Something Slender (and Awful) - Fury and Flames

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

Who's the best person to rescue someone trapped in the dark? The blind guy.



Topaz was curled on the ground, shaking from head to foot, as the Slenderman loomed over her. She'd given up on trying to cast any spells, focusing instead on just not falling apart. She wasn't succeeding on that front. The darkness pressed down on her, suffocating her, and their voices were still echoing around in her head, taunting her, reminding her how useless and pathetic she was.

She couldn't escape.

Gasping, certain that the....things were behind him, chasing him like a pack of rabid dogs, Matt stumbled blindly, unable to trust his senses until he literally tripped over something. What?! Breathing hard, he strained, listening for those....things. Nothing, except a heartbeat. A heartbeat? Matt reached out at what he tripped over, feeling flesh and ...a person!? "Who's this?" he asked, terrified. The heartbeat said 'Topaz' but he didn't trust his senses right now.

She didn't hear the question or the voice, didn't realize that it was a friendly person who had, quite literally, tripped over her. A strangled scream tumbled off Topaz's lips as Matt's hand brushed against her, and she jerked away. She hit Matt's arm as she swung and scrambled back, scraping her hands against the cement. "Stay away!" Her voice was high-pitched, hysterical - it barely sounded like her.

Topaz! He knew that voice for sure and it wasn't that brain-cringing sound of the...things. "Topaz!" he replied, "It's me. Matt. Can you see me?" Were there lights? He had no idea.

A new voice had joined the din in her mind. She couldn't tell what it was saying - everything was starting to run together. "Stop, stop, stop," she moaned, her hands tangling in her hair as she clutched at the sides of her head. But even as she curled up again, she caught a faint feeling of panic and fear that wasn't her own. Was there someone else? She opened her eyes carefully to investigate, and almost instantly squeezed them shut again, whimpering. "Too dark," she whispered shakily.

Okay, dark. Dark he knew. Intimately. Reaching out, he slid a hand carefully over her body, until he had her ankle. Gripping it solidly, but not so tightly that she couldn't move away from him, he repeated, "Topaz. It's Matt," he didn't know what else to say to get through to her, "I know it's dark. It's okay. I can...." what? What could he do? He a blind embarrassment to anyone named Murdock! To his own father! Taking a shaky breath, he continued, "I know the dark. It's okay. The dark can't hurt you," just whatever hid in it could.

Despite her initial reaction to jerk out of Matt's grip, the physical contact went just a little ways in bringing Topaz back into her head. The faint feelings she'd sensed before became slightly stronger, and his voice managed to rise above those of Taboo's and Adam's, just enough for her to identify it. "I can't see." Her own voice came out small and weak, tears slipping down her cheek. "I can't see them, I can't stop them. They're going to get me."

"I can't see them either," he agreed, way to point out of the obvious, "but I got away. You can too. Together. I promise. The dark isn't so bad," and well...eventually she'd have light, right? Not him. He tried not to dwell on that. "Get up," they were chasing him still? Right? They had been, were they still?

She tried to pull herself, shaking horribly, but only got as far as a half-kneeling position before her head reminded her - rather violently - that she'd overexerted herself earlier. "Can't," she choked out, cradling her head in her hands. "Can't. M'useless. Bloody useless."

His own head was throbbing, whatever these things were did a number on him too, on his powers, on everything. "Squeeze my hand," he offered, giving it to her as he tried to help hold her up. Pain, pain he was familiar with. He could work through it. Focus past it. "I'm not a loser. I'm not a failure and I am getting us out of here," Matt took a shaky breath as he pulled them both up to their feet, "I ever tell you I'm an addict?" he asked.

She kept her eyes tightly shut (it was dark, it didn't matter), squeezing Matt's hand with a surprising burst of strength as she attempted to balance herself. "You are?" She managed to say through a tight throat.

"Yeah," Matt grunted as they headed down the corridor. "Good. Just like that. Mostly painkillers, some harder stuff. Been to rehab twice. Here's the deal. I'll get us out of here, but you're keeping me sober, got it? Because fuck I want the good shit." And screw his language and being gentlemanly! He took another shaky breath, "Gotta stay clean."

It was taking all of Topaz's concentration just to put one foot in front of the other without falling, but she still gritted out, "I can do that," in a small voice. Adam's and Luca's voices had faded to barely existent whispers, and the more she focused on Matt's emotional presence at her side, the easier it became to block out her own fear. Slowly, very slowly, she was taking back her control. "I'll make sure you stay sober," she finally said in a slightly stronger voice.

"Good," he wasn't scared right now, he was determined. Determined to show those things up, determined to shut the doubts down, determined to prove everyone wrong. "'Cause I'm not a failure and I'm not a quitter and I am damned if I'm gonna let some creepy voices in my head that sound like nails on a chalk board tell me I ain't gonna amount to nothin'! I'm Matt Murdock. I come from nothin' and I'm gonna make me somethin'!" He ignored the joke about rehab being for quitters and his father, embarrassed of him, ashamed of him. He didn't want to think about that.

Determination was good. Topaz latched onto the hopeful feelings like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver. "You're a good man, Matt," she told him quietly. Finally she dared to open her eyes...

And gasped, jerking to a halt, when light assaulted her vision. Granted, it was the twisted, grey light of whatever this place was, and it was hell on her headache, but it was light!

"What? What is it?" Matt stopped, unsure. He still wasn't trusting his senses beyond putting one foot in front of the other, "What's happening?" he didn't hear anything!

"Sorry," Topaz said quickly, blinking a few times just to be sure. But no, the drab scenery didn't disappear. She could see. "Sorry, I didn't mean to - I just - it's gone. The darkness is gone, I can...see, I - I'm bein' an idiot, I'm sorry, bein' an insensitive prat, sorry..." She rubbed her eyes, suddenly very aware of the tears still staining her cheeks, as well as the fact that she was babbling. Her emotions were all over the place.

"No, it's fine," he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, comforting, "It's...scary, not being able to see, at first. And then you wake up a lot trying to, thinking maybe you can later, and...yeah. It's good that you can again," Matt thought he was past all this, but thinking about it with his emotions already so raw surprised him with their fierceness. He took a few deep breaths trying to center himself, "Are we... home then? Or what? I can't...I can't tell."

The shoulder hug startled Topaz a bit. She rubbed her eyes again, trying to breathe evenly and sort her head out. "No, not home yet," she reported regretfully. "We're still wherever these things brought us. Don't think there are any near us, though. So there's that." With the close proximity, she could sense the raw flow of emotion emanating from Matt. She reached out wearily, ethics be damned for the moment (she'd apologize later if he really had a problem with it), and attempted to provide him with some amount of calm.

The calm helped and if he was more clear-headed, he would have asked if there was a chance he could get addicted to that, but he didn't. Right now, it was needed. "Well...there's that," he agreed. "I....I don't know how much I can trust my senses. Everything's distorted, strange. And I lost my cane somewhere..." another one, down the drain. He had one back at the school, a spare, but this was now the second he'd lost this year and the third since he'd had to get a longer one earlier.

After that little...experience...Topaz wasn't entirely sure how much she trusted her own eyes. "Well, we'll figure it out," she said with a bit more confidence than she actually felt. She reached over hesitantly, taking Matt's hand again. "I'll be your cane, you keep me sane." Because everything about this place really was threatening to drive her mad. "We keep each other straight. Sound good?"

"I can do that," Matt agreed, feel more even now than he had been. "This place...screws with everything. If what you see is half as screwed as what I sense...there's not much out there."

"It's...It kind of looks like what everyone says the world will look like after the apocalypse," Topaz said haltingly as she looked around. "Ya know...stuff's all ruined and fallin' apart, and it looks like someone sorta drained the color outta everything, s'all grey...yeah, pretty screwed up. Let's hope we find a way outta here. Soon."

Matt almost asked if there were giant cockroaches, but he resisted. "Yeah, I'm good with heading home any time," he agreed, "We should try to find the others though. If we're...here, wherever here is, then they are probably, too."

"Yeah...somethin' tells me findin' the others will be easier than findin' a way out of here." Ever the optimist. Topaz scanned the the dismal landscape. Nothing human as far as they eye could see. But on the up side, nothing tall and tentacle-like and wearing a suit either. "We'd better start walkin'."



Sue, Topaz, and Matt help Hope break out of her cycle of anger and abuse by showing her that Slendermom has been toying with her.



First one hand appeared clawing the air then another before they scrabbled at the earth for a grip. Slowly a bedraggled blonde head emerged from the ground and sucked in a ragged breath before she started coughing. Still half buried in dirt Sue clawed mud and hair from her eyes and grabbed hold of anything she could to pull herself free.

Finally dragging her feet free Sue collapsed onto her back her eyes closed as she took a few steadying breaths. She knew she was still underground, but at least she was out off that place. Sue could still hear the monster, taunting her, revealing all the failures she had hidden from the world. She knew it had all been a trick, a way to get to her; but that didn't make it any less true. Sue was pulled out of the pit of despair her thoughts were sliding into by the sound of a familiar voice. "Hope?" the blonde forced open her eyes and pushed herself off the floor heading towards the sound of her classmate''s voice.

Hope was still sitting upon the creatures chest. "SHUT UP! YOU... ONLY... SPEAK...LIES!" Each word was still punctuated by yet another slap, the slender!mom below Hope just grinning as she got angrier and more upset.

The sight of Hope physically attacking her mother stopped Sue short. Hope actually attacking someone was surprising enough, but her mother had always been the key figure in Hope's life...just like Johnny. Sue's eye's narrowed as she stared at the scene, "Hope, what's going on here? What're you doing?"

She would not stop laughing. She just would not stop laughing. Every time Hope attempted to wipe that grin of her face, to silence to words that she would never be worth anything if she didn't fit her mother's mold... it did not work. When Sue's voice penetrated, she looked up, an almost wild look in her eyes. "Just stay out of this, Sue. I am just telling her what she really is!"

The sheer vehemence in Hope's voice was surprising, and more than a little scary, no one could have expected the prim and proper Hope to be so angry. This was a side of Hope Sue had never seen before, Hope had always seemed so fragile but now..."What is she then?" Sue asked, hoping to understand what was going through the other girl's head.

"A sculptor, but one of the worst kind! She takes people, shapes them to her own desires and happily cuts away the parts that don't fit that fit her image. And if the clay won't cooperate, it weak and unworthy." Hope spit out.

"You know that's not true," Sue countered "You're not unworthy. You're one of the nicest people I know and you're polite to everyone, not matter who they are or what they've done. That's something that everyone should try to emulate. Tell me how that makes you unworthy?" She held out her hand, "You don't need to beat the truth into her, just be better than her."

"And have her just push me down yet again and again?" Hope eyes sparkled angrily as she looked at Sue, pausing her slaps for a moment. "No. It's time she learns her lesson!" The Slender beneath her struggled a little and she gave it yet another firm slap.

The wave of anger hit Topaz very suddenly. She stopped short, forgetting that she was still helping Matt along. "What's that?" She asked, looking left and right, trying to locate the source.

"Hope," Matt stated simply, familiar with that tone, just not from the other girl. Striding over, he gripped her around her waist and picked her up off the thing, "Okay, Hope, you're done. C'mon," he carried her away.

"What?!?!?!" Hope shrieked as he was pulled away from her 'mother'. "Matt, let me go. I was not done with her yet." She struggled against the arms around his waist, flailing her arms and legs. "MATT!!!" Not really realizing what she was doing, she flung one of her hand in the direction of Matt's face.

Adjusting his grip, Matt tossed Hope up over his shoulder so she couldn't hurt him too much more. "I know," he agreed, thinking of what happened to him with his own father in this wretched place. "Enough though. You can hate me later. After we figure out a way home."

"Don't you dare! Put me down!" Hope continued to flail, hitting his back with fists. "Do you plan on carrying me out of here?!?!?!"

The thing laughed as Hope was pulled of it. "Going to have your friends always win fights for you? So you can hide behind them like a coward?" It taunted the young teen with it's words as it got up slowly.

"Aarrgghh!" Hope flailed even worse when she heard the creature. Suddenly she stopped flailing as she realized something. Pulling in a few deep breaths she just managed to calm down enough and let go, her astral form appearing next to Matt who was still holding her body. ~If I cannot get to her in body, I can just give this a try.~ With those words she strode over to where the creature was still lying on the ground.

Topaz saw Hope's body go limp in Matt's arms, and her astral form made its way towards the creature on the ground. "Oh no you don't," she muttered, gritting her teeth together. She reached out without a second thought, grabbing onto Sue's emotions and taking off just enough to let her cast a decent shielding spell, boxing in Hope's astral form.

Sue reacted in the same heartbeat as Topaz, throwing herself in the path of Hope's astral form throwing a force field around the both of them. "No! That's exactly what it wants you to do," she told Hope coldly as she stood directly in the other girls path. The blonde felt an almost emotionless detachment as she stood facing down her fellow student, "We." she nodded at Topaz, "Aren't going to let you take a single step further. Snap out of it Hope, you're not thinking clearly."

Hope stepped around Sue, but found her way blocked by both force fields. ~Let me through, Sue.~ Hope projected, her mental voice trembling. ~I am just giving her what she deserves.~ Again she attempted to push through both barriers.

"Yes Hope...you aren't thinking clearly." The monster disguised as Hope's mother stood up as it spoke, her face melting together to reveal the white face of a slenderman as it grew several feet. ~Give her what she deserves~ The slenderman stood before the teens as its arms sprouted out and pushed up against the barriers trying to get to Hope.

Topaz pressed her lips together, flexing the shield so that it expanded and shoved the Slenderman back a few steps, putting some space between it and and her currently astral classmate. "It's eggin' you on, Hope," she informed the girl as evenly as she could manage. "It wants you to be angry. Look at what it's turnin' you into. 'Give her what she deserves'? That's not you. Anger's a nasty thing, especially if you can't control it. It twists you, it turns you into a monster. You're better than that."

"I've been there, Hope," Matt added, "It's not worth it. You're a lady. Ladies don't act like this, you keep telling me that, right? So act like a lady. Or at least, be yourself," Matt never claimed to be a gentleman. "Don't let others manipulate you. Think for yourself."

You're not thinking clearly... You're not thinking clearly... The sentence was clear in Hope's mind. If both her friends and the creature before her were saying it... if both friend and enemy was saying it, should there not be a core of truth to it. Ignoring all outside sensations as much as possible, she tried to push the anger away, so that she might be able to gain a clearer head.

"There you go," Topaz murmured, reaching out and giving Hope's emotions a little nudge to help her along. Nothing big - Hope needed to deal with this herself - but if she were to encourage the anger to go hide in a corner of Hope's mind, it wouldn't hurt anything, right?

Hope felt the anger being banked a bit and she finally dared to open her eyes. For the first time she regarded the creature in it's true shape. It was not her mother... and it had never been her mother. It had not been her mother to tell her those words that felt almost like daggers, but that monster. Not her mother, but that monster. Even if her mother was demanding and strict, she loved Hope. That anger that had come out was unneeded.

It still rumbled in the back of her mind, still ready to break free, but for now it was contained. She had been cheated... ~I will be okay for now.~ She sent. ~Just... I need to stay away from that... thing.~

Sue gave Hope a distrustful look but let her forcefield drop, waving her hand at Topaz to tell her what she'd done. "Ok, just ignore anything it says, they're just trying to get a rise out of us." She watched Hope float back towards her body before turning to face the Slenderman. "You can't have her, you can't have any of us. We're leaving!"

Topaz rearranged her own shield so that Hope could float back to her body, but left it up as a barrier between them and the Slenderman. "Never-mind it, Sue." She closed her eyes, breathing deeply before daring to speak again. She was sleeping for a month when they got out of there. "It's not listenin'. Can everyone run?"

Matt nodded slowly, "Let's go," he agreed, putting Hope down, but he kept a hand on her shoulder casually. He was having trouble understanding his surroundings.so the extra hand like that was a help.



If you can't rely on firefighters (because they're Slendermen), it's a good thing you have friends around to find you.



Nothing Renee had tried was working. Trying to use a friend to attack the creature chasing her was useless, he just cut them down like smoke. Trying to fly out above the fire was useless--it seemed to extend forever. She was too scared to get close enough to let the thing touch her to try to fight back on her own. The sinking feeling that she was not getting out of this, that either the fire or the creature were going to take her, was starting to overwhelm her. What was the point of fighting? Maybe it was right, maybe it was just better to go along.

It seemed the longer Matt and Hope wandered, trying to find their way out, the more lost they became. Then, with almost no warning, there was smoke and fire not quite around them, but in front and getting closer. Matt had already figured that time and distance and whatnot didn't work quite the same here, which was likely why his powers were affected, too. Coughing, he tightened his grip on Hope's hand, "I hear a heartbeat!" he said, surprised.

"A heartbeat? Another one of us? Who?" Hope shot of the questions rapidly. Her hair and clothing were still a mess from the fight with her mother, even though she had taken a few moments in an attempt to straighten them.

"Does it matter?" Sue asked, "One of use, or someone else, we can't leave anyone behind. trapped in their nightmare."

Topaz had tuned the others out as soon as Matt had mentioned a heartbeat, trying to focus on the terrified, hopeless emotions of the person. But she could only pick up the faintest wisp - the person was just too far away. She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head for a moment. "I can't tell," she muttered, slightly annoyed and mostly resigned. She raised her voice so the others could hear. "Whoever it is, they're scared. Matt, do you know which direction?"

Matt pointed, "That way," he said, turning to go that way, "I can't tell if I recognize it from this distance, but I agree with Sue, we can't leave anyone tapped here," he hated how this place messed with his powers. At least the faint heartbeat wasn't right next to him though.

Taking a deep breath, Hope tried to settle herself. She refused to be lost to the anger again, even though they had to face even more of those creatures. "You are right. I would be cruel to leave people in this dimension." And maybe then they could start looking for a way home if they could not find anyone else of their group. "Which direction did you say again, Matt?"

Topaz was already moving in the direction Matt had pointed. She could feel Hope's attempts to keep her emotions level, and after a moment of thought she called up a calm she didn't quite feel and reached out to Hope just as she had with Matt, tweaking her emotions just the tiniest bit. Anger was good, but the anger they'd just seen in Hope...it wasn't going to do them much good there.

Hope's eyes widened as she felt her anger being pushed back as it were. It was still there, pulsing in the background, but it didn't seem it was going to boil over any moment now. She had her suspicions where it come from, but let them rest for now as she followed the others in the direction Matt had pointed out. Her eyes widened again as they came to rest upon the firey scene before them.

Renee slumped to the ground, staring at the fire around her and figure approaching her. Her heart was pounding and she knew she should run but there was nowhere to go and... and now there were even more of them coming through the fire. She'd always promised herself if something like this ever happened she wouldn't do down easily but that just wasn't true. She could only fight so long alone like this. She gasped quietly and shook her head but didn't run from the group as they approached. It wouldn't help.

"Renee?" Sue asked as she finally got close enough to recognize the figure slumped down on the ground. The blonde ran over to her friend, a force field allowing her to pass through the flames unharmed. "Are you ok?" she asked concern evident in her voice. She knew that they'd all been put through the wringer and had been worried about the others. "Come on, we're getting out of here."

"Oh my god," Renee murmured as she realized it wasn't more horrible black-suited figures coming through the flames. "Oh my god, Sue, what's going on?" She started to stand when the other girl said they were getting out. That was the best idea she'd heard all day. The best idea since waffles. Had that really been so recently?

"I can walk, yeah, I'm not hurt. Where is everyone else?" The group was far from complete. The idea that her other friends were going through something as horrible as this was almost too much to consider.

"I don't know," Sue admitted, "I...found Hope after I escaped and Matt and Topaz found us." She shrugged, "Maybe we'll be able to find the others while we're trying to get out of here. It seems to be working pretty well for us so far." Sue held her hand out to the other girl, once again throwing up a force field to get them past the flames without getting burnt.

"Getting out is the idea," Matt agreed. "Let's keep moving and stay away from these guys. Glad everyone's okay," relatively speaking. He wanted nothing more than a long, hot shower where he could scream. The need to use was getting stronger, but he pushed it away, trying to ignore it.

"Does anyone know which way 'out' is?" Topaz, ever the downer, felt compelled to ask as she turned in a slow circle, seeing nothing but gray landscape all around them. "Not that I don't agree with gettin' the hell out of this bloody place, but..." She let the sentence taper off. It was getting harder and harder to think. "I don't fancy walkin' around aimlessly and riskin' runnin' into those things again."

"Perhaps we should just start walking in one direction? This world has to end somewhere. And try to go around these creatures." Hope was also looking around, frowning at the strange environment around them.

"Easier to go through them than around them," Sue pointed out. "Either way Hope's right, better to just go in one direction than wait here for them to find us." She looked back in the direction they had been travelling before pointing along the path. "We found Renee going this way so I'd say it's been pretty lucky for us so far."