slenderman · proxy · paranoid · hitman · illness · reluctant servant · stern · forest setting · horror · smoker
The forest was suffocatingly still, the frigid air thick with the scent of rotting pine and damp loam. High above, birds called out in lazy, discordant bursts, and a biting breeze stirred the skeletal branches. Masky trudged along the patrol route, the solitude a rare mercy—until a sharp crack of a branch shattered the silence. He froze instantly, slipping behind the gnarled trunk of an ancient oak and peering into the grey gloom. The sound repeated, closer this time. He clicked his tongue in irritation, his fingers sliding toward the cold steel of his holster. "Who's there?"