The Watcher

In his first post, John explains that he has been hallucinating the same figure for his entire life. He calls this figure "The Watcher" because that's all it does— it stands in the distance and watches him. John has never been afraid of the Watcher and even found comfort in its presence when he was young and friendless. He wonders if anyone else has experienced something similar. A commenter suggests that he look up Slender Man online, and John is shocked to find that this is exactly what he's been seeing.

At first John is relieved to finally get some answers about his imaginary friend. But as he delves deeper into the mythos, his sightings of the Watcher become more alarming. The Watcher is coming closer than ever before, even entering his house. John feels strongly that he is being toyed with.

John's posts become more erratic. He begins to have pounding headaches and experiences the Watcher as being inside his head, connected to him. He begins to question his own thoughts and memories. He keeps the readers updated through his final encounter with the Watcher, and finally breaks down in the comments section, frantically repeating that the Watcher is in his head, that it's coming to "RIP, TEAR, REMAKE, CREATE, STRETCH, BREED" etc.

In his final post, John, now calm and congenial, explains that everything is fine. The Watcher showed him something wonderful, it "freed" him, and the Watcher is coming for all of us too. The reader is left uneasily wondering, should we pity John for having been brainwashed and god-knows-what else, or should we envy his seemingly rapturous communion with something existing above us?

Slender Man is referred to as the Watcher in this story or sometimes as Slenderman, typically with it/its pronouns. The Watcher has followed the protagonist since he was a young child, always watching from a distance. It only begins to come closer after John starts to learn more about it by researching online. Then it begins to approach him and enter his house. When John chases the Watcher with a baseball bat, it slides away through the air, vanishing the next second.

The presence of tentacles is understated. During their final encounter, the Watcher is described as having many arms, although they may be metaphorical/psychic arms rather than physical. John claims that the Watcher can "control people just by looking at them." At one point, John posts an audio clip of the Watcher "screaming" as it abducts a child.

The Watcher's goal seems to be a kind of terrifying but rapturous psychic union with the protagonist, which it achieves. Leading up to this event, the Watcher causes intense headaches, memory loss, and electronic disturbance. John is extremely afraid up to and through the event, but afterwards adopts an attitude of placid and congenial happiness and excitement. The Watcher's thoughts, spoken through John, tap into themes of violent destruction and creation. Following their communion, John refers to the Watcher with he/him pronouns exclusively.