Many of us have heard the stories of Slender Man. And over the years, it's become hard to tell if it's even fiction anymore. Before we get into the (attempted) murder, lets quickly dive into the origin of Slender Man. (Or Slenderman)

Being a writer is an interesting thing. We create worlds of many different generas. This one in particular comes from the realm of horror. (Hail Stephen King!)

Beginning from a contest that was meant to terrify, it became a meme in 2009 and exploded from there. Slender Man was everywhere. The story of Slender Man ended up on Creepy Pasta, and it was even more planted into the minds of those horror fans. I heard the story on Creepy Pasta, it's wonderfully scary.

Slender Man is described to be an extremely tall, faceless humanoid with long arms and legs that lures children into the woods. (He's also sometimes described to have tendrils growing out of his back.)

I am among many that believe that if a person or persons put enough energy into believing that something is real, that energy can and will manifest into what it's being put into. In this case, Slender Man.

So let's get into the first story I'm going to tell about Slender Man and a murder plan. This is the story of the attempted murder of Payton Leutner.

Before May 31st, 2014, Payton was a bright and cheerful 12-year-old girl who loved spending time with friends and doing all the things that any 12 year old girl likes to do.

But on that night, things would forever change when she would experience a betrayal from her best friend that plays out similarly to Julius Ceaser and Brutus.

Morgan Geyser and Payton had been friends for some time and were rather close. Payton felt like Morgan was someone that she could trust. They enjoyed having sleepovers and spending time together. Morgan often made her laugh and "always kept things fun."

By the time sixth grade rolled around, Morgan had become friends with Anissa Weier and when Weier began talking with Morgan about Slender Man.

Payton was a bit frightened by the stories, but went along with it for the sake of her friend. It scared her to the point where she asked her mother, Staci, if he were a real thing, relieved when she said no.

She told Morgan that she didn't like it and that it scared her. She even thought about ending her friendship with Morgan to get away from it. "I saw the change from fifth to sixth grade when she met Anissa. That's when I was really wanting to get out of that friendship," she said in an interview.

However, she did not end the friendship, as she felt bad for her friend, not wanting her to be alone. Morgan even guilt tripped her into remaining friends.

Anissa never seemed to like Payton, always being "cruel" to her. Payton thinks she was jealous that Morgan was also her friend.

The more that Morgan and Anissa hung out together, the more Anissa convinced Morgan that Slender Man was real. It was becoming clearer that these two girls were not a healthy mix.

When Morgan's 12th birthday came around, Payton was completely unaware that for months the girls had been planning her murder. The three of them went to a local skating rink and skated, got some frozen yogurt, and returned to Morgan's for a slumber party.

Payton later noted that in hind sight, she must have known something was off, based simply off of the previous slumber parties she and Morgan had shared.

"Something was strange because at all of our past sleepovers, Morgan always wanted to stay up all night because she could never do that at home. But on the night of the birthday party, she wanted to go to bed," Payton said.

Morgan and Anissa later confessed to the police that they had planned on killing Payton in her sleep that night, but later changed their plan to do it at a park that was close by the next morning.

They had doughnuts for breakfast and Morgan suggested that they walk down to the park. Thinking that they just wanted to go for a walk, Payton didn't think anything of it.

Once they got to the park, their plans changed once again. Anissa told the investigators that she said they go play hide-and-seek in the woods near by.

Anissa told Payton to lie down on the ground and cover herself up to hide with the sticks and leaves. "But it was really just a trick to get me down there."

It was then that Morgan began stabbing Payton repeatedly with a kitchen knife that Anissa had brought from her home. Morgan stabbed her 19 times all for the purpose of giving her as an offering to Slender Man.

Once Morgan stopped stabbing her, she and Anissa left her alone in the woods to die.

Once she was alone, Payton knew that she was going to have to save herself. Grabbing onto trees for support, she walked, gathering up all her strength and adrenaline, made it out of the woods where she could be easily spotted.

Someone riding a bicycle found her and called 911.

She suffered stab wounds to her arms and legs, which only damaged the soft tissue, but the two to her abdomen hit major organs. One of them had sliced through her diaphragm, which also damaged her stomach and liver. The other almost went through her heart, missing it by less than one millimeter.

The doctor that operated on her, Dr. John Kelemen said, "If the knife had gone the width of a human hair further, she wouldn't have lived."

It later came out, in 2016, that Morgan was diagnosed with early on-set schizophrenia (her father also being schizophrenic) while in custody.

Both Anissa and Morgan were charged as adults with attempted intentional homicide in the first degree. Anissa Weier pleaded guilty for a lesser charge and was found not guilty by mental disease or defect in 2017. Morgan pleaded guilty to the first-degree charges she faced, but was also found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. However, in 2018, as was part of her plea agreement, Morgan was convicted.

Anissa Weier was sentenced to up to 25 years, and Morgan Geyser was sentenced to up to 40 years in a facility for mental health.

I have to give this girl some mad props. Not only did she survive this, but she has not let this experience stop her life from progressing. While yes, she has her scars, both mental and physical, she continues to live her life to the fullest.