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.

We had set up a really makeshift camp amongst the cubicles to use as a home while we tried to figure out how to escape. Manton wanted to check out the rest of the floor while we worked at making the “camp.” Going alone kinda seemed like a dumb idea to me, but he was the one giving orders at the time. Plus he was the most familiar with the building.

Just me, Sky, Valar, Fox, and Nightgaunt was awkward. Valar tried to make small talk, but most of us were still reeling from everything that had been happening. And it’s not as if there were a lot of things we could have small talk about. I had expected Nightgaunt would be right at home, what with him being an insane creeper, but he seemed to be the jumpiest out of all of us.

We had been waiting for several minutes when fog started to roll in around us. It happened slowly, so we didn’t notice it until Manton came running back, shouting at us to pack up and get out of there. A wall of fog followed him, completely obscuring the office.

He didn’t have to shout at us twice. I grabbed Sky’s hand, and ran. And then I immediately tripped and fell on my face. Roots were growing out of the floor, and spreading along the cubicles. Sky helped pull me up before they could wrap around me, and we started running again. When I looked back again, Manton had vanished in the fog.

The other three had reached the stairwell before us, and were trying to open the door. It wasn’t any use; the door was locked. I started looking around for some other escape, but the fog was too thick to see more than a few feet. Then, at the very edge of the fog, I saw the door to a janitor’s closet. I pointed it out to the others, and we were about to make a break for it, when a tall, thin silhouette appeared in the fog.

Everyone started shouting or screaming, and Fox drew a pistol. I tried to tell at her to stop, but my voice was drowned out by all the other noise. She opened fire, and when the bullets hit the silhouette… it collapsed.

We all became completely silent. I knew what I’d just seen couldn’t have happened, but…. None of us moved for several minutes. Then Valar slowly walked toward the collapsed silhouette. When he reached it, he told us what he saw. And….

In the post where I first introduced Manton on this blog, I said that “If his skin wasn’t so dark you’d almost mistake him for the Boss.” I didn’t realize how prophetic that statement would end up being.

When she realized she’d just shot Manton, Fox dropped her gun and ran to him. The fog actually pulled back slightly, enough for me to clearly see him. One of the bullets had gone through his eye, probably instantly killing him. Pointless as it was, Fox and Valar still tried stopping the bleeding. Maybe they just didn’t want to be responsible for their leader’s death.

Nightgaunt started laughing, and I realized he’d picked up Fox’s gun.

N: “That’s it. We’re all fucked. We’re all going to fucking die here!”

*When Fox saw he had her gun, she raised her hands in a calming gesture.*

F: “Put the gun down, Night-”

N: “Shut the fuck up Fox!” *Laughter* “We’re doing such a good job offing ourselves, Slender Man doesn’t even need to come after us!”

F: “You’re panicking, Nightgaunt. You just need to calm down. We can make it out of this.”

N: “Calm down? Why the hell should I calm down? We’re going to fucking die here, and you want me to fucking calm down?” *He fired a shot that went by Fox’s head* “We’re not ‘making it out of this’! We’re dead! We’re all fucking dead!” *He grabbed Sky’s arm, and pulled her toward him.* “Now I’m leaving, and I’m taking her with me. At least maybe then I can find some entertainment before my guts end up decorating a tree.”

*Sky tried pulling away from him, but he kept his grip. I took a few steps forward, hoping I could reason with him.*

D: “Nightgaunt, just let her go. She’s not-”

N: “You shut up too!” *He pointed the gun at Sky’s head, and she stopped struggling.* “If any of you come after us, I swear I will blow her fucking brains out! Now we’re going to leave nice and quietly, and you all can just wait where you are for Slender Man to decide to rip your heads off.”

He slowly backed away from us, toward the fog, keeping the gun aimed at Sky. I wanted to stop him. Every part of me was screaming to stop him. But I didn’t know how to. Sky looked right at me, her face pleading for me to save her, but I couldn’t do anything for her.

Nightgaunt had reached the edge of the fog, when a hand came out of the mist and covered his mouth. Then another hand holding a knife came, and started stabbing him in the throat, over and over. Sky pulled out of his hand and fell onto the floor as Nightgaunt’s body was thrown down. And out of the fog stepped Arkady.

A: “Wasn’t he a loquacious fellow?” *Arkady waved his bloody hand at us.* “Hi.”

Sky seemed like she was frozen in place, staring at Arkady in terror. Fox and Valar made a break for the closet, but I couldn’t leave Sky. So I ran to her, and pulled her on her feet. I have no doubt that if he was really trying, Arkady could have easily killed both of us there. We were only a few feet from him. But he was taking his time. Even when I started sprinting to the closet, pulling Sky along, he didn’t run after us. All he did was walk, like he was strolling down the sidewalk.

Fox and Valar had already gotten inside the closet before we reached it, and they’d slammed the door shut. I tried turning the handle, but they’d locked it from their side. I banged on the door and shouted at them to let me in, but they didn’t respond. I was literally pleading for them not to leave us out there with Arkady, but they ignored us….

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and heard Arkady say, “Excuse me.” Then I was shoved away from the door. Arkady stepped up to examine the doorknob, and then knocked twice on the door.

A: “Two of you went in there, right? I’m sure you’re both aware that I’m fairly good at picking locks, and can get through this pretty fast. So here’s what we’re going to do. When I unlock this door, if I find both of you behind it, I’ll kill the two of you. However, if there’s only one of you alive by then, I’ll let the survivor go. You can settle how you’ll manage that.”

Arkady took a small bag out of a backpack he’d been wearing, and pulled several thin pieces of metal out of it. He used them to start working on the lock, while thumps and crashes came from the other side of the door. The smart thing would have been for me and Sky to run then, but I was held in place by horrified curiosity. That, and the knowledge that it wouldn’t be hard for him to catch back up with us anyways. All I felt that I could do was stand by Sky and hold onto her as we prayed that Arkady would suddenly have a change of heart and not murder us.

It didn’t take long before I heard a click, and Arkady opened the door. Valar was standing on the other side, covered in blood, and with Fox dead at his feet.

V: “There. I’m the only one. You said you’d let me go.”

A: “You’re right. That is what I said.” *Arkady stabbed his knife between Valar’s ribs.* “And for some stupid reason, you believed me.”

Arkady shoved Valar back into the closet, then slammed the door shut. Then he turned toward Sky and me, and smiled, the red light of the sun making him look even more horrifying.

A: “You have been surprisingly difficult to kill for a kid. But that’ll change now. Prepare to finally meet your death at the hands of Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov!”

There have been so many times recently where I’ve been certain that I was about to die, but this time, there really seemed to be no way out. He was walking right toward us. We couldn’t run away. And no one was coming to save us; there was no one left alive to save us. Sky was panicking, hyperventilating, and starting to babble.

S: “Y-y-you’re pronouncing it wrong….”

*Arkady stopped walking and looked at her with confusion*

A: “What?”

S: “Th-th-the Russian pronuncia… pronucia… pronunciation is Ar-kah-dee, n-n-not Ar-kay-dee…. It it’s a soft a, not a hard a….”

*Now I was also looking at her confused*

D: *Whispered* “What?”

S: *Also whispered* “I-I’m too scared, I just said the first thing I thought….”

Of all the things she could have blurted out, that one somehow was the thing which had stopped Arkady. He was staring at Sky, with his mouth hanging slightly open. He almost looked like a fish, his eyes grown huge as he silently opened and closed his mouth. If I hadn’t been so scared, it might have been funny.

Without warning, Arkady turned around, and walked back into the fog. I watched him, expecting him to suddenly turn around and stab us, but instead he just sat down at the edge of the fog and started to sulk. Occasionally I’d hear him mutter, “But…”, “That can’t…”, “Not my fault, I only read it in a book…” or other similar things.

D: “Is… is that really how it’s pronounced?”

S: “I think so. I only heard it once. But it was definitely a kah sound, not kay.”

D: “So he’s been pronouncing his own alias wrong this whole time?”

She just shrugged. Then, as suddenly as he’d walked away, Arkady walked back to the same spot where he’d left, and resumed the exact same pose he’d had before.

A: “You have been surprisingly difficult to kill for a kid. But that’ll change now. Prepare to eventually meet your death at the hands of Ar-KAY-dee” *He glared at Sky as he put the emphasis on the second syllable* “Ivanovich Svidrigailov!”

D: “Eventually meet her death?”

A: “Yeah. Stabbing’s too good for her. I’m heading to the top of this building anyways; I figure I’ll throw her off when I reach it.”

D: “And me?”

A: “I saw you at that last safehouse, right? You’re the Picking at Ruins writer? Perfect. I’ll keep you around so that you can record the tale of my glorious victory. Once Slendy’s dead I’ll push you in front of a truck.” *He flipped the knife through his fingers.* “And no, you’re not getting a choice in this. Unless you’d rather have me go ahead and just kill you now instead of later.”

D: “No! No, we can wait. Right Sky?”

She really didn’t seem able to answer. She was still keeping me between her and Arkady, and didn’t look at all comforted by the knowledge that our murderer had decided to delay killing us. I told her things would be okay, that I’d figure something out… but I can’t say that was really honest. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I just know that we’ve changed from being murder victims to hostages, which isn’t much of an improvement, but it’s still an improvement.

And that brings us to now. I’d probably have waited until later to actually type this post up, but Arkady demanded that it was my duty as his scribe to record “all details of his life relevant to the ongoing narrative structure,” and said we couldn’t leave until I’d finished. Because he is completely insane in more ways than I imagined, apparently. At least it means more delays before he kills us. He’s even editing what I write so that it “looks right”, weird as that is.

Yes. I am. Less snark next time. More describing my glory.
-Arkady

Since going to the cafeteria ended up backfiring, I was starting to get worried about our food situation. It had been over a day since any of us had last eaten, and the only place where we knew we could get food was guarded by Arkady.

Then a few minutes ago, a backpack was tossed up the stairwell onto our floor. I looked down the stairs, but only caught a glimpse of them before they went out another door. A note had been attached to the bag, and Manton read it aloud to us.

“Don’t starve to death. That would be boring. Sincerely, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.”

Inside were several cans of food, bottles of water, and a can opener.

If I hadn’t been so hungry, I might have been more concerned about it maybe being a trap. But none of us really thought about that; we got a can open, and started eating. Cold beans. Not a very good meal. But it was still food. And since I’m not collapsing and dying, I don’t think it was poisoned.

But in the end, the food is only a temporary relief. Because that note implied Arkady had other plans for us, and I really don’t want to find out what those plans are.

Cafeteria

Even after our last disaster, we still needed to eat. So our trip to the cafeteria continued. With Ahriman dead, another proxy took over leadership. I don’t really know who it was; he was from outside the circle of people I interacted with, so I’d never met him. Lepidus probably would have known his name.

There weren’t any more encounters on the way down. It actually didn’t take that long to reach the cafeteria; after we took a few minutes for everyone to relax, the trip was mostly a straight shot.

The cafeteria didn’t have any window to let the red sun in, and the electricity was still out, so it was pitch black inside. A few proxies with flashlights went ahead to light the way for us. The inside was just creepy. You never realize how cavernous a cafeteria can be until you try to navigate one in near total darkness. There were no signs of any people inside, but several of the tables looked like they had been moved from their original positions.

We went straight back for the kitchen, where all the food would be stored. A lot of us were hungry enough that we might have just charged in if whoever it was who was in charge hadn’t organized everyone into a line. My stomach wasn’t happy with the idea of having to wait, but it made sense.

I got stuck toward the back of the line, so almost everyone was already inside the kitchen by the time I got near. But before I could go inside, Sky started tugging on my arm, until she pulled me out of line. Manton had been watching Sky carefully, and when she got out, he took his team out of the line as well. The people behind us didn’t complain, and moved up to take our spots.

D: “Manton, what’s going on?”

M: “I don’t know, but that girl’s been remarkably good at predicting whenever something bad was about to happen. If she doesn’t want to go in there, we’re not going in there.”

He was right about that. I started looking around to try to see what was coming, but with the flashlights inside the kitchen, the rest of the cafeteria was black. The rest of the line went inside the kitchen, and I could see people being served up food and eating inside. Nothing seemed to be happening to them, and I started to wonder if it was a false alarm.

Then I heard a PA system above us turn on, and music started to play from it. The gate to the kitchen slammed shut in front of me. And from the other side of the door, I heard Arkady’s voice.

A: “Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you, your deaths! Accompanied by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony Number 8, Movement 3!”

We didn’t wait to find out what happened to everyone trapped inside the kitchen with him. I’ve seen the consequences of Arkady’s actions enough to have an idea how it turned out. We made a beeline for the stairs, and didn’t stop until we had three floors between us and the cafeteria.

That just left me, Sky, Manton, Nightgaunt, Fox, and Valar. We’re the only ones left now. Out of everyone… it’s just us.

I don’t think I can take much more of this.

I remember my first day as a proxy. Ahriman sent someone to pick me up from the bridge I’d been sleeping under, and drove me to the apartment. I didn’t say anything the whole drive over. I think I was too scared of what was going to happen to me. The blogs I’d read all seemed to say that proxies were usually insane killers, and Ahriman’s rabid devotion to the Boss hadn’t done a lot to dispel that impression. A part of me was convinced that the moment I stepped inside that apartment I’d be jumped by a man with a knife and a mask, and then eaten alive.

Instead, Lepidus greeted me when I entered. He tried to make everything seem as normal as he could for me, and let me settle in. Like I was just moving into a new apartment with a regular job, instead of becoming the employee of a monster that kills people.


He was the one who kept the whole place together. He was always willing to look at both sides of a conflict, and figure out a solution that we could all agree with. He never raised his voice, no matter how unreasonable we were being. And he would always chat with his patients, after they woke up. For some of them, I think he was the first friendly face they’d seen since becoming a proxy.

Once, he told me about how he’d performed for a community theater when he was younger, before he became overwhelmed by his hospital duties. He always loved the theater, even after he became a proxy. He almost never could attend any performances, but whenever an adaptation got released onto Netflix, he’d get us together and we’d watch it.

I never imagined he’d be gone. He was the only piece of stability we had in our lives. I just assumed that he’d always be there for me. This wasn’t how I pictured things happening. He didn’t deserve this….

There was no way to tell when night came, but eventually we had to go to sleep. A part of me was wishing that when I woke up, everything would be fixed.  It wasn’t, but it wasn’t a very realistic hope anyway.

The temperature had plummeted while I was asleep. We didn’t have anything to accurately measure it, but I would guess it was in the 50s. Much cooler than a summer in Arizona should be. Although I would have worried more about that if I wasn’t so hungry; now that the adrenaline from the change was wearing off, I was realizing it had been hours since I’d had anything to eat.

I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Upon waking up, there were a lot of proxies looking to see if anyone had brought any food with them. Even if any of them had, it wouldn’t have been enough to feed us all. After seeing the food situation, Ahriman started trying to organize a solution. Manton said that the building had a cafeteria on the floor below us, which was well stocked enough to last a group our size a few days. While some of us were concerned about the dangers we might encounter along the way, Ahriman decided that we’d move to the cafeteria and use it as a base until we figured out how to resolve the situation.

It didn’t take long for everyone to gather what little we had and start moving. Manton led, since he knew the layout of the building. Ahriman was off to the side of the group, talking with Lepidus so they could “discuss how to ration the medical supplies we have.” It was a little surprising to realize that, with all the casualties we’ve suffered, Lepidus was the only trained doctor we had with us. I tried moving closer so I could overhear some of their conversation, but Sky grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

D: “What’s the matter, Sky?”

She only shook her head. I asked her again, but she still didn’t say anything. I would have pressed the question, but then I realized everyone had gotten very quiet. When I looked back at Ahriman and Lepidus, the Boss was standing by them.

Shadows bent around him so that none of the red sun’s light touched him, but we could still clearly see him in the darkness. His body was completely still as he looked straight at Sky. She hid behind me, and he turned slightly to face us. His head was pointed at me, but it didn’t feel like he was looking at me. He was looking through me, as if I didn’t even exist.

Ahriman had dropped to his knees almost the moment the Boss appeared. Lepidus still seemed to shocked to move, until Ahriman pulled on his arm.

A: “Bow, you idiot.”

Lepidus got down on a knee as well.

A: “Father, we have been awaiting your guidance. Tell us your will, and we shall fulfill it.”

The Boss snapped its head down to look at Ahriman. It held those pose for several moments, and then it tilted its head slightly. Black branches came out of the shadows and moved around Ahriman and Lepidus. The branches coiled around the two, not quite touching them, but with barely a fingers breadth away from them. I think all of us were holding our breath as we waited for whatever happened next.

Sky had been hiding behind me the whole time, peeking through under my arm to watch. As the branches started to move around Lepidus’s face, she ran out from behind me and shouted, “No! Don’t!”

And suddenly… I’m not even sure what happened next, the branches moved too fast. I remember a shower of blood hitting me, and when I opened my eyes, Lepidus and Ahriman were being torn to pieces. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how I was supposed to react. Lepidus was
he just
it
God, why? Why the hell did he what did Lepidus do?  This wasn’t supposed to happen he was I mean he

I’m sorry, I just can’t
I can’t think right now. I’m trying to stay calm and write this down, but whenever I think back to what just happened, I

Everyone started running for the stairs when they saw what was happening to Lepidus and Ahriman. Someone grabbed me and pulled me with them. I don’t think I’d have been able to run on my own, really. I’m not really sure where we are now. It’s a different floor. I think we’re closer to the cafeteria, but we’re taking a break for now. Give us a little time to comprehend what… what just happened.

Ahriman got a call from one of the scouting teams a few minutes ago. Even though I wasn’t near Ahriman, I could still hear the shrieking noises coming from his phone. I don’t know what happened, but it’s safe to say they’re gone.

After he got that call, Ahriman called the remaining groups and told them to come back. One team came back quickly, confused as to what was going on. The team who’d gone to the front entrance arrived soon after. Well, one of the people from the team did. We’re not entirely sure how he got back; he just suddenly showed up, unconscious and covered in blood. There’s been no word from anyone else, no matter how much Ahriman calls them. I want to think that it’s just because something is blocking our communications, but I know it’s probably something much worse….