Cover art for the hardcover edition
Into Night is an independently published poetry collection by Melissa Clason based on The Slender Man Mythos. It is the author's personal take on the mythos and has an interesting twist on the Tulpa Effect. The plot centers on a young woman's encounter with Slender Man on The Path of Black Leaves after she has been dreaming about him for several months. Desperate to escape, she dives off a cliff into the ocean. The book details her thoughts, dreams, and memories throughout her encounter.
The book was released on August 3, 2013.
Plot Overview (Spoiler Warning)[]
The main character of the book, an unnamed young woman, has been dreaming about Slender Man for several months. The book starts out as her poetry journal, but quickly becomes twisted as she notes her foreboding at seeing a tall figure in the distance in the woods near her house. One night, she dreams about being lost on the Path of Black Leaves . She wakes up alone in the forest with Slender Man in pursuit, and realizes her dreams weren't just dreams and Slender Man is not just a story. Remembering reading about the Tulpa Effect on the internet, she reasons that destroying the pages will weaken Slender Man enough to defeat him, so she frantically runs about the forest trying to collect the pages. However, Slender Man manages to trap her between himself and a steep cliff overlooking the ocean. Desperate to not become a victim, she dives off of the cliff into the rough waters below. As she falls, she ruminates on the nature of evil, suggesting that Slender Man was one of the evils unleashed on the world by the opening of Pandora's box, and has been quietly spreading it through mankind ever since. She remembers a friend who had committed suicide after possibly being stalked by Slender Man and contemplates giving up the fight and allowing herself to drown rather than be taken. But memories of her friends, family, and the man she loves help her make the decision to survive and try to fight. Mysteriously, she is transported back up to the forest, to make her final confrontation. She decides to take the idea of the power of thought and work it in her own favor, strengthening her mind against Slender Man's compulsions. Her sense of inner peace allows her to accept that she might die, but still fight to keep her life. The final battle ends ambiguously, with the woman awakening alone in a marsh. It is unknown if she has defeated Slender Man, if this is merely another stage to the battle, or if she is dead and in some sort of afterlife.
Citations: []
- http://www.lulu.com/shop/melissa-clason/into-night/hardcover/product-21141958.html
- http://intonight.moonfruit.com/
- Clason, Melissa (2013). Into Night.