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.

Home Sweet Home

So I’m home for the weekend, and it’s certainly relaxing. I don’t have to see a Slender Man for a couple of days (hopefully), and the only strange sounds at night are the familiar ones of the house settling.

And no tests or coursework to worry about either.

I love being able to just kick back, sleep in, and not worry about anything except what to do with my friends, who I haven’t seen in some time. I love this laidback lifestyle. Living in a suburb of a major city. Everything you need is close by, scenery of all kinds to take in, and all the people you can stand.

Pity I can’t stand most people.

But that’s neither here nor there. In fact, this entire post is absolutely pointless. This is what blogs are supposed to be about. Just the everyday happenings of the average Joe. I wish I could go back to the beginning and ignore all the video and text that lead me down this path. It’s such a hassle to just keep up a semblance of normal life when you have to look over your shoulder out of fear of being snatched up.

It may not come across very well in my writing, but this whole experience has left me rattled. The thing about writing is that you can always edit out emotion in post, even if it’s very personal. That’s one of those things I’ve never understood about the internet. Everyone can put up a calm, dignified front easily, whether they actually are or not. But very few do, it seems. So many let their emotions get the best of them, typing up angry responses to dissenting opinions or empty taunts on message boards. It’s so pointless.

But I’m certainly not guiltless in this regard. My last post concerning The Tutorial was seething with anger at M. Just because I don’t use exclamation points doesn’t mean I’m not a little… excited. I was a little out of line, I think. I should have controlled myself better. I shouldn’t simply disregard someone’s experiences out of hand. After all, tall tales and legends grew from exaggeration and trying to make sense out of memories tainted by fear and darkness. The same can be said about the Slender Man blogs. People are just trying to make sense of their experiences. Unfortunately, they may not have the time or knowledge to make a scientific judgment.

Really, I’m shocked that I still have the time. Not only because finals are but a few short weeks away. I’ve been in this long enough that I would have thought stranger things would have happened. I’ve yet to have been “moved,” it’s never appeared closer than thirty feet, and I haven’t started making any crazy drawings, or even recording myself.

But there is something I would like to discuss. It’s a symbol. One I had long forgotten, but found today in some of my old computer files as I was backing up files on an external hard drive. I don’t know where it came from. The properties indicate it was created before I ever owned a computer, and it bears an odd similarity to, among other things, the Operator Symbol. I’ll post an overview of it tomorrow.