Delusions of the Alternates

Chapter 2: Something Hunting

Tim ran before anyone could stop him.

One second, he was standing at the edge of the road, hands pressed against the sides of his head, breathing like he was trying not to scream. The next, he was gone — crashing through the bushes and disappearing into the black mouth of the forest.

“Tim!” Bri shouted.

He didn’t answer.

Brian grabbed her wrist before she could follow. “Bri, wait.”

She pulled against him. “He’s going in there.”

“I know.”

“Then let go.”

Brian’s face was pale in the dim evening light. The sun had almost vanished behind the trees, leaving the woods ahead of them painted in long, dark shadows. The place had a name, though no one used it out loud unless they had to.

Slenderman’s Forest.

It sounded stupid. Like something made up to scare kids online. But Bri had learned that names didn’t have to sound serious to be dangerous.

Brian glanced toward the trees. “That’s exactly why we shouldn’t rush in.”

Bri stared at him. “He’s alone.”

Brian’s grip loosened.

That was all she needed.

She yanked free and ran.

Branches clawed at her sleeves as she forced her way between the trees. The forest swallowed the road behind her almost immediately. Within seconds, the world became nothing but dead leaves, crooked trunks, and the sound of her own panicked breathing.

“Tim!” she called again.

No response.

Only the distant crack of something moving ahead.

Bri followed it.

The deeper she went, the colder the air became. It was not the normal chill of night settling over the woods. This cold felt deliberate, like the forest itself had exhaled against the back of her neck.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

She pulled it out without stopping.

No signal.

Of course.

The screen flickered once. Then showed a single frame of static.

Bri stopped.

For a heartbeat, she heard it again.

The ringing.

Thin.
Distant.
Buried beneath the sounds of the forest.

Her stomach twisted.

“No,” she whispered. “Not now.”

A shape moved between the trees ahead.

“Tim?”

Bri shoved her phone away and ran toward it.

The ground dipped suddenly, and she nearly slipped down a muddy slope. She caught herself against a tree, bark scraping her palm. When she looked up, she saw something pale through the branches.

A clearing. And in the center of it—

Tim.

He was lying on the ground. Unconscious.

“Tim!”

Bri stumbled into the clearing and dropped to her knees beside him. His face was turned to the side, eyes shut, breathing shallow but steady. Dirt streaked his hoodie. One hand was curled tightly around a torn piece of paper.

Bri reached for him. Then froze.

Someone was standing over him.

At first, Bri thought it was The Operator. Her whole body locked with terror.
But the figure was too small. Too human.

A girl stood on the opposite side of Tim’s body, dressed in dark, torn clothes. Her posture was rigid, almost unnatural, as though she had forgotten how people were supposed to stand. A hood covered most of her hair, and a mask hid her face.

It was white, cracked, and expressionless.

Two dark eyeholes stared down at Bri.

Bri’s mouth went dry. “Who are you?”

The figure tilted her head. That small motion sent a shiver through Bri, because she knew it.

She knew that tilt.

She had seen it in mirrors, in windows, in the reflection of dark TV screens when she thought no one was watching.

“No,” Bri breathed.

The masked girl reached up slowly. Her fingers touched the side of the mask.
For one second, Bri thought she was going to remove it.

Instead, she spoke. Her voice was quiet. Distorted. Familiar.

“You shouldn’t have followed him.”

Bri’s heart dropped.

It was her voice.

Not exactly. It sounded older. Rougher. Like it had been dragged through years of screaming and silence.

Bri stood, shaking. “What are you?”

The masked girl stared at her.

Then she said, “I’m what happens if you keep running toward the truth.”

Bri took a step back. The ringing grew louder.

The girl looked down at Tim, then back at Bri. Something about her changed. Her shoulders lowered, just slightly, and for a moment she no longer looked like a threat.

She looked tired. Broken.

“You’re Brianna,” Bri whispered.

The name left her mouth before she understood why.

The masked girl went still.

Bri’s breath caught. “You’re me.”

The forest around them seemed to hold its breath. Brianna turned her masked face toward the trees behind Bri.
Bri followed her gaze.

Nothing stood there. Not yet.

But the dark between the trunks looked too deep. Too empty. Like something had just stepped out of sight.

Brianna’s hand twitched at her side.

“You need to leave,” she said.

“What did you do to Tim?”

“I saved him.”

Bri looked down at Tim. “From what?”

Brianna did not answer.

The ringing sharpened.

Bri pressed a hand against her ear, wincing. “Why are you here?”

“To stop you.”

“From saving him?”

“From becoming me.”

The words struck harder than Bri expected.

She looked at the mask. At the torn sleeves. At the mud and old blood dried into the fabric. At the way Brianna held herself like she was always bracing for pain.

“What happened to you?” Bri asked.

Brianna’s head lowered. For a moment, Bri heard only the wind moving through the leaves.

Then Brianna said, “You told them nothing.”

Bri stopped breathing.

“You hid it,” Brianna continued. “The footage. The symbol. Brian. Jay. The white light. You thought silence would protect them.”

Bri’s hands curled into fists. “How do you know that?”

“Because I did it first.”

The clearing seemed to tilt.

Bri took another step back. “No.”

Brianna moved closer.

Bri wanted to run, but her legs wouldn’t obey.

Behind the mask, those dark eyeholes stared into her like empty tunnels.

“Every secret gave it more room,” Brianna said. “Every lie made the path clearer. It doesn’t need doors when you build them yourself.”

A twig snapped somewhere behind the trees.

Both of them turned.

The ringing stopped.

That was worse.

Brianna straightened.

“He’s close,” she said.

Bri felt ice spread through her chest. “The Operator?”

Brianna did not answer. She crouched and touched two fingers to Tim’s neck, checking his pulse with a strange gentleness. Then she stood and backed away.

“Wait,” Bri said. “Help me carry him.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Brianna looked at her. And even though Bri couldn’t see her face, she felt the sadness behind the mask.

“Because if I stay,” Brianna said, “I won’t choose mercy again.”

Bri didn’t understand.

Not until Brianna reached into her pocket and pulled out something small and silver.

A knife.

Bri’s blood turned cold. Brianna looked down at it as though she hated the sight of it. Then she threw it into the leaves at Bri’s feet.

“Run when you wake up,” she said.

“When I what—”

The world lurched.

Pain flashed behind Bri’s eyes.

The ringing returned all at once, louder than before, roaring through her skull. She staggered, grabbing at nothing.

Brianna was already moving backward into the trees.


“Wait!” Bri shouted. “Don’t go!”

The masked version of herself stopped at the edge of the clearing. For one second, she looked almost human.

Then she said, “Brian still dies if you trust the wrong voice.”

Bri’s vision blurred.

“What does that mean?”

Brianna turned and ran. Not away like she was afraid.

Away like she had made a choice.

Bri tried to follow, but the ground rose up to meet her.

The last thing she saw before darkness took her was Tim’s unconscious body beside her and a tall, faceless shape emerging between the trees.

Then everything went black.

“Bri.”

The voice came from far away.

“Bri, wake up.”

She felt movement first.

Arms under her back and knees. Someone was carrying her.

Her head rested against a chest, and she could hear a heartbeat pounding fast beneath fabric.

“Come on,” the voice said, strained and breathless. “Open your eyes.”

Bri forced them open.

Brian.

He was alive.

His face hovered above hers, streaked with sweat and dirt. His jaw was tight with panic, but when he saw her eyes open, relief broke across his expression.

“Thank God,” he breathed.

Bri stared at him, disoriented. “Brian?”

“Yeah. It’s me.”

“You’re alive.”

He frowned. “I’d like to stay that way, so please don’t pass out again.”

The forest blurred around them as he ran. Branches whipped past. Bri realized his arms were shaking from the effort of carrying her, but he didn’t slow down.

“Tim,” she said suddenly, trying to sit up.

Brian tightened his grip. “I got him out of the clearing.”

“What?”

“He woke up before you did. Sort of. He could walk, barely.” Brian swallowed hard. “Then he ran again.”

Bri’s stomach dropped. “You let him go?”

“I didn’t let him do anything. He shoved me off and disappeared. Then that thing showed up.”

The Operator.

Bri looked over Brian’s shoulder. Between the trees behind them, darkness shifted.

“Brian,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“It’s following us.”

“I know.”

“Put me down.”

“No.”

“Brian—”

“You can barely keep your eyes open.”

Bri grabbed his sleeve. “If you keep carrying me, it’ll catch both of us.”

Brian looked down at her, furious. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Act like you’re already dead.”

The words silenced her.

For a moment, the only sound was Brian’s ragged breathing and the frantic crunch of leaves beneath his feet.

Then the ringing started again.

Soft at first.

Bri winced.

Brian noticed. “What?”

“You don’t hear that?”

“Hear what?”

The ringing grew sharper.

Bri looked past him.

The trees behind them were bending.
Not from wind.

From something passing between them.

“Brian, left!” she shouted.

He obeyed without question, veering hard through a narrow gap between two trunks.

A second later, something massive moved through the space where they had been.

No footsteps.

No breath.

Just the sudden absence of safety.

Brian cursed under his breath and ran harder.

Bri clung to him, heart hammering. The forest seemed wrong around them now. Paths appeared where there hadn’t been any.
Trees repeated themselves. The same broken branch flashed past three times.

“It’s messing with the woods,” Bri said.

Brian’s voice was tight. “Great. Love that.”

“You need to put me down.”

“Not happening.”

“I can run.”

“You fainted.”

“I’m awake now.”

Brian stumbled, caught himself, then finally slowed enough to lower her carefully to the ground. Bri’s legs almost buckled, but she grabbed his arm and forced herself upright.

“See?” she said, though her voice shook. “Fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“Neither are you.”

They stared at each other for half a second.

Then something cracked behind them.

They ran. This time side by side.

The ringing grew louder and then suddenly cut out.

Bri looked back.

The Operator was gone.

Not vanished completely. She could still feel it somewhere nearby, like pressure behind her eyes. But the forest behind them was empty.

Brian slowed, breathing hard. “Where did it go?”

“I don’t know.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“It lost sight of us,” Bri said.

Brian looked at her. “How do you know?”

She didn’t.

Not really.

But something inside her recognized the shift. The invisible hook that had been pulling at her chest was gone, or at least loosened.

For now.

Brian leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath. “We need to get back to the road.”

Bri looked around. Every direction looked the same.

Tall trees. Dead leaves. Low fog curling close to the ground.

“There’s no road,” she said.

Brian followed her gaze. His face fell.

Before he could answer, Bri noticed something through the fog.

Stone. Not natural rock. Something carved.

“There,” she whispered.

Brian turned. “What is that?”

Bri didn’t answer. She stepped forward.

A structure stood in a small hollow between the trees. It was half-hidden beneath moss and roots, as if the forest had tried to bury it but had not been able to finish the job.

An altar.

It was made from dark stone, cracked and ancient-looking. Strange symbols had been carved into its surface — circles, lines, jagged marks that hurt Bri’s eyes if she looked at them too long.

At the center of the altar was a shallow bowl filled with blackened ash.

Around it were objects.

Old cassette tapes.

A broken camera lens.

A torn hoodie sleeve.

Photographs with the faces scratched out.

And a white mask.

Bri stopped dead.

Brian came up beside her. “Bri?”

She couldn’t move.

The mask on the altar was cracked down one side.

Exactly like Brianna’s.

Brian reached toward one of the tapes.

Bri grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t touch anything.”

He looked at her hand, then at her face. “You know what this is.”

Bri swallowed.

She wanted to lie.

The instinct rose immediately, familiar and poisonous.

Say no.

Say you have no idea.

Say this is all new.

Keep him safe.

Keep everyone safe.

But Brianna’s voice echoed in her memory.

Every secret gave it more room.

Bri slowly released Brian’s wrist.

“I saw someone,” she said.

Brian’s expression changed. “In the clearing?”

Bri nodded.

“Who?”

She looked at the mask.

For a moment, she saw herself wearing it. Older. Colder. Standing over Tim with a knife in her hand.

Then she forced herself to say the truth.

“I think I saw me.”

Brian stared at her.

The fog moved around the altar.

Somewhere far behind them, the ringing began again.

Brian turned toward the sound. “Bri…”

“I know.”

On the altar, one of the cassette tapes clicked by itself.

The reels began to spin.

A whisper crawled out of the dark.

Not from the trees.


From the altar.

From the tape.

From everywhere.

“Found you.”

Bri and Brian stepped back together.

Beyond the fog, the forest went silent.


And something started hunting.