wouldn't that be interesting, but regardless I'm sure all will be revealed in time, and it looks like it should be interesting until that point anyways.

Anyway, because I didn't start this blog to outline the specifics, I'd like to turn this to a more general topic: Zombies.  Seriously though, it seems as though some of you people just can't stay dead, and I'd like to explore why that is.  We all know the Tall Guy likes hunting his prey for a very long time before moving in for the kill, some people have gone years before finally being killed, now I have several theories on why that is, but I'm not exactly at liberty to discuss all of them, so we'll just focus on how this effects someone's survival chances in other high risk scenarios.  It seems like many times He will just leave someone for dead rather than killing them himself, giving them a chance to survive exclusively through the force of will.  I believe that being hunted by such a fear inducing creature gives people a sense of determination that fades only when faced by the Man himself.  It is this new found determination and desperation that allows people to push through events that would have left them helpless and resigned to their fates prior to their stalking.  In short, because they have already been through so much, surviving some of these incredible circumstances isn't as big of a leap as it once was.

I have a little more to say on this subject, but I have a draft for an essay due tom arrow and I've been putting it off for weeks, so I'm going to leave off here for now.


Right, so I'm finally updating this, good for me, I need to get a cookie later to celebrate.  But first I'd like to go ahead and reiterate what some of the comments below have already said: Many times we have no way of knowing weather or not a person really died.  Heck in the Messenger's List of the Deceased there is a second list filled with people who might be dead.  It can be difficult confirming the death of a hunted (new term of mine, it's faster than typing runner/fighter, this is the only time I'll clarify), so many people are spread out, and when the one unifier we have is the interned it can be tough finding someone who actually identify the body.  Also I'd like to refer you back to the sacred Rule #1, while this is for me, it is important to remember that just because one person says they saw someone die doesn't mean you can trust them on that.  It's things like this that make it hard to be sure of a persons death, and thus make it more common to see such people return.

Also I'd like to address the possibility of supernatural resurrections.  Yes, yes, let us all sigh and roll our eyes at this thoroughly absurd notion, in fact, lets do it in unison 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... go.  Good, now that that's out of the way let's all remember what we're dealing with here: a supernatural creature whose origins, motives, and powers are largely unknown.  Things like someone genuinely coming back from the dead should surprise none of us at this point, as virtually everything else has been done already.  Of course the ramifications of such developments should not be taken lightly, either, anyone who has truly been revived has likely undergone a tremendous psychological metamorphosis, regardless of weather or not that was the intention of the resurrector.

Well, that's all I've got, sorry it wasn't full of danger, excitement, and intrigue, but hey, this is an analysis blog, not an action one.  I promise if I ever decide to be interesting again I'll let you guys know.  I hope it was at least informative, and not mind-numbingly boring.

See you around

FreedomCaged

Dreaming Is Free

O.k., I don't even like Blondie all that much, but it was that or a MLKJ reference, and this seemed less cliche.  Yes, that's right, it's time for my first semi useful research post, also known as the reason I started this blog.   I figured I would start on something easy, but still something that most of us can relate to: Dreams.  As I'm sure most of you have experienced, our tall acquaintance seems capable of influencing our dreams, and even without his hand some dreams seem to have a deeper purpose, and a higher function.

Dreaming begins when a person enters R.E.M (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which tends to be around 90 minutes after they fall asleep.  While there is no generally accepted explanation for why we dream, it is evident that without entering REM sleep we quickly lose the ability to function.  People who have gone several days without entering rem sleep often experience hallucinations, shortened attention spans, an inability so perform complex mental functions, and occasionally physiological reactions.  Dreams can seem to last hours or days, but in actuality they rarely last for longer than ten minutes.  This, more than anything, is a testament to the human brains untapped potential, if our subconscious is able to play out fantasies of such detail that much faster than we could ever experience them in real life, than the brain is capable of compiling and compressing more data in its free time than all the supercomputers in the world.  This also means that if our favorite dream demon can send these images to us, then he is capable of processing as much as our minds can handle on a consinouns and deliberate level.  There are many theories as to the purpose of dreams, including the ideas that they effect our long term memory, how we perceive individual memories, and how we remove unused emotions or sensations, these theories are not all bound together, but neither are they mutually exclusive, meaning if one had power over dreaming, he could possibly effect all these other mental functions as well.

Dreaming also has psychological implications.  Dreams are often seen as an opportunity to play out different scenarios in our head, with improved understanding of the results but no risk to ourselves.  Many people have claimed that dreaming has provided them with answers to problems that they couldn't solve while awake, showing another example of how much potential we have locked away.  Our favorite pervert, Freud, believed that dreams were a chance for the Id to live out its fantasies without the repercussions that would normally keep the ego or superego from stopping it.  He also believed that dreams were a way to conquer our emotions in stressful or confusing situations.

Dream interpretation is a heavily explored and long existing field of study, bordering on the realm of accepted science.  Many notable psychologists and ancient civilizations have contributed to the study of understanding dreams.  Despite all of these, or perhaps because of them, we are often left with many different interpretations for each dream.  One person could claim that a single dream represents several different issues manifesting themselves in a single scene, and someone else could say that the same dream focuses solely on a single issue, unrelated to the other person’s interpretations.  The fact is, to fully understand most dreams you need a lot of context, education, and practice, and I have very little of any in this field, so I'm not even going to try to fully explore this topic.

EDIT: A new note, one that is primairly speculation at this point, but I have found enough information that I feel comfortable talking about it here with the proper disclaimer.  There is evidence that the Slender Man is not the only creature capable of entering people's dreams.  At this point what evidence I have found leans towards the theory that whoever or whatever intiates the dream has the most power over the reciver.  This means that, if I am correct, Slender Man and creatures of a similar nature do not actually enter your dreams, rather they "manufacture" dreams, which they then place in your mind for you to view and interact with.  again this is just a theory, and it does not diminish the effects a dream can have on your mind, it is just an explination of how these dreams can occur.  I think that He can still "enter" dreams, but he does not have as much control in this situtaion as it is still "your dream."  Take from this what you will, it is hardly a breakthrough, but I always love stumbling across new information.  If you have any new ideas or evidence let me know.

Well that's all I have on the topic of dreaming for now, though new discoveries do happen from time to time, and every now and then my research will reveal some new light on a topic I have already explored, so it is entirely possible I will return and improve this information from time to time.  I know for a fact my roommate just committed to writing a paper on this subject, so maybe I'll steal some of his work when he is finished.  Also, please do share some of your own dreams below, I'm interested in seeing what all of your experiences are.

See you around

FreedomCaged

What Happened Last Week (or why I can make a blog without a tentacle sticking out of my chest)

Well I guess it's been long enough now that I need to talk about what happened last week.  Those of you that have been paying attention probably have some idea of what I'm talking about.  Before last week I hadn't even considered starting up a blog, but now I suddenly find myself capable of writing one without completely nullifying my agreement, and I am starting to see to advantages of having this place online to consolidate my work.  But that isn't important right now, what's important is that you know how I came to the point that I could do this.

I've had a deal with the Slender Man for several months now, and part of that agreement was that I not get to involved to heavily in the online community of people trying to fight him, and in return he would keep them away from me as well as he could (and of course the whole not killing me bit).  About a month ago I starting talking to some of the blogers, true to our arrangement I didn't make my own blog, I didn't hint at the knowledge that earned me this immunity, and I remained neutral in most of my postings.  Unsurprisingly He wasn't pleased with my activity, but I didn't post anything harmful, so I was able to continue with this behavior for some time.

The first time I suspected something might have been off was a couple of weeks ago, when I found an operator symbol on my campus.  It was drawn in chalk on one of the roads behind the library, and there were no obvious reasons for someone to have drawn such a symbol there.  Of course I hadn't seen any other kind of suspicious activity or other signs of trouble, but it was still enough to unnerve me, and so I started looking around to see if I could find anyone who would have a reason to be in my area, or to track me down.  However, my research yielded no explanation, and my skinny associate claimed total ignorance in the matter, so after a week of no more activity I reached the conclusion that it was a coincidence, I was safe in my happy normal corner of the world.  It wasn't until Thursday that I realized I was wrong.

Last Thursday was the day I met the Runner, I still don't know what his name was, but it seems that it couldn't have been anybody I had met through the blogs, as they all still seem to be active.  I was getting a drink before one of my classes when I noticed him.  You know you can actually feel people who have a connection with him, I haven't felt such a sensation in a long time, so at first I was unsure of what it meant.  He was at least 6'1'', a few inches taller than myself, short blond hair, and was very muscular, clearly stronger than myself.  He came up to me fast, and before I could respond he had basically dragged me into one of the restrooms and shoved me against one of the walls.  That was when he pulled out his gun, I could see in his dark eyes that he was almost eager to use it.  Even a week later I can see all of it in my head in perfect clarity.

He was breathing heavy, he spoke in a low growl: "How did you do it, when did you start working with him?"

I was caught of guard, but I was not about to let somebody strong arm information out of me.  "They don't allow weapons on this campus," in hindsight, it was a stupid remark, I could have gone for so much more, information, a name, even a more clever retort, but in the briefest victory of my life I saw him take a step back and lower the gun slightly out of surprise.  Then he charged me, pinned my neck to the wall with his arm, leaned in close, and put the barrel of his gun on the right side of my chest.  Cold metal ready to pump a slug into my chest and the first thing I thought of was how disgusting his breath smelled, the second was, of course, that he was pointing the gun at the wrong side if he was aiming for my heart.

"I've been watching you, you're a proxy.  What do I have to do to keep safe, how did you start working for him?"

Many things dawned on me almost at once.  The first was that he thought I was a proxy, he clearly didn't know who exactly I was.  Somehow this didn't upset me nearly as much as the realization that he had been watching me, I am a scientist, not by an official means, but I enjoy studying things, I do not however enjoy being studied without my knowledge.  The third thing I realized, was that he appeared to want to join the Slender man, he was willing to trade his safety for his freedom.  The final thing I noticed, and it took a few seconds for it to sink in, was that there appeared to be a head and an impeccably well dressed pair of shoulders staring in through the window of the second floor men's room.  The Runner wasn't quite as quick to notice this development, but when he looked to see why I was staring at the window he collapsed.  I took advantage of the situation to liberate him from his gun, which went promptly into my backpack, and hoist him back to his feet.  He was still panicking, but I seemed to snap him out of it with a quick punch to the gut, which I must admit had more force than I had expected.  While he was bent over, recovering from the blow I leaned in and offered him a piece of advice: run.  He took it, and I yelled down our favorite gentleman stalker before I went to class (late) with several painfully bruised knuckles, a gun hiding in my backpack (I realized after class I never even turned the safety on), and varying amounts of rage, paranoia, and self-loathing rattling around in my head.  Needless to say that was not my best test grade.  That evening I went on a rant on several blogs, calling for the death of David.  In hindsight I'm not exactly sure why I picked him, but I needed to focus my rage, and he was an excellent target for that.

By Sunday I still had not seen anything else of this Runner, and had begun to hope that he had taken my advice to the full extent I had intended and left my area.  Of course the incident made me realize that the Slender Man had also begun to take a more liberal interpretation of our agreement, and I now had to at least partially protect myself from the occasional rouge human.  To that end I had begun carrying my knife around, it was nothing special, just a small blade that I could flip out in a hurry, no real reach or defensive capabilities, but than anything that would have either of those would be difficult to carry around inconspicuously, so I deemed my knife sufficient.  So on Sunday I decided to take a jog through this quite little nature trail, I quite like running, and with my deal running through the woods is both exhilarating and somewhat humorous, like an inside joke and the only other one who knows it doesn't get humor (although  I have been trying to teach him, he showed some progress with sarcasm the other day).  Before I discuss what happened next I think it is important to mention that I had intended to see him later that day, however our meeting place was not going to be the nature trail I was on, anyhow, continuing on.  

During my run I came across a clearing , the woods were to my back, but the rest of the area was a field.  Standing a short way into the field was the Runner I had encountered on Thursday, he appeared to be waiting for me.  My first thought went to how he got into an area completely surrounded by woods, this person was either very brave and determined, or very stupid, and in hindsight I'm almost positive it was the latter.  I paused, interrupting my run for the sake of curiosity, and he shouted out to me: "I've been waiting for you, I knew you'd be here again."  He seemed to be making some effort to not come of as intimidating.  It worked in a sense, his whole demeanor still carried a threat but I could see him actively trying to lessen it, the whole situation seemed very humorous, and so I laughed.  His appropriate nonthreatening response was to charge me, which of course had worked out splendidly the last time he tried it.  He was a fast sprinter, but he needed to cover about 20 feet to reach me and by the time he did I had almost flipped out my knife (note the almost).  He leapt into the air ready to tackle me at full speed when a tentacle shot out from my left and pinned him to the ground, I imagine you already know who I found when I turned to investigate.  My head and body tried to absorb the ten seconds of action all at once, I was already on an adrenaline high from the run, and the sudden action pushed my head into overdrive, and Cage began shouting inside my head.  I looked at the Slender Man and he offered me a choice: kill the Runner, or watch him die.  I looked at the knife in my hand, I looked at the man flailing on the ground begging for mercy, for a chance to join us, and I let Cage take over.  Cage took a single step forward, knelt to the ground, and said "This is how you join him."

Then the knife entered his heart.

I don't know what that runner's last thoughts were, but he died ignorant.

After killing him a rush entered my body, it was a kind of exhilaration I had never felt before, it was freeing.  The tentacle returned to its master and the Skinny One returned to a more human form, and I began to carve out the body.  I was surprised by how little blood there was, of course there was some, but nowhere near the amount I had expected.  I separated out the organs, I somehow had spilt the heart into two with my first strike, and I placed both halves on the grass right next to each other.  He watched in silence until I was finished.  When I had completed the ritual I looked at him and stated "This doesn't mean I work for you now."  He accepted this, and we proceeded to have a conversation about various other matters, towards the end I brought up the topic of starting a blog, he contemplated it for a while, and then gave his consent.  That evening Cage boasted of my success on Dead One's blog, and I began the process of starting my own.

This is hardly the kind of story I looked forward to retelling here, but it is important you know who I am.  I am capable of killing, I've done it once and I don't believe I would have trouble doing it again.  I do not like being studied without my knowledge, and I will exploit my relationship with the Slender Man if it benefits us both.  I am no hero, I am not a valiant person, and I will do what needs to be done to ensure my own survival, though I do not take that lightly.  And lastly, I am a curious mind, my main goal in this is to study, to investigate, and to learn, if I can earn new knowledge at some risk I will take the risk, so long as I honestly believe I can survive the fallout.

See you around

 -  Cage