Prologue

She opened her eyes with a start. The white padded walls around her secured her suspicions. "No!" she cried. "It wasn't a dream! I know it wasn't! I killed him! I know I did!" She stood and went to the window. She banged on the door. "Hey! Help!" she called to passing nurses. She backed away as one came and unlocked the door.

"I killed him!" she continued.

"Dr. Keller!" the nurse called.

"But I did! He thought he could stop us but I killed him. I did." A female doctor rushed down the hall and opened the door. She went to the frightened girl who lunged towards her.

"Maggie, your fine; I promise." Dr Keller said to the woman.

"But I killed him." she pleaded.

"Yes Maggie. We know. Just calm down,"

Maggie settled back into her corner as the doctor removed the light from her pocket and flashed it in her eyes.

"He couldn't win. I made sure he couldn't win. I killed him." Maggie continued.

"Is she going to be okay?" the nurse behind her asked.

"Her medication is working." The doctor said checking her pulse. "She is coming back to us."

Maggie looked over to the doctor. "What?"

"Nurse Morgan. Take Maggie back to her room. Make sure she is settled before leaving her." Dr Keller stood and let the nurse and two orderlies come in and assist with removing the weak Maggie. Another doctor came to the hall and waited as Dr Keller secured the room empty and shut the door.

"What's that case." he asked watching the nurse sit Maggie in a wheelchair and gave her a small paper cup of water to wash down a couple of pills.

"She is one of my oldest cases." she said. "Maggie Burroughs has been here since she was 5. She is a survivor."

"huh?" the man asked.

"In Springwood. It was years ago. Almost 40 years. The Krueger murders." The man nodded.

"What happened to her?"

Doctor Keller motioned for the man to follow her to her office. Once inside she sat behind her desk as the man followed sitting on the opposite side.

"Maggie's mother was murdered when trying to defend her daughter from her kidnapper. Fred Krueger had been on a killing spree in the town. Lots of children went missing. But you must be familiar with that already." The man nodded. "Well he was brutal. He left Maggie alive and alone with her mother's dead body. Maggie promised him she wouldn't tell what happened, but soon after another kid was killed and he was caught. The police followed him back to his hide out, an old power plant at the edge of town where they found the bodies of murdered children. Her mother was suspected to be the first adult to be killed. Rumor is Maggie wasn't killed because the cops showed up. She was given to social services at first. It wasn't a pretty site. She insisted that she could see his face every time she fell asleep or even closed her eyes. She was completely traumatized."

She handed the man a folder which he glanced at while she spoke. "She was transferred out of Westin Hills hospital to us soon after his own murder. She was okay until the transfer that was here 10 years ago."

"The dream outbreak."

"Exactly, she heard about it from a transfer from Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital. Poor boy tried to cut off his own eyelids to stay awake. He told her about his nightmares and since then she has built a world inside her head. It's like a movie. She stairs into space, flinching as her mind makes her see everything that is happening. We started her on a medication however which we are hoping will bring her back to reality. She is killing her delusion. It will be hard to realize that her life has been a nightmare and in reality she has been here with us. She is one reason why my research is so important. It is important that I find a way to solve these night terrors and episodes as soon as I can."

"What are Maggie's delusions?"

"In Maggie's mind Springwood is childless, deserted, and miserable. The residents are insane. What she doesn't know is it's the other way around. She is the one who is here with us. She gets violent on occasion and acts out her dreams on herself, inflicting injuries on herself and insists that Fred Krueger is hurting her, when we see her physically do it to herself. But now that her medication is taking effect all we need is to give her time."

"How is Springwood?"

"Fine actually. Nothing has happened in Springwood since then. After the Parker girl died it all stopped."

"But I thought there was another incident. A girl named Alice."

Dr Keller nodded.

"It was rumor. Alice Johnson was a friend of Kristen Parker. She took her death hard. Most of her friends did. There were a few deaths but it was all circumstantial. Nothing to relate them to the dream outbreak although many said otherwise. Truth is, when you actually looked at it they all related to something in life. One girl dies of asthma attack, another side effects from intense work out, anorexia, warehouse accident, and motorcycle accident. It was all circumstantial."

"And Alice?"

"Alice and her son Jacob live in Springfield."

"So she moved?" the man noted turning the page on Maggie's file.

"She moved for educational purposes. Alice had a child out of wedlock while having just graduated high school. Her chances for college were slim, so she transferred to Springfield to better educate herself for her son."

"And what happened to him?"

"Jacob is 12 years old now. Good student. Not problems reported."

"And what about Maggie?"

"Maggie has it in her head that she is Fred Krueger's daughter when in actuality Fred Krueger had no children. He wasn't even married. It's all a story she has made up. "

"And my job?"

"Well since you will be coming to work here, I want you to be as familiar with these cases as I am. I'm going to be away for a while working, and I want to make sure that the patience are comfortable. We have made a real breakthrough with Maggie and I want to make sure that when I come back you have made such progress."

"Of course."

"Good," Dr Keller glanced at the clock. "Why don't we take a break?"

"Wait," said the man looking at Dr Keller's briefcase. A Springwood newspaper was poking from the corner of the bag. "Where are you going again?"

"Westin Hills hospital actually," Dr Keller moved her briefcase from the desk to her side out of the man's site. "I'm going to work at their clinic. I'm going to make sure cases such as Maggie's don't happen again."

"Why such an urgency?"

"There have been a few incidences at their hospital in the past few weeks. A repeat in history, I guess you could say. Kids again say the boogie man has come for them. Over 10 years after the last incidents. It was a dark time in Springwood. I've been requested to come and research it. See if there is a way I can stop it."

"Yeah, you wouldn't want anything to happen to your kids."

The doctor laughed

"Well I have one daughter, Melissa and she's a very smart 17 years old. I think if anything she can set a good example to the kids there."

Dr Keller turned a picture frame to the man showing her smiling daughter.

"You don't tell her about your work, do you?"

"No, I don't. I'm lucky. It can take a lot out a person to take care of kids like I've seen in here."

The man nodded. "It must be a scary thought, to think that your child could wake up and be like those in here."

Dr Keller looked up as the nurse walked Maggie past her office to her room. Maggie's eyes were glazed over from her medication.

"If we can offer some peace, I intend to offer it to them." She said. "After all, a lot of what those kids need is to know is that it's just a dream."