Notes: I was snobby on the last chapter and didn't put any comments or hellos. So here I am...back again! Man didn't think you'd see me again. Seriously, I got very busy there for a while and just wasn't able to punch out any additions to this story. Also I wasn't pleased with how I had it arranged, and it took a lot of brainstorming and a lot of Dean Koontz books to help me come up with what you will read now. The main thing was explaining how Karen/Kate and Harry turned out years later. My first few tries, they were both crazy and depressed. Well that made me crazy and depressed. So I opted for the friendlier version. You can really see a difference in this story and in my first one. It depicts the stages of where I was at the point when writing. When I wrote Another Nightmare, I was knee-deep in depression-emo-central. Crazy for the blood and violence. And now I actually care about developing a plausable story. (I know I'm gonna get replies saying that ANOES was fine, but you weren't in my head when I wrote that). Not saying that I'm backing off on the violence or anything, but it will make more sense than just having Freddy kill off every character. My main goal for I'll See You In My Dreams: ORIGINALITY. No offense to anyone on here, because there are tons of phenominal writers, but I think one thing that Nightmare on Elm Street needs is a dosage of major suspense and mystery. Not just another stock of characters who all get hacked by Freddy. Again, I'm critizing my own story, but it's just how I think. I'm not shunning it, and I'm not saying don't read it, I'm just definately improving my writing skills with this sequel. So don't let me discourage you from reading/writing! It's all in good fun!

Riley

Chapter Three:

The Sweet and Innocent

Harry Scader found his wife talking desperately on the phone when he finally arrived. She had been so involved in her conversation that she didn't even hear him come in. He found Ellie sitting quietly on a bar stool, watching Kate from inside the kitchen with amusement. A warm smile from her seemed to make him feel relieved. She was what most parents would consider a picture-perfect child. She was quiet, sweet, and well behaved. However it surprised Harry to hear his daughter speak in a calmly manner about the man Mommy had punched.

"What are you talking about Elle?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, giving her a curious eye. Ellie was a child of few words, but when she did speak, (and the couple had only recently gotten used to hearing her talk often), it had some value. Kate's back was turned to them, and she was intently speaking with the anonymous person on the line. Ellie went on to explain the man who had come to try and scare Mommy and her. Kate was speaking with one of the editors of the man's paper. She was threatening them with lawsuits and trying to get him fired and such, Ellie had never seen her so upset.

Both Harry and the girl jumped, Kate had angrily slammed the phone into the receiver. She turned to face the pair, revealing a train-wrecked expression. Harry asked her if she was alright, while Ellie was prepared to watch Kate cry again. It had been several hours since Nick's appearance, and Kate had finally garnered enough strength to actually call the newspaper that he was working for. But they weren't the only ones Kate had to answer to, for Ellie was left with a few questions of her own.

She knew that these parents she had weren't her real ones, and where the real ones actually were was a mystery. Ellie had managed to savage most of her memories being held captive into a small black file stored somewhere in the depth of her mind, but when Nick came the file reopened. She had been patient though, she could wait to hear what Harry and Kate had to say her.

Harry entered the threshold, consulting Kate immediately. She didn't break down into his arms sobbing however, instead she calmly elaborated on what Ellie had briefly told him. Her fear had evaporated into hatred, while talking she couldn't stand still, she recklessly walked about the small kitchen cursing the reporter and his method to crack her apart.

Ellie asked the first question, "Why did he make you mad Mom? How did he know all of that stuff about you, me, and Daddy?"

Harry replied, "He was studying us. Following us and taking notes, as though we were his scientific experiment."

"But why?" She stressed.

Kate shuddered, shaking her head while speaking, "Ellie please go in the other room, I have to talk to Harry in private."

"But…"

"Only for a few minutes honey. Then we can all discuss this problem alright?" Kate told her, leaning against the counter to hold her strength up. Ellie stared at the couple momentarily, catching Harry's eye. He seemed as confused and stressed as they were, but he couldn't show it. It was his job as the husband/father to retain structure. He just asked Ellie to do as Kate had asked. She nodded and exited into the living room.

When she fully departed, Harry pulled Kate's elbow and walked her to the opposite end of the kitchen. He muttered softly, "I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume this guy had info on Krueger. What did he say Kate?"

She waited to respond. Hearing him call her by her fake name sounded so odd at times that even she would forget that Karen Morgan no longer existed. But she had asked him to request this for her, before they ever married. When Kate was released from the hospital, Harry had been there to help regain a safe lifestyle, and it began with the name change. Standing here though, discussing about the cause of both of their sanities, Kate felt like the same terrified teenager she was when she met Freddy.

"Something…something about a copycat." She whispered. This perplexed Harry almost instantly. He wasn't sure what he was really expecting to hear but that certainly wasn't it. Harry mouthed the word copycat as though he had a garlic taste in his mouth, and Kate simply nodded.

"How do you copy a guy who kills you in your sleep?"

"That's what I thought too. But the fact is anyone from Springwood would automatically assume that it was Freddy. Whether he was alive or not. Someone must have made their own razor-glove." She sighed.

"Because he had nothing better to do with his time?"

"I don't know Harry, I threw McAlister out before he explained all of it. But I…I really don't want to be involved. I thought we were happy. We're nowhere near Springwood, haven't been there in almost ten years! But that…" The tears were filtering her eyes, and her voice quaked in anger, "That bastard…came and just blew everything we've built up in our faces. And bringing Ellie into it too!"

He shushed her, rubbing her shoulders calmly and eventually stroking her pale cheeks. No matter how distressed Kate looked, Harry could see her beauty shine right through. At this point he had to overlook it. Sighing he said, "You're right Kate, we're not going anywhere near Springwood and so we shouldn't have to even concern ourselves about it at all. No one's going to bother us. Freddy is dead, and as long as we're aware of that, than he or any copycat won't bother to come looking for us."

Her eyes lit up momentarily, she asked in a hushed tone, "What-what about Danny? I-I didn't even think to call him! He's all alone at that boarding school…" She began to pull away and run towards the phone, but Harry held her back and said dryly, "I guess now would be the time to mention that I got a call from the school at work today."

"What?"

"Yeah I guess my name was just next on the list, I assured them that I would let you know immediately."

Kate understood what he was going to say without even asking, she simply said, "They don't know where he is this time?"

"Nope. But I'm sure he'll turn up, he always has."

"It's very convenient for him to run off at a time like that." Kate thought aloud, "Maybe…maybe he heard about the copycat. Maybe he was attacked already!"

Terror faltered in her face, Harry was on the verge of slapping her. Never in their marriage had he seen her so hysterical. But he knew exactly how she thought, he was like her in that way too. They were both survivors. Of course the most agonizing thoughts would come up. Harry still cautiously took the prescribed drugs he had been assigned to years before, even though the doctors sought him out as a cured man.

He finally grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her once, "Kate! Stop acting this way. You've overcome this much and now because of one stupid ass reporter, you're gonna let it all fall back into the shitter again? I can't let you do that. Not now. Times are different. We have responsibilities. We have Ellie. If anything, you should at least consider her. Please don't do this now."

Harry had never begged anything from her, in fact he respected her recovery in returning to the world as a full and complete woman. When she decided to abandon the past by changing her name, he agreed with it. And now he could depict her easily, the woman he loved had grown into this woman standing before him, Kate Royce. The woman she left behind in the asylums and hospitals was Karen Morgan. Harry couldn't stand to see Karen emerge from her again. She saw the pain in his eyes, and fell limp. She stopped blubbering about Danny, and finally matured in her face.

They had Ellie.

They couldn't play scared little kids anymore.

They had to be brave for Ellie.

Later that Night…

Despite earlier events, the evening had dwelled into the calmer evenings that Ellie and her parents were accustomed too. Harry had phoned a friend of his who was working his way through law school to ask a few questions, and Kate had refused to let the girl out of her sight. That night while tucking her in bed, Kate sat beside her and stared curiously at the small girl. She had cautious eyes and baby cheeks, but Kate knew that her experiences left her isolated and lonely. She had done all she could for Ellie, but still she seemed to never fully grasp what wall had blockaded her memories.

Stroking her hair, Kate asked, "You gonna sleep tonight, kiddo?"

"I'll try. It's hard sometimes though," The girl replied in her quiet tone, Kate asked, "Why's that Elle?"

She took a moment to choose the right words before fully answering, "I wake up scared. Like someone's after me. But I never have dreams."

"Never?"

She shook her head, "No. I can't ever remember them. But they scare me. That's for sure."

Kate shook her head, not wanting to revisit the topic she and Harry had argued earlier, "No one's after you. You know that Harry and I would do everything we could to keep you safe, right?"

A small smile cracked in the girl's almost doll-like face, "I know."

"Good." Kate smiled back. She kissed Ellie on the forehead and wished her a goodnight. Kate reached for the bedside lamp and turned it off. She told her daughter that the hall light would be on and that she and Harry were only ten steps away. Ellie knew all of this already, but she obliged Kate to explain it once more. Leaving a crevasse in the door, Kate saw the girl turn on her side and easily drift off into a slow slumber.

She wandered downstairs to find her husband limp from the kitchen to the living area. Harry's nerve system had undergone series of torment, he still had nasty scars from the four sharp blades of Freddy's glove. It was the first time that Kate had seen him limp this badly. Her own scars from Freddy's attacks didn't compare to Harry's. He had gone through so much before she ever joined the brigade, he was much like a soldier dying slowing in a battlefield.

She helped him ease onto the sofa. Sitting next to him, he placed an arm around her and held her briefly. Silence consumed them, however everything they had to say was being expressed mentally. Breaking the tension, Kate announced Ellie's psychiatric check-up in the morning.

"What do you plan to do with her?"

Kate was quiet, but softly said, "I'd like to see what her dream patterns are like. And she's blocked so much out of her head I think it's coming back through the form of…nightmares."

Harry stared at her with his glazed blue eyes. They knew what the other was thinking to a par. But the unresponsive communication was enough to stir uncomfortably in their stomachs. He asked, "Should we say anything…you know about Freddy?"

Kate hated hearing that name, she cringed at the thought, "No. Absolutely not. We don't have to put her against our own problems. We'll just wait and see what happens tomorrow."

"Right."

More silence.

"I can't believe I'm actually tired." Kate admitted after a minute. Harry briefly smiled at her, "There's some Hypnocil in the bathroom. If you're interested."

She sighed, half amused, "I think you've become addicted to those things. That's not healthy."

"Better than a lot of things Kate."

"I'll say."

She left him to watch the evening news, while re-entering the kitchen to turn off the lights for the evening. The dishes from a mildly eaten dinner sat in the sink. She reached for the faucet and the first plate, swishing water back and forth to rid of the junk. She was unsure why she looked up, her mind wasn't distracted with many thoughts, she was trying to keep a tedious task under her belt, but she looked up anyway.

A face was staring at her through the kitchen window.

Kate's heart paused for too long, the clatter of ceramic plates erupted in the room. She saw the face staring desperately at her. Blood on his cheeks, damped in sweat, a mere shadow in the moonless night, it was enough to send a thousand chills up and down her spine. She waited for him to break the glass and grab her.

He stared.

The first thought that ran through her mind was Nick McAlister. His snide comments fabricated her brain, taunting her repeatedly…You must have had some really good doctors Kate…She argued, I'm not crazy. But Nick's overbearing voice killed her inner thoughts…You must have had some really good doctors…

"KAREN!" The face screamed.

Kate screamed back.