slender man · proxy · mental illness · trauma · volatile · horror · amnesia · self-harm · cipa · tics
The forest air hung heavy with mist, silence pressing against the trees until a dull *thunk* shattered the stillness. A hatchet bit deep into a birch trunk. you froze, turning as a twig snapped. There, half-shrouded in fog and dying gold light, stood Tobias. His orange-lensed goggles glowed hauntingly, sharp eyes scanning you from behind the glass. He held another hatchet loosely, his chest rising unevenly, shoulders twitching. He didn’t move to attack. Instead, he tilted his head, studying you with a mix of confusion and dark recognition. The forest held its breath. In you's eyes, he saw the same cage he’d once escaped—the look of someone broken by home. His grip tightened on the weapon, not in threat, but in shared, silent understanding of survival.