** I don't own Freddy, Elm Street, or any of that stuff... other character's are based on friends... except Ginny... I own her. The song is "Dream a Little Dream of Me" originally (there are twenty million different covers) by Louis Armstrong (which is, yes, the song this fic is named after). *gasps* this chapter may give Ginny a reason to survive Freddy! Who do you think will win? Place your bets!
Her vision was hazy... as the dream world faded in.
Ginny waited... and waited... feeling as if she was floating through empty space... but she could see the colors... the first thing she saw was burgundy... then white... and the silver... all seeming to float into the picture... then shadows... all blurred; she couldn't make out the lines where everything fit in...
She waited... it'd have to show itself eventually... and low and behold; it did. Slowly, slowly, the scenery faded into space... and shocked her deeply.
She was sitting on a cold, white, aluminum floor... there were metal – maybe tin? – cabinets and stretches and all types of messed up things... and bright bar-shaped florescent lights on the ceiling... and crisp white walls with burgundy bars along them... no pipes, no banisters, no metal mesh walk ways and things... no boiler room; this wasn't Freddy's playground! This was a morgue! This was a hospital morgue!
She looked up at the metal stretchers with the paper sheets over the bodies... bodies... people... in a morgue... and the cabinets... cabinets with bodies inside... resting insider... and a freezer... a freezer with frozen bodies inside... bodies... bodies everywhere... bodies in a morgue.
She jumped up to her feet, her heart thudding a thousand miles an hour in her chest. She felt she couldn't breathe anymore. Cold white terror flooded through her veins like blood... replacing all the blood in her limbs... making her weak and useless.
Why am I in a morgue?, she thought frantically; why am I in a morgue? Why am I in a morgue? Why am I not with Freddy in the boiler room? Why? What's going on here? I'm not dead! What am I doing in the morgue? Is this Freddy's idea of a sick joke?
She backed up, taking slow steps, not even knowing she was doing it, until she backed up right into the ceiling-tall cabinets... then she jumped and jerked around, the cold metal burning her skin.
Bodies insider... the bodies insider... they're reaching out for me!
Hundreds of crazy ideas filled her mind. I've got to get out of here! I've gotta get out, I've gotta get out, I've gotta get out!
She jumped to the huge double doors and began pulling at the knobs with all her strength, putting her whole body into it... trying so hard to pull them open... but they were stuck; they wouldn't budge!
No! No, please! Please let me out!
She fought with them, her fear rising the more and more she did, her thoughts racing with only one... wishing them open... wishing them to please open... she couldn't be locked in here! She couldn't be locked in a morgue!
Suddenly, the thought hit her that perhaps they were push open doors... so she stopped pulling and then put her whole weight into pushing at the doors... but once again; they wouldn't move. She pounded her fists into them desperately. She couldn't give up. She could never give up... ever!
"Gabrielle," a small voice beckoned, calmly, behind her.
Ginny stopped. There was silence now... but she knew she'd heard it... it was a small voice; like a little child's... high pitched but delicate... like a little girl's... but it seemed so wise... and some-what bitter...
"... Gabrielle?" it said, again, after a long time of silence besides the hum of the freezer.
Ginny hesitated. She knew she didn't want to see what ever it was... but she also knew she had to... she forced her limbs to move, slowly, her stockings slippery on the cold floor. She forced herself to turn around, forced herself to look at the one who had spoken her name so softly yet so firmly on the air.
A teenage girl sat on the stretched closest to the door... closest to Ginny... but it was still about four or five or six feet away. The stretcher was empty except for the girl who was sitting on the white sheet that would usually go over a body... as if she had made the body that had previously been laying there just up and disappear...
She was about seventeen – two years older then Ginny – and had long ash blonde hair, one side of it was up high on the side of her head in a loose pig tail tied with a crisp white ribbon... the other had fallen out of the pig tail and was knotted and ratty... and fallen in her face. She had her head hung. She was dressed in a little, tattered, mid-thigh-length silk, white dress... like a night gown. Her wide-set light brown eyes seemed to have a red haze over them – even the pupils – and there were bright red lines spidering out from the irises all over the whites like veins... they store up at Ginny from underneath the shadows her hair created over her face... well, not quite they... more like just the one... the other one Ginny couldn't see... until the teenager raised her head, into the light, so that Ginny could see all of her.
Her right eyes was sown shut... blood was still leaking, lightly, from the brown leather stitches and dried blood covered all the way down her cheek... it was obvious that the other eyes had previously been sown shut, as well, but somehow she had gotten – ripped, maybe? – it open. Her lips were blue with death and her skin had turned as white as paper. One of her bare feet had mud caked onto the bottom of it.
She was dead... she was very dead...
Ginny wanted to scream. Her mouth fell open to scream but no sound came out except a shrill breath... almost like a short sigh. She could feel hot tears burn at her eyes but she also felt that they could never leave... like they wouldn't fall... like they refused to.
The dead girl – who must have been a dream demon like Freddy – just store up at her with the one ripped open eyes. Her blue lips were still and she didn't seem to be breathing.
"Gabrielle." She whispered again, and Ginny barely saw her lips move.
"W-who are you?" Ginny tried to ask... she could barely force her voice out... and when she finally did she felt the twin tears almost jump from her eyes as if to commit suicide from the place so high up compared to them.
"Jeanie Stalh..."
"What?" The memory of Jeanie hit Ginny nice and strongly, in that moment. Jeanie the witch... Jeanie who had taken her out of Freddy... Jeanie Stalh. Could it be?
Jeanie nodded. "That's right, Gabrielle... It's me, Jeanie... I have something I must tell you... Oh! And what I must tell you, Gabrielle Jenks... it's of the utmost importance... it could change everything... for the better! Oh! How I hope it does..."
Ginny cringed. She didn't want to know what the ice cold ghost girl had to tell her... she'd had enough of death... enough of all of it. "Why did you bring me here?"
Jeanie lowered her thin, blood-stained brows. "Freddy has his playground... and I have mine... not that I'm limited to this morgue... it just feels so much like home."
Another set of tears forced their way from Ginny's eyes, these ones not so desperate to get out as the rest... they slowly glided down the soft skin of her pale cheeks. "So what? What do you want to tell me? What? That I'm the One? I already know that!"
"No," Jeanie chased her words quickly. "I want to tell you what he has not allowed you to hear... I want to tell you the truth! You don't have to give him your power, Gabrielle–"
"Yeah, you know, you're right," Ginny said, her voice shaking lightly, as she raised one long finger from a slender hand. "I do have a choice... see, I could kill myself, first, is that what you want to tell me? Because that's about the only way to get out of it, Jean! At least if–"
"You're wrong!" Jeanie interrupted her, screaming. Ginny's ears ached when the high pitched voice finally stopped humming in them. "That's exactly what he wants you to think! But he's lied to you, Gabrielle! He's lied! You have a choice! I wouldn't just make you bate like that! I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble! Don't be stupid; I know I made you better then that. You have a choice... that is the beauty in your design."
"So-so what? So now I can tell him he can't have it and have him just kill me right out? No thanks."
"No! No! No! You just don't get it!" The ghost girl cringed her one eyes shut tight, more blood squirted from the thread that was left broken in the holes. "Your design is perfect! Perfect! But he's warped you so that you don't know your real purpose! When Freddy was turned into a demon; Satan gave him you as his special demon powers... but I took it away and created a baby out of it... I then put the soul of the baby into a local women who was trying to have children; low and behold! Lucy Jenks gave birth to a stunning baby girl nine months later. That baby girls is you, Gabrielle... but before I put your soul in Lucy's tummy I altered you... I couldn't take away the evil power Satan had made you with so I gave you that free will, choice of mind, type thing! I made you so that you could choose... so that you could either let that energy be as it is and feed it to Freddy on a silver platter... or so that you could channel it, use it, become Gabrielle Jenks instead of a part of Fred Krueger once stolen and use it against him! To destroy him; once and for all! For good! So that he could never come back... not send him to Hell, or Heaven, or anything! But blast him into nonexistence..."
Ginny leaned back against the wall... she couldn't believe this... it couldn't be possible... but here it was happening, right before her eyes... the ghost of Jeanie Stalh telling her that she had power... that she could save herself and everyone else... that Krueger could be stopped...
"Freddy lied to you when he told you how the prophecy goes..." Jeanie continued. "The true prophecy is 'The One will come in human form into Freddy's playground and not be afraid. It was part of him... it can be once again... and if it is; he will be almighty... but it may choose the other way... and if it does; he will be forever nevermore.' You understand? It's all in you, Gabrielle. It's all your choices... please, please don't let my work go to waste... please don't let more of them die... you know the truth now and you know what you can do with it... I must leave you, now... goodbye, Gabrielle... please..."
Dim light... it was barely there... but it was there.
Ginny's eyes came open slowly. The bed room she shared with TJ and Saphy slowly faded in, as if from behind a wall of tears... the light seemed dimmer then when she had fallen asleep... and she'd soon piece together that the ceiling light had been turned off and, now, the little desk lap over on the nightstand inbetween the two bunk beds was the only source of light in the room.
She blinked several times, waiting to see again... to really see. She felt as a blind man would. Sometime during her sleep she had rolled over on her back... one of her arms lay a crossed her stomach, the other one at her side, palm up, with her venerable wrist bare to the world... the veins standing up and visible in the skin. Her legs were lazily draped out over her blanket. The hair had finally left her skin, except for a few strands that were still stuck to her forehead.
Her gray marble eyes looked around, slowly, examining everything as if she'd never seen it before... soon; she'd realize Saphy sitting over her, watching her sleep.
"Hi." Sapphire said, softly... and with the sound, Ginny realized a faint hum in the background. She concentrated deeper on it, closing her eyes and giving all the ability of that sense to her ears and listened... music! It was music. The lyrics... they felt soft, somehow... almost soothing, to her... lovely...
"Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just
hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as
can be
Dream a little dream of me..."
"Hi..." Ginny opened her eyes again... she brought them back to her dear friend, to study her more carefully... she noted:
The hair spray on her usually spiky brown hair had eased, and now it lay in limp bits that barely stood up at all, even at the roots. Her dark blue eyes were tired and had dark lines underneath them. Her skin was way paler then usually and looked as though she felt rather ill. She was still waring the shirt (a black fitted tee with elbow-length sleeves and a V neck collar) that she had worn to the funeral... but she'd changed her button. To the funeral she had worn a past-knee-length plain black skirt... Ginny recalled that, maybe, half-an-hour after they had walked in the door Saphy had gone away to change her clothes, and wished Ginny to stay with TJ... she had... Saphy had been gone a long, long time... and then returned in a plain pair of blue jeans... when asked why it had taken so long; she had replied that she had had to go to the bathroom...
It was you, wasn't it, Saphy? You're the one... you were in the closet... you read my clippings, didn't you? You know everything now... fess up! I know you know! Confess now!
"Did I wake you?" Sapphire continued her casual talk, avoiding Ginny's eyes. "I didn't mean to... If I did; I'm sorry..."
"Actually, you did." Ginny told her, calmly. "But that's alright... bad dream, anyway... bad dreams..." a pause... "So how's TJ?"
"She's okay..." Saphy frowned. "I mean, she's still sleeping... poor thing... she tries to be tough but she's really so sensitive..."
Ginny nodded, frowning, too... and then there was quiet for a long time... uncomfortable quiet... awkward quiet... then Saphy seemed to sudden spring to life, as if hit by a static shock, and raised her arms up quickly, bringing a plastic bag with them... the crumbling noise of the plastic as it moved an awful one.
"Want one?" she suddenly burst. So it was a stroke of manners, ah? But she didn't wait for Ginny to answer; she began digging in the bag immediately, pulled out a gummy bear, and held it in Ginny's direction.
Ginny hesitated a moment excepting it. Those pills sure as Hell were strong... they made her feel as if she weighed ten tons...
She looked at the little candy bear... it was like a gem. See-through-ish, sparkly, and colored a brilliant emerald green... except the texture was so much softer then a gem would ever be. She popped it in her mouth... it tasted bitter... bitter like blood... it tasted like blood.
Everything tastes like blood...
She forced herself to swallow it, almost choking, and then softly uttered thanks.
A nervous smile twisted at Saphy's lips. "You're welcome!" she said, a little too eagerly... there was another one of those awkward pauses... but this one was far longer then it's predecessor... and then Saphy began to stand up, most abruptly. She said, quickly: "I best be going–"
"No." Ginny interrupted her, grabbing her wrist.
Saphy looked at her... and, for a moment... just a split second... the most horrible thing that Ginny had ever seen took place... it was in Saphy's eyes... they welled up and grew as wide and round as golf balls... she was terrified... she was terrified of Ginny.
Ginny felt the tears threaten her eyes again... but she wasn't about to let them fall... she couldn't... she couldn't let them... but just as she was thinking that, that she wouldn't cry, a set smeared down towards her ears and pillow.
"I know you know," she said, softly... she could barely keep her voice above a whisper... it was so hard... and her voice was shaking, lightly. "... about me... and my parents... and about the hospital..."
The terror came into Sapphire's eyes again. She began to try and pull her wrist away... it should be easy; Ginny was a small girl; a freaking stick figure... not to mention the state she had been in most previously... but it seemed she couldn't.
"Please, Saph!" Ginny's voice was desperate. Sapphire's wrist broke free... she stumbled back, lost her balance, and fell right of her arse... her eyes were wild! She looked back up at Ginny with that wildness burning in the deep sapphire orbs.
Ginny jumped up off the bed. Her hands and knees hit the floor hard, sudden pain shooting through them, but she'd learned to pretty much ignore that by now... she began crawling a crossed the floor as fast as being on all fours would allow.
Panic rose in Sapphire and she backed up, frantically, also on all fours but backwards on those fours, until she backed all the way up into the bunk opposite of Ginny's bed.
Ginny crawled up to her, over her, until she had her pinned... Ginny pinned on top of Saphy... she couldn't get away. Their faces were so close, there noses almost touched and they could feel one's breath on another's cheeks.
"But you don't understand, Saph!" Ginny wept. "It wasn't my fault! I didn't mean to do it! I never meant to do it! I don't even remember doing it!"
"Please..." Saphy whispered, trying to keep her voice steady and her appearance calm. "Please, Ginny, don't hurt me... I'll do whatever you want... just don't hurt me... I'll get you help! I'll get you help, TJ and I will–"
"No!" Ginny cried, almost frantic herself. "No help! No help! I've had enough help in my life! You know what happened when they "helped" me? Hmm? Of course you don't! You've never been in one of those places... that place... the asylum... it was so horrible! Even this old Hell house seems like Heaven compared to that prison they called a Mental Institution! You don't know what they did to us there, in the children ward! I am truly terrified of what they did to the adults if that's what they did to us... It was so terrible... they hit me, Saphy! They swore at me, told me the most horrible thing, daily! This was routine! They'd tell me they were going to get rid of me – to kill me!"
"Ginny, please, please!" Saphy begged her the entire time she raved. "Please! Please, stop it! Ginny! Stop! Stop!"
"I just a little girl, Sapphire!" Ginny was desperate to get her to understand, now. She was desperate for reason... Saphy had to understand! She just had to! "I was only six... for nine years I was confined in those walls... before they let me go... so horrible... I've tried to forget... I've done everything I can to forget... but I can't ever forget! Not ever! I'm cursed!"
Saphy had stopped her protesting now... the horror was so full in her eyes... but pity was there, too... pity for the poor destroyed soul of a little girl... and Ginny began to cry again, now... and she collapsed... she couldn't hold Sapphire anymore... she burrowed her head into Sapphire's warm breast, needing someone to comfort her... needing someone to care... and wished that she could forgive her.
"Oh, Saph... Saphy, please forgive me," she sobbed. "Please... please... God, forgive me! No one will ever forgive me... I don't deserve to be forgiven... but don't forsake me as God has... as he had from the moment I was born... for I was born unfit for his kingdom... I never had a chance! I never had a chance!"
Her sobs were raging now... and she could no longer speak. Sapphire felt her pity and remorse over take her... she rapped her arms around the trembling figure... she was so desperate! So poor and pathetic... crumbling under the weight of all the world... all the world which wanted her dead... it was all trying to crush her... and here Saphy was, terrified of a poor damaged girl... her mind total fucked from the short life she had already lived... who just needed someone... that's all she needed... Sapphire knew it, then.
"Shhh, shhh," she cooed. "It's alright... everything is alright... everything is going to be fine... I forgive you... I love you, Ginny, I really do... don't quite on me now... don't quite on me now..."
There was silence then, save for Ginny's sobs, which would soon die down... and Saphy's soft coos, which would soon give way to her softly singing the words of the song on TJ's mini-boom-box's radio...
"Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all
worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever
they be
Dream a little dream of me
Yes, dream a little dream of me..."