It seemed like the forest was endless and the Sun would never come up. My heart was pounding, I could barely catch my breath, and the girl's weight only slowed me down.

Earlier that night as I was walking home from a friend’s house I saw a girl, about to be taken by Slenderman, who knows why. I remember her screaming, crying, and pleading for help. So, I picked her up, and ran. Now Slenderman was chasing me, and I knew that if he caught up with me, that not only would the girl die, but I would die too.

Each step I took seemed longer than the last. I knew that if I didn't reach some sort of safe haven soon that he would catch up with me. I don't know why I even bothered saving the girl, she was just there, I didn't know her, and I didn’t have to save her. But for some reason, when I saw her there, screaming, and crying her eyes out, I felt bad for her. I felt like I had to save her. As if I did something horrible earlier and that saving the girl would somehow make me feel better.

I don't remember doing anything bad that day, or even that week, heck I don't even remember doing anything exceptionally bad that whole month. Apparently, I had done something bad though, and I was being punished with death.

Eventually when I felt like I had lost him, even though deep down I knew I never could, I eased the girl against a tree. I guess she had fainted at some point while she was in my arms. She didn't have a purse or anything so I couldn't figure out her name or use her cell phone. I reached in my pockets for mine but it was completely out of battery. I'm sure that even if it did have battery it wouldn't have any bars anyway.

I sat down next to the girl. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, the sunrise, or Slenderman. After about two minutes I just leaned my head against a tree that was close to the girl, who was still asleep. I knew that I couldn't go asleep though, even if I got as comfortable as I could get, I couldn't fall asleep. The fact that I knew that someone was out there, waiting to kill me, kept me awake.

After another three minutes of silence, the girl finally woke up. I put my finger against my lips, silently signaling her to be quiet. She nodded in agreement. I felt bad for her, she looked so...I don't know. I just don't think she deserved what was happening to her. No one deserves to have to stay with a stranger, or remain silent, knowing that soon a deranged humanoid monster would come to kill them.

Of course, he did find us. We heard his footsteps, they sounded as if they were walking on wood in a cave, the "clop," and the chilling echo. The girl jumped over to me, and put her head in my chest. As if it were some sort of safe place for her.

Eventually I could see Slender out of the darkness. Call me crazy, but his emotionless face was far more terrifying than the most terrifying face a human could make. When you see it, you just don't know what he's thinking, why he does what he does. You couldn't tell if he was enjoying himself or crying on the inside. You just knew that you were going to die.

In less than a second his tentacles popped out of his back, black and curled, moving all around. One of them snatched the girl from me; it was so fast I couldn't even react. I got up and tried running but another tentacle snapped and grabbed onto my left shoe. I grabbed onto the tree to save myself but he was too strong, my grip slowly slipped from the tree. When my grip was completely gone I tried grabbing on to the ground itself, but it was no use, he was slowly dragging me closer and closer to him. I screamed out for help, the girl probably would've too but I noticed that a smaller tentacle was covering her mouth while a bigger one had her in captivity. After I screamed another tentacle covered my mouth, he must have had at least ten of them. The one that had its grasp on my shoe let go. However, he then picked me up with another tentacle that wrapped around my torso and put me "face to face" with him.

"What are you going to do to me? How am I going to die?" I asked, gasping for air after I bit the tentacle over my mouth so that he would at least let me speak.

Of course he didn't answer he doesn't have a mouth. I don't know what I was thinking.

After my pointless question, he started to flail me around, making sure I hit every single tree in sight. Then he stretched the tentacle holding me as far as he could up into the air, and then let go. I fell on my front, feeling utterly defeated. I suspected that if I didn't run that my punishment for trying to protect a child would've been less excruciatingly painful. Lastly, he put his tentacle up in the air once more, without me in his grasp, and let it crash down on my back.

"What are you getting by killing children? Why only children? What do they have that you want so desperately that you can't get from someone who can fight for themselves?!" I continued to ask questions even though I was speaking to an imaginary audience.

"Innocence." Slenderman replied.