Queen Serenity: When I first wrote this, it was my first Elm Street fic. It was (and still is) a pretty different genre than my normal writing. Freddy's character is hard to capture, so I was worried that he would be OOC.

The character is not a Mary Sue – she's me, as a lot of this is based on nightmares I've had before.

Title: Fighting Fire With Fire

Fandom: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Stars: Freddy Krueger, whom we all know; a victimized girl named Molly; an

unknown dream demon.

Summary: A girl needs Freddy's help… to fight an evil which may just be worse than him.

Author: Queen Serenity

Disclaimer: Molly belongs to me… she IS me. Any Freddy people don't belong to me. Jireziah doesn't belong to anyone… although it's my dreams he haunted for years. Same with the guy that appears later, Jareh, and the creatures in the dreams, both good and bad. Oh! And also Jessica is mine.

Title: Fighting Fire With Fire

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Chapter: One

The girl sat there on her bed. She had a blanket wrapped around her, and she was in an upright fetus position, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, her back to the wall. Her blue-gray eyes stared blankly ahead, not really seeing, it seemed…

She knew she was dreaming… she knew that 'he' would be here soon… but she didn't bother moving. She'd tried, many times, running from him… but he always caught her… him or his wretched hounds.

She shivered, and wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders, bowing her head and closing her eyes, waiting.

"What do you think you're doing?" The silky smooth voice came from beside her, and she jumped, and scooted back into the corner that her bed was in. He sat there on her bed, staring at her, waiting for an answer…

But she wouldn't answer him, not if she could help it; even saying words to him made her feel dirty.

Him: The man, if you could even call him that, that sat there was tall… probably about 6'1'. His jet black hair hung loosely just past his shoulders. His bangs were cut just above the brows, and were split down the middle. His face was princely-looking, with high cheekbones and a define jawline… His skin was lightly tanned, and he was lightly muscled. He wore a pair of black silken pants, tied with a bloodred sash, and a black vest which was worn open, showing off his chest.

But his eyes… his eyes were what would take your focus off anything else. They were green, but not any ordinary green. They were a bright green which seemed to burn… like they were made from green fire… they didn't glow, they burned.

All in all, if the girl was judging by her eyes only, she would have probably been swooning over him. Physically, this man was so hot he was almost god-like… but she didn't judge by what she saw… she judged by what she felt. She could feel the evil, the plain 'wrongness' radiating off of him… that feeling that made her jump in the shower whenever she woke up, just because even being near this… man… made her feel filthy… tainted…

She knew the man as Jireziah, though she never called him that… the strange thing was, he had never given her his name… she just knew.

Jireziah spoke. "You really should answer someone when they ask you a question, you know."

When she ignored him further, he grabbed her arm tightly, tight enough to leave a bruise. She didn't even react, and fury shown in his eyes as he reached out with his other arm and grabbed her by the hair, forcing her head up to look at him. "And you should especially answer me."

He proceeded to stand, his hand still buried in her mass of curls, and yanked her off of the bed by the hair. Tears of pain sprang to the girl's eyes, but they didn't fall, and she didn't cry out. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of it.

He pulled her to her feet, and whispered in her ear, "So, who shall I kill tonight, hmm, Serenity?" He let go of her, letting her fall back down, and snapped his fingers. In the next instant, they were in her little sister's room. Her little, eight-year-old sister's room. For the first time since the beginning of the dream, the girl spoke, her voice a choked, ragged whisper,

"Don't do this… not to Ashley… not again, please."

Jireziah sneered. "Pleading hasn't done you any good before, Serenity. Why would it do any good now?" He shoved her to fall into a nearby chair, and she was, it seemed, glued in place; no matter how she tried, she couldn't get back up.

He went over and knelt by the little girl's bed, and, in almost a mocking gesture, brushed her brown bangs gently out of her face. "Ashley… Ashley, dear, it's time to wake up." His face was just above the little girl's.

Ashley yawned lightly. "…Huh?" The little girl opened her eyes, but they almost instantly went blank when they saw the twin green fires that were the man's eyes.

Letting an evil smile cross his face, Jireziah pulled the little girl up so that she was sitting up, the blank look still on her face. Pulling a long, thin, but infinitely sharp blade out of nowhere, he looked over at the older girl, who was watching them numbly. He grinned evilly again, showing her perfect white teeth. "Where should I cut her first, Serenity? Her sweet little face, don't you think so?"

Silence was his answer.

He reached over and, almost gently, pressed the blade against Ashley's face, about an inch below her eye. And then, a look coming over his face as though he thought this would be the most pleasurable thing he had ever done, he pressed down and brought the blade down in one swift, vicious motion.

Blood flowed and awareness came back into Ashley's chocolate brown eyes as she let out a scream of pain. Blood flowing, she struggled to get away from the man, starting to sob, but he held her fast. "No, no, stop it, please don't hurt me, Mister, please don't hurt me!" She saw her sister, sitting there, and reached out her free arm towards the elder girl. "Molly! Help me, Molly! Please don't let him hurt me!"

She wailed pitifully, salty tears running down her face to mix in with the wound and cause her even more pain. Her big sister just stared numbly ahead, no indication that she was seeing this except for the tears in her eyes.

Jireziah grabbed the little girl's outstretched arm. "Where next, Serenity? What's that you say? Oh, I know!" He let out a laugh and held the arm down at the wrist. When he brought his knife down to rest above the little girl's pinky, she let out a scream.

"This little piggy went to the market…"

Ashley's pinky was gone, and more blood flowed.

"This little piggy stayed home…"

Another finger was gone.

By the time he got to the third finger, tears were running down Molly's face and Ashley had passed out from the pain.

Finishing with all the fingers on that hand, the grin on Jireziah's face went even wider as he had an idea. Putting his blade on Ashley's face where the wound ended, he proceeded to move it the rest of the way around the little girl's face before carelessly shoving it through her heart. He reached up to rip the face off, and got in front of the older girl, holding Ashley's face in front of his own like a macabre mask, speaking in a realistic mockery of Ashley's voice.

"Molly! Help me, Molly! Please don't let him hurt me!"

The girl spoke again, her tone flat. "It doesn't matter. You can't hurt anyone, not really. Except…"

The man cocked his head at her, giving her a sadistic grin. "Except for one, right, Serenity?"

She nodded numbly, and bowed her head again. Real or not, she couldn't stand looking at her little sister's corpse.

He grabbed her by the chin, and forced her to stare at his eyes. Oh shit… not again… Was her last thought before her mind hazed up and she couldn't really think… she was only dimly aware of what was going on.
She was aware, though, of him pulling her head to rest, almost gently, in his lap. He placed his hands on either sides of her temples, and then…

PAIN! AGONY-SUFFERING-ANGUISH-MISERY-TORTURE-SUFFERING!

Wave after wake of pain ripped through her body as he, as he did every few dreams, flooded her mind with images of people dying, getting tortured, any and all sorts of suffering… what she hated most… flashing before her eyes in wave after wave.

She didn't know how long she was there… it could have been a few seconds, or a few hours, she didn't know.

Next thing she knew, though, she was laying there, the images fading, gasping for breath. A loud sound could be heard, BEEP BEEP BEEP, and Jireziah looked up, hearing it, too. He looked down at her again, eyes burning.

"Time to get up… I'll see you again, Serenity."

Molly woke up and shut off her beeping alarm, sighing. Circles were evident under her eyes, and she looked like she hadn't slept in ages. She rubbed at the new bruise on her arm, sighing. Jareh… where are you? It's been so long… I need your help, my friend…

Queen Serenity: Okay, this beginning was very hard to write… it's hard for me to write pain, and it makes me feel dirty… but… I wanted to remain true to my nightmares. You know? Not to mention, I want this to sicken, but to draw in… to make the reader want to know what'll happen next. So, sorry if it didn't come out so well… sorry if the little girl getting cut up traumatized you… but… well… I had to get it out. I had to write it, if you know what I mean.