(Okay, I've been sick for the past five days, so I figured I could find the time to type up the next chapter to this story. I hope you like it. It's not quite what I wanted it to be but it's the best I could come up with after months of working on it. This is probably the fourth version of this chapter that I've written. Anyway, read on!)
[Song Suggestions for this chapter: "Centuries" by Fall Out Boy. This song just- oh my gosh! Just about epitomizes Freddy Krueger! It's so perfect!
The next song I suggest is "Sweet Dreams" by Marilyn Manson.]
Chapter Six
Dance of Death
"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing/ Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before." ~ Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven
Valerie found the nearest fire escape staircase and descended the steps as fast as possible. She'd cleared it to the main floor by the time she heard the door open and close behind her.
"Don't panic. You still have some distance between the two of you."
"Surprise!"
Valerie screamed as two arms wrapped around her middle and lifted her feet off the ground. She flailed her limbs wildly, struggling to make him lose his grip. When that didn't work, she went a different direction. The heel of her palm drove itself into Krueger's nose and a loud snap was heard. He cried out and dropped her.
She rolled to her feet and sprinted down the hall to the front desk where the security guard was stationed. Her palms banged against the glass that walled in the space.
"Dalton! Help me! Dalton, help!"
No one was there.
"No. No, no, no, no!"
She repeatedly hit her fist in case someone was in the back room but no one came to her aid. Valerie knew she couldn't stay here. She had to keep moving.
Just as she was about to start running again, her eyes saw the desk phone. She could call the police! There wasn't much time.
"Krueger could be just around the corner."
She hurried to the door to discover it locked.
"Desperate times…"
Valerie braced herself and smashed her elbow into the glass. Knowing the noise would have alerted Krueger to her location, Valerie wasted no time reaching through the jagged hole and unlocking the door. She rushed to the phone and carried it with her to the backroom, locking herself in.
Her fingers trembled as she dialed and listened out for Krueger. She could her the phone ringing on the other end.
"Pick up, please, pick up," she pleaded.
"9-1-1; what's your emergency?" a pleasant male voice said.
"There's someone after me," Valerie whispered into the mouth piece.
"What's your location?" asked the operator.
"Springwood College. I'm hiding-."
"In the backroom."
The blood in Valerie's veins froze. "How did you know that?"
"Look out the window, Sweetie."
Her body trembled as she shuffled on legs of jelly towards the door and peeked out the small window. Krueger lazily lounged in a swivel chair, feet propped on the desk, his unclawed hand held to his ear like a phone. He grinned at her and wiggled his bladed fingers in hello.
"Peek-a-boo," he said with the operator's pleasant voice.
The phone slipped from Valerie's limp hand as she backed away. Krueger stood and sauntered to the door, looking in at her through the window. The grin never left his horrible face. He tapped the glass with a knifed index finger.
"Little pig, little pig; let me in."
Valerie's back pressed against the wall. She was trapped! She was trapped in here and he was going to find a way in and get her! The only other door in the room led to a closet.
Krueger's gaze drifted from Valerie's terrified face to the doorknob. It slowly began to turn. He was unlocking it! Krueger held up his hands, palms up, as if to say, "Look! No hands!"
Valerie sprang for the door and grabbed hold of the knob while throwing her body weight against the door. It probably wouldn't do much but she wasn't going to sit in a corner and wait for Krueger to kill her.
Glass shattered next to her head; shards grazed her face but left no serious injuries. Krueger's knived glove shot through the opening and narrowly missed skewering Valerie's head as she ducked. He swiped at her just as she threw herself to the side, unfortunately leaving the door free of obstacles.
"Oh Valerieee," he sing-songed, slowly opening the door. "I wanna talk to you." He hooked his left index finger at her. "Come 'ere."
Valerie backpedaled with her hands and feet to scoot away from him. "get away from me!"
Her head banged against the closet. It was her only chance of safety, however flimsy it was. She reached up, turned the knob, opened the door and gracelessly threw herself inside. But once the door was locked, Valerie wished she had stayed out. She was back in the boiler room.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh, Valerie?" Krueger's voice echoed all around her. His laughter rang out so loudly she could feel it vibrate in her chest.
"Let's talk, Valerie. Have a seat."
Suddenly Valerie was sitting in a revolving chair with wheels which began to rapidly roll her down the cat walks. She screamed as it picked up speed, never slowing for any turns it had to take.
"God, make it stooop!" Valerie screeched as the chair took a sharp turn, threatening to topple over but kept its path.
It came to an abrupt halt just three feet shy from Krueger. His stance was wide, reminiscent of a gangster from the Twenties; his arms were folded over his chest, and a knife tapping his lips. Although she made no attempt to get out of the chair, Valerie could feel a presence keeping her in place.
Licking her lips nervously, she forced down the block of fear that had wedged itself into her throat and spoke.
"So…what do you want to talk about?"
Krueger sneered, letting out something that sounded like a laugh thru his nose, and his arms unfolded, falling to his sides. Oh gods, the way he looked at her. He circled her once, letting the tips of his knives lightly skim across her shoulders. At their touch Valerie flinched away, whimpering.
He chuckled and grabbed the arms of the chair, leaning on them and invading her personal space. His breath was rancid and it took Valerie everything she had in her not to gag.
"Let's talk about the little job I gave you. Why haven't you done it, Val?"
His voice worked its way beneath her skin, snipping at her already highly-strung nerves and creating a tightening coil of terror around her heart. His blades flicked her hair away from her neck and teasingly traced her jugular.
Valerie forced herself to look into his eyes and was struck by something unexpected. His eyes didn't look right on him. They were beautiful. The color was mostly green with a splash of blue which gave the illusion of sometimes being teal colored. An angel should have had those eyes, not the demon before her.
Krueger continued to look her dead in the eyes, not moving away, an expectant look on his deformed face.
"He's waiting for an answer," her brain told her. But she had none to give him. "What job?"
Krueger flicked the dull edge of his knifed index finger against Valerie's forehead. "Use your noggin', kid. I told you what to do the last time."
"I don't understand! What are you talking about!" Valerie winced at the sharpness of her tone but considering she was near hysterics, she could almost care less.
Krueger's brow lifted as if he were lifting his non-existent eyebrows at her sudden spurt of anger. He chuckled. "Temper, tempeeer," he chastised, wagging at finger at her.
Shifting away, he stood to his full height, staring down at Valerie. "Maybe I'm not being clear. Or…" he leaned in again, sneering, "maybe I didn't make a lasting impression? It has been a long time since I last had anyone to play with. I could be a bit rusty…" His eyes gleamed with glee. Reaching out, he tucked a lock of Valerie's hair behind her ear in a mockery of gentleness.
"After all… why would you tell people about a dream that didn't shake you to your core?"
Valerie didn't like the way he was eyeing her; like she was a tasty treat being dangled in front of a starving man.
He leaned even closer, the tips of their noses nearly touching. "Let's play," he said.
The chair morphed into chains that instantly wrapped around Valerie's whole body. With no chair to keep her up, she fell to the metallic floor with a hiss of pain. Krueger chortled and hauled Valerie up with one hand. Her toes dangled inches off the floor. Despite her squirming, the chains stayed tightly around her.
A dull thud was heard. She turned her head in the direction it came from. A large ball weight had appeared at the end of the chain.
"Ally-oop!" Krueger grunted, heaving Valerie over the side of the catwalk rail.
Valerie's scream was cut off by the sudden stop. The ball was too heavy to follow her over and had stubbornly stayed anchored to the grated floor by Krueger's work boots.
Krueger huffed and rolled his eyes. "Something's always gotta happen," he muttered. He grabbed the ball and chucked it over as well. "Bye-bye!" he cackled over Valerie's screams.
Valerie closed her eyes and thought of other things. Something that would replace the terror she was feeling as she hurtled to her death. She didn't want to think about the things she'd never get to do, things she'd never get to see or experience. She pushed them from her mind and focused on the things that had happened.
She thought about her mom. And a flood of memories opened themselves to her. Memories of her life in California before her mom had been diagnosed. The days she, her mom and dad had spent at the beach. How her mom would have to bribe her with cookies to get out of the water so she could reapply sunscreen on her daughter. How her mom used to call her a mermaid…
Just as Valerie was expecting to hit the ground, she crashed into cool water.
…
Krueger heard the splash and furrowed his brow. He leaned over the railing and took off his hat to scratch his bald head. "Was that me?" he wondered, looking at the large pool of water that had suddenly replaced the entire ground floor.
…
The chain had dragged Valerie down to the bottom. Her long, blond hair moved with the water as she struggled to be free. Her hair was fanning out in all directions. "Like a mermaid," she remembered her mom saying.
As if the memory were a trigger, a tingling sensation began to take place in her legs. She watched in open mouthed shock as scales started to grow and her legs merged to form a long tail and fins. A mermaid's tail!
The chains slipped off her slim tail and she shimmied out of the rest. Along with the tail, Valerie found she could now breath under water.
"How am I doing this?"
Giving her new tail an experimental swish, she looked around and discovered the pool floor had morphed into coral reefs, seaweed, and sand. A tiny fish darted past Valerie's face. She smiled, briefly forgetting the danger she was in. Movement in her periphery made her snap out of it.
It was Freddy. But his form had changed into a great white shark!
"You've got to be kidding me!" Valerie's water dulled voice screeched.
"Feeding time!" Krueger's guttural voice announced. He swam with alarming speed towards Valerie.
Bubbles issued from Valerie's mouth when she screamed. She frantically worked her tail into motion, gaining distance but not enough. To make matters worse, Krueger began to hum the theme music to Jaws.
A cluster of coral reefs were ahead and she swam purposefully to them, hoping to lose Krueger in the underwater jungle. Weaving in and out, she circled, double-backed and dived under a low out cropping before she finally lost sight of him. But she didn't stop swimming.
Constantly looking over her shoulder and minding her surroundings, Valerie swam onward into the coral labyrinth. The scenery began to change the further she swam and soon she was swimming in a pool again. The water started to shallow and she could see steps leading out of the water straight ahead.
Eyes still on alert to any signs of Krueger, Valerie made the steps her destination. The tingling sensation came over her tail and the scales began to fall away revealing skin. Her fin painlessly split into a pair of legs and her ability to breathe underwater left. Valerie breached the surface of the water. It reached her hips and each step revealed she was no longer in the power plant.
"Now how did I get here?"
'Here' happened to be the background of a very posh-looking mansion which seemed to be in the middle of an equally posh party.
A breeze chilled her drenched body. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Oh there you are!" a voice called out.
Valerie started in surprise. That voice…
An auburn haired woman in her early forties had emerged from a garden path beside the pool. She wore a glittering, floor-length black dress. Her auburn hair was in a fancy up-do; auburn hair that had been lost due to chemotherapy.
Valerie's voice came out in a whisper. "Mom?"
Tiffany Snider smiled as she came closer to Valerie. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?"
"Mom! What are you doing here? You're-."
"The host has been asking for you, sweetie. I think he's taken a liking to you." Her supposed to be dead mother gave a sly wink. "Now get away from that pool before you get your dress wet."
"My dress?" Valerie looked down. A dark emerald green dress had materialized on her without her knowledge. The bottom of the dress was done in a mermaid style.
"Well come on!" Tiffany urged. "Do you want to keep him waiting?" She began to walk away and Valerie couldn't help but follow.
In what seemed like no time at all, Valerie found herself ascending the steps to the large glass doors that overlooked the spacious gardens and trailed behind her mother into the grand ballroom. Music was playing and many of the partiers were dancing.
Valerie and her mom kept to the sidelines. One of the walls they walked past had a giant mirror and Valerie caught sight of her reflection. She was shocked. Her hair was dry and pulled up and away from her face in an elegant bun with a few hanging strands that framed her heart-shaped face. Her lips were painted an alluring shade of red that accentuated their fullness. The dark green dress fit her body so perfectly, revealing curves she didn't even know she had!
She watched as Tiffany's reflection joined her side and put her hands at her arms in a motherly gesture. "Look at you, sweetie. You look so beautiful."
Valerie's brow wrinkled in confusion. "This makes no sense. How did I get here?"
Her mother didn't seem to hear her. She turned her daughter to face her and smiled in a way that made Valerie's heart ache. "He's been asking to have the honor to dance with you."
"Who, mom? I don't understand-."
Tiffany silenced Valerie with a gently placed hand to her daughter's cheek. "Sshh. It'll be okay."
Valerie closed her eyes and grasped her mother's soft hand. God knew how much she missed her mother's touch. Soft, cool, and comforting. She felt herself pulled into her mother's embrace and didn't resist. She breathed in through her nose, expecting to smell her mom's perfume, but instead she smelt decay. Valerie pulled back and gasped. Her mother was slowly shriveling up before her eyes.
"Mom!"
"It's your fault he's back, Valerie. He's back and he's not going to stop," Tiffany said in a calm voice. Her legs gave out and she crumbled to the floor.
Valerie fell to her knees and grabbed Tiffany by her brittle shoulders. "Mom! No! Please!" Tiffany turned to dust within seconds. Valerie felt herself holding handfuls of sand and she emptied them with a cry. A sudden gust of wind blew her mother's remains away until there wasn't a trace of her left.
She stood to her feet and looked around at the partiers. No one had even noticed! "What's wrong with you people!" she shouted. "Didn't you just see what happened?"
No one deviated from what they were doing. Valerie marched up to a man whose back was turned and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn. "Didn't you hear me-?" The words died there.
Krueger grinned back at her. "There you are." He was dressed in a black tuxedo with a red and green striped bow tie.
Before Valerie had the chance to react, Krueger had her by the arm. "Can I have this dance? I can do a killer tango."
"Let me go!" Valerie growled, trying to pull away. Krueger only laughed at her attempts. "Somebody help me!' she cried, looking all around at the other dancers. No one acknowledged her presence. It was like she was invisible.
"Let's dance, doll face."
Within seconds the ballroom began to undergo a terrifying change. Like her mother, the room started to lose its vitality and aged, cobwebs appearing everywhere and cracks in the plaster and marble zig-zagging across the surface. Then the dancers aged into dancing corpses.
Valerie's fear reached a crescendo and she tore away from Krueger when his grip had laxed. Krueger slashed at her with his knives and caught the side of her dress. Since her dress wasn't designed for running it didn't take long for him to catch her. She tripped and sprawled to the floor. Krueger was by her side in seconds.
His knives flashed and a rip was heard. Her dress now sported a split that went up to mid-thigh.
Krueger grinned cheekily. "Nice limbs."
Valerie lifted one of said limbs and drove her foot into his face, imbedding her heel in his molten forehead. Krueger growled and grabbed Valerie's uplifted ankle pulling her until she was trapped beneath his crouching form.
Tears prickled at the corners of Valerie's eyes. "Please just let me go!" she pleaded.
Krueger chuckled, his green eyes sparking. "The game's only just started Valerie and you haven't played your part just yet."
"I don't want to play any games!"
"That's too bad." His left hand eased up on Valerie's right ankle and sensuously slid its way up her leg. "Cause there's all sorts of games I'd like to play."
A shudder racked its way through Valerie's body. A shape from behind Krueger caught her attention. A door. Krueger's hand still inched along her thigh. Then his finger brushed against somewhere he had no business touching.
The outrage she felt overpowered the fear she felt. "I said I don't want to play!" Her left foot connected with his groin.
Krueger's hand immediately retracted as he doubled over, releasing Valerie. Due to the new rip in her dress, she could now easily get up from the floor and lift her leg high enough to aim a kick at Krueger's back which sent him sprawling face first to the dirty floor. Valerie allowed herself a smile and ran to the door. She threw her weight against it and stumbled out of the ballroom.
The door had just closed behind her when Krueger straightened up, still holding his manhood, and glared at the door. "Women," he muttered.
(Okay dear Readers, you know the drill. Give me your reviews. Let me know what you think. I hope it wasn't too disappointing for you. I'm still getting the hang of Krueger's character. He's so dark and just raw that it kinda scares me to get into his mind set. But I'm going to keep trying!)
