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Description
Rhina had awoken to her parents’ screaming coming from their bedroom.
“Mama? Daddy?” she called out in the darkness. She hurriedly jumped out of bed and ran to her bedroom door and tried turning the knob, but it was still locked. She tried banging on the door, screaming, “Mommy!! Daddy!! What’s wrong!!?” Suddenly, she could hear four gunshots go off from their end of the house. Then there was silence…
Rhina’s blood ran cold… something bad had happened to them, she just knew it.
“Somebody’s here…” she whispered to herself in fear. She quickly ran to her closet and locked the door.
She huddled down in the far corner, as far away from the door as she could squeeze herself in, holding her knees to her chest. She sat there for a few minutes, listening as intently as she could. She couldn’t hear anything but that annoying staticy buzzing noise that fills your ears in the middle of the night.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of feet landing on the floor, and a few of her trinkets rattling on her dresser that was up against the wall next to her closet door. Her breath caught in her throat. Whatever was in the house was now in her bedroom. She tried to breathe quietly as she heard the thing slowly walk around her bedroom, the floorboards creaking hoarsely under its weight.
All of a sudden, the footsteps stopped, and silence filled the room once more. Had the person left her room to go explore the rest of the house? She didn’t know for sure.
Slowly, ever so quiet and slowly, Rhina inched her way from the corner of the closet towards the door. She leaned down and pressed herself to the floor and peeked out through the gap under the door. She looked around, trying to spot any feet, any signs of movement. But there were none, none that she could see anyway.
She sighed. They were gone. Now would be the perfect chance to climb out the window and run to the neighbors for help. She was about to get up to unlock the door, when suddenly, a pair of big black shoes appeared in front of the door from in front of her dresser. Rhina covered her mouth to stifle a scream and hurriedly pushed herself haphazardly into the back of the closet, falling back onto a broom, which slammed back and knocked over a beam that was holding a shelf up. The shelf tilted sideways and a box full of tools and other workshop supplies came tumbling down on top of her.
There was absolutely no way that whoever was in her room didn't hear that.
Rhina’s right cheek stung in pain. She reached up and touched it with her fingers. She felt something warm and wet seep onto her skin. She gasped and looked at her hand; it had a dark liquid on it that started running down her fingers to her palm. She looked at the floor in front of her and saw a circular saw blade laying at her feet, a few of the blades covered in a red liquid that glowed a vibrant crimson in the moonlight that poured in through the bottom of the door.
She stared at the blade, entranced by the sight of her own blood on such a deadly tool, the way it seemed to glow with such intensity upon the shiny new metal, it almost looked pretty to her. She went to reach for the blade, when the doorknob started to squeak.
Rhina gasped in alarm as the previously locked doorknob started to turn ever so slowly. She tried pushing herself back farther into the closet, but there was too much clutter now for her to go any farther back. She held her breath as the door started to slowly open, flooding the closet with the beautiful soft rays of the full moon that hung so delicately outside her window.
Her eyes became wide with unimaginable fear as she saw what now stood before her. A tall, almost ceiling height creature loomed over her just outside of her closet. It had no face, no features, save for a set of high cheekbones. It wore a white dress shirt and a straight, black tie underneath a long, black, suit coat. Upon the end of its sleeves it wore a set of cufflinks in the shape of black circles with “X”s going through them. Its lower-half was covered in long, black dress pants and a pair of black socks and shiny, black, dress boots. It was the exact same thing that she had seen so many times before in her dreams and out of the corners of her eyes when she would be playing sometimes.
Rhina cowered in confused fear in the back of her closet, trying to figure out why this strange, man-like creature was in her house in the first place. It was then, that the creature crouched down to about her height and extended a hand towards her, saying, “It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you, little one.”
Rhina gasped. She expected such a big and scary-looking creature to have some sort of deep, dark, scary-sounding voice, but instead, he spoke with an air of light and compassion, not at all what she was expecting.
She stared at his hand, only a mere three feet from her. After what she had heard earlier, was she even able to trust this man? After the gunshots that she had heard? It was then that she saw the bullet holes in his suit, speckled with dried blood.
“You were the one who got shot…” she thought out loud. After realizing she had voiced her thoughts, she quickly gasped and covered her mouth, wide-eyed.
The man simply chuckled a bit and said, “Yes, but I’m alright; really. Nothing a little quick healing can’t fix.” A smile etched its way onto his face. It was a warm, endearing smile. It made Rhina lower her hand and contemplate on whether she could actually trust him or not. He seemed like a good guy, definitely a lot nicer than her own parents. She thought for a moment. Maybe she could trust him… or at least hear what he had to say.
She slowly crawled out from under all the debris, towards the man’s hand. She hesitated at first, looking up into his “face” with worry in her eyes.
The man just smiled again and said, “I promise, I’m not here to hurt you.”
Rhina frowned for a moment and said, “How do I know you’re not lying?”
He thought for a moment, unsure of what to say, when, suddenly, an idea came to him. He extended his pinky finger and said, “I pinky-promise that I’m not here to hurt you.”
Rhina’s eyes lit up at such a serious expression of promise-making. No one could ever break a pinky-promise, ever. It was, like, against the rules if you did. And if you did, then you were doomed to live a life of sadness and aloneness forever because no one would ever trust you ever again! Would he really risk such a big thing just to try to gain her trust? She stared at his pinky, then up at him. He just kept smiling down at her, sincerely. She didn’t know what to do… she just stood there with a confused look on her face, staring blankly at him, almost as if in a trance.
After about a minute of this, the tall, slender man said, “Hmm… how can I make you believe me? Ah! I’ve got it!” He reached into his suit coat with his other hand and procured a cute little pink teddy bear.
Rhina’s eyes flickered over to the bear with immense interest. She stared at it, wide-eyed, taking in all of its features. It had light blue, beady eyes and a cute little pink nose. Around its neck, it wore a soft, red ribbon tied in a bow with a little golden bell tied to the middle of it. He shook it lightly in his hand and the little bell rang out a soft, beautiful chiming sound. Such a lovely sound, it made Rhina smile and her eyes light up at the sight and sound of it.
She went to reach for it, but he pulled it back out of her reach and said, “Ah! First you have to pinky-promise me that you won’t run away, okay?”
Rhina weighed the options in her mind. She didn’t even know this man, except for when she had seen him in her dreams occasionally. But, other than that, she had never talked to him. She was always too afraid to approach him in her dreams, and when she had the courage to and actually tried to, he would disappear before she got too close. So of course there was no way that she could know if he was actually a good guy or not. Why else would her parents shoot at him? However… he did seem really nice… If he wanted to hurt her, he could’ve probably done it already… plus she really wanted that teddy bear.
She bit her lip and thought for a moment more, then said, “Alright, I promise!” She locked her tiny pinky with his big one and grinned a big smile up at him. He smiled back and handed her the teddy bear. Her eyes beamed with delight as she took the pink teddy in her hands. It was so soft! She hugged it tight to her body and smiled. Then her eyes shot open and she looked up at him, still smiling, and said, “It smells like strawberries!” gleefully.
He chuckled and said, “Yes I know.” He smiled warmly and asked her, “What’s your name?”
“Rhina!” she said, gleefully. “What’s your name, mister?”
He chuckled again and said, “My name is Slenderman. Mr. Slenderman. But some of my friends call me Slendy, for short.”
“Ooh… is that because you’re so skinny?” she asked innocently, pointing at him.
He laughed at this amusing statement and said, “Yes, I guess you could say that.” Then he noticed her arms, how they were wrapped with bandages. He frowned and said, “Your arms. Let me see them.”
Rhina took a cautious step back and shook her head slightly, pulling her arm back to hug her teddy.
“I told you, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see them. Pretty please?” he reasoned, reaching a hand out towards her.
Rhina stared at him for a moment, then sighed and looked down. She stepped forward and held out her arms, still clenching the teddy bear in her right hand. He took her hands in his and started carefully unwrapping the bandages. She winced as he pulled the last of them off of her arms. What he saw made him let out a sound of disgust and resentment. All up and down her arms were covered with blue and black, some even yellowing, bruises. Fresh and old scars cut every which way, some trailing from the back of her hand all the way up to her shoulder. The mere sight of it enraged him.
He looked her directly in the eyes and said, very sternly, “I can understand where the bruises came from, but I highly doubt they would actually cut you as a form of punishment.”
Rhina didn’t say anything. She just turned her head and looked away.
“Rhina…” he ushered her to speak.
“I did it myself, ok?” she said, trying to pull away.
But he wouldn’t let her move away. Instead he held her hands in his, preventing her from escaping, and said, “You cut yourself? Why? Why would you cut yourself, Rhina?”
“They’re not cuts, they’re just scratches!” she whined, staring at him with a frown.
“Scratches don’t usually leave these kinds of scars, Rhina,” he said, disappointedly.
“Mine do!” she retorted, stubbornly. She wriggled her hand back and forth until it slipped out of his grasp. Then she quickly slashed her right arm with the nails on her left hand and winced as it created a few short, shallow cuts in her skin. Little driblets of blood started seeping out onto her arm.
Slenderman just stared at her arm, confused and in shock at what had just happened. “How did you-“
“My nails are really sharp,” she said, solemnly looking down at the nails on her left hand, now dabbled with blood. “I don’t know why, they just always have been. I never used a knife or anything… but… when I would get in a lot of trouble and got sent to my room, it made me really sad… really mad… so I would scratch my skin, trying to make it hurt enough to make the pain get out of my head, but… sometimes I would scratch too hard and it would make my arms bleed…”
He didn’t know what to say. He was at a loss for words. He just stayed there, staring at her in disbelief. After a moment or so, he shook his head slightly and said, “You don’t need to do that anymore, Rhina.”
She looked up at him, confused. “Why?”
“Because I’m going to take you away from here,” he said, cheerfully.
“Where?” she asked curiously.
He smiled. “I’m taking you to live with me at my house.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yes. But, first, we have to do something about your arms.”
“W-What?” she asked, backing up slightly.
“Nothing bad, just relax, okay?”
“O…kay,” she said, hesitantly.
He held her hands gently in his as a pair of smoky black tendrils started to form behind him. Her eyes grew wide and she became suddenly terrified. She dropped the teddy bear and tried tugging and pulling, trying to free herself from his grip.
“No, no, it’s okay, really. It’s not going to hurt. I promise. I’m just going to heal your arms. I promise, it won’t hurt a bit,” he said, smiling softly at her.
She wasn’t so sure about that. She tried pulling away again, but it was no use; he wasn’t letting go… She sighed and turned towards him, head hanging down; her attempts at escape foiled. He smiled down at her and slowly let his tendrils wrap gently around her arms.
Rhina winced at first. The feeling of the smoky black appendages that curled around her arms felt cold to the touch. It sent a chill through her. She just shut her eyes and waited for whatever pain she might feel. But no pain came. No. Instead she felt warmth. She opened her eyes and looked at her arms. They were completely covered in inky-black, smoky, snake-like arms from the top of her hands, all around her arms, up to her shoulders. What she felt was a warm, comforting sensation. It spiraled up from her hands all the way up her arms in warm, soothing pulsations.
She looked up at the strange man for a moment, and then back at her arms. The smoky tendrils started to slowly unravel themselves from her arms, revealing clean, completely healed, new skin underneath. Rhina’s eyes grew wide as the rest of her arms and hands appeared, completely healed and free of bruises and scars. She closed her eyes quickly as she felt something brush against her right cheek. The warmth licked away the cut on her cheek almost as quickly as she had gotten it in the first place.
She reached up and felt her cheek as the last tendril disappeared into the Slenderman’s back. The skin had completely healed. She looked up at him for a moment in astonishment, then suddenly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, tightly. This threw Slendy off a bit. He placed one of his hands beside himself on the floor to steady himself, and then hugged her with the other.
“Thank you,” she muttered into his ear, her eyes filling with tears.
He could hear the emotion in her voice. It made his heart ache because of how long she had probably gone without any form of love or compassion from another physical being. “You’re welcome, Rhina.”
Rhina pulled back and wiped her eyes on the back of her hands.
“Ready to go?” Slenderman asked.
She sniffed and said, "Um… yeah… Just let me grab a few things, first.” She pushed past him into her bedroom and pulled a small backpack out from under her bed. Then she moseyed on over to her dresser and picked up her hairbrush and a few of her trinkets—little dolls and toys and such—and placed them in her bag. Next, she took a few outfits from her drawers and shoved them haphazardly into her backpack. Then she quickly ran to the bathroom and grabbed her Pinky Pie toothbrush and her tube of My Little Pony training toothpaste and put them in the front zipper pocket. Then she scampered back to her bedroom and said, "Okay. Now I'm ready,"with a big smile on her face.
He smiled down at her with a little chuckle and then picked her up in his arms. He handed her the teddy bear, which she hugged tightly in her arms and proceeded to smell, happily.
"Alright, hold on tight, ok?"
"Okay," she said, holding onto his coat tightly and closing her eyes.
Then, in a flash, they warped away into the night, off to a faraway place, full of strange creatures and terrifying monsters.

Description
Rhina had awoken to her parents’ screaming coming from their bedroom.
“Mama? Daddy?” she called out in the darkness. She hurriedly jumped out of bed and ran to her bedroom door and tried turning the knob, but it was still locked. She tried banging on the door, screaming, “Mommy!! Daddy!! What’s wrong!!?” Suddenly, she could hear four gunshots go off from their end of the house. Then there was silence…
Rhina’s blood ran cold… something bad had happened to them, she just knew it.
“Somebody’s here…” she whispered to herself in fear. She quickly ran to her closet and locked the door.
She huddled down in the far corner, as far away from the door as she could squeeze herself in, holding her knees to her chest. She sat there for a few minutes, listening as intently as she could. She couldn’t hear anything but that annoying staticy buzzing noise that fills your ears in the middle of the night.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of feet landing on the floor, and a few of her trinkets rattling on her dresser that was up against the wall next to her closet door. Her breath caught in her throat. Whatever was in the house was now in her bedroom. She tried to breathe quietly as she heard the thing slowly walk around her bedroom, the floorboards creaking hoarsely under its weight.
All of a sudden, the footsteps stopped, and silence filled the room once more. Had the person left her room to go explore the rest of the house? She didn’t know for sure.
Slowly, ever so quiet and slowly, Rhina inched her way from the corner of the closet towards the door. She leaned down and pressed herself to the floor and peeked out through the gap under the door. She looked around, trying to spot any feet, any signs of movement. But there were none, none that she could see anyway.
She sighed. They were gone. Now would be the perfect chance to climb out the window and run to the neighbors for help. She was about to get up to unlock the door, when suddenly, a pair of big black shoes appeared in front of the door from in front of her dresser. Rhina covered her mouth to stifle a scream and hurriedly pushed herself haphazardly into the back of the closet, falling back onto a broom, which slammed back and knocked over a beam that was holding a shelf up. The shelf tilted sideways and a box full of tools and other workshop supplies came tumbling down on top of her.
There was absolutely no way that whoever was in her room didn't hear that.
Rhina’s right cheek stung in pain. She reached up and touched it with her fingers. She felt something warm and wet seep onto her skin. She gasped and looked at her hand; it had a dark liquid on it that started running down her fingers to her palm. She looked at the floor in front of her and saw a circular saw blade laying at her feet, a few of the blades covered in a red liquid that glowed a vibrant crimson in the moonlight that poured in through the bottom of the door.
She stared at the blade, entranced by the sight of her own blood on such a deadly tool, the way it seemed to glow with such intensity upon the shiny new metal, it almost looked pretty to her. She went to reach for the blade, when the doorknob started to squeak.
Rhina gasped in alarm as the previously locked doorknob started to turn ever so slowly. She tried pushing herself back farther into the closet, but there was too much clutter now for her to go any farther back. She held her breath as the door started to slowly open, flooding the closet with the beautiful soft rays of the full moon that hung so delicately outside her window.
Her eyes became wide with unimaginable fear as she saw what now stood before her. A tall, almost ceiling height creature loomed over her just outside of her closet. It had no face, no features, save for a set of high cheekbones. It wore a white dress shirt and a straight, black tie underneath a long, black, suit coat. Upon the end of its sleeves it wore a set of cufflinks in the shape of black circles with “X”s going through them. Its lower-half was covered in long, black dress pants and a pair of black socks and shiny, black, dress boots. It was the exact same thing that she had seen so many times before in her dreams and out of the corners of her eyes when she would be playing sometimes.
Rhina cowered in confused fear in the back of her closet, trying to figure out why this strange, man-like creature was in her house in the first place. It was then, that the creature crouched down to about her height and extended a hand towards her, saying, “It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you, little one.”
Rhina gasped. She expected such a big and scary-looking creature to have some sort of deep, dark, scary-sounding voice, but instead, he spoke with an air of light and compassion, not at all what she was expecting.
She stared at his hand, only a mere three feet from her. After what she had heard earlier, was she even able to trust this man? After the gunshots that she had heard? It was then that she saw the bullet holes in his suit, speckled with dried blood.
“You were the one who got shot…” she thought out loud. After realizing she had voiced her thoughts, she quickly gasped and covered her mouth, wide-eyed.
The man simply chuckled a bit and said, “Yes, but I’m alright; really. Nothing a little quick healing can’t fix.” A smile etched its way onto his face. It was a warm, endearing smile. It made Rhina lower her hand and contemplate on whether she could actually trust him or not. He seemed like a good guy, definitely a lot nicer than her own parents. She thought for a moment. Maybe she could trust him… or at least hear what he had to say.
She slowly crawled out from under all the debris, towards the man’s hand. She hesitated at first, looking up into his “face” with worry in her eyes.
The man just smiled again and said, “I promise, I’m not here to hurt you.”
Rhina frowned for a moment and said, “How do I know you’re not lying?”
He thought for a moment, unsure of what to say, when, suddenly, an idea came to him. He extended his pinky finger and said, “I pinky-promise that I’m not here to hurt you.”
Rhina’s eyes lit up at such a serious expression of promise-making. No one could ever break a pinky-promise, ever. It was, like, against the rules if you did. And if you did, then you were doomed to live a life of sadness and aloneness forever because no one would ever trust you ever again! Would he really risk such a big thing just to try to gain her trust? She stared at his pinky, then up at him. He just kept smiling down at her, sincerely. She didn’t know what to do… she just stood there with a confused look on her face, staring blankly at him, almost as if in a trance.
After about a minute of this, the tall, slender man said, “Hmm… how can I make you believe me? Ah! I’ve got it!” He reached into his suit coat with his other hand and procured a cute little pink teddy bear.
Rhina’s eyes flickered over to the bear with immense interest. She stared at it, wide-eyed, taking in all of its features. It had light blue, beady eyes and a cute little pink nose. Around its neck, it wore a soft, red ribbon tied in a bow with a little golden bell tied to the middle of it. He shook it lightly in his hand and the little bell rang out a soft, beautiful chiming sound. Such a lovely sound, it made Rhina smile and her eyes light up at the sight and sound of it.
She went to reach for it, but he pulled it back out of her reach and said, “Ah! First you have to pinky-promise me that you won’t run away, okay?”
Rhina weighed the options in her mind. She didn’t even know this man, except for when she had seen him in her dreams occasionally. But, other than that, she had never talked to him. She was always too afraid to approach him in her dreams, and when she had the courage to and actually tried to, he would disappear before she got too close. So of course there was no way that she could know if he was actually a good guy or not. Why else would her parents shoot at him? However… he did seem really nice… If he wanted to hurt her, he could’ve probably done it already… plus she really wanted that teddy bear.
She bit her lip and thought for a moment more, then said, “Alright, I promise!” She locked her tiny pinky with his big one and grinned a big smile up at him. He smiled back and handed her the teddy bear. Her eyes beamed with delight as she took the pink teddy in her hands. It was so soft! She hugged it tight to her body and smiled. Then her eyes shot open and she looked up at him, still smiling, and said, “It smells like strawberries!” gleefully.
He chuckled and said, “Yes I know.” He smiled warmly and asked her, “What’s your name?”
“Rhina!” she said, gleefully. “What’s your name, mister?”
He chuckled again and said, “My name is Slenderman. Mr. Slenderman. But some of my friends call me Slendy, for short.”
“Ooh… is that because you’re so skinny?” she asked innocently, pointing at him.
He laughed at this amusing statement and said, “Yes, I guess you could say that.” Then he noticed her arms, how they were wrapped with bandages. He frowned and said, “Your arms. Let me see them.”
Rhina took a cautious step back and shook her head slightly, pulling her arm back to hug her teddy.
“I told you, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see them. Pretty please?” he reasoned, reaching a hand out towards her.
Rhina stared at him for a moment, then sighed and looked down. She stepped forward and held out her arms, still clenching the teddy bear in her right hand. He took her hands in his and started carefully unwrapping the bandages. She winced as he pulled the last of them off of her arms. What he saw made him let out a sound of disgust and resentment. All up and down her arms were covered with blue and black, some even yellowing, bruises. Fresh and old scars cut every which way, some trailing from the back of her hand all the way up to her shoulder. The mere sight of it enraged him.
He looked her directly in the eyes and said, very sternly, “I can understand where the bruises came from, but I highly doubt they would actually cut you as a form of punishment.”
Rhina didn’t say anything. She just turned her head and looked away.
“Rhina…” he ushered her to speak.
“I did it myself, ok?” she said, trying to pull away.
But he wouldn’t let her move away. Instead he held her hands in his, preventing her from escaping, and said, “You cut yourself? Why? Why would you cut yourself, Rhina?”
“They’re not cuts, they’re just scratches!” she whined, staring at him with a frown.
“Scratches don’t usually leave these kinds of scars, Rhina,” he said, disappointedly.
“Mine do!” she retorted, stubbornly. She wriggled her hand back and forth until it slipped out of his grasp. Then she quickly slashed her right arm with the nails on her left hand and winced as it created a few short, shallow cuts in her skin. Little driblets of blood started seeping out onto her arm.
Slenderman just stared at her arm, confused and in shock at what had just happened. “How did you-“
“My nails are really sharp,” she said, solemnly looking down at the nails on her left hand, now dabbled with blood. “I don’t know why, they just always have been. I never used a knife or anything… but… when I would get in a lot of trouble and got sent to my room, it made me really sad… really mad… so I would scratch my skin, trying to make it hurt enough to make the pain get out of my head, but… sometimes I would scratch too hard and it would make my arms bleed…”
He didn’t know what to say. He was at a loss for words. He just stayed there, staring at her in disbelief. After a moment or so, he shook his head slightly and said, “You don’t need to do that anymore, Rhina.”
She looked up at him, confused. “Why?”
“Because I’m going to take you away from here,” he said, cheerfully.
“Where?” she asked curiously.
He smiled. “I’m taking you to live with me at my house.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yes. But, first, we have to do something about your arms.”
“W-What?” she asked, backing up slightly.
“Nothing bad, just relax, okay?”
“O…kay,” she said, hesitantly.
He held her hands gently in his as a pair of smoky black tendrils started to form behind him. Her eyes grew wide and she became suddenly terrified. She dropped the teddy bear and tried tugging and pulling, trying to free herself from his grip.
“No, no, it’s okay, really. It’s not going to hurt. I promise. I’m just going to heal your arms. I promise, it won’t hurt a bit,” he said, smiling softly at her.
She wasn’t so sure about that. She tried pulling away again, but it was no use; he wasn’t letting go… She sighed and turned towards him, head hanging down; her attempts at escape foiled. He smiled down at her and slowly let his tendrils wrap gently around her arms.
Rhina winced at first. The feeling of the smoky black appendages that curled around her arms felt cold to the touch. It sent a chill through her. She just shut her eyes and waited for whatever pain she might feel. But no pain came. No. Instead she felt warmth. She opened her eyes and looked at her arms. They were completely covered in inky-black, smoky, snake-like arms from the top of her hands, all around her arms, up to her shoulders. What she felt was a warm, comforting sensation. It spiraled up from her hands all the way up her arms in warm, soothing pulsations.
She looked up at the strange man for a moment, and then back at her arms. The smoky tendrils started to slowly unravel themselves from her arms, revealing clean, completely healed, new skin underneath. Rhina’s eyes grew wide as the rest of her arms and hands appeared, completely healed and free of bruises and scars. She closed her eyes quickly as she felt something brush against her right cheek. The warmth licked away the cut on her cheek almost as quickly as she had gotten it in the first place.
She reached up and felt her cheek as the last tendril disappeared into the Slenderman’s back. The skin had completely healed. She looked up at him for a moment in astonishment, then suddenly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, tightly. This threw Slendy off a bit. He placed one of his hands beside himself on the floor to steady himself, and then hugged her with the other.
“Thank you,” she muttered into his ear, her eyes filling with tears.
He could hear the emotion in her voice. It made his heart ache because of how long she had probably gone without any form of love or compassion from another physical being. “You’re welcome, Rhina.”
Rhina pulled back and wiped her eyes on the back of her hands.
“Ready to go?” Slenderman asked.
She sniffed and said, "Um… yeah… Just let me grab a few things, first.” She pushed past him into her bedroom and pulled a small backpack out from under her bed. Then she moseyed on over to her dresser and picked up her hairbrush and a few of her trinkets—little dolls and toys and such—and placed them in her bag. Next, she took a few outfits from her drawers and shoved them haphazardly into her backpack. Then she quickly ran to the bathroom and grabbed her Pinky Pie toothbrush and her tube of My Little Pony training toothpaste and put them in the front zipper pocket. Then she scampered back to her bedroom and said, "Okay. Now I'm ready,"with a big smile on her face.
He smiled down at her with a little chuckle and then picked her up in his arms. He handed her the teddy bear, which she hugged tightly in her arms and proceeded to smell, happily.
"Alright, hold on tight, ok?"
"Okay," she said, holding onto his coat tightly and closing her eyes.
Then, in a flash, they warped away into the night, off to a faraway place, full of strange creatures and terrifying monsters.