(Welp, here's the next addition to the series. Things are going to start to get heated in this one *has been waiting to write this one since the beginning* ^^ I think it'll be a fun twist. "What a twist!" Yep, so let's get to it shall we? )
The boiler room squealed and moaned as the ancient machines cranked over their jobs. The lighting was very dim and was mostly red tinted. The smell of decaying rust and death weighted the air.
Terra awoke on the rusted metal rafters in a panic. She pushed herself up and looked at the dismal surroundings.
"Where am I and how did I get here?" She said to herself as she put her hand to her head in confusion.
A wicked laughter broke through the thick air and Terra looked around to find the source.
"Who's there?!" She called out.
Another wicked laughter broke through the air, but this time it was closer. Terra didn't look around this time. She felt that she was in a threatening situation and so she listened to find out where the man was coming from.
'Could this be the other killer?' Terra asked herself. 'How did I get here in the first place? I was in my room…No, Terra focus. This killer wants to get rid of you as much as you want to get rid of him…"
She didn't have enough time to finish her thought. She just managed to duck and roll as a hand sliced through the air and into the rusted railing.
Terra sized up the person attacking her. She was right about him being male. Although looking at him, she noticed that there was no way he was a normal human being. His face was covered in burnt and scarred flesh and as he turned his head and gave her a wicked smile, she felt pure evil rolling off of his being.
"Good job, bitch, you managed to avoid the hit." The man said as he pulled his clawed hand out of the rusted metal. "I was skeptical when that bastard idiot told me the one with green eyes was a girl, but now, I can see that it is possible."
Terra looked at him as she sat on the ground. She had had no problem killing people and no problem lying about her everyday activities and her life, but this man made fear choke up her throat.
The man was obviously waiting for her to say something back and after a while, he realized that she wasn't going to say anything.
"Well, it was possible, but it looks like you aren't who I am looking for." The man said and raised his clawed hand.
Terra knew that the man was going to try to kill her in the next blow and her heart started to pound on her rib cage. She was in fight or flight and she had to decide what she was going to do fast.
The man laughed as he flung his bladed hand towards Terra with full intent of killing her.
She set her eyes into a tense glare and her muscles itched for the action that was about to happen. However, instead of being able to fight off the man entirely, she ended up using her legs to fling the man over her head.
She got up quickly and winced in pain. Although she didn't realize it at the time, the man had used his claws and slashed the skin on her left leg. The pain didn't stop her. She ran to the other side of the rafter and went up the rickety stairs to some higher rafters.
As the man's wicked laughter resounded off of the walls, Terra continued to run down the upper rafters. There was a door at the end of the rafters. She made her way to the door and tugged on the handle, but it was locked.
Before she could make her next move, the man forced her in his direction and his left hand swiftly moved in to choke her neck. The man pushed Terra's back onto the door and used his grip on her neck to lift her off of the ground.
Terra quickly moved her hands onto the man's arm because the pull was choking her. Her heart was beating so quickly that she wasn't sure if the man would kill her or if she'd have a heart attack.
'What is wrong with me?!' She shouted at herself in her head. 'If this was anyone else, I would have killed them long ago and I wouldn't have run from them!'
The man laughed wickedly at the mixture of emotions that were contorting Terra's face. He moved his body closer to hers and put the palm of his clawed hand over her heart.
"Oh, isn't that delicate?" The man said and let out a roaring laugh.
"W-Who are you?" Terra managed to get herself to spit out.
"Well," The man said with an evil grin, "It won't matter who I am in a few seconds because you're going to die!"
The man was just about to press his blades into Terra's heart when there was a knock at the door.
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"Terra, are you alright? You haven't made a noise in a long time." Peggy said from the other side of the door.
Terra sat up straight in bed when she got the jolt back to reality. She put her hand on her heart and took in her surroundings in confusion.
'It was a dream?' She thought when she saw she was back in her room.
Peggy opened the door slowly and poked her head into the room. She looked at the bed and met Terra's half-awake and half-dumbstruck gaze.
"Oh! I'm sorry Terra. I didn't mean to barge into your room. I was worried because you didn't eat dinner or come out of your room for a while." Peggy said timidly.
"Yeah, I just fell asleep for a while." Terra said slowing moving her curiously aching body.
Terra winced in pain as she moved her left leg. She grabbed it and was shocked to find that there was blood seeping through her pants and right at the spot where she was hurt in the dream.
"Oh, my gosh, what happened?!" Peggy said in panic as she came into the room to look at the wound.
Terra looked at her leg in disbelief. When she awoke and found that she'd been dreaming, she was going to attribute the dream to the fact that her mind had been so focused on finding the other killer, but now, this wound meant so many things.
"Terra? Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Peggy said as she put a hand on Terra's forehead to check her temperature.
"I'm fine, Peggy." Terra said and moved her head away. "I must have fallen asleep on my scissors or something."
When she said scissors, the memory of the clawed hand automatically came to mind and it struck a shiver through her body.
"Oh dear, let me go get the first aid kit from the bathroom." Peggy said and ran out the door.
Terra sat on her bed and stared at her leg. She wasn't thinking about the pain or about the dream that had happened. She was trying to figure out how it was possible for something that happened in dreams to carry over to reality and what she was going to do the next time she ran into that situation. And something told her, that if she wasn't ready with these answers the next time she fell asleep, she wasn't going to wake up again.
"Ok, roll up your pant leg Terra." Peggy said as she got everything undone in the first aid kit.
Terra did what she was told and sat still as the cleansing of the wound sent pain through her leg. She was well aware of the pain, but she was dazing off.
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The end of the day bell rang out sharply around the school and most of the students bolted for the door. Terra waited for everyone to push their way through and then, she stood up groggily and yawned her way to her locker.
Terra spent the entire night trying to find out information about dreams and death and she found a lot of interesting facts. In the renaissance times, there were a lot of demons and hellish creatures and one of those demons was called Ubothol by the people. Ubothol was said to travel from dream to dream and kill the habitants of the dream so that he could devour their soul.
Renaissance physicians tried to rid people of the demon by drilling into the head on both sides and then pouring holy water over the one side of the head which would force the demon out of the patient's head. However, a lot of these patients died in the process. Unfortunately, they never developed a clear cut way to prevent Ubothol from entering people's dreams.
Terra doubted that Ubothol was the man that had confronted her because if he was a dream demon, he could find a form that is more animalistic. And although it had been documented that people were supposedly dying from dream demon attacks, there wasn't much Terra could do to fight back because all of the methods either led to death or sleep deprivation and then death.
She had contemplated for a long time what she could do. It was obvious that the dream being could harm her and she wasn't entirely sure that she could do the same kind of damage to the being. Not to mention, she wasn't even able to speak to the being last time, so there was no guarantee that she wouldn't choke up again. The being had the upper hand for sure.
By the time morning had struck the skies with its bright red light, Terra had formulated a plan. She wasn't sure how it would work or if it would work, but it was worth a shot.
"Terra!" Jeanie said as she slammed her hand into the locker next to Terra's. "Did I scare you?!" Jeanie asked with amused excitement.
"No, not at all." Terra said biting back her acidic words and actions.
"You look tired, Terra." Eva said although she wasn't really concerned.
"Yeah, she practically fell asleep in our last period class." Katie said with a deep underlying sense of curiosity and fear.
"I was up all night looking over some papers." Terra lied to the group.
"Oh yeah, there are a lot of tests coming up." Eva said trying to make a mental note for herself.
"Oh!" Katie said all of a sudden. "Did you guys hear about what happened to Todd?"
"Todd? Oh, you mean that Todd Dean guy?" Eva said absentmindedly.
"Yeah, he was found dead the other day." Katie said in a low whisper. "The cops think that it was done by one of the murderers."
The group grew silent as they all took in the information. For Jeanie, this information was just more gossip that she could spread around. For Eva, it meant that she would sleep with the lights on and her baseball bat again. For Terra, it meant that the man in her dream had killed Todd and more to the point, Todd was the one who told the man about her.
"Well," Terra said yawning loudly, "I'm going to go home and sleep. You all be careful."
She left the group to their gossip and as she walked away, she continued reworking her plan for the night in her head.
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It didn't take Terra very long to get home or at least, she didn't notice if it did. Because her mind was formulating, Terra wasn't paying attention to anything around her. Before she knew it, she was in her bedroom and lying on her bed.
Her heart was beating because of the stresses Terra was enduring. Terra had worked out her plan over and over in her mind, but there was no guarantee that if she fell asleep then she would wake back up. She'd been setting her mind up for this all day because she wanted to be able to at least speak to the man in her dream.
As she slipped into sleep, she thought about the bloody images of her past and the things that she had done since she had come back to this town. Her lips set into a wry smile as the darkness of sleep took her in completely.
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When Terra opened her eyes again, she was in the boiler room again. She was standing on the upper level this time and so, she looked around for the man. She wanted to find him before he attacked her if it was possible.
"You managed to get away last time." A voice said from behind Terra. "You won't get away from me this time, Terra…" The man said with a mocking tone.
Terra turned towards the voice and saw that he was coming at her from the other side of the rafter. He was trapping her again. She gave him an intense glare began to enact her plan.
"You know that I'm killing people in Springwood." She managed to spit out after great effort. "I take it you're the other killer then."
"Well, someone give her the grand prize!" The man said sarcastically and continued towards her.
Although her feet wanted her to run, Terra stood still where she was standing. She kept her gaze straight on him and tried not to hide the fear in her voice.
"I've got a proposition for you." Terra said out right.
She had wanted to do some small talk with the being before she blurted out her idea, but her mind wouldn't let her.
"It seems like everyone wants to make deals these days," The man said laughing bitterly. "Though, in the last deal, the son of a bitch ended up dead."
The man laughed and continued growing closer. Terra watched him and was having to put great effort into just standing there. Talking would be pushing, but she had to continue with her plan.
"I'm not here to make a deal." Terra said trying to sound smug. "I want to challenge you in a contest."
The man stopped just feet from Terra and looked at her with intrigued and amused eyes.
"You want to challenge me to a contest?" The man said with a wry smile on his face.
"At this point, we both want to be rid of each other because I assume that we both have our own missions." Terra said as the fear began to subside. "So, I propose that we have a little killing game and see who is able to kill the most at the end of, oh, let's say a month?"
The man left his face in the wry smile as he stood and contemplate the proposal. He rose his clawed hand up in the air and flexed his hand so that the blades shimmered red in the light.
"I could just kill you right here and not have to worry about your little game at all." The man said and waited to see Terra's reaction.
Terra had figured that he would suggest that because if it was her, she would do the same thing. She smiled smugly and looked him in the eyes.
"I suppose you could do that," She said to start, "But that might also suggest that you're afraid that I'll beat you in my little game." She finished with underlying mocking tone.
The man's wry smile shifted into anger for only a moment before it turned into a roar of laughter.
"You suggest that you could beat me in a game of death??" The man finally said.
"You suggest that I can't?" Terra said before she thought about what the repercussions could be.
"Well, I'll play your little game then." Said the man amused. "When I win, I get to torture you in my realm until you die."
"And when I win," Terra said and smiled, "You have to leave killing these people to me."
The man let out a roar of laughter and stood looking at Terra for a moment. He was eyeing up this girl curiously.
"Shall we seal out deal in blood then?" The girl said as she walked over to the man and used one of his blades to cut her arm.
The man was even more intrigued at this girl and decided to follow her lead. He used his index finger to slice his arm.
Terra looked at the man's arm in confusion. The blood, if it was blood that was coming out of his arm was green.
"Having second thoughts?" The man asked mockingly.
Terra glared into his eyes and held up her arm for the seal.
The man smiled in response and put his arm up to hers.
"Well, you know who I am." Terra said after their arms had touched. "What name do you go by demon?"
"You can call me Freddy Krueger." The man said laughing.
"Well, Freddy Krueger let the game begin." Terra said with a smug smile.
(Sorry about the jumping around to different areas. It was a necessary evil for this chapter. I also had a major wonder twins moment at the end. Lol, my bad. Hope you liked it. I'll try to get another chapter out next week, no guarantees. –fin )