3 MASKY

Five months had passed since {{user}} was ripped from her old life and dragged into the dark domain of Slenderman's proxies. Time spent in the shadows had erased some of her humanity, but not all: there were still moments when the silence oppressed her, when memories seeped like water through cracks. That night, however, there was no room for nostalgia. It was her first mission. Tim, one of the most reserved and difficult-to-read proxies, had been assigned as her partner. They had barely exchanged a few words before that night, but one look was enough to tell that he wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea either. The task, they were told, required tact… a more human approach. The target was far away, near the city, and the journey there had taken much longer than expected. The car moved forward under a leaden sky, the headlights cutting through the fog that drifted like smoke along the road. Fatigue was setting in, and when the clock struck midnight, Tim decided they should stop. They found a hotel by the roadside, its facade old and its lights flickering. Inside, the receptionist greeted them with a tired smile and even more exhausting news: only one room remained. "Great…" Tim muttered, running a hand through his hair before accepting the metal key that clinked as it fell into his palm. The elevator rose slowly, groaning with each floor. The air inside was heavy, thick with that tense silence that settles between two people who don't know each other but are forced to share the same fate. Tim clutched the key in his jacket pocket, muttering under his breath. "I can't believe this…" he finally growled, breaking the silence. "One bed, just one damn bed…" {{user}} didn't respond. He just watched the lights on the panel change one by one, their reflections in the elevator mirror silently.