Reading about playing a horror game can be scarier than playing the game itself. For Ryan Winslett’s experience playing Slender, the narration is terrifying enough for my tastes. The simple Unity game has the player collecting 8 pages. With each page, the Slender Man chases you more intensely. When you look back, you never see him moving.

I continue my slow march through the woods, occasionally looking around to see if the Slender Man has made an appearance. There’s a weird argument brewing in my mind. Part of me has absolutely no desire to see this creepy phantom standing just out of my flashlight’s range. The other part of me absolutely wants to catch a brief glimpse of the guy, knowing full well that doing so will send a jolt of unadulterated terror through my body as I wrestle with the keyboard and run in the opposite direction.

I know I shouldn’t keep looking, but the steadily escalating thrum of the music tells me that the Slender Man is getting closer. Each time I look back he has shortened the gap. He’s never moving. He’s just standing there, his blank face fixed in my direction. Every time I see him I can’t help but scream, fingers once again struggling to find the correct keys to turn me around and keep me moving away.