All of the sightings are curiously similar in that they all pertain to have seen, or have been pursued by, a tall, thin, pale male wearing a dark or black suit.
The first sighting took place last Thursday. Bernard Cooper, 42, who drives one of the many road-gritting vehicles which have proved so invaluable this season, was working an early morning shift and claims to have sighted the figure on a country lane leading to the town itself.’
‘It was just me and Nick (Bernard’s colleague) in the van, and we was (sic) basically just gritting the road going into town. We must have got about halfway across the route when we noticed this guy stood at the edge of the road, and we just assume he was a drunk or a hitchhiker. I drove on for a bit, but Nick seemed a bit worried about the guy, especially as the snow made it freezing cold, and it must have been about four or five o’clock in the morning. So we turned around, but couldn’t find a trace of him. Nick says he was pale and completely bald. I didn’t really notice that, but he seemed very thin, and was wearing what looked like an old dark suit.’
Nick Graham, 40, a resident of the concerned town, was unavailable for comment when a local paper contacted him yesterday morning.
The other two sightings are similar in that both seem to take place around areas popular with children. Chantelle Smith, 19, currently unemployed, saw a figure of a similar description in a local park which her young children were playing in.
‘I was letting the kids play for a bit after school, and they were just getting on with that really, in their like innocent little way, and I couldn’t help but notice that a gentleman across the park was staring at them, very intense like. He didn’t look like the parent of one of the other kids and he was dressed like for work – he was wearing a black suit and carrying some kind of suitcase. I’m very protective of my children; do you know what I mean? So when he just stood there staring at them I got up and went over to tell him to, you know, to move on a bit. He was very, very thin, sort of stick-like. I think he had a shaved head, but he might have just been bald. He must have got a whiff of me coming over because he disappeared then. I think he must have been a peedo (sic) and the idea that he was eyeing up one of my little girls makes me livid.’
The third sighting took place as recently as last week, in the home of Nicola and Ahmed Aakash. Their daughter, 8, began crying and shouting at a long, thin shadow which kept flickering across the window, which she had perceived to be a tall, thin man. Nicola, a public relations advisor in the city, initially thought nothing of it.
‘You know what kids are like, seeing things under the bed, and that sort of silly thing. So I thought nothing of it and told her the whole thing about there being no monsters in her wardrobe, and even went through the pantomime of looking through the room with her. Then I heard about the young mum from across town who thought she’d seen a man staring at her children in the park, and my daughter kept having these awful frights at night about the ‘thin man’ at the window. A few nights ago Ahmed and I were enjoying a quiet night in, the kids in bed, when suddenly there was an awful scream from upstairs. Ahmed and I ran up there like a shot, burst into my daughters’ room – and the window was open, wide open, and a freezing cold breeze coming in from without. And there was thing stood over the bed, bent right over it, with incredibly long fingers. I screamed at it, I tell you, and Ahmed dashed forward ready to come to blows with the thing, and it seemed to float backwards, straight out of the window. Straight out! The sick little bastard must have broken something, falling from that height. I hope they get him.’
Accident and Emergency departments across the county have been instructed to inform police of any recent casualties matching the description. In a statement released yesterday morning, Community Support Officer Giles Logan urged locals not to panic: ‘There is no evidence to suggest that the sightings all relate to a common menace, and police authorities are yet to have tracked down anyone even slightly resembling the individual as he is described in the witness statements. I have already had a few keyboard jockeys come forward and claim that the individual is linked somehow with the Slender Man abductions in America. I can assure you that such a notion is pure myth. Nonetheless, I urge anyone with information on this matter to come forward. I would also urge that the culprit, should he even exist, come forward so that he can explain himself.’
The investigation is ongoing and no subjects have been named. You can view the full article, published in a local newspaper, here:
www.wessexherald.co.uk/community/16930ogwk6/.122org
One of several alleged 'Slender Man' sightings in America. The image depicts a strange mass ressembling a tall male in the background.
