After the police disposed of the body, they took us down to the station to take our statements. They took us into one of those interrogation rooms with one of those long tables. They were going to question us separately, but Charlie insisted that they let us go in together. It was fine, they told us.
"Could you state your names, please?" One of the cops said. The other one stayed outside.
"Lyle Johnson," I said.
"Charles Bucklin," Charlie said. He lowered his brows. He hated using his real name. He found it to be too fancy and obnoxious sounding. I'd always told him that it didn't, but that never really helped anything. It was usually met with a long lecture, which was generally filled with a great deal of cursing.
"So," the officer continued, "Why were you in the forest?"
"We got bored at my house, so we went exploring." Charlie answered.
"Is that correct, Mr. Johnson?"
"Yes."
"And can you tell me what you saw?" The cop asked.
"Don't you already know that?" Charlie asked.
"Yes," the officer said, "But it's standard procedure."
So that Charlie didn't ask any more stupid questions, I answered for him. It wasn't that he was dumb; he certainly wasn't. But he sometimes said things without really thinking them through. He usually realized the stupidity of his words, once he had spoken them, but he was too impulsive to consider what he said beforehand.
"We were waking through the woods, and we saw the body of a little boy covered in blood. And there was a strange "X" symbol carved on a tree."
"Did you handle the body in any way?" The cop asked.
"No. We didn't want to mess with the crime scene." I said.
"I see. What did you do when you left the woods?"
"We went back to Charlie's house. In the morning, after playing some games outside, we went to the library. We were curious to see if we could find any information on recent disappearances of children." I said.
"We dug through some news papers." Charlie added, "After a while, we found a few interesting articles. Most of them were a few weeks old."
"What was in these articles?"
"They were all reports of missing children." Charlie said, "Most of them had disappeared while the parents were off doing something. That seemed pretty straightforward, at first, but then we discovered that some of the kids had mentioned something about a tall, skinny guy in a suit. For convenience, we've nicknamed him 'Slender Man.'"
"Yes, we are familiar with those reports, but they've been inconsistent. But we may investigate further into it. If true, these reports seem to indicate a serial kidnapper. Whether or not the murder is tied to the kidnappings is uncertain, but we will look into it."
"And what if he comes after us?" I asked, "We're basically witnesses."
"Yes, but you didn't see the murder actually take place. However, you are children, and this kidnapper does seem to target youths. Also, you arrived shortly after the crimes were committed. If the killer was still present while you were there, you would have a valid point. So, if you would like your families to be relocated, you may request so."
I looked at Charlie, and he looked at me. Were we in danger, and did we really want to move away? After some thought, I said, "No, I think that I'll be okay for now."
"And you...?" He turned to my friend.
"I think that I'll be okay." He said.
"Alright then," the cop said, "If you feel endangered in the future, you will still have the option to be relocated. Now, you're free. That's all that I need from you, boys."
With that, we started walking out the door. As we were on the way out, the cop yelled for us to wait. "One more thing," He said, "If these are really kidnappings, we will do all that we can to catch the perpetrator. This... Slender Man will be apprehended."
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