Ghost Stories: Slender Man

I don’t exactly know why, but the idea of the “Slender Man” is one of the scariest urban legends/ghost stories I’ve ever heard. I almost didn’t want to write about it! Our managing editor asked us to write about ghost stories, since it’s almost Halloween, and hey, a girl’s gotta eat.

So here I am, putting down one of my fears for all to see, however unnecessary it may be.

The Slender Man is a mythological creature that is usually depicted as having long arms, long, thin legs, and usually wearing a necktie and a white shirt. However, he can appear in a variety of forms and is often portrayed as having multiple arms, which he can spawn or rid himself of at will, along with stretching them, contorting them, etc. He’s basically, really, really scary.

The myth follows that if you see the Slender Man, you’ll probably go missing and be presumed dead. You can also get very sick, be stricken with amnesia, or fall ill of a variety of other harms and mishaps. Not someone you’d want to meet on the street, eh?

The Slender Man loves to kidnap children. As a matter of fact, fourteen children were killed or disappeared many years ago, and several people pointed fingers at the Slender Man. Just a few days later, the library in which the pictures taken on that day were held burned to the ground. Only two photographs are known to have survived, and both show the Slender Man lurking in the background. Yes, he shows up in photographs.          

I’m not sure exactly why the Slender Man legend terrifies me so. After all, I’m no longer a child and probably wouldn’t be a target anyways (I say that reverently; Slender Man, if you’re reading this, don’t think I’m saying you couldn’t suck me into some other dimension or something!). But the point is that a tall, slim, creepy figure in the background of a photograph is terrifying. And honestly, you have to see the photos to understand why it’s so creepy.

I’ll leave you with this: never underestimate the power of a good ghost story, and in all seriousness, listen to your children if they’re worried about a specific person. Because it may not be the Slender Man, but a worrying figure can harm your children, and you should listen to them and take their worries seriously all the same.