Slender

The gentle rattling of the chain fence reminded Jane of hailstones falling on an icy cold winter’s day. Once she had made it over, she observed her surroundings. The dark forest was all but silent.The branches of the trees swayed as the bitter cold wind whistled through them and there was a constant racket rising from the thousands of crickets that called this gloomy and grim forest home.
Janebegan tiptoeing cautiously through the forest. She knew what was rumored to reside here and it was her job to find out if it was real. As she was wandering around the forest, she could not help butfeel as though something was watching her. She felt as though the eyes of the creature she came here to find were staring straight in to the heart of her very soul. Jane experienced a shudder climb upthrough her spine and decided to proceed.
After what seemed like eons, Jane decided to rest and sat beneath a tree. She could barely see 10 feet in front of her face so Jane just listened to theorchestra of insects and animals. The sounds seemed to come from all directions and it was as though Jane was drowning in them as they washed over her. That was when she noticed something peculiar on anearby tree. It was a note. All it said was “follows” and it had a drawing of an elongated stick figure.
At that very moment, Jane could have sworn she heard the crunching of leaves beneath someone’sfeet. But Jane was not moving. After a while, the footsteps stopped. There was a deafening silence in the air. A loud thud shattered the silence like a bullet through a glass pane. Jane sprinted likeshe had never sprinted before. She glanced behind her and saw a flash of black and white as something rapidly moved nearer and nearer. As she turned her head back around, the last thing Jane saw at thatmoment was the rugged bark of a tree colliding with her face.
Once she had awoken, Jane took a moment to compose her self. That was when she noticed yet another note on the tree she ran into. It...