The Tall Man

The Tall Man

I stood in the darkness, of another world, only now fully understanding what was going on. The world went on, completely ignored by me, for now. This must be what always happened, isn’t it? I now understand what it is. It didn’t matter now anymore though, or at least not to me.

I ran my hand through my thinning hair, which I just now noticed, it didn’t matter, and nothing did now. There were many people here, all scared to death. There was reason for that, which I’ll get into later. My memory is fading, that’s why I want to tell my story. I know I'll soon be no more.

I fully understand everything now, anyway. I know both halves. My struggle was for nothing, it always was. Hell, it was always there, even when I didn’t know it was, always there. Always watching. In its own way, trying to protect me. Trying to protect everyone it could.

For centuries it had. No not had, has, and will continue to.

I will start the story, from what I deem the start, though it isn’t with me, it starts with It.

-

“You caused this!” John, a resident at the Redwood Apartment Complex, yelled out. He was in the forest with another man, a man he didn’t know the name of. But he knew it was all his fault. John gripped the knife tightly in his hand.

The man backed away, slightly.

“I’m only trying to protect you!” The man yelled back, as he fell, tripping over a root. John took this chance an opening.

“You damn know you weren’t protecting me! Ever since you came along, that creature has been stalking me!” John yelled out, as he jumped on top of the other man, anger flaring in his eyes. “So, with that understanding, if I kill you, it’ll go away too,” John said, with a type of purr that could only be classified as insane.

In the next instant, John’s knife was stabbed into the man’s chest. Time and time again, the knife found its way into the man’s body. Slowly carving its way into the person, steadily going down. Blood started coming out of the man’s mouth, along with a gurgle.

With one final stab, it pierced the man’s bone, straight into his heart. John stood up, letting out a laugh. “I’m free of it,” He said while laughing.

“You deny my protection!” He heard shouted out. Yet John knew, his ears didn’t physically hear it, almost as if it was yelled from within his own mind. John went silent, almost instantly.

“No, no no no,” He mumbled, as he looked around, trying to spot where the voice had come from, he couldn’t see anything in the dense darkness combined with the fog. All he could see was an outline moving on him. It was an outline of a tall man, roughly ten feet tall.

“How?” John said to him. “I killed him, you shouldn’t be here.” John stepped backwards, tripping over the body he had just mutilated. He closed his eyes for a brief second. When they opened again, the figure was gone, no longer there.

“It…was just my damn mind,” John mumbled under his breath. “It really is gone.” Or so he had thought. Something gripped his arm with a huge amount of force, nearly crushing his shoulder. John screamed out in pain. Before he could turn around, he was thrown, with great force. He smashed against a tree branch, being impaled on it.

As he slowly bleed to death, he saw the creature standing there, watching it. Blood came out of his mouth. He died up there on that tree. The thing vanished, before appearing on a neighboring tree branch. He went through with another ritual. It had to protect something after all.

I find it shocking how fast John went insane. He hadn’t even been followed by the creature for more than two weeks, half a month. I at least, lasted a month. It doesn’t matter now though, he lost it, and not in a good way. He should never have killed the Proxy, if he wasn’t ready to fight the monster that was now angered by his actions.

That is where this all starts, with the first death, how little did I know of what else was going to happen. If only I hadn’t gone on that walk, a week later, maybe it wouldn’t have happened, but now it has, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

The man, John, had left I diary behind, which was found later, after his body. He had snapped, and was believed to be insane by what was written in it.

He talked about some person approaching him, the man that he had killed. He talked about how he needn’t worry, he was under his protection. That freaked him out a bit, but he thought it was some kind of joke at first. Then since his encounter with that man, he started seeing this thing.

The way he described it, was a tall man, wearing a suit. He never got to close, and was always there watching him. It freaked him out, especially since he seemed to be the only one that could see it. Even it just being close by though, didn’t help him any. If anything, it drove him crazy. That was when the man showed up again, he asked if he liked being protected, no longer having to worry about anything harming him.

He snapped on the man, screaming at him to make the thing stop following him. He was unaware of the true relationship between the two. His mentality started failing even more, complaining about seeing the Tall Man everywhere he went, always behind him, always following.

He started walking through the forest on a regular basis, he knew how foggy it got. That was the only time he considered himself free of the Tall Man. Then the other man, who had started it all, started appearing on the walk. That was when he decided on his plan.

He was going to kill him, make it all stop. If he died, it would all end. He thought he was so smart. The police don’t understand what happened though, there was blood all over John, not his blood, but the blood of someone else.

Yet, there was no other body at the scene. Only his, up in the tree.

_

That’s the end of John’s part in this little play. Did you like it? Your answer really doesn’t matter, nothing does to me anymore. I just feel people deserve to know the truth, whether they believe it or not. That’s what I’m doing now. John wasn’t the start, nor was he the end. He was only the start of what matters to me. Only to show off what the beast was, is, capable of.

All the people with me, even the one with stitches going all over his chest, were once his victims. They are now his accomplices. They help him. They don’t age here either, not anymore. This place, it isn’t touched by time. It makes you truly wonder, just where it is, doesn’t it?

We’ll get to that in due time though. No need to worry, we have time, or at least I do. You on the other hand, don’t seem to have nearly as much time as I now do. Who knows though, I could come to an unlikely end, just like John did.

Really, if he hadn’t attacked the Proxy, he wouldn’t have been killed, not that I can say that I’m much better, but at least I went through all the way. But if he hadn’t killed the Proxy, he would have been here, with all of us, hell, maybe I would have even met him.

It doesn’t really matter though, even if he was the Proxy I met it wouldn’t have mattered, everything would still be the same.

Now what part should I tell you next, one of mine, or Its?

I’ll tell you another one of Its, it happens next anyway, might as well tell you in the order that it happens, less confusing that way. Not that it really matters, it always has the same ending, no matter the order of telling things, it always ends the same.

-

It was watching the house of the next one that it would protect. It was a little kid, no more than ten years old. His name was Brad. Brad is very important for the story, if It never found Brad, I may have never seen It. My part of this story may have been left unwritten. But, It did find Brad, and my part has been written into the book of fate.

It was simply appearing, throughout the town, there were so many people in it that it was easy to find someone to protect. Of course, that wasn’t always a good thing for It.

Anyway, It appeared in the middle of the towns mall. It looked around, seeing if anyone could see it. He spotted a kid, Brad. He was with some other kids, probably his friends. He was frozen to the spot as his friends talked around him.

They couldn’t see him, but oh Brad could. I wonder if Brad always had such bad luck, just like me. Not everyone could see It, if you hadn’t already figured out, only those who “needed” It could.

Brad probably questioned if anyone else could see it, since all the other kids looked in his direction. One of them shook his head, as he spoke. Brad looked at It for a bit longer, before looking away. One of his friends probably convinced him that he was only imagining the thing he saw, even though he could still see it. Like a fool, he probably believed his friend.

If he hadn’t believed them, and done a little research, he might have ended up in my shoes instead. It doesn’t matter anymore. What’s done is done. Never changing. There is always an It, and always a victim. I see that now. It was wrong for me to fight against it in the first place.

Brad left the mall with his friends. Of course, It stayed close by. It always did that. The funny thing is, Brad lasted longer than John. A kid lasted longer than a full grown man. Brad would look over his shoulder, seeing if the tall man was truly still there, probably always hoping that he would be gone, that it really was his own imagination. He, we, weren’t so lucky. Past the endless streets. Hell, I bet Brad was sure that the bus that somehow harmlessly passed through It would kill it. But no it didn’t, again we couldn’t be so lucky.

It continued to stalk Brad, through everything it always followed him, for the three weeks that it was stalked him…that’s strange. Now that I think about it, It never used Proxy for the kid, Brad. It followed him, all the way to his house.

Brad was running now, too worried about the thing getting him. If only he knew how right he was. He rushed into his house, nearly knocking someone down. The kid questioned the man he nearly knocked over, asking if he could see what he could see. He got a confused look from the man, as he turned behind Brad.

He looked around, glancing over where The Tall Man was. But he wasn’t one of the “protected”, he could not see It, and never would be able to see it. “I don’t see what you are talking about, I don’t see anything, Brad,” The man said. He spoke in a loud voice, that’s the only reason It could hear him. He closed the door, roughly behind Brad, like he was angry.

The next time It saw Brad was when it was watching him, through the window of Brad’s room, on the second floor. John must not have known that it was watching him as well. Then again, that might have been why he barely slept. Maybe he did know, which was the reason that he didn't sleep.

Brad later would wake up, then look out his window. He wouldn't see anything. You see, It had already found it's way into his room. It was watching him from the closet, and he didn't even know it. Brad walked right past it without even checking it.

It would have grinned, if it had a mouth to grin with. Instead it took to following him throughout the house. It was a weekend, so young Brad didn't have school that day. Somehow, It managed to not be seen by our young friend, for the entire day. It watched him from his bedside the entire night, without even making a sound. Not a sound, just like always. It never physically made sound, only mentally. It's voice could pierce the very thought of those it was trying to protect.

Brad opened his eyes in the middle of the night. He must have had a bad dream. He saw the Tall Man above him. He screamed, far louder then any small child should. Just the thought of it gives me a headache. It left him, appearing inside of his closet.

The boys parents came rushing into the room. The father turned on the lights, revealing the child, alone and screaming. The mother walked over and calmed the kid down. Told him how it was just a dream and his mind was playing tricks on him. The child, naive as he was, believed them.

Soon the parents had coaxed their son back to sleep and left the room. That was when it came back out of the closet. It found its resting place at the boy's bedside again. That would be its resting place for the following five nights.

Each of the nights, the young child would wake up, seeing the creature in his face. Each time, It would disappear from it's bedside spot, and appear in the closet. The parents would come in, turning the light on. They would comfort the child each night. After a while they grew tired of it, but still put on the act. Each time, they grew more and more worried as well.

Thinking that something was wrong with young Brad, when really nothing was. Not with Brad at least. They were the ones with something wrong with them, for they couldn't see It stalking the kid. It hid in the closet, just so the kid would calm down. It knew neither of the others could see him.

It followed him everywhere he went. From school to out with his friends. Everywhere the boy went, so did the beast. Brad started to block out the beasts very existence. It was quite happy for it. It made it so much easier to stalk him. For the next two weeks, Brad said nothing about the beast, ignored its very existence.

It was that fateful night, on the third week.

It was outside of his house, without him walking into it, for the first time in the weeks since finding the young child. After a few minutes, young Brad came out of the door, which would have been odd if It hadn't wanted this. It was the inevitable, and the child decided to stop fighting it.

The child walked up to the Tall Man, whose arms were wide open. Little did they know, someone was out for a walk. Someone who could also see the monster. He was frozen with fear at the sight of the monster. Ten foot tall man in a suit. That wasn't the reason why he was fearful. No, it was because the man had no face.

The child walked up to the man...no, monster. It closed its arms around him. The beast looked over, and saw the on-looker. It cocked its head to the side, before vanishing completely. It had stolen young Brad in the night, never to be seen again.

-

That is the end of Brad's part of this story. It was rather short, but it is what brings us to the next arc of the story. The arc about the on-looker. About me, Alex. That was me, frozen in fear. The creature had known I could see it. Of course at the time I had thought that everyone could see it, so I thought nothing was wrong with that.

I had, honestly, chalked it up to my imagination getting control of me. I was always bad about that. But that wasn't the case. Not at all. It exists, that is for sure. I'll start, from my point onward now. I feel my memories fading a bit. It seems the oldest ones are going first. Thankfully, that doesn't interfere with the story.

-

I stood there, as It vanished. I was still frozen in fear. I turned around, walking way. This didn't happen, I had thought. There was no way that it really did happen. I would tell myself that for the rest of the night. I didn't want to believe what I had just seen, and I didn't.

I walked all the way to my apartment, which happened to be the Redwood Apartment Complex. You remember it don't you? The very one that John had been a resident of as well. I guess I had lucked out once before, in not seeing it at that time. But my luck, like everyone's luck, eventually ran out.

It didn't follow me home, I know it didn't. I climbed up to the third floor, to my room, 302. I ran into my apartment, I locked the door, not that it would have done much good. I looked out the window, fearing what it was that I might have seen. I didn't see anything, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Thinking that I had just been seeing things, I closed my curtains and went to sleep. I was woken up a few hours later by a pounding on my front door. I bolted out of bed, sure that it would be the monster, trying to get in. I quickly, got up, grabbing my old high school baseball bat out of the closet. I was never really good at baseball, but somehow always made the time. I slowly walked to the door as the knocking continued.

I got to the door, then slowly looked through the peephole. There, in front of my apartment, were two police officers. I opened the door.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I asked them, as I dropped the baseball bat behind the door. Didn't need them thinking that I was going to be attacking them.

“Yes there is. Are you Alex Masion?” One of the cops asked me. I nodded. “And were you out on a walk around midnight?”

“Yea I was.”

“Did you happen to see a little boy?” My blood went cold.

“...Yes I did. There was something else there too. The boy walked up to it. It then grabbed the little boy, turned to face me...it vanished,” I told them. It was everything that I knew. The cops gave me a skeptical look, but still wrote down everything I said.

“If you remember anything else, please contact us,” The other one said, which was followed by them both leaving. I closed the door slowly after they left. The only thing that was on my mind was that it wasn't a dream.

The rest of that day went by as a blur. I have next to no memory of it. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing, but the next memory that I have was me looking out the window, down to the street below. I was waiting. I knew that the being was going to come for me. I just knew it.

I stood there all night, with the baseball bat in my hand. I didn't think it would do too much, but I wasn't going to be stolen away that easily. I was going to do what ever it was that I could do to win. There was a knock on my door. I got up again, ever so slowly, to check it out.

I walked through my apartment till I got to the front door again. I looked through the peep hole for the second time that day. Who I saw, I didn't know. It was guy with a shaved head. His brown eyes looked up at me. He had dark brown skin that had a light glow to it.

“Hello there,” The stranger said, a smile on his face. “I know you're there. I can feel you on the other side of the door. You are under His protection now. You no longer have to worry. His will is all that is. No harm shall ever befall you now, his child.” After that, the young man turned away. He looked down the hallway, then walked down it.

I stood there still as I could be. I looked over to the corner of my room, seeing my old computer. It was good enough to get on the internet, and try and look up information on...what ever the hell that this thing is.

I walked over to the chair and sat down, before I turned on the computer. It took a few minutes to boot up, it was at least ten years old after all. Once it was I quickly clicked on my browser, and again had to wait for it. At first I looked up real monsters...lets just say that wasn't my brightest moment. I got nothing good at all for it.

After a few more failed attempts, I finally searched something remotely useful. Tall monster kidnapper. It immediately popped up a picture, that made my blood freeze. It was the monster in the middle of a playground. It was looking straight at the camera.

There were kids all over, but none of them seemed to notice him, nor did he notice them. All he seemed to care about was what was taking a picture of him. I found all sorts of information. About how it can use the people it “Saves” as a Proxy to interact with normal people. I found out that if it kills someone who harmed it, or a Proxy, it'll put their organs in a bag, to protect the organs.

After gathering what information I could, I sat there, making a plan. I refused to be its next victim. There was no way in hell I was going to let that happen. I went to my brothers house, and begged him for a gun. He had his hunters licenses, and was a bit of a gun freak. In the end he caved, giving me a handgun. I think he called it a Beretta.

Weeks went by...i can't...can't remember how many anymore. But then I noticed that he, the Proxy, was following me. I'm not sure if he had been the whole time, but I knew for sure that this one was the one that I had met the night after my life had gone bad. He followed me for a few more days, all the while I was watching it...watch me.

I had seen the news on the other apartment dweller that had died. I had figured out it was It's doing. I knew it was possible to either harm it or a Proxy at least. One night, I went for a walk, like I had done many times before It showed up. The Proxy was there, he was following me, just like I had wanted. Once we were in the alleyway, I turned around. I pulled the Beretta out of my pocket, aiming it straight at him.

A look of surprise was on his face, for a split second, before the bullet entered its head, killing him instantly.

“Show your face Slender!” I shouted, I knew it would be here. It had to have come.

“Bastard!” The voice echoed around. It might have even been in my head. It scared me a bit, but I didn't lower the gun. There was only one way it could get in here, meaning that there was only one way it could come towards me.

There was a loud thud, from behind me. I quickly turned around, aiming my gun. It wasn't behind me either. I quickly turned in a circle, searching for it. The thudding was coming from all around me now. I heard a crash from behind me, back at the entrance now. I turned, seeing Slender there, moving forward towards me. It never took a step. It only appeared further towards me.

“You're not getting me!” I screamed out, as I fired bullet after bullet into the monster. It twitched slightly, as it started to fall backwards. The gun started to click empty, as the monster hit the ground. I had hoped that it was dead. I stood still, for a few moments. It was as if time had stopped all around me. I took a step towards it. It didn't move. I continued to walk towards it. A smile slowly graced my lips. Once I got up to its body, I was sure it was dead. There was some kind of liquid, I'm hesitant to call it blood because of its green color, pouring out of its wounds.

“You are the killer of Slender?” A voice echoed in my head. It was the same as before. “Then it is time for the next.” I felt myself be pulled from behind. Suddenly, I wasn't in the alley anymore. Instead, I was in a void. There was nothing but darkness around me. I saw that there were other people hee. I knew what they were.

I felt my body change. I knew what was happening. Have you guessed? It is immortal because those who kill it, become it. I am no longer the human I once was. No, instead I am Slender. Or at least turning into it. I'm barely who I was now. Who knows, maybe we'll meet some day. Don't worry, I'll protect you the best I can.

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