Hunting Slenderman

[dont_turn_around]

In the mist and fog and silence, there is a cave. There is darkness within darkness there and nothing more and the faint whiff of something ... not right.

But there's a drawing stuck to the rocks that frame the opening, a childish grouping of trees and a tall, thin man, with the words TAMAN SHUD.

Here is the end.

"I think we should go here," says Jack.

Comments

[dont_turn_around]

The growling voice fade away.




Then,

HUNGRY

loud as thunder into their heads, even Jack's.

[ambriel]

A long spear, with a cherry wood shaft topped with a gleaming bronze blade, appears in Ambriel's hand.

"There is no sustenance for you here."

The angel turns slowly in place, continuing to scan their surroundings.

[mix_it_up]

Asami puts a hand to her forehead, but otherwise doesn't move.

"Maybe it didn't like that?" she suggests, raising her voice above above the song. She's determined to think only of solutions, and nothing else.

[nerves_of_ice]

Held immobile deep in a darkness blacker than any night, his eyes move rapidly back and forth behind closed eyelids, as though dreaming.

(I give you STRENGTH. I give you PROTECTION. I give you BENEDICTION.)

Bucky Barnes makes no sound at all, and the expression on his face is one of quiet repose.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack pauses and rubs his forehead.

I know you are, but you can't have our people.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"What the hell?" Steve says at the voice in his head.

He moves closer to Jack, trying to see what he's seeing, hear what he's hearing.

Underneath it all beats a simple tattoo, Bucky Bucky be okay Bucky...

[nerves_of_ice]

Silence.

[dont_turn_around]

in the dark



he waits

[mix_it_up]

Asami flickers the light to the ground just ahead of them for a moment, moving her free hand to her ear, and taking Steve's idea of humming something to herself against the sound.

(It might be "Secret Tunnel." A sense of humor probably isn't the worst thing if she's trying not to be afraid.)

Then, she tries shining the light straight into the darkness.

[ambriel]

"There is nothing here," Ambriel says. "We must go further.

"Does this...being gain strength from the darkness as well?" That would be odd, but not unheard of. "I can give us more light."

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack draws in a breath, feeling a tug in his being, and says quietly, "More light never hurts. Please do, Ambriel."

[ambriel]

Ambriel nods, and around the four of them, there is suddenly a circle of ambient light. Not like sunlight, but like a sky full of stars, or a pale moon. There is no one source of light, just a lessening of the dark.

It does not extend far into the shadows, but they can see each other clearly.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve inhales, and whispers softly, "That's beautiful."

He always appreciates a lessening of the dark.

[mix_it_up]

Asami nods, though she doesn't put her own light out.

"It definitely feels better," she agrees.

[dont_turn_around]

If he has anything to say about it, that won't last.


Again comes the growly voice, low and inhuman.

This little light of mine,
I'm gonna eat its shine,
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna eat its shine
Eat its shine, eat its shine, eat its shine.

[jack_inthegreen]

Stop this, Jack thinks, and then says it out loud. "Stop this.

"You thrive on fear, but what does it really do? Your worshipers are gone--they have forgotten you, they have moved on, if any of their descendants still live. And now you only have followers who cower before you.

"We will not cower. We are not afraid."

[ambriel]

"Keep going. If it is trying to drive us away, there is something here it does not want us to find."

Ambriel doubts it is afraid of them.

Not yet, anyway.

[mix_it_up]

The song, and the play on words, mean nothing to her. And now, that knowledge weighs heavier than any fear it might be trying to force into her mind.

So she doesn't hesitate in stepping ahead, still shining the flashlight straight into the darkness.

Whether it's afraid of them or not: "I want to know what that is."

[dont_turn_around]

There is a thought, like a wedge, in each of their minds.

Steve -- scrawny and weak, mocked and belitteled, unable to draw a deep breath, unable to fight for his country or his Bucky friends.

Ambriel -- Helpess, hapless, as the innocent are slaughtered all around him.

Asami -- Surrounded by dirisive laughter, coming from those she respects.

Jack -- Every forest burned.

Every.

Forest.

Burned.

I am fear itself.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack staggers, his own worst nightmare thrust into his head. He can taste the desolation, after seeing Ellen's world. He can smell it on his hands.

Ashes and smoke.

Nothing but ashes and smoke.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve would cry out, but he can't breathe.

[ambriel]

"STOP!" Ambriel slams the butt of the spear into the ground, producing a deep ringing tone. The light flares up around them all, now bright enough to cast their own shadows on the ground.

"FEAR NOT. This creature shows us nothing but lies! Do not listen."

The angel points the spear forward, deeper into the cave. "You cannot harm us by hiding in the dark! Come out! Face us!"

[mix_it_up]

It may be her fear, but she's not afraid. Her sureness made it distant in her mind, even before Ambriel's voice rang out.

Asami lowers her own light, but steps forward, right up to the edge that continues into the darkness.

Her voice is quieter but no less certain. "That won't make us leave this time."

[dont_turn_around]

There is a sound, like great rock breaking in two.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The angel, the fight outside--he has never encountered such resistance.

It's so much better when they scream.

The tunnel they are in comes to an abrupt end, opening to a vast cavern.

[nerves_of_ice]

It's impossible, really, to discern the furthest reaches of the cave. Darkness oozes from every crevice, while odd air currents whisper of fear and the horror of being lost deep beneath the earth, unable to find any escape to such things as the fast-dimming memory of sunlight and air.

Strange, blood-dark symbols mark the walls, revealed in fits and starts by Ambriel's gleaming radiance and the glow of Asami's flashlight. Some of them are familiar, circles crossed with Xs repeating over and over again.

Some are older, much older, written in languages long forgotten by any earthly civilization left living.

no eyes to see
no ears to hear
in darkness feeds
on flesh and fear

At the heart of the chamber, stretched out on a bed of raised earth like an altar, rests a human-sized bar of chocolate, with the familiar features of Bucky Barnes just barely perceptible through the thinner coating of cocoa that yet allows him to breathe. One hand is frozen in a clawlike shape, silently and futilely protesting his imprisonment.

An orange figure the size of a child lies crumpled and bleeding at the base of the altar, a gun at its side and one arm in a sling.

Behind the altar, facelessly watching, stands the Slender Man himself.