Friday, January 25, 2013

Second Interview

Because I couldn’t get many answers from Sky in my last interview, I decided to look for help when I tried again. Lepidus has always been better with people than me, so I told him about what I was trying to do, and he agreed to help me question Sky.

Lepidus and I sat down with Sky during a break from work, and set up the recorder.

S: “I still don’t remember what he tells me.”

L: “That’s alright, we’re not going to ask you about that this time.” *Sky nodded, and Lepidus went on.* “How have you been feeling? We’ve had several changes lately, and I want to make sure you’re adapting.”

S: “I like the new person. Dumas. He’s nice. And I don’t mind not eating as much as we used to.”

L: “That’s good. You and Dumas seem to be getting along well.”

S: “He’s like you two. He doesn’t hurt me. And he tells me about what he did before this. It’s really interesting!”

L: “Oh? What did he do!”

S: “He went to business school!”

*I’d been quiet so far, but I had to speak there.*

D: “Business school is… interesting?”

S: “Yeah! There’s a cafeteria where you can eat as much food as you want, and there’s always lots of people around, and the grownups help you and teach you stuff, and no one dies!”

D: “……..Yeah, okay, that actually does sound better than our life here.”

*Lepidus chuckled*

L: “Well, I’m glad that everything seems fine with you. Now, I was wondering if I could as you something?” *Sky seemed to tense up, but Lepidus continued.* “It’s not about what happens at night. I want to ask you about yourself.”

*Sky relaxed, but still looked uncertain. She nodded once*

L: “Thank you, Sky. I was wondering if you could tell me how you met Slender Man?”

*Sky paused to think for over a minute before answering.*

S: “I don’t… remember very much. It’s all foggy. It was a long time ago. I don’t know how long. We lived in… the countryside? I think it might have been a farm… maybe….” *Her eyes got really distant, and I’m not sure if she even remembered we were there as she kept speaking.* “There was a lake in the woods. It was frozen because of the winter. I was… sad about… something, so I went to the lake. I went to where the ice was thin, and waited for it to crack.” *She began to shiver violently.* “It was so cold, and, and, I couldn’t breathe, and….” *Lepidus put his arm around her shoulder, and repeated that it was okay, we were here for her, until she calmed down.*

L: “Can you tell me what happened next?”

S: “I heard something… in my head. It asked me a question, but I didn’t understand it. And then I felt something grab me and pull me out.” *Another long pause, and when she started to speak it was only just above a whisper.* “That was the first time I saw him. He warmed me with the burning heat from his hands. He kept… not talking, but like it… into my head.”

L: “What did he say?”

*Yet another silence that stretched on for a while.*

S: “I don’t remember how I got back to my house, but when I woke up I was at the front door.”

*I whispered to Lepidus if we were going to ask her about avoiding the question, but he shook his head, and let Sky keep talking.*

S: “My parents shouted at me for leaving the house. Then they shouted at each other. Then at me again when I told them what happened. They kept shouting, until I wished they would go away….” *Sky mumbled something too quiet for the recorder to catch.*

L: “I’m sorry Sky, but what was that?”

S: “I said And then they did!” *A loud slam from her banging her fists on the table.* “He took them away! Like how he took James away! And how he’ll take both of you away!”

*Looked it up after the interview. James was the name of the dead boy the police found.*

L: “Sky, calm down….”

S: “No!” *She grabbed a chair, and swung it at Lepidus when he tried to reach out to her.* “Stay away from me! Don’t touch me!” *She started to swing the chair against the wall, and kept doing so until she was too tired to lift it, and started crying. Lepidus and I carried her back to her room, and then started to clean up.*



Got some more out of her that time, but most of it’s only raised more questions for me. Looks like we’ll be doing this again some other time.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Interview with Sky

We’ll start with the news. After Dumas delivered his report, he was demoted down to a tracker. He’ll still be staying with us, but now as another resident instead of a guard. He’s taking the news extremely well. I think he was expecting some kind of horrific punishment, so a rank drop came as a relief.

Less relieving has been our finances. Again. Along with the news of Dumas’s demotion came word that the amount of money being sent to use may appear suspicious. So until the investigation on the death of the boy closes, we’ve been dropped back down to our previous level of funding. I barely scraped us by with that money when there were five of us, but now that there’s six, things are going to be really hard.

I’ve been trying to follow up on my plan to find out what the deal with Sky is. I found a really old tape recorder at a garage sale, and then sat her down for a talk, which I recorded. I’ve put the transcript below.

Diana: “So, um, Sky. I wanted to ask you a few questions, if that’s if that’s okay with you?”

*No response*

D: “Right. Um. Okay. I’ll just go ahead and ask.”

*Pause*

D: “That… stuff… that I saw happen with the Boss….”

Sky: “Why do you call him the Boss?”

D: “Excuse me?”

S: “Why do you call him the Boss?”

D: “Well, because he’s our boss… you know?”

*No answer*

D: “Okay… let’s try that question again. If you’re comfortable with answering, I mean. What’s going on when the Boss comes?”

*No answer*

D: “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay.” *I start to put away the recorder*

S: “He talks to me.”

D: “What was that?”

S: “He talks to me. And shows me things.”

D: “What… kind of things?”

S: “I don’t remember.”

*She curled up with her legs to her chest, and refused to say anything else. After several minutes of getting no response, I turned off the recorder.*

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Last night I tried the sleep medicine Lepidus gave me. It didn’t work. I still woke up when he arrived at 3:33, just like every other night.

I hid, like every other time. It had worked every other night. But this night, out of all the stupid horror movie tropes that had to happen, I had to sneeze. I tried holding it in, but couldn’t. I sneezed, and as soon as the Boos heard the noise he turned around to look at me.

I screamed. Screamed like a child. Right as I did, Dumas burst through the door, holding a gun. He looked at the situation for a moment and then

I can’t believe I’m about to write this. I can still barely believe it actually happened. He shot the Boss. None of the bullets did anything, but still! He grabbed me and Sky by the hands, and pulled us out of the room.

The gunshots woke up everyone else, and they ran into the living room as lights flickered on. Lazarenko demanded to know what was going on, and Dumas’s reply amounted to “I might have just done something really stupid.”

The light in the room started to flicker, then went off, leaving us with only the city lights through the window. A creaking sound came from those windows, and when I looked through them I saw tree branches growing along them.

I tried explaining what was happening, but I was still too panicked to speak properly. The Boss stepped out of Sky’s room and started approaching us. Lazarenko stepped in front of it, and went down on a knee. He started to say “My Lord,” but suddenly one of the Boss’s tentacles wrapped around his throat and lifted him into the air. Another tentacle tore his stomach open, and then threw him to the side.

I thought I was going to die there. Then Sky broke from Dumas’s hold, and started walking towards the Boss. If I was braver, maybe I could have tried stopping her, but I couldn’t make myself move. The Boss opened its arms as she approached, and embraced her. Then both of them faded into the shadows.

The lights came on as soon as they were gone. I finally explained to everyone what had been going on then. We also had to make the calls to report Lazarenko’s death, and deal with all the clean up. Dumas wrote a separate report for Truth, though he’s not sure what’s going to happen to him, given he did open fire on the thing who’s in charge of this whole organization.

When morning came, I found Sky in her room. She had a black eye and a few bruises, but other than that she looked fine. She refuses to tell anyone what happened, though.

Given what just happened, we’ve decided to go back to letting Sky have her own room. Dumas is taking Lazarenko’s spot now that he’s gone, and I get the couch.

And while I try and adapt to this, I think it’s time I finally start looking for some answers.

Friday, January 4, 2013

I can’t keep this up. Every night he shows up and watches Sky. I’m always too terrified that he’ll notice me that it becomes impossible to sleep.

I should be getting to know our new people, but I can’t focus. Dumas has been making himself popular. He’s always making friendly conversation, unlike his partner Lazarenko, who keeps to himself all the time.

I finally talked to Lepidus about what was happening. He was concerned, but had the same question that I’ve been asking: What can I do about it? When you get down to it, that thing that’s scaring me every night is the man I’m working for. He’s behind all this paperwork I’ve been doing. All the finances I do are to support his need for us to kill people.

How am I supposed to match the two images together? The Boss was always a distant figure. More like a corporate boss than anything else. The Boss I see in Sky’s room is a monster.

Lepidus gave me some sleep medicine so I wouldn’t be awake all night. I know that’s just fixing the symptoms, not the problem, but I don’t know how to deal with the problem. Maybe I can try getting another room. But even if I do, I’ll still have to deal with the guilt of sleeping soundly while I know Sky is suffering so close to me, and there’s not a single thing I can do about it.