Chapter Fourteen – Haunted
Monday's morning was received by Helyse without any special animation, marking, she the return to routine. Now, sitting at Algebra's class, she tried to understand the equations being showed in the blackboard by the teacher, without having any idea of what they were… And without much will to try, her attention divided into the class and recent happenings.
"Maybe I could try asking Kurt for his notes… Or Amelia" They didn't have class together, but were in the same year and, in the "reunion" the girl had seemed… Well… Nice, she supposed it would be the word.
She lowered her eyes to her book, thinking how things had changed… Before, she wouldn't have thought about asking for this sort of help to anyone, especially because she had no one to ask to and because, should she do it, the person would deny it or then agree and do something "funny" (something Helyse knew from past experience).
The person in front of her turned quickly, letting a small paper fall in her table.
There's to show that some things never changed.
The old notes in class. And when they were not in class, they were put in her backpack… Although Helyse knew it would be better to throw that in the trash, she opened it anyway as she better with herself what would be written.
"We're all sorry for your accident… We had hoped that you had finally died".
Nice.
Really cute.
She scrunched it up, not caring or pretending not to. There were bigger things to think about, right? Right? And after all, what was a stupid note next to other things, such as being stuck in a coffin with spiders walking over her?
But maybe even Krueger was better than this… Oh, she would do anything to not go back there, to not sleep again, no doubt, but although he had hurt her, at least he had had reasons that were beyond the simple fact that she existed, he didn't like her or that she disgusted him for being a "freak" or any other thing alike that…
"Great, now I'm losing my mind. Stop thinking nonsense, you idiot!".
After all, had she not expected this? And hadn't she already head whispers when passing by the hallway and noticed some students looking at her as they came closer to each others, muttered something and they started giggling? Jake Norton, sitting in the steps of the entrance's stairs, had said something as soon as he had seen her. She understood it well, when you received some label, especially in school, you couldn't get rid of it… It was like a stain of blood. Helyse had thought about it, a bit after awakening… How some things in life could be different, that she could be someone else, could try to be… Well, truth was, it wasn't like that at all. Labels were not erased, they could only grow stronger. A vine warped around you, feeding of you and your emotions, a cocoon that stopped others from coming near (not that anyone would want, for this vine was contagious)…
The child from first grade who was called a "weirdo" would still be called "weirdo" in the last year of high school…
Leaning her face in one hand, Helyse held a sigh. What a time to start thinking about that. Spending the weekend without sleep was something, but it was harder to not fall asleep in a class, having to hear the teacher talking about a subject she had no idea and couldn't understand. Helyse's grades had never been good enough so she would be considered one of the "first in class" and, in moments like this, she felt like an idiot.
Her eyes started to weight…
"I thought you didn't want to sleep anymore…" A harsh voice whispered in her ear. Her eyes snapped open, their nerves becoming spikes as her body tensed and she turned her head… No. Some people took notes, other stared at the blackboard and one or another seemed to be drawing rather than writing.
Still in doubt, Helyse pinched herself. Nothing happened.
She was awake… Surely, she was awake…
And it wasn't the first time she head his voice…
"So, second option. I'm having a hearing hallucination of some sort. It can only be that… It's all my mind." Picking up the mechanical pencil, with the decision of doing her best to keep herself awaken, she made a mental note of searching for some pills that could help her. Coffee alone wouldn't be enough.
"And you should know that already" She told herself.
Krueger couldn't be here. Let's be logical. He belonged to the plane of existence of dreams, therefore…
Something warm pressed over her shoulders in the second she thought it.
Still, feeling each muscle of her body frozen, Helyse noticed the cloth of her shirt lowering in a shape that she had no need to see… She knew one of those hands which fingers seemed longer than usual because they were not fingers at all.
She bit her lower lip, refusing to scream and closing her eyes.
"There is nothing there, nothing there, nothing there…" She had to breathe, easy, take a deep breath, count to ten, to ignore the warmth, the reality of that touch… Maybe she was going through some post-traumatic shock? It couldn't be Krueger, it just couldn't!
"Please, I deserve some peace, don't I? Don't I?".
XxX
Usually, Helyse brought from home for lunch and sat on the bleachers in the football field. It was usually nice and calm there, since most people who chose that particular spot were either loners like herself or some people who liked peace and quiet, it was rare to see a group bigger than three or four students. Knowing that the probability of being bothered was lower in that time, Helyse remembered how she used to feel… Well, not pleasure, by the mist that lurked inside her body and among her organs got lighter in that time in school and there was a seed of calmness that spread to her brain, touching her mind and enabled the girl to appreciate her surroundings.
Or maybe it was how she thought it had been and now memories were tempered by her time in the darkness? There was this possibility…
In any case, in times like today when she didn't have anything with her, she bought something in the cafeteria and, depending of what, ate there, sitting in a table near one of the windows.
When Helyse heard her name being called, it ripped the air filled with talking and the smell of food.
"Hey, Hell! Sit here with us!".
"What was that?". She searched for who had said this and saw Jonathan Mears smiling to her while Amelia waved for her to come closer. Kurt, Jessica and Mark were there as well… For a second, Helyse could only look back, her system unable to choose a path of reaction, but she noticed how some people looked from her to Jonathan and back to her, others leaned closer and started to whisper.
It wasn't something that people that didn't belong there could understand. They wouldn't have seen anything at all, unless they could remember their own school years and how stable things were… How frozen they were. Once you're classified (labeled) by your peers, you belonged to a social class and nothing would change that. And the barrier between those classes was a dark abyss…
So, the reactions of those people were very, actually, pretty appropriate for what they had just witnessed. As she passed by the tables, Helyse could hear some fragments of the whispers and could only imagine what those seeds would grow into.
"He called her to sit with them? Is he crazy?".
"Maybe he wants to be nice, I heard that she was in coma.".
"But even so…".
"So what?".
"Heh, good luck to them, I wouldn't bear to eat with that fucking bitch near me".
"He is a nice guy".
Feeling her nerves weaken and a shiver go by her muscles, Helyse sat down in silence, not knowing what to do or say in a situation like that and, for the first time, giving some thought to what they would think of her. Not that she would ever consider changing to please others, but… Damn, why was she feeling like that? What was that, anyway?
"You look well…".
"How it is, to be back?" Mark asked as he poked his food with a fork, the way someone did when they are certain of what is in the plate before them.
"I can't understand a single thing of what most of the teachers are saying".
"Oh, if you want, you can copy my notes." Amelia laughed a bit, despite her pale complexion. "I'll just warn you, my History's notes are a true mess.".
"And how was your night? Did you fall asleep?" The question left Helyse uncertain if it was made due to interest in her well being or just to make conversation… She just shook her head. At Jessica's side, Kurt sighed.
"Luck you… My sister did."
"Is she… Is she alright?" Although she hadn't thought about the child since their meeting, Helyse thought it would be better to show worry and it wasn't for hypocrisy… The fire-illuminated face of despair appeared in her mind and Helyse actually didn't want to see Amanda hurt (contrary to her usual indifference)… If not for the child, for Kurt (who she doubted would have come to class at all if his little sister had died).
"Yes, she is, I had someone else to play with last night".
"Huh?" Helyse could swear she hadn't heard it right. "What do you mean, play?".
"Play? I said she slept!" He answered a bit harsh. "She is fine, thank God… She has been a nerve wreck since that nightmare… And I can't even stay with her during the night, my father won't allow it, keeps saying she getting too old to be scared of dreams and the dark, she has to face it alone and yadda yadda…" He ended his rant with a growl.
"Can we talk about some other thing? This makes me lose my appetite…" Jessica muttered as she turned her food with her fork. "Not that I have much, with this they serve us here…".
"And who has it?" When she said that, Helyse realized Jonathan had been looking at her.
"Is there something wrong, Hell?" He whispered, to what she remained in silence. Jessica was right, did they have to talk about such things right now? And what he was talking about, anyway?
"No… Just…" She hesitated. She couldn't say she had heard voices, now and in class and back at the hospital, but before she realized it, she gave another answer that was not a total lie. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm truly awake… Or if this is one more of Krueger's "jokes"… You know, making me think I'm awake just to show me that I'm still asleep…".
"I've already done things like that, but no.".
Helyse turned her attention to the food with all her might. She wasn't even going to look around, she wouldn't give any signal that could be misinterpreted by the others and…
"Quit acting like a moron, I'm right here." Behind Jonathan, staring at her with the amusement of someone watching a rat being dismembered, it was Freddy Krueger.
A wave of pure coldness ran inside the girl' veins, her flesh shivered under her skin, which felt too fragile to hold her muscles together.
"Huh… I… I'll see you guys later, I… I have to check something…" She didn't wait to see their reactions and stood up, going out the cafeteria with a quick pace, the old feeling of fear finding birth in her heart again, soon dominating her body.
"Well, what's the hurry?" Krueger laughed, behind her.
Helyse didn't wait nor answered until she passed by an empty classroom and entered it. Her body shivered not only due to fear, but by the intensity of the emotions: Dread, yes, but also nervousness, tension and irritation. It was too much for a system unused like hers. Like a drug, it wore her down, until all flesh, skin and muscles felt like nothing more than a sack around her nerves, the only place where her existence was still possible.
She was a bunch of shards, held together by a fragile sheet that would soon be ripped apart.
"Going inside a room alone with him? What was I thinking? I'm going to be killed!" Wait… On second thought… It didn't make much sense. She knew now that she had indeed heard his voice before and, assuming he was really there and it hadn't been a hallucination, he could have killed her at any point…
"Good, privacy at least!" Krueger grunted, showing his usual sick smile. Perhaps the situation was amusing or she had forgotten how his dark eyes seemed to held fire inside. "I've always hated those places, always filled with cretins blabbering in loud voices. Like that, we can't talk in peace.".
"So funny…" She thought with bitterness.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Helyse hoped she didn't sound as scared as she thought. Krueger only inclined his head to the side, pretending to be hurt.
"What, no "hello", no "how are you doing"? And here I was thinking you had at least some fucking manners…" Bastard, he was having fun and knew he had disturbed her. "And why shouldn't I be here?".
At the moment, Helyse didn't care for the mockery, she was used to it.
"Because this is not a dream! Aren't you a Dream Demon? Murderer of Dreams? Do you want me to draw it for you?" And there was the sarcasm again. The girl was reacting more now than when he had met here, but the tone was still the very same, despite the words and what they hid inside. Had the time in coma, the habit of being tortured without being killed gave her a false sensation that he would never do it? Krueger doubted it, but if it was the case, time to fix this idea.
He came closer, touching her throat with the claws and Helyse became silent in the very second, wondering if, in the heat of the moment, she had talked too much.
"Can't you figure it out yourself? Poor little thing…" He scratched her skin with gentleness, just enough to leave thin white lines that soon became reddish. "C'mon… Try to think…".
Focusing all that she could control of herself in suffocating her emotions, Helyse tried to make a line of thought and follow it. Krueger, in no way, would be here without a reason…
"You can just appear in your dreams… You're a being that lives in this… Plane, dimension, whatever…" She stopped talking, managing to control herself and her feelings were nothing more than a distant echo, Krueger could be that now, but he had been human once… And all those powers could only exist in the dreams… "Here, you have… Or would have… To abide by the laws of reality" If not all of them, at least most of the basic ones. "So… You would be real… Human. Mortal.".
Krueger clapped slowly, the lines of his burnt face marked by sarcasm as he smiled.
"Right! Very good! What a smart little girl you are!" He petted her head as he would do to a dog that had learnt a trick and Helyse shook out of his touch. "Now, should I tell the rest?".
He touched his chin with one of his claws, pretending to be in deep thought and Helyse just waited. Her body still hurt, however she didn't feel anything in her heart. It was better like this… She wasn't sure she liked (or wanted) to deal with that entire situation and still with those emotions after so many years of not having them.
"Well, since you are such a good girl and I'm feeling generous, I'll do an exception and explain it: That would happen if had been dragged here. Since I opened my own path, nothing happens" He had learnt that when had had to deal with Nancy Thompson, so many years ago an, this time, had decided to take a preventive measure. He was even a bit surprised that none of those fuckers had thought about it themselves, even if he knew he shouldn't expect much of those stupid teens.
"Great, and now you're what, a hallucination?" Damn, maybe that was the better (if not only) chance they had of getting rid of Krueger and it had presented itself just to fly out of the window. "And why are you after me?".
God, she was so tired… Her mind was shutting down as if unable to stay aware of many things at the same time.
"You don't look so much like the insensible girl I met. What changed in you? Your new little fucking friends? That boy who seems to care so much for you?".
Helyse lifted her eyebrows as if Krueger was insane. Of what the devil he was talking about? If she was acting less insensible and out of the ordinary, if now she had to deal with things she didn't even know, it was because he had forced her organism… And of what boy he was talking about? Kurt? He was still thinking back when she had helped Amanda? Or Jonathan, since he had invited her to sit with them? That didn't mean anything, it was only due to them being in the same situation, not out of friendship. Before she could try to get control back, a wave seemed to break lose inside her, in a way not unlike anger. Not showing the acute pain that she felt for a moment. Helyse closed her hands, fingernails digging the flesh of her hands.
"Would you stop messing with my mind and be clear?".
"Messing with you? I'm being perfectly clear, you damned moron. It is a precaution of mine, now if any of you try to drag me here to make me mortal, nothing will happen. Do I have to explain everything to you?".
Noting the way she stared at him and seeing her dark blue eyes running to the door, he sighed.
"Don't be stupid, if I was going to kill you here, don't you think I would have done that already?" Why was he even explaining himself to her? If Helyse thought that he could kill her being here, it would even be better. And fun as well… Still, he rarely lied (he kept information and lead others to believe things, but he never actually told lies) and couldn't ignore the impulse of being clear honest with her. "I can't kill while I'm here, I've said it, only a precaution.".
She didn't seem to fully relax, but at least her eyes came back to him as she pulled a chair and sat down. Krueger noticed she didn't seem to be feeling well, but didn't say anything.
"That still doesn't tell me why you're following me" She said the last word almost as singing it. Krueger lifted the claws as if about to hit her, stopping a few inches of her eyes.
"I never said I couldn't hurt anyone, now, did I?".
For some seconds, they remained still, impassive until Krueger moved his claws suddenly before lowering them.
"If you really want to know, it is a bit boring in the boiler room during the day, unless someone is asleep and I manage to attract their conscience. Apparently, since most of the energy I use to cross the frontier came from your fear, you're the only one who can see me. There, all explained? Did you follow it?" What he wouldn't say was that there was some pleasure on the fact that Helyse could see him. Yes, it was true that the boiler room could become boring if there were no victims around, however this was a sensation he had only had after the girl had awaken. He had never even realized it before. The only explanation, Krueger knew, was the obvious one: He had gotten used to always having someone around.
Helyse could only stay still after hearing this. It was not fair… It was just not fair, she had believed that she could be free of Krueger at least while she wasn't asleep and now even that had been taken away. It was not fair!
"Sorry if I'm not jumping of joy…" She muttered, ignoring the headache that was growing inside a cocoon in her brain. "I'm ecstatic with this… I missed so much your pleasant company.".
Krueger opened his mouth, only for whatever he was going to say to be immediately drowned by the sharp sound of a bell. Leaning her hands in the table, Helyse stood up.
"Thanks for making me miss lunch" Truth to be told, she was no longer hungry and left, not caring if Krueger would follow her or not, there was nothing to be done about that. Nothing she could do. Helyse was tired, too tired to try and care about what she had just learnt. Her eyesight was misty and something inside her hurt, but she couldn't pinpoint the focus of pain…
When would this end?
At that moment, if Krueger wouldn't kill her in the most painful way possible, if she wasn't sure that her soul would cross over to whatever it was that existed in the Beyond contrary to being trapped in his body as the souls she had head crying when she had seen him for the first time, maybe Helyse would even accept the idea of sleeping, just to end it all.
"And if they were going to call me coward, let them. I don't care. How many times have I lied awake in bed, certain that I could hear and feel the cells of my body dying? My heart like a clock, marking the time I have left? Sometimes, it seems too much…".
Maybe she was not fighting Krueger for whatever reason of "dying with dignity", maybe it was because she wanted true death and not sharing that fate of others he had killed… Fighting so she could die, it sounded a bit poetic.
No… Not really.
The young girl shook her head before going in her class, regretting in the moment her headache pierced her mind, burning it. She sat, aware that Krueger was around. Not minding the class or any other thing, she just crossed her arms over the table and leaned her head on them.
Ana: Hell, people! Hey, this time I was a bit faster with the update! Consider this fact a Christmas gift!
Freddy: When I thought I had seen the lamest of all gifts...
Ana: How can you be so annoying even in December? It's the month of Christmas!
Freddy: Yeah, yeah, birth of Jesus, peace on Earth, love for all, I've heard all this before.
Ana: And it's the end of the school year, well, here where I live.
Freddy: Whatever, I don't care, go choke on snow.
Ana: We don't have snow in Brazil, remember?
Freddy: Shit, I was so hoping for a way to lock you out your home at night and watch you get a pneumonia.
Ana: I really don't know why I even expected any other reaction from you. What about you, Helyse, are you going act like Nightmare Grinch here?
Helyse: No, but don't expect me to ear a Santa Hat and start singing about loving every living being on Earth.
Ana: I hope neither you or Freddy EVER do that. It would be one of the MOST disturbing things EVER.
SethadoreVGC: And I'm glad you do!
Helyse: We're not being assholes, we're expressing our opinion.
Freddy: And she is nice to you because you're readers, to us, she is a true bitch.
Ana: They will never change, I swear. Don't know if this is a good or bad thing.
Freddy: In my case, it's good. Think my movies would have made such success if I suddenly stop being the great Dream Demon I am?
Ana: Who was defeated at the end of each movie.
Freddy: What was that?
Ana Nothing, nothing...