OOM: If You Go Out (Slenderman Plot)

[trigger_man]

Jack is used to having nightmares fairly often, but they start happening more and more often, vague feelings of dread coalescing into nightmares so real he could swear he was actually there.  Could swear that he can feel the cold breeze against his skin, feel tree branches scratching at his face and arms as he runs through the woods.  Could swear that he still hears the sound of screams--Beckett's screams--echoing off the trees until he isn't sure exactly where they're coming from.

And every time, just before he wakes, he sees a shape through the trees.  Tall, long arms and legs; too long for a regular human.  All in black, except for its face, a white, featureless blank.

He wakes up then, heart pounding, almost afraid to open his eyes because there's a small part of him that's afraid that if he does, the creature will be standing there, watching him.

_______________________________________________________________________
If you go out in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise
He still goes out for a run every day, but avoids the forest.
If you go out in the woods today you won't believe your eyes
With every step, he feels like someone or something is watching him from the screen of the trees.  He doesn't see anything from the corner of his eye, doesn't hear anything.  But still the hair on the back of his neck stands on end when he gets too close to the forest.
Beneath the trees, tickled by breezes
He tells himself that it's just paranoia; the paranoia that he'd thought was almost gone, that had had him looking over his shoulder everywhere he went when he was back in his world.
He'll keep you there as long as he pleases
He tells himself it's all in his head.  It was always just all in his head.
'Cause today's the day that Slenderman has his picnic
But he still avoids the forest when he goes out for a run.

________________________________________________________________________

The nightmares continue, but they change slightly.  Now, before he wakes up, he can feel the trees surrounding him, reaching out to him, branches like long arms, wrapping around him.

He wakes, fighting against the blankets wrapped tightly around him as he screams.


________________________________________________________________________
If you go out in the woods today, you'd better not go alone
He starts avoiding the bar when he can.  He doesn't want Beckett or Carl or anyone else he knows to see him, because they're going to ask questions that he can't answer.  They're going to notice that he doesn't look like he's slept well.  That he only sits at tables where he can sit with his back against the wall and see the entire bar.  That he keeps looking over his shoulder.  They'll ask him about the dull, dry cough that's started in his chest.
It's lovely out in the woods today but safer to stay at home
But he doesn't like outside that much, either, or his room.  His room feels too small, and in the silence all he can hear is the earworm of a song in his head; the first line of one he used to sing with Kim when she was little.  Just that one line, circling around and around in his head.
Everyone falls into his snare
Outside...  Outside, he has that feeling of being watched from the forest, but now it's almost as though someone--or again, something--is trying to draw him in, calling him. 
Belongs to the woods, will stay ever there
Part of him wonders if he should leave the bar, but outside still somehow seems so much more dangerous than the bar itself.  Something in him won't let him leave.
'Cause today's the day that Slenderman has his picnic
__________________________________________________________


The draw gets stronger, whispering for him to just give in.  But he won't.

He won't.

If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise...