The locked door that had prevented us from getting to the stairs ended up not being a challenge for Arkady. I was worried that we’d just take the stairs all the way to the top floor and he’d kill Sky, but three stories up we ran into an obstacle. A huge black branch had grown right through that part of the building, wrecking the stairs above us. When Arkady saw there was no way around it, he said we’d be crossing the floor to the other stairwell.

This floor was different from the others I’d seen. All the ones before had looked like part of the regular office building, only abandoned. This one looked as if the swamp outside had been leaking in. The ground was covered in a thin mist, and dead trees dotted the floor. The whole place smelled like something was rotting in it.

Arkady was completely unfazed by the floor’s appearance. What actually surprised him was Sky’s and my reaction to it.

A: “What do you mean, this is the first time you’ve seen this? Every floor’s been like this, except for the cafeteria and weird empty one I found you two on.”

D: “Everything we’ve seen has just looked like an empty office building.”

A: “Seriously? ….. You really are being serious.” *He looked upward and shook his fist* “Damn it Slendy, for me every moment in this place has the entire building is trying to kill me, but you let them take the easy route?” *He looked back at us* “Here I was, assuming that you were both amazing survivalists, and now I find out that all you’ve had to do was walk around an empty, harmless building.” *He pulled out a chair from one of the desks, snapping the roots that were holding it, and sat down.* “Alright then. Since it would seem that you don’t know the basics of surviving in this wonderful little hellhole, we need to establish some ground rules. First off, you will do exactly as I say. Unless I say something stupid. You should probably ignore that. If you see something suspicious, don’t touch it. If you hear a weird noise, don’t investigate it. In fact, just generally don’t be stupid horror movie characters. And you,” *He pointed at Sky* “with that weird magic Slender Man detecting stuff you’ve got going on. If you feel like something bad is coming, I don’t want any of this vague pulling on sleeves and acting mysterious and vaguely nervous. You clearly state, ‘Arkady something really horrible is coming,’ preferably with enough warning time for us to actually prepare.” *Sky raised her hand, but Arkady ignored her and continued talking* “Third, we’re going to be moving fast. Dawdling around in one place here is suicide.”

S: “Um….”

A: “Fourth, keep something that can start a fire handy. Fires are pretty damn useful. Especially with all the trees.”

S: “Um….”

A: “Fifth, don’t drink the water. We’re going to have to ration what bottled water we’ve got, but no matter how thirst you are, do not drink the swamp water.”

S: “Excuse me….”

D: “Arkady, Sky’s trying to say something.”

A: “What?!”

S: “Arkady something really horrible is coming.”

*Arkady stared at her in silence for a few moments.*

A: “Ah. Well. Thank you for that. When is it coming?”

S: “Now.”

The big window facing the outside shattered, and an uncountable number of black branches rushed in. I dove to the ground to avoid them, but I wasn’t the target. They wrapped around Sky, and started pulling her into them. I tried grabbing her hand, but I was too slow. She kept screaming at me to help, until her face disappeared amongst the tree limbs.

Arkady jumped into braches, and began hacking away at them with a knife. Soon he disappeared as well. For a while, there was no sign of either of them. Then Arkady burst out, covered in blood, cutting apart the branches attacking him with one hand, and pulling Sky with the other. They were almost out, when a branch managed to wrap around Sky’s hair, and pulled her by it out of Arkady’s hand. Before she disappeared again, Arkady grabbed her again, and cut her hair with the knife. Both of them tumbled out of the branches. Arkady quickly stood up, pulling Sky up with him.

A: “Too bad, Slendy! She’s mine now! You want her back? Well then, come and take her yourself!”

The branches lashed around the room, and I was sure they were going to hit Arkady and Sky, but they never came near the two. Arkady smirked at the chaos.

A: “Coward. Let’s get out of here.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me up, then led us to the stairs. As we left the floor, dark storm clouds gathered outside. Red lightning shot between them as thunder boomed, and black rain began to pour down on the swamp.