So, the 'Proxy training' had begun for me. SlenderMan said he was going to start off by introducing me to his other proxies and having me stand by and watch them during their practice session.

I stand in silence beside SlenderMan, watching as five very skilled killers that were real Proxy to SlenderMan carried on in the midst of their training; they went from attacking each other to practicing on dummies and even non-combat skills were taken into consideration, such as communication and stealth.

SlenderMan said that on my first day going around as his 'test Proxy' I would just watch and learn from the others. We were in a pretty big basement that was separated rest of the mansion. The concrete floor was stained with dried blood and littered with tools and devices that presumably have been used either kill people or I dunno, use against their other comrades. There were a few badly beat up dummies scattered around the area and I was oh so lucky enough to see an actual rotting body that was being kept way back at the far corner of the basement.

I had to admit, it was pretty interesting watching the Proxies fight, but I sort of wanted to be apart of the action too. I never actually got to hurt people and get away with it before, so this might be my chance to blow off some steam.

"Sooo when do I get in on the action, Baldy McBalderson?" I ask SlenderMan, casually nudging my elbow against his arm with a grin. SlenderMan quickly smacked my elbow away and then tapped me hard over the head with one of his tendrils, causing me to whine in pain and pout, scooting away from him.

"First of all, you will need patience. Your first task is to observe and see how my Proxies function. Everything they do requires communication, teamwork, and precise skill. Make sure you understand and value these things above all."

"Fine..."

I blink when I notice one of the Proxies had begun walking over to us, and I look towards him trying to hold back a weird smile. This was the one that intrigued me the most during the session because he seemed to be the one in charge of the other four and he was the one who directed their training the whole time.

"Well well, what do we have here?" The yellow hooded man coolly asked as he stepped up to us; I couldn't see his face, but he seemed to eyeing me behind his little frowny-face ski-mask.

"Hey," I say, tilting my head at him and stuffing my hands in my pockets. SlenderMan held out his hand to me, "Hoody, this is (Y/N) (L/N), SplendorMan's little guest. After some thought I have decided that they will be spending some time around us, learning what it is like being a Proxy. You and the other four will take them along and show them the ways of being a Proxy when I am not able to, do you understand?"

"Ah alright. Yes sir," 'Hoody' replied, slightly nodding his head before tuning to me. He hesitated a moment before he reached out a hand to me, expecting to shake. I didn't wanna be rude but ...I was kinda still hung up on his apparent name so I only gawked at him before blurting out, "Your name is Hoody??? Was your mom on drugs???"

I don't know how but I managed to feel some wave of disappointment from SlenderMan after that one and Hoody slowly lowered his hand, forgetting the greeting. "'Hoody' is my alias, you dumba—dork," He scoffed at me, folding his arms over his chest, "I dunno Boss, this one's already seem to got a mouth..."

"Yes, unfortunately it does, but so does Walker so you're already used to it."

"Doesn't mean we want to deal with another, but whatever you say goes," Hoody replied; he then made a quick turn around and headed back to the others , ending the conversation. I kinda felt bad for not shaking his hand and giving him the impression that I was annoying...even though I kinda am.

"(Y/N), come with me and please refrain from saying anything stupid," SlenderMan said, beginning to follow Hoody, "in fact, just don't say anything at all. Maybe that would be better for all of us."

I slowly walked after SlenderMan with my mouth gaped open before breaking into another pouting session.

I follow SlenderMan and Hoody where the other four proxies were, and they all look towards me and SlenderMan in silence. "Troop, this is (Y/N). I know your senses are telling you that this is a typical outsider, however at the request of SplendorMan I am giving them a chance to prove themself and find themself as a Proxy to one of my siblings or myself," SlenderMan announced, introducing me. "For a while, they will be training besides your five and will embark on missions alongside you. The purpose is for you idiots to make sure you help them become just as skilled as you."

'Did he seriously just call them idiots?'

"Yes Sir," They all shout in unison. They then all turn to look at me. One of the Proxies, the one SlenderMan ended up introducing to me as Kate The Chaser looked me up and down before cracking her neck to the side. "I'm not very confident on how this one looks but maybe with some work it'll work out," She said, her voice a rather deep, raspy tone. I shrug and reply, "Well I never did any of the crazy things you guys probably do, of course I'll need work."

"I don't know about you but don't expect to get too much work done here with these killjoys hanging around," Another one of the Proxies, the one that went by The Walker spoke up, nodding to Hoody and Masky, "they're diehard Proxies and expect everything from you to be perfect, otherwise trying is useless."

"That's not true. Quit feeding the newbie lies," Hoody scowled, scuffing Walker over the head.

I was starting to feel a bit awkward by the number of people in the room and the fact that I wasn't familiar with any of these guys, so I nervously cut in, "Er...so Slender Proxy stuff...what can you guys show me for a start...?"

"This," Another Proxy with this tendency to 'tic'  to what looks like Tourette's to me, Ticci-Toby started, and he held up a hatchet in his hand. He suddenly turned and swung the weapon straight at the masked male standing next to him, the one called Masky. 'Masky', yelped aloud in alarm and just barely dodged the blade by quickly sliding to the side. He then went and swiped his leg at Toby's and Toby immediately flipped back, falling over onto the ground.

"Fuck....that did-id not go as planned-d," Toby grunted, resting his head back on the ground in defeat. "Serves you right for pulling a stupid stunt like that, Rogers," Masky scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and shaking his head. I smirk a bit, slightly amused by the antics of Toby.

"Quit fooling around, would you?" SlenderMan snapped at Toby as the Proxy slowly pulled himself off the ground. "Now, I want you all to start with simple basics to demonstrate to (Y/N), then I will eventually expect a small evaluation for their first time, is that understood?"

"Yes Sir."

"Hey, does training ever happen with just you or anything, SlenderMan? I'm supposed to see if I should become your Proxy after all?" I speak up. The other Proxies seemed meh and all but I wasn't usually all in for working in groups. Actually, group-work pretty much unnerved me, thanks to previous school experience.

SlenderMan didn't say anything for a moment before he slowly 'looked' down to me. I wasn't sure if that annoyed him or not, but he didn't have a response for me, as he simply watched me awhile before abruptly turning and taking off for the stairs of the basement.

"The frick. Did I say something wrong?" I scoff when I hear the door close. "General's a very...odd and mysterious man-egg-thing, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't rubbed the wrong way by that. Why would he be?" Walker said, rolling their shoulders to stretch. "Doesn't matter now, let's just get started on the rookie as the Boss ordered us to. Are you ready, (Y/N)?" Hoody asked, and I hesitated before slowly shrugging my shoulders. "Sure."

"What shall we start with first, Hoods?" Masky asked, and Hoody thought for a bit. "I want to test their combat skills, which I'm already certain they have none of. (Y/N), try and attack me."

"If you say so!!"

I probably sounded a bit too eager in my response but I didn't really care because I was being asked to attack someone and I was more than ready since it was basically a free offer to hurt someone.

I ran at Hoody with my teeth gnashed together, readying my fist to lodge into his ugly ski-mask-face-thingy. I launched at him and swung, but instead of the Dragon Ball special effect collision I was envisioning in my head, Hoody simply caught me mid-air, turned around with me, and effortlessly put me down on the other side. I stared at the wall that was now in front of me, my fists still raised in shock.

"What."

"Yep. We have enhanced, borderline superhuman abilities that allow us to act quicker than a normal person would. Not only that, but you run slow, and I saw the attack coming."

"How convenient..." I mutter, lowering my hands and turning back to him. "Alright alright-t, my turn. I wanna t-tr-ry," Toby said, now getting into a position as if he was waiting to catch me. I scoff at him and lower myself a bit. I try to concentrate, thinking of a way I could attack him without him being able to pick me up and stop my attack.

I try running at him again, but this time I throw myself to the side in hopes to dodge his hands. Low and behold, my attempt was stupid and pointless, as all I did was land on the ground hard and make a complete fool out of myself.

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Walker scoffed, stepping beside Toby and glaring down at my pathetic form. "I honestly feel k-kinda bad-d for them. They're so dumb it hurt-ts," Toby chuckled, folding his arms tauntingly. I scowl and pull myself up off the ground, straightening my shirt, "Oh fuck off, I was thinking of a move I could use to avoid you capturing me like Hoody did."

"At least you were making plans to avoid the attack, and that's somewhat of a start," Masky said, and I rolled my eyes. "Sure. Can we just try something else?"

I regretting asking.

»»————-　➴　————-««

So, for the next several painstaking hours, the Proxies of SlenderMan nailed into me every single existing value and skill that was required to work with SlenderMan. Apparently, the process of becoming a Proxy to Slender was much worse than I thought, and I'm only lucky that I was forced to do some of the things that real Proxies to-be would have to endure.

"You're not a real Proxy yet, and you don't even know wether you'll actually serve SlenderMan or not," Kate hissed at me while she was in the middle of keeping me locked in a chokehold. "You should feel lucky. This is us going easy on you," Masky said, circling the two of us with his arms folded.

I've been getting 'introductory training' from the first few minutes after SlenderMan had left me alone with his servants.

"You expect me to feel lucky while Kate's trying to suffocate me?" I choked out, glaring daggers at Masky as he was seemingly mocking me while circling me. "You'll get used to it. It's her thing," Walker said while tilting their head at me.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better."

Kate eventually finally releases me from her chokehold but as soon as I stumble away thinking I was home-free, my vision went dark as something had been quickly tossed over my head and I feel hands grabbing my arms, forcing them behind my back.

"Oh. Great! Now I'm blindfolded. What the heck does this have to do with being a Slender sidekick!?" I shout, now trying to yank my arms and fight back on the assailant.

"Just keep quiet, you", I hear Masky's voice shush me from a distance. I was starting to get pushed forwards and it seemed like I was being expected to walk ahead.

Despite being blindfolded, I could feel the sensation of someone breathing down my neck and it was making me angry. "Whoever the fuck you are, brush your fucking teeth and stop breathing on me, I can smell your ass breath from here."

That comment warranted me getting clobbered over the head and this time it's Ticci Toby's voice that I hear, "If tha-t's the case then I h-hope you're su-u-ffocated and dead by the time we're don-ne here. See if you're worth the time or not."

The crude retort was enough to shut me up for a good minute. I eventually feel myself cease being pushed ahead and I hear the sounds of the other Proxies' footsteps come to a stop. Whatever was thrown over my head minutes ago finally gets ripped off of my head and I blink my eyes aggressively, taking in my new surroundings.

"The...Woods. Why are we out here again...?"

Each of the five masked figures standing before me take a moment to glance at each other before looking at me. Somehow, I could feel the smirk forming on some of their faces.

"We know you're not officially bonded to SlenderMan yet..." Hoody spoke, his voice sounding more anxiety-inducing than it did before. "However, if you can't past this simple test here? Then you'll instantly know you're not the stuff," Masky finished for him. "In short, welcome to your Initiation! If you die, try not to get blood everywhere, drives Smile mad when taking him for walks," Walker said with an enthusiastic voice that made already tense situation even worse for me.

I didn't get the opportunity to respond when suddenly all five of those messed up super-humans start marching towards me. The Proxies are big as fuck and intimidating as hell compared to me, even 5"5 Kate... I was between taking my chances and fighting them back by tooth and nail because I don't know what they're about to do to me and the fact that Walker mentioned the possibility of dying was enough to trigger my fight-or-flight response.

However, just before any one of them could actually touch me, a cold voice suddenly reverberated throughout my head. I could tell the others heard the same voice as the Proxies instantly stopped approaching me.

"Just what are you six doing out here?"

I slowly turn my head to see SlenderMan standing a few feet away from us, almost hidden between the darkened trees.

It was a long, awkward moment of no immediate response before SlenderMan boomed, irritation discernible in his voice, "If you're all going to blatantly ignore me then you must be hiding something. What are you doing here? Did I not order you all to familiarize (Y/N) to things?"

"Well we did—we were..." Hoody quickly spoke up; he seemed afraid to invoke any type of anger from Slender so he bit the bullet first so the others could remain quiet. "However we only decided later on into the training that if they'd even have a slim chance of becoming like us they'd be able to pass the Initiation."

Now it was SlenderMan's turn to respond with silence. It was starting to make me feel uncomfortable, as despite his wordless response I could feel the heavy air amongst him and that he was by no means pleased with us being out here.

Not like this shit was my fault in the first place...

"Dolts and Ignoramuses, all of you." SlenderMan finally snapped, "(Y/N) is not a Proxy, there is no need to initiate them into anything. Furthermore, if I hadn't interrupted you all and you'd have gone through with it, you could've killed them. By no means are they ready for any of this, nor did I order any of you to take this action."

"Apologies, Master. We were foolish to take things into our own hands," Kate immediately responded while dropping to her knees and craning her neck upwards at Slender. "Accept my deepest apologies for going against your will."

"Slender-Simp," Walker muttered under their breath.

SlenderMan then turned to face me and I awkwardly stand there like a statue before slowly sliding my hands into my pockets. "You...you know it wasn't my fault ri—"

"I know this wasn't your fault, just keep quiet. The rest of you, get out of my sight."

Without a single word, all five of the Proxies instantly dashed from the scene, disappearing like moving shadows into the bushes. SlenderMan briefly motioned with his hand for me to follow him, then he'd begun gliding off. I waste no time in stepping in pace behind him.

"Being a proxy of mine requires great loyalty, just as those five demonstrate..." SlenderMan spoke as we walked, and I look up at him. "Really? They kinda just went behind your back n' all—."

"Please, keep your mouth shut."

"...Yes sir."

"Now...I myself have built up that loyalty in them. If ordered, they would wipe-out an entire city for my sake before even questioning it."

At that moment following Slender's words, I realized that every time I fall into more interest with these guys, I fail to completely grasp the fact that they are killers, murderers, who take the lives of innocent people. I wasn't too much bothered by that fact considering I felt pretty desensitized towards people, but it still sat indifferently with me.

"I can clearly hear your thoughts, (Y/N). You are lost. Uncertain. You've never known a life of killing or even truly pondered being around deviants like us. You realize you cannot trust that your own potential comrades might not kill you. However, this is your only path to take if you wish to live."

SlenderMan abruptly stopped walking and faced down at me, causing me to also stop in response and glare up at him like a lost puppy. I tried not to goof up and cross my eyes out of stupidity. "Now this will be the only time I advise you of this. If you would rather a life free of sacrifice and duty under me, then I suggest you run to my brothers Trender or Splendor. But if you wish to work with me, you will have to grow contempt to moral values and know where your loyalty lies. You must not be phased by silly things such as 'emotion'."

He looked away from me and added, "I am a dark force, and I keep no mercy. You will either learn this or find your path elsewhere."

I watch him for a bit, remaining in silence before slowly muttering, "I don't know if I did something to imply I was unsure about working with you?... but alright, Slendy-o."

"...Don't ever speak to me like this again."

»»————-　➴　————-««

Alright, lemme just throw in a Time-Skip because I fucking feel like it, how's that? Anyway, time passed, approx. eight weeks since that first little session I had with the Proxies, and all that awaited me was a bunch of boring, vigorous, heavy training. Nothing I was really ready for, despite taking a liking to beating other people. I barely had any contact with any of the other "CreepyPastas" , and I hardly even got to see SplendorMan. Slender told me it would be best for me to be isolated from all who I was comfortable with so that I could get used to my new temporary comrades.

Most of my days were spent with me spending hours and hours inside that basement, learning to fight with the proxies and other important skills I needed to be useful to SlenderMan. To say the least...it was awful, nothing like I'd ever could've expected. I've never gathered so many wounds in my life...I've never felt so broken down, physically and mentally like I had in those eight weeks. Those Proxies did awful, terrible things to me, all for the sake of resilience...

I never hated life any more than I did, being trapped with them and SlenderMan overseeing it all. So many times, in that time-span I wanted to quit, to give it all up, hell, I even welcomed death. SlenderMan refused and told me that the first day was my only opportunity to withdraw. I had no choice but to ride it out to the end.

By the eighth week, which I believed my survival was purely a miracle, SlenderMan and the Proxies all greeted me in the basement with a 'surprise'.

They gifted me a bayonet; a literal old-fashioned bayonet with the blade attached firmly the rifle's muzzle that could easily be clipped onto the rifle and removed. I was confused at why the hell I got an entire 1700s style weapon with a modern knife attached to it, but I wasn't going to complain as for the first time in my life, I was legally holding in my hands an actual weapon in a very illegal way. SlenderMan disclosed that I would be the bayonet user of the Proxies; a complex weapon for the times but would deem me useful for both ranged and melee-required situations, if I were to become his true follower. As I was required to train using both guns and knives and all the like, Slender concluded that this would just be putting two in one.

This also meant, with me getting my own weapons, that the time was nearing for me to participate in my first mission for SlenderMan. I wasn't really looking forward to it because one, the torture I was put through with his Proxies caused a great deal of distance between me and them, and part of me hated their guts, but I had no choice. Two, this was gonna be my first time offing someone, more than likely. I wasn't sure how to feel about it, but I wasn't prepared to chicken out, as I'd already come so far, and I wasn't letting all this hell I faced for the past—almost three months—be in vain.

If anything, I was ready to take my chances and see if these past several weeks deemed me ready for the possibility of being a Proxy to The SlenderMan or not.