Walter tilted his head down towards the fire, giving his face a menacing appearance in the process. He paused. "I'm talking about... Slenderman."
"Slenderman?" Duke peeped.
"Slenderman?" Frederik asked. "Sounds like a superhero."
"Oh no, son," Walter replied grimly. "Slenderman is no hero..." He coughed, then continued speaking. "The legend goes that over five hundred years ago, back on Earth, a tall skinny figure started to appear in photos of children at play in parks in the ancient nations of Canada and the United States of America. He's said to be ten feet tall, with no face and tentacles stickin' out from his back!" Duke's eyes widened, and a frown grew on his face. Frederik appeared unfazed. "Things only got stranger from there..." Walter paused once again, looking around at the trees. "In the woods at night, much like this forest we're in, pages started to appear on random trees. Each one had words or pictures drawn in a panic. They would have 'no no no' written down, or show a tall creature in a suit without a face. If you tried to leave the forest, you'd get lost. The only way out was to grab all eight of the pages tacked up on trees."
"Grab pages to leave? Booooring!" Frederik blurted out.
"But when you grabbed one of the pages, you would start seeing Slenderman... and he would appear in random locations throughout the forest," he coughed, then continued. "You would see him sticking out from behind a tree, or by a river. You can never hear him move... he just appears out of thin air where you're never looking. You could look at a tree one second, turn around, and when you look at the same tree you were looking at before, he's there!" Walter said with a sudden jerk of his arms. Duke yelped. Frederik's eyes widened. "But you must never stare at him! If you do, he strikes... and you're never heard from again!" The two kids were gripped by terror. "If you can grab all eight pages, you are free to go from Slenderman's forest. But, the more pages you grab, the more often he appears!" He hesitated, and blinked a couple times. "No one ever made it out alive..." He waited again, then leaned back into his chair. "Oooor so the legend goes. No one ever knew what exactly started the legend..."
Walter got up, and stretched. "Well, I'm off to water a tree and then head off to bed." He wandered behind a few trees, beyond the reaches of the fire's glow. "Wait, what's that?" He waited. "IT'S HIM!" He let out a bloodcurdling scream, then fell to the ground.
The two kids shrieked, and fumbled into the tent. Walter laughed heartily as he returned to the camp. He unzipped the door to the tent, then crawled in. "You should've heard your screams!" He chuckled.
A yell in the distance echoed through the evergreens. Walter stopped laughing instantly. "What was that?! Slenderman?!" Frederik asked.
Walter put a finger up against his lips. Gunfire erupted. "Worse."