Where do I begin?

Elliott here.

Managed to wrestle coherency out of Elaine for a little while. I think anybody with a shred of common sense will figure she's not in the greatest of states - but hell, is anybody? Anyways. Got her functioning long enough to get myself on here. Figure you deserve an explanation.

Let me start off by saying we're safe - or, well, as safe as we can be given the circumstance. It's me, Elaine and Emily crammed in a car. It's spacious, at least, and Elaine and I are taking shifts. Em is basically comatose on my lap, the poor thing - she's got the softest brown hair and the clearest fucking blue-gray eyes and she just looks completely and utterly destroyed. I can't say I blame her, either - seeing what she saw there is something no six-year-old should have to deal with. Or anybody, for that matter.

From what I've heard, Rich and Shaun are travelling together. Good on them. They're tough bastards. Alex is with Steele, Rivers and Ray and they're not doing so hot - though they're alive, and fuck that's worth a whole lot right now. Rivers, Steele, thank you again for taking in Alex. I don't think I can express my gratitude enough. I don't even want to begin to think of what would happen to him if you didn't agree - and I'm so, so sorry about getting you dragged into this. Rivers, you'd better pull through. I've got a debt to repay to both of you.

But enough stalling.

Hope.

I could tell the place was off the second we set foot inside the concrete walls. Something about the way the floors creaked and the way the light hit the paint made the place seem uncanny. It had the same smell in the forest - under the pine and the damp earth, there was the unmistakable /stench/ of sulfur, pine and something I think we eventually nailed down as tar. Acrid and bitter. It burned your throat and made your eyes water. It wasn't nearly as strong as the forest had been, but it was still there. Notes of it on the edge of every breath. If you didn't step out for some fresh air you'd develop a headache - or, that's what happened to the three of us. Rich hated the place, Alex was uneasy and I was on edge. Every time I'd slip to the roof for a cigarette I'd see the slender bastard at the edge of the property, watching. Waiting. As if something was keeping him out.

We figured that one out, huh?

It was one hell of a deal, too. Tried leaving Hope to go shopping with Alex once. Second we crossed the property line Tall, Dark and Slender was on us - on /Alex/. We weren't two steps over and got back before he could be snatched up, but I don't think I'd ever been more scared of losing one of them. The second we were back over He stopped. Went back to watching us. Waiting.

(And of course now that we're out it's only gotten worse. Off in the corner of your eye. Like you've got blind in the deepest part of your peripheral vision, except the hole wavers every once and a while. It's barely a movement at all - always seems to happen just when you forget it's there. The fucker's toying with you and you know it and goddamnit it's working.)

...

I'm stalling again.

Can you blame me?

(Yes. Get on with it, Broodmoor.)

I... wasn't actually around for the start of it. I was supposed to be out of Hope by noon today. While everybody was having what'd be the last communal lunch, I was packing. Missed the glorious reappearance of Slender himself, Rivers getting his leg splayed open and destroyed - by the sounds of it, anyways - and the chaos that tends to follow this kind of stuff.

But I'd be damned if I didn't feel it in the place. So could Alex. I think to an extend everybody else could, too. If you stared at the walls they'd flicker and the rotten eggs and pine stench was noxious. But that aside, the place was quiet. Peaceful. Deceptively so, you could say - the calm before the storm.

(And don't think I didn't notice the date. Maybe it's coincidence, but I'm not stupid enough to dismiss it so quickly.)

Then hurricane Slender hit with full force. Rivers loses the use of a leg, Steele grabs him, Ray and Alex and books, Nick and Ellen are off riding flaming wolves somewhere, (/how much I wish I was kidding about that/) and I come into the kitchen just in time to watch Jennifer and Adam get run through by Dr. Stalktopus himself.

Elaine's standing between them. Defending them from Slender. He doesn't take kindly to this, of course, and grabs her by the leg and tosses her across the room. It's then that He turns his attention to the mother and child and lets them share the same fate as their husband and father.

Adam wasn't old enough to chew his own food. Babbled and bubbled. Couldn't have been more than a year and he was slaughtered in his mother's arms. Her dad was killed off before then - shotgun only a couple feet away. I didn't want to think about it.

And there's Emily, staring in horror.

I grabbed her and ran. 'Course Slenderfucker grabbed me. Popped my arm right out of its socket. Hurt like a bitch. Still hurts like a bitch. Popped it back in a while ago but it's still awkward and painful as fuck. But I'll live. Bastard's been waiting twenty years for me - a few more won't kill Him.

Had my bag over one shoulder and Em over the other. Injuries be damned I wasn't going to let her die. Ran until we got out of Hope - which had by then turned into a maze in itself, doors leading into different rooms than the ones you entered through. Windows blocked halls and I think we ran along the top of a door frame at one point. It was messed up. BC had some seriously weird architecture, but that was unsettling. This just didn't make sense. The kitchen was on fire. The sitting room - the one with the piano - was soaked in gasoline. Wouldn't be long until the fire reached it and there'd be a sizeable boom to follow - at least if Hollywood has taught me anything.

Flash of red. Giggle. Green eyes.

Writer. Couldn't see the bastard but I knew he was there. Probably the one responsible for filling the rooms with gas. Crazy bastard.

(Guess the forest wasn't enough for you, huh?)

We started driving. We're still driving. Not going to stop until we get to Vermont.

Time for my shift. I'm probably forgetting a few things. Going to add what I can as I can.