Chapter 15
Truth, Blood Thin

Melissa was in the boiler room. She was crouched on the top step overlooking the boiler. Below she watched as Freddy threw a body in to the boiler. It was then she knew that the others who had helped her, the spirits of those who had already died, had been beaten and she was alone. As the last soul hit the flames the Fred Krueger stood back and admired the sight, enjoyed the screams. "Ah" he sighed. And he turned and looked up directly at Melissa. She flinched and backed away. "Can't hide." He said. With each step he took seemed to cover several feet until he was right upon her looking down at her in his soiled shirt, and blood stained claw. He reached down with his flesh hand and pulled her up to his eye level. Melissa gasped and waited for him to kill her.

Only he didn't. She felt him pull her to him and she could feel the heat of his breath on her ear. "shh." He shushed slowly and calmly. "Don't worry. Not going to kill you yet." And as though he were liquid he stepped inside her. Melissa was released and she fell to her knees, which pitched her forward and down the metal stairs until she hit the filthy ground. In pain and aching she rolled over. She could feel the burning inside of her. His rancid soul was invading hers. She tried to stay focused but couldn't.

'What happens if you die in your dreams?' A voice questioned inside her head. 'I don't know. I heard that if you die in your dreams, it's for real.' Another answered.

Her body vacant of being and of will. Her eyes opened. White film covered eyes, and Freddy stretched his arms. Only his arms were not his. They were Melissa's. Gloveless and burn free he breathed deep.

Mean while inside Melissa's house, her eyes also opened. Freddy's strength from the old souls and the new had given him the power to take hold of her even in to the real world. He looked down to Melissa's mother. His mind remember to the trial, with her in the audience, and to his death when he tried to run out only to have the doors locked, and seeing her face through the smoky glass. Her face along side the faces of the parents of the other children he killed. His anger boiled over in his veins and he walked with Melissa's feet to the table, and reached with Melissa's hands to the sharp scissors that lay there. He closed his eyes.

When he opened them again he was standing behind her in her dream. He willed the door to shut and to lock. Gina flinched and banged on the door. He heard Alice from the other side also bang. He smiled. Gently he reached for Gina's shoulder. She turned to him, but to her eyes only saw her daughter. "Melissa?" she said.

"You didn't believe, did you mother." He said with Melissa's voice. "You didn't think it was true."

"Oh God, baby I'm so sorry!" Gina cried and ran forward and hugged him. "I'm so scared."

"It's okay mother." He said smiling, both in the dream and as he stood over her sleeping form. "I know you believe now." And he thrust the scissors down and plunged them in to her chest. In her dream Gina screamed and backed away from him. Her chest began to bleed through her shirt. "What's wrong mother?" he asked. Gina looked up at him with frightened eyes until she hit the door.

"You're not Melissa." She said as the blood rushed up her throat. "You're not." He shrugged and smiled evilly with Melissa's face and disappeared.

He opened Melissa's eyes and looked down as the blood was pouring from her limp chest. He crouched down and listened to her breath. Then he smiled and drove the scissors down upon her chest again. He continued to do it over and over while laughing.

Meanwhile in the dream Gina fell back against the door screaming as cuts appeared in her chest, and blood poured down to the floor.

On the other side of the door Alice still struggled with the door. She stopped suddenly hearing Gina's body fall and blood ooze from under the door. Alice fell to her knees and cried. From behind her Nancy's eyes opened and she sat up. Slowly she walked over to Alice, who sat sobbing. Nancy reached down and touched her shoulder. Alice spun around and backed away.

"It's okay." Nancy said calmly.

"I'm going to lose." Alice said absently. Nancy shook her head.

"If I could live, so can you." She said.

"But your dead." Alice said bitterly. "Only because I let down my guard." She replied. "You can't let down your guard. Things are never how they seem. So. wake up." She shouted and smacked her across the face.

Alice's eyes woke up. Above her stood Melissa, only she was covered with blood and had a wild mad look in her eyes. Alice trust her hands up as the scissors came down on her. With all her strength she pushed Melissa away and twisted the scissors from her hands. She spun and kicked her back and remembering what her brother Rick had once learned she high kicked her across the face. Melissa stumbled back and fell to the floor.

Melissa came crashing back to reality when her head hit the floor. She opened her eyes and looked up as Alice swung her foot back to kick her while she was down. Quickly she rolled away and scrambled to her feet. "Alice!" she called backing away. "Stop!"

Alice pulled her arms back with her fist ready and watched as Melissa stumbled to her feet. Alice reached forward and pulled Melissa to her and looked in to her eyes. She didn't see the bloodshot anger, but only the bloody watery frightened eyes of a beaten girl. Melissa's eyes darted to the next room where she saw the blood splashed walls. She pulled away from Alice's grip and ran to the dining room to the butchered body of her mother. She flinched away and clinched her fists. She wailed in anger and pain. Sobbing she let the tears fall. Alice walked to her and held her close. Melissa tried to push her away, but Alice held her they way a mother would. Putting her head on her shoulder Melissa cried.

"Why?" she cried. "Why couldn't I help her? Why couldn't I join her?" she cried bitterly.

"Because you can't." Alice said softly. "Only Kristen could do that. When she past her power to me, I shared it with my son. Without it, you are on your own."

"How could he take me?" Melissa asked. "I don't know." She replied. "It must be the souls. Some how he has claimed them back. He's stronger with them. How did he take you?"

"He knocked me out." She said. "He just passed in to me, and I fell down the stairs."

"So your body was empty?" Alice devised. "He took you when you couldn't control yourself. That bastard!"

"I'll kill him." Melissa said bitterly. "I'll fucking kill him."

"If only we knew how." Alice said. "We have tried so many times, and we can't seem to do it." Melissa thought a moment, she remembered back to the meeting with the others. She glanced down at her mother's dead body and looked back to Alice.

"He needs to kill us." She said thinking. "The children of all those who killed him; his unfinished business but I'm the last one." Alice thought too, back to Kristen's spirit in her car. 'I thought I was the last. I thought he was using me, and you.'

"I don't think it's going to be that easy." Alice said in thought. "He used me to get to others. He used my unborn son too. His business truly isn't done.he has been waiting. Waiting for you to return, so he can claim you."

"But what then?" Melissa asked. "After he has us all, what is left? Does he then die?"

"No, I think after that, he lives." Alice said as the resolution came over her. "He was able to enter you and use you. A killer with no body, but he can take ours."

"You are our only weapon." Melissa said look at her blood soaked hands. "You can protect us." Alice's eyes widened.

"No," She replied. "I am only me, and not even me or my beliefs ever saved me."

"I refuse to believe that we are the only ones to survive. I may be the last direct link to his past, but surely there are more like you, who aren't as damned. I practically have a sign across my face that says 'kill me' because my mother was a witness to his death."

"And I'm the last witness to his last death." A voice said behind them. They turned quickly to the direction of the voice, and there stood an aging man. His hair graying, but his face unmistakably familiar.

"Doctor Gordon?" Melissa asked astonished. "I thought you were supposed to be watching the hospital?"

"When your mother asked me, it was not an accident." He replied. "I have watched her ever since my research in to the 'Springwood Slasher Murders'. I knew there was much more to her interest in Maggie Burroughs then she let on."

"Doctor Gordon?" Alice said silently to herself. "Kristen told me about you. You were there when she was locked in Westin Hills." He nodded.

"It is not going to be easy, but when your mother told me about what happened to you I knew he was not finished, and was still waiting."

"But how is he able to find the old souls?" Alice asked. "I released them, he was weak, but now he is so strong."

"I don't know." He confessed. Melissa sighed in frustration. Her limbs felt weak, and she felt tired. She could still feel his essence inside her. "He's still here!" She exclaimed. Alice and Dr Gordon looked at her with amazement. "A link is what he needs. He needs me to keep killing!" She cried.

Like pieces of a puzzle things began to fall in to place for Alice. The link to Elm Street, Melissa, and herself became so much clearer. He truly had been waiting for her to return. The other deaths were to get Melissa there so he could kill Melissa's Mother.

"What is Melissa's connection with him." Alice asked.

"Her mother was a witness to his death."

"No, I think she had more of a hand in it then we think." Alice said. "I think she was the one who started it." Dr Gordon nodded.

"You are right. She was." He confessed. "She tried to rally the people with her to kill him, after her son Adam was murdered. But no one would. She was an unwed mother who had her son at 15. She was 19 he was murdered, and she vowed to get his murderer. No one would help her. They shunned her, ignored her."

"Until it happened to them."