Eyes Open

Troy couldn’t sleep. He knew as soon as he lay down in the still light room that he wouldn’t sleep. The curtains weren’t great quality – for a motel this cheap, Troy had really expected nothing less. They had small holes in them no doubt bitten through by moths, and he could see dusty sunlight filtering through them. He lay on the bed, tossing and turning, wishing he could be as peaceful as Nate currently was - his friend had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Troy sighed, turning onto his back once more and staring up at the grubby ceiling. Jeff had long since left the room by now, but Troy could still hear his less than optimistic speeches. He couldn’t get his head around how Jeff could be so annoyed at him for getting agitated and a little argumentative. Troy had, essentially, just been told that his life had been ruined by something he could never hope to comprehend. Troy couldn’t understand how someone could expect him to be accepting of this fact. He was human – it was in his nature to want answers and to change a situation he didn’t like. He didn’t understand how Jeff lived with the knowledge that he had no power over his life at all. He couldn’t even have a say regarding where he wanted to live.

Troy was exhausted and aching all over, still covered in blood and mud, but he didn’t really think it mattered in a place like this. Sure he looked like a travelling serial killer, but as he gazed around the grubby room he became aware that he probably wasn’t the first of such people to come here. The motel was the sort that, in Troy’s opinion, would be featured in a bad horror movie or a sleazy porno. He didn’t know how Nate was sleeping so well, when Troy was half-expecting a crazed maniac to burst out of the closet at any moment.

A shadow passed through the grey light of the room. It was brief, and fleeting, but instantly Troy’s heartbeat quickened and he raised himself up in his bed slightly, looking around the room for any explanation or confirmation. There was nothing. The only movement was Nate shifting slightly in his sleep. The room was empty and quiet, and Troy glared into all the corners until he felt his heart rate slow to a healthier speed. Gradually, he let himself fall back into a lying position on the bed. Bored of the grubby ceiling, he rolled over first facing the window, and then, remembering the strange shadow, he sifted over again so instead, he was staring at Nate’s bed, pressed up against the far wall.

Troy must have dozed off slightly. It wasn’t surprising, considering everything he had been through that day. The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes, instinctively knowing something was wrong. He wasn’t sure if he really saw it or if it was just a dream, but for the briefest of split seconds, there was the Slender Man, standing in the corner of the room, opposite Nate’s bed. His hands were clasped behind him this time, and his black face was staring in Troy’s direction. Troy blinked, and he was gone. Sitting bolt upright, Troy glanced around the room, knowing how fast the creature could move and not wanting to risk him still being in the room. The room was empty aside from Troy and Nate, and Troy stood up, creeping over to the bathroom and peering in. It, too, was empty, with no sign of anyone having been there. Troy padded over to the grimy curtain and pulled a corner back to peer through the equally grimy window. Dew was glistening on the ground and there was no disturbance in it. Jeff’s car, slightly condensated, sat in the parking lot just in Troy’s view. The road was empty and the few trees on the other side of the road were just that – trees.

Finally, Troy cracked open the door to their room, looking down the long, dark corridor. It was full of shadows and due to the lack of windows in the hallway, darker than in the room. However, no suited creature lurked in the shadows, and the darkness hid nothing to suggest he had ever been there at all.

Troy closed the door and span around quickly, half expecting the Slender Man to be right behind him. Nate was still sleeping and there was no sign of the tall man, and so, with his heartbeat once more returning to normal, Troy was able to convince and reassure himself that it had just been a dream. Usually, the Slender Man would appear once or twice more, messing with Troy’s head, and lately the creature seemed to be wanting to make physical contact with Troy. After what he remembered from the aftermath of the car accident, Troy was pretty convinced that had the Slender Man really been here, he would have made a grab for Troy by now.

Trying to convince himself that he understood that much about the strange entity stalking him, Troy went back to the warmth of his bed, huddling down under the covers. The room wasn’t warm, and outside the frost was only just melting on the cars. A car roared past on the nearby road, its engine whining higher as it got closer and lower as it faded away. No car went past for another half an hour, and it was the whine of this engine that roused Troy from his exhaustion-induced doze.

Troy’s eyes snapped open just as the pale, skeletal fingers brushed against his face. He jerked backwards on the bed, the Slender Man taking a pace backwards at the same time. They stared at one another again, Troy refusing to blink until his eyes watered violently. He knew as soon as he did blink, the creature would disappear. He was proved right shortly after – he blinked, the Slender Man vanished, but this time large, damp footprints were visible on the carpet, twice the size of a normal man’s.

"Fuck," Troy muttered. He could feel the fear rising in his throat but he swallowed it down. This time, he had a plan. This time, he knew what to do. He would wake Nate, they would get Jeff, and they’d get the Hell out of here.

Troy stood up, about to cross the room to wake his best friend. As he moved across the space between the two beds, he felt a tug on the back of his messy T-shirt.

He paused, before turning around, slowly, and reluctantly.

The little girl was staring up at him, a bright yet harrowing smile on her lips.

"Hello, Troy," she said happily. "You’re not going to get your friend to ruin our fun, are you?"

"Get out of here," Troy hissed at her. "Go on! Get the fuck out of here!"

She frowned, and shook her head as though she were the adult and Troy were the misbehaving child.

"That’s not very nice," she said softly. "I keep telling you, Troy. I just want to play."

"Well, I’m done with playing your stupid games," Troy said to her, pulling her hand away from his T-shirt, severing her grip on him. "You don’t want to play – you want to get me killed. I’m through with whatever your definition of playing is. I want answers, not fucking games."

"I can give you answers," she smiled. "If you want them that badly, that is."

"You turned into a fucking skeleton right in front of me," Troy reminded her. "You really think I trust you? You really think I want to end up back in that forest again? Because if you do, you’re fucking stupid. Get out of here. I’m leaving."

"I’m stupid?" the little girl repeated, putting her head to one side curiously, a little like Troy had seen the Slender Man do on many occasions now – too many of them, in fact. "You’re the one talking to a little girl you’re not even sure is here."

"You’re as real as he is," Troy hissed.

"You talk of him with such disrespect," the girl glared. "You are only still here because he permits you to be."

"Let him permit all he wants. I’m not going to fucking worship him."

"You’re a game to him," the little girl said, her voice suddenly harsh, angry, evil. "You’ve always been a game to him! You’ll never stop being nothing more than a game. You’re here because you entertain him, not because you’re smart or good at running. He could kill you any time he wanted. He could decorate the place with your sorry organs right now if he decided to. You’re here because of him, and it’s up to you what the outcome is."

"And what outcome do I have?" Troy demanded. "Run for the rest of my life, being this stupid little game or whatever it is? Or die? Not much of a fucking choice, is it? If he can just turn up anywhere and be done with me."

"You’re foolish," the girl said softly. "You think you understand. You think you can stop him. You think you can stop The Master, I can see it in your eyes. You’re going to get everyone killed. Everyone you love will be killed if you carry on breaking the rules. The Master doesn’t like people getting nosy. He doesn’t like people getting cocky. And he especially doesn’t like people who get away from him."

"I can’t help that," Troy muttered. "If he’s so high and mighty why didn’t he stop me from getting away?"

"I think that he just likes to stand and observe, to see how much of a hole you’ll dig yourself into before he gets rid of you," the little girl said casually, spinning around on the spot again. "It is rather interesting, after all."

Troy glared at her. He didn’t realize that kids as young as she was could be so damn cheeky.

"So what makes you so special?" Troy demanded. "What did you do to make yourself his little messenger, or whatever you are?"

"By saying that you’re implying that I’m real," the girl giggled. "You know better than anyone that I could easily be a figment of your imagination."

She had a point – Troy couldn’t ever recall meeting a child of her age who spoke with such an adult vocabulary.

"I thought that about the Slender Man," Troy eventually said, his voice taking an almost confessional tone. "And he turned out to be pretty damn real."

"It’s strange, isn’t it?" she whispered, stopping her swirling around and gazing intently at Troy. "How the boundaries of reality and fantasy blur into one another when The Master is concerned. Why do you think he does that? And how?"

"You’re the one who’s meant to know more about this stuff than I do," Troy muttered. "Why don’t you tell me?"

"You think I understand him?" the girl chuckled. "No one understands him. You could study him for millennia and you would never understand how he works. He’s questions built on questions. He’s a personification of the unknown. He’s there when he wants to be and gone the next second. He can stand in a room for hours and not be noticed or he can haunt your every waking hour. It’s all up to him, and you’re just pawns in his game. All of you who try to run – he’s not surprised. So many try to run."

She gave a heavy sigh and a shrug.

"So many fail," she whispered.

She watched Troy for a few more seconds, and then shrugged as she headed for the door. Troy found himself following her. As they entered the hallway, she turned to him again and laughed.

"You really want answers, don’t you?" she asked softly.

"Of course I do," Troy replied. "And I’m pretty convinced that you have some of them."

"Curiosity killed the cat," the girl replied casually, but she made no attempt to convince Troy to head back. Knowing he was mad for doing such a thing, but determined to prove that he could find answers, Troy followed her. Soon, the hallway was silent, and Nate, in the room, suddenly jerked out of a restless dream to find the door open and Troy’s bed empty.