Chapter 13

David's Nightmare

David looked around in confusion. One minute he was in that weird dream prison, and now he was standing in his high school gymnasium! He saw that he was standing in a line with the others from his gym class and had changed into a white t-shirt and basketball shorts. Everyone else was wearing identical clothes; the guys, though, had comically over-sized muscles and all of the women had their pants so low, you could see the whale-tail of their G-strings going up their buttocks. Clearly not school appropriate attire...

"What the fuck?" Before David could think any further, a loud ear-splitting whistle filled the gym.

"Alright, boys and girls: it's time to pick teams," the coach screamed. "Chester, Thelma, you two are team captains." "Chester" and "Thelma" took their places on either side of the coach. David couldn't see the coach's face, though, because it was hidden by the shadow of the green ballcap on his head.

"I'll take Fat Willie, Easy Suzie, and Ted, the Sped," Chester said.

"I'll take Betty Blue Balls, Pencil Dick, and Two-Ton Tammy," Thelma said. On and on, the picking went until David was the last one left.

"Looks like you're taking Dickless David," Chester said to Thelma.

"Fuck no! I'm not taking Dickless! You take him," Thelma shot at Chester.

"No fucking way!" Chester yelled. "You take him!"

"Come on, now, kids!" said the coach. "Let's not fight over this! I've got a solution that works for everyone!"

The coach turned to David, who then saw the warped face of Freddy Krueger. Freddy held a dodgeball in his gloved hand, which suddenly erupted into a sphere of spikes!

"Odd-man-out dies! Ah-hahahaha!" Freddy rolled his tongue as David screamed.

"Everyone wake up now!" Ash screamed. He shook Jake and Jarvis from their sleep before running to Carrie and David's bedroom. He opened the door to see Carrie already up and around. She hopped out of the bed and lunged for Ash.

"Ash," Carrie yelled. "He's got David!"

"Who?" Ash asked. "Freddy?"

Carrie was stunned. "How did you...?"

"What's going on, Ash?" Jake interrupted. "What the hell's wrong with him? Why isn't he waking up?" Ash saw David on the bed; he was twitching and spasming uncontrollably, threatening to fall off the bed.

"Yo!" Jarvis screamed from another room. "Something's wrong with Raoul!" Ash and Carrie rushed into the other room, and saw Raoul twitching as well, just as violently as David! Jarvis bent down and picked up Raoul's baggie and pipe! "Man, motherfucker done smoked himself to a coma!"

"Oh dear God, no!" Ash screamed as Raoul continued to twitch.

The first dodgeball whizzed through the air and embedded into the wall next to David's head! A second, non-spiked ball flew harmlessly through the air and smacked David in the face, bouncing off and landing on the floor. Another ball was headed for his stomach; David reflexively caught the ball, but instantly dropped it as he collapsed to the ground in pain! This ball was spiked, and some had pierced his palm! A fourth ball grazed David's arm, but cut him deep enough to cause him to bleed.

"No! Fuck!" The cuts were pretty severe now, really hurting. He was losing a lot of blood. "Get me out of here!"

"David, wake up!" Carrie shouted. A large cut appeared on David's wrist.

"Shit, he's gonna bleed to death if we don't wake him up!" Jarvis shouted.

"Come on! Don't die on us, now, kid!" An idea sprang into Ash's head, turning to Jake. "Go get two pitchers of water and give one to Carrie!"

Jake returned shortly and dumped a pitcher of hot water on Raoul's face, but Raoul still slept on, and was now coughing up blood.

"What the hell is happening to him?" Jake asked.

"David, wake up!" Carrie screamed. She was almost hysterical. She continued to try to shake David out of it; blood had formed a puddle around his head, the light making it look like a halo.

David looked up at Freddy. The demon stood over him, holding a satanic clawed glove at his chest.

"Tell sweet Caroline I'll be seeing her soon," Freddy threatened!

"Fuck off!" David shouted defiantly, hawking a huge, bloody loogie and letting it rip on Freddy's face! Angered, Freddy brushed the loogie to the ground and pulled the glove back, preparing to dig the blades into David's gut! David closed his eyes as Krueger mocked him.

"Come on, David. Take it like a man!" With that, he thrust the blades forward; David took what he thought was his final breath and inhaled a lung full of water!

David sat upright and tossed the water off his face, shaking droplets everywhere! He coughed heavily and vomited about two cups of water!

"David!" Carrie shouted right into his ear, and he was suddenly enclosed tightly within her arms. So tightly, in fact, that it helped David cough out more of the water that had gotten into his lungs. He was too stunned to return the gesture, but saw Jake jumping up and down in excitement.

"Ash!" Jake yelled! "David's awake! He's alive!"

"Give him room," Ash called out as he entered the room. "David, hey, look at me!" David managed to crane his neck and look in Ash's direction; his shirt was covered in blood.

"What... the... hell...?" His breath was raspy and shallow; it hurt to speak. He looked down and saw that he was bleeding heavily.

"Jesus, you're bleeding!" Carrie cried out, nearly in tears.

"ASH!" Jarvis yelled loudly from the other room. "It's Raoul! Something isn't right!"

"Oh no!" Ash exclaimed, rushing back into the other room. Jake followed quickly, and Carrie helped the stunned David into the room shortly after.

By now, the room had been turned into a hotbox! Raoul and Fred were currently passing the joint back and forth between them while Freddy recounted one of his many tales.

"So then I told her, 'I always had a thing for the whores that live in this house!' Ah-hahahaha!" Fred laughed wildly, as did Raoul! The giggles had completely consumed them both.

Fred smiled at Raoul. "You know what? I like you, kid! I like you a lot! So, I'll tell you what I'm going to do! I'm going to let you take a hit off of Claw!"

"Claw?" Raoul parroted in curiosity.

Fred then pulled out a miraculously large bong out of... somewhere, Raoul wasn't sure. He was pretty sure Fred hadn't come in with it. But still, he couldn't help but be enamored with the beauty of it. It was glass with red and green swirls, much like Fred's shirt, with four "corners" that did, indeed, resemble claws going from the bulb all the way up to the mouth, gleaming like polished silver. In the bulb, something thick and murky swished around at the bottom, and it didn't look exactly like normal bong water.

Fred took the bong and loaded the bowl before handing it to Raoul. "Now, be careful," he warned. "She hits a bit rough!" He offered Raoul a lighter, who took it and lit it to pull a hit off the bong. Once he got the bong water rolling, he pulled the stem and let the smoke fill his lungs!

Immediately, Raoul realized he had, in fact, hit it too hard; his lungs seized up on him and he went into a mad coughing fit! But no matter what, he couldn't get any air to go through his lungs! It was like his airway was blocked!

Raoul collapsed to the floor and began smacking at his chest, trying to get some air in as he began choking! The bong fell to the ground and shattered, the glass shards glinting as they lay in the pool of blood that had occupied the bottom of the bulb!

"Come on, kid! Breathe!" Fred shouted as he knelt down beside Raoul! "Here, get up! I'll help you!" Fred helped Raoul to his feet.

The moment he was standing, Raoul looked at Fred, but the man had changed! The tie-dye shirt was gone, replaced with a red-and-green striped Christmas sweater, and all the hair had disappeared as well! His right hand was covered in a clawed glove, the tips of the fingers decorated with metal talons.

"Here!" Fred shouted. "Let's open up those airways!" Suddenly, Fred jammed the claws into Raoul's gut and pulled upwards, slicing through his stomach, intestines, and into his lungs! Blood and smoke poured from the four wounds and while the blood and intestines fell to the floor, the smoke rose towards their faces, forming a person shaped identical to Raoul; Fred inhaled deeply, sending the Smoke Raoul into his nostrils, where he held it for several seconds.

In that time, an eerie blue glow traveled down Fred's body as he absorbed Raoul's soul, then he exhaled the smoke into Raoul's face.

"Told you she hits rough... Ah-hahahahaha!"

Fred then pulled the claws out of Raoul's body, and let him fall limp to the floor. Just as he was turning away, Freddy looked back at Raoul and added as an afterthought, "By the way, you take hits like a bitch!"

Raoul finally snapped awake, and the first thing he saw was everyone standing over him! He was shaking uncontrollably; he tried to move to sit up, but Ash held him down!

"Don't move, kid!" he demanded. Raoul tried to look down to see why, and saw his hands covered in blood. Looking down further, he saw his stomach was sliced open from chest to belly, organs dangling out of four massive cuts running parallel down his body. His breath was short and rattling as blood pooled at the back of his throat.

"Aaa... aaahh... Ash... ley..." Raoul finally managed to breath out. "Save... me..."

Ash found Raoul's hand and gripped it tightly as his breaths became shorter. "Just rest, kid," he said, voice cracking. "You'll be fine in a minute." Behind him, Carrie was fighting to hold back tears as everyone waited for the inevitable.

Raoul smiled and took one final breath, and everything went black.

Silence overtook the apartment, the only sound being Carrie's broken sobs. Even Jarvis was fighting to hold back tears. Jake just stood in silence, but anger covered every inch of his face, and he was clenching his fists so hard he was digging his nails into his palm. Ash pulled a sheet over Raoul's body just as Carrie turned and rushed the door, David stumbling out after her.