Theories

Every time I open my eyes, I'm afraid I'll see them. One with nothing to hint at its motives, the other with those cold, calculating eyes.

While Slender Man's appearance seems to have reached a sort of memetic status, the Rake's is a lot more debated. I've read stuff that says the claws are like some sort of glove, and others believe they're natural. From what I can tell by the thing appearing to me, they're not connected to any sort of glove. But the stuff that says the Rake is pretty much a hunched over, pale-skinned being is true. But the eyes... good God, the damned eyes. They're what I remember most about the thing. Some say they're all black, but... that's not what it looked like to me. They looked almost human. But they seemed... old, like they'd seen too much. And there was something to that gaze... an edge to it that makes me cringe.

I've been playing with the differences in my head for a while now, trying to make sense of them. Why do some people claim they can see a face on Slender Man while others see nothing? Why do some people think the Rake is just a brutal being rather than a clever hunter?

I think it all comes down to this theory I've read called the tulpa effect. It pretty much means that if you believe in something enough, it'll come into existence. Now, I don't personally believe in this myself, but there are aspects about it that make sense.

For instance, believing in something is pretty much what happened to me. I got so paranoid, I started thinking that Slender Man was coming for me (Little did I know, something else was already hunting me). Then... poof, shit hit the fan. But I don't think it necessarily brings the being into existence; if that were so, there'd be so many monsters out there, we'd be overrun. That brings credibility to the theory that one being exists.

So, why the difference in appearance? Does that show the mental health of the person being tormented? Maybe.

Over these past four months, I've had a lot more free time than I normally do. It's allowed me to find things that are normally overlooked. For instance, I found an urban legend of sorts about a monster over in North Carolina. At first, people claimed that it had its origins in Native American culture, but that was added for credibility reasons.

According to the original poster, the story originated about ten to fifteen years ago. Apparently, there was this demon with wild spikes, bulging eyes, and patches of skin stitched onto its own body. Now, here's the weird part: This demon could turn people to stone over time just by touching people once. Holy shit.
I was ready to skip over it, but the original poster continued to say that lately the story had been appearing again, but in a much darker fashion. A girl named Beth contracted a disease called "fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva", otherwise called FOP and Stone Man Syndrome. Oh, that's interesting, isn't it? Stone Man Syndrome? You are damn right it is, because Beth progressively got worse at a rate that's unusual for someone with FOP. She died a year later, but if she had her way she would have killed herself a long time ago because she was in constant agony.

But not from FOP; oh, no, that's not it at all. Whenever she was around a large amount of people, such as a city or a decently-sized town, she'd claim that she was hurting in spots that made no particular sense. For instance, one time she claimed that her entire head felt like it was being cleaved in half... and at that moment, there had apparently been a car wreck where someone had half of their head taken off.

Then, there was another person who lived in another part of the United States. He had been on vacation in the region where the story had originated, and during his stay he had apparently been attacked by a homeless guy who had dreadlocks, big glasses, and patches pretty much everywhere on his person. Read the description of the demon again if you don't understand what I just said.

A few months later, the guy contracted FOP and ended up dying almost a year later, but not before claiming he had pains in pretty much every place on his body. His doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him, though...

Maybe the original poster was grabbing at straws here, but isn't it kind of strange that two different people, both in the same region and around the same time, ended up getting this very rare disease with both having weird psychological problems? Combine that with the similarities between the demon in the story and the homeless guy, and it seems incredibly fishy.

Okay, back to my main point (sorry for getting sidetracked): These monsters exist, but they're not confined to specific descriptions. For Slender Man, it's the tall, thin exterior; for the Rake, the pale skin and the claws; and for the demon I just told you about, it's the wild hair, the bulging eyes, and the patches that cover it.

Now, ability-wise, I think that these creatures can be capable of almost anything, but because we give them an identity, they're restricted to it. So, when we believe that Slender Man exists, one person may believe he can burn shit to the ground while others believe the exact-opposite. So, the creatures behave accordingly.
So, what does this mean? Well, it means that if this theory is true, maybe these creatures do have weaknesses and we just haven't thought of them. Okay, sure, some have tried thinking of ways to kill the Slender Man, but none of them have worked because for them, the being was created due to a specific description... namely, the creature being unstoppable.

So, what if someone was introduced to one of these monsters with the belief that they could be killed a certain way? In essence, they'd create a monster that they could kill... and get rid of the problem for us. I'm not going to try it myself because I've already killed enough people, but it's something to think about for the people attempting to destroy these things.

Tomorrow I'll try and make a post about what I've been up to, but no promises. I know I said I'd do it today, but I had to get that out of my head.

See you all tomorrow.

- Art