Given a choice

So the girl and I had a talk after she woke up, Sane had dropped the idea that if she was interested in getting "Out" of this before she ever became "In" this shit storm we all collectively live in, that he could alter her memories of the last day so she could just go home and live a normal life. Well I had actually recorded, with consent, our conversation so I could notate it later, picture if you will the two of us in a wooded clearing near another of Pittsburgh's parks.


P: Look kid you just had one hell of a rude awaking, in one morning you just learned that monsters are real, and that magic exists on this world, a really horrible thing that no one so far in all of human history has been able to find a way to beat, but you also learned that there is potential in man to become something both greater and worse than it self... one of my associates is offering to help you forget this if you choose

A: You mean like brainwashing?

P: Well.. I won't lie that's about the jist of it yes, but you'll forget this ever happened, you'll be able to go home again, the creature that attacked you won't find you again if you forget about him...

A: What happens if I choose to remember today?

P: You end up like me, hell you end up like hundreds of other people, constantly on the run, fleeing from both the creature, or it's very human minions, you might learn to fight back, but most of us die in pretty horrible ways...Maybe you'll help try to figure it out via experiments, maybe you'll go mad while doing so and loose a piece of your self, maybe you'll end up surrendering yourself to it.  Or maybe You will find yourself sheltering it's servants... Or  maybe you will die protecting those you care about most.... It's honestly not a plesent life you would be setting yourself up for, and to be honest, if someone have given me the choice back then, I would have taken it.

A: I'll keep my memories....

P: What? Kid were you just listening to what I said? This life is terrible, we live in fear every god damn day, I lost an eye to this thing already, I also lost my home, my life, this shit striped me of everything I cared about.... Everything.... What could you possibly find worse that all of this that make you want to stay apart of it?

Anna lifts takes off her coat, revealing dark bruises on her arms, especially telling were the ones on her wrists... She was being abused by someone? A boyfriend? a parent?

P: those look pretty severe kiddo, who's doing this to you?

She looks to the side... under her hair is a bruise like a bite.... my skin crawls...

A: It doesn't matter, I can't go back to that life... not when I know I can escape from it....

I lean back against the tree I'm sitting by and look up at the branches... I can't force her to go back somewhere she doesn't want to be, but taking an untrained rookie with me, now that I just seriously pissed off the Slenderman?

Just after I already killed my friends?

P:  okay maybe I can find a Runner safe-house to drop you at then, I mean you can't come back here that's for sure, you'll just be putting others at risk and-

A: I'm going with you!

P:  Kid I'm not staying in town, to be fair, I'm not leaving newbie in town either, this are is practically ground zero for the creature's activities, there are more of it's minions per square miles here than almost anywhere else I know of.

A: Well touch shit old man, you saved my life, I'm your problem now! You can't just be all like Superman, save the day and fly off leaving us behind! Your Batman, and I'm Dick-Fucking-Grayson to you now! 

P: Okay, first off, who the hell is Dick Grayson, and second off, don't call me old man.... I mean don't you think it's going to, oh I don't know, roll up in a hotel with a girl half my fucking age?

A: Your a smart looking guy, figure it out... So when are we leaving?

I lost that argument right about the time she made started comparing me to a  superhero... yeah I figured the whole saving her life thing was a good thing, but in typical fashion I didn't think it through... I started off by handing her Maya's cellphone which was in the car, my number was already in it so if we became separated she could contact me, I also made it clear that she was going to have to learn quick, probably quicker than most since she was traveling with an established threat to the Slenderman and it's minions.

But were on our way out of town, destination unknown, I considered going back to Tacoma, but I think that would just be to risky right now....