10 // video/action // now the party don't start till I walk in

[40410]

[The wall comm' is on, and so are the lights. Except that that's not electrical light. Alex's room now sports a broad bay window.

The cameras are all off, and most of them are gone, including the one in front of the door and the camcorder that usually sits on the desk. Only three remain, and one of them is in Alex's hands, tripod and all, as he carries it across the room and slings it into the closet.

A CD player provides poppy background music. Alex whistles along while he works.

Off-camera, there's a towel pinned over the mirror.]

((OOC: for convenience's sake, let's say all threads which aren't J's or the Operator's happen before those two.))

Comments

[action of THE OPERATOR FUCKING LOVES YOU]

[seesyou.livejournal.com]

[The Operator stands completely still until he's finished.

And then Alex turns off his only remaining camera, and Slenderman appears behind him. It's damn near instant.]

[action of MIRROR!ALEX WHY ARE YOU SO DUMB]

[40410.livejournal.com]

[You know when you just know that there's something behind you? Something horrible? Something that you can't stand to see, but at the same time have to see, because there's no way it can be as bad as your imagination's telling you it is?

You know when that last assumption is dead wrong?

Alex turns - sees the Slenderman - makes a sound like his throat's being cut - his vision grey with terror, tries to dodge and run and get away get away get away.]

[action]

[seesyou.livejournal.com]

[Arms snake from every direction, grabbing Alex by his clothes, his hair, his wrists, lifting him far off the floor.

And then it inspects him, the air chilling unmistakably as its face draws near.]

[action]

[40410.livejournal.com]

[He makes a noise like a long voiceless scream and tries to struggle, although the struggling is more like uncoordinated spasms: a battle against being paralysed by fear as much as against the Slenderman himself.

Even that battle is fruitless, as his whole body gives over to uncontrollable shaking. So the Slenderman's holding his hair - does he have enough leeway to turn his face away, eyes screwed shut, teeth honest-to-god rattling together?]

[action]

[seesyou.livejournal.com]

[He might be able to turn his head, but he'll find it strangely, horribly difficult to close his eyes, and wherever he turns there are more arms tangled around him like branches, and whatever he does won't shut out the sound like whispering leaves that begins to fill his ears.]

[action]

[40410.livejournal.com]

[Then he'll just have to watch the mass of limbs, jerking like branches in a high wind, clutching like brambles. He's just about starting to sob with fear - fear of what the creature's going to do to him, and nameless fear, the dread that creeps into you directly from the Slenderman himself.]

[action]

[seesyou.livejournal.com]

[But this isn't his. This isn't what he wants. It's not the ark

The Operator shakes Alex once, roughly, and then hurls him hard against the wall.

By the time Alex's vision clears, Slenderman is gone.]

[action]

[40410.livejournal.com]

[Is it over? Is it over? Oh god, oh god, is it over?

Not yet, not for a few moments more. There's a hideous sense of obstruction, like doors slamming in his mind. He remembers the faceless face freezing the air in front of him, then something pale and chilling, then nothing at all; he remembers struggling against the branchy arms, then a vague sense of being pinned by something unknown, then nothing at all.

Alex is forgetting, for what might be the first time in his life. And pretty soon, he's left on the floor, sore and trembling, wondering how he got like this when an instant ago he was turning off the feed of the wall comm'.

And who was on the screen before that? He's heard his double talking. The parallels are easy to draw.

God, he wishes they weren't so easy to draw.]