He was immediately drawn to the central figure of the painting. This one looked like Slenderman in that it wore a black suit, but the only difference… actually one of the many differences was that his black suit was littered with brightly colored polka dots ranging through every color of the rainbow. The figure had a top hat perched on its head, but what set it apart was the face. Unlike the other three, he was not paper white, but was more "fleshy" colored and had a smile, an honest smile, with slightly rosy cheeks, a distinct nose, and small, black eyes forming a slight upside-down U from the smile below.
Harry was still looking at the figures when he heard a voice speak up from behind him.
"Oh, that's Slendy's family."
Harry was startled and quickly turned around to see a girl about his age. She had long, brown hair and the same emerald, green eyes that had an ethereal glow behind them. She wore a pink nightgown and was completely barefoot with a brown teddy bear tucked under her arm as though she was just about to go to sleep or just woke up. Her major difference, though, was the streams of crimson blood criss-crossing on her face which Harry noticed led up to a scarlet patch of hair and lightly dented part of her skull.
"S-sorry, I- I just wanted to look around." He quickly walked back to his chair and sat down upset that he'd probably gotten into trouble for not staying put.
"Oh, that's alright. I walk around all the time and Slendy doesn't mind." She smiled. "My name's Sally and this is Sammy." She gestured to the brown teddy bear. "What's yours?"
"Harry."
She blinked and snickered. Harry was confused. "Sorry?"
"Oh, sorry, I just remember a movie Jeff talked about with someone with your name and my name meeting, but Slendy says I'm not old enough to watch it."
"Oh, how old are you?"
"Eight… sort of. How old are you?"
"Seven. W-what do you mean 'sort of'?"
Sally grinned. "I'm a ghost. I died when I was eight, but that was a while ago, so I guess I'm older."
Harry stared wide-eyed at her, uncomprehending, and before his rational brain could object, he slowly reached out his arm.
*poke*
She just snickered and returned the poke, proving her solidity. In response, Harry could only blink in confusion. "Wait, I thought ghosts were transparent and… not-solid and… well… ghostly." He finished lamely.
She nodded. "I've never actually seen any ghosts like that. I remember Halloween stories always said they were faded white and floaty, but any ghosts Slendy ever showed us were solid or colorful like me." She grinned. "It's a lot more fun this way. I can't imagine not being able to eat cake, can you?"
Harry shuffled, mumbling under his breath that he'd never had it before.
He noticed her gaze wander and lock on his make-shift splint. "You're hurt" She whispered. Her bubbly personality evaporated.
Harry shuffled his arm a behind his back, but her eyes didn't stop following it. "It's alright. It's nothing."
"Did the adults do that to you?" She asked. Harry was a startled at how serious and almost hateful she sounded. "When they played their games?"
"S-sorry?"
"They hurt me when they played their games. Then, my Uncle took me to the park for another game. That one hurt real bad." Her hand wandered up to the slight dent in her skull. "But, I had him play my game afterwards…"
"I-I'm fine! R-really! Mr. Slenderman took me here to talk to someone to help me feel better."
She broke her gaze on the pipe splint to look back. Her eyes softened again. "Slendy's really nice. He helped me when I was all alone. You'll feel better." She smiled.
Harry relaxed and looked back at the painting. "S-so, Mr. Slenderman has a family?"
She nodded. She pointed to each one as she spoke. "There's Slendy, of course. The one with the glasses is Trendy. The one with the teeth is Offendy. And the colorful one is Splendy."
"Trendy, Offendy, and Splendy. Are they short for something?"
"Trenderman, Offenderman, and Splendorman."
Harry snickered. It seemed the "-erman" was a family thing.
"I think Splendorman looks pretty fun." He said.
She smiled. "Yep! He's always really happy and has fun games to play... not like the other games..."
Harry sensed the tone from earlier and quickly redirected the conversation. "Yeah, he's always really happy. I can't imagine him mad."
Sally's grin faded a bit. "He's rarely ever mad, but he's scarier than Slendy when he is." She admitted.
Harry felt himself pale. He looked back at the bright, colorful, smiling figure in the family portrait and tried, but failed, to imagine any form of negativity.
Sally broke his thoughts. "So, did you just get to the house?" He nodded. "I can show you around if you want." She offered.
Harry frowned briefly at what the choice offered. On one hand, he told Slendy he'd stay put and he didn't want to make him angry just after he met him. On the other hand, he was really curious about the house and didn't want Sally to think he wasn't a good friend... if they could even be called friends at this point... he'd never had any before to really compare to.
"W-well, I told Slendy I-I wouldn't wander off." He said, trying to explain.
"Oh. Well, I know where he is if he's talking to Jack. We can go there, too. Plus, you're not wandering off far. If he shouts inside the mansion, everyone can hear it." She said.
"Well…" He trailed off. Again, the dichotomy tugged on his conscience. In the end, he decided to just give a quick nod and was pulled away by the excited girl.
"Okay, so I'll show you around! This is the front room, but Slendy calls it a 'foy-yay'." She said. Harry had been to the foyer, but it was still just as nice as before. She continued pulling him through halls.
"Here's the TV room." The room was surprisingly modern, with standard couches in front of a medium-sized entertainment center.
"Here's the dining room." Lots of high, stiff-backed chairs were lined around a long table, but they didn't look terribly uncomfortable, just a bit formal.
"Here's the music room." A piano stood in the corner, surrounded by various string, brass, and percussion instruments. Harry thought he'd look into a few. He always wanted to learn to play.
"And here's the kitchen, the sitting room, the moon room-"
"Moon room?" It looked more like a greenhouse got fused to the room with a few chairs and plants in it. Although, it did let in a lot of the moonlight.
"Well, in most houses it's called a sun room, but a lot of guests are pretty nocturnal, so we call it the moon room." She explained.
"Here's the conservatory, the trophy room, and library. Jeff doesn't like it here because he has to study, but I like to bring my coloring books sometimes.
"And to finish off," she said in front of a small room by the kitchen with coat hooks and boots next to a back door. "The mud room! It's supposed to be for mud, but Slendy still doesn't like me dragging mud through it."
As she finished speaking, the door opened and two figures walked in. Harry stumbled backwards in fear as a large, red and black dog-thing walked in. He still had minor trauma from Marge's dog, Ripper. This thing was enough to bring it all back.
He noticed it was attached to a leash and he followed it up to the second figure who came through. He couldn't help himself but stare. The figure had on a plain, white hoodie, or at least it used to be white. It was covered in splashes of red, which Harry could tell had a distinct metallic smell. Shaking like a leaf, he looked further up. The dog's owner had scraggly, black hair and was as pale as Slenderman, but he definitely had a face… a very memorable face.
The skin around his eye was blackened and shriveled near the edges while the eyes themselves had beady, gray irises. But Harry couldn't stop looking at his smile. It was literally carved into his cheeks like he'd taken a razor right to them.
"Harry?"