From Sinking

I found Bleakley.

But it's awfully hard to find the right time. He's got a lot of...visitors.

One is a proxy. Worryingly, he's visibly sentient. Unruly red hair, but other than that, pretty much normal size, weight and musculature. I can't tell if he's a physical threat, but he...unnerves me. I mean, more than they usually do.

One is Peter. He's tied to a chair in the back room. He seems to be unconscious.

The last is Kari. She's there. She's not dead. And she's not, as far as I can tell, a captor.

1000 Shards

I think Kari is dead.

So we were combing the woods for Bleakley's home

Yes, we're doing it.

First off, he has Peter. And I don't give a fuck about the rest, I'm getting Peter back.

Second, if he's written a book like The Walking Willow again, a book with as much information in it as that did, or more, and is trying to send it to a major publisher, it's dangerous. The main good thing about the Slender Man is he's still something most people don't know or care about. It stops the spread, if you believe Kari's theory.

Third...I kinda want to hurt him.

But that doesn't mean this isn't an awful situation. I've never killed anyone before. Not even a proxy.

But anyway

We were looking for Bleakley's home. We'd covered most of the houses on streets that came off of Townley street, and were making good headway into the ones off of Victoria Road.

We're walking down another long road lined with houses. I'm in front, Kari's behind me. I hear a sharp intake of breath coming from her. I turn around to see what's wrong and she's not there. Instead, about fifty metres away

head-splitting pain

I was wondering where he was.

Give it a few days and her body'll show up somewhere.

I'm all on my own. Doesn't matter. Either Bleakley'll die or I will. I can do what I can to make it be that first one.

False Light

Kids, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Kari and I haven't gone anywhere. Peter's vanishing act is not his doing. He knows the rules as well as I do. Four and five. Never go anywhere alone or without letting everyone else know. The old gang may be dead, and we may have broken every one of those rules, but fuck if they're not good help for survival, and he knows it. So we've been looking.

The answer found us.

A long time ago - just under a year ago, in fact - we did terrible things to two of his lackies, after they did terrible things to us of course. And someone we had no idea about - a guardian angel or something - made it all go away. An "Agent Salliss" working on behalf of a "Director Fisk". We worried about what our owed favour might mean - what could this leverage mean?

Today's theme apparently is shit that happened a long time ago finally coming around to bite us in the ass.

"Dear Natalie and Kari,
                                    It's been a long time since we did favours for the two of you. We feel that, in return, you are best suited to deal with an issue that has come up that is rather out of the way for us.

We assume that your proximity to Carl Pullman a.k.a Harold Bleakley is no coincidence. We have reason to believe that he has taken on the role of one of the "proxies" as a result of you rather clumsily breaking what relative peace there was here. As a peace offering, he appears to have taken your friend Peter.

Pullman recently finished a new book. It consciously plays on the Avondale news in order to bring about increased familiarity with the slender man to a mass audience in a way that potentially endangers lives. He seems unaware of its potential as a weapon, but as a servant of the slender man he will have this brought to light. We have intercepted the copy sent to a publisher, and cannot risk another getting into public hands.

Our request is simple. We want you to kill Mr. Pullman and destroy any remaining manuscripts there may be. You must do so before any new or remaining manuscripts are sent out. We are aware that you are armed and adequately skilled for the job. We simply ask that you make it happen, before the slender man himself manifests.

As an additional warning, while we have been unable to identify him, there is another "proxy" in your area. Be warned.

Agent Saliss
On behalf of Director Fisk."
Christ.

Give me a few hours to take all this in.

P.S. Kari won't tell me what they did for her, but I'm not sure I want to know. Kari's kind of like a pet tiger - useful and generally cool but she's liable to maul me out of the blue at a moment's notice.