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Writer's pictureTye Esparza

The Thing that Follows Me

Welcome back!


I hope you all are well and staying safe. This story piggybacks off of the Slender Man story (https://theravenblog.wixsite.com/theravenblog/post/slender-man-the-self-conscious-spirit). This is a personal story about my encounters with a Slender Man-like being, or as I call it, the thing that follows me. Jump back to 1997, and I was five-years-old. I lived in my great-grandmother's house with my mom, dad, and little sibling, who was only one at the time. I remember I was in the kitchen with my mom. Her back was to me; she might have been cooking, I don't really remember the details. It was a perfectly sunny day; I think my sibling was napping, meaning it was probably in the early afternoon. The door to the cellar was in the kitchen, opposite of where my mom was. The cellar was pretty much the creepiest place ever- steep, wooden stairs that wrapped around. It was pitch black, with concrete walls and a dirt floor. There was another entrance to the tiny cellar (it was more like a cell); in the back, there was a door that opened at the bottom of some more steep stairs. These lead up to the ground level, next to our creepy-ass shed. Oh yeah, and my great-grandmother died there. Anyway, I don't know why, but I opened the cellar door, and that was when I saw him. He stood maybe eight-feet-tall and was, well, slender. His body was wrapped around the base of the staircase awkwardly. I remember it just didn't look right, not human, at least. He wore a nice black suit, and his face had features, unlike the popular Slender Man. He had gaping black holes for eyes, no nose or ears, and a hollow, black smile. I remember he just stood there, staring at me from the darkness. I stood there for what seemed like ages before slamming the door shut. The next time I saw him, I was about nine or ten. I was playing in the woods at my grandfather's house in the fall. I think my sibling was there; I don't really remember. I was basically walking through the woods because that's just what I did and still do today. Then I saw him, swiftly moving through the trees in the distance. He wasn't coming towards me but more moving side to side. I don't remember anything else besides running as fast as I could back to the house. I saw him again at thirteen in my basement. As you can imagine, I fucking hate basements and am so happy to live in a house without one. Anyway, it was after school, I was going through a goth stage in my life, and things weren't going great at school. Apparently, when you come from a homeschooling background and are Latinx, you become a prime target of bullying. Needless to say, I did not have the most excellent relationship with my parents at the time- they just thought I was going through puberty/ losing my fucking mind. Anyway, I was headed to the basement to sulk, as every misunderstood thirteen-year-old does. I rounded the corner behind the staircase (it was a finished basement), and there he was, not eight feet from me. I nearly shit. This was the first time I had been this close to him, and I could make out every detail of his grey face, the hollowness of his eyes, the aspect of his suit, and I was terrified. Like any sane person, especially one that has been followed by this thing their entire life, I ran upstairs, screaming. As you can imagine, that freaked out my family, and my mom concluded that I was on drugs. It was great. After that, I saw him here and there, walking in the background. A friend of mine even saw him once and flipped out. The last time I encountered him was a couple of years ago. I had moved into a house and continuously sage my yard. I'm Wiccan and started this as a protection for my family and me. One night I was letting out Juno, we didn't have Hades at this point. I remember feeling creeped out, more so than usual, and it didn't help at it was after midnight. Anyway, he stood at the edge of my sage circle. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but then Juno flipped out. She started barking and growling, and all of her fur was up. Now, Juno is protection trained, and no matter what - a person or a coyote, she would have flipped out. The thing that worried me was that instead of lunging at what she was barking at, she was stepping back like she was afraid. This freaked me out because my dog could see him too, and she was afraid. Needless to say, we both retreated inside, and I immediately started burning sage. On the bright side, at least my sage circle works. Anyway, those are the big stories, I have had other glimpses of him/ feel his presence numerous times, but that's it. I have no idea what or who he is or what he wants. He has been there since I can remember, and others have seen him, which makes me believe he is real. I do know that I don't like him, and he emanates fear- that can't be a good thing. If you have any stories like this, please share them. I hope you all enjoyed this storytime. -Tye

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