Faye's footsteps pounded against the metal of the catwalk, echoing loudly and merging with the sounds of steam escaping from pipes, her own ragged breathing, and somewhere not so far away…

Metal on metal. The sound of claws scraping against whatever they could find to let out a loud screech, designed to send chills down her spine and churn her stomach. She had been running from the being behind that sound for a while now, running from someone who shouldn't be able to chase her.

It had started right when she had fallen asleep. The beginning of her dream wasn't anything strange. She was outside in the snow in her pajamas, cold and wondering how she had gotten there. The sight of a building immediately made her think of shelter, so she had picked her way through the snow to find… a school?

Whatever it was and why ever it was there, it was warmer than outside, and she let herself in. The door opened easily enough, and once she was inside, she leaned against the wall, soaking in the warmth and-

The wall gave way beneath her and she fell, frantically flailing around for any hope at grabbing onto something that might slower her fall. She found nothing and landed hard on her back. The air forced itself out of her lungs, and it wasn't until she had gasped back in to frantically fill them that she realizing something.

The landing had hurt. It was still hurting. It had felt like the time she had slipped and fell off a ladder and not at all like a normal dream.

Most people would have passed it off as such, but… She had been to Freddy's realm before. There was no way he should be able to reach her from his home on Elm Street, but somehow- somehow she was back. She immediately began searching for a weapon, not though it would do much, when the first bone chilling screech sounded.

From there… All she could do was run.

He had dropped her into a maze. Her sense of time was off thanks to the dream state, so she had no idea how long she had been there. She needed a way to wake herself up.

Damn- how had Nancy done it again? She remembered the girl pressing her arm against the vent, and thought it still burned her, it had woken her up. But… Pain alone couldn't do it, or Freddy would have to kill his victims quick and painlessly. Otherwise, they would just wake up, right?

A wall appeared in front of her and she dug her heels into the ground, staggering to a stop.

Embedded in the wall was a door. It seemed like a trap, and she turned around to try another path, only to find… more walls. She was surrounded on all sides.

Gritting her teeth, she turned to the door and pushed her way through out, back out into the snow. She kept running even as her feet sunk into the snow. Though as she ran, the snow vanished from under her, turning to paved roadway. The wooded scenery surrounding the school changed to neighborhood houses. She finally had to stop, gasping in pain around the burning in her sides. She looked up at the house she had stopped in front of.

Was it any surprise that it was 4218 Elm Street? Freddy's house.

She heard footsteps behind her and cursed to herself, before running forward up the stars, to the door. She threw it open and leapt through-

She woke with a start.

She was in her own room, safe in her bed. Her walls were covered with her sketches of plans and other doodles.

The girl sighed and dropped back into her bed, placing her hand over her heart to calm it. She wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon, not after that. Ah, well. She… just had to get some caffeine in her system now.

She got out of bed and heading to the living room. She had been doing her best to hide this. In most horror movies, that was the worst thing to do, but this? This was a Nightmare on Elm Street. If she didn't tell her friends, they wouldn't get roped into the nightmares. The second reason was that as long as nobody else was around to feed Freddy's fear, he wouldn't kill her.

Oh, he would torment her. He would cut her up and terrify her. But… She was too useful to kill just yet.

Hiding a lack of sleep wasn't easy, though. She knew very well how hard it was to hide- hell, how often did she try and help B with her own lack of sleep? So… After a few days of getting little to no sleep, with what little rest she did get filled with nightmares and fear, she had some dark bags under her eyes, and she was too tired to try and hide them.

Which lead to…

"So, Fairy. Are you going to explain why you haven't been sleeping either?"

Faye sighed. She was trying her hardest not to tell anyone. Also, to not fall asleep in her beans.

"I just, haven't been sleeping well lately, that's all."

B threw a small glare her way. It would have been enough to make someone made of lesser stuff would have taken off. Faye had known B so long she was immune to all her scary glares.

The disappointed glares, on the other hand? Those were still killer.

This one was meant to be scary, however, so she just shrugged. Faye was already a bad liar, and she was too tired to think of anything that would crumble to pieces at the slightest observation, so she instead opted for a half truth.

"I've been having nightmares. About the serial killers, about everything going on. That's all." She didn't bother to stay to see their reactions. "I've gotta go- I have some make up work to drop off before class starts."

B watched as she walked off, mental wheels turning in thought.

"It's Freddy," she muttered to herself. It made sense. Those sleepless bags, the refusal to explain, the talk about nightmares? She was positive it was Freddy. And Faye was trying to hide it.

She pulled out her phone and began to type. The first thing she had to do was speed order some hypnocil. After that, she would had to figure out how to help Faye until the medicine got in.

Faye rested her head on her hands, staring listlessly at the at the board. They were going over facts and figures that she couldn't keep track of when she was well rested. The girl's eyes fluttered, dropping as if they had weights attached to them. She could feel herself drifting off, and however much she tried to fight against it…

She lost the battle.

The girl was shivering, hugging herself in the cold. She was standing in the snowy landscape in front of the school again, and she knew that if she walked in, she would find Freddy waiting for her.

Instead, she turned around and started to walk away, however useless it would be. She knew for a fact that she would either be dragged into the school against her will, or she would just come back to it. Something awful that ran on dream logic.

She was… surprised when she found the snow melting away beneath her, turning into road. It was far more slowly than it had been the night before, but eventually she found herself solidly on a street. There, once again, was the infamous Elm Street house.

She strained her ears. She could hear footsteps from somewhere behind her. Would she be walking directly into a trap if she went into the building? What other choice did she have?

She gathered her courage and stepped forward, throwing the door open, walking in.

Almost immediately, the back of her shirt was grabbed. She struggled and felt herself shoved through another door, which slammed shut behind her. Immediately she turned around and looked, trying to find whatever horrible nightmare was in the room. Sharp needles or crawling bugs- that was what she expected.

What she found was… nothing. It was just a closet. A very dark closet, but a normal closes nevertheless.

It was actually almost comforting. She had always been fond of small spaces. They had always felt safe to her, because when she could feel the sides of the room she was in, she knew that nothing could sneak up on her. It was almost like wrapping a warm blanket around one's shoulders.

It was than that she heard… voices. Creeping close to the close, she pressed her ear against it to listen.

"Where is she? I know she didn't get to this side of the realm on her own," an unfamiliar voice growled.

"I didn't see her," a much more familiar voice stated. Freddy? But if that was Freddy, who was the other one? "Even if I did, it wouldn't matter. This is my territory, and she's my prey, ya got that, you no good lousy copy-catting shitface?"

Was he trying to… protect her?

"You can't even get to her unless I pull her into the dream realm first. How are you supposed to hunt your prey if you can barely get the kids from Springwood?"

Faye bit the inside of her lip. They were arguing over her. She moved back, away from the door, and brushed into something that clanged. The voices fell silent and she grimaced.

What did she do? What could she- Pain! Pain had woken her up the first time. The door opened just as she realized the difference between that and Freddy's actions. She looked up to find two people as she lifted her hand to her mouth and pushed the webbing between her thumb and pointer finger in mouth. As she bit down as hard as she could, she managed to piece together who they were.

One was Freddy, and the other… was an uglier clone of Freddy.

She woke up and tasted blood in her mouth. The girl spat out her hand and watched, almost mutely, as it bled all over her desk. Damn, it stung. She looked up and met the eyes of everyone who was staring at her. B wasn't in this class, so all the gazes were a mix of shock and concern and… something she hadn't expected to see. Concern, from one girl.

"Good God, Faye!" The teacher proclaimed. "Why- Why did you- … Go to the nurse, right now and have her clean that out. Go. Now."

She pulled herself up to her feet and made her way out of the room, wrapping her hand in her shirt as she did. The shirt would be stained and ruined after that, but she didn't care too much. She didn't have enough energy to-

"Hey!"

She paused and looked back. That girl- she didn't know her name, but it was the one who seemed concerned. She stepped forward and grabbed Faye by the sleeve, pulling her into the bathroom.

Faye could only watch in exhausted confusion as the girl glanced under the stalls to make sure that nobody else was there. Was this girl a serial killer too? Was she about to die in a restroom?

She took a moment to study the other. She had long hair that looked almost rusty red. It was tied up, held out of her face in a loose ponytail. She was wearing a long sleeved green shirt, with a black backpack, which she was taking off and pulling a-

Was that a first aid kit?

"Hey, uh… I can just… go to the nurse, you know."

"You could," she agreed, "but… I wanted to talk to you. Here- let me see your hand, I can clean it up."

Faye hesitated, but after a moment, held out her hand. "Okay. What did you wanna say?"

The girl carefully took her hand and started to clean it, gently patting the blood away. "You show up to school injured. A lot. You try and hide it, but it's not that easy to someone who knows what to look for. Are… Are you okay?"

Faye raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

"You just bit your hand wide open."

"... Okay, you have a point. I guess." She sighed and glanced down at the wound. The girl was carefully wrapping it up. "But I can't explain. You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"It's not going to be the answer you think."

"Believe me, I would be glad if it wasn't."

She taped Faye's hand up and let it go. Faye pulled it back- the bandage work was far better than any of her own.

"It's serial killers. I've just been running into a whole lot of them. Not normal ones either- ones that… Ones that most people don't think are real, like-"

"Jeff?"

"Huh?" She paused. The name sounded familiar but she couldn't place it- wait. Creepypastas, of course. "Jeff the Killer? No, I haven't actually run into him yet. But- But like him, yeah. A lot like him." She dropped her injured hand back into her lap and shrugged. "And this- This was because of another one."

"One that could attack you in the middle of a classroom, without being seen?"

Faye looked up at her. She didn't seem to be disbelieving, but it seemed hard for anyone to just… believe what she said so quickly. Hell, even B hadn't believe her this quickly "No, not exactly. I did that myself, to… get away. That might not make sense, but- That's how it is."

The other girl studied her for a long few moments, than nodded and held out a hand, to shake Faye's uninjured one.

"My name is Tess, by the way. I'm not sure if we've met."

"My name is Faye." She shook the hand and smiled. "Hey- you should teach me how to take care of wounds like that. I… Pick up a lot of them."

She got a smile in return, and the other girl- Tess- nodded.

"I will. I had to pick up a lot of it myself, but… I'll be happy to show you some tricks I know."

Faye returned home with the number of a new friend scribbled on a piece of paper in her pocket. She left early, right after Tess had finished with her hand.

She was too tired to actually care about missed classes anymore.

She headed straight up into her room and closed the door behind her. Neither of her parents were home yet. She locked her door and went over to her dresser, opening the middle drawer.

She had never thought much about religion growing up. Her mother never really talked about the household she was raised in, and her dad was agnostic- he didn't know if there was any kind of god, and didn't care.

Her opinion always been the same. She didn't care. Originally it was because she hadn't needed to, and now because…

There was no purely benevolent god. If there where, the things she had seen would have never been allowed.

Still, she knew that symbols of belief were powerful, especially when it came to demons like Freddy. She didn't think that it was the symbol itself that mattered, but rather the belief that it would work.

From there came the simple question of how could she place belief in a symbol when she didn't believe in the deities most of them were devoted to.

So all she had to do was find one that she could reconcile with her own mindsets.

She pulled the drawer out of her dresser and set it down. It had a few various things in it. There was a small notebook, various colored candles and candle holders, a small cauldron filled with sand, and a small necklace. In a small lock box, in the corner of the dresser, there were wrapped and dried bundles of sage and matches.

It was only locked because she didn't want to explain to anyone why there were bundles of dried herbs and matches in her room. Granted, burned sage purified things was the honest answer, but somehow she doubted serial killers or worse, her parents, would believe that.

She emptied the drawer before setting it up the way she would need it for this spell.

Magic was strange- she had never thought she would make use of it- but it was something she could easily believe in after all of this.

It had taken her a while to get all this stuff- she had been saving her allowance to by the pieces, bit by bit. And now… she was going to make a protective charm.

She set the cauldron in the middle of the drawer and unlocked the box with a small silver key from her keyring. Opening it, she took one of the bundles of sage out and grabbed a match. It took only a moment to light the edge of the bundle and wave the flame out, so that it smoldered. From there, she carefully set it on the sand, where it could burn out all it wanted.

She held the necklace- a five pointed star, the symbol of the religion she now claimed- over the smoke and she focused her intent on it, whispering under her breath as she did.

"May whoever keep this charm, be protected from all harm. No spirit or demon with harmful intent, shall touch whoever this charm protects. May things only pass with intentions friendly, this is my will so mote it be."

She knew it was supposed to rhyme, but… She supposed slant rhymes would have to be enough. She repeated the words until the sage burned itself out, sifted the ash out into a bag and left the sand (making a mental note to figure out how to discard the ash later) and packed up her drawer once again. She slid it easily into place on the shelf, before putting the necklace on and tucking it under her shirt.

Now that she was done with that… She had no idea what else she could do. Technically she was supposed to be at school for another hour, and she knew her parents wouldn't be getting back until after, so…

She opted to go downstairs and put something on television. Usually, she would pick a horror series, but since her life had become one, she opted for something cute and innocent instead.

After one refreshening of her bandage, and three episodes of a nice show about cute ponies, she heard a knock at the door. Shit. What now?

She got up and made her way over, only unlocking it and opening it after peeping through the peephole and seeing a familiar face.

"Hello. Heard you might need a hand with your homework." B flashed a folder and walked in, a familiar style of jar tucked under one arm. "I brought another present too."

She was about to ask if it was jam when she realized that it was clear. That was… strange. "Is it the jar? It looks like it's full of… water."

"Yup. Holy water, specifically. For your… nightmares."

Crap.

"I didn't hide it very well, did I?" Faye closed the door and relocked it as B made herself comfortable on the couch and set the jar to her side.

"Nope. So… It looks like we're having a slumber party. Great timing, I haven't slept yet this week, so I should get at least a few hours in." She grinned and held up the jar. "And once we get in, we can douse 'im and hopefully weaken him enough so he'll back off for a few days."

"Yeah. But… what about after a few days?"

"I ordered your ass some hypnocil, Fairy. Probably should have done that before, but… Better late than never, right?"

Hypnocil. Of course. How had she never actually thought of that?

"Good point. So…" She glanced at the television, where the ponies were singing about friendship. "Wanna put something else on?"

"God, I was hoping you'd ask."

Faye wasn't sure when she dozed off, but she found herself sitting in a much too small desk in an old school. Half of the walls were covered in yellowed and torn pages with children's scribbles all over them.

Fuck. She hadn't been holding onto the holy water, and that meant… That meant all she had was her necklace.

She took a deep breath and got up, slipping out of the sea and heading to the door. This was the school, which meant… This was the clone. The other one, not the familiar one. She had to get out of there- better the devil you knew, right? She had experience with the other one, the one with the house on Elm Street.

She reached for the door handle and the metal melted and wrapped around her hand, digging into the injured flesh. She screamed and tried to yank it away, succeeding only because the bandage slipped away. Her hand oozed blood and she wrapped in her shirt.

Two shirts ruined, thanks to one damn wound, and-

The door swung open and Freddy- the uglier one- appeared in the doorway. She took a step back and narrowed her eyes for just a moment before trying to figure out a way out of the room. There was the one door, and the windows.

Windows it was.

"Now, there's no need for the harsh look," he muttered, a small sadistic smirk spreading on his face. "I haven't even put a hand on you. Yet."

She stepped back, and he stepped forward, reaching out a gloved hand towards her. The grin widened. He thought he had her corned. He thought that she would try and run around him, towards the door.

She took a step forward and he darted to the side- the distraction lasted long enough for her to spin on her foot and launch herself at the window. It shattered under her easily and she landed-

Not on snow and glass. She landed hard on wooden floor. It was the living room of a very familiar house. And standing to the side, staring down at her, was the familiar Freddy Krueger.

It would have been easy for him to kill her in that moment, but instead he waved a hand and suddenly she was sitting in a chair. She expected straps to appear and strap her down, but… she was free to get up, if she wanted, and that confused her more than anything.

"What the- what the actual fuck is going on?"

"Glad you asked."

He sat down across from her and grinned, flashing a mouthful of rotten teeth.

"Don't get my wrong, I'd be glad to kill ya right now, but… If I do that, I'll be waiting for ages for someone to take out that copy-cat. He's-"

"Another you who seems to have a school at his side of the dream realm," she stated, sitting up slightly in her chair. All she had needed to know was that he wasn't going to kill her immediately. Now- now she wanted answers. "I guess- he probably died there, or he did his… child murdery shit there. But how the hell are there two of you?"

"Fucking beats me! That's about right, though. Usually I hate the smart ones, but ya know, the less I gotta explain, the better."

There was something amazingly surreal about sitting across from someone who had tried to kill you before and having a civil conversation.

"Right. Well, that doesn't matter. What do you expect me to do about this?"

He leaned forward in his seat and grinned. His breath smelled like milk that was about a month past its expiration date.

"Here's the plan. You drag him out of my dream world and kill him in the real world."

"..." Alright, so original plan. Pity she didn't have enough time to actually set up any traps, Nancy style.

"I can tell you're thinking about that skunk stripe bitch- knock it off."

"Fine." She shrugged and folded her arms. "But there's just a little problem with that, which is that whole supernatural serial killers are incredibly hard to keep dead thing. And also, I assume that my end of this deal is something like you won't kill me? Or any of my friends?"

He raised a nonexistent eyebrow at her.

"... At least until after we take care of the other one?"

"That I can do."

It wasn't ideal, but if was all Faye could manage, than she would take it. "But there's still that issue."

"Nah, it ain't an issue here. I did a couple of favors for Pinhead-" He watched as she shuddered at that particular memory and chuckled to himself. "What, you summoned those guys?"

"... On accident."

And that got the dream demon to bust out in full laughter.

"You don't summon Hell's favorite sadomasochists on accident, girlie. Anyway, they're gonna keep that fuck up down in hell, so that the best dream demon gets to be the only one. And hey, if do me a favor and off him, that'll be one less thing for you to deal with."

She hated to admit he had a point. Still, she leaned against the chair and nodded. "So… I go back to the school and take him on there, than? Great. I don't suppose you could wake me up so I can get some supplies first?"

In answer, the chair tipped backwards, and she fell into the snow.

What an asshole.

Faye was asleep, and she wasn't waking up.

B had tried everything short of actually slapping the other girl, but she wasn't waking up. The only thing that was left to do was try and join her friend with the holy water. Sure, she could try and go find his body, but how well had that really worked?

No. Better to take it directly to the source.

She sat down next to her friend on the couch and hesitated. She needed a way directly into the dream world, and while she both believed in and was at least somewhat afraid of Freddy, she was awful with getting to sleep.

She lifted the other girl's legs and tucked herself under them. Physical contact might help. After all, holding onto Freddy was all it too to drag him out, so maybe it would… drag her in?

She only had ideas. Not actual plans. Still, once she got into the dream, it would be fine.

B leaned back against the couch and shut her eyes. She was tired- but she was always tired, one of the many unfortunate side effects of her depression manifesting as insomnia, among… other things. She couldn't just will herself to sleep- she had tried!

A cool breeze on her face made her flinch. Damnit. In hindsight, closing the window would have been a good thing to do before she tried to rest. She opened her eyes and…

Two things stood out to her.

First was the snow.

The second was that everything looked so big. She knew for a fact that she was dreaming, and she clutched the jar of holy water to her chest tightly. Her bare feet stung on the cold ground, and she couldn't- she couldn't remember, but there was something important that she had to do.

She looked down at herself- she wasn't just small. She was younger. She was three years old. The strong sensation of deja vu spread through her body. Calm down, she scolded herself. This might seem real but it's only a dream, got it? Only a dream. A dream where you can be hurt and killed, but… a dream. Unsurprisingly, that did little to comfort her. She swallowed a nervous knot in her throat started walking. She had to find- Faye! She had to find Faye!

A squeal of tires made her pause for a heartbeat, before she took off, little legs moving as best they could to carry her away. Away from the bad memory, away from the bad dream, away from the arms that caught her tiny little body and tossed her into the back of the car, the jar shattering under her.

The door closed behind her even as she grabbed for the handle of the other one and tried frantically to open it, ignoring the bleeding wounds and the glass embedded in her skin. It didn't matter. She knew it wouldn't open. She knew that it would be locked and this time, there was nobody there to stop the car and get her back out. She pressed her face against the car window.

The drive seemed impossibly long, but she knew that it was just because it was dream logic. She knew it would end soon, but she didn't know what would happen when it did.

Eventually the car stopped, and the arms wrapped around her again, pressing the glass even deeper. She refused to cry out, though, and kicked and clawed the entire way those arm carried her to a… log of wood?

"What are you," squeaked out of her little child mouth, "a fucking Saturday morning cartoon villain?"

The man holding her only laughed and slammed her onto the wood, quickly tying her into place. "Such language. We can't have that, now can we?"

And suddenly, a bar of soap was crammed in her mouth. She glared, but it didn't have the same effect from someone with the body of a three year old that it would when she was a teenager.

The log started moving, and the whirring alone told her exactly it was. She had to figure out a way to get out of there, before she got sliced up.

Faye had broken one of the legs off the chair, and now she was dragging it through the snow, trying to figure out how to start. Grab the other Freddy and than just, what? Bite her hand again?

Crap. She didn't know. In the dream realm, you didn't find Freddy- he found you. Maybe if she just tried to look as pathetic of a target as she could, he would target her? Or maybe…

Maybe she should just follow the loud shrieking?

The only reason she didn't run to it immediatly was because she knew in a moment that it wasn't human. It was too high pitched, too mechanical. It had to be a machine. That didn't mean that it wasn't a trap, but what other place could she look?

Snow crunched under foot as she made her way to the building, shoved it opened, and peered in.

The moment she recognized a child tied to a log, she ran forward. She was shocked to see two familiar and distinctly different colored eyes staring up at her.

"B- What are you-?" The question could wait. She ran to the end of the machine and hit an emergency override. It was strange to see one in the dream realm, before she realized-

Old Freddy must have put that one there.

Once the saw was off, she moved and grabbed the soap from her friend's mouth.

"Thanks, Fairy. I came to help out. It hasn't been my best effort."

"I'm glad to see you anyway, though you look… shorter than I remember." She dug her nails into the rope to pick apart the knot, until the binding was loosened enough for B to slip through.

It was only once her friend straightened up with blood dripping down that Faye realized she was hurt. Dammit- this was her fault. If she had just been a bit more careful…

"Okay. I need you to wake up now."

"What? Fuck that- I'm here to help you!"

"Right. And the best way you can do that is by waking up, and…" What would B be able to find? "Get a knife, one of my bats, anything."

"Are we gonna kill Freddy?"

"..." Faye stared at her for a moment. "Okay, your excited murderface works on grown up you. On kid you, it just looks… Kind of adorable?"

B folded her tiny arms and huffed. "Alright, so I gotta wake up. Can you just like… give me a smack? I know I look and sound like a little kid, but remember, I'm not."

Faye lifted a hand, but hesitated and dropped it. "I… can't slap you. I'm sorry, I can't."

"Come ooooooon, Fairy. I can take a smack!"

She stepped forward. Okay, she could do this. It was just to wake up her friend, who she reminded herself, was not actually three years old. She could do this. She could do this.

Faye couldn't do this, B thought, watching her friend try to build the courage. She sighed and shook her tiny three year old head. It was much easier for her to to just stretch her hand and slap herself across the face.

Her eyes flew open and she looked down at her hands. Sweet, sweet teenager sized hands. Whatever thing Freddy had done to her in the dream world had only lasted until she woke up. The jar of holy water lay in shards under her hand, though, and she had to be careful to retract her arm without cutting it up. She didn't know how long she had before she had to be ready with something to kill the demon, so she had to hurry.

She carefully lifted Faye's feet off her lap, placing them back down on the couch once she was free, before heading to the kitchen. Time to go and get something nice and sharp to give Freddy a taste of his own medicine.

B was gone. Good. If she knew her friend (and she did), the other would be awake and ready to handle Freddy when she dragged him out.

She looked around the mill, and took a deep breath to prepare herself. If this Freddy was anything like the old version, than he probably wouldn't respond kindly to taunts, which was… Exactly what she needed.

"Hey, Freddy," she called, letting the word trail off her tongue in a taunting tone. "And I mean you, extra crispy. Where'd you run off too? Why don't you stop hiding behind that school? You want me? Come and fucking get me."

She felt at the moment she should move, right then, and she stepped to the left, quickly- just in time to dodge a swipe from the four bladed glove. She spun around on her left foot to face him- he was the new one, which gave her all the motivation she needed.

Instead of trying to run, she kicked him in the crotch, as hard as she could. It worked just as well as it would on any other guy- his knees buckled under him, and she took that opportunity to grab a handful of sweater and hold on tightly as she lifted her hand up to her mouth and bit down again.

Before she could register that she was awake, she was rolled off the couch. She landed her on her back, and the dream demon landed on top of her. He wrapped his nongloved hand around her throat to pin her down, eyes trailing over her in a fashion that sent chills down her spine. A small smile curled at his lips and-

It barely had time to change when B sank the knife into the back of his neck and tore it out, to the side. Even if he didn't die immediately, all the strength his limbs was cut off, and he collapsed- right onto her.

"B. Get him off. Get him off me right now."

Her friend grabbed the body and hoisted it away, rolling it over and dropping the knife, before grabbed her hand and hoisting her to her feet.

"Are you okay?"

She hesitated, before nodding. She was fine. Mostly unhurt, save for the fresh bleeding from her hand.

"What about you?"

B turned to show several cuts along her back, blood slowly dripping out of them. "Still got these. I think they're still pretty small, though." She glanced over her shoulder and offered a thumbs up. "Other than those, I'm good."

"... We're getting too good at this," she muttered, shaking her head. "But… what are we supposed to do with him?"

Faye glanced at him and shook her head. "I… I don't know. Let's get you cleaned up and than we can deal with it. My parents aren't due home for at least another hour, so we can deal with this later. We'll… figure something out."

She led the way to her bathroom, where she dug out the first aid supplies- bandages, antibiotic ointment- and a clean wash rag to wipe the blood away.

"Here, give those to me," B muttered. "I can take care of them."

"... B, they're mostly on your back. I can get those fixed up for you." She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Since when are you shy?"

"I'm not, I just-" She huffed and lifted the back of her shirt over her head.

The two were silent while Faye worked, carefully pulling glass, cleaning the wounds. Only a couple of them seemed serious, and Faye took extra care with this. They were the kind of things that butterfly bandages were supposed to be used on, right? Yeah.

The one benefit about all this was that she was getting faster with cleaning and sticking bandages on people. Not to mention that girl from class was going to teach her a few things too. … What was that strange feeling bubbling up in her chest? It felt sort of bright and cheery. Was that optimism?

"Alright. You're done," she stated, helping the other pull her shirt back down. The dark fabric hid most of the bloodstains so well that even though she knew where they were it was still hard for her to spot them. With that done, they headed back downstairs.

The body was gone.