Chapter 13
Wake

The boiler hissed and churned. Melissa sat on the damp floor and held her head in her hands. "Why am I here?" she asked absently.

"We are trying to keep you safe." The girl said. "Until you can wake up, we have to keep you here."

"How can I look for what I'm supposed to in here?"

"I don't know."

"Can't stand it anymore." Melissa stood and pushed all the ghosts away from her and climbed the stairs.

"You can't leave." A little girl called after her. Melissa griped the handle on the door and pulled and pushed, the lock wouldn't give. She screamed from frustration. Then she heard the high pitched screech of blades skimming the metal surface. She looked back and saw the others cower away as they heard the screech come closer. Melissa pounded on the door and screamed, but it still wouldn't give. As quickly as she could she ran down the stairs and stood in front of the frightened group of children and teens. "You want me you son of a bitch! Come and get me!" she screamed. From behind her hands pulled her back. She fought against them, but they kept pulling her back behind the crowd. "shhh." Someone whispered. Melissa looked at who had her. "Stay quiet." In front of her crouched below view was another girl. Only she looked much older to her, as though she were in her 20s. "We have to wake you up. It's not safe here anymore."

"Who are you?" Melissa whispered. The girl glanced at her.

"Nancy Thompson." She replied. "Now wake up!" and Nancy slapped her across the face.

Her eyes opened. She was still burning with fever and her head felt heavy. Her medication was running out, and she had to move quickly before the nurse returned to dope her up again. She moved her fingers and felt a piece of paper in it. The name "Alice" written on the top confirmed she had not been dreaming. She had to get out of there. She held her breath and pulled the needle from her hand and the patched from the monitors from her chest. She swung her feet over the side of the bed and put them on the floor. The floor was cold and her legs and feet ached from lack of use. Her head swooned as she walked to the closet and saw the cloths her mother had left her and pulled them from the hanger. In the bathroom she patched her cuts and holes with bandages and cotton. She struggled buttoning the jeans and fastening her bra. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and washed her face. She grabbed her jacket and stuck her patched hands in her pockets and snuck out the hall where no one could see her. She safely got to the elevator when she heard the nurse at the nurses station notices her monitor had gone flat. She only had a few minutes to get out before they searched for her.

When she got out the doors and the cold night air hit her cheeks she welcomed them, making her more alert. She felt her cheeks, and could feel the fever in her. But it wasn't fever, it was the heat fro the boiler.

She walked away from the hospital and to the bust stop. She had a few dollars in her pocket. It should be enough to get her closer to home. She was confused. She couldn't' figure if it was because of the fever or the nightmares. But she wasn't going back in, if she could help it, she wasn't getting there again.

It was late that evening when she finally got to her street. She turned away from the passing cars, hoping no one saw her. Then when she got home, she saw again her mother was not home. 'Just as well' she thought. It would make her search easier. She opened the door and went inside the house. She went back up the stair and to her mother's room she walked over to her desk and pulled on the drawer. It wouldn't give. She left the room a moment and went to the garage. When she came back she jammed the edge of a crow bar in the side of the desk and pushed it open. The lock busted and the drawer released. She opened the files and looked, though she wasn't sure who she was looking for. It was then she noticed all the names. They were familiar. "It's all there in black and white if you just look for it."

"Maggie Burroughs, Kristen Parker, Roland Kincaid, Taryn White, Nancy Thompson.they are all here!" she rummaged through more and more names and they were all there. "She knew! The bitch knew!"

"Melissa!" she turned and saw her mother in the door way. She rushed over and took the files from Melissa.

"You knew! You knew all of this and you brought me here!"

"It isn't true, honey." She said taking the files away from here. "These were sick people. I'm just here to prove it."

"Prove it?" she said in disbelief. "Mom, you're killing me! Why do you insist it isn't true?"

"Because I know it isn't."

"Mom, Fred Krueger."

"IS DEAD!" She screamed. "He's dead! I saw the bastard burn! He is dead!"

"You watched it?"

In a daze Melissa saw the girl standing in the hallway behind her. Melissa stood and stumbled to the door. Her mother thought she was leaving to be sick, but she wasn't. Melissa watched the girl point to the closet. Melissa jerked it open and threw towels and sheets in the floor. Hearing the commotion her mother ran to the hall and saw her. "Melissa stop!" she screamed. But Melissa didn't. She pulled more from the sleeved until a case became visible from the top shelf. She pulled it down. Her mother came towards her, grabbing her arms. "NO!"

"I have to know!" she cried trying to pull the case back. But in the struggle they both lost grip on the case and it went flying over the rail and down the stairs, smashing open on ever step. The papers inside the box rained down on the floor below. Melissa ran after them and her mother followed trying to stop her. She grabbed hold of her jacket a moment causing her to loss her footing and stumble down the last few steps on top of the papers. Melissa opened her eyes and was looking in to the face of the girl in her dreams, only this time it was a photograph.

"This is the girl from my dream." She said picking up the picture. Her mother came down the stairs and tore the picture from her hands.

"No." she insisted. "You've never seen her."

"Yes I have." Melissa countered. "She said she is protecting me from him." She looked around at the other papers around her. They were very old and worn. "Springwood Slasher claims another", "Killer Caught"... They were headlines from old papers.

"Mom, what is this?"

"Proof that he is dead." She said in tears. "The bastard killed my baby!" she cried.

"I don't get it? Who?" she asked.

"I had a child young. He was an adorable little boy, and that bastard took him from me when he was only 4! How do you think any mother would feel being 19 years old and your son is murdered? But who cares about some poor pathetic teen mother and her bastard child? They did. When it happened to them they cared and we were not going to let it happen again."

"But momma."

"Your father didn't know about it. I never told him and I was never going to tell you." She confessed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "But then the nightmares happened. It was my 5th year at the clinic when I was given Maggie Burroughs's case, and it took one transfer from Westin Hills to undo all my work. They kept telling me about him and it was like it was happening all over. At first I thought it was me, letting my mind go wild, until that Thompson bitch gave him that name."

"You can't hide mom." Melissa pleaded. "All this is really happening."

"No it's not!" she screamed. "It's all just dreams, paranoid delusions! I'll prove them wrong!"

"Mom! You're proving them right!" Melissa cried. "I'll prove to you its true!" Melissa grabbed her mother's wrist and dragged her to the living room and pushed her on the couch. She then took the phone looked at the paper she had tucked in her pocket. She dialed the number.