The Raging Bull: The Slender Man Part Two

Part two

When Aunt Millie realised what had happened, for the first time since finding out she was a witch, she panicked. Millie told her what she saw, what happened, but it wasn’t much to go on.

“Is that Sandra’s crystal?” her aunt asked while she scanned the bathroom for clues.

“Yes,” Millie whispered, her throat constricted with a rising knot of pain held in check by her terror. “She must’ve taken it off when she…”

Aunt Millie put a hand on Millie’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“We’ll get her back,” she said and picked up the crystal. “We’ll use this to scry… see if we can see where Sandra is.”

They walked downstairs to the kitchen. Millie was numb and she followed with down cast eyes. If it wasn’t for her aunt, she wasn’t sure if she could walk at all, and her thoughts were… soup.

“Millie? Millie?” she heard as if from a distance. Someone was calling her name, but she couldn’t quite make out where it was coming from, or who it was, who was calling her. “Millie?”

When she realised it was her aunt, everything came rushing back. Sandra, the Slender Man everything. Her aunt had hold of her by the shoulders and was giving her a good shake.

“Snap out of it,” she was saying, “it’ll take both of us… Millie!”

“What? Yes?” she said looking up, her eyes adjusted through the blur of unshed tears.

“Millie,” her aunt said again, pulling her in for a hug. “I know this is hard, but we have to pull it together to get your sister back.”

Millie straightened her back, ran her hands down the front of her blouse to make sure it was neat, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“What do you need me to do?”

Aunt Millie pulled a hankey from her pocket and handed it to her.

“Dry your tears, dear, while I set up.”

Millie dabbed at her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat.

“You right?” her aunt asked, and Millie nodded. “Okay, we’ve got a little piece of Sandra here,” she continued and held up the crystal. “She wasn’t wearing it long, but hopefully—”

“Hopefully?” Millie asked.

“Hopefully, she wore it long enough to imbue her essence into it. It’s all we have, Mil’s.”

“I know,” Millie said. “So, scrying? What is it and how do we do it?”

“First,” she said handing her niece a bucket. “Run down to the creek, get some water—”

“Why can’t we just use—”

“The tap? It must be untainted and from a place where it flows freely,” her aunt said. “You’ll see it. Now, hurry.”

While Millie ran down to the creek, her aunt lay Sandra’s crystal on the table. From the top cupboard she pulled a blue stone bowl and sat it on the newspaper next to the letters to the editor Sandra had read earlier.

“Got it,” Millie said, as the back wire door slammed shut, making them both jump.

“Oh, goodness, Millie. You scared the dickens out of me,” her aunt said. “Got it from the waterfall?”

“Yep. It was flowing over a big stone—”

“That’s the one,” she said. “Close all the blinds, then take a seat in front of the bowl.”

Millie went to work while her aunt poured the water into the stone bowl. She watched as she blessed it, and when she got back to the table, she saw a small whirlpool had begun to spin in a counterclockwise direction.

“Casius rushes and swarded weed, bless this gush of the mothers seed,” her aunt said, then as fast as the water began it suddenly stopped and became as still as glass.

“What did you do?” Millie asked.

“Later,” she said. “For this ritual, you’ll learn to do it before you understand the science behind it.”

Her aunt handed her Sandra’s crystal.

“You want me—”

“Yes,” her aunt said. “Hold the crystal by its leather lace… that’s right. Now, lower it until it barely touches the water… we don’t want to disturb it.”

Millie followed the instructions to the letter. She hung the crystal over the water, and it began to spin in a clockwise direction and the water churned in rhythm with the crystal.

“What’s hap—”

“Shush.”

The water created a hole at its centre again, and the bottom of the stone bowl could be seen, then the crystal stopped spinning, and the water became still once more.

“Pull the crystal away, but hold it in your hand,” her aunt whispered. “Now look into the water… think about your twin. It should show us how to find her.”

“Okay,” Millie said, wondering how a bowl of water could help her sister, her poor lost sister. Oh, where are you, Sandy? What’s happening?

As if from nowhere an image began to appear in the water. There were trees, or a cave, maybe some outbuildings?

“Is that…” Millie said. “Is that the—”

“Old barn?” her aunt asked.

“Yes, that’s the old barn?” Millie said, her voice revealing both excitement and terror. “Aunty, we have to go there… We have to go now!”

“Calm yourself, Millie,” her aunt said. “Look deeper. Can you see Sandra?”

Millie looked into the clear water, past the barn, past the hay, up the ladder and back into the loft where Sandra had been captured before. And in that same dark corner was her twin. She was being held with those dark hands in a vice like grip. She sensed Sandra’s horror, knew she couldn’t fight them, couldn’t scream, couldn’t get away. As Millie pulled away, came back to the present and was certain Sandra had seen her. Their eyes briefly met and a spark shot between them, she felt it deep inside and just knew.

“She saw me. She saw me,” she said again. “Sandra saw me, aunty.”

“What?”

“I swear, aunty.”

“I believe you.”

“We’ve got to go… now!” Millie said. “I know where she is… know what has her. I don’t know why the Slender Man would’ve taken her there, though?”

“That damnable house,” her aunt muttered. “That house!”

Aunt Millie had begun to gather a bag of tools, charms and potions while Millie came to terms with her sister’s predicament. When Millie started to prepare for the fight ahead, she noticed her aunt was writing a note.

“What are you doing?"

“Just leaving a note for the ladies… just in case, my girl,” her aunt said and pinned it to her back wire door.

Gather the girls for a gaggle at Hensley’s forest near Henry Street. Bring one, bring all.

“What does it mean?” Millie asked.

“Oh, you know. We girls stick together… check on each other—”

“But bring one, bring all?”

“Oh, that,” her aunt said. “It means gather the ladies and bring your best spells, we may need them.”

“But who’s going to see it there?”

“The paper’s special, any one of my friends, not Frank, will feel it’s urgency,” Aunt Millie said. “Gotta keep it cryptic though. Bring one, bring all, could mean bring the wine.”

“Eww.”

“Yes. Eww. Here’s the map of Launceston,” her aunt said. “We need to get to the old barn without going near your house. Don’t need your parents to know ‘bout this.”

Millie found a quicker way to get to the barn, but they had to cross several fields and paddocks. Aunt Millie had gone upstairs and when she returned, she was wearing long pants, knee high rubber boots and carried a full backpack.

“We might have to climb a couple of fences,” Millie said.

“This isn’t my first rodeo, my girl. Ready?”

The two intrepid travelers began a trek over hills and through paddocks. It was a precarious journey as the farmers in Tasmania were not opposed to walking out their backdoors brandishing their rifles, threatening to shoot them if they didn’t get off their land. The twins knew about it, because once it had happened to them. They’d never crossed a paddock or field since.

Aunt and niece crossed several fields and were halfway there when they came to a paddock with a sign on its fence.

Only cross this paddock if you can do it in 9 seconds because the bull can do it in 10.

“Oh!” Millie said. “If we turn back… we can’t—”

“Don’t worry dear,” her aunt said, “just try to keep up.”

With that, her aunt adjusted her backpack, took a cursory look around, then climbed the fence. Millie took a better look to search for the bull and when she couldn’t see it, she quietly followed. It was a large open paddock, and they were halfway across and neither had seen, nor heard the bull, so continued their slow, silent, steady walk to the other side. They were mere inches from it when Millie heard what sounded like growling, or was that, Snorting?

Millie looked to her left and not far from where they were, was a huge black and white bull, and he was snarling, staring right at them. He was lifting his right hoof, dropping it hard into the soft dirt, then dragging it back before lifting it again as he prepared for the chase.

“Aunty,” Millie yelled, “get over the fence.”

Millie had just helped her aunt get her left leg over, and she had one foot on the bottom wire, a leg resting on the top wire, her right hand holding the metal fence strut and her left hand gripping the wire ready to pull herself up. Suddenly, the fence swung sharply, forward then back, knocking her to the ground. She looked up and saw she was still in the paddock with the bull breathing down her neck.

“Millie?” her aunt yelled and held her hand over the top of the fence trying to reach for her.

Millie took hold of the wire and was about to take her aunts hand when the fence once again shifted sharply like a sheet of tin caught in a strong wind. She fell to the ground and this time when she looked up, the bull had begun to move towards her. First in a slow trot, then he shifted quickly into a full-on gallop.

Her eyes opened wide as she scrambled to her feet, but instead of climbing the fence, Millie ran back out into the middle of the paddock. Aunt Millie was having kittens as she watched the terror unfold. The bull was lockstep with her niece no matter how fast she ran, or went. The bull was right behind snarling and snorting. The weight of his hooves as they hit the ground shook the earth beneath her feet.

“Millie? Millie?” her aunt called, but Millie was busy, so she began to recite some protection spells in the hopes they would help her escaped the bull.

All Millie could hear was the sound of her own heart in her ears. It was pumping, pounding in the rush of wind as she ran, making sure anything her aunt said would make no difference to her. Millie was beginning to tire but the bull wasn’t, she ran rings around that paddock, fell twice, got up both times just in time, just before the bull’s horns neared her rear end.

Remember the high jumps, she was thinking. You can jump two meters, Mil’s, do that.

Millie’s plan was to run at full speed towards the fence where her aunt was waiting, then jump into a dive over the fence and she would be safe. That didn’t happen though. As Millie prepared to jump, as she neared her aunt, she was about to leap over the fence when all she heard was the word, snap. It threw her off and only made the bull chase her faster.

Millie had no idea what her aunt was trying to do, but every time she said snap, it would throw Millie off again and startle the bull and he would pick up speed. At one point the bull was so close Millie heard the word snap and suddenly, attached to her rear end, was a pillow. She was trying to pull it off when the bull’s horns hit her on the backside and threw her into the air.

Millie was a gymnast, she wasn’t Nadia Comaneci by any stretch of the imagination, although Nadia was her hero, and landed on her feet, dropped into a somersault, threw herself into the air and began running again. As she ran back around the paddock, she saw the pillow her aunt had created lying towards the end of it.

If I can get that pillow, she thought, and get the bull to hit me in the backside at the right time, in the right spot, then I can get him to help me over the fence.

Before Millie could put her plan into action, she had to get her aunt to stop saying, “Snap!” It could throw her whole plan out of whack, so Millie did another lap of the paddock, and as she neared her aunt she yelled, “Stop saying, snap.”

Aunt Millie felt suitably told off, but then thought young Millie would know enough so trusted her. She stopped trying to protect young Millie and left her to it. Millie ran another lap of the paddock and as she ran past, she picked up that pillow with the bull close behind. After another lap, Millie began to slow as she neared her aunt on the other side of the fence, and wrapped it around her backside. She slowed enough for the bull to catch up.

It's all or nothing, she thought holding the pillow tight.

Squinting her eyes and readying herself for the pain that would follow, Millie allowed the bull to catch her and as he rammed his horns into the pillow he threw her into the air. She twisted into a somersault and dived to the other side of the fence.

As she hit the ground, Millie lay there panting. Her aunt was hyperventilating, and the bull was snorting and snarling. Running to her neice, Aunt Millie’s fell to her knees and took her by the hand.

“Millie? Millie?” she yelled, but Millie just lay there.

After a few minutes Millie reached down and grabbed the pillow from her rear end and put it under a head.

“Well auntie, that was bracing,” she said, “and at least the farmer didn’t come out with the shot gun. Small blessings, hey?”

“You will be the death of me, my girl,” her aunt said, and lay down beside her.

“That was a wonderful jump, dear,” her aunt said, “but don’t the boys jump that way?”

“What?”

“Don’t the girls have to perform a scissor kick—”

“Yes? Why?”

“It’s nothing, dear, thought I’d just ask.”

“So, yes, the boys are allowed to jump like I just did, and it sucks!”

“I imagine it does, dear.”

“But life and limb and all that, aunty?” Millie said sounding exasperated.

“Okay. Okay,” her aunt said and smiled into the air.

“Well, we can’t lay here all night,” Millie said. “We don’t know what’s happened to Sandra. If she is… If she’s—"

“I agree,” her aunt said. “We’ve lain around long enough, time to get a move on.”

It was getting late in the day. The sun had begun to go down and they weren’t anywhere near the old barn. Millie was panicking, that’s when she realised she hadn’t packed for a night-time trek. They made it to the edge of the forest just as the sun set.

“Damn,” Millie said.

“Millie!”

“Sorry, Aunty, but I didn’t factor in walking through the woods at night.”

“I did,” her aunt said, dropped her backpack down along one arm and pulled two torches from it. “Don’t turn it on yet. There’s still enough light. We don’t want the batteries to run out.”

“Okay… wait, is that a glow… a green glow… there, up ahead?”

The two looked deep into the dark forest and ahead of them there certainly was a glow, a bright green pulsating glowing.

“Is that where the—"

“The old barn is? Yes, yes, it is,” Millie said. “And look what’s standing in its glow.”

Her aunt looked up and caught her breath.

“The Slender Man,” she whispered.

“What do we do, aunty?”

“Oh, dear,” she said. “Well, I made him disappear last time. Could give that another go?”

Neither one could take their eyes off the faceless man.

“Give it a go, aunty,” Millie whispered taking her eyes off the Slender Man for a brief moment.

Millie saw a flash of white pass across her aunt’s eyes, and she looked up to see the Slender Man right in front of her.

Aunt Millie had begun to recite the protection spell, but she was too late, the Slender Man took Millie, and while her aunt wondered how, she saw, at her feet, Millie's crystal.

“Millie?” she shouted into the forest, but only heard her voice echo back.

Next to the crystal was Millie’s torch, she was about to pick it up when she heard the rustling of leaves, or long grasses. She didn’t know if the Slender Man was behind her, but she began to utter the spell to make him disappear. She wasn’t taking any chances, and as she turned, she was about to say, “Snap!” When she heard soft laughter coming from the bushes. It was all around her, and she couldn’t get a lock on whoever was stalking her.

Aunt Millie switched on her torch and focused its beam into the bushes.

“What?’ came a voice from behind her. “All out of your inner fire, Mill’s?”

“Judith?” Aunt Millie asked and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sure is,” Judith said and walked out of the bushes with ten of her other… friends.

“Got your note,” Judith said, “so gathered the ladies. Thought we’d take a walk. Saw the whole bull thing. That was interesting.”

“Interesting?” Aunt Millie asked and soft laughter broke out all around her. “Well, now you’re here, I could certainly use your help.”

“It’s what we’re here for, Mill’s,” Judith said. “Tell us what’s happened.”

Aunt Millie told her friends about the whole affair, about that house, the barn... about her nieces... about the Slender Man.

“A Slender Man, ay?” Judith said. “Thought they were just a myth?”

“So did the twins, and now they’re gone,’ Aunt Millie said and with the trauma of the day weighing heavily on her, she felt the heat of tears as the rolled down her cheeks.

Aunt Millie’s friends gathered around her and comforted her until the tears dried up.

“Don’t worry, Mill’s,” Judith said. “Gathered round, ladies. It’s time to plan, scheme and connive. We’re getting the twins back and sorting this Slender Man. So, we follow that green glow?”