Have you heard of Slender Man? He asks me.

Slender Man. The name, so mysterious and inhuman, seduces my conscious. What man deserves such a title?

No, I haven’t. Who is he?

He’s not a man; it’s a myth, a nightmare.

As his title suggests, Slender Man is long and lean, an entity of six feet, but possessing the ability to increase his size to above sixteen. There is no face to put to the name, just two hollow craters where eyes should lurk. The black, glowing depth of his suit contrasts with the sickening, white intensity of his complexion. The violence of this appearance is indescribable. He lives outside of all worlds of description, definition of dark and mysterious.

The first sightings of him were in the early 1600s, Germany. In those days he dressed as a knight, a hero. He was used as a tool to manipulate naughty children.  Either they confess their sins and live to be good, or they would be stolen away by the brooding ominous angel. There was always a choice.

He has an infamous fixation with the human body. After he enchants his victim he lays them out and removes their organs, one by one, with his delicate fingers. Each organ is then tenderly placed into an individual sack before being thrust back into the body through an aching wound.

A curious creature; an extreme fetish. Today, his desires have changed to plaguing the mind, a mania that goes beyond the shell of physicality. Paranoia, nightmares, hallucinations. There is no escape. The possession fills the victim and manifests beneath the greater subconscious.

What was he? Quantum Theory suggests infinite degrees of freedom, the ability to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Was my monster from a fourth dimension? I felt boundless, and no harness could restrain the devil. I became intrigued, impetuous. The Tulpa Effect: ‘the manifestation of mental energy, taking the form on the pre-physical realms of existence, acting in accordance with the intent of its creator(s)’. My inner demon, come to life, breathing into me and consummating my primal desires. An imaginary friend and infatuate, the archangel of archetypes. It was more than imagination could handle, distorting reality, spitting on Clive Barker’s ‘Candyman’. This was different. This was inexorable and enduring finality. Not a character, an omnipotent master, the divine being.

After hours, days, weeks of research and paranoia my obsession finally took control. I would repeatedly catch myself fingering a symbol into the nearest surface. A fragile circle with a large X driven through the middle. Each time I felt an inward scratch. A release would shudder through my veins and flow into my core. It exceeded all other addictions and transported me to an uncontrollable freedom, chasing the dragon.

No-one understood me anymore. My infatuation frightened my family and friends. It frightened me; it excited me. It wasn’t long after that that I was rewarded…

I was alone. I was always alone. It was dark and dense. My lungs were playing tricks, teasing my breath and making me gasp for air. I remember slowing my pace, arching my back and raising my eye level to scan the area. A presence loomed in the trees, compelling me to follow. My heartbeat pulsed a steady, hard rhythm that mirrored my movement and blurred my vision with every step closer. I felt something drop, fall behind, and I became lost in the crescendo of exhilaration, climbing the ladder to paradise, a world unknown. Electric chills flickered through the air as I let out a deep sigh. I considered the malignant face before me, with all its nihilistic glory, and saw my own face gleam back.

I awoke on the ground. I awoke alone.

The film is due for release in 2017.