Hello, lovely people! I haven't posted anything for months, and there is no excuse for that. Apart from I've been busy applying for University :D
Unbelievable that I first posted this story like, what, 3 years ago? So I've been updating the chapters, getting rid of grammar/spelling mistakes and improving and replacing somewhat cheesy/stupid/funny-when-it's-not-supposed-to-be-funny bits, so if you want to have a gander, go right on ahead. And if there's anything I've missed, please let me know.
I'll shut up now, and let you get on with (finally!) reading chapter 9 :)
The ambulance ride was bumpy and unnerving. Diana sat beside her daughter as it sped at about 70 mph through the narrow streets of Springwood.
"Stay with me, baby. Stay with me."
To a stranger, this is a normal reaction. To a stranger, the mother is hoping for her child to stay alive. And this was true. But she wasn't just telling her to stay alive.
She was telling her to stay awake.
"M-mom?" Daniella lay on the simple ambulance bed, while a paramedic tended to her wounds. "Mom, I'll be okay. Right? I mean... please don't let me fall asleep."
"No, honey. I won't let them put you to sleep. You're going to be fine."
"But... but... I'm so tired, mom. I'm l-losing blood."
"They're fixing it, baby. They're fixing you. You're okay."
Sarah sped behind the ambulance as Katie held on for dear life in the passenger seat.
"Come on, Dani. Come on," Sarah muttered over and over again. Katie sobbed and panicked, not knowing what to say or do. She just clinged onto her seat and stared at the ambulance doors, hoping that Dani was being taken care of. Hoping that she didn't fall asleep.
When they arrived at the hospital, chaos ensued. They all rushed in together as doctors and nurses came out of nowhere and surrounded the bed, stating her name, age and health details. Then Daniella was taken by them, as her relatives and friend were asked to stay behind.
"Stay awake, Dani!" Katie screamed as Sarah held her back, and hugged her.
ll
An hour later, they were all gathered in a private hospital room. Daniella lay in bed, eyes wide and afraid, staring at the ceiling. She was wired to a bag filled with blood and a machine that monitored her heartbeat. Sarah, Katie and Diana sat in chairs and on the end of her bed, biting their nails and holding their heads in their hands. Every now and again one of them would smack themselves, or pull their eyelids to keep their eyes open, or scratch their arms.
There was a knock on the door that caught everyone's attention. A stern-faced middle-aged man came in, complete with white coat and clip-board.
"Mrs, er... Saxon?" He said, after checking said clip-board.
"Yes?" Answered a clearly sleep-deprived voice.
"May I speak with you outside, please?"
She nodded and stood up, along with Sarah, and they both exited the room with the doctor.
Katie looked at Dani and held her hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Not so great, Kate." She smirked. "Rhyme." Katie laughed quietly.
"What happens if... if you fall asleep?"
Daniella sat up, slowly and with great effort. "You're going to have to go in after me, Katie. I don't want you to... but it's the only way. The only way I'll survive."
Katie nodded. "I know."
"Listen to mom. She knows the most out of all of us. She has the best chance of beating him."
"Okay." She nodded again, tears forming in her eyes, when she heard a commotion outside of the room. She looked at the window to see Diana and Sarah arguing with the stern doctor.
"My daughter is NOT being put to sleep." Diana shouted. "She gets anxiety. She's an insomniac. It would freak her out!" She blurted out all of the excuses she could come up with.
"I'm sorry, Mrs Saxon, but she is clearly in need of a good rest. I mean, when was the last time she got a decent night's sleep?"
Diana had a long think. And couldn't remember.
"Please," Sarah said softly and clearly. "Don't."
The doctor sighed, and shrugged. "There's nothing I can do. I have to do what's best for the patient." With that, he pushed past them and into the hospital room.
Daniella panicked. "W-what are you doing?"
He had produced a syringe full of green liquid. "You need to sleep, Miss Saxon. This will be quick and painless, don't worry."
She shook her head and attempted to remove herself from the bed, pulling out the tubes attached to her and causing the machine to go crazy. Two female nurses entered the room and attempted to hold her down.
"No, please! Please, you have to understand, I'll- ow, you're hurting me!"
Daniella pleaded with the nurses pinning her to the bed. The doctor approached her and, as Diana, Sarah and Katie stared in horror, the needle entered her arm, and the liquid was pushed into her bloodstream. It was too late.
The relieved doctor and nurses left the room with angry glares burning into their backs.
Diana ran to her daughter, drifting rapidly off to sleep.
"Don't worry, honey. We'll be right behind you."
Dani nodded vigorously, stretching open her eyes and struggling to stay awake.
"Dani. We can do this."
"You can do this." Sarah interjected. Katie just nodded, her eyes full of worry but her smile encouraging.
Daniella's nods slowed and stopped, as her exhausted and mutilated body slumped into a deep, deep sleep.
There was a pause. There were looks of worry given to each other. And then there were screams.
ll
Giant walls of metal surrounded her, 10 feet high and rusting. But she was not in a room. It appeared to be a corridor.
"MOM! GET ME OUT!" She pounded on the walls as hard as she could. They didn't budge.
She ran down the corridor and turned the corner, and ran into a dead end. She ran back and found another corridor, and another, and eventually found another dead end. It wasn't long until she realised that there were no doors, just long rusted halls.
She was in a maze.
As soon as the penny dropped, the floor shook and giant, metal, spiky vines burst out of the walls, going for her, cutting her back and arms. Dani screamed and ran, going down corridor after corridor and meeting dead end upon dead end, the vines grabbing and clawing as she went. Blood dripped down the walls.
Finally, she stopped, and rested against a vine-free patch of wall, panting and wiping the blood off her face.
"I'm tired... of running," she said, half determined and half desperate. "I'm tired of everything you've put me through." She looked around, certain that he could hear her.
"You want to kill me? Fine. But at least come out and do it yourself."
"Soon, bitch." His voice echoed and bounced off the walls. "But I've got a few errands to run first..."
She stood still for a second, then felt a sharp pain from a vine behind her, and continued running.
ll
"This can't be happening." Katie paced up and down the room, dragging her fingers through her hair. "I'm too wired to sleep now."
It was true. A few minutes earlier, they were all ready to drop. But after the adrenaline of seeing Dani having been restrained and forced to have an injection, which, in their minds, was putting her in mortal peril, they could not bring themselves to fall asleep.
"Katie, calm down. We have to think. She's getting more cuts every second, and watching you walk everywhere isn't helping."
"Well what else am I supposed to do? If I can't fall asleep, Dani will die. And if I do... I mean I haven't even seen this guy, but look what he's doing to her – what he's done to her! And he killed Jane... I can't even imagine what he looks like. What he'll do if he catches me. What he-"
"Katie." Diana ran to her and grabbed her shoulders. She looked at her directly in the eyes and knew what she was remembering. Her father. She hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear. "We're going to protect you. No matter what, I will not let you go through that again. I'm so sorry we had to call you..."
Katie pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes. "No, it's fine. It had to be done. I mean Dani trusts me. I should be flattered, really." She smirked.
There was a silence. Then Sarah spoke. "The needle. The liquid. If I can find the same stuff, and enough needles, I should be able to..." She trailed off and went to a drawer she had seen the doctor open earlier. She found a jar of green liquid, the same colour as the liquid that had been pumped into her niece, with a long scientific name. "This has got to be it." She found 3 syringes, made sure that they were unused and clean and got them ready. She handed them out.
"I don't like needles." Katie said quietly.
Sarah handed Katie an antiseptic wipe. "I'll do it for you."
She nodded and sat down. She rolled up her sleeve and wiped an area near her shoulder.
Sarah injected her with the liquid. Then she injected herself. They nodded off pretty much instantly.
There was just Diana left. A wipe in one hand, the syringe in the other. She took a deep breath and looked at her comatose daughter.
"I'm coming, honey. Take care."
Within minutes, everyone in the room was unconscious.
ll
They landed with a thump. The carpet was soft and shaggy. The air was filled with a strong perfumed scent. They sat up, bemused, and looked around. They seemed to be in some sort of lounge. It was big and filled with expensive furniture. Plush red sofas and chaise longues. Glass tables and scented candles. The wallpaper was floral, with shades of black, gold and pink.
Two women entered the room, scantily clad in French lingerie. They smiled at the boys with a sultry look, confident and young.
The boys looked at each other and smiled.
"Hey, Felix?"
"Yeah, Jason?"
"I don't know how we got here, but I'm sure glad we did."
Felix agreed, stunned. "Uh-huh." They turned to stare at the women, who slowly strutted towards them. The women took the boys' hands and led them each to a couch. They began to give them a lap dance, which made the boys happy, but mostly anxious. They tried to focus on the excitement that was bubbling inside of them. But they were both virgins and, more so, they were nervous teenage boys.
Eventually the awkwardness overtook the arousal and after exchanging a look, the boys began to protest.
"Er, thank you, erm... ma'am. We've gotta go."
"Er, yeah. It's been great but-"
Before they could utter another syllable, the woman began to convulse where they stood. Their skin began to bubble, as ferociously as the feelings they had created. It turned from a bronzed tan to a sludgy brown and red. It became bumpy and shared the complexion of a pepperoni pizza. The women looked terrified. They screamed. Loud.
Felix and Jason covered their ears as the force of the screams blew them and the couches to the wall. They banged their heads and scrabbled around, trying to resist the wind.
The screams soon turned into raucous laughter as the woman started merging together, like some sort of mutated scab. They were no longer two women. They had become one man. A man in a green and red sweater. And a hat. And a glove with... knives?
"What the fuck?" Jason and Felix were now horrified at what the beauties had become. "Who the fuck are you?"
He just stared at them, with a growing smile on his face. He continually scraped his knives together.
"Uh, Jase? I think he's that guy. Remember? That article Dani sent us?"
He was chuckling now.
"What. Freddy Krueger?"
"Bingo!" Freddy yelled, and laughed. He started walking towards them now.
"Jason, lets go!" Felix stood up and ran.
But Jason didn't run. He stood up and walked towards Freddy, closing the distance between them. They stood face to face, staring each other out.
"This is a dream, right? That's what the article said. Kids said that you came in their dreams." Freddy was no longer laughing. He was staring back at Jason with a smug look on his face. He said nothing.
"Well I'm not gonna run away screaming like a girl just because a bunch of crazy freaks claim that their dreams are real. That's some stupid shit. I think you're just my imagination." With that, he pushed Freddy a little so that he stumbled back slightly.
"What do you think of that, Krueger?"
"Jaaaasooooon..."
A feminine voice came from behind him.
He turned around and saw his cousin Isabelle, in her underwear no less.
Suddenly the room changed. He blinked and they were in his bedroom. Isabelle was standing in his doorway.
"Oh, what's wrong, Jason? You never seen a lady in her panties before?" She giggled a high pitch giggle.
She walked towards him and slowly pushed him back till he landed on his bed. She straddled him and ran her hands down his body.
"Ooh. It seems you haven't. Not very subtle, are you Jase?" She smiled a nasty smile, mocking him.
She undid his zipper seductively and pulled down his underpants, completely exposing him.
"Isabelle, what are you-?"
She put a finger on his lips. "Ssh... It's okay. I'll be gentle." She started cackling. The voice became less and less feminine...
Isabelle outstretched her glove-clad hand and cut off the most important thing in Jason's life.
His life was cut shortly after.
ll
Sarah opened her eyes, peering into the darkness.
"Katie? Diana?"
"Here." Katie sat up and looked for the source of the voice. "W-where's Diana?"
"It's okay. I'm sure she'll be here soon. She wouldn't back out on us. Her daughter is the most important thing to her."
"Uh-huh. I know." Katie sounded worried. She brought herself to her knees, feeling around the floor. "Where are we?"
"I don't know." Sarah stood up and waved her hands in front of her face. She found two chains hanging from the ceiling.
"We're in his boiler room."
Sarah and Katie turned to the figure on the floor, Diana. Their eyes were better adjusted to the darkness now, and they could just about see the expression on her face. It seemed she knew this place very well.
"This is the place Sophia talked about." She got to her feet. "This is where he took me after..." Tears flew down her face and her chest heaved with sobs.
"Oh, Diana." Sarah ran to hug her and sobbed a little as well as she remembered her little sister.
They stopped when they heard a sound. Rapid foot steps getting louder and louder. They all stood together, prepared to run.
Felix came into sight, panting heavily with sweat glistening on his forehead.
"Freddy! Freddy came! It's Jason, I think he's in trouble."
"Felix! God, I'm glad you're okay." Katie hugged him, then broke away instantly realising what she was doing. "Ha... sorry."
"Katie, I left Jason back there. What if he's hurt?"
"It's okay, we'll-"
There was a rumble, and a flash. A door had appeared from nowhere, huge and metal. It was shaking. They all huddled together and stared at the door.
"W-what's that?"
"It's a door." Sarah said sarcastically.
Felix sighed. "Thank you."
They stood for a couple of minutes, staring at it intently.
"Oh for God's sake." Sarah walked briskly up to the door and put her hand on the knob. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, and yanked it open.
