Chapter Four

The Doctor's eyes snapped open when he suddenly came awake. He looked around and groaned when he noticed he was in his bedroom and the chair beside him was empty.

"Lovely," he muttered as he sat up in bed. "I give Rose one simple instruction, to watch over me while I sleep and she goes off and does something else. Yeah, I knew I could count on you, Rose."

The Doctor frowned when he looked out the window and noticed it was dark outside. It had been nearly noon when he first lay down. Had Rose decided after a bit to just let him sleep when nothing happened to him and went off to do something else? He felt his anger drain away when he figured Rose had been her usual caring self and let him rest in peace when she realized he was safe. Perhaps she even went to talk to Janette to find out if she knew anything about Fred Krueger. Thinking of that made him want to find Rose and see if she had found out anything more about him. He hopped up from the bed, quickly put on his tie and jacket, opened the bedroom door…and froze.

Instead of seeing the hallway outside his bedroom, the door opened onto the outside and he could see the street. Frowning, he stepped through onto a cracked pavement. The moment he was through the door, he heard it slam behind him and he turned to see that the door had completely disappeared leaving only rows of houses behind him. The houses seemed to be all identical. All two story with white siding, black shutters, a stone porch and a black roof. The Doctor glanced around.

"Something tells me I didn't wake up yet," he murmured to himself.

He froze when he heard a song drifting through the air. He concentrated on it and heard a small child's voice singing to him.

"One…two…Freddy's coming for you, three…four…better lock your door…five…six…grab your crucifix…seven…eight…better stay up late…nine…ten…never sleep again."

"Charming," the Doctor muttered to himself. "I'm in the land of doom being menaced by creepy nursery rhymes. Okay, Freddy, show yourself!" he yelled out. "I'm here so let's see if you're real."

He heard a loud squeak and jerked his head to his left. At the end of the street, he saw a young girl of three or four sitting on a large red tricycle. The girl was Caucasian with long blonde hair in curly ringlets. She was wearing a yellow dress, white socks and white saddle shoes. She stared at him quietly as he small hands gripped the handlebars. While the Doctor watched, the little girl peddled her tricycle in a semi-circle and with a series of tiny squeaks, turned and went back down the other street.

"Okay, I'll play your game, Freddy," the Doctor said, putting his hands in his pockets.

He walked down to the corner and looked to his right, trying to find the little girl. He raised his eyebrow when he didn't see her.

"Okay, time to play find the odd, creepy child," he muttered.

As he began walking, he glanced up at the street sign and noticed he was on Elm Street. He glanced at the houses to his right but there was no sign of the little girl. Every single house looked exactly the same and he snorted.

"Welcome to the suburbia from Hell," he muttered to himself.

He heard the squeak again, coming from his left and jerked his head towards the sound. He saw the little girl sitting on the porch of a house but unlike all the other houses he had seen, this one was dilapidated with all the windows boarded up. The other doors he had seen had been white but this house had a bright red door. The little girl sat on her tricycle in front of the door staring at him quietly. While he watched, she began to peddle and the door mysteriously opened by itself. With a series of small squeaks, the little girl peddled through the door and it closed behind her.

"Let me guess, I'm supposed to go in there after her," the Doctor said sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes when he heard the nursery rhyme wafting in on the night breeze towards him.

"Right, time to get to the bottom of this," he muttered as he climbed the steps towards the porch.

The Doctor leapt up onto the porch and strode confidently towards the front door. He was about to put his hand on the doorknob when it suddenly opened by itself. The Doctor let out an angry sigh when he heard a deep, sinister voice laughing faintly from within.

"Yeah, I'm not scared, just so you know," he yelled out before going inside.

The moment he stepped inside, the door slammed behind him.

"Gee, how did I know that was gonna happen?" he said dryly.

The inside was just as dilapidated as the outside. There were holes in the wall and the carpeting on the stairs beside him was worn and filled with holes. There was dust everywhere and with each step, he kicked up more and more until dust particles were floating on the air in front of him.

"Knowing my luck, I'd get eaten by the Vashta Nerada before Freddy got me," he muttered to himself as he walked through the dust filled room.

He slowly made his way through the house. Each room was just as run down as the others. The furniture that he saw was just as broken and worn as everything else.

"I s'pose when you're dead and killing people in their dreams, you don't have much time for upkeep," the Doctor muttered to himself as he looked around.

As he passed by a door to his right, he heard the squeak coming from inside it. He stopped and looked at it. The door was painted white but the paint was cracked and falling off the door, revealing the wood underneath. The Doctor rolled his eyes when he heard the squeak again. Then he heard a loud click and the door unlocked and opened on its own. The Doctor stepped back slightly and noticed firelight on the wall just beyond the doorway. He heard the soft clinking of chains and anguished screaming. Determination flooded his being as he stepped onto a grate that resembled the ones in his console room. A series of metal stairs led down from the grate to the concrete floor of the basement. He could hear the sound of a furnace and more clanking and screams. Keeping his wits about him, he slowly descended into the basement. The smell of burning flesh assaulted his nostrils and the clanking of chains became louder. Off in the distance he heard the sinister laughter he heard earlier followed by a screeching sound that was reminiscent of a nail going across a chalkboard.

"Freddy? Are you here? Show yourself!" he yelled when he stepped onto the concrete floor of the basement.

He heard the sinister laughter again and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're really scary, now come out and show yourself! I wanna meet you face to face!" the Doctor yelled.

There was a moment of silence during which the Doctor only heard the clanking of chains and the distant screams. In front of him several chains hung down from the wall and swung back and forth under their own power. The Doctor's keen eyes scanned the room trying to find Freddy in the dimly lit basement.

"You're different from the others," he finally heard Freddy say, his voice coming from everywhere around him.

The Doctor snorted.

"Why is that? Because I'm not some frightened child for you to torture and molest and kill?" he yelled as he continued to search for him.

"No, you're not…human."

"Bravo, spot on, I'm not. Now step out here and show yourself!"

He heard the screeching sound again and suddenly felt uncomfortable, the same sort of uncomfortable sensation he felt when he realized that Rose had made Jack immortal. The feeling that he was dealing with an aberration, something that should not exist, and he had to plant his feet and will himself not to run to get away from it. At the same time, he felt Freddy starting to search through his mind and he quickly put up mental blocks to prevent him from digging deep into his subconscious. But although he had managed to block Freddy's intrusion, he knew that he had gotten a look at his surface memories because he heard him let out a chuckle.

"Time Lord," Freddy's voice echoed around him. "From outer space. Knew there was somethin' different about ya. I can sense the minds of all the residents of Springwood once they go to sleep and the moment I sensed your mind, I knew you were somethin' special. You may be just what I've been lookin' for."

The Doctor snorted at that. He put up more blocks when he felt Freddy trying to probe deeper into his mind.

"Oooo, you have a girlfriend," he said gleefully.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed when he suddenly heard Rose screaming his name somewhere in the distance.

"You better hope that's not her or I'll be the one tossing you in the fire," he snarled.

He sighed when he heard the screeching again and then Freddy finally stepped into view. He held up his finger knives and wiggled his fingers while he sneered at him. Then he ran the knives along a nearby pipe, making the screeching sound.

"That s'posed to scare me?" the Doctor said, calmly.

Freddy stepped further into the firelight. The Doctor cocked his eyebrow when he saw his burnt face.

"You know, if I were you, I'd put some lotion on that or it's gonna get infected," he said, pointing to his face.

Freddy stopped about fifteen feet from the Doctor and stared at him quietly. The Doctor put his hands into his pockets and calmly held his gaze. Freddy gave him a toothy grin and chuckled.

"Yes, so much power I can sense in you!" he said in a gravelly voice.

"Who are you then? Yoda?" the Doctor replied.

"I must have you!"

"Funny, Cleopatra said much the same thing. I told her she wouldn't want me, I was a pain in the asp."

Freddy studied him while the Doctor looked around the room.

"So, this is your home sweet home, is it? Bit dusty and manky but warm," he said, pointing to the fiery furnace beside Freddy. "This where you brought all those little kids of yours to be tortured and killed?"

Freddy neared closer and the Doctor fought to keep from running when once again he sensed how unnatural the man was.

"So…Freddy…how is it that a mere human turned into a dream stalking demon?" he said to him. "Come on, you can tell me, demon to alien."

Freddy chuckled.

"My friends helped me."

"Friends? What friends?"

Suddenly he saw three wraith like beings who flew around Freddy a few times before they stopped and hovered near him. All of them were ghostly white with with skull-like faces and a long tail behind them that made them look like sperm.

"What are those?" the Doctor said, pointing to them.

"They're dream demons. They came to me just before I was going to be burned alive and entered me, making me immortal!"

The Doctor watched as the demons flew up and reentered his body. Once again, that sensation to run pricked at his brain. It intensified when Freddy took another step and the Doctor felt himself unconsciously take a step back to get away from him. The movement was not lost on Freddy and his smile became wider.

"What's the matter? Scared?" he taunted him.

"I'm not scared of you, I'm uneasy at what you've become!"

"Oh? And what am I?"

"An anomaly. An aberration, something that should never have existed. You should have died that night, Fred Krueger."

"And yet…I live!" Freddy said triumphantly. "And now, I'll make you join with me and not only will I be reborn into the real world again, I will have your power and your lives to sustain me for centuries."

"Um…I wouldn't choose me if I were you, I don't have many lives left. You might wanna try a newborn Gallifreyan. Except I'm the last of my kind, so bad luck, I'm afraid. You are stuck here forever."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that, Doctor. You see, I have ways to make you cooperate with me."

The Doctor's eyes darted off to the left when he heard Rose calling his name in the distance.

"You love her, don't ya? I saw that in your mind."

"I'm warning you, you stay away from her!" the Doctor snarled.

"Oh, lookie here, the Doctor's finally lost his cool," Freddy taunted. "What's wrong, protective of your little girlfriend?"

The Doctor's eyes narrowed and his fists balled up when Rose's cries became louder.

"I'm warning you, going after her would be a big mistake on your part," the Doctor growled.

"I just love finding my victim's weaknesses and exploiting them," Freddy said while he played with a chain near his head. "You see, everybody has at least one weakness, one thing I can use to pull them into my world so I can toy with them like a cat with a mouse and then once I have them cornered..."

He spread his fingers and the blades caught the firelight and gleamed.

"I won't let you harm anyone else, Fred Krueger, you hear me?"

"How are ya gonna stop me…DOCTOR?"

Freddy let out another chuckle and then without warning he suddenly took two quick steps. The Doctor, against his will, took two steps back and Freddy laughed at that.

"You 'fraid of little ol' me, Doctor?" he said to him. "I thought you wanted to stop me and here you are, running just like all the others. Maybe your sweetie will be braver than you."

The Doctor gritted his teeth at that.

"Yeah, I can see her in your mind. She's pretty," Freddy drawled. " I wouldn't mind having that pretty face to add to my collection."

The Doctor watched in horror as Freddy ripped open the front of his sweater and he saw several anguished faces on his chest and stomach. The urge to run kicked into overdrive and it took sheer force of will to stay and face Freddy. Freddy grinned and ran his ungloved hand across the faces like a mother stroking a baby's head.

"My children," he said to the Doctor. "The souls of those I've killed. They're inside me, giving me strength. I feed off them and soon I will add your soul to them, Doctor, and take your body for my own."

The Doctor was filled with even more resolve and Freddy chuckled at the determined look on his face.

"As much as I'd love to take you right here and now, I think I'll wait awhile and find easier prey," he said to him. "But if I were you, I wouldn't interfere, wouldn't want your beloved to end up here would ya?"

He tapped his index finger knife against his chest. The Doctor, enraged by the threat against Rose and the sight of the anguished souls, let out an angry roar and tried to lunge at him. Freddy disappeared before his eyes and the last thing the Doctor heard before waking up was his mocking laughter.