Chapter One – Dance of Blood
Nightmare.
A terrifying dream. A bad experience, condition or thought…
Those are the most common definitions of the word. Helyse knew them and later, learnt more hidden meanings of it, obscure concepts that she didn't believe that could be clearly defined by any word in any language and so, only flowed among the letters of that particular term: Nightmare.
The day that could be considered the starting point of happenings that would lead her to think like this started like any other. There were no feelings of premonition, no sensation of uneasiness, no strange dream or any other thing apparently insignificant that, after it was too late, would hover on her mind and gain a new meaning.
The school bell had rang, cutting abruptly Mrs. Haursdatten's words and announcing the end of the morning's classes period, soon its shrilling sound was joined by the one of students putting their things in the backpacks, talking and laughing, forming one sound, of the most universal ones, that seemed to be the same in almost any other school. And the "End of Classes' Time Happiness" is always bigger in Friday. There are plans for the weekend, parties, going to the movies and similar things…
Only two people seemed oblivious to the liveliness of their classmates. One was a boy who, somehow, had managed to stay asleep even with all the noise around and was being shaken, awakened by his friends of a deep and agitated sleep. The other was Helyse Blake, busy in putting her things in her backpack and, to put it in simple terms, to get out.
She did notice that, when the boy awoke, he and his friends immediately started a whispered conversation to which she paid no mind and the group, equally, didn't seem to mind her.
"But it is a bit strange…" She reflected flippantly as she quickly put a book in her backpack. "Locker never slept in class before, now he does that almost every day…".
That thought was of the nature of the light thoughts with no defined form that the mind produces more for being unable to stop thinking than for having any importance. The fact didn't make any difference to Helyse, who wasn't friends with the young man, but it was hard to not notice this when it was the person who sat at your side for hours. Even more when said person even slept during Mrs. Haursdatten's class… It was easier flying to Mars on a hot air balloon than her allowing such thing on her class…
The girl walked through the hallway, hoping to not miss her bus to go home. There was nothing else in her mind and she had no way to know that by the end of the day, she would be buried even deeper in the darkness, her body naturally fighting for its pathetical existence.
Passing by a poster that warned, in big black letters, to everyone to remember the curfew by 19:00 (by order of the Police Department of Springwood), Helyse reflected that maybe no one should be surprised with the boy's behavior… Not when taking in account that in the last week one of his friends had been killed. There were no clues about the murderer… And this hadn't been an isolate case either, but the last in a series of homicides which only connection was the gruesome way the victims had died and the absolute lack of clues. Maybe this was the only thing about it that deserved so much attention… However, some people seemed to think that the young (especially theirs) were, somehow, protected and untouchable to such happenings. Why, my son? My daughter? Killed? Oh, impossible!
As if all people in the world had not the same fate. Even now, that group laughing over there as they put books in the cupboards? They could have some hidden disease in their genes, waiting to bloom as a dark flower or some worm nesting in their bodies… In a way or another, babies or elders, it made no difference.
Helyse sighed to herself… Some days were like that, but it didn't make it any less tiring.
Nevertheless, the lack of clues in the murders didn't imply also a lack of rumors. Those were in abundance, going from clues and details of the death scenes to even the possible identity of the murderer, to the teacher's consternation, who tried their best to relieve the atmosphere with warning and reassuring words (which were completely useless, in Helyse's mind).
Mr. Collins, who taught Biology, for example, had been one of those who had given more of those little "speeches" and had directly said that everyone in town just wanted those murders to stop and the killer to be caught. Later, the girl would think about those words and reflect how the emphasis had been on the wish for the murders to stop and be forgotten.
Such was Springwood's nature and she would find out.
The killings soon went to the lower levels of her mind, the high ones occupied with planning what to do for lunch and test next week (even though those thoughts were also vague, shapeless).
As she went out the building (blinking a bit under the light), she passed by groups of people, students talking, others waiting for rides of their friends or parents. No one called her or threw an "end of classes-common" phrase like "See you later, Helyse" or "Have a good weekend".
The bus was coming close to the corner of the street and she hurried her steps, not wanting to miss it and have to walk home or sit waiting in the bus stop for the next one.
It was close, but she managed to get in.
It was the critical point of the day. Later, the "what if", that haunts people's mind, would make her think how different things could have been… What would have happened, had she never done that…
Sitting by the window, Helyse got comfortable and closed her eyes as she felt the sun on her skin, her thoughts not fixing on anything in particular, so her mind went back to the murders…
Everyone in town was tense with the case of, by now, seven teenagers found dead… In one of them (which she had seen on the news in the snack bar she worked), a reporter had revealed that it seemed that the police had no idea of even of how the killer had entered the victim's room, who had been found by the computer's desk. The window had been closed from inside, as the door and the parents had been downstairs the whole time and related (crying) that they hadn't heard a sound.
Even this wasn't the only (or most) weird aspect of the cases, there was also the way the bodies had been found. In another case, apparently, the person had been found completely mutilated… The curfew had been ordered after the third body and the count could be even more than that. The case of Sarah King (or Kingsley?), for example, had been considered a suicide for a long time (thought the victim's parents protested) until the coroner proved it wrong.
Considering the bizarre nature of all this, was it remotely strange that there were so many rumors around?
Why, even yesterday, Mr. Collins had overheard some students whispering in his class about it, which had infuriated him enough to spend several minutes (the rest of the class, actually) giving a lecture about the subject. He had talked how this behavior didn't help in anything and they could (and should) think about the feelings of those who had lost friends of family members, how this could happen to anyone, they were not taking it seriously, so on and so forward… At the end, the teacher had compared people who liked to joke and talk trifling about it with vultures, living as if they couldn't be hurt in such way, being above such happenings.
As she heard all that, Helyse could only wonder how Mr. Collins could think such words would make the rumors or gossiping people stop. It was true that Jake Norton, for example, had looked quite ashamed… But not enough to stop whispering to others how he had heard that one of the corpses had been found with the organs all rotten as if it had been dead for months, though rest of the body was still fresh.
Collin's lecture had been… Well, right, but useless, even more if taking in account that…
The bus rocked suddenly.
Helyse's body was thrown forward.
An abruptly turn shoved her to the side before she could realize what was happening. Stars danced on her eyes when her head hit something hard. For a moment, all she knew was a bright ray of agony ripping her head and mind.
"What is going on? What happened?" The voice of a woman yelled, cutting air alongside with the pain. Helyse tried to look around, but now she on the floor somehow. There was crying of the wheels turning and of the people, things crashing against each other, breaking and crushing, all happening at the same time in a carnival-like hell of senses.
A woman (the same one who had yelled?) was thrown forward and hit her head, falling as a man cried something without words. Something fell and rolled in the floor with a sound of stones and bones.
In all that movement of bodies and sounds, Helyse could barely move before the bus turned again, her body hitting, shaking and shoving around as a doll until she no longer knew what was an arm or a leg.
Something passed by her, but the only thing she noticed was a red color that left a humid, metallic smell…
Something sharp and hard…
Were people still screaming? The sounds seemed to drown in each other and become distant…
Her body rolled and several points of pain pierced her flesh.
Crying, someone was crying…
Her bones cried inside her body, her mouth tasted only blood…
Trying to breath, she realized there was glass in the floor…
"Where? How?".
Everything was gray and red…
Was she lying down or…?
She started to realize (in an absent way) that everything had stopped… How long ago, she didn't know… Slowly, she tried to put things in an order that make sense, but barely could keep her thoughts fixated…
A baby was crying…
It hurt to keep her eyes open… Blood… Blood washing everything… A bright light… Broken windows ("Oh, the glass… Right…")… Parts of the bus seemed dented… A baby was crying… She thought she could see, by the corner of her eye, someone lying down but she couldn't be sure… Her body didn't feel anything but pain…
The rest got lost in a mist…
As in a dream, the girl tried to move, but only one try of moving a muscle created a roar of a renewed pain and she gave up…
In the distance, she thought she could hear a sound… Loud and low, loud and low… Yelling? No… Alike, but it wasn't… What was it called, again?
She didn't know, nor cared (god, it hurt… It hurt) and there was another sound, closer and clear… It was clearer than even the crying, which was becoming irregular…
"One, Two, Freddy is coming for you"
Colors were dissipating from the world, along with the sounds…
If only the pain did the same… Please…
All was grey… The only thing closer to clarity was those voices, drowning other sounds that she could no longer comprehend…
Voices of…
"Three, Four, Better lock your door"
Two… Or three girls singing… Infantile voices that should be innocent, but sounded as crows singing with human voices… Helyse felt a shiver that did not come from pain… She had never heard that before, but…
But…
"Five, Six, Grab your crucifix"
Sharp voices, poisoned gentleness… She barely could feel, her own existence reduced to a haze inside her body… All she had were impressions, like the one of something running down her face…
In some point inside herself, where it was still possible to exist, something squeezed, as if pulling…
Or was it slipping?
"Seven, Eight, Gonna stay up late"
Cold got closer from inside, as something else that came from where those voiced echoed… The girl wanted to open her eyes, those voices echoed in her very spine and there was a sensation she did not like…
But she was no longer in control…
Her body remained lying down as a forgotten toy, a cage of flesh and blood…
And darkness won.
"Nine, Ten, Never sleep again".
When the rescuers came, although they came less than a minute after that melody began, it was already too late.
Helyse Blake was in coma.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, you all know this.
Any suggestions and criticism are welcome! And as English is not my first language, if I made a mistake, please let me know.
Ana: Hi there, guys.
Freddy Krueger: Damn, I was hoping you had died or something.
Ana: So kind…
Helyse: And after the long wait, this is what you offer to your readers? That is if you still have them…
Ana: I really thought about posting all the chapters I rewrote and the new ones, but… First, I post my fics in two languages, so I have to write and translate, which can take some time. Second, I thought that if I waited to translate all of them before posting, it would take even longer.
Freddy: So?
Ana: So, I'll be posting the rewritten chapters a lot faster, but not all at once. And yes, there are new chapters that are already finished, so I hope I won't take long.
Helyse: Well, I can still hope that you'll have a fatal asthma attack or get ran over on the streets.
Ana: You haven't change a bit… Oh, well. Again, my apologizes for the wait. All I can say is, for those who still want to read this thing, thank you so much. I truly appreciate this!
Freddy: You couldn't have sounded more pathetical if you tried.
Ana: Hey, I have one idea, how about you try to stop being such a pain?