12-year old stabbing suspects in Waukesha, Wisconsin now face up to sixty years in prison if convicted of first-degree attempted murder after they lured their friend into the woods and slashed her repeatedly with a knife.

The two girls–who have not been named because at least one of them may see the case go to juvenile court, where records are sealed–told authorities they have been planning the deed since December and invited the victim to a slumber party, saying they wanted to stab her in the dark so that they wouldn’t have to look her in the eyes. The horrific act was to be done in the name of Slender Man, an impossibly tall, ghoulish creature that has been circulating online for the past few years. In order to get to his realm, one must commit a murder, so on Saturday, the girls took their friend to a nearby park and attacked her, stabbing her several times all over her body. One wound just barely missed her heart, according to reports. She survived and is in stable condition.

The girls say they planned to run away and live in the mythological creature’s forest home after the killing was over.

“I recognize their young ages but it’s still unbelievable,” Court Commissioner Thomas Pieper said.

Slender Man reportedly has long arms which he uses to kidnap children, and the stories have been shared on Creepypasta.com from various users. Since news broke of the attack, the question has arisen of just how affected young people are by the horror genre, whether it be in fiction or film form, and Creepypasta issued a statement regarding their role in the story. You can read the entire statement here.

“Creepypasta comes from the word copypasta, which itself is a play on the “copy and paste” function. They were short, creepy stories that people spread around the internet for fun. This website is one of the many Creepypasta communities that accept submissions; people write their paranormal stories, I read them and decide which ones I personally like enough to post, and visitors read them and post comments – usually from the perspective of how the author can improve as a writer. I think that, more than other Creepypasta websites, we focus more on being a writer’s community. We have a spin-off site dedicated to getting feedback (don’t use so many ellipses, please don’t write romance stories about serial killers, please remember to proofread – that sort of thing) for authors who ask for blunt community critique and I try to do community promos for writers who self-publish or work on other projects like movies, anthologies, comics, and so on.

Creepypasta is not solely dedicated to horror and murder or revenge fantasies, despite what some media outlets claim. They come up, of course – but so do ghosts, zombies, angels, mythology, urban legends, conspiracies, lost civilizations, aliens and sci-fi, vengeful deities, as well as real-world struggles, sorrows, and dangers. It’s a wide umbrella of inspiration, to be sure, but I’m sure that anyone who has ever browsed the horror or paranormal or sci-fi sections of a library or bookstore has noticed just how vast the possibilities are within those genres.

I think that most of you will understand when I say it’s hard to justify pinning blame on an entire genre of writing. Unless you’re okay with blaming the world’s ills on Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft, I don’t believe that it makes sense to say paranormal writing or an interest in the macabre should be blamed or even used as an indicator of a “sick” person (as a few emails have already felt the need to call both myself and all the authors here). The human race has long held and encouraged a fascination with things that go bump in the night.”