Closing In

I have to give a quick update, everyone, before I can start on the previously discussed set of questions.

The Slender Man following me is becoming more bold. It’s moving away from the forest more, and closer to me. Previously, it seemed to stay within twenty feet of at least one tree, but has recently started appearing much closer to me. In fact, at one point it was within ten feet of me. Well and away the closest it has come yet. If it had been lying down it would have touched me.

And the sounds have started again. Loudly into the night they play for me, a satanic symphony. I have confirmed with several people on my floor that no one else has heard them. It’s a good thing I don’t really worry about what they think of my sanity, though.

I can’t help but think it reminded me of the Flower of the Panopticon (hereafter shortened to Flower) to get me digging and unnerve me. It certainly has done that. Remembering the strange date of creation for the Flower’s file, finding out just how horrific my father’s death was, and all the questions raised by both. I must admit I’m not in the most reasonable mood at the moment. My hands are shaking as I type.

But what scares me is I don’t know if it’s fear or anticipation.

All the depressing thoughts and happenings aside, I feel alive. There is a purpose to this work now. Slender Men are real, they have affected my family in the past, and there is (in my mind) a small glint of hope, maybe even victory in the past.

How? Why? When? Where? Who? The five basic questions are firing as fast as the neurons can reload. My mind races. The puzzle pieces shift and try to fit in any way they can. I think my father left me something important in this. Maybe I just want to believe that he it wasn’t just a brief encounter. I want to believe that my father actually fought back against this nearly unfathomable monstrosity to a final, fatal stalemate.

Such a romanticized idea is unlikely, but I can’t help think there may be some truth to it, even if only by some happy accident. However, until I can speak with my mother about both my father’s behavior and my own surrounding the incident, I cannot be certain of anything.

However, something else has recently occurred. I’ve found a location that seems to have consistent activity. There is an old observatory on campus that always has some sort of activity when I recorded near it. To be perfectly clear, I have no intention of breaking in, as the experiences of J, Strahm, and others has shown me this is rarely if ever a good idea. I do, however, feel that it is relevant to mention it now, however briefly.

The Flower

So, there is a symbol in my old files. I had forgotten about it, but it’s been around in my backups for ten or more years now. But let’s just get it out of the way. Here’s the image (edited for size):

It looks like a flower to me, so I’ll call it as such. However, it personally reminds me of a certain type of prison, the Panopticon. This prison is constructed in a circular fashion with a central tower. The cells are such that the guards, in the tower, can view into any of them at any time. However, the tower windows are constructed in such a way that the imprisoned cannot be sure if they are looking at them or not. The point is control. The prisoners cannot see the guards, so they can never be sure when it is safe to do something… less than moral or forbade within the walls, such as escape attempts.

At any rate, there is something it reminds me of even more, as mentioned in the last post:

The Operator Symbol. Although it’s almost certainly unnecessary, a comparison follows:

This makes me wonder if I had an encounter in the past with a Slender Man, and out of boredom stylized the symbol that is so common to its appearances. However, as mentioned, I did not own a computer when this apparently was created. But I did finally realize something. And I believe this to be very significant.

The date in the file’s properties states it was created the day my father was killed. Or rather when they found him.

My father died under strange conditions. Not that his cause of death was atypical. It was obvious that he had been stabbed repeatedly, or at least that’s what anyone would tell me. It was where they found him. He was near his truck in the woods.

Up a tree. They found it odd that he would be in a tree after being killed, as the evidence suggested that he had been placed there after he almost entirely bled out. There was almost no blood on the tree itself.

That was all anyone ever told me. I was just a child at the time, it would have been cruel to tell me anything more graphic than that, I suppose. Even that was a little much.

But now, I must assume that there was something more than that to his death. The symbol’s date could simply be a taunt, trying to elicit an emotional response from me. But I can’t afford that. The tree symbolism is near constant within Slender Man lore. I can’t dismiss it out of hand as coincidence, as it may be the connection that finally led a Slender Man to me, rather than it simply finding me after I started investigating it. That’s more likely than coincidence.

However, I’ll have to look through public records to figure out if any of my assumptions are correct. I have to admit, I think I’m making too many sweeping declarations lately. My father died, therefore Slender Man involvement. I’m grasping at straws, it seems.

I will post again if I find anything.