The Pens of Fate (Chapter 6 and 7 remake)

Dan Tanner and Maddison Marsh were vast fans of creepypasta; that should mean that they shouldn’t have to be constantly looking over their shoulders, in paranoia. But that’s not what happened... lately they have been feeling like something was following them, stalking even, when they walked past the woods by Dan’s house, on the way to their high school... 

Today, Maddie seemed a little withdrawn at lunchtime; she barely ate her vegan burger. She hated meat. Dan looked from her plate to Maddie’s baby blue eyes, “What’s wrong with you? You’re looking kinda pale.” Maddie exchanged a glance with Dan, “I think I saw Slenderman outside my bedroom window last night... He was just standing there, watching me.” Dan rolled his brown eyes and scoffed, “Yeah, right.” Dan thought Maddie was messing with him because she was the only person that knew he believed in creepypastas and wanted to be one. Maddie just sat there, staring. “Wait, you’re kidding, right?” He said as he took things more seriously. Maddie shook her head, “I’m scared, Dan. I googled stories about Slenderman and the results I found aren’t in my favor,” she said as she pulled out a folded piece of paper from her jean pocket. Dan read it quickly; Stories of the Slender Man commonly feature him stalking, abducting, or traumatizing people, particularly children. Beginning in 2014, a moral panic occurred over the Slender Man after readers of his fiction were connected to several violent acts, particularly a near-fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin. There are only two reasons why the slender man stalks people: To kill them or make them his proxies...

And that’s what scared Dan the most, because if Slenderman was stalking Maddie- which might not be the case- he would lose his best friend no matter the reason. The odds weren’t in his favor, that’s for sure... 

After the final bell rang, Dan went up to meet Maddie at her locker, “Hey, are you okay?” Maddie jumped at the sound of his voice. She was looking very pale and was pulling her sleeve over her wrist. Dan got a glance at the strange symbol on her arm just before she covered it. “I am doing a little bit better,” she said as she pulled out her notebook. Dan noticed that blood was trickling out Maddie's nose, A sign of Slender Sickness!, he thought as Maddie started to bend over and started to vomit blood. A few students saw and freaked, “GET HELP,” one of the girls shouted as another passed out. In the chaos, Dan took off running. 

When Dan got home, his dad was yelling at his mom about nothing, but Dan didn’t have time to deal with anything but Maddie. Slenderman got Maddie. What now? He thought as he started to feel dizzy. “He’s here,” Dan said as he moved to his bed and pulled out one of my grandfather’s swords from his hiding place. Then out of the nowhere slender man was in front of him; Slenderman had Maddie in one of his tentacles. That made Dan mad, he charged at Slender man. A staticky voice whispered into his ear, “Become my proxy... or die.” That made Dan stop in his tracks. Dan weighed the odds: on one hand, he loved creepypasta and now he had the chance to become one, on the other hand, he would give up on becoming a master bladesmith like his grandfather. But if he said no he died. So Dan said yes. Slenderman picked him up and he felt like a dull razor blade was cutting into his skin. Then, Dan’s world went dark... 

When Dan woke up, the stars were out. He looked down at his arm to find the same symbol that Maddie had, The Operator Symbol. Dan knew what he had to do and grabbed his backpack, a pair of clothes, his cowboy hat, and his sword then stepped downstairs. He heard his mom crying in the bathroom, so he peeked through the keyhole. His mom had a black eye, and Dan knew how she had gotten it. Dan stood over his drunk passed-out dad, holding his sword tightly in his hand. With one swift movement, Dan had decapitated him… 

Maddie was eating something when he got to the opening in the woods. When she turned around to face him, Dan’s mouth dropped open; Maddie was eating her mom’s left arm! Slenderman stood in front of them, and beside him were two figures shrouded in darkness. They were too hard to make out, then was ‘till one stepped into the light. It was a girl with a pixie-like haircut holding a little brown leather book with a badly burnt hand wrapped up in a DIY cast made from rubber bands. The other was a boy that could pass as her brother. The girl smiled, “How would you like to work for me?” …

Ethan stood outside the home of Phoenix Mountain High’s headmaster, Mr. Wallace, with a small box of matches and a tank of gasoline. There was no moon to give light, but Ethan’s green eyes reflected the porch light, making his eyes appear to glow in the dark. Ethan saw the truth behind his headmaster... 

The cold case was from 15 years ago and was about the Willir family, Tina’s family. Liz and she must have been about two years old when it happened. Tina’s older brother, Bonnie wasn’t deaf from birth, he was caught in a bank robbery where a gunfight broke out. Bonnie was shot roughly at the upper side of his right temporal lobe, where his auditory cortex, the part of the temporal lobe that processes auditory information, is located. It is a part of the auditory system, performing basic and higher functions in hearing, such as possible relations to language switching. Bonnie couldn’t be more than three years old when he lost his hearing. Mr. Wallace’s daughter was the only shooter, and being 14 her dad paid for the charges to be dropped. Mr. Wallace then covered the whole incident up... 

Ethan couldn’t stand the fact that Tina was being lied to, and that her brother was a victim of an unpunished crime. Ethan walked up to the front door, his fist tightening around the gas tank handle. After walking around the whole house to see all the exits, Ethan started to dump the gas onto the wooden porch. He had planned this to the dot in so little time, it’s no wonder that he is top of his class. He had blocked the back door with fallen tree limbs so the only way out was through the flames. Ethan then turned back to his bike to head back home as the lit match fell to the ground. The fire danced like a person, almost like it was under a spell cast by Ethan... 

When Zach and Adaline returned to the others back at the winter cabin with Dan and Maddie, Haven rushed out and held out a piece of paper with a small paragraph, “ADDIE! ETHAN DID SOMETHING!” he shouted as he rushed to her side. Adaline took the paper, her eyes narrowed as she read, “We got to go. NOW!” Shelly and Ian ran out of the door pulling Dan and Maddie with them to find a door out of this world... 

Adaline’s eyes widened when she saw the flames coming out of every window of the house. Dan looked from the others to the burning building, “How are we going to put this out?” Adaline looked down at the piece of paper, still in her hand from the cabin. Ink started to form words across the blank page-Mr. Wallace was still inside. Zach and Tyler were reading over her shoulder when Haven’s blue eyes landed on Addie’s face, “OH, HELL NO! YOU ARE NOT GOING IN THERE!” He then looked down at her rubber band cast on her arm when the thought entered his mind; the rubber bands would melt to her skin and ruin her hand causing her to give up writing. Adaline looked around at the concerned faces of her friends then turned back to see one of the upstairs windows explode with flames of red and yellow, “I will be okay, but he won’t!” and like that she took off. Haven cursed under his breath, “Why is she so god damn noble?” Zach sighed, “You gotta hand it to her.”

The smoke filled her lungs and burned her eyes. Adaline reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled out the pen she got from Daitan; The Pen of The Devil. She looked up in time to see that the ceiling was coming down. She moved out of the way, pen in hand. Without having any paper to write on, her skin was the only option she had. Adaline pulled the cast off and started to use her writing hand again: The fires of Hell can’t burn a demon’s fur nor can Heaven crush the armor of an angel. The words were crooked from Adaline’s shaky hand. Her body then started to shape-shift into a wolf in armor. Her brown fur peeked out from in between the steel plates. The smells of burning meat met her new nose. Adaline ran through the wall of flames in the hallway to the master bedroom. Mr. Wallace was pressed to the floor and covered in second-degree burns. Adaline used her jaw to grab him and throw him onto her back. When she turned to go back the way she came the doorway collapsed in on itself. Adaline looked around to find another way only to find a small window... 

Zach and the others stood watching the roof become a stage for dancing flames. Shelly started to cry, “They’re not gonna come back!” Haven turned around to Dan, “Can’t you do something?!” Dan’s mouth twitched angrily, “NO! Maddie and I are Slender Man's proxies, not superheroes!” Zach heard the others start to fight about how they are going to put out the fire if Addie didn’t come out, but his eyes never looked away from it. The noise of a window breaking hushed everyone. A big light brown wolf wearing armor jumped through the window carrying a man on its back. “It’s ADDIE!” Zach and Dan took Mr. Wallace off her back before Adaline shape-shifted back-facing plants into the lawn, “Mmm, I can’t keep doing this.” Before anyone could see her arm, Adaline pulled her hoodie tighter around her body. Adaline then stood up, “Come on,” she put one of Mr. Wallace’s arms over her shoulder as she continued, “We got a dance to crash.”...