Who is Slender Man?
A menacing internet meme known as Slender Man has been linked to an alleged stabbing attack by two Wisconsin schoolgirls.
The girls, both aged 12, have been charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide after inviting a friend for a sleepover on Saturday before allegedly luring her into the woods and stabbing her 19 times.
She was saved by a passing cyclist.
Police say the two girls were fans of the Creepypasta website and claim they were acting on orders from Slender Man after unearthing him online.
WHO IS SLENDER MAN?
Slender Man is a nightmarish crowd-sourced fiction that abducts and kills his victims. He is a tall, faceless figure, typically dressed in a black suit, and sometimes with long tentacles extending from his back.
According to Know Your Meme, he goes by a few different names including The Operator, Mr Slim, Daddy Longlegs, The Tall Man and Slendy.
Other accounts say the figure has appeared in various guises throughout history.
WHERE DID HE COME FROM?
In 2009, the online forum Something Awful launched a contest inviting users to turn ordinary photographs into something spine-tingling through Photoshop.
Once they'd refined their supernatural spoof, they would then post them throughout other forums devoted to paranormal activity.
A user by the name of Victor Surge excelled by inserting a tall, slender figure in the background of two black and white pictures.
In one, he can be seen lingering in the background as happy children play on a slide in the foreground.
"We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them," an accompanying caption read.
"But its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."
Slender Man took on a life of his own from there.
WHAT'S A CREEPYPASTA?
A creepypasta is a short story posted online in the horror genre.
They're typically passed around forums and rated on how disturbing they are.
The word derives from the internet term, "copypasta", which refers to a segment of text that gets copied and pasted repeatedly so it can be shared across the web.
Creepypasta, which has hosted Slender Man stories, has released a statement stressing the works are fictional.
