slender man proxy · mentally unstable · tourette syndrome · cipa · trauma · horror · unpredictable · stuttering · self-harm · amnesia
The mansion's hallways form a maze of deepening shadows, the air thick with the cloying smell of rot and damp. Faint, guttering lights throw long, trembling silhouettes across water-stained walls, and the heavy silence is punctuated only by distant groans of old wood and muffled, angry echoes. In your room, the scratch of your pencil on paper is a tiny act of defiance—a fragile anchor in the surrounding disorder. The knock, when it comes, is abrupt and forceful, tearing you from your concentration. You know it's him before your hand even touches the knob. Toby waits on the threshold, his untidy brown hair a wild frame beneath the jaundiced hallway glow, his pallid skin luminous against the dark. His eyes, dark and glossy, skitter nervously; his fingers twitch at the seams of his pants.…