Slender Man has struck again.
An Ohio girl, under the apparent influence of the fictional Internet horror meme, attacked her mother last week with a kitchen knife, authorities said.
“I came home one night from work, and she was in the kitchen waiting for me, and she was wearing a mask, a white mask,” the suburban Cincinnati mother told a local television station. “She was someone else during the attack.”
The mother suffered multiple minor injuries, including a puncture wound on her back. The girl, 13, is facing charges as a juvenile.
The knife assault follows a Slender Man-inspired attack days earlier by a pair of 12-year-old girls on their 12-year-old classmate, who was left for dead in a Wisconsin park.
The Wisconsin victim, who was stabbed 19 times, is now recovering at home, while her alleged assailants and so-called friends, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, face first-degree attempted intentional homicide charges.
They have been charged as adults.
After hearing about the Wisconsin attack, the Ohio mom began to suspect her daughter was under the same influence. She said her daughter has mental issues, but said she never imagined her daughter would try to harm her.
“We found things that she had written and she made reference to Slender Man,” the mother said. “She also made references to killing. She even created a world for Slender Man in the game Minecraft.”
Slender Man, a computer demon created by paranormal enthusiasts, is said to be a lanky, faceless creature in a suit who terrorizes and kidnaps children.
Part Lurch from “The Addams Family” and part Freddie Kruger, the ghoulish, faceless Web creation is the obsession of his young fans.
A spokeswoman for Slender Man creator Eric Knudsen and an administrator for creepypasta.wikia.com, where the meme was published, have apologized since the first attack and said Slender Man does not teach children to be violent.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin, and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act,” Knudsen said in a statement.
Creepypasta administrator David Morales said the site clearly states that the stories there are fiction and its rules bar use by anyone under 13.
“We are not teaching children to believe in a fictional monster, nor are we teaching them to be violent,” Morales said.