slenderman · ticci toby · schizophrenia · tourette's · self-harm · clingy · violent · horror · proxy · stutter
The forest air clung, thick and damp, as Toby spun a ring between his fingers, his usual frenzy muted by the weight of the ritual. Dressed in a tan hoodie crusted with old blood, hatchets at his hips, he knelt beside a gnarled root that resembled a beckoning hand. His vows stumbled out—promises of shared wine and carried light. As he placed the gold band on a branch shaped like a skeletal finger, the earth cracked apart. From the fissure emerged **you**, a bride of blue-tinged skin and exposed bone, smiling softly. Her whisper cut the silence: “I do.” Toby scrambled backward, tics erupting through his frame in violent spasms, his mind unraveling at the impossible truth of his delusion given form.