(So sorry for the long wait! I can only use the same excuse; Life, Busyness, Working on Original Material, you name it. I'm trying out a new process for working on my stories so that long periods of inactivity won't happen again.)

[Song Suggestions for Chapter Ten]

~ "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Emily Browning (for the beginning)

~ "Beautiful Dreamer" by Brian Keane (play after the wrecking ball scene)

~ "In Dreams" by Roy Orbinson (it mentions when to be played)

Chapter Ten

Hide and Seek

"Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"

~ John Lennon

The police station had morphed into a labyrinth of halls, each one looking exactly the same. At every turn Valerie expected to find Krueger sneering at her, lunging out with his blades. Although her instincts told her to keep running, she forced herself to stop and think. Pressing her back to a wall, her eyes flicking back and forth, Valerie tried to form a plan. Running would do no good. Freddy was a dream demon of some sort, he probably manipulated the labyrinth to lead her to him no matter which direction she took. She had to get some sort of advantage over him, something that she could control…

"A lucid dreamer. It's someone who is aware that they are dreaming and even has the ability to control their dreams…" That's what Prof. James said she was, wasn't it? And during her last encounter with Krueger, she'd turned herself into a mermaid.

Licking her dry lips, Valerie focused on the wall opposite of her. She needed a way to know what halls she'd already taken. Slowly, a shape began to materialize on the wall's surface. A green arrow, pointing left. A triumphant grin spread along her mouth. It was no ground-breaking feat like in Inception, but it was a start and that was enough to give her hope.

Scrrreeeee!

Valerie's gaze snapped to the left hall. That had sounded close. If he was still hunting her down then the arrows would give her away. Unless… She concentrated on the space right beside the arrow and another one appeared but with a slight difference. This one's body was thinner but the triangular shape that made the point was large. It pointed to the right. If Krueger came across these arrows, she hoped it would stump him. She took a moment to memorize the designs and decided to assign the thick, block-like arrow to mark the path she'd taken.

Scrrreeeee!

"Better get moving," she told herself and took off.


Krueger sauntered down the hall, his gloved hand outstretched so that his blades grated the wall with ear-piercing shrieks, sparks spraying in his wake. He felt rejuvenated after killing Marv, like a current of energy was buzzing beneath his molten skin. It was exhilarating after all these years. Everything was coming back to him; the chase, the taunts, the thrill, the blood, the screams, the – what the hell was that?

The screech of his knives went silent and he stopped to inspect the spot he'd just shredded. Two green arrows, one pointing left the other to the right. They weren't painted or drawn on, they looked to be part of the wall. Krueger narrowed his eyes at them. This wasn't his doing. Just like that mermaid incident hadn't been his work either. That girl, Valerie, had done this and the only way she could manage to do this was if she were a …

Oh. Hell. No.

A guttural growl of anger tore out his throat as he raked his blades over the arrows. If Valerie was what he suspected, he'd have to change the game. Best case scenario was that if she did turn out to be a lucid dreamer she was only a beginner and had no clue to what extent her powers were. He needed to find out her skill level and fast.


Valerie sensed the atmosphere shift a few seconds before she rounded a corner and found she wasn't in the police station anymore. The steamy air of Krueger's power plant coated her skin and made visibility difficult. The solid floor became grated beneath Valerie's shoes. Had Krueger seen her arrows and felt he needed to change things up? Hisses emitted from the pipes and machinery but Valerie could no longer detect the screech of Krueger's knives. Even though she couldn't see him, his presence hung heavily around her.

A crash resounded just before a wrecking ball parted the clouds of steam and headed straight for her. Valerie gasped and ducked to her right just in time, the air whooshing by. The ball began to swing back, its angle changing so that it was aiming for her. She dodged and when it came for her again, she lifted her hand without thinking and was shocked to perceive some slowing in the wrecking ball's momentum, but it wasn't soon enough. She rolled out of the way and in a blink the ball vanished. Remaining in a crouched position, Valerie waited for another attack, but as the seconds turned into minutes and none came, she risked a glance at her hands and grinned. "Awesome," she whispered.

Suddenly the boiler room became filled with a malignant energy and she knew deep within her bones that Krueger was there. Somewhere, hidden within the thick clouds of steam, he was watching her. Why wasn't he attacking? Inhaling deeply through her nose, she closed her eyes and let out a long exhale. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was drawn to the left corner of the room. It was obscured by steam just like everywhere else in the room, but something about it grabbed her attention. Raising her right hand, she swept it through the air in front of her and watched as the steam swirled about and cleared away to reveal Freddy leaning against the wall, arms folded and knives tapping his upper arm.

"Found you," Valerie said. Freddy glowered at her as he lifted both hands and slowly clapped. He looked anything but impressed; he looked mad. Really, really mad. "I think I'm getting the hang of this," Valerie taunted, unable to help herself. Freddy said nothing. He pushed off the wall, arms unfolding, and took deliberate steps towards her; like a predator reassessing its prey. "Not feeling very chatty?" she asked. He was getting too close. She began to back away, keeping the same pace as him.

"You're the one who killed Marv, aren't you?"

Krueger paused long enough to bend a bit at the waist, arms slightly extended, in the mockery of a humble bow.

"How?"

A wicked smirk slid along his mouth. "Oh. You thought I was only stuck in your head, didn't you?" he asked, sardonically. His voice changed to a lilting sing-song. "Guess agaaaain."

Valerie glanced at Krueger's glove. His fingers were twitching, the blades clicking against each other, eager to draw blood. "You can enter anyone's dreams?" she asked. There was a flicker of annoyance that passed over Freddy's features, something he didn't want to admit, so he stayed silent. Why wasn't he answering her question? "No, not just anyone. Select people, right?" The intensity of his gaze on her nearly made Valerie's legs give out, but she sensed she was on the right track. "It's got to do with the job you gave me, doesn't it? But you never told me what it was."

"Think about it, doll face," Krueger told her, anticipation in his eyes.

"You never gave me a job!" she insisted. "All you kept saying was to tell my friends about you!" It hit her like a boot to the gut. The timing of her own nightmares, Marv's knowledge of Krueger, Krueger's insistence of her telling her friends about him…

"You can only spread to those who know about you," she said, horror making her voice come out in a strangled rasp.

Krueger held up a bladed index finger in the air. "No matter how vague, the merest awareness of me is all I need."

"That's why you wanted me to tell my friends…so you could spread…" The full realization of what she'd done washed over her and she clutched at the sides of her head. "No…no…no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" Freddy mocked. "I'm free now, kid!" He took off his hat and bowed as he added, "And it's all thanks to you."

Valerie shook her head, tears beginning to gather. "I didn't know."

Freddy's lips pulled back into a malicious smirk. "Ain't that the beauty of it?"

Again, Valerie shook her head. "But they don't believe you're real."

"They don't need to."

Valerie glanced behind her to make sure she wasn't backing into a dead end. When she looked back, Freddy was less than two feet away. She opened her mouth to scream and his left hand shot out to wrap around her throat. Her cry turned into a gag as he lifted her off the ground and held her at eye level. "Time to say 'good night', Valerie," he growled. He raised his bladed glove, readying to strike.

" –ook…uh…" Valerie spluttered. Krueger's molten brow furrowed. She repeated the sounds. " –ook…uh…"

"What?" Krueger grunted with annoyance and eased the pressure of his fingers on her windpipe.

Valerie sucked in a lungful of air and defiance sparked in her eyes. "Look up," she wheezed. Krueger did so. A large anvil hovered several feet over his head.

"Oh fu –," Krueger began just as Valerie released her mental hold on the anvil and it plummeted directly on top of his head. Valerie was dropped as Krueger's body was crushed beneath the anvil and she scrabbled back, out of reach.

She filled her lungs with air and massaged her neck as she stared at the prone figure. "Cheesy," she rasped, "but effective." Standing to her feet, she looked around for a promising exit. It wasn't as if she believed she could find a place of safety while in the dream world but it was better than sticking around. She took off, knowing that she'd only bought herself some time and it wouldn't be long before Krueger was back on her trail. She could only pray she'd wake up before then. The thing about dreams is that time is very different. Five minutes in the real world could be five hours within the dream world and soon may not be soon enough for Valerie.

Eventually the power plant began to change again. There were no stairs leading up or branching off in other directions. She was being led to a specific spot and Valerie knew Krueger must be back on his feet again and calling the shots. She slowed to a stop and stared at the stretch of catwalk before her. "What if I don't go that way, huh?" she asked, knowing Freddy was listening. "What if I go back?" She turned and began to jog in the opposite direction. A metallic groan was the only warning she had before she felt the catwalk jolt and pitch at a downward angle. She leapt back in time to avoid hurtling to her death as the metal structure she'd previously been standing on collapsed and crashed down, down, down below.

Valerie grasped the handrails tightly as she gazed at the steamy abyss. There was a smug, self-satisfied feeling in the place, as if Valerie could sense Krueger smirking at his handiwork. Teeth gritted in anger, she turned on her heel and glared at the only direction she could go. "Fine. Your rules… for now." At the first chance she got, she'd find a way to turn the tables on him.

As she approached a set of windings stairs leading down to the ground floor, Valerie took note of the way the light flickered on the walls ahead, as if there was a fire. The power plant was already stiflingly hot but the nearer she got to the floor the more the temperature increased. Because she was so intent on watching for any sign of Freddy, she didn't hear the music at first. She couldn't make out the lyrics at first but she recognized it to be of the 1960's era by the music and vocal style of the male singer. It was slow-paced and echoed off the metal structures in such a haunting fashion that Valerie's skin broke out into goosebumps. She reached the bottom of the stairs and the words became clearer.

"I close my eyes, then I drift away…"

Up ahead was a wall of pipes, streams of steam hissing out at intervals, and through the slits between the piping came the flickering glow of light Valerie associated with fire.

"Into the magic night, I softly say/ A silent prayer like dreamers do/ Then I fall asleep to dreams, my dreams of you…"

There was what appeared to be a door-like opening in the middle of the pipe-wall. A shredded, gauzy curtain hung over it, concealing whatever it was Krueger had been leading her towards.

"In dreams I walk with you, in dreams I talk to you…"

Valerie'ssteps faltered on the threshold of the curtain with her hand outstretched to grasp the tattered edge.

"In dreams you're mine, all of the time/ We're together in dreams, in dreams…"

Freddy was behind this curtain, she was sure of it. But what else would she find? Her fingers closed on the material and she quickly yanked back the curtain. A massive furnace set smack in the middle of the vast, cavernous space greeted Valerie's wide eyes. The concrete floor on her side of the threshold transformed into dirt on the other side and large stone formations were barely seen in the background through all the mist. Dirty, broken toys littered the ground. The heat coming off the furnace was so sweltering that Valerie found it almost unbearable to breathe. Angry flames burned within its confines and in the rusty, old metal barrels that had seen better days scattered randomly on the floor. No sign of Freddy though…

"But just before the dawn, I wake and find you gone/ I can't help it, I can't help it, if I cry/ I remember that you said goodbye…"

Valerie's attention was drawn towards a gaping hole close to the boiler. A reddish-orange glow emitted from it. Casting a cautious look around, she stepped through and made her way to the chasm. There was another noise Valerie was slowly coming to detect over the music. It seemed to be coming from the gap.

"It's too bad that all these things/ Can only happen in my dreams/ Only in dreams, in beautiful dreams."

Once at the edge of the hole, Valerie's heart lurched at the sight of what she saw. Her legs nearly gave out beneath her. The sound she'd heard was the wailing of tortured souls as their deformed human shapes reached upward from the depths of the chasm. They howled in agony, hands lifted towards her, begging for help, begging for relief, senseless with pain and fear. The hole went down forever. Valerie suspected she was looking into a gateway to Hell itself. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. She backed away in horror. The images were seared into her brain forever.

Krueger strode into view from behind the furnace and chuckled. Valerie flinched back with a gasp. He removed his hat and spread his arms wide. "Welcome to my crib, Val!" he announced. Bladed fingers gestured towards the barrels and twisted pieces of metal surrounding them. "Like it? I decorated it myself?"

"It looks like hell," Valerie said with a slight tremor in her voice.

Krueger batted away her words as if they were a compliment. "G'aaaw," he fakely gushed. The bashful air soon gave way to a predator's focused stare as he placed his fedora back on his bald head and adjusted it to his liking. Valerie was disappointed not to see any signs of damage to his head as a result of the anvil.

As if he were reading her mind, Krueger said, "Did you really expect to hurt me with that little trick?"

Valerie shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for trying."

Krueger began to circle her, keeping her and the chasm within his circling. "You know, if you listen veeery carefully…" He lifted a hand to his ear and pretended to do so. "You can just make out Marv's screams."

Almost of their own volition, Valerie's eyes slowly dragged their way to the chasm. Was it true?

In a blink, Freddy was pressed flush against her back. His hands gripped her upper arms painfully tight. "Wanna see if we can spot him from up here?" he cackled.

"No!" Valerie dug in her heels but Krueger used his boots to kick them up and he force-walked her to the very edge of the chasm.

"Now," he sighed, bringing them to a stop a mere two feet from the edge. "Where is that slug, hm?" He bent at the waist, forcing Valerie to bend with him, and peered into the hellish hole. "Listen carefully, Valerie; I think I can hear him!" He brushed back a curtain of blond hair from her ear. "Can you hear him?" He waited a moment then pitched his voice to sound just like Marv. "Valerieeee! I'm dead because of youuu! Valerieee! This is all your fault!" He brought his charred lips to the shell of her ear and tauntingly whimpered, "Valerie, Valerie, Valerieee!"

"Stop it!" Valerie snapped, pushing back so that she collided with his chest and forced him to straighten up.

"Aaaw," Krueger cooed, stroking Valerie's hair. "What's the matter, doll face? Does the truth hurt?" Suddenly his hand grabbed a fist-full of her hair and he yanked Valerie to her knees, forcing her to look down into the void. "Or is it the heat getting to you?"

The shapes below shimmered in the scorching heat, mutated faces baying up at her and there! Right there! Several feet down and squeezed among the bodies, was Marv's barely recognizable face screaming in anguish. Slime dribbled from a gash in his neck and fizzled from the heat of the flames. This was the fate that awaited her friends if Krueger got to them. And it would be all because of her!

Was it already too late? Could she still find a way to save them? There had to be a way! Krueger's knives touched her neck, ready to deliver the kill. She wouldn't be any help if she was dead. Valerie was full-on sobbing, her cheeks wet with tears and her breathing hitched as she tried to speak. What could she possibly say to stop him from killing her? Her words came tumbling out. "You won't be able to get to them!" She sensed him pause and she continued. "I never gave them enough information about you."

Krueger scoffed and knelt beside her, tugging her hair hard so that she'd be facing Marv. He pointed a blade at him. "Then how'd I get to him, hmmm?"

Valerie looked at Freddy as best she could. "He already knew about you. I only jogged his memory and we were standing far from the group for the others to overhear us talking about you by name. As far as my friends know I had a nightmare about some obscure, knife-wielding killer. Nothing that can point to you."

A painful tug upward brought her to her feet and then Krueger's face was within inches of her own. "What?" he spat, anger sparking in his eyes.

"Looks like I didn't do such a good job after all, huh?" Valerie goaded. She wasn't completely certain what she said was true, but she forced herself to believe it in order to look and sound convincing to him.

Krueger searched her face for any signs she was bluffing and barred his teeth as the seconds passed without one turning up. So the little doll was tougher than she looked. Who'd have thought? Add the fact that she was also a lucid dreamer. She was becoming more and more of an interesting, troublesome thing. Everything in him screamed to spill her blood, he was practically trembling with the desire to do so, but he still needed her in order to expand his hunting ground. She'd brought him back from that place of nothingness, powerless to break through to terrorize Springwood again. They'd done everything to erase him from memory and history. Then along came Valerie and she'd managed to find him despite all obstacles.

Such a pretty little thing to set a monster free…

What was it they said about not biting the hand that feeds you? Would it be so bad to play with her for a little bit longer? Just until he was certain that the word was sufficiently spread about his return and he wouldn't have to rely on her anymore?

The knife-tip on his index finger traced her tears while his own eyes followed the motion as if mesmerized. "You brought me back…" he said, the deep, guttural voice dropping into a whisper. The light scraping sounds of his blades ghosting over Valerie's flesh unnerved her in ways she couldn't even begin to describe and yet she was frozen, too afraid to break eye-contact with him. It was like he was peering past her eyes into her thoughts and what secrets she kept there. Whatever it was he found, it made Krueger's lips pull back in a chilling smile. "So that's what you like, huh? Now that's interesting."

Valerie's brows pinched together in confusion. What was he talking about? Before anything more could be said, a rumbling noise began to grow in volume until the whole place was shaking. Krueger wobbled but held on tight to Valerie, his gaze trained upward for a moment before lowering to her again. A conniving smirk spread along his features. "You've still got a job to do, Val."

Valerie vehemently shook her head. "No! I'm not going to tell them about you!"

Krueger snatched her closer to him, nose brushing her's as that poisonous grin grew. "I know," he whispered. "And that's gonna seal the deal this time." Without warning, he whirled them both around and pushed Valerie to the ground. Invisible restraints pinned down her limbs as Freddy straddled her hips and fluttered his bladed fingers over her with anticipation. Valerie thrashed about but the hold Krueger kept was solid. Krueger hummed to himself as he looked over Valerie's body, as if deciding something. As the tremors increased, Freddy seemed to come to a decision and flipped her over, pointing his bladed index finger at the small of her back.

"Ever thought about getting a tramp stamp, Val?"

Pain sliced into her skin and she screamed. Krueger chuckled and continued his work which only lasted less than thirty seconds. "That should do it." He kicked her onto her back and red-hot pokers seemed to jab into her as her wound came in contact with the floor. By now the rumbling and shaking was to such an extent that Valerie was starting to fear it more than Krueger.

"What's happening?" she shouted in order to be heard over the cacophony.

Krueger simply blew her a mocking kiss and waved 'bye-bye'. "Tell them Freddy says ' hello'. Ha ha ha hee ha ha haaaaa!"

The pipe wall began to collapse behind her, the rock formations split, the ground cracked all around and Valerie woke up.


She sprang up from the cot with a loud gasp, fight or flight mode in full swing. Hands immediately latched on to her arms to keep her from striking. Several voices were speaking her name, using soothing tones and words. None of them sounding like Freddy's guttural voice.

"It's alright, Valerie, it's alright."

She was awake. She wasn't asleep. She was finally awake.

Her eyes began to focus on her surroundings. Anxious, familiar faces and a couple unknown ones. Her friends, the detectives, and a new face. "Do you know where you are?" asked the stranger.

"I'm …" Where had she been before entering the dream world? She'd fainted… "I'm at the police department."

"Good. Good," the stranger said encouragingly. Valerie turned to look at him. Based on the amount of grey in his hair and beard and the lines on his face, she'd guess him to be in his late sixties. Green eyes peered at her from over a pair of glasses that perched midway down his long nose. He wore a doctor's coat, an ID badge was clipped to the breast pocket, and he smelled of butterscotch and disinfectant.

"I'm Dr. Robert, I work here in the department. You fainted about an hour ago and hit your head on the floor on the way down. I'm gonna shine a light to see how your pupils react – look straight ahead, please."

Valerie reached up and snatched the penlight out of his hand before he could finish the first swipe along her vision. She shoved it under her thigh and gave him a warning glare.

"Okay," he said as if nothing had happened. "We'll just hold off on that, how does that sound?"

"Valerie?"

Isabelle stood nervously behind the doctor, anxious to talk to her. Valerie's heart skipped a beat. Isabelle knew. Isabelle knew everything. Freddy would come for her!

"Charlie says you two were talking and you just fainted out of nowhere. Are you okay?"

"Miss Dupree, if you wouldn't mind holding off your questions until she a bit less disoriented," Dr. Robert chided softly.

Isabelle snorted. "Says the doc who wanted to shine a bright light in her eyes the moment she woke up."

Dr. Robert cleared his throat and stood from the stool by Valerie's cot. "If all of you wouldn't mind waiting outside for a few minutes?"

Valerie was already swinging her legs over the side in order to stand when pain exploded across her lower back, traveling up her spine and slithered down her legs. She audibly gasped and collapsed into the cot, arching her back to avoid making any contact. Dr. Robert immediately whirled around, as did her friends and the detectives. They regrouped inside the room, hanging back as Dr. Robert went to Valerie's side and noticed the blood seeping from her shirt and onto the cot.

"What on earth…?" He gingerly peeled back the sticky material and gaped at the bloody slashes in her skin. "My god… How?"

Isabelle caught a glimpse of the blood and shoved her way forward to be beside him. "What is it? What's going on… Oh my gosh, Val…" Her voice came out trembling, barely even a whisper. "Val, what happened to you?"

Valerie, teeth gritted in pain, shook her head, refusing to speak. Dr. Robert and Isabelle exchanged worried glances before their eyes were irresistibly drawn back to the heart carved into Valerie's skin with the letters 'F. K. + V. S' inside it.

(Well, it took me long enough and I thought of several ways to go with this chapter but this is the one I thought was best. I hope it wasn't too terribly disappointing. If my new updating process works out, then you should expect to see a new chapter some time in April. I hope to hear from you guys, the feedback really helps to inspire me with ideas. Until next time, Dear Readers!)