So, yesterday TMV and David got married, as a lot of you saw. I'd intended to stick with them for a few more days, enjoy their company, spend some time with David. Unfortunately, that's all out the window now. On the bright side, I know who my stalker is.
So, story time, I guess. Though I certainly don't have the fucking perfect memory (or tape recorder) of some of you fucks, so I'll be summarizing the dialogue except for the important bits that I do remember.
Derek, Em, and I were settling down to watch a movie. Princess and the Frog, actually, it's Emily's favorite. And we're being lazy fucks, so we order in for pizza because that's an easy thing to do when you're sitting on your ass all night.
But it's not the pizza guy who shows up. It's Angmar. Fucking Angmar, of all the damn... well, of course, now it all makes sense. I knew that Star had left him behind to watch me, he announced it on the blog. I'd forgotten about him after, since we never heard from him and honestly considering we were friends I'd kind of figured Star would reassign him or something.
As it turns out, Star gave him the orders to not harm me (he 'wanted me for himself'), but left him to keep an eye on me. It's almost sweet, he was trying to make sure I was alright, I guess. But when Star defected... Well, Angmar wasn't too pleased. Decided it was his job to kill me and bring his boss back to the fold.
He told me all of this at the top of his lungs, gesturing with that fucking sword of his and acting like he was in fucking Lord of the Rings or something. Talking about honor and sacred duty and 'Stand forth and defend yourself'. All that bullshit.
Because other than pushing Derek aside to get in the door, he refused to touch any of us until I agreed to fight him in 'a duel'. And he spent enough time trying to get Derek to just stand the fuck aside so he didn't have to hit him that I could hide Emily before Angmar could see her.
Fucker thinks he's a knight or some shit.
So, remembering last time, where he was retardedly bad, I agreed to fight him. As it turns out, he's been practicing. Good for him, he needed it. And at this point, he's not half bad with that sword. Got in a good swipe on me, anyway. Though he wouldn't have lasted too much longer, he still needs a lot of practice before a great honking sword like that can stand up to me. I get inside his guard and he doesn't know how to stop me.
But then we had a visit from slendershit. And honestly, even Angmar froze in his fucking tracks when the lights started flickering and the movie spazzed out and froze on the image of a fucking operator symbol on the wall. (Which, yeah, that's a thing in the movie, I checked. Pause it at 19 seconds-you may have to crank up the resolution. Someone at Disney is a real cunt)
And then he showed up in the middle of the room. Just for a couple moments, then he was gone. So I yell at Derek to go check on Emily, terrified that slendershit fucking took her, and try to get Angmar to get lost.
Unfortunately, running away is not knightly or something. He insisted on holding his ground. Derek came out with Em-we figured it'd be better to stick close.
And then slender showed back up and all hell really broke loose. Angmar started eyeing Em, looking like he wanted to make a break for her to impress his master. Emily starts trying her damndest to get out of Derek's grip, yelling about how she wants to see her parents again. I'm trying to fight Angmar to keep him distracted, and all the while slender's yelling at me to stand down and kneel.
Em lands a lucky shot with her squirming-judging by the noise Derek made she got a nut shot- and darts straight for slender.
He picks her up, wraps a tentacle around her, picks her up, and just stares. The sudden silence is enough to make my blood run cold. I lunge for Em, Angmar lunges for me, and Derek dives at him and takes him down. I lost track of what happened with Angmar and Derek because I'm yelling and screaming and tugging, trying anything I can think of to try to get Emily back.
And then I decide to try something that ended badly last time. I sliced his fucking tentacle off. Emily falls, he bitchslaps me across the room /again/, and...
Then I woke up a few minutes later with Derek peering at me in obvious concern. Another concussion, I'd passed the fuck out. He lets me know that Angmar ran off and Emily's still here, she's gonna be fine, and he helps me totter over to talk to her.
As it turns out, that tentacle that was wrapped so snugly around her left a niiice burn. Wrapped all the way around her chest. She's, quite understandably, in a fair bit of pain, but there's not much more I can do that Derek hasn't yet-he got her set up with ice, and had her distracted eating some chips, since we couldn't exactly trust the pizza Angmar brought.
I needed to talk to her before we could do anything else. She'd just tried to willingly give herself up to slender.
Luckily, I have a very smart girl. She knew exactly what I wanted to talk about.
"I'm sorry. I just thought... The Man says that if I go with him, everything will be good again and I can see everyone and people will stop dying. And. What if that's true? You worked with him. And David. And Rachael. And Joel. What if he's telling the truth and all the bad stuff goes away when you go with him?"
Cue my heart fucking breaking. I'd tried to shelter her from the stories of terrible things that happen when you work for him, tried to shield her from all the terrible stories. But she'd seen a lot(and David can't keep his mouth shut around her). She knew suffering. And her six year old mind saw a strong, comforting authority figure who promised to take it away. Because he can be comforting, most of you know this. If he wants you, if he's trying to charm you to him, he makes everything in the world that hurts just... float away.
"No, Em. He's lying. He hurts you worse if you're his. That's what happened to all of us. That's why we stopped." I tactically avoided the subject of David, I didn't want to confuse her. "I know it's tempting, but all he does is hurt people."
"I just don't want anyone else to die." Emily starts crying quietly.
Derek pipes up then. "Well, we don't want you to die either."
After that, I put her in the shower with the water running cold to help with the burns and sat down to talk to Derek until I could walk in a straight line again.
A few things were very clear to me then.
Firstly, I'm definitely healing way faster than I used to, I didn't even have a fucking headache by the time we went to bed that night.
Most importantly... I've let Emily down in a big way. I let my own pain and grief distract me. I was selfish, and did what was best for me, not for her. Running around to see my friends, trying to hide from the reality of our situation and of my own guilt. I've tried hard to stay busy, distracted, so that I didn't have to face the world.
No more. Emily deserves better. From now on she is my only focus. Everything I do will be what is best for /her/, and I will dedicate my time to being there for her.
And so, first thing this morning, the two of us left Derek, TMV, and David, and set off on our own way. I've done what I can, I still have some of the supplies Lori gave me back in Austin, so I can treat the burn. It's nothing I haven't dealt with before.
It is difficult to help someone so young, especially in such an unstable environment. I wish you luck in your endeavor.
ReplyDeleteS
Thanks. I do what I can, anyway
DeleteHuh. Angmar seriously had a speech and shit ready?
ReplyDeleteHow lame.
Yeeep. Still a larper at heart, that one.
Delete*watches the video*
ReplyDeleteWell I'll be damned...
Meh, at least it wasn't another penis.
I like your priorities.
DeleteI don't. I'd rather kids see natural parts of the human body than symbols of slendershit.
DeleteI can imagine so. I was making fun of him.
DeleteGood movie.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what's best for the girl is being nowhere near you. Did you ever check if she has living relatives?
She doesn't. The only people she has left are us.
DeleteYour sure that was Slenderman? In every other case a knife, or a blade would have done jack shit to it, and your saying to cut one of it's Tentacles off? I'm sorry I'm having a hard time with this one.
ReplyDeleteThen again.... you would of been pretty pissed off at the time.
Let me clarify. There was no severed tentacle on the floor afterward. I chopped at it, it let go, left Em with a burn, and threw me across the room. I don't exactly think I did any real damage.
DeleteI wonder why it let go then?
DeletePerhaps it's like blocking a flashlight- the light's still there but the obstruction temporarily shortens the beam, y'know?
DeleteYeah... grasping for straws. There have been records of successful attacks against Tall Pale and Faceless before, but only one that's left lasting damage, and the jury's still out on that one.
Your assuming the master didn't stop on his own. I thought this was obvious.
DeleteAttacking him with the knife is a clear indicator of a refusal to yield. So he made good on his promise of making Elaine regret fighting him and burned em.
I tend to agree with Swan, honestly.
Delete....
DeleteEither way, you answered my question.
Oh how all occasions do inform against thee.
ReplyDeleteWow, I wasn't aware they had the internet back when that kind of language was in vogue. You must be really fucking old.
DeleteI am as old as my body. The line was merely a paraphrase from the Bard in Hamlet:
DeleteHow all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!
Ah! An English Major. Hamlet is fucking depressing, and poor old Bill is over-quoted.
DeleteI'm still unsure as to whether that girl deserves an ankle monitor or a platinum medal.
ReplyDeleteKeep an eye on her- if there's one thing consistent about our mutual Tallish Friend, it's the knack for stealing children for god knows what reason... bloody pedo...
How bad's the burn, anyway? First, second, third degree?
Probably second degree? I'm no good at judging. I just know how to handle it. I've got a nice scar from one I got a while back, I remember how to deal with slenderburn.
DeleteMy company dosn't sees you as a trustful person, civil Elaine, but I can't just stay indiferent when an innocent kid needs help.
ReplyDeleteOk, if you are actually using just ice to take care of the burn, it may not be as severe as other burns from "Slender interaction" I have tried to attent. So first, dont use ice, it only restrain the blood flow. Just cold water.
Then you could try any of this:
1.-Apply real honey directly to the burn. You can use a piece of cloth to cover it.
2.-Apply natural aloe pulp directly. You can use a cloth as well.
3.-Here is a good one; Spread virgin olive oil over the burned area, and then sprinkle over some sea salt. At first, she will feel some burning, but it's worth it, since it avoids the appearance of the annoying blisters. Then just cover it with a cloth.
4.-This one just prevents the scars to be permanent, it MIGHT not work at all; get a suplement vitamin E capsule, open it up, and sprinkle the content in the irritated area.
5.-Ah! My favorite one! My own grandma teached it to me back at my childhood, but it may be difficult to get all the ingredients; Use bunch of marigold flowers, plantain leaves, and a mix of beewax and virgin olive oil (1:3 in that order, you dont need that much, nothing more than a spoon). Then fry the olive oil, the Calendula flowers and the Plantain in a pan. Percolate the resulting "slime"(I'm not sure how to call it) and add the beewax-olive mix. DONT EAT IT, at least if you want to "speed up" your metabolism. Just apply it to the burn with a piece of cloth.
Change the pieces of cloth for at least 3 times a day. And dont rip off any existing blister. Hope she gets well.
I usually recomend wine to all my patients (a terrible move if we reconsider that we are running out of wine at base), but...
Well for this kid I just have an advice:
Keep breathing.
Take care of those who take care of you. And make sure they keep breathing as well.
Thanks for trying to help. The ice was Derek's idea-I actually put her in the shower with cold water running, after that conversation.
DeleteI have some really good hospital grade burn salve that I've been using on it.
You can fancy that in your Runner status? Impressive, most would kill for such opportunities.
DeleteIt helps that I'm good friends with a doctor.
DeleteThis should also serve as notice (or perhaps reminder) that though Em is "really smart", the Construct has a tendency to evoke responses that are more emotionally driven than logically driven.
ReplyDeleteHey, Elaine, this maybe isn't the right time or place, but how all do you find these places to stay? I'm getting low on money, so hotels aren't going to work much longer. Any advice?
ReplyDelete