PROXY

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Chapter 1

Ella stood in the middle of the kitchen, her arms crossed, watching her mother unravel.

Selina looked exhausted. The ink on her divorce papers was barely dry, and the stress of the past few months had hollowed out her cheeks. She loved Ella fiercely, but love made her weak. It made her malleable. And Ella knew exactly which buttons to press.

"Mom! You always say no before you even hear me out!" Ella argued, throwing her hands up in mock frustration. "I’m not going alone. The whole group is going! We’re just hiking the perimeter of the nearest woods. We won’t even go deep, and—"

"El, please..." Selina interrupted, rubbing her temples. "We’ve talked about this. I just... I have a really bad feeling about this stupid hike. Can’t you pick something else to do?"

Ella let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Pick something else? Oh, pardon me for having a different personality than yours. Dad just walked out on us, and now I’m not even allowed to breathe outside with my friends?"

The mention of her father hit exactly where Ella intended. Selina flinched, the guilt instantly washing over her tired face. She sighed, defeated. "Okay... okay. But charge your phone, alright? And please, don’t wear anything catchy."

Selina watched her daughter nod triumphantly. It wasn't jealousy that made Selina resent her daughter's appearance; it was terror. Ella’s beauty felt like a curse waiting to fracture. She possessed the kind of looks that rotted people from the inside out, drawing the wrong kind of attention and dragging her into trouble. With skin so fair it was almost translucent under the kitchen lights, striking light-green eyes, a painfully narrow waist, and cascading long, soft brown hair—Ella was a masterpiece.

And in a world full of predators, Selina knew that masterpieces were always hunted.

A few hours later, they were all loaded into the trucks.

Ella sat in the front seat, leaning just close enough to Kaleb to make her intentions obvious. He was Jennie’s boyfriend, but Ella didn't actually care about him. She didn’t want Kaleb; she just wanted the satisfaction of knowing she could have any guy she looked at—even her best friend's. Jennie had been Ella’s shadow for as long as anyone could remember, always relegated to being just "Ella’s friend." She was the less attractive, heavier girl who existed merely to make Ella shine brighter. And Ella liked it that way.

In the back, Bobby was loudly crunching on a bag of chips, breaking the tension with his usual stupid observations. "I seriously wonder about people who write 'u' instead of 'you' in texts. Like, what do they do with all that spare time they saved?"

Jennie rolled her eyes, her voice dripping with exhaustion. "Oh my god, Bobby, please shut up."

Lily chimed in from the corner. She was the hyper-rational, OCD brain of the group, and she didn't look up from her lap. "According to my calculations, they don't do it to save time. They are just desperately trying to look cool. Little do they know, it has the exact opposite effect."

Kaleb ignored the backseat banter, his eyes darting from the road to Ella with a smirk. "We need to speed up if we're going to outrun the other truck full of idiots."

Ella batted her long eyelashes, leaning back into her seat with a slow, dangerous smile. "Relax... we have all the time in the world."

Ella’s slow smile widened as Marc’s red truck roared down the asphalt alongside them, attempting to pass. Inside, the car was a blur of loud music and flashing phone screens, but Ella’s eyes locked onto the backseat window.

There was Tom.

His face was stark white, his knuckles practically bleeding from how tightly he was gripping his seatbelt. While the others laughed and cheered, Tom’s eyes were wide with pure terror, locked onto the speedometer and then onto the approaching woods. He looked like a man being driven straight to his execution.

Marc slammed on the horn, pulling ahead in triumph. Kaleb growled, stepping on the gas to keep up, but Ella just watched Tom's panicked face recede into the distance.

Ahead of them, the heavy, dark canopy of the woods seemed to stretch out like long arms, waiting to swallow them whole.

Ella rolled her eyes. "Tom is a fucking pussy. Look at him, he’s scared of Slender Man."

Kaleb let out a loud, easy laugh at Ella’s silly joke, completely charmed by her edge.

But in the backseat, the atmosphere suffocated. Jennie felt a sickening twist in her stomach. She sat in the silence of the truck, feeling the absolute worst because she could sense Ella’s toxic competition humming through the air. It wasn't just a casual joke; it was Ella marking her territory, subtly tightening her grip around Kaleb just to prove she could. And Jennie, trapped under her best friend's shadow, could do nothing but watch.

The trip blurred by in a haze of setting up tents and unpacking gear. By the time evening arrived, the forest had plunged into an eerie darkness, lit only by the dancing orange flames of the campfire.

The group huddled close, roasting marshmallows and whispering scary stories, their voices drowned out by the crackle of burning wood.

Ella saw her chance. Catching Kaleb’s eye with a subtle tilt of her head, she slipped away from the firelight into the shadows. Kaleb followed her like a moth to a flame. A short distance from the campsite, hidden behind the thick trunk of an ancient pine tree, Ella pulled him in. She didn't care about the cold, and she definitely didn't care about Kaleb—she just relished the quiet thrill of knowing Jennie was sitting alone by the fire, entirely oblivious that her boyfriend was currently melting into Ella's hands in the dark.

Jennie walked straight into them, her footsteps heavy enough to shatter the illusion. She froze, staring at her best friend and her boyfriend wrapped around each other in the dark.

"Seriously?" Jennie’s voice cracked, sharp and breathless.

Ella didn't even flinch. She slowly stepped back from Kaleb, smoothing down her clothes before giving a small, effortless chuckle. "Hi, JJ. Wanna join us?"

Jennie’s eyes instantly watered, the humiliation burning hot in her chest. "Fuck you, Ella!... And fuck you, Kaleb!"

"Wow, nice insult," Ella said, rolling her eyes as if Jennie was the one being dramatic. She crossed her arms, a cold, mocking smile playing on her lips. "Come on, chill. It meant nothing."

Kaleb stood frozen, looking everywhere but at his girlfriend, while Jennie's world completely fractured.

Jennie stared at Ella, her lip trembling, but she didn’t scream. The tears running down her cheeks weren't just from losing a boyfriend; they were from the brutal shattering of a lifetime of devotion. Since they were children, Jennie had protected Ella, loved her, and excused every mean thing she had ever done. And now, Ella was looking at her with total indifference.

"It meant nothing?" Jennie whispered, her voice cracking. "I loved you, El. More than anyone. And you just... you always take everything from me."

Ella completely ignored Jennie’s tears, turning her back on her childhood friend without a shred of remorse. She casually strolled back into the warm glow of the campfire, leaving Jennie frozen in the dark.

Walking straight up to the circle, Ella playfully threw herself right onto Bobby’s lap, sitting on top of him with an effortless smile. "You always take the best spot!"

"Ahh! Get off of me, you're breaking my bones!" Bobby groaned dramatically, clutching his stomach.

Ella let out a sharp chuckle, tossing her hair. "Huh? I am like 5'3" and barely 103 pounds, stop that!"

As the rest of the group burst into laughter, enjoying the banter, Tom sat completely rigid on his log. He wasn't hearing a single word his friends were saying. His eyes were wide, bloodshot, and locked onto the deep darkness of the woods.

He saw it.

Weaving between the ancient pine trees was a colossal, humanoid silhouette. It was massive—taller than any man—yet it moved with a terrifying, liquid speed, slipping from shadow to shadow without making a single sound.

Tom gasped, his voice catching in his throat before he finally screamed, "FUCK!… Did you guys see that?!"

The laughter died down for a second, and Ella rolled her eyes, leaning back comfortably. "Yeah, Tom. Slender Man is here for the marshmallows. Hahahahah!"

Tom’s face paled completely, and tears began to stream down his face. "We need to get the fuck out of here! I mean it...!"

Kaleb just laughed, shaking his head. "Oh god, look at him... someone get this guy a blanket."

Despite Tom's panic, the dark, heavy silence of the woods eventually swallowed his warnings. After a tense dinner, the fire was reduced to glowing embers, and everyone retreated to their tents.

Ella zipped herself into the tent she shared with Lily and Jennie. The space felt suffocatingly small. Looking over at Jennie’s turned back, Ella cleared her throat, trying to sound soft. "JJ... I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't think you really cared about him that much. I just—"

"Save it, El," Jennie interrupted, her voice flat, cold, and entirely broken. "Good night."

Outside, Tom wasn't sleeping. His heart was hammering against his ribs as he frantically packed his backpack in the dark. Blinded by fear, he held his phone up, watching the screen flicker with a weak, dying signal as he desperately tried to call an Uber to the nearest roadside. He was heading the hell out of there, even if he had to walk.

At the exact same time, Kaleb unzipped his tent and walked a short distance into the dark tree line to pee, entirely oblivious.

Tom slipped past the tents, his eyes glued to the map on his phone. But as he stepped onto the narrow, unlit path leading out of the campsite, the forest seemed to change. The air grew impossibly cold, thick with the stench of rotting wood and old copper. The ancient pines loomed over him like jagged teeth blocking out the starlight, and the shadows appeared to stretch and writhe on their own.

Then, he heard it—a wet, heavy thud, followed by the sound of something dragging through the dead leaves.

Shaking violently, Tom stepped off the path and shined his phone’s flashlight into the brush. The beam of light cut through the mist and landed on the ground.

It was Kaleb. Or rather, what was left of him.

Severed clean from the neck, Kaleb's head sat upright on the damp earth, his eyes wide and frozen in an eternal, glassy stare of pure agony. Blood was still bubbling quietly from the base.

Tom’s lungs seized. The terror was so absolute, so suffocating, that it choked the air right out of him. He was too terrified to even scream.

Claire walked into the clearing, holding her phone up to find a signal. "Tom, are you—"

The beam of her screen caught the gruesome sight on the ground. Her voice choked for a fraction of a second before she let out a piercing, blood-curdling scream that shattered the silence of the forest and jolted the entire camp awake.

Within seconds, zippers flew open. Ella, Jennie, and the rest of the group bolted out of their tents, disoriented and shouting in confusion.

"What happened?! Claire?!" Bobby yelled, stumbling into the light.

But before anyone could answer, a colossal, towering figure materialized from the tree line. It moved so fast it was nothing but a blur of jagged limbs and terrifying height. With one sweeping, monstrous movement, the entity kicked a massive wave of dirt and earth directly over the campfire.

The flames died instantly. The camp plunged into pitch-black darkness.

"FUCK! I can't see!" Marc screamed.

Pure, blind animal instinct took over. In the absolute dark, surrounded by the sudden, freezing chill of the entity’s presence, all logic vanished. No one tried to stick together. Every single one of them turned and ran in a different direction into the blinding blackness of the woods, their terrified footsteps scattering like dry leaves in a storm.The dark woods turned into a meat grinder.

Marc was the first to go. In his blind panic, he crashed through the thick brush, running toward any flickering light he could see. His heavy breathing cut through the dark until a sickening, wet crack echoed. The entity didn't just catch him; it snapped his spine mid-stride like a dry twig. His body hit the forest floor with a limp, final thud.

Lily bolted blindly, her sneakers slipping on the damp mud. Out of the pitch black, an impossibly long, cold grip caught her by the ankles, hoisting her upside down into the air. She couldn't even see her attacker. Before a scream could leave her throat, the creature smashed her into the ground with primal fury. Bones shattered, blood exploded across the dirt. It slammed her once, twice, pulverizing her body, before dropping her like a broken doll and moving on.

Inside his tent, Bobby was paralyzed. The terror was so absolute that his bladder gave out; he wet his pants, shaking violently as the warmth turned freezing cold in the night air. "Please… please…" he whimpered, pressing his hands over his mouth. Then, he heard it—a terrifying, rhythmic clack-clack-clack vibrating from the depths of the creature's throat. He stared, wide-eyed, at the flimsy fabric of the tent entrance, waiting for death.

Nearby, Claire desperately tried to defend herself. In a surge of adrenaline, she raised her phone, using the blinding flash as a weapon. But it only illuminated her doom. The creature lunged, grabbing her instantly and driving a jagged, razor-sharp claw deep into her gut. Her scream was cut short. She was gone.

While Tom was already stumbling onto the main asphalt road, breathless and screaming hysterically at the empty highway for a car—any car—to help, Jennie was still deep in the slaughterhouse. The camp was a chaotic symphony of agonizing shrieks, but as the screams started dying out one by one, Jennie kept pushing through the dark, her voice raw. "Ella! Ella, where are you?!" Her heart was breaking, but her devotion to her childhood friend kept her moving toward the danger.

But Ella couldn't hear her. She was cowering in a pitch-black corner behind a fallen log, completely traumatized, her knees pulled to her chest.

Suddenly, the air died. A towering weight crashed down, and the creature tackled Ella into the dirt.

Ella pinned her eyes shut, her body locking up as she prepared for the end. She waited for the bones to crack, for the blood to explode. But death didn't come. Instead, she felt a freezing, sickening breath against her skin as the entity leaned down and smelled her neck. Then, with an agonizing slowness, its long, spindly fingers reached out and gently touched her soft brown hair.

Ella kept her eyes tightly closed, weeping silently, feeling the surreal, terrifying intimacy of the monster.

Then came the pain. The creature raised a single, razor-sharp claw and pressed it against her stomach. Slowly, deliberately, it carved into her flesh—a small, bleeding circle with a sharp 'X' sliced right through the center.

By the break of dawn, the suffocating silence of the forest was finally shattered.

The distant, wailing echo of police sirens filled the misty morning air, growing louder as flashing red and blue lights bled through the dark canopy of the trees. The creature was gone, vanishing into the shadows of the deep woods as quickly as it had arrived.

But the damage was absolute.

The flashing lights illuminated a literal graveyard of torn tents, shattered bones, and blood-soaked earth. The entity had left only four behind: Bobby, paralyzed in his own sweat and terror inside his tent; Tom, hysterical and weeping on the gravel edge of the highway; Jennie, pale and emotionally hollowed out; and Ella, clutching her bleeding stomach in the dirt.

But at what cost?

The cold, harsh light of morning brought the grim, undeniable reality into focus. Out of the ten bright, young friends who had driven into these woods with music blasting and laughter echoing, only four survived.

The nightmare in the woods had ended, but for the survivors, a new kind of hell was just beginning.