Two years ago my little cousin, who was seven years old back then, asked me to play some video games with him. But, before we start, I want to show you something, he said and started to laugh. That was the first time I was introduced to the modern boogeyman called The Slender Man and yes, seven years old child made an introduction. Once you read The Slender Man Wiki

you won't be surprised by the fact that I, an adult person, wasn't aware of this creepy creature back then. Apparently, his target is youngsters. What appeared on eight minutes long film on Youtube was an oddly tall faceless creature, wearing a dark suit. He was wearing white gloves, his head was all white as well and he was constantly in a glitch effect mode. Sounds perfectly horrifying for someone who is created solely for the life inside the computers. Since I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, I did a little research on this dreadful internet sensation.

Everything started in 2009 when Eric Knudsen (using the name Victor Surge) created the very first Slender Man photo on the "Something Awful" forums as a submission to a Photoshop challenge. From there, hundreds of people contributed to the legend by writing their own stories and experiences with Slender Man in hope to make it as real as possible which, eventually, happened. He generally appears as a tall humanoid wearing a black or grey suit, white shirt, and red or black tie. His skin is paperwhite, he has no facial features, no hair, and his fingers are usually longer than what a normal human's fingers look like. Because a lot of people talked about his appearance since 2009, no one is exactly sure what he is. Today, Slender Man has its own FANDOM page and even a video game called Slender: The Arrival which is developed by Blue Isle Studios and released on Microsoft Windows and OS X on March 26, 2013. So, basically, Slender Man really is a legend, living in the world where being an internet sensation is a great deal. There's nothing wrong with it. Or is there? According to Slender Man Wiki, he tends to torture his targets mentally for a long period of time before the real attack occurs. He does that with help of his Proxies

http://theslenderman.wikia.com/wiki/Proxy}

who are nothing more than mind-controlled humans. To me, as an adult who is completely aware of the surrounding, the best horror stories are based on some sort of mind games, stories that bring up my hidden fears or fears I didn't even know I have, stories that explore oddities of human's mentality. I can definitely see why he became very popular because that's what he is about as well. His attributes are associated with the ability to make victims weak to the point where they don't have a will to defend themselves when he attacks. Now, this is where being an internet sensation takes the wrong turn. What's wrong with this creepy character then if he looks and sounds like a perfect villain?

The modern world is full of curious youngsters and parents who have no time to discuss serious issues with their teenagers which makes them a target of the internet abyss they can easily fall in. Not once I scrolled down pages and pages of perfect murders and unresolved mysteries just for fun, out of curiosity or because I followed blogs on Facebook who share articles on dark and scary themes. As an adult and a writer, my walk on the line between fiction and real life is pretty much stable. I've already been through the horror of teen ages, Bloody Mary and Pied Piper, but my parents were usually there to tell me it's all fiction and I have nothing to be afraid of. Apparently, parents of two 12 years old girls from Wisconsin failed to deliver the right advice about the cruelty of this life. In 2014, two girls were accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please our fictional horror character Slender Man. They lured 12-year-old named Payton Leutner to a park in Waukesha and stabbed her 19 times. Experts testified that one of the girls had schizophrenia and an oppositional defiant disorder that required long-term mental health treatment. The other girl has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder and a condition known as schizotypy, which a psychologist testified made her vulnerable to believing in Slender Man. Apparently, they planned the attack for a few months after which they supposed to meet Slender Man and live in his mansion as his servants aka Proxies. Luckily, Payton survived with some miracle. She got fully recovered and was able to attend school only three months after the attack.

After the small research of Slender Man myth, I asked myself what is it that makes a great horror story? What can I as a writer do to spook the fans of the horror genre and at the same time keep their imagination on a safe level no matter the brutality of the fictional world I'm creating? The answer to these questions is uncertain just like Eric Knudsen was uncertain of the popularity of his monster. If you think about it, it's like a double edge sword; many writers commit themselves to a long process of creating characters that will be widely known and recognized and they usually don't think about the real consequences and life events their monsters can start because it's not common that people in real life are influenced by a fictional villains. It is usually the other way around. Being a writer has its own advantages and also huge responsibilities toward readers. But, the truth is, we can't really do a lot about readers misinterpreting our work. What we can do is to keep encouraging our children to learn the differences between reality and fiction, good and bad. The fictional writing looks like a much better world than the one we live in most of the time. Not once I've struggled to wake up once I was done with reading some books but I DID wake up on time, got another cup of coffee and simply moved on because that's a reasonable thing to do.

When you live in a dark world, you don't have happy endings and romances. Your mind is a black hole, feeding off the fears and doubts. Your teen ages are the worst thing that happens to you, especially in today's times. You spend hours and hours lurking around dark webs in order to find the purpose of your life. But, at the end of the day, every single one of us goes back to the same bed we've been sleeping in for years because- let's get real now- there are no real monsters hidden underneath. Everyone knows that the monsters live inside of our heads. If you want to challenge them on the battlefield and make sure you keep walking steadily on the thin line that separates their and our world, one safe strategy that I always use is fighting those with a pen and paper. And guess what? I win every single time. To be honest, that's the real beauty of being a writer.

Until next time, take care of yourself and your children.

~Minja~