I slumped tiredly in my seat on the bus while listening to my best friend, Miranda, drone on about some manga she found online. Being an otaku, she was always blabbing about anime and manga none stop, so I learned to block it out and that’s just what I did as I began spacing off at the seat in front of me. “So, it's really cool and I think you'd like it." Miranda concluded as I was snapped back into the conversation. Darn it, I was having some pretty cool thoughts about adventuring too… “We’ll see." I mumbled and shrugged as I began to stare out the window. I noticed that we started to pass by the outskirts of town and the local forest began to come into view, my eyes jumping from tree to tree as they were unable to keep focus for very long; that is until something caught my eye, hidden cleverly in the trees. Me, being the curious sixteen year old I was, began to narrow my eyes to focus on it better only to have my eyes widen in surprise and maybe a little bit of shock. The thing I saw was abnormally tall with milky white skin, contrasting with the pitch black suit it wore with a red tie. Ooh, and the best part? There was no face. I swallowed, seeing its hands were clasped together like it were waiting for something or someone while it watched the bus pass by, slowly turning its head to follow the yellow automobile. I blinked a few times, trying to shake off my wild imagination, only to realize that it was really standing there as it watched us. “Hello…? Bailey? You there?" Miranda asked, tilting her head as her very dark brown—almost black—hair fell by her shoulders and waving her arm in front of my face. I tore my gaze from the figure and looked at her, blinking with furrowed brows before glancing back out the window. The figure was gone. *** “I think you're seeing things." Miranda stated right off the bat as she took a bite of her pizza. It was lunch, the school day was halfway over, but I still couldn't get the image of the tall, faceless figure out of my head. After telling Miranda about it, she obviously brushed it off as a mere ‘trick of the eye’. I thought otherwise. “Yeah, but it looked so real..." I muttered as I munched on a carrot thoughtfully. I’ve been seeing stuff all my life, like the shadows in the dark, people that looked like they were staring at you, but as soon as you look at them, they were gone. It was hard for me to decipher what was imaginary and what was reality. Miranda looked at me with that 'are you stupid' look as I narrowed my eyes to glared at her and we both sat for a few more seconds, glaring each other down in some kind of glare war until Miranda sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Come on Bailey, really? The Slender man?" Miranda said with a mocking tone, wiggling her fingers as if it made her sentence spookier before rolling her eyes. “What’s next, Jeff the killer?" I began laughing at this point for the fact that Jeff’s face was literally the worst thing on the planet to me. “I would be more scared of Jeff than Slendy any day!" I chuckled and Miranda began laughing with me. “Does he look that bad?" She asked as I nodded vigorously. “He looks like a messed up version of the Joker." I explained with a snicker, causing us both to laugh at my statement, in which earned a few glances from the other kids at their tables, looking at us like we were crazy or just plain annoying. Like we cared. Once we finished our lunch, we threw our trash away and headed for our usual hangout, which just happened to be the library. *** I slumped in my seat once again and prepared for the trip home. School sucked as usual and was boring as hell, especially when Miranda and her twin, Rachel, got a ride home with their brother and left me to ride this crazy bus all by myself. I watched silently as the kids were throwing various items at each other, yelled and threatened one another, and the bus drive was completely oblivious to it all. He looked like he had earbuds in and was listening to some country music, considering it was so loud that we could hear it in the back. A paper ball flew past my head and hit the girl in front of me, causing her to make a shrill cry and throw it back. Dumb kids. I thought as I turned my attention to the forest once again, recalling old Slendy this morning as my thoughts wandered when I began to wonder if I would see the Slenderman again. I laughed internally. Come on Bailey. Get a hold of yourself. I scolded myself, shaking my head before looking back out the window, only to gasp. The Slenderman stood in the forest, watching the bus like he did this morning. “What the...?" I questioned out loud, pushing up against the glass in surprise, shock, and slight fear. He’d returned in the blink of an eye, right when I was thinking about him. “What?" The girl in front of me asked, her dark blues looking at me curiously. I blinked again and the Slender man disappeared, much to my disappointment and I frowned, slumping back down in my seat and staring forward with slight irritation. The kid just ruined my chance to… To what? Stare at Slendy’s faceless face? I sighed in defeat. “Nothing..." I replied to the girl, causing her to scrunch up her face in distain as she sat back in her seat.
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