~A FEW WEEKS LATER~

Time was a blur, everything was happening so fast, and yet it felt like (Y/N) was moving in slow motion. It had been weeks since her father's death, and she had finally been able to just... Relax... It was nice and peaceful now that her father was gone; she didn't need to worry about being ridiculed or beat down or treated like trash. It was rather nice actually, and the girl had felt a lot happier since.

They were getting ready for her father's funeral – they didn't have a lot of money to spend on it, since they had to buy a new car, and her mother wanted to wait until they could afford at least some sort of nice event. Thankfully, insurance for both the car and her father helped; though (Y/N)'s mother insisted on waiting anyway; she clearly wasn't expecting to have the money so quickly.

(Y/N) and Ethan didn't know why their mother wanted to wait, why she decided a month later was a good idea. Didn't most people have the funeral as soon as possible? When asked, she got very defensive and claimed she was just calming down from what happened and needed time to heal before she faced the truth as brutally as she had the day he died.

That was fair.

Especially after the police ruled his death as a murder and told her that the fire had destroyed nearly all evidence aside from a dent next to the fuel cap, proving it was forced open. (Y/N) was rather grateful for that, at least the murderer could get away with no repercussions. She was still certain it was Toby, but even she had no evidence to prove it was him.

But now they were here; all of them dressed in black and getting in their brand-new shiny car. Boy, (Y/N) really hoped this wouldn't take long. She had asked if she could stay home for the funeral, her own excuse was that she was finally starting to understand what happened, that it had finally processed, and she wouldn't know how to deal with it.

A white lie, and sadly it hadn't worked. Her mother had been curt with her, telling her she was going whether she was able to stay strong or not. She was... Actually very cold about it. Ethan noticed it too and squeezed his say into it,

"Don't worry (Y/N)." He said, a hand on her shoulder, "Funerals are for crying, and we're all going through the same thing. I'll be here for you."

The girl noticed he only said 'I' and had sent their mother a glare, before giving his younger sister a smile.

Okay, back to the actual event. (Y/N) leant on the window of the car, staring out into the forest as they pulled out of the driveway and took off towards the town. The cemetery was on the other side of town, also right next to a forest. The girl, knowing this, started to wonder if the whole town was surrounded by forest.

Her mind wondered, and they finally arrived at their destination. She wasn't looking forward to this; other people, family and friends, of her father, were all here. The girl couldn't look them in the eye as they got out of the car and joined them. She couldn't help it, but knowing how horrible her father is, and seeing these people mourn him... She felt sick by the thought of it; and looking into their eyes felt like she'd give her thoughts away.

Just as (Y/N) feared, the funeral was long. Many people had come to say goodbye to 'a good man' as her grandmother had put it. Boy if only she knew; but knowing her, she would have said (Y/N) deserved it because the old bat was still in the 1950s and believed a beating was the only good form of discipline.

Actually, as the girl looked around at the people, she realised a lot of them probably still had that belief, and she instantly felt uncomfortable. They had all been giving her looks and turning their noses up at her since they arrived. Had her mother told them what she said? That her father slapped her because of the smashed laptop, and that the car exploded because he needed to calm down?

Ohhhh dear, she was surrounded by people that hated her. Most likely blamed her. Ethan must have been able to tell it clicked, because he took his sister's hand and gave it a squeeze. The two shared a look, him mentally telling her it will be alright and that he was here.

She gave him a smile, grateful to have him by her side.

But (Y/N)'s fears of her mother telling the family were proven true. After her mother gave her eulogy, everyone stood to leave for the burial. The girl didn't catch who said it, but in amongst everyone leaving, someone had asked her,

"Are you happy now?"

(Y/N) couldn't find who said it, and why it sounded so threatening. Since she didn't feel safe at all, she decided to cling to her brother's side for the rest of the day. He seemed to be the only one standing by your side in all this. He'd been at the girl's defence the last few weeks; if she came off as indifferent to what had happened, he said it was because she was still processing what happened. She really was grateful for his support.

As they walked, the girl's mind started to wonder again. She thought about the day her father died, how she saw the orange glint in the forest and wanted to chase it and find out who it was. She wasn't sure what would happen or what she would do, but the girl knew that the answer to everything had to be that orange light...

Or those orange goggles.

The possibility of it being Toby is small, it could have just been a trick of the light, a coincidence. In reality, (Y/N) had no clue who had killed her father; but if she ever met them, she would thank them personally for freeing her. God, she wished it was a Proxy, anything to do with Slenderman to prove him real.

She couldn't help but be convinced it was a Slender worker. And she was double convinced it was Toby, she just... Had no way of proving it.

Since her father's death the girl kept up her research on the urban legend and she's had the feeling that she's being watched. Whenever she would leave her room and return later, all her notes, or maybe even some of them, would be gone. (Y/N) was convinced they were real, and they were hiding from her.

But why...? Why do they want to hide from the world? Slenderman has the power to rule the world if he wanted to, he has nothing to fear.

Ethan bumped her side, and the girl snapped back to reality. They were standing around an empty grave, the coffin that held her burnt father was being put in place to be lowered. There was some sort of song in the background, a song about life and death, some sappy sad thing. It bugged (Y/N), made her uncomfortable. The world should be celebrating this man's death, not mourn it.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur, and slowly people started to leave. Her mother and brother had decided to stay a little longer as the people covered dirt over the coffin. There was an eerie silence, her mother's head was raised, and black tears ran down her cheeks, her brother was staring at the hole in the ground. She felt completely alien here.

And then she felt it again, eyes on the back of her head. She was being watched. The girl looked around, seeing nothing in the trees, but wanting to check it out anyway. Cautiously, she touched her mother's arm,

"Hey mum, I... I need to go for a walk... I just need to be alone, the funeral..."

Her mother huffed, pulling her arm away, she then wrapped it around Ethan and pulled him close, mumbling,

"If you're not back by the time we decide to leave, you'll be left behind." Her mother said, her voice was shaky but stern, once again ice cold. (Y/N) hoped it wouldn't be like this forever, that this was just the grief.

"Thank you..." She said slowly, before walking away from the depressing scene.

She roamed through the cemetery, looking at old tombstones and reading names and such. The feeling of being watched was like a tingle through her body; she could feel the eyes on her still, and the girl tried to be sly about looking around for her stalker.

She started thinking about the Proxies again and recollected that there were three of them. They all had their own stories and their own reasons for work with Slenderman. She couldn't help but wonder why, if he was the culprit at all, Toby had murdered her father, and if he was the one stealing her notes and stalking her.

Then (Y/N) started to wonder as to why they haven't just killed her yet since she just doesn't give up. Being persistent would be a problem to them, probably has been. But the more she thought about it, she realised that killing her would probably expose them more than just her research. So, they are trying to warn her, but how many times will they warn, how long can she drag it out before one of them decides to attack.

And why have they gone out of their way to kill her father?

She remembered Toby's story, reading about how he too had an abusive father; if he was the one doing the work, then maybe it struck a chord with him? Would Slenderman even let him do that if he already had a mission?

(Y/N) let out a sigh. Either way, if it was a Proxy that killed her father, then she would happily keep their existence a secret. They really did her a mental favour.

She stopped, now at the end of the cemetery, and looked around into the forest. Those eyes were still on her, and she was determined to find them. The dark greens and browns made it hard to see almost anything, and if the internet was correct about Toby's brown jumper then boy was, she going to find this difficult.

Until it wasn't. There was a glint of orange behind a tree, seeing a head move, and a smirk appeared on (Y/N)'s face as she started running into the woods.