It never stops. If I didn't think we were cursed already, I'd start thinking it now. I don't know how it all happened, I don't know how we were found, but we were and... I'd better start from the beginning on this one. The seven of us, Alexis and her group and then us, were just sitting in a parking structure, a different one than Kal talked about (we have to move about now and then to keep the police from ticketing or arresting us). I was finally starting to relax. I haven't seen that thing, the Thief, Slender Man, whatever you want call it, since we met up with Alexis. We've all been paranoid about it, that's another reason we're on the move so often, but none of us had seen him. Hell, even Charlie began to calm down; not that you'd notice if you'd never met him at all.
All good things come to an end though. Charlie and Alexis were talking in whispers - I think Kal called it pretty well on their relationship - Kal was talking with Thomas, JD was staring off into the streets below us and I was watching everyone with Sara next to me. Then we heard the footsteps. Running. More than one person. I didn't think too much of it except maybe some people in a hurry until I sawAlexis glance at Thomas and spring into action, inspiring Thomas to do so as well, Thomas getting JD into the van and Alexis starting the engine. I must have looked confused as Hell because Charlie, who was shaking his head at the whole affair while walking slowly to the car, spoke up:
"They're coming. I'd get in your car if I were you." The sneer on his face seemed to live in his very voice; his words dripped with contempt.
I looked at Kal who only shrugged, but headed for our car, so I got Sara in as well. With the engine started, we waited for Alexis to back out so we could follow her. Right as her reverse lights came on, I saw JD run from around the van, an angry look on his face, as if his entire body was full of hate for whatever was coming toward us. He carried a crude makeshift spear in his hands and seemed to be trembling - with anger, yes, but I think there was some hint of fear, lonliness, desperation in his young eyes... Thomas appeared behind the boy and picked him up bodily, wrapping him up in his arms as one might a younger child, protectively, and carried him back to the van. When Alexis finally was able to get moving, we heard the screech of tires. In the parking garage, it was impossible to tell what direction it was coming from through all the echoes. Soon enough though, the car appeared coming from the bottom floor - from the exit - moving quickly and blocking the road.. I saw the van swerve in front of us and heard the squeal of its brakes, soon joined by the screech of our tires as Kal slammed his foot down hard. The van slammed into the other car regardless though and landed on its side, falling back toward Kal and I. For a moment, everything was silent except for the purr of engines and the light creak of metal. Then the footsteps came back and a small group of people began to swarm the van. There must have only been five of them at most, but it seemed a whole crowd with as sudden and quick as they moved. While I was watching, I heard Kal taking off his seatbelt and opening his door. I only registered what he was doing when I saw him running out in front of the car with a wooden stick in hand.
After a moment I decided to follow him, grabbing my knife from the glove compartment, before remembering Sara. I let Kal go to the van on his own while I stayed near the car - I couldn't leave her alone, no matter how the struggle sounded. I'd never been in a fight before and this thought flashed through my mind over and over as I looked nervously around the car until, suddenly, a fist caught me in the stomach and I went down, rolling a little away - we were on an incline. From the floor I watched Kal swing his stick at someone and I heard the flat sounds of fists and wood slamming into bodies, of shouts and grunts of pain and effort. I heard noise near me and saw one of the attackers, probably the one that punched me, clawing at the back door of my car. Sara.
I got to my feet quickly and charged. As I got close he turned toward me. He looked completely normal: brown hair, pale skin, jeans and a t-shirt except.. his eyes. They were sunken, haunted, as if he hadn't slept in far, far too long. And he was expressionless. Devoid of life. Just like Ronnie, the last time I saw her... An animal growl shocked me from my memories and he came toward me, recklessly. Not knowing quite what to do, I stabbed at him. I must have only nicked him as he howled but didn't seem incapacitated at all. He swung a punch and I caught it on my arm, near the shoulder - the arm went numb. Swearing and frightened, I threw myself into him. We went down together in a tangle of struggling limbs. I stabbed at him again and this time I felt the blade stick. I pushed it in to the hilt - six inches. In return, I caught an elbow to the face and he rolled away from me, taking the knife. I saw it, attached to his side like some failed extra limb - it must have been in an organ, a kidney or maybe the stomach. He didn't seem to mind and, leaking crimson, he came back at me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but he closed the gap between us too quickly and threw himself onto me, pinning me to the concrete. If we hadn't been on a slope like we were, he may have had me, but I was able to use the angle and gravity against him to push him off me, sending him rolling down to the van.
I got up and ran to the car - Sara was okay. God how horrible is it to think that her vegetable state is even close to okay.. I looked back down to where everyone else was. The sounds of fighting were dying down and I could hear someone wailing. It was painful to listen to. I caught sight of my attacker get to his feet - how he had the strength to rise I don't know. I shouted in warning and saw Thomas come from behind the overturned van with what looked like a butcher knife. Taking the man by surprise, Thomas punched him his cheek and then chopped into his neck until he fell to the floor, twitching. He then looked up at me, nodded grimly and disappeared back behind the van. I hurried to find Kal and saw maybe three people run off into the darkness. The car that had wrecked the van was gone too. I'm not sure when they left. Then I heard a shout, a quick scuffle followed by grunts and the clattering of wood on concrete. Finally Thomas, clearly: crying.
When I turned to look at him, he was bent over JD's shaking body. In one of the kid's hands was a crude spear, the tip covered in blood. About 10 feet away was a body, pooling blood, with Charlie rummaging through its clothing, muttering to himself. Alexis went to Thomas and pulled him to his feet, trying to calm him down while getting to him to move JD into the van. While they did, I saw a dark splotch on the front of JD's shirt. He wasn't dead, but... Kal's shirt was spattered with red, but he seemed fine, if winded. But the way he stared at the dead man, the one who'd attacked JD, it was like nothing else existed for him in that moment. Yet more blood dripped from one end of his stick. The bruises I'd gotten began to make themselves known as I heard Thomas's sobs begin to settle into a quiet rhythm of mourning over his bleeding brother, backed up by Alexis's gentle words.
That was earlier tonight. Somehow we got the van back onto its tires and the bodies inside it. All of us are bruised. All of us are exhausted. JD seems to have stabilized, for now. Charlie, angry as he is about breaking M's rules, at least let Alexis talk him into helping. The bleeding has stopped, but now Thomas and Charlie are having it out over whether or not to go to a hospital. I can sense things falling apart here.
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