Chapter 10: Never sleep again.

As the day dwindled on, the party of six dispersed. Maggie left to meet Doc; Sara, Tracy, and Lori decided it was best to go to school for the sake of it being the first day(they could also get their minds off death, despite the 7 that had occured at the school), and Patricia and Dr. Campbell went out to a late lunch. 2:30, starving and sleepless kind of late. Most of their time was spent in silence. Patricia chewed on a french fry. Her mind was buzzing with questions...She couldn't stop thinking about him. Had that been him taunting her with his blades? Had to have been. It couldn't have been a coincidence; 8 different people dieing on the same night. That meant...he was still here. He had been right there, hanging over her bed. The last time she saw him...mother had been pulling her out of the court room. He had turned and looked at her. That was the last time...the very last. The moment when he had smiled at her from his table; that meant more. Her throat felt tight. Jesus...That day, he lost his daughter, and almost lost his freedom. Patricia frowned. His daughter. She had almost forgotten about her. She should be around her own age now, atleast...Where was she?

" Doctor Campbell, do you know what happened to his daughter?"

Dr. Campbell looked up at her from his BLT. He swallowed.

" The truth is, I really don't know. She was put into the Springwood orphanage, and that was the end of it. Since the town was rennovated, they rebuilt the orphanage on the other side of town. I think the old building is still there..."

" Do you know if they moved the records or anything?"

" I doubt it. Springwood was almost completely empty...no children. There wasn't any point to checking records of people who're dead." Dr. Campbell returned to his BLT. Patricia nibbled and picked at her food. If she wasn't already dead, maybe she could find some information on Mr. Krueger's child after all...Patricia finished her food quickly, paid her share, and took off. It's always best to get to things as quick as you can.

Lori walked across campus, watching police cars retreating down the streets, and crowds dispersing from the dorms. She couldn't help feeling a little guilty. She hadn't killed him. He was still around, and killing. He got Will...she let that son-of-a-bitch get to Will. She couldn't let that thing get to her new friends. They all had to work together. Lori sat on a bench. Had he purposely brought them all together? If so, who was he planning on taking out next? Tracy? Maggie? Herself? Sara's just a consolation prize; she didn't have anything to do with this. What about Patricia? Lori gnawed on a piece of gum. Ok, what does she know about her. Patricia used to live here, and her sister was the last child killed by Krueger when he was still living. That still didn't explain why she had been gathered with the rest of them. Maybe his target was originally Patricia and he had to settle for her sister? Maybe he planned to kill them both? Maybe...she was some sort an accomplice? No, that doesn't make any sense. Trish said herself that she was barely five when it happened. Still...when she spoke about her sister's murder, she wasn't exactly choked up. She stretched and checked her watch. She had skipped lunch. Shit. Lori stood, shouldered her bag, and walked on, eyes fixed on the concrete. Will used to come and meet her for lunch. They'd go to the diner, a little ways out of town sometimes, or back to her house. It was heaven. She almost expected him to come running across campus, calling, " Hey Lor! Ready to go eat?" Almost. She felt tears stinging her eyes again. Damnit, she can't walk into class like this. Lori had to keep herself together. Set on walking, not really paying attention, she failed to notice a door swinging open infront of her.

SMACK!!

" Oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry!!" a highly concerned voice came from the culpret with the door. Lori sat up, and held her throbbing forehead. Fuck. What else had to happen today, huh? She felt two people lifting her to her feet.

" I'm so so sorry, I really am. Are you all right?" It was a guy. Some stupid clumsy guy. Not that she had been anymore graceful.

" Yeah, I'm fine." Lori muttered, glaring at the sound of his voice. Yeah, she was sorry too. Sorry he hadn't killed her. She looked up at him. He's pretty cute for a stupid clumsy guy.

" You sure? I'm really sorry. Here, let me help you." He bent down and gathered her folders and sheets of paper. " It was my fault." He stood, handed her the folders, and extended his hand in friendship. " My name is Jacob. Jacob Daniels."

Hesitantly, Lori accepted.

" Lori." Atleast he was nice about it.

" Sorry again about the door."

" It's no problem."

Patricia pulled out another file drawer. The orphange had long been abandoned, and seeing there was no other way in, she had to break through one of the boarded windows. Painful, but effective. Once inside, she couldn't help but be frightened by the emptiness. Discarded toys lay in pieces, walls collapsing in on one another, wall-paper peeling in long strips, a simply depressing sight. As she waded through the dust-ridden place, it was hard to imagine that these walls once sheltered a hord of laughing children. After finding the front office, she went through file cabinet after file cabinet, looking through children's records, but no such luck. The mildew smell was starting to get to her when she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked for any sign of life. She was sure she saw something...

" Is anyone there? Hello??"

Rattle.

Rustle, rustle...

Clang.

" Hello? I'm sorry to intrude, but I just need some answers." She looked outside the door and saw another door creak open. " Hello? Hello??" Taking her life in her hands, he swung the door open and--

" SCREECH!"

" AHH!!"

Six rats flew out past her feet, taking shelter under the clutter in the building. Patricia leaned in the doorway. Rats. Nice place. She looked into the room and spotted 3 more file cabinets, one labled AUTHORITY ONLY. Taking care in not putting her foot in a crevice, she made her way to the back of the storage room. Yanking open a drawer, she read the file names...None of them were in alphabetical order. This was going to take forever.

URIAS

HOLLEY

ETHERMAN

FREIDMAN

ENGLUND

LIPPOWITZ

ESPINOSA

EDWARDS

STONE

TURNIPSEED...

"Hey there, you."

" Hello. I'm driving from the airport, Maggie." Doc smiled at the sound of her voice. Thank God she was safe. Doc had flown in from Florida. He was there for an intervew for a new job. After the flight, he was feeling pretty damn drowsy...

" Glad to hear it. Tracy's at school with Lori and Sara, and like I told you, we're on that Hypnocil stuff. I'll show it to you when you get here."

" Can you really trust this guy, Mag?"

" Dr. Campbell? He seems pretty trustworthy, yeah. A little spastic, but trustworthy. The one I'm mostly wondering about is--"

" Patricia. I know, you've told me 4 times. I don't understand why she seems so peculiar to you."

" Tsk, I dunno, Doc. You have to meet this girl. Introverted, shy, a little on the oddball side. When we first met, she looked afraid to be around us; like she didn't want to be touched. Alot like Tracy, but not as violent. She has this air about her like a shivering animal; the kind like a kid that's subject to abuse. Leaving my professional boundries, she creeps me out a little."

" I'll check her out, Mag. Who knows, maybe she -was- abused. Give her some time, huh?" A red truck pulled over in front of him. Assholes.

" I guess...there is one thing, though."

" What?" He changed lanes, and felt his eyelids drooping. Goddamn planes.

" When we were telling her about Krueger, she didn't seem horrified, but...she had a strange calmness about her. Dr. Campbell told me she spoke in Freddy's defense at his trial. She was, oh, I don't know, 5 maybe at the time. The fucker killed her sister for godsake, wouldn't you think she's be the slightest bit scared? Or outraged?"

" That is a little odd." The same truck cut him off again. Goddamn trucks.

" Tell me about it. She's a little weird, Doc. I think we should be careful around her."

" DAMN!"

" What?! What is it??"

" This goddamn truck keeps cutting me off when I try to change lanes. Hey, lemmie call you back, Mag. All right?"

" All right. Bye."

" Bye." Doc tossed his cell phone into the seat next to him, and prepared to change lanes again. Jesus, this guy was getting on his nerves...FUCKER! He cut him off again! Doc swerved back into the other lane, feeling really tired, and really agitated. He yawned deeply. Doc pulled up beside the truck and rolled down his window.

" What the hell is wrong with you, man?! You almost crashed into me 3 times!!"

The truck's window rolled down.

" Whatzamatta, Doc..." A brown dirty fedora bearing the logo "KEEP ON TRUCKIN'" came through the window. It's wearer, burned and grinning.
"Got Road Rage?!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Doc took one look, turned, and stepped on the gas. Shit. SHIT. Freddy's horrible laughing echoed in his ears as he sped away. He had to wake himself up. Doc clamped his eyes shut. Concentrate...concentrate. C'mon, Doc, focus!

" Hey, lacky!"

Doc's eyes shot open. His rental car had suddenly become a limo. Doc looked at his clothing and found himself in a black suit and driver's hat. He turned and looked behind him. There Freddy sat, sporting a tux, and drinking maggot infested wine. He cocked his head and raised his glass.

" Once around the park, James! HAHAHAHA!!"

Doc scrambled to get his seatbelt off but it wouldn't budge. He tried the pedals but they wouldn't move either. Desperate, Doc gripped the steering wheel and tried to move it somehow. The wheel itself melted onto his hands, and held him fast.

" YOU BASTARD!! Let me out!! LET ME OUT!!"

" Now, now, that's no way to talk to your employer, Doc." Freddy leaned up and smirked at Doc's frantic strugglings. " It's never good to fall asleep at the wheel Doc, so...I guess you're fucked!"

The car took a violent turn and headed straight for a very deep revine.

" You really thought you killed me, didn't you? HAH! Isn't this a kick in the balls. Just one more thing, Doc. I promise to take good care of Katherine. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Freddy dissapeared, but his cruel laughter stayed at full intensity. Doc tried as hard as he could to pull his hands out, but it was no use. The car flew off the edge of the revine, and plummeted into a fiery explosion.

"IDEMAN, GEROD, BROOKS..."

A 2 hours had gone by, and Patricia was on the last file drawer. It seemed completely hopless. Maybe it wasn't even this orphanage. " FIEDLIE, LIDMAN..." This was taking too much time, and she was getting tired..." FABIAN, ROBERTS..." She should just go before she falls asleep in this dismal place. Her mind shot back to the image of those knives..." GIBSON, KRUEGER..." Gleaming in the moonlight...ready to-- She skipped back and lifted a file from the drawer. " Krueger."

Bingo.

" You used to live here?" Lori clipped her seatbelt into place as Jacob started his car. For almost killing her with the door, he offered to drive her home after her classes were over. Hey, it was better than walking. Jacob pulled out of the parking lot.

" Yeah, my mom and I did. We moved out when that crazy disease was spreading around town. After I graduated, I got 4 scholarships from SCCC, so I decided to come here. They have a really good theatre program."

" Is that what you're majoring in?"

" Yep. Light and technical design's my thing. How about you?"

" Education. I really like teaching kids."

" That's neat. I like kids myself. "

A silence settled itself in. Lori kept herself still, not sure how to move around in this guys car. Papers, books, cards strewn about, no real sense of organization. He reminded her of Will. She looked over at him and frowned. In fact, he was alot like Will. Jacob tapped his fingers on the steering wheel like Will, chewed his tounge like Will, apologized like a maniac like Will...but he wasn't Will. She turned her attention back out the window. She was simply depressing herself.

Jacob watched Lori out of the corner of his eye. She was pretty cute, but her red hair reminded him too much of Mom. She was hardly anything like her, though. She seemed really bitter, where as Mom was always really sunshiney. Odd. She tried her damndest to convince him not to come here, but it was the place that gave him the most money. He was only sad that she refused to visit him. There was somthing about Springwood that really got to her.

Something caught Lori's eye.

" What the--"

Jacob looked at Lori.

" What is it?"

" Stop for a second-- Patricia!!"

Patricia stopped walking and turned her head. It was Trish all right, and she was holding a folder. Lori waved her over.

" What are you doing out? I thought you might be back at home."

" I was...but I needed to find something." Patricia held up the folder reading the name "KRUEGER" and Lori's jaw dropped.

" What did you find?" Lori dropped her voice.

" Information on his daughter." Patricia hushed her own. Lori looked at the folder, then at Trish. Ba-damn.

" Uh...Lori?" Jacob's voice caught both their attention. Lori leaned back into the car and gestured to Patricia.

" Sorry Jacob. This is Trish; Trish this is Jacob."

" Hello" Patricia's voice was small.

" Hi there."

"He's giving me a ride home. You want a lift?"

Patricia shook her head.

" I'm going to meet Sara at the school."

" Well, I don't mind swinging back around. It's better than you walking." Jacob piped in again and smiled at her. Sheesh, she's really...mouse-ish.

" It's all right--"

" Hop in, Trish. It not a problem." Jacob smiled again. Just get in the car so it doesn't take up any more time. Lori smiled at Patricia, and Patricia got into the car. Jacob turned around and headed back to the school.

" Are you sure you don't want to head home yet, Sara?" Kenneth, a TA, and new-found friend of Sara's, piled books onto her metal plated desk in the anatomy lab. "It's nearly 7, and the professer left at 6. It's your first day, you know. Don't want to start burning out yet."

Sara smiled.

" Thanks Ken, but the internship application deadline is half a month from now, and it really doesn't hurt to get a head start on studies, you know?"

" If you say so, Sara. Wow..." He leafed through a rather graphic book of autopsies. " You really want to be in a morge your whole life?"

" A good portion of it, sure. Crime investigators get paid pretty well." Sara said, opening another book.

" If you say so, Sara. Goodnight!" he said, and slipped out the door.

" Night, Ken." Sara called after him, and dove into the book.

" So do you two girls live close or something?" He asked, making one last attempt at small talk. The last three tries ended in uncomfortable silence.

" No, actually, she's staying with me."

"Only for a couple days." Patricia stated, looking through the file for the 50th time since she'd found it. She had almost memorized the contents.

Date: October 7th, 1967

Name: Katherine Krueger
D.O.B: June 15th, 1962
Sex: female
Age: 5
Race: Caucasian

Mother: Lorretta Johnson-Krueger (Deceased)
DOB: March,1943
Sex: female
Age: 24
Race: Caucasian.

Father: Fred Charles Krueger (Deceased)
D.O.B: breeched September, 1938
Sex: male
Age: 29
Race: Caucasian

Fred Krueger accused of murder and is subsiquently labeled as unfit to raise the child. Loretta Krueger went missing September 1967. Katherine Krueger suffers from heavy interest in solitary activity, and leans away from normal young social tendencies. The child is very introverted, and also strays from usual solitary activities such as reading, writing, and media. Her avoidance of normal interests may have a negative effect on adolescent additudes or ideals. She often speaks of her mother and father, and almost seems to refuse to believe the fact that they are both dead. Under observation, the child showed signs of abnormal sleep patterns including sleeptalking, thrashing, nightmares, and bedwetting.

Suggested Actions: insure adequate sleep and a normal schedual, make the environment as safe as possible to avoid accidental injury, consideration for counseling for social exilation as with extended thrashing, if medication is used, it should be viewed as a temporary solution used mainly for protection.

Adoptive Parents:

Ray Borroughs
Sex: male
Age: 34
Race: Caucasian

Samantha Borroughs
Sex: female
Age: 32
Race: Caucasian

Request for legal name change, see form attatched to this page.

Then there wasn't anything else. The paper that had been attatched to it had been ripped off, so Patricia had no idea if they kept her real name or not. Oh well. It was still a lead, either way.

SLAM.

Sara shot straight up off her desk and looked around. Someone must have slammed a door in the hallway. No biggy.

" God..." Sara yawned and checked her watch.

7:45.

How long had she been sleeping? She looked down at the book. The same page stared at her in the face. Fuck. Those Campbell people have really gotten her spooked about all this dream demon bullshit. Stretching, she looked around the lab, notcing a few overhead lights had gone out. Odd. There was also an operating table pulled out and covered with a white sheet. Very odd. She looked around the lab for anyone else. No one. She stood and walked over to the table. Beside it was a cart with grisly opperating tools glittering in the dim light. The only thing missing was the cadaver. Someone had gotten these ready for a disection, but who? And where were they? What the hell...

" Hello? Is anyone out there?" Sara opened the door to the lab and gazed out into the hallway. Nothing.

" Hellooo??" she called one last time, gave up. No biggy. The professor probably did it before he left for a demonstration in the morning. Sara retreated back into the lab, but suddenly felt herself off the ground, like she was suspending. She felt stiff cool cloth on her skin, and freezing cold metal on her back. A light bleached out her vision as she tried to look around and sit up. Then, the creeping, unsettling realization set in.

Oh, God. I can't move!!

Over and over again, she willed her body to move an arm, a finger, anything, but to no avail. She just laid there, limp. The door opened and closed beside her, and a rush of excited voices crowded in. She saw men crowding around her table speaking in murmers, shadowed in the blinding light above her head. Then, one man pushed his way to the front and silenced the others.

" Now then, students. This is her file:

Name: Sara Glade
Age: 20
Sex: Female
DOB: January 12th, 1984.
Date of Death: August 16th, 2004."

OH, JESUS H. CHRIST!! They think I'm dead!! Desperately, she tried to make anything move. Her eyes, her mouth, her throat, her tounge, anything. Anything just to prove she was alive.

"This is your final examination: Determine the cause of death." The doctor raised a scalpel against the light over her chest. Then, the single knife turned into two. Then three. Then four. Sara watched in horror as they lowered to her chest, and the doctor leaned his head into the way of the light. A pair of icy blue eyes encased in gooey blistered flesh laughed down at her.

" Lets get to carving, eh, Sara?"

Then he broke into the most terrible laughing sound she had ever heard.

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