(Okay, so I was listening to a Tamil song called "Ennodu Nee Irundhaal" and now I can't get it out of my freakin' head! *Siiiigh* Oh well. Anyways, here's the second half of Valerie's nightmare. Remember how Valerie was telling her friends her fear of sexual intimacy? Yeah, that's gonna make a big appearance here. Sorry, I took a little longer to post it. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.)

[Song Used in this Chapter: "The Wedding March" and "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye.]

Chapter Seven

"Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them; they pick you." ~ John Irving

Valerie ran down the corridor, hands clutching the shredded skirt of her dress as high as she could. She'd kicked off the high heels and her hair had come undone from the elegant updo. She looked behind her, terrified that she'd see Krueger pursuing her any second. She stumbled. Tripped, and fell on the floor, bruising her already aching knees. She wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry. But her survival instincts wouldn't let her.

Heart drumming loudly in her ears, Valerie picked herself off the floor and continued running down the hall. Sure Krueger wasn't following her from behind, but that didn't mean squat when it came to someone like him. What was he anyway?

Gradually the halls' appearance began to change until it resembled a hall that looked like it belonged to a church. Valerie's running slowed as she took in the change then came to a stop. "Now where am I?" she huffed. She leaned against the wall. Strands of hair fell across her face and she tiredly blew them away.

A faint noise caught her attention. It was music coming from the hall to her left. It sounded like a church organ playing The Wedding March. Curiosity got the better of her and she cautiously followed the music to a set of double doors which opened at her approach.

The church had seen better days. The pews were rotting, the stained glass windows were dirty and cracked, the floors were littered with dead leaves, and the wooden beams of the roof looked unstable. Nevertheless, Valerie felt herself being drawn inside. She went through and the doors slowly closed behind her. There were people sitting in the pews despite their poor condition. At the front stood a priest and a man who kept his back to Valerie and the crowd. She assumed he was the groom.

The people stood from their seats as Valerie entered and they turned to look at her, smiling. She didn't recognize any of them. Her clothes felt different. Looking down, Valerie saw that her green gown had changed into a wedding dress.

"Now wait just a minute!" Valerie squeaked. Her feet didn't get the message. They moved forward of their own accord, making her walk down the aisle as if she hadn't just been running for her life mere seconds ago. As she came closer, Valerie realized the priest had been reading the wedding vows and was just getting to the part where she would say…"I do." Valerie gasped when she heard the words leave her mouth. What had just happened?

Now the priest was reciting the vows for the groom, who still had his back to everyone. Valerie was only a few feet away from joining his side and her mind was trying to make sense of it all. It was like she wasn't in control of her body! She stared at the back of the groom's head. Reddish-blond hair, slightly curly. Why wasn't he facing her? The groom always watched the bride as she walked down the aisle. And why was the priest reading their vows when she hadn't even made it to the altar yet?

"-to love, honor, and cherish til death do you part?"

Valerie finally made it to the altar. The groom turned to face her. Gone was the red hair. Krueger's demonic face leered at her. "Naaw, I intend to stick around much longer than that!" He cackled madly as Valerie cried out and broke the hold that had been controlling her body. She made a mad dash down the aisle. "Hey! We've got a Honeymoon to get to! Ha ha hahaha ha!"

Bursting out of the double doors, Valerie stopped short when she discovered the hall had changed into a large, extravagant room. Red walls and high ceiling, dark wooden floors, and … mood lighting? Valerie was taken aback. The place looked like it had been fixed up for a night of romance. Candles were lit here and there and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" was playing on the surround sound speakers.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Valerie mumbled under her breath. Her eyes darted about the room for any signs of the dream demon. Dream demon? That sounded like an accurate description.

"Ooh baby, I'm hot just like an oven
I need some lovin'
And baby, I can't hold it much longer
It's getting stronger and stronger…"

The song always made Valerie feel a tad uncomfortable. Even no, despite her life being in danger, she could feel her face growing warm from embarrassment. Looking down at the floor, she noticed a trail of red rose petals leading towards a hallway.

"Get up, get up, get up, get up

Let's make love tonight…"

Let's not, Valerie thought, embarrassed. Taking a shaky breath, she cautiously followed the petals and discovered they led to a an open door. Probably a bedroom. Please don't let a couple be in there, please don't let a couple be in there, she prayed. What she did see made her wish it was a couple instead. Anything but what she was really seeing!

Krueger lounged on the bed, left hand propping up his head. A predatory grin spread along his scorched lips. "I thought you were gonna spend the whole honeymoon getting here."

Valerie's whole body instantly stiffened at his words. The very thought made her sick! His bladed hand patted the empty space next to him. "I'm waiting," he intoned.

Valerie opened her mouth to retort that that was never going to happen and something about a snowball in Hell, but a brush of silk against her skin made her look down and find she'd undergone another wardrobe change. In place of the wedding dress she was now wearing some sexy, flaming red underwear and a mid-thigh length, red silk robe. She grasped the edges of the robe in panic.

Krueger moaned in the back of his throat, a sound that scared the ever-living daylights out of Valerie. "Niiice," he purred. His grin widened lecherously.

Valerie ran for it.

"Oh, so you do wanna play games before we 'get it on'. Fine by me!" Krueger vanished off the bed but his voice could still be heard as Valerie ran through the house, looking for an escape. "I love a good game of hide and seek." He appeared in front of Valerie and she screamed. "I always win," he told her, evil glinting in his green eyes.

Valerie changed directions, going the opposite way down the hall. A door was in front of her. She charged through it and… ended up in the bedroom! "What!" she gasped.

"Don't be nervous."

She whirled to see him leaning on the door frame, right arm supporting his weight, left hand jammed in his pocket. His knives slowly drummed against the wood. He smirked and pushed off the frame, blades scrapping harshly along the door, and he swaggered inside the room. The door closed and locked behind him.

Valerie whimpered as she backed away. "Don't worry…" He brandished his knives. "I'll be gentle." He slowly advanced. "Real…real…gentle." His smirk and tone promised otherwise. He beckoned her with a knived index finger. "Come to Freddy."

To Valerie's horror, a force propelled her to him, slamming her flush against his chest. He didn't even stagger. His left arm wrapped around and pinned her to him. Kruger chuckled and lifted his gloved hand to her face. The tip of a knife lightly traced the shape of her jaw.

Valerie's face was wet with tears. "Please, stop, please," she whimpered. She'd always rolled her eyes at those girls in horror movies who begged and pleaded the killer to stop and let them go. As if the killer would actually do just that. But now, in this moment, Valerie didn't care. She just wanted him to stop! She wanted him to let her go and stop- just please stop touching her!

She dug her fingers into the material of his sweater and held tight. His knives kept tracing taunting circles on her skin in a mockery of a lover's caresses. She shuddered and gulped back sobs. "Valerie, Valerie, Valerie," Krueger chanted. He cursed under his breath and let his right thumb trace her bottom lip. "You look good enough to eat." A glint appeared in his eyes as he grinned maliciously at her.

"No – no, stop, don't-!"

Krueger's teeth turned to fangs. Valerie only managed to not get bitten by kneeing him once again in the groin and slipping out of his arms when he instinctively grabbed his injured area. But the door out of the room had vanished. There was no way out!

Valerie sprinted to the other side of the bed, using it as a means to keep something between her and the dream demon. Krueger growled and eased himself to full height. He pointed a bladed finger at her. "You seem to like injuring me there," he said with some bite in his guttural voice. He tapped the tip of the blade against his chin. "Or maybe you just don't know how this goes?" He flexed his gloved hand, splaying his knives out for her to see. "Let me show you how it's done. Let's get physical!"

He leapt at her, nearly clearing the bed, but caught the edge of the mattress and crashed to the floor beside Valerie. She took advantage of his fall and clambered onto the bed, crawling madly to the opposite side.

Go, go, go, go, go! She urged herself.

Krueger recovered quicker than expected and lunged onto the bed just as Valerie's feet touched the floor. His left arm wrapped around her bare waist and pulled her back onto the bed. "Nah-ah-ah-ah!" he cackled. His knees pinned Valerie's arms to the mattress as he sat on her stomach. He leaned in and growled in her ear. "I'm about to take your breath away, bitch."

"Leave me alone!" Valerie screamed, her voice hysterical. He was too close. Too close. And he was doing something with his hips as he eased himself to stretch along her body.

"You say that now…" A knife trailed from the hollow of her neck to the center of Valerie's heaving chest. "But just you wait until I get started." He leaned in close, flicking his tongue suggestively at her. She turned her head away in disgust. With a swift swipe of his blades, Krueger slashed at the red robe covering Valerie's body. It shredded open. He tore the scraps away and gazed appraisingly at her body.

Valerie's heart thudded so fiercely against her chest she expected it to shoot out of her any second. She was hyperaware of every movement Krueger made as he straddled her. "You're so stiff," Krueger complained, "Let's try to get a little movement out of you, eh, Valerie?" He began to grind his hips against hers. She gasped and tried to lift her hands to push him away but her hands stayed pinned to the bed.

"It's been sooo long," Kruger groaned into the crook of her neck. He inhaled her scent and chuckled. "I bet your soul is going to be," he hovered his mouth over hers, "delicious." He made a slurping sound and grinned when he felt Valerie shudder against him.

"It's only a dream, he's not real," Valerie whispered. "It's only a dream - he's not real, it's only a dream - he's not real," her voice grew stronger with each repetition until she started to scream it. "It's only a dream - he's not real!"

Krueger could feel his hold over her begin to weaken. But Valerie was too terrified to have noticed the pressure lessening on her wrists. He needed to get her back under control. "How's this for real, Valerie?" His burnt lips crashed into hers.

Every instinct in Valerie screamed at how wrong it was. He tasted like ash and the smell of smoke filled her nostrils. He tried to force his tongue into her mouth, but Valerie kept her lips tightly closed much to his growing frustration. He growled, breaking the kiss, and sliced at her arm. Not too deep but just enough to draw blood and painful enough to make her scream. He gained the entrance he wanted. His tongue explored every inch of her mouth and he groaned with sick pleasure when he discovered she tasted like cinnamon.

Valerie's own tongue battled with his, trying to push him out. When that didn't work, she tried a new tactic. Her teeth sank into his intruding tongue. Krueger let out a muffled yowl, withdrawing as soon as Valerie released him. His left hand collided with her cheek and pain exploded behind her eye sockets. "You little bitch!" he roared at her.

Now Valerie felt his power over her had weakened and she reached up and clawed at his burnt face. He avoided further attack by leaning back which eased the pressure off her upper body. She pushed him as hard as she could which threw him off balance and he fell back on the mattress. Valerie rolled off the edge of the bed and screamed as she continued to fall down, down, down the sudden drop that had appeared.

The metal grated floor came with no warning. She landed hard, front first, knocking the air from her lungs. She painfully rolled onto her back and lay gasping for several moments. With her body being still all the pain from her injuries came surging over her at once. Valerie winced and stifled her sobs. This wasn't the time to cry.

Focus on breathing, she told herself. Breathing was a pivotal need at the moment. Once her lungs weren't starving for air, she slowly sat up. Her aching muscles protested but she ignored the urge to lie back down. Lying down meant she'd given up and she wasn't ready to do that.

Taking in her surroundings, she saw that she had landed back in the boiler room. Steam emitted from the pipes, hissing like angry cats and clouding the air. Everything was still tinged in red. Valerie warily rose to her feet, listening. As far as she could tell she was alone. But the clouds of billowing steam could easily hide someone.

Looking down at her bare feet, she shifted her stance to relieve the uncomfortable pressure of the grating against her skin. A flash of red caught her eye. She was still dressed in the sexy underwear and shredded robe.

"Of all times to not have a wardrobe change," Valerie grumbled as she tied the robe's sash, trying to cover as much exposed skin as possible. It didn't do much good though. The top half of the robe was nearly non-existent, exposing her bra-clad breasts. Wait- was this thing a push-up bra?! She tried to shift the fabric around to cover herself but the robe refused to co-operate. "Well screw you!' she hissed.

"That was kinda the idea," Krueger's voice chuckled.

Valerie was instantly on the alert but Krueger never showed up or said anything more. She told herself to move on. She strained her ears for any kind of sounds that would alert her to Krueger's presence but the only sounds echoing back at her were the hiss of steam and the drip, drip, drip of water. She descended a short flight of steps, gripping the rails tightly. Five minutes had gone by with no signs of Kruger. That only made Valerie more nervous.

Why was he doing this to her? He said he'd given her a job to do and that she had yet to do it. She just couldn't wrap her mind around the whole thing. In fact, she'd barely had thirty seconds to even think about what was going on.

Not seeing him is almost worse than seeing him, she thought as the time stretched and Krueger had still not made an appearance. As if sensing her thoughts, the high-pitched whine of metal on metal could be heard along with the echo of footsteps.

Screee…screee…screeeee…

A low chuckle filled the cavernous boiler room and caused Valerie's skin to break out into flesh bumps. She tried to determine the direction the footsteps were coming from but the sound bounced off the walls. She turned and walked towards a catwalk that was least obscured by steam when a whistling from behind froze her. It was to the tune of "Here Comes the Bride". It wasn't very long til Freddy's voice could be heard singing, "Here comes the bride/ Dressed for her wedding night." His figure emerged out of the steam. "Here comes the groom/ The bringer of her doom."

Valerie trembled as she turned to face him. Kruger chuckled and stopped several feet away. His bladed index finger tapped against his thigh as he took her in. "Vaaaleriiie," he sang.

A shudder came over her at the sound of her name being spoken by that voice. He took a step towards her onto the catwalk, shoving his left hand into his pant's pocket as if he were merely taking an afternoon stroll. A jet of steam blasted beside Valerie and she flinched away. Her eyes had only left Krueger for a brief moment but when she looked back he'd greatly closed the distance between them. He now stood at least five feet away. He snickered at the fearful expression on Valerie's face as he lazily sauntered forward. Valerie backed away.

A playful noise came from the back of Krueger's throat just before he suddenly swiped his blades at Valerie. She yelped and drew back so quickly that she stumbled, nearly tripping over her feet but she managed to remain up. He chuckled and feigned another attack which she flinched for. He laughed at her wasted effort.

Anger flooded Valerie at his taunting. Now he's just toying with me! Valerie thought. Her green eyes narrowed. "Stop it! Just stop it!" she shouted.

Krueger laughed as though he'd just heard the funniest joke ever. He cackled and slapped his knee. "That's cute." His blades came to rest on the guard rail then skimmed the rail's surface creating a series of high-pitched whines as he walked. "What'cha gonna do if I don't stop, Valerie?" He put a hand to his ear. "Speak up now."

Valerie's voice failed her. She kept her mouth shut, hoping to hold back any more whimpers. When her back came in contact with the searing hot metal of a pipe, Valerie cried out and jumped away from it… straight into Kruger's arms. He chuckled as his hands latched onto her arms. The heat from his skin was nearly scalding. Valerie expected him to stab her but he didn't. Instead, he started to slowly walk forward, backing her towards the pipes.

Valerie's hands clamped onto the sleeves of Krueger's sweater. "No- please, don't! Please-!" She could feel the heat increase as she was forced closer and closer. There was no way past Krueger and he was far stronger than she was. "No!" She braced herself and clung tightly to him.

"Aaaw, what's the matter, Valerie?" he cooed then sniggered.

Sweat dripped down Valerie's back. Scorching metal brushed her skin and she screamed in pain, pressing closer to Krueger. She felt revolted at being so close to him but her body's instincts told her to get away from what was currently hurting her. Krueger laughed and then the heat was burning her again. She shrieked in agony and arched her back away from the pipes. Valerie fisted the material of Krueger's sweater and buried her face in his chest. She felt his laughter vibrate his chest.

They almost resembled a couple that had been long separated, now reunited and locked in an embrace. The dream demon took one step away from the pipes and placed his bare hand against Valerie's throbbing back, pinning her to him. The tip of a blade lifted her chin and she met his cerulean eyes. He grinned at the terror he saw in her gaze.

"Tell your friends about me, Valerie. And next time we see each other will be the last."

He suddenly thrust Valerie against the pipes and she screamed. She was still screaming when she woke up.

(Well, dear Readers, what did you think? I'd really like to know. I was a little uncomfortable writing this chapter, as I'm sure it shows, but I tried. If you got any tips for me, please send me a private message. Until next time, dear Readers!)