Chapter 14

We all slowly crawled down the latter of the attic, the rope still in Nancy's hands. "So how are we going to do this?" Rose asked.

"We corner Takeo," I said.

"But how are we going to do that?" Freddy asked. "He's not scared of any of us."

"I'm sure if I could use some of my shape shifting powers I can corner Takeo in the attic."
"But what animal are you going to use?" Nancy asked.

"You just leave that to me, Nancy. Now we need to split up into two groups. Freddy you come with me, and Rose you can go with Nancy."

Freddy and Nancy stared at each other. "Why do you want to keep Freddy and I separated?" Nancy asked.

I shrugged at her and answered, "Why not?" Nancy looked irritated with me at first, but she obeyed. "Come on Freddy," I said. "Let's go." Freddy followed me down the dark hallway.

"So what exactly do you want to do?" Freddy asked.

"Takeo had a bad experience with tigers once," I said. "One got out from a local zoo and tried to attack him. That's where our plan comes in. What the girls do is have Takeo chase them down, I'll chase Takeo down as a tiger, Nancy can sneak behind him in the attic with the rope and hang him, and you can finish him off."

"Sounds complicated, but you're the one that knows Takeo the best. So when does the plan go into action?"

We heard the screaming of the girls a little ways back. "I believe the plan starts know. You need to hide and I'll signal you when it's time to finish him off."

Freddy hid in a small closet and I switched into a tiger. Takeo was chasing Nancy and Rose down the hallway. Nancy and Rose only stared at me and Takeo screamed, "Tiger! Run away!" That was exactly what he did. He tried going the opposite direction of the attic, but I pounced at him to make him go to the attic. On the way up the attic stairs, Takeo kept whimpering, "Nice kitty…good kitty…please don't try to kill me kitty."

Takeo kept whimpering as he climbed up the attic stairs. But I didn't need to come up. Nancy was hiding in the shadows of the attic and had the rope ready.

Nancy had a little bit of a hard time trying to get the rope around Takeo's neck. Sometimes the thing would swing around wildly and she thought she had swung the rope in front of Takeo's face. We were lucky enough that Takeo was to busy staring at me to notice. She finally got the rope around Takeo's neck and I kicked down a footstool he was standing on. Takeo was hung.

Nancy had climbed down from where she was hiding and waved evilly at him and said, "Goodbye, asshole."

Takeo was still choking and was starting to weaken. I signaled Freddy into the attic. He saw Takeo hanging from the attic and smiled. "Sorry," Freddy said evilly. "But your time is up." Freddy dug the claw into Takeo's heart and sliced him open.

"It's over," I breathed. "It's finally over."

We all woke back up in the Elm Street house. Everybody was just quiet and smiling at each other. "Rose," I said. "Can I speak with you for a minute?"

"Sure you can," Rose said. We walked up the stairs into the main bathroom. "So why are we in the bathroom?" Rose asked.

"It's the most private room in the house. Besides, I didn't want you getting the wrong idea if we went into any other room. But I really want to say something to you. I want you to stay human."

Rose only stared at me. "Why?"

"Look, you say your only dream is to be with me right now, but trust me it's not. You'll realize you have other dreams you want to chase. What will happen if I make you into what I am and you can't chase those dreams. You'll regret your decision for all eternity. So please, for me, stay human and live your life to the fullest."

Rose looked up at me and smiled. "I will. Thank you, Toshio." We left the bathroom and walked in on another conversation Freddy and Nancy were having.

"Oh man," Nancy moaned. "You got blood all over my good white t-shirt! What kind of boyfriend are you, Freddy?"

"Well how about I go get you another shirt and I kill the cashier?" Freddy asked.

"Killing the cashier won't do anything good for your reputation. Besides, you'll probably get blood all over that shirt, too." Nancy got out her wallet. "How about I just give you the money to buy it?"

"Okay I guess."

"Thank you, baby."

It was Rose's turn to pick on them. "Freddy and Nancy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Why is it the same joke with you kids every time?" Freddy asked.

"It's the only love joke we know."

"What are we going to do with you?"

"That's a good question," Nancy said. "Both of her parents are dead, her sister's dead. So what are we going to do with her?"

"I really don't know."

Nancy suddenly got an idea. "Rose, do you want to stay with me and Freddy? We could be like your foster parents."

Rose beamed. "That would be wonderful." Rose ran down the stares and hugged Nancy. It might not be the most normal or perfect family in the world, but some family for souls like Rose was better than no family at all.