Alice slumped onto her bed and closed her eyes tight. That kill hadn't been as smooth as she'd wanted it to be. It was just one guy, so the diamond card was a perfect match to leave behind. It was her thing, her stamp, a signature that she'd become taken with. It set her aside from the rest. With her, it didn't end up looking like some random killing or a mess to clean up. When she left a scene, it was with a style all her own. In a way she saw it as a way to keep in touch with the outside world. The personalised cards left people talking about her, thinking about her... That way, she was never truly forgotten. So with that mindset in place, she'd followed her target into his local drinking cess-pool, gotten invited back to his place. And offered him one last game of cards...

Something damp nudged her arm. Opening one eye lazily, she glanced down and saw a husky dog prodding her elbow with its nose. At least, at one point in the past she presumed that it had been a husky. Now, it was practically bald; clumps of matted black hair around it's head and ears, patched along its back down to the ttail. The animals skin was raw, looking burnt and matched the red in its eyes perfectly. But what was the most noticeable trait about this creature, was its mouth. Snout long burnt away, all that remained was a stump of a nose, and a strangely human-like grin. Wide and large, permanently presented in a malicious sneer. Alice however, instead of fearing it as so many have done in the past, casually patted the creature's head and sighed.

"Hey, Smile." The dog nudged her arm again and carefully bit her sleeve, tugging at it, "What? I'm tired." But no matter how much she protested, he continued to persist, "Okay, you win, mongrel."

It rolled its eyes and allowed her to get up. It was common knowledge that Smile was by far more intelligent and vigilant that people would give him credit for. He may look like some mutated mutt but under the matted fur and burnt skin was a consciousness surpassing any canine.

Alice was led towards the room that was most commonly known as The Informer, purely because that's the place where they were all informed of their jobs. The targets, the reasoning and locations etc. Inside, it confused her to see that everyone had already gathered there. Shad and Ben hovered in the corner, Jack slumped near them with his eye-sockets aimed at the floor morosely. A thin, humanoid creature with talons tapping unnervingly against the tiled floor was crouched on all fours by the door, empty and blank eyes swivelling to look at her. Rake, Alice clarified, he didn't show up often, this must be serious. The creature hissed at her in acknowledgment, to which she nodded a return greeting. But what made things seem all the more serious, was the way Slender stood, looming over Jeff and Toby in such a way that she'd only been the victim of once. And it instantly brought a smirk to her lips.

"Oh it's about time you messed up, Jeffy-boy."

"Yeah you're so smug now the shoe's on the other foot, huh?" he returned, "Wasn't so funny when it was you standing here!"

"That was never my fault. And now I'm stuck living with the consequences every time I see... well that." She snapped, indicating to Jeff in general.

"And this wasn't my fault! It was his!"

Toby narrowed his eyes, "I was just doing what you told me to; don't be so damned literal next time!"

She shrugged in false coyness, "So what did I miss?"

Slender's voice echoed inside their minds, explaining the situation. As he spoke, Jeff became more and more agitated while Toby started to rub his elbow uneasily. Every single detail was given. The misunderstanding of the address, the merciless massacre of two adults and a young teenage boy, forgetting to finish a started job (correct or not) and then alerting the attention of the public and authorities. Needless to say it was not looking good.

Because of your inability to complete a simple task, we now are faced with a possible issue...

"Yeah," Ben agreed, "You guys are spreading the Sickness; that's my job."

"So someone saw you kill?" Shad asked calmly, "How careless..."

"We're all careless." Jack muttered, "We're left without care of anything anymore..."

Ignoring that, Jeff clenched his fists, "I would have finished the job if it wasn't for -"

Slender interrupted Jeff with a sudden raise of his hand, It was not the job you were sent to do... And the Sickness has already set in...

The Sickness. It was a myth at first, much like themselves, but it was all too soon proved to be real and effective. What made it so effective? It was transferred visually. So if you viewed something that had been tampered with by a branded Proxy member, then you were infected. It was the same with a kill. You can never truly un-see something, no matter how much you wish for it. It becomes engraved in your mind, close to the surface or buried within the subconscious, it doesn't really matter, it's there, haunting you. And if you were a branded Proxy, meaning someone accepted and marked by Slender, then you were frozen in time, forced to carry out these jobs, never truly free and yet free from the world itself. To survive the Sickness, was to become a Proxy. But the only way to give into the Sickness, was to openly ask what you feared for the cure...

But there are two methods to this Sickness, it is unsure which is the worst, but that's part of its 'charm'. Type one: Deliberate. Once infected, they can track you. Learn about you. Watch you. They can find you. They watch the paranoia, insomnia and depression consume you, make you weak. And then they'll come for you; making you pay for what you've done. Type two however: Accidental. This time, all symptoms are by far more severe and dangerous. The paranoia burns at your skull, insomnia screaming in your skull and the depression... deadly. If you give into it, then you may as well have held the same fate as the people who suffered Type One. But if you survived the worst of it, asking your fears for help, then you had no choice but to be –

"So, what're you saying Slendy?" Alice asked suddenly, "We're going to encourage the Sickness, right?"

"Still one number off the big one-hundred body-count, are you, Alice?" Jeff mocked.

"I'm just saying, we don't need to drag some randomer off the street into somewhere they're not wanted or needed." She returned. More people mean less jobs to go around, and she wasn't giving up her moments of freedom for anyone. So if that meant encouraging the illness and making the victim give into it, then that was fine by her.

We let it run its course... Time will tell...

"We haven't had a newbie since..." Ben paused in thought and then looked at Smile, "You, about two years ago."

"Does he count?" Shad asked sceptically, personally believing that Jeff should count as the last recruit, "There goes our five year record for not getting caught."

"I've gotta say," Toby nodded, "Considering we've been doing this for some years... we look great!"

The group looked at Slender, unsure where to go with that. The expressionless mentor slumped his shoulders a little, The branding stops the aging process, Toby, you're aware of this...

This was true, to be branded with the blood of a creature like Slender, a demon, then aging was no longer a factor. Like mentioned before; you became never truly free and yet free from the world...

"I know that." He shrugged, shoulders clicking, "I'm just saying, we stopped aging at a pretty good time." He sniggered, looking at Jeff sneakily, "Except you maybe, should have stopped you a few months earlier."

"Not another fucking word out of you." Jeff snarled; Rake hissing in agreement from the shadows.

"Are you sure you want to go down that road again?" Toby mused.

"It never ends." Jack muttered, shaking his head mournfully, "Constant loop and no escape."

Ben rolled his blackened eyes, "Positive attitudes all around then."

Shad looked at their mentor quizzically, "So who's going to monitor the Sickness?"

There was a long, slightly awkward pause. And slowly, it dawned on them that there was only one member of this screwed up little group that was not present. Slender straightened up and gave the answer with as much dignity as he could.

Widemouth...

"You're sending that fuzzy little creep?" Alice spat, "No offence, Slender, but that guy's about as subtle as a boning knife to the head."

"We're not here to talk about your sex life, Alice." Jeff muttered.

"And we're not here to talk about your fetishes either."

"You'd know, would you?" Ben asked mockingly.

"Not as much as you, Ben." She quipped.

Enough of this... My word if final.. Now don't concern yourselves with this any longer... The odds of surviving the Sickness is slim... Chances are we won't be needing to act at all... I've informed you of the possibilities...Now away with you, I'm sure there's something else you all should be doing... He watched them leave, shaking his head, Time will tell...

Every time Trixie closed her eyes, she saw it. But it was so swift and blurred, just as it had been the first time around that sometimes it was hard to make out more than colours and shadows. She felt some twisted sense of relief in that. Yet there was no force on earth that could make her forget that look on her brothers face as the hatchet dragged into his throat, as that knife drove between his ribs. The blood that pooled at her feet, swarming as if marking her with guilt. His mouth had been contorted in agony, fixed in fear. And what killed Trixie the most, was the look of desperation her gave her as the light faded from his eyes, and the knowledge that she couldn't help him.

"I had a weapon, both of those monsters weren't paying me any attention," she said one day, "I could have done something."

"It's been a month, Beatrix, you need to stop thinking like this." Her psychiatrist said, jotting down a note or two on his notepad and sighing, "There were no monsters that night, we've talked about this."

It was like she wasn't even in the same room as him, staring off into the corner of the room, "I could have not passed out, I could have tried to distract them so that Oll..." she trailed off, that name had been a constant struggle, "So that he could have gotten away or something."

Trying to reassure her, the therapist nodded calmly, "It's all too easy to think about the past and what could have been; but you need to be realistic and accept this and what happened."

"I should have tried to stop them... They're still out there." She insisted, bloodshot eyes darting around the room, "Th-The-"

The psychiatrist cut her off suddenly, "These monsters aren't real, Beatrix, you know this. You created them to cope with what really happened that night. Can you remember what happened? The truth?"

Truth? She knew the truth, "Yes. The pale smiling one with the knife, and the one with orange eyes and a metal mouth broke in. They killed them all... And I did nothing..." her heavy eyes blinked, tears slipping away, "But you all tell me that's not real. You tell me that I killed them. Why are you doing this to me?"

Feeling that like their last session, this was reaching a dead end and so he changed the subject, "How have you been reacting to the medication?"

Trixie lay back in her bed at the question, letting out a low sigh. Her sandy hair clung to her forehead with sweat as her fever built, the white hospital gown dotted with scarlet from her most recent nosebleed. They'd been happening regularly. Like clockwork throughout the day. Just like the violent seizures and fits that called for the straps that held her to the mattress. Just like the lack of sleep and endless nights of watching shadows sneak across her windowless room. But they weren't just shadows, she knew, they were so much more. Because shadows don't have eyes, and shadows don't whisper.

Realising that she still hadn't answered the question, she closed her eyes and allowed a hollow laugh, "Which one?"

The psychiatrist didn't stay long after that comment. It wasn't as if it helped. Trixie had been asked the same questions practically everyday since arriving at... she couldn't exactly remember where she was as in location. But she just wished that it would just kill her already. She fully understood why she was there. It didn't matter what the psychiatrist said; she knew that her story wasn't being believed. She wouldn't believe it herself if she was on the other side of these straps.

Creatures with wide, unnatural grins and metal mouths; chittering shadows beneath her bed that mocked her didn't seem like reality. But then again, neither did having her parents and brother brutally murdered. So, Trixie had let them pump her with whatever they thought would help her. She wanted to forget. Part of her wanted to believe that the monsters were just part of her imagination and that when the police found her all those weeks ago alone with a knife in a pool of cooling blood, their accusations had been right. But that was only a small part of her. Because she knew it wasn't true. She knew they were out there. And the shadows were swarming at her again, the whispers curling around her mind. That thing that lurked out of sight chuckling darkly.

"No... Leave me alone..." Trixie sobbed, fatigue making her skull throb uneasily, "Get away from me!"

"Not gonna hurt ya, sweetheart, just enjoying the snow is all." the sneering whisper stated, "Why the change of heart, you haven't spoken to me since your first night here."

Her first night. Now that really had been a nightmare. But that was before the restraints and medication. When she first caught sight of the lurking creature beneath the bed frame, there was nothing stopping her from cowering away and screaming for help, once again freezing in fear and unable to move. The people outside didn't see it though, all they saw was a killer, traumatized by her own actions. And now, so much time had passed and she'd given up...

"Go away." She grunted, thrashing against her restraints, before falling limp once more, she couldn't take this anymore, "Just kill me, please..."

"Not my job, that's up to you at anytime you like."

"You don't think I would if I could?" she asked weakly, closing her eyes so that she didn't have to look at the sliver eyes peering up at her, "Are you real? Or are you in my head like the shadows?"

"Think what you want, sweetheart," it cackled wryly, "It'll speed things up."

What did that mean? If he was part of her mind, then why couldn't she see her brother, or her parents? Why him? "I'm done..."

"Say the magic words." It taunted.

Gritting her teeth, Trixie forced her eyes open and staring the creature right in the eyes. Her breath caught in her throat, a scream begging to be let free. The monsters imp-like form smiled at her grotesquely with an abnormally large mouth that bore rows of needle pointed teeth. Silvery eyes shone in the gloom and for a moment, Trixie felt her heart stop.

"Please, take this away, make it stop..."

It shrugged, "Generic request, but I'll take it." Suddenly, the thing pounced, slashing its claws at the straps and pinning her shoulders down. Trixie whimpered and found herself paralysed. It leant in close, teeth so close to her. The fear set in, and he fed from it. Finally, she opened her mouth to scream, but the creature took full advantage and shoved its paw into her mouth, dropping a small and acid-like pill on her tongue. As she writhed in agony, the thing pulled away and smirked in triumph, "Time to go, sweetheart..."