Epilogue.
Rise Above the Nightmare
Months later.
To some, at a first glance, there wouldn't be much of a difference between the park and the cemetery.
Both had their paths, clear trails among well-kept grass that was a pool of green. Ancient-looking trees stood, showing their leaves under the sun during spring and summer, which would turn into blood drops during the fall and fly away in the winter as dreams that had never come true, turning the branches into dark and bony fingers that seemed to be trying to reach out for something that had been lost forever.
The differences, however, were soon easy to spot: There were no gazebos, no people who sometimes pushed a hot dog cart or carried cotton candy to be sold. Thick boards of granite, marble or other material stood out, calling for the attention, as if they hoped the people underneath wouldn't be forgotten. Some tombstones had reliefs of bells or angels, in a sort of dedication that had more to do with comfort for the living than for the dead.
The girl walked in silence among those flowers of stone, completely alone. Her waved hair was in a half-ponytail, some strands falling over her shoulders, with a tone of blonde that leaned to the ochre, almost as the fur of a lion.
Her eyes were somewhat disturbing. Of a dark blue, there would be beauty in them if not for how they carried something almost animal-like and old, which conferred a deepness that didn't match the young appearance. Eyes that could have been removed from an older person, before they died, and transplanted to that face.
She wore a black blouse and jeans. In her hands, she held flowers, some petals brushing her face.
Not looking to the sides once, Helyse walked to the gravestone.
She hesitated, as if she was about to knock on the doors of someone with whom she truly needed to talk, but couldn't think of the words.
Delicately, she placed the flowers in front of the tombstone. The white lilies made a contrast against the grey.
Without the flowers to hold, Helyse started to play with her hands. She didn't know really how this was done, if there was a right away and no one had ever taught her how to listen to emotions when needing guidance. And a discomfort was born deep in her soul, where mixed emotions still now were source more of pain than a proof of being alive… However, this time, she didn't try to push them away, but allowed herself to let her organism get used to those waves.
"I…" She whispered. "I know I must be someone you wouldn't ever want to see again" It was truth and it hurt, despite of everything that had happened. In the end, she wouldn't have wanted that person to hate her. "Even so, I wanted to come here once again"
The silence remained for some seconds, her eyes slowly going around as if just now she realized there was some sort of beauty, some peace to be had in this place.
"It's the last time, you know?"
She turned back to the grave.
"Maybe you would find this unfair... Me being still alive when… All that happened".Or perhaps there would have been chance for understanding? She didn't know, but still would rather base herself in the negative scenario just in case. This was one of the things that would most likely never change. "I can't say "I'm sorry" for everything... But there are things I'm really sorry for."
Like that would make a difference.
Or would it?
She held back a sigh that would have sounded more like a sob.
"I… I still don't know if I would change them if I could. Or if I would do this for myself or…"
She realized she was getting sidetracked and took a deep breath, lowering her face. Even after months, the "what if" and "maybe" taunted her as Evelyn Sanderson and Jake Norton would. But it was true, she didn't know how much of her regret was actually for herself and how much of it was for others. She was still trying to figure out.
"It is the last time" She repeated. "It's today that I… Well, so I wanted to say goodbye"
More silence.
She rarely spoke when she came here. In the first times, she had just been quiet. It had taken her days to say something and the girl still felt unsure if she was doing this right. This talking.
"You know, sometimes I think things that could have been different. It's silly, I know" She added as if someone had chastised her for it. "But I do it, anyway…"
Such was the human nature, in the end, to think about the past and the paths not taken and where they would have led us, how things would have been better if a tiny detail had been different.
She sighed. It wasn't as if her and this person had been completely close, but something in her seemed to want to believe that this one would have protested certain events. This person perhaps could have been someone she could have trusted and truly called "friend" and just lately she had started to think about it.
"Farewell"
She still stood there for some minutes before turning and walking away.
Above the lilies, carved in cursive letters, there was the name "Kurt Locker".
XxX
She was in front of an empty house.
Since Helyse had buried herself deep in herself for so long, notions of hobbies and preferences had been lost, except for basic things such as flavors. There hadn't been much of expenses that were not just the necessary in all this time, something for which one could call her an economical person.
It wasn't the better term. It weren't notions of savings that moved her, it was the lack of any other notions, leaving nothing behind but that emptiness that day by day drowned the mind.
Yet, it was something Helyse was somewhat thankful for now. The next months would be complicated in their own and she was almost afraid again. The saying "better the devil you know…" had being pecking her mind in the last months like a crow does to a corpse and there had been times she had questioned her idea.
Even so, it had turned into action.
"So, that's it" A harsh voice sounded behind. Helyse turned, inexpressive, to Krueger. His eyes gleamed and his claws had been recently sharpened.
"I suppose…"
Helyse had tried, since the deaths of Jonathan Mears, Amelia Evans, Mark Berenson and Jessica Meryl, to keep herself away from the boiler room, needing space. She hadn't had any success in her first tries, until slowly, her sleep had been back to normal… Or as close to it as it could be. Her dreams were vague and sometimes she couldn't remember if she had dreamed at all, but when they left a trail of sensation and ghost images, she was gladly she didn't.
Still, she didn't see Krueger as frequently as before with the lack of nightmares and most of what she knew of his actions was what she heard in the school and at the work before she stopped going to class altogether. The weeks following this decision had been taken over by talks with the educational supervisor and, due to how she was responsible for herself, even the principal. And when the story spread, some students who went to the snack bar where she worked had found in this a new source for mockery and verbal whips when there was no other employer listening.
It had been tiring.
"It is over. It was over, since a long time ago" She said. It had all been over in the day the group of Jonathan Mears had fallen asleep and Krueger had decided to finish them off. In another occasion, he would have let them live for some months more, but they were now annoying him. He couldn't even enjoy how they were losing their sanity day after day and had decided to get rid of them as he would with old toys that were not fun anymore.
Killing gave him pleasure, but sometimes it was interesting when some prey defended itself more than just go running in circles and trying to avoid sleep. That was the reason why worth prey like Nancy Thompson lasted longer while he hunted their friends down.
"I think Angelina White and Ben Fawaz are getting better at the game" He commented with a chuckle at the idea of finding other prey to focus on. "At least, they are holding their own for a good time" The Dream Demon added, hoping the new victims would keep him amused for a long time.
Helyse could only nod.
Not because she wished him well or fun times, just because there was nothing else to do. He was a killer and that was his nature, nothing could change it and she had always accepted this. Krueger looked to her for a while, with a gaze that could be evaluating if he should kill her or if his desires were still not leaning to this direction anymore or something else altogether.
It was the mutual and twisted respect they had for each other. Like that strange relationship that didn't fit any category and, as such, had no name. And both felt it was better this way.
Helyse, who had been sitting in the sidewalk in front of the house, stood up, not once taking her eyes off the Dream Demon who gave her his typical smile of a hunter.
"So, that's it" He repeated, touching her throat one last time, pressing slowly as if to pierce her skin and open it.
Helyse kept still.
"Day" Someone said behind her, making her turn. From a yellow car, a man with grey mustache looked to her. "You're the one who called a cab, miss?"
Helyse turned back.
Krueger was no longer there.
It was better like this.
It wasn't as if they would hug and wish good fortune to each other. Certain things and attitudes hadn't many rational explanations and were better left alone, just like some events were sometimes caused by a reaction chain of acts that at the time, hadn't seemed very important. And the reaction of when one reached this point was "How did this happen?".
"Miss?" The driver called her, perhaps confused. She turned to the car.
"Yeah… Yes, it was me"
She hesitated and turned to the house. The house that had never been a home, no more than the orphanage, stood in front of her as a corpse that had decomposed only inside.
"Farwell" She muttered, a whisper making voiceless words.
She picked her bag with wheels and straightened the strap of the one she had in her back before entering the car. Oh... Her hands were shaking, she hadn't noticed.
That was it…
"Where to, miss?" The man asked. He had a kind smile.
XxX
Hours later, Helyse was seeking her way through rows of seats, looking from the paper in her hand to the numbers, black against a white circle.
Upon finding her place, she put the backpack in the shelf above it, having to fight a little and close the lock with the fingertips as she stood in the end of her feet, but managed to do so.
Upon falling in the grey seat, she sighed to herself as she spied through the window. Her nerves shivered inside.
No turning back now. Well, no turning back quite a while ago, honestly.
"Boarding in a plane can really be a bit annoying" She concluded, the thought however carrying more a kind of amusement than true annoyance. It had some anxiety too… It was the first time she ever took a plane.
Her savings had increased after she had sold many of the things she wouldn't be taking with her and the extra shifts in the work that had been shifted to full-time once she left school. If she took care, she would be able to handle herself for a while until she got another job.
It wouldn't be easy. At all.
But she didn't mind it.
After hours in the cab and then taking a bus to the airport, then waiting for her plane, Helyse just felt some relaxation in her muscles now. Once more, she looked through the window…
Despite everything, there was some sort of sadness for leaving the place and town, which was born more out from tension at the change and facing something new than for any love to Springwood in itself.
She didn't know how things would be from now on.
If everything would "work out".
But, for better or worse, it was a restart.
Or perhaps a true start. Perhaps it was only now that she could really try to have a life, ever since she had been out of that basement...
She leaned back in the seat.
True nightmares never ended. One had to carry them, as one carried their own scars. But there was a chance of learning to live with them and finding something new, something worthwhile. Such thoughts passed by her mind before she pushed them aside to pay attention as the pilot started talking.
After the speech of welcoming to passengers and the usual information, the plane started to move and the girl relaxed once more, closing her eyes.
A true start... It felt good to think like that. Perhaps that was what the feeling of hope meant?
And slowly, cradled by the calm beating of her own heart, Helyse Blake fell asleep.
I honestly don't know exactly what to say. This fic lasted for so long and it is the first I finish that isn't one-shot. To be fair, there are things I would change and things I wouldn't. I started this years ago and so much happened since then.
I want to thank everyone who has read this and accompanied me until this point (this is starting to sound like this is some damn book, but whatever). You guys helped me a lot and if possible, I truly want to keep in contact!
Special thanks to Darkness Takes Over, whose criticism and support helped me to make this story way better than the first draft!
About the ending... Sorry for those shipping Helyse/Krueger. Truth to be told, there was no way they would be together. There was something between them, but it wasn't love. In the story, it is said it isn't something that can be truly named. They did care for each other on some levels, they understood each other and there was some sexual tension going on, but it wasn't enough to be called "love" or "friendship". Krueger's suggestion to Helyse to become a killer like him was more due to the "seduction of evil" (let's call it that) than anything else. Helyse was standing on a thin line between the possible paths for her life, things had reached a critical point where there is no turning back or ignoring.
Krueger cared for her, but only as much as he can care for someone. He is not only a killer, but a demon. And Helyse, as broken and messed up as she is, isn't evil. She did kill Nala, but it was the whole thing coming down to her. Does it justify? No. But she wouldn't ever just say "fuck it" and start killing people with planning and cruelty like Krueger. In the end, she was seduced by it, but didn't succumb.
Remember, I said that this was a story about the possibility of one being saved, my focus wasn't really romance or even the killings (though, damn, they were fun to write). It is salvation from the inner nightmares, the desperation and lack of hope. Helyse was like that, she never managed to have a healthy life or to deal what the things that happened when she was little. Dealing with the threat of being killed forced her to remember her own heart and face not only her past, but her present. She realized she wasn't living, merely existing. But she was so lost, she had no idea at first of how to change things.
Jonathan, honestly, was never the person meant to help her. For starters, we will never know if his feelings for her were genuine or if he was mistaking gratitude for love. And with the threat of Krueger, he could be rushing things up. For Heaven's sake, he never once apologized to Helyse about how he bullied her. People sometimes speak of it as if it's nothing, but believe me, things like that can destroy someone and no matter how much you think it's a joke, you have no way of knowing how this hurts the other. You're not the one that decides what hurts/offends someone or not. Jonathan never wanted to face such thoughts, and with this, their relationship would be doomed even if they had given it a shot.
Same for Helyse. Since her mother died, she never had someone who cared for her. Although she did care for Jonathan and believed she was starting to love him, we will never know if it was really love or if she was just realizing that she wanted to be loved and misunderstanding things as much as Jonathan was. It's all very complicated, but in a way or another, it wouldn't last.
I realized, in the end, that the person who could have been a true friend, who would have helped her was Kurt. He was someone who was too sincere and though he did promise to kill someone when being tortured, Helyse was right when she thought how people say anything to be rid of pain. He wouldn't ever do this to someone and he wouldn't ever agree to torture Helyse, no matter how scared he was. The others turned against Helyse because deep inside, they didn't see her as a true friend and it was easier to target her than another member of the group.
Helyse's healing and life doesn't lie in Springwood. It lies in the future. Like I said, this is what this story is really about.
I hope you guys weren't too disappointed in the end and still managed to enjoy. Again, thanks everyone who followed to this point!
Let's go to the reviews!
storybook tumb: I will miss this too. Damn, like I said, this fic lasted for so long and I'll miss it. Good! I really wanted to make those the best death scenes!
Krueger: I'm not going to bitch about not kissing her!
Helyse: Neither will I.
Krueger: Though I wouldn't mind some fun, since this is the last chapter and...
Helyse: Oh, gross!
Ana: This is why you can't get a date!
Krueger: Who said I could?
Helyse: Mental bleach, please.
Ana: I would say I'll miss how they bicker here, but again... In most of my "review corners" the characters end up bickering and trying to kill me, so...
Helyse: It's because of who you are.
Ana: ... I'll not miss the "love" she has for me, that's for sure. Yeah, Helyse was fun to write. Her development was slow, but in the end, I feel it was worth it. I'm glad you liked, hope the final chapter was worth the wait!
Freedy K Fan: Krueger's interactions with his victims, in the movies, became full of crack jokes and this, for me, breaks the creepy mood. Not knowing where your killer is means he can be anywhere, especially in a place like the boiler room. This for me works better.
If you disagree or didn't like the deaths, there is nothing I can do. Or would, if I could. No offense, but I'm not writing to please anyone.
Helyse's question wasn't about the people dying. It was about the whole situation. She was done with everything and they already had an agreement between them (Krueger didn't want to kill her anymore and she didn't want to fight him anymore). It was about what still connected her to it all, remember she just joined the group of Jonathan because back then, Krueger still wanted her dead. It was only later she kept with them due to caring, even if it was clear Krueger wouldn't harm her.
Lurker: Thanks so much! I wanted those to be the best and to be fair, I had a great time! Amelia's was one of my favorite ones. I'm sorry I took so long with the ending.
Krueger: That annoying Wolf won't ever let me deal with readers on my terms.
Ana: Well, duh. If I did, I wouldn't have any more readers!
Krueger: I'm surprised you have them to begin with.
Ana: ... Last chapter and even now, he had no kind words to say.
Krueger: Did I ever?
Ana: Point taken.
Anonymus: Oh, thank so much for such a constructive criticism and opinion, it makes suuuch a difference to me! I live for what others think! Okay, sarcasm mode off, then why the fuck you've read until this point? No, seriously, I'm confused, why would you waste your time with something you didn't like?