The Thirteenth Nightmare

Written by Efrain Hernandez

Based on the characters and story by Wes Craven

By the time Charles had finally kicked down the bathroom door in the two story white house that was farthest from campus, he caught the last glimpse of Sonia's convulsing body twist and break in the most impossible angles. Charles knew she had been fighting back long and hard but her manipulator, who was inhumanly stronger, did not let her go. She trashed wildly in the bathtub water with her head plunging backwards into the foamy soap. She saw Charles lunge for her in the corner of her eyes and then outstretched her hand towards him. Charles dove his arms into the water and embraced her. Sonia watched her savior pull her upwards and away from the bathroom. In her mind she knew he was good. Then Sonia screamed as a slit in her neck opened up. First, the folds of her skin opened up like lips, then the trachea collapsed and then finally the esophagus was slowly cut open like tendered meat. With every breath she was pushing out a pool of blood from her neck. Sonia was bled dry and Charles watched it all happen.

She wasn't asleep, Charles whispered in the absence of sleep. He had repeated those words to himself every night since and with thought followed the question of her death.

How?

Charles returned to the two story white house nearly three months later. He slowed his motorcycle to a stop in front of the residence but never took off his helmet. The house was still and seemingly empty. He wondered if any of Sonia's sisters were left after the incident. After looking at the silver sedan in the driveway, Charles parked his bike and walked towards the front door. The symbols over the front door chilled him. He read them aloud in his head as a memento and then pushed the memory back out. Kappa Delta Chi. The sorority meant everything Sonia. Thoughts soon filled him with the night he lost Sonia and the progressive hell he went through afterwards.

Charles knocked on the front door and waited. A small woman answered the door and frightfully scurried behind it at the first glimpse of the stranger wearing the helmet. Charles slid the helmet off and smiled.

"Charlie!" The woman immediately allowed him in and locked the door behind them.

She gave him a warm hug and offered him a glass of water. "How are you?"

Charles nodded. "Fine Mrs. Douglass, and yourself?"

Mrs. Douglass gave Charles a forced smile and shrugged. "Living. What brings you back here Charlie? I know it must be painful to look back."

"Are the girls home? I'd like to speak with them, mainly the seniors."

Mrs. Douglass sat down on the living room sofa with Charles on her opposite. She looked directly at him and quivered. Her eyes glistened with a dormant pain. She watched Charles for a few moments more until she understood that he did not know.

"I'm sorry Charles but the girls…they're not with us."

Charles was unmoved, only convinced.

"I'm sorry to hear that Mrs. Douglass," Charles began "when did this happen?"

"Rosie died a few weeks after Sonia's death, then Tania, Abby and then Lori just this past weekend." Mrs. Douglass struggled to push the last few words out of her mouth but after a momentary pause she continued her conversation. "The juniors have already left to their homes. No one's here."

Charles nodded and sipped from his glass. There was no one he could warn next and with the authorities keeping all eyes on him, he'd have to plan his moves carefully.

"Mrs. Douglass, I need to speak with the girls. Could you let them know that I'm looking for them?"

Mrs. Douglass nodded. "Of course. Is everything alright?"

Charles gave her a thumbs up. "Everything's fine."


The twelve inch blade sunk into the side of the meat that was hanging from the ceiling of one of the meat shop's freezers. Charles twisted the handle and then yanked the blade back out. Not a drop of blood leaked out. He eyed the frozen meat from top to bottom and quickly pushed the blade back into it.

"What the hell are we doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working?" Charles's quivering friend stammered in the cold of the freezer. He tightly embraced his chest with both arms.

Charles stepped away from the meat and wiped the blade on his apron. He dropped the knife onto a tray of other blades and tools and sat down on a stool. Charles seemed to have no effect from the freezer's plummeting temperatures.

"Mac, am I a reasonable man?" Charles asked.

"What?" Mac had trouble pronouncing the 'w'.

"Would you think twice if I did something crazy…unusual maybe." Charles stared at his friend and waited for an answer.

"Um, no? What? Why are we talking about this here?" Mac pushed his glasses back on his nose.

Charles got back up and motioned his hand for Mac to follow. He led his friend to the far end of the freezer where tall cabinets lined the wall. Charles reached into one of the cabinets and pulled something out that was wrapped in brown paper. Mac prayed that it wasn't a body part. When Charles had finished unfolding it he raised the content into the air and admired its frosted surface.

"It's a gauntlet." Mac declared dully.

"One of a kind too. I made it myself." Charles slid the armored glove over his right hand and felt the pressure of the armor weigh squeeze his fingers. It was heavy in nature but fluid in its movements. Charles loved how effortlessly it moved with his hands. He handed Mac a large butcher's knife from within the cabinet and smiled.

"Charlie?"

Charles was already several yards from Mac. He steadied his legs and waved Mac forward.

Mac opened his mouth in question.

"I'll explain everything later, Mac. I want you to first come at me as fast as you can with that knife and stab me."

"God! hell no. No way Charlie." Mac put the knife back into the cabinet. "I thought you were over your cutting days."

"Mac, pick up the knife."

"I will not! I've been through three months of hell trying to piece you back together and I refuse to be a part of your death wish."

Charles smiled and relaxed his stance. His prediction of Mac's reaction came true. Charles walked up to Mac and held onto his arms.

"Do I look like I have a death wish?"

Mac thought for a moment.

"Tell you what," Charles took out the knife and placed it back in Mac's hands, "I'll explain this to you only if you promise to knife me."

Mac looked at the knife for a moment and sighed. "You lost it."

Charles stood back in his steady stance, letting his arms hang, and nodded at his friend. Mac, too uncomfortable to put his full effort into the run but too exhilarated too stop, raised the knife and grunted.

Charles grabbed the knife with the gauntlet and crumbled it like tin. Mac dropped the ruined blade and stared at the gauntlet, speechless.

"Charles, explain…pronto."

Charles made a fist with the gauntlet and relished the success of the experiment. He imagined using it and he imagined enjoying it every second of it.

"Sonia was murdered," Charles said while looking at the gauntlet's intricate details, "so was her sisters."

"They're dead too?" Mac exclaimed.

Charles nodded. "I've been having dreams about their deaths…and so far they've been right."

"Charlie, you're losing me."

"Sonia's best friend, Rosie, died in her sleep and soon after more sisters began dropping like flies." Charles flexed his fingers in and out before looking straight into Mac's eyes. "I saw how they died."

"Charles, we've talked about this. This doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't now, but it will. I had another dream last night and it had one of the Junior sisters being killed. I didn't even get a chance to talk with anyone else."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"This gauntlet is made with a synthetic alloy, one of the strongest there is, and I've designed it to kill the thing that murdered Sonia and the girls."

"So you're a part-time meat packer, welder turned vigilante." Mac rubbed the back of his head. "Charlie, I think you need more time to think about this-"

"It's not finished yet. I haven't added the final…details to it." Charles placed the gauntlet back into the cabinet. "When I finish training and preparing to kill the bastard," he turned back to Mac, "then I'll stop to think."

Mac felt pity in the back of his heart. "He doesn't exist, Charlie."

Charles leaned against the cabinets and crossed his arms. "The devil exists Mac and his name's Fred Krueger."

Mac saw the blaze of vengeance in his friend and said no more.


The bottle of beer was full of air now and not a drop of alcohol was left. Susana sat the bottle next to her and gulped the last bit of the beer down her throat. She wiped the mess she had made on her chin with the tip of her sleeve and smiled as the party was filled with an uproar of drunken college kids. Her friends had handed her high fives and all eyes, especially from the boys, were on her that night. She had just won a chugging contest against the rising Junior of her brother fraternity.

"Go cowgirl! Go cowgirl!"

Susana leaned back on the couch and smiled. Being the only one from Texas had it's perks along with the typical stereotype.

"Susana!"

She heard her big, a sister mentor, cry out over the volume of music and chatter. When she looked up Susana's vision fuzzed in and out of focus as Lisa stormed into the living room. Susana stood up shakily and squinted.

"Lisa, that you? Hey sis! Want a drink?"

Lisa shook her head frantically and pulled her in. Susanna's smiled quickly faded.

"Susie, we've got to go. Something terrible happened to Rebecca last night."

Susanna rubbed her eyes and furrowed her eyes. "What? What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

Lisa watched as Susanna wobbled around. "Susanna, are you drunk? Susanna?"

Susanna wanted to protest but instead found herself facing the floor. She quickly got up and steadied herself.

"I'm so sorry about that Lis', I promise to you I'm not though." Susanna looked around for Lisa but couldn't find her. In fact, she couldn't find anyone. The entire living room was empty. The music had stopped and the speakers were now playing static. The red cups that held beer and liquor were now tipped over all on top of the floors. Their contents spilled into a pool of mixed drinks. Susanna wandered around the living room and kitchen, calling out names she'd hoped would answer back. To her grief no was else was with her.

She called out her big's name one more time. "Lisa!"

She then heard a faint coughing noise. Susanna followed the sound to the back yard where the fraternity had their swimming pool. Her heart stopped when she saw a trail of blood lead from inside of the house to the group of people hunching over the sides of the swimming pool.

"Lisa?" Susanna's voice was frail.

Lisa was among the others who lined the sides. They were kneeling on the ground with their heads close to the water. One by one they took turns vomiting bronze and clear liquids into the pool which soon turned into a nasty shade of gold.

Susanna clapped her hands over her nose and mouth. Everything smelled of hot vomit and alcohol. Her eyes widened when she saw Lisa take her turn. None of them bothered to look up at Susanna.

"What are you doing?" She stammered.

Suddenly, the people stopped what they were doing and turned to face Susanna. Susanna shook her head in protest and turned to run back into the house. She had moved two feet when a high pitched and ear splitting screech came from within the house. She heard metal move and then light tapping. Susanna stepped backwards and when she saw what was making the noises emerge from the door, she broke into a full run. Susanna's weight then collapsed onto the hard cement as Lisa grabbed a hold of her ankles. Susanna then screamed and kicked her way from the horde of outstretched hands. She pushed herself up on her feet and ran again.

Susanna forced every muscle in her body to move away from the pool but a sting surrounding her neck caused her to plummet back on to her face. The sting intensified and in a swift move she was pulled backwards, dragging her face against the ground along the way. Susanna picked at the sting around her neck with her fingers and had gotten some of the slack loose but only for a second. Time stopped for her and the second long breath was all she had to take before she felt warm liquid envelop her entire body.

Susanna swam to the surface of the pool and pulled away what felt like a rope around her neck. She gasped for air and tried to reach for the pool's ledge. The people surrounding the pool were now diving into the pool along with her. They used their numbers to tug and push her around in the pool. The rope lying at the bottom of the pool was reeled up by the noisemaker in the house. Susanna recognized the face of the man who stood on the ground above her. He twisted the rope around his arm and grinned.

CAN YOU SWIM COWGIRL? The man's chuckled echoed into the depths of her ears.

Susanna was mute. She could only feel the fingers and hands wrap around her arms and waist. Her horror was fixed on the man's face.

WHAT'S WRONG? CAN'T SCREAM? HOW 'BOUT I HELP YOU WET THAT WHISTLE OF YOURS.

Then she went down. Susana could scream now but felt the air bubble out of her mouth instead. The pool water filled her lungs instead. She fought but the others pushed her down further. She breathed and swallowed gulps of alcohol and vomit. The acid burned her skin and the system of organs inside of her. The air escaped her and the new weight finally took hold of her as she screamed her way to the bottom of the pool.

The man standing over the pool grinned menacingly.

AWW. I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO FISH HER OUT THEN.

Susanna drifted in and out of two worlds. She felt the hotness of the sick mixture smother her body but soon felt the relief of being back in the air conditioned living room. Dozens of hushed eyes were now staring down at her. Lisa was mouthing something but the thundering pressure of the pool water in the other world was drowning that sound out. Susanna blinked twice and she was back in the pool, watching in terror as the bodies above her swam downwards.

Susanna felt a painful pressure on her chest and the pool vanished. The same Junior whom she had competed against was giving her CPR. He pressed down onto her chest and she heaved. He ordered everyone to step away as he held onto the top and bottom halves of her mouth. Lisa cupped her mouth and prayed as Susanna rolled her eyes back.

"I'm going to do it again! Somebody called the ambulance!" The Junior shouted over the minors who were holding beer bottles and beverages. He pressed down on Susanna's chest and took a deep breath, ignoring the stench coming from her mouth. The Junior breathed in all that he could until he finally collapsed backwards with a bloody mouth. The living room was ablaze with screams and panic. Blood rushed out from two holes at the bottom of Susanna's jaw and the inside of her mouth. She held onto her open mouth with her hands like a fish stuck on a hook and screamed. In the other world the grinning man laughed hysterically as he held Susanna's body over the pool with two long blades that hooked through her jaw and out of her mouth.