Reflecting

Since the last post on Friday, I've heard no word from Jill, although she apparently called her mom. The call wasn't from her cell, which she left behind when she ran away. Her mom says that the call (from a restricted number, naturally) was somewhat distorted but there was no background noise, just a lot of static. She said she heard a woman's voice say "Is this Mrs. Wu-Kleine?" and when Jill's mom said yes, the woman said "Someone wants to talk to you.", and then Jill came on (her mom said it was probably Jill, but her voice sounded weird. 'croaky and thick' was the phrase she used). Jill said "I didn't want to go, I didn't want him to kill me. Remember my name. Remember that I told him my name. Remember that I never told him her name." Then she started crying, and Jill's mom said she asked her if she was okay, and then Jill said something unintelligable and the line went dead. The police weren't able to get a trace on that call either.

My on-campus stalker is back, too. I've seen that guy twice more, always on campus. I don't think it's enough to go to the police, even with what's happening with Jill. It's been warmer lately so he must be sweating in that coat and scarf, but he's still wearing them, and he's added a baseball cap to the ensemble (maybe he thinks I won't recognize him with it on? If so, he's a pretty crappy stalker). Both times were on Monday- once walking over to the student union, and the second time waiting for the bus. He was on the other side of the street the second time I saw him, but I recognized him anyway.

In other news, the police don't know what to make of the burned posters, and neither do I. I looked around a bit more and it's just those two that were burned, which is unnerving because they're the only ones near my house.

So what do I make of this, in the coldest, most logical terms I can think of?

• Jill's stalker might be stalking me now, or he might be a she, and has gotten to her and is now holding hostage
• Alternatively, and this is what I'm hoping for, she's with a nice, normal woman who is taking care of her, and is hallucinating the broken fingers. It says a lot that the preferable option here is Jill being delusional.
• Her twitter, at first, seems to point in the direction of her being held against her will- the most recent update on the 26th was "shehasmeshewillfeedmetohim", which is...negative. But I'm still hoping (what the fuck) that she's imagining that a stranger who is trying to help her and might have to restrain her is secretly working for slenderman.
• Either way, her obsession with slenderman is still going strong, judging by that tweet and what she said to her mom on the phone. I thought that first part, "I didn't want to go, I didn't want him to kill me", sounded familiar, so I looked over the folder of slenderman stuff in my favorites, the one I haven't opened since mid-november. Turns out she was misquoting the text from under the picture the first time slenderman appeared in the Somethingawful forums. The full quote is: "we didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."
• Jill's mentioned comforting arms in her most recent email, too, and in comments on other people's blogs.
• One last thing: In her twitter, on the 22nd of November, she posted something about "18 days". Eighteen days from the 22nd is the 9th of December, which is three days from now. I don't know what that date signifies to her- from the tone of the tweet (even with the gravity of the situation I feel like an asshole saying 'tweet') it sounds like either a date for her giving up and coming home, or when she thinks slenderman will leave her alone. Like she's waiting something out.  

That's my stupid analysis, it doesn't mean anything really, and it certainly doesn't help. But I realized the other day that the only alternative to sitting on my couch feeling helpless and afraid was to start doing my own fake investigating. The thought that any part of it could be useful at all makes it worth it.