Chapter 4
Dream Journal

When she got home, her mom wasn't there yet. She put her things on her bed and breathed deep. She was fighting away the fear and panic she had been hiding from Andrea. She did know what she was talking about. She had seen the places before, but not in the papers, not just then as she showed them to her. She had seen them in her dreams, in her nightmares when she was asleep.

She didn't know why she was afraid; perhaps it was the knowledge that perhaps it could be true.

She went to her computer and sat and stared at the screen thinking of what Andrea had said, and her own reactions to her nightmare the night before. She typed in her password accessing her PC journal on her hard drive.

October 10th

I started school today. It was defiantly a different experience. First off, there are the nightmares. Mom says I should write them down, empty my head so that my thoughts don't take control as I sleep. I haven't tried it before, but I guess I should now. Perhaps then I can get some sleep and the anxiety of being in the town wouldn't keep me up so much.

So.

Dream One: (as best I can remember it.)

I'm walking around the block near my house; its dark and I can feel a slight breeze pass through the trees. It seems to be guiding me or softly pushing me down the side walk. I walk around the corner, and suddenly I'm not on my block. I'm standing in front of an old building. The cold grey structure seems to glow in the street light. I turn to see the way I came, but when I look behind me I do not see the suburban street, but rather an empty road far from any residence.

"Hello?" I call out, listening to see if perhaps anyone is with me or can hear me.

I walk up to the tall door, and press my hand against it. My hand jerks away on instinct. My fingertips have seared on contact. I carefully put my hand near the surface before I put my hand near the door again, but don't feel any heat. So I press my hand against it. It's cold as the night air. I push it and it squeaks open with some effort.

I step inside and look around. The floor is wet and it smells of burnt wood, and I dare say, burnt flesh. I peek around the empty lobby of the building. It's dark and deserted. There is no furniture but for some old rusted chairs turned over against the wall. The metal is worn way to almost nothing and they look extremely unstable. The seats have been torn our and the shredded remains are all that is left. I glance at the walls, but all I find are smoke stained walls and torn soggy posters, rumpled from the moisture. From the corner of my eye I see a light glimmer from a distant hall. I back away towards the door, but then I hear a little voice. "Is this a game?" it says.

I call out "Is anyone here?" and then a soft giggle. 'There is a kid in here, somewhere.' I think to myself.

"Hello!?" I ask desperately "this place isn't safe." I wait and listen to see if anyone responds, but they don't. Suddenly I hear the sound of little footsteps walking down the hall. Thinking who ever is in here is walking away down a far hall I run down to the end of the corridor and look to where I had seen the light flash previously, but I don't see anything. A door near by creaks open, I walk up to it and push it farther. I look down to see just damp steps. A scream comes from below, and without thinking twice I run down the stairs. When I reach the bottom step I am looking at a massive boiler room. I turn to go back up the stairs, and the door slams shut. The only light is coming from aged yellow bulbs in sparse corners. I feel forward to a pipe, but the surface is wet and cold. I hear a high pitched screech but when I turn I just see a furnace cover screech open. I walk over to it and slam it shut. When the metal makes contact closing I wake up and I'm in my room, my mom had closed the hall closet, waking me up.

"Sorry, honey." she says peeking in as I look through my covers. I get up and walk to the bathroom to wash my face. I feel hot and sweaty and my cotton pajamas are sticking to me. When I put my hands in the warm water it stings. I look at my fingertips, and they have been scorched. I don't have blisters, but the skin is tender. I shrug it off and go back into my room to bed. I shut the door and get into the soft sheets. The hall light goes off soon after. I pull the thick blanket up over my head and wiggle in the sheets trying to get comfortable. My bed feels stiff and no matter how I turn it doesn't help. I press my hands against the sheets to lift myself higher in the bed, but when I do I noticed the bed is hard. I open my eyes, and I'm not in my bed. I am lying on the sheets which are laying on the floor in the boiler room. I stand then and look around, letting my blanket fall to my feet. I step from them on the cold floor. I hear a high screech and when I turn back, my blankets are gone and I am alone in the dark room. I walk around the boiler room, to an old work table. Tools have been laid out, yet covered in dust, and rusted. I pick up some twist of metal. I run my finger along its edge and feel its dull surface.

"One two, Freddy's coming for you."

A man is singing it, and from what I could hear it seems like he is in the same room as I am in, but when I look the room is empty.

"Three four, better lock your door" I walk from the room quickly and out into the dark boiler room, the shadows falling down from the corners.

"Five six, fight with stones and sticks" I pause then, listening, the voice follows me.

"Seven eight, gonna sit silent and wait" I ran for the stairs and climbed them, hoping to find a door.

"Nine ten..." I stop running, and listen. Nothing comes.

Nine, ten what?

Then I hear the high pitched scream of a child. I look around but can't see anyone. "Mommy!" the child screams. Its desperate voice runs past me, but I can't see anyone. The child keeps screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" and then I wake up.

I was in bed, soaked with sweat. I have chills now, just thinking about it.

Okay, now, Nightmare 2:

I wake up sitting on a bench outside the high school; I remember driving past it when mom and I drove into town. It is dark and as I look, I'm still in my pajamas. I stand and walk away from the school, assuming I must have slept walk out. Don't get me wrong, I don't sleep walk, and I was already freaked, so I just want to get home. I walk quickly away, until I hear what sounds like a car drive by. I look around a see an old police car drive past me. As it passes I suddenly realize I'm inside it. I look to the front seat, but there is no one there. I look out the window and see the cars we pass are all stopped and older models, possible 1960's models. I look out to the houses, but they are dark and there is barley even a wind to move the trees. I reach to the door handle, but the door won't budge. I try to roll down the window, but it too is stuck. It drives out past the town until is stops at what looks like the building I was at the night before, an old power plant. The car stops as it pulls up to it and I am then not sitting in it. I'm standing on the steps outside the building. I start to force myself to wake up. I run away from the building, but when I turn the corner to leave I am back at the other side of the building. I try this about four more times before I relent and walk up the steps and carefully open the door so not to burn myself, but it's still cold.

"Hands down Krueger!" I hear a voice yell, and then I hear a menacing chuckle. I walk down the hall but not far, I am soon thrust against the wall. I look over where I hear struggling and there is a thwack against the wall. Where I hear it a small trail of blood appears. "Stay still!" a voice says. Then there is a gun shot, and I wake up. I'm a little rattled by what I saw so I stay awake a while, pace my room a minute, try to watch TV, until I finally fall asleep again.

When I wake in my dream this time, I'm walking down the street. The same way I usually walk to school, and I cut down Elm Street, in my mind, I know that this is the way to walk. It's day time, and the sun is shining down through the trees. I walk to the house that Andrea took me to today; it's all pretty and bright. I look at the blue door and reach for the handle, this is where I have to go, but then I look into the window its dark and I feel a splash of something wet on my hand. I look up and see blood dripping down the surface. I jump back into the sun light and almost trip over the tricycle sitting there. I look back and the door is blue again. Then as quickly as it would be to turn off a light, the sky goes from day to night and I'm standing alone on the street, the house no longer looking peaceful and inviting, and now looks alone.

"You can't get away." I hear a voice say. I turn quickly and see a little girl standing on the walk way. "Many have tried, but it doesn't work."

"Where are your parents?" I ask her.

"Gone," she replies.

"Do you live here?"

"No one lives here, only dies."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't fall asleep." she says. And I hear the door behind me slam. I turn to see, but when I turn back to her she is gone.

"You're not afraid anymore." a little boy's voice says. I turn and see him dressed in white. The style was old, like from the early 70's.

"What?" I ask him.

"You're not afraid. You think that will help you. It won't"

"There is nothing to be afraid of." I tell him.

"There is if you stay here."

I hear the cling of the tricycle bell. I turn expecting to see the little girl sitting on the shinny seat, but all I see is the rusted remains. I turn back to the boy, and he too is gone.

Suddenly it starts raining down on me, I turn and run into the house and pull on the handle but it won't open. I then get a huge feeling of dread. I back up from the door, and into the rain, looking up at the white house with its blue shutters and blue door. Without a seconds notice I am running away from it, down the street. Around me I hear screams, crying, and the water falls down on me like tears. But as I run down the street it seems to stretch in front of me and no matter how hard I try a I can't run fast or far enough, I look back and it seems I haven't got ten steps. The street stretches longer and farther and higher, it folds up and seem like it's going to fold over on top of me when I suddenly wake up twisted in my covers, my blanket over my head smothering me. I throw it on the floor and hold my head in my hands, completely freaked out.

Nightmare 3:

Last night's dream was even freakier, I wake up in a blood soaked room, I hear people's voices calling around me, but I see no one. Who is Nancy, Tina, Rod? I know that if this is really as freaky as Andrea says is, and then this is just the beginning. Anyway, it's late, I've written enough. I'll write more later, but for now I've got to sleep. Perhaps my dreams will help me piece together things."

Her hands shaking as the reality of fear sinks in, Melissa turned off her diary and turned back to bed. 'Maybe I should have written about something pleasant before trying to go to sleep' she thought to thought as she covered herself in bed and closed her eyes. She rolled over uneasily, letting all the thoughts escape her mine and then the dream begins.