Supernatural: Dream Warriors
A/N: Hello, all you happy people! So, I'm thrilled that I get to post this during the Halloween season, and it certainly is fitting when you think about it. So on with the show!
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or Criminal Minds; I just own the characters that I happen to create.
CHAPTER ONE: FREDDY'S COMIN' FOR YOU!
"Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God."
Joel 1:13
One, two Freddy's comin' for you!
Three, four better lock your door!
Five, six grab your crucifix!
Seven, eight gonna stay up late!
Nine, ten never sleep again!
The blonde-haired girl wore only a thin white nightgown and was walking bare-footed through a grimy boiler plant that was filled with huge boilers, steam pipes, and catwalks, which made it a shadowed forest of iron and stone; she was unsure of how she'd gotten there.
"Hello?" she called out, trying to peer through the warm steam as it billowed out of the pipes that lined the walls on either side of her. "Is anyone there?"
Something clanged behind her and she spun around, but there was nothing there; heart pounding, she turned back, and resumed walking.
Had she looked back again, she would've seen a tall, dark figure moving through the steam, following her.
'Where are the workers?' she wondered, rounding a corner and found another pipelined walkway. 'And where's the exit?'
Frustrated, she kept walking with the hope of finding a way out, when a loud shrieking noise of metal on metal started up, and she spun around again, trying to find the source of the noise while her heart pounded with fear.
The tall figure moved through the steam clouds, raised an arm and ran its' fingers along the wall; however, instead of fingernails, it seemed to have four sharp razors and they tore into the metal, making the noise.
Scared, she began running as fast as she could, but no matter where she went, that noise seemed to come from everywhere, and she couldn't find the source.
Racing around a corner, she almost collided with one of the boilers, and discovered that it was a dead end.
Panicking, she turned to go back and saw the tall, dark figure moving toward her through the steam.
"Oh god," she moaned, backing away until she backed into the boiler, which burned her backside upon making contact with the surface. "Ow!"
The figure drew closer and as it did, she could make out the physical appearance, and what she saw made her scream…well she tried to scream, but a dry yellow dust poured out instead.
The figure cackled, raised its' razor-tipped hand, and brought it slashing down toward the girl-
Sam Winchester groaned as he staggered into the bathroom of their motel room and promptly threw up in the toilet as the vision faded.
"Sam!"
"Sammy!"
Both Dean and Liz Winchester ran to the partly closed door, and listened helplessly as their little brother threw up the contents of his stomach.
"You all right, Sammy?" Dean asked through the door and got a groan for a response. "Must've been a bad one."
Liz rolled her eyes. "Dean, all of his visions are bad," she pointed out.
"Yeah, but this one seems worse than usual," Dean added.
"It was," Sam agreed, coming out and leaned heavily on the door frame, "and I think I was watching someone else's nightmare."
Now this surprised his siblings. "Really?"
"Really," Sam confirmed as the twins helped him to his bed. "The girl havin' the nightmare was terrified of whatever was following her through what looked to be a boiler plant of some kind, and I don't think she's gonna make it."
"Okay, you give us every detail that you can, Sammy," Dean said seriously, "and let's see if we can find this girl and whatever it is that's huntin' her."
Sam weakly nodded as Liz got a notebook and pencil, and he told them everything that he could remember from the vision.
Meanwhile in the FBI headquarters of Quantico, Virginia, the BAU team, which consisted of Aaron Hotchner, Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, Emily Prentiss, and Penelope Garcia, were sitting down in the conference room to discuss a new case.
"Springwood, Ohio," JJ said, clicking on the TV screen, which showed them four pictures of four teens: two boys and two girls. "In the last two weeks, four teenagers have apparently committed suicide in either their bedrooms or their bathrooms."
"You said "apparently," said Morgan, accepting the folder handed to him, and flipped through it, examining the report and the pictures in it.
"The autopsy reports indicate that each teen had sustained unusual cuts, burns, and bruises prior to their deaths," JJ explained, "and were also refusing to sleep, too."
"Why were they refusing to sleep?" Emily asked. "Do they all have sleeping disorders?"
"Not according to these reports," Reid said, his unusually harsh tone earning him several concern glances, which he either didn't notice or just ignored. "Apparently, they were all suffering from severe nightmares that got worse with each passing day."
Gideon frowned as he read through the reports, noting that there were information gaps. 'Almost as if someone is holding back information.'
"This is unusual," Hotch remarked, already feeling sorry for the affected families. "But, I don't see how we can help."
"The mayor, one Jeffery Edwards, is the one who invited us in," JJ explained as she clicked the remote again, and replaced the pictures with new ones. "Although the local police insist that they're just suicides, Mayor Edwards strongly believes that there's a connection to an old case from eighteen years ago."
"What happen eighteen years ago?" Gideon asked.
JJ nodded to Penelope, who quickly took over the briefing. "According to my research, from 1986 to 1988, over twenty children ranging from age three to age twelve went missing for several days until their bodies were found five miles outside of town in empty fields and near the river; all of them were brutally raped, torn open, or even badly burned."
Penelope looked away as the grainy photos appeared on the screen, having nearly thrown up earlier upon seeing them the first time.
"Oh my God," Emily gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. 'And I thought the way that Tobias Hankel killed those people was bad.' And noted that even Reid looked unease.
"Garcia, please tell me that they managed to catch the son of a bitch that did that," Morgan requested.
"Not at first," Penelope admitted, putting up reports. "Before they managed to get a suspect, they referred to the unsub as the Springwood Slasher for the first two years until, according to police reports, a suspect named Fredrick Charles Kruger was arrested in connection to the murders after a witness came forward with a report of him dragging his own wife, Loretta, into the basement after straggling her," Penelope answered as two new photos appeared on the screen.
One was of a man with thinning brown hair, gray eyes, a hawkish nose, and seemingly kind smile that didn't reach his eyes; the other picture was of a woman with medium length brown hair, brown eyes, and a smile that could cheer up just about anyone.
"The witness was Krueger's six-year-old daughter Kathryn, who called the police when she saw her dad hurting her mother," she explained, showing the picture of a young girl who had her mom's hair and warm smile, and her father's eyes. "By the time the police arrived, Krueger had killed his wife, and they found this hidden room in the basement, plus a glove with razors attached to the fingers."
Now on the screen were several pictures of a room with a blood stained table in the center, and several pictures of the items inside, including one of the gloves itself. It was made out of reddish-brown leather, had four sharp-looking razors attached to the fingertips, and could be strapped onto a man's hand with little trouble.
JJ grimaced. "Yikes."
"A sadist serial killer," Gideon said quietly. "Do the police know why he killed his wife?"
"Apparently she accidentally found his k-killing room," Penelope answered, "and confronted him about it-"
"Leaving him no choice but to kill her," Hotch said, finishing the sentence.
Penelope nodded. "They found a second killing room at the boiler plant that Krueger worked at as a janitor," she added.
Reid frowned. "Garcia, if they already arrested and put away this Krueger person, then I don't see how he can possibly be connected to these suicides."
"Krueger isn't in jail, Reid," Penelope said seriously. "On the day he was suppose to stand trail, an error was found on the search warrant, and all evidence was thrown out while the judge declared the whole thing a miss trail."
"I bet the town folk took that real well," Morgan grumbled. "So, we need to know where he might be and why he's gone off-script by goin' after teenagers."
"Um…there is more," Penelope said hesitantly. "Apparently after the trail, Krueger disappeared when the boiler plant exploded, and he may have been inside."
"What caused the explosion?" Gideon asked. "And why did they think he was inside?"
Penelope swallowed. "According to the reports, it was an arson-type fire, and Krueger was last seen driving to the plant, but no body was ever found."
"So, either he's been hidin' all this time," Morgan theorized. "Someone's tryin' to copy cat, or-"
"-or he did die in that fire, and he's seeking his revenge by targeting the teenagers of the town," Hotch concluded. "If we're dealin' with something supernatural, then we know who we'll need on this case. Garcia-"
"Already located them, sir," Penelope said, grinning. "They're in a motel just a few hours from here. And don't worry about Henriksen showing up to cause trouble this time, 'cause he'll be busy trying to get a warrant into Canada, where he believes the Winchesters to be right now."
'I'm not even going to ask,' Hotch nodded. "We leave in one hour, people; Garcia keep looking into the life of this Krueger guy. Morgan, Gideon, come with me to collect the Winchesters."
"Yes, sir."
Unaware that the BAU team was working the same case, Sam was seated at the small table and was doing research on his laptop while Dean was calling up Bobby, and Liz was looking through their dad's journal to see if he'd ever dealt with whatever it was that Sam had seen in his vision.
"Thanks, Bobby," said Dean, disappointed. "Let us know if you find anything." And clicked his phone shut. "Bobby's gonna do some research and get back to us if he finds anything. Any luck, Liz?"
"Nothin'," Liz answered, shutting the journal. "Whatever this thing is, dad never encountered it before."
"I think I got something," Sam said and his siblings joined him. "Springwood, Ohio; apparently there's been four teenage suicides in the last two weeks, and they all have nearly identical injuries." And opened a new window containing the autopsy photos.
"Yikes," Dean muttered while Liz grimaced at the sight of the long cuts. "So, the local PD are sayin' suicide?"
Sam nodded. "Yeah, but get this…all four teens were suffering from both severe nightmares and lack of sleep prior to dying, and kept insisting that he was coming for them in their dreams."
"That must be the dark figure in your vision," Liz remarked, and Sam agreed.
"So we know the where," Dean said, thinking. "Now we just need to go there, find this thing, and gank it."
Just then, there was a knock on the door to their room, making them jump; sharing a look with her brothers, Liz pulled out her gun, went to the door, and peered through the eyepiece. "Good grief."
`"Come on, guys,"` said Morgan, `"open up."`
Rolling her eyes, Liz put away her gun and opened the door, letting Morgan, Hotch, and Gideon in. "Come on in."
"Guess Penelope ratted us out," Dean joked, shaking hands with the three men. "Need help on a case?"
"Yes," Hotch confirmed and saw what was on the laptop, "and it looks like you've already started investigating."
"Had a vision," Sam told them, giving a quick summary of what'd he'd seen. "I guess we're all going to the same place."
"We are," Gideon responded, "and you three are flying with us."
"Wait…what?"
An hour later, both the BAU team and the Winchesters were on the jet, en-route to Springwood, Ohio, and both Liz and Dean were doing their best not to freak out.
"Remind me again why we can't just drive there?" Dean moaned, his face pale and was clutching a barf bag, and Liz wasn't looking any better. God, they both hated flying.
"It's quicker to fly," Hotch said simply, setting down the folder he'd been looking through. "What do we know so far?"
"We have four dead teens, whose may have been killed by a serial rapist named Fredrick Charles Krueger," Morgan said, tapping his pencil on the table, "and he might've died in a fire eighteen years ago, but no body was ever found."
"We also know that he was charged for raping and murdering children between the ages of three and twelve before killing his own wife," said Emily, "and that the cuts on the teens are identical to the cuts left on his previous victims."
"We also need to take in account the vision that Sam had," Gideon added. "He saw a nightmare that a teenage girl was having and her attacker had this glove with him." And he tapped the photo containing the item.
"She was terrified," Sam told them shivering slightly, "and if this Krueger guy can enter their dreams, then stopping him won't be easy."
JJ, who'd been manning the fax machine, frowned. "Sam, I thought your visions were strictly connected to your family, the other special children, or Azazel; so why have one about this girl?"
Sam blinked, realizing that she had a point. Why did he have that vision? "I don't know."
"I think I know why," Reid said, examining the medical records. "All four of our victims were born five weeks early within two or three hours of each other."
"Can I see those, Reid?" Liz asked, some of the color returning to her face; as he handed her the folders, one of his partly rolled sleeves shifted slightly, and she caught a glimpse of several irregular bumps near the elbow.
'Needle tracks?' Liz wondered, but pushed the thought aside, and handed both Sam and Dean a folder before opening her own. "You're right, Reid, they all were born on the same day of May," she said, eyebrows raised, "and if I've done my math right, they all would've turned six months old in November around the same time that Fredrick Krueger was released and then disappeared."
The laptop on the table beeped and Penelope appeared on the screen. `"Hey, guys, I've just learned something creepy."`
"What did you learn?" Hotch asked.
`"One of the victims, Michael Rogers,"` Penelope responded, `"had a Blog that he posted to regularly, and he posted some really creepy stuff up until the day he died."`
"Show us, Garcia," Gideon requested.
`"Yes, sir."`
Penelope disappeared and was replaced by a 18-year-old Hispanic boy, who smiled at the unseen audience.
`"Greetings to my faithful viewers!"` said Michael, waving at the screen. `"I had the strangest dream last night…"`
Everyone watched each video, where Michael gradually went from being a cheerful teen to one suffering from insomnia, lack of food, and intense fear.
`"It's getting harder and harder to stay awake,"` Michael moaned; his face was pale and sunken, his eyes were dull, and there were black circles under his eyes. `"Two of my friends are dead because of him, but my parents don't believe me, and I know…I know…that he…that Freddy Krueger is – is-"` he then slumped in his seat, falling into a deep sleep.
"Did he say-?" Emily began when Michael suddenly moaned and twitched; he raised his arms, as if to defend himself, and screamed when he was suddenly knocked out of his chair as four long and bloody gashes appeared on his arms.
No one spoke or moved as the screaming continued off-screen for several seconds until they finally stopped, and then a door was kicked opened and his parents ran in, too late to save their son.
JJ, Emily, and Liz all gulped when the video ended, all three feeling ill, and even the men were having to take deep breaths to steady themselves when Penelope reappeared.
`"Creepy, wasn't it?"`
"That's an understatement," Dean muttered.
"Garcia, see if any of the other victims posted anything similar," Hotch requested, "and I'd like you to go through the medical records of every student that are around the same age as of our victims and find out when they turned six months old."
Penelope blinked. `"Sir, are you suggesting that they may have been visited by Azazel?"`
"It's possible," Morgan confirmed. "So work us some magic, baby girl."
`"I'll get right on it,"` Penelope promised. `"Over and out."` And vanished from the screen again.
Gideon looked over at the Winchesters. "Have any of you ever heard of something that can enter a person's dream?"
"Nope."
"No, sir,"
"This is new for us, too," Liz agreed. "We know it's possible for a demon to enter a person's dream, but not like this."
"Michael also mentioned the name Freddy Krueger," Emily pointed out. "Could it be the same person?"
"It could be," Reid agreed. "Freddy could easily be short for Fredrick."
While they all pondered the new information, Sam winced as a stab of intense pain shot through his head, which meant he was about to have another vision.
"Erg!"
"Sam?"
"Sammy?"
Sam clutched his head as the pain got worse, and both Dean and Liz grabbed his arms when he almost collapsed, surprising the BAU team.
"What's wrong?"
"He's havin' a vision!"
The blonde-haired girl ran, her sneakers thumping and skidding on the ash-covered floor of the school hallway, which looked like it'd been burned in a intense fire; she almost fell when she skidded around the corner and down another hallway, breathing hard and coughing on the ashes.
`"Katie…little Katie,"` an eerie voice taunted.
Katie whimpered and continued running; she'd been in math class seconds ago, and now she was running for her life, just because she couldn't stay awake!
She yanked a door open and ran inside; she tripped on the burnt carpet and went tumbling toward the half-collapsed stage in the auditorium. Groaning, she sat up and cried when she saw him advancing toward her.
"No…stay away!"
"Not this time, Katie," the figure sneered and stepped into the pool of dusty sunlight: it was a tall man, but he was disfigured by severe burn scars; he wore a black hat on his bald head at an angle, a ragged green/red stripped sweater, black pants, and black shoes.
One of his hands was covered with burns, while the other hand had the infamous leather glove, and he drew closer to his prey, almost as if he was feeding on her fear.
"Please," Katie whimpered, pressing herself against the front of the blackened stage, trying not to gag on the smoke stench rising off of it. "Why – why are you doing this? I never did anything to you."
"True," he agreed, raising his gloved hand. "But through you, I can get closer to your parents!" and he struck!
Katie screamed as the razors tore into her flesh, and everything went white!
"Sam?!"
"Sammy?!"
Sam groaned and slumped as he was helped onto one of the couches and JJ went to get the first-aid kit. "Katie…"
"Katie? Who's Katie?" Morgan asked.
"Katie…the girl from…from my visions," Sam mumbled, sweat pouring down his face as the pain began fading. "Her – her name is Katie, and he is killin' her."
"Who is?" Hotch asked. "Krueger?"
Sam nodded wearily. "Yes, I – I saw him…" and he described everything that he'd seen. "I don't think we'll make it in time to save her, guys."
Grim expressions were exchanged all around; no one would admit it, but it was a sad truth…they couldn't save everyone.
"You rest now," Gideon instructed when JJ returned with the kit. "We'll need you at full strength for this one."
"Yes, sir."
Two hours later, the plane landed, and they all exited, carrying their gear and luggage with them; waiting for them on the ground was the mayor, Jeffery Edwards.
"Mayor Edwards," said Hotch, shaking his hand. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, thank you for asking for us."
"Call me Jeffery, or Jeff," Jeffery requested, "and thank you for coming. This is your team?"
Hotch nodded. "Yes, these are SSA Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, and Dr. Spencer Reid; Jennifer Jareau is our communication liaison; agent Emily Prentiss, and the Winchesters, Dean, Liz, and Sam."
"I'm grateful that you're here," Jeffery said, exchanging handshakes with them. "The past two weeks haven't been pleasant and there's been another death."
The team exchanged grim looks: Sam's vision had come true…again.
"Who was it?" Gideon asked.
"Katie Hudson," Jeffery responded. "She was in her math class at school when she fell asleep, and – well, it's pretty obvious what happen next."
"Yeah, we do," Morgan confirmed. "Our tech expert, Penelope Garcia, found Michael Rogers' Blog, and we saw the last video he'd made the night he'd died."
"Jeffery, we'll need a place to set up," Hotch requested, "and we'll need to see the crime scenes, including the most recent one. Also, we'll need to talk with the victims' parents, friends, and their teachers in order to better understand why these teens are being targeted."
Jeffery nodded. "Already being taken care of; Sheriff Thompson is preparing the conference room at the police station and is waiting for your team's arrival, sir."
Hotch nodded, pleased with that bit of news. "JJ, Reid, and Sam, I want you three to go to the station and start on the geographic profile; Gideon, go with Prentiss and Liz to check the older crime scenes and Katie's room; and I'll go to the school with Morgan and Dean in order to check out the current crime scene."
Everyone nodded and split up.
A/N: I haven't seen the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, but I know that they're scary, bloody, and the original freaked out my sister, Yami Faerie, big time, and she isn't the type that scares easily; so, I'm not going to be going into too much detail with how Freddy kills his victims, I'll leave that to your imagination. R&R everyone!
