** I'd just like to take a moment to thank everybody for their reviews and kind words and all. Thanks, everybody... OKAY; moment over! I don't own Freddy or anything to do with Freddy... but I do own Ginny which is good... Saphy and TJ and Kris are based on people who exist. Don't they feel special? No? Damn...
Ginny store up, unblinking, at the mattress above her...
The blood had soaked all the way through... there was a deep red stain... like a frozen puddle... mattered... fabric... stained... with Mei's blood. Mei's precious blood... Mei's life; "For the Blood is the Life"...
Ginny didn't even try to tell TJ that Mei was dead... she waited until TJ brought Mrs. Dana in there room... then she told Saphy to look... Saphy had seen her parents murdered, hiding in a closet... so the murder of Mei hadn't bothered her any... she just looked up there, then turned back and said: "Oh yeah... she's dead... she's very dead!"
TJ, then, insisted on looking... but Saphy wouldn't let her. Mrs. Dana forced her way up to look... then ordered TJ to call the police... TJ had turned as pale as paper and just stuttered around as her mouth pouted and her brows narrowed and both limbs began to tremble... Mrs. Dana then yelled at her to do it... and then she did; she dashed from the room... and called the police.
Ginny had followed her to make sure she was alright... TJ had grabbed up the phone in shaking hands and practically been screaming into it... she didn't make any sense, really... just begging them for help and telling them over and over: "Mei is dead! Mei is dead!".
An ambulance and police officers had arrived... homicide detectives, homicide investigates, the people who take pictures at crime scenes, the whole nine yards...
There were so many questions... so many, many questions... they talked with everyone separately... Mrs. Dana first, then Saphy, then TJ, and then Ginny.
They had asked Ginny more questions then anyone else... because she had known that Mei was dead before anyone else... because she had vomited like that... because she had freaked out so much... because of her lack of remorse afterwards... but inside; her soul was a blaze... she just couldn't cry... nothing more would come out of her...
After the police had left TJ and Mrs. Dana and Saphy, all together, had insisted she rest... insisted she lay down... insisted she sleep... how did they expect her to sleep? How, after what she had been through? But they didn't know what she had been through...
She couldn't tell them or the detectives – she couldn't tell anyone – that a dead serial killer from her dreams had killed Mei... no one would ever believe that so she didn't even try.
It was the next day; the next afternoon...
Ginny hadn't slept that night.
Now, she couldn't take it anymore... lying in bed starring up at the stain... wide awake... as she had been for a long time. She felt like she was being held down from all sides and suffocated silently... she couldn't take it anymore!
She threw the covers aside, scavenged through the one drawer of her clothes in the huge dresser, pulled out a horribly oversized clean black sweatshirt and (tight, of course, she didn't own much of anything that wasn't tight) dark blue jeans and threw them on quickly... then, she snatched a crisp white pair of Saphy's sneakers – Saphy had 3,000,000 pairs of shoes and they wore the same size: she wouldn't mind – and then left the room in a big old hurry.
She didn't stop until she was in the doorway to the living room... the two other girls and Mrs. Dana all sat around the TV... watching a soap opera, of all things!
Must be Dana's choice...
Helena's eighteen year old daughter, Ashley, was the only other person who shared the house with them... Ashley had medium length hair, a dark brown in color, and deep chocolate brown eyes. She had a thin faced that seemed to reflect on the rest of her; thin and perfect... completely clean without a blemish to ever touch the creamy light skin.
Tall and perfect; she had grown far away from her not-so-glamorous mother... she stayed at home because she hated the idea of a dorm and sharing her room with a total stranger... when she was at home, and not in class, she stayed in her room unless she absolutely had to come out and usually made it brief with as little words shared as possible.
She was beginning to dislike home life more and more, though... because, now, instead of sharing her room with one total stranger... she was sharing her home with four... er... three, now.
Ginny wasn't at all surprised that Ashley wasn't with them. She stood in the doorway for a long moment, watching the once happy little group sitting around in perfect silence. A strange pang hit her heart and she identified it quickly... it was nostalgia... suddenly; she missed her parents... she missed her older brother, Nathaniel... she missed her home... suddenly, it hit her.
She missed Mei, too... but not nearly as much as she missed what had been rightfully hers.
She took in a deep breath, held it, then released it slowly... pressing the memories away. She couldn't deal with them; as especially not at a time like this.
She walked at a hurried pace a crossed the room.
"I'm going for a walk," she muttered, quickly, half way to the door... no one said a word.
Once outside; the cold fall air washed over her; feeling soothing and cleansing, somehow... she loved the cold... it reminded her that she was alive.
She shut the screen door, carefully, then began off the porch and down to the street... the world was so beautiful at this time of years... everything was dying and melting away. All the lush green leaves from the trees turned beautiful yellows and oranges and reds and browns and fell to the ground and dried up until they were practically ash... the grass on the ground never really looked dead but it seemed to dim. The sun seemed dimmer then it had been all summer, hanging lazily in the late afternoon sky... puffy white clouds littered the dense blue sky... fall was so beautiful.
She began down Elm Street... walking down the dead gray sidewalk that had never been alive in the first place... and certainly would never be.
She watched the houses pass by. They all seemed like vacant, long abandoned shells to her... that all seemed to morn some great and tragic loss... but totally not collectively... though, really, it wasn't that bad... In reality...
It was her who was morning that great and tragic loss.
So many, many great and tragic losses...
Nothing seemed of interest... nothing really seemed to catch her eye... for a long time... until she was about three houses away from the end of the street... then she saw them... and had to stop and watched... she felt some great force hold her in place.
... They were girls... three little girls... all dressed in white... playing jump-rope and singing some old rhyme... they all seemed to glow... like ghosts or angels or something.
Ginny watched them... and listened to their rhyme... they sang slowly, almost mockingly... as if it wasn't really a rhyme at all... but a death call.
"One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again..."
Ginny shivered. They were singing about Freddy Kruger, weren't they? They were singing of the Nightmare King who appeared in her dreams any chance he had... the one who had killed her friend ever so recently.
"One, two, Freddy's coming for you..."
It was, wasn't it?
"Three, four, better lock your door..."
It sounded like one...
"Five, six, grab your crucifix..."
It sounded like a warning...
"Seven, eight, gonna stay up late..."
Like the little girls trying to warn the ones he now had his eyes on...
"Nine, ten, he's back again!"
"What?" Ginny whispered, almost gasping out loud... the child – a little blonde girl – changed the end of the rhyme! She knew she heard it! She said it... not 'never sleep again'... no... Something completely different.
"Nine, ten, he's back again..."
Hands grabbed her shoulders from behind. So suddenly... a scream that rather resembled a hiccup leapt out of Ginny's throat. She whipped around, expecting to see Freddy... but what she did see...
"Who the fuck are you?" she barked, holding a hand to her chest as if to steady her pounding heart.
A boy, fifteen, the same age as her, stood there... his hands up as if she were a police officer. He had dark brown, almost black, hair, styled just like that of Davey Havok (the lead singer of AFI)'s hair (in the video for Day of the Phoenix, particularly)... wide, warm brown eyes, a pug-like nose, and frigin' perfect lips. He was mager league pale and dressed in a tight black "Or Die Trying" T-shirt with white text and black canvas pants.
"Kris," he said, offering her a small smile. "Nice to meet you, too, Spaz."
"Close, but not... name's Ginny."
He reached out and brushed a couple loose strands of dark strawberry hair off her face and tucked them behind her ear. Ginny noticed scars on his wrist... pure white scars in angry lines... self-inflicted, she quickly determined... though none of them looked very new.
"Have we met before?" Kris picked up speech again, bringing his arm back to his side and tucking his hands into the pockets of his baggy pants.
"Not that I know of..." Ginny replied, starring him straight in the eye... something she always did when she first met someone, so no one would ever think she was afraid of them.
"You sure?"
"Positive; listen, I best be go–"
"Where do you live?" He interrupted with a question.
Ginny turned half way around to look behind herself but she couldn't see 1428; so she just pointed limply into the distance and said: "Here on Elm Street..."
After only a few seconds, she turned back to him. He looked over her shoulder and down the street as if trying to pin which house she was pointing at... obviously; he couldn't do it, for he said: "Oh yeah, which house?"
"Umm..." Ginny pretended as if she were thinking of the number when, really, she was wondering if she should really tell him where she lives. "1428... yes, that's it! 1428."
She nodded as if to confirm... but his sudden reaction threw her off. His eyes grew wide and he immediately chased her words with a rather loud "What?!"
Ginny's mouth moved with all the possible answers. "Uh... I said I live here on, um, Elm Street... on 1428..."
"For real?" Kris continued in his shocked manner. "You live in 1428? You live in Kruger's house?"
"Kruger's house?" Ginny echoed. Her voice was far tighter then she expected it to be.
"You mean you don't know?" Kris's shock was just mounting. "Nobody told you?"
Oh, somebody told me alright!, Ginny thought; and that somebody is now very, very dead...
"I, uh... I... really... have to go." Ginny said, turning to leave awkwardly. "I-I'll see you later... g'bye, Kris..."
"Hey wait!" he called. Ginny just kept walking... so Kruger hadn't been something so secluded... so secretive that only Mei knew about it... Hell; Saphy and TJ probably knew about it, too! Anyone could have... no wonder the police had asked her if she'd had any nightmares that night!
Oh! How she wished, now, that she had told them the truth... that she had had a nightmare... and in it; Mei had died... and then she died in real life.
Ginny stopped; Kris was still standing where she had left him. She half way turned around again, starring back at him with tired eyes. "Who else knows?" she called.
Kris was silent for a long moment. "Well, everybody, I guess... I really can't think of anyone I know who doesn't know about Kruger... besides yourself, of course."
"But I do know about Freddy..." she said, softly.
"What?" he called. He hadn't heard her.
"Nothing," she called back. "... Thanks for warning me, Kris. I'll see you again tomorrow or sometime."
... And with that, she turned and began back home once again.
That night... Ginny didn't hide from sleep.
She hadn't fallen asleep until 2:00 a.m., though... because, in all honesty, she was still scared... but she was so tired... and if he was going to kill her then she was going to die... if he really was all they made him up to be; then she knew nothing would stop him from doing exactly what he wanted to do.
She had, once again, arrived in his playground... but she remained bitter, once in it. Unfeeling... and when Freddy had shown up; she had given him the cold shoulder... he had crept out of the shadows, as he usually did, and said his greeting: -
"Boo..."
She hadn't even looked up at him. She was sitting on one of the banisters that weren't hot and looking straight down at nothing with gray marble eyes filled with something dark and apathetic.
"... Somethin' wrong?"
Silent, still... hunched... unmoving.
"... Gabe, doll?"
Her shoulder twitched... the only sign that she wasn't just an illusion or something.
"Helloo?"
Her eye brows narrowed down on her dead eyes in her hung head where he couldn't see... but he could sense.
"Gabe–"
"Stay the fuck out of my dreams, Kruger!" she barked, suddenly.
He'd taken a step back, surprised by her sudden outburst of rage... then another and another... until he was in the shadows again... and then gone... and then the whole boiler room faded away until Ginny was all alone and floating back into dreamless sleep.
Freddy watched her fade away.
... And when she was gone; he stepped back out of the shadows.
She had been so angry... he had felt it – the heat it produced – wafting off of her like serious waves in an electric current. Was she that angry at him? And for what? For killing some little slut the night before?
Though; she had seemed rather defensive over the little bitch... not asking, but telling him not to kill her... telling him not even to play with her... but he had. He had done the useless bitch in... just as he had done to countless others.
He'd have to be more careful... he couldn't have her turning on him... no; that wasn't an option... if she really was the One – which he'd have to look into very soon – then having her turn on him would most definitely spell disaster...
He'd have to find out... he'd have to find out if she really was the One... he didn't know exactly what he'd do after that... he had two choices, just as she did. He could either use her, just as she had been made for him to use, or he could destroy her... before she'd ever get the chance to destroy him... but first things first... he'd have to find out who she really was inside... as soon as possibly.
But first; a teenage homicide was in order.