Chapter 19
Digging up the Past
The old diary and clippings scattered in the hall were enough to spell out the evil Gina Keller had done in her past to connect her to the murders of the Elm Street Children. After her own son was murdered she fed Fred Krueger's thirst for murder to the children of Elm. She had to, in her own mind, do this so that they would help her. It was a dark year in her past. One she fought to hide by moving away, one she tried to bury by shedding light in the dark and proving the ghosts wrong. But in the end she had proven them right.
"I don't have much time." Melissa said breaking the silence in the room. "I murdered my mother." She confessed.
"It wasn't you." Alice pleaded with her. Melissa looked her in the eyes and smiled briefly.
"Prove it." she said. "It may not have been me driving, but it was my hands." She looked down at the blood stains crusting her fingers and shuddered. "We have tonight only." She explained. "Just tonight. We have to bury him.really bury him."
"We can't" said Neil Gordon. Alice and Melissa looked at him shocked. "His bones are gone."
"Where are they!" Alice pleaded. She was consumed with fear. She had a son to go home to and a life to piece back together. She couldn't die.not now. It didn't take long for her to figure it out. "Andrea." She whispered.
Melissa looked up at her and she too knew. "She was the one who told me about this. But she tried to warn me!"
"All this didn't happen by accident" Neil said. "We might not all survive this, but after so many years.I'm ready for it to be over."
"So am I." Alice said wistfully. "Then let's end it." Melissa said. "And I think I know how."
Melissa grabbed her mother's keys from the table and tossed them to Alice. "You drive." She then went to Doctor Gordon. "Mom's notes mention."
"I know." He said. "I'll be ready. Where should I meet you?"
"Where else? 1428 Elm Street."
Alice drove to Andrea house per Melissa's instructions and they got out of the car. She handed the keys to Neil. "Be back soon." She said. He took the keys and nodded.
Melissa and Alice watched as he drove away. It felt as though their hope were leaving with him. Melissa took a deep breath and walked back up the walk way to Andrea's house. She opened the front door and stepped inside and waited for Alice to follow. "How did you know it would be open?" She asked. Melissa looked back and smiled. "I didn't."
She walked quickly down the hall and through the kitchen the basement door. She could hear scrambling below as she opened the door. Melissa wasted no time jumping down the stairs and slamming in to Andrea as she tried to escape up the stairs. The two girls fell to the floor with a thud. Melissa got up and saw she had Andrea pined beneath her. She pulled Andrea to her feet and threw her against the wall. She had no idea how she got the strength to do it, perhaps it was the evil still in her veins. She didn't know nor did she care. She was furious.
"Melissa, hi" She said calmly.
"You bitch!" Melissa screamed. Before she knew it she had Andrea's neck in hand and her head against the wall. "You are the one who brought that bastard back! Little miss rich bitch and all her money, too bored with normal life, you had to make them all remember, didn't you. You had to let them all play along in your little game."
Andrea just stared at her.
"Where is it?" Melissa screamed. Andrea still stared at her without emotion. Melissa jarred her hard against the wall and asked her again in a calm deadly voice. "Where is it?"
"In the closet." She said. Melissa took one last swing and her fist lay across Andrea's jaw sending her falling in to the floor. She then turned and went to the closet. She pulled the door open and looked, but could not find what she was looking for. She looked in the bottom of the closet, and in the top, but it wasn't until she noticed the loose panel in the ceiling that she knew. She stood up and tip toe and put her hands in the hole. She removed the old sack. It was dirty and stiff. He was so close at that moment. More close and more real then he had ever been, for in her hands were his bones. She then reached up and pulled out the box. It was a ouji board.
"You want to play, then you play." She said. Melissa turned around and handed Alice the board and held the bones. At that moment Andrea let her fear show and backed away.
"I'm not going. You can't make me." Andrea then noticed Melissa's clothes. They were covered with blood and she could see where she was developing bruises under her skin.
"I can't?" Melissa taunted. "Why not? I say I can. As sure as I am that this is my mother's blood, I say I can." She reached forward and grabbed her by her hair and pushed Andrea up the stairs.
From behind her they walked. Andrea wasn't about to run. She knew they would have caught her easily.
"So.Why did you bring him back?" Alice asked.
"Not like I really planed it." Andrea replied.
"Like hell you didn't plan it." Melissa stated trying to hold back her fury.
"The news papers caught my interest when my parent's moved here." She confessed. "Daddy thought it was a nice piece of land to develop. Didn't realize how much of a bitch it would be to sell though. It was a week in to the development when I found the articles in the library. I thought it would be fun. A little ghost story I could play with. It was then that I found the others. Mostly by name association, I was able to convince them I was being tormented by nightmares."
"The cuts on your arm?" Melissa asked.
"Self inflicted months ago. Only after they had healed was I able to convince you they were from when I was a child. When the other deaths started happening, the others got scared. I got excited. I wanted to meet this boogey man everyone was scared of."
"How did you do it?"
"I found the bones from the report of where Lt Donald Thompson was found. From there it took me all night to dig them up. I placed them in a crate underneath the Ouji board, hoping they would help channel his spirit, but all I got was a bunch of dead kids."
"You were the one who brought them back!" Alice gasped.
"Channeling the spirits of the dead was enough for them, but not me. I wanted real proof."
They turned down on Elm Street and continued to walk.
"I wanted to know what it was the others saw in their dreams. I thought it was interesting that all these kids had the same dreams, and couldn't find the thread that connected them."
"So you decided to make their boogieman real?" Melissa asked. Andrea chuckled.
"It wasn't too hard." She said. "All it took was pointing out some circumstantial deaths around Elm and they bought it hook line and sinker."
"How were you sure the deaths weren't real?"
"Cause it never is real." Andrea explained. "I mean really, in the end it is all just a bunch of circumstantial evidence with no proof! And I have to confess it was all worth it. When Melissa went nuts and brought you back, it was too good to be true."
"You mean you don't believe any of this is real? You were just trying to scare them?"
"No! I was trying to prove that it was real..But I can't! Cause it's not! Honestly! Melissa there is just crazy! She killed her own mother! And you..well what can I say Alice, perhaps you just need to get some sleep." Alice grabbed Andrea from behind spun her around and smacked her in the face.
"The hell it's not true! My God! What is it with you? What proof do you need?"
"He was just some psycho you keep blaming on your problems. When will you take responsibility for them yourself! When will you just get on with your life..when...when.."
She suddenly stopped talking. Alice was staring behind her. Andrea turned quickly and that is when they saw the light inside the Elm Street house was on. Andrea's breath quickened and she ran to the house. "No!" She cried and she stuffed her hands in to her pockets searching for the key. Alice and Melissa ran after her as she shoved the door open and ran inside. Alice froze, afraid to enter the house. Melissa had to pull her through the door way. It was then that Alice noticed the house was not as she had remembered. It was clean and bright. She could still smell the fresh paint. The rooms were completely empty but for the light coming from an old lamp in the corner of the carpet in the living room. Melissa pulled Alice's shirt to get her attention to the open basement door. Alice nodded and they both walked over to it and looked down. Andrea sat on the steps and was crying. Alice and Melissa walked down after her and that is when they saw them. Lying in a heap on the floor were the remains of the "nightmare society" They were all dead and cold on the basement floor. Melissa however didn't care about Andrea sobbing on the steps.
"You wanted to play." She said and kicked Andrea down the rest of the steps and to the ground. "Then we play" Andrea sobbed and flinched away from the dead bodies.
Alice threw the bag of bones at her and she caught them.
"Are we going to use the board?" She asked.
"It won't do us any good to try." Melissa said. "He took all the souls."
"Then I guess we go in after him." Melissa flinched and clutched her stomach. She tossed forward and gripped the furnace. "Melissa!" Alice pleaded. Her hands again began to bleed through the bandages and when her blood came in contact with the metal surface of the furnace it began to sizzle despite the frigid temperature. Melissa pulled away from it and held her hands close, but the fever in her head was too strong. She spun quickly but as she faced Alice and Andrea her face was not her own. The skin seemed to be burning while she looked at them. Her eyes changed and were not her own. They again became red and blood shot.
"Almost time." A voice came growling from her throat. Alice knew that voice. It had tormented her for years.
"Leave her alone!" she screamed. But using Melissa's body he pulled at the rusted handle to the old furnace and removed an old soiled cloth. Wrapped within it the dull bulb above exposed the remains of his gloved claw. Melissa's face looked up. Sweat began to pour from her skin more frequently as she took the glove and spread it blade out and the seductively licked one of the crusty tips. The eyes inside Melissa's head rolled back in ecstasy as she savored the taste. Alice cringed at the sight. Was there any part of Melissa still inside? There must have been cause the glove slipped from her fingers on to the floor and her face returned to normal, only she looked like the sick girl Alice had first seen, her hair dripping with sweat and her tired eyes weak. Desperately she lunged for Alice and went limp in her arms.
"Help me." Melissa pleaded. "He can't stay buried for long." And her eyes closed. Alice shook her trying to wake her but she didn't awaken. Her breathing became slow and deep and her temperature still rose inside her.
Andrea looked around the room still unable to believe that she was trapped in a basement among her dead friends. Friends she had tricked in to resurrecting this evil. An Evil she had just seen manifest itself inside of Melissa. Melissa was the only person who truly seemed to be tortured by her game. Fred Krueger was inside her. Trying to burn out what was left of her from the inside.
Alice laid Melissa down on the floor and took hold of the ouji board. She thrust the boned inside the old crate spread the board out on top of it. In a fit of anger she reached forward and pulled Andrea's hands on to the pointer. "You made this happen; you're going to help me finish it." Andrea tried to pull away but Alice wouldn't let her.
"What the hell do you want me to do?" She asked bitterly.
"There is one soul I haven't seen claimed yet. I say we summon it."
Andrea's mind raced. Who was she going to try to contact that she hadn't already given to Freddy on a silver platter? Alice didn't explain. She didn't have much time. Melissa was growing weaker, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep Freddy busy before she could get inside. Her poor voice echoed inside Alice's ears. "Help me!"
"It's okay Melissa," she whispered "I'm trying."
Digging up the Past
The old diary and clippings scattered in the hall were enough to spell out the evil Gina Keller had done in her past to connect her to the murders of the Elm Street Children. After her own son was murdered she fed Fred Krueger's thirst for murder to the children of Elm. She had to, in her own mind, do this so that they would help her. It was a dark year in her past. One she fought to hide by moving away, one she tried to bury by shedding light in the dark and proving the ghosts wrong. But in the end she had proven them right.
"I don't have much time." Melissa said breaking the silence in the room. "I murdered my mother." She confessed.
"It wasn't you." Alice pleaded with her. Melissa looked her in the eyes and smiled briefly.
"Prove it." she said. "It may not have been me driving, but it was my hands." She looked down at the blood stains crusting her fingers and shuddered. "We have tonight only." She explained. "Just tonight. We have to bury him.really bury him."
"We can't" said Neil Gordon. Alice and Melissa looked at him shocked. "His bones are gone."
"Where are they!" Alice pleaded. She was consumed with fear. She had a son to go home to and a life to piece back together. She couldn't die.not now. It didn't take long for her to figure it out. "Andrea." She whispered.
Melissa looked up at her and she too knew. "She was the one who told me about this. But she tried to warn me!"
"All this didn't happen by accident" Neil said. "We might not all survive this, but after so many years.I'm ready for it to be over."
"So am I." Alice said wistfully. "Then let's end it." Melissa said. "And I think I know how."
Melissa grabbed her mother's keys from the table and tossed them to Alice. "You drive." She then went to Doctor Gordon. "Mom's notes mention."
"I know." He said. "I'll be ready. Where should I meet you?"
"Where else? 1428 Elm Street."
Alice drove to Andrea house per Melissa's instructions and they got out of the car. She handed the keys to Neil. "Be back soon." She said. He took the keys and nodded.
Melissa and Alice watched as he drove away. It felt as though their hope were leaving with him. Melissa took a deep breath and walked back up the walk way to Andrea's house. She opened the front door and stepped inside and waited for Alice to follow. "How did you know it would be open?" She asked. Melissa looked back and smiled. "I didn't."
She walked quickly down the hall and through the kitchen the basement door. She could hear scrambling below as she opened the door. Melissa wasted no time jumping down the stairs and slamming in to Andrea as she tried to escape up the stairs. The two girls fell to the floor with a thud. Melissa got up and saw she had Andrea pined beneath her. She pulled Andrea to her feet and threw her against the wall. She had no idea how she got the strength to do it, perhaps it was the evil still in her veins. She didn't know nor did she care. She was furious.
"Melissa, hi" She said calmly.
"You bitch!" Melissa screamed. Before she knew it she had Andrea's neck in hand and her head against the wall. "You are the one who brought that bastard back! Little miss rich bitch and all her money, too bored with normal life, you had to make them all remember, didn't you. You had to let them all play along in your little game."
Andrea just stared at her.
"Where is it?" Melissa screamed. Andrea still stared at her without emotion. Melissa jarred her hard against the wall and asked her again in a calm deadly voice. "Where is it?"
"In the closet." She said. Melissa took one last swing and her fist lay across Andrea's jaw sending her falling in to the floor. She then turned and went to the closet. She pulled the door open and looked, but could not find what she was looking for. She looked in the bottom of the closet, and in the top, but it wasn't until she noticed the loose panel in the ceiling that she knew. She stood up and tip toe and put her hands in the hole. She removed the old sack. It was dirty and stiff. He was so close at that moment. More close and more real then he had ever been, for in her hands were his bones. She then reached up and pulled out the box. It was a ouji board.
"You want to play, then you play." She said. Melissa turned around and handed Alice the board and held the bones. At that moment Andrea let her fear show and backed away.
"I'm not going. You can't make me." Andrea then noticed Melissa's clothes. They were covered with blood and she could see where she was developing bruises under her skin.
"I can't?" Melissa taunted. "Why not? I say I can. As sure as I am that this is my mother's blood, I say I can." She reached forward and grabbed her by her hair and pushed Andrea up the stairs.
From behind her they walked. Andrea wasn't about to run. She knew they would have caught her easily.
"So.Why did you bring him back?" Alice asked.
"Not like I really planed it." Andrea replied.
"Like hell you didn't plan it." Melissa stated trying to hold back her fury.
"The news papers caught my interest when my parent's moved here." She confessed. "Daddy thought it was a nice piece of land to develop. Didn't realize how much of a bitch it would be to sell though. It was a week in to the development when I found the articles in the library. I thought it would be fun. A little ghost story I could play with. It was then that I found the others. Mostly by name association, I was able to convince them I was being tormented by nightmares."
"The cuts on your arm?" Melissa asked.
"Self inflicted months ago. Only after they had healed was I able to convince you they were from when I was a child. When the other deaths started happening, the others got scared. I got excited. I wanted to meet this boogey man everyone was scared of."
"How did you do it?"
"I found the bones from the report of where Lt Donald Thompson was found. From there it took me all night to dig them up. I placed them in a crate underneath the Ouji board, hoping they would help channel his spirit, but all I got was a bunch of dead kids."
"You were the one who brought them back!" Alice gasped.
"Channeling the spirits of the dead was enough for them, but not me. I wanted real proof."
They turned down on Elm Street and continued to walk.
"I wanted to know what it was the others saw in their dreams. I thought it was interesting that all these kids had the same dreams, and couldn't find the thread that connected them."
"So you decided to make their boogieman real?" Melissa asked. Andrea chuckled.
"It wasn't too hard." She said. "All it took was pointing out some circumstantial deaths around Elm and they bought it hook line and sinker."
"How were you sure the deaths weren't real?"
"Cause it never is real." Andrea explained. "I mean really, in the end it is all just a bunch of circumstantial evidence with no proof! And I have to confess it was all worth it. When Melissa went nuts and brought you back, it was too good to be true."
"You mean you don't believe any of this is real? You were just trying to scare them?"
"No! I was trying to prove that it was real..But I can't! Cause it's not! Honestly! Melissa there is just crazy! She killed her own mother! And you..well what can I say Alice, perhaps you just need to get some sleep." Alice grabbed Andrea from behind spun her around and smacked her in the face.
"The hell it's not true! My God! What is it with you? What proof do you need?"
"He was just some psycho you keep blaming on your problems. When will you take responsibility for them yourself! When will you just get on with your life..when...when.."
She suddenly stopped talking. Alice was staring behind her. Andrea turned quickly and that is when they saw the light inside the Elm Street house was on. Andrea's breath quickened and she ran to the house. "No!" She cried and she stuffed her hands in to her pockets searching for the key. Alice and Melissa ran after her as she shoved the door open and ran inside. Alice froze, afraid to enter the house. Melissa had to pull her through the door way. It was then that Alice noticed the house was not as she had remembered. It was clean and bright. She could still smell the fresh paint. The rooms were completely empty but for the light coming from an old lamp in the corner of the carpet in the living room. Melissa pulled Alice's shirt to get her attention to the open basement door. Alice nodded and they both walked over to it and looked down. Andrea sat on the steps and was crying. Alice and Melissa walked down after her and that is when they saw them. Lying in a heap on the floor were the remains of the "nightmare society" They were all dead and cold on the basement floor. Melissa however didn't care about Andrea sobbing on the steps.
"You wanted to play." She said and kicked Andrea down the rest of the steps and to the ground. "Then we play" Andrea sobbed and flinched away from the dead bodies.
Alice threw the bag of bones at her and she caught them.
"Are we going to use the board?" She asked.
"It won't do us any good to try." Melissa said. "He took all the souls."
"Then I guess we go in after him." Melissa flinched and clutched her stomach. She tossed forward and gripped the furnace. "Melissa!" Alice pleaded. Her hands again began to bleed through the bandages and when her blood came in contact with the metal surface of the furnace it began to sizzle despite the frigid temperature. Melissa pulled away from it and held her hands close, but the fever in her head was too strong. She spun quickly but as she faced Alice and Andrea her face was not her own. The skin seemed to be burning while she looked at them. Her eyes changed and were not her own. They again became red and blood shot.
"Almost time." A voice came growling from her throat. Alice knew that voice. It had tormented her for years.
"Leave her alone!" she screamed. But using Melissa's body he pulled at the rusted handle to the old furnace and removed an old soiled cloth. Wrapped within it the dull bulb above exposed the remains of his gloved claw. Melissa's face looked up. Sweat began to pour from her skin more frequently as she took the glove and spread it blade out and the seductively licked one of the crusty tips. The eyes inside Melissa's head rolled back in ecstasy as she savored the taste. Alice cringed at the sight. Was there any part of Melissa still inside? There must have been cause the glove slipped from her fingers on to the floor and her face returned to normal, only she looked like the sick girl Alice had first seen, her hair dripping with sweat and her tired eyes weak. Desperately she lunged for Alice and went limp in her arms.
"Help me." Melissa pleaded. "He can't stay buried for long." And her eyes closed. Alice shook her trying to wake her but she didn't awaken. Her breathing became slow and deep and her temperature still rose inside her.
Andrea looked around the room still unable to believe that she was trapped in a basement among her dead friends. Friends she had tricked in to resurrecting this evil. An Evil she had just seen manifest itself inside of Melissa. Melissa was the only person who truly seemed to be tortured by her game. Fred Krueger was inside her. Trying to burn out what was left of her from the inside.
Alice laid Melissa down on the floor and took hold of the ouji board. She thrust the boned inside the old crate spread the board out on top of it. In a fit of anger she reached forward and pulled Andrea's hands on to the pointer. "You made this happen; you're going to help me finish it." Andrea tried to pull away but Alice wouldn't let her.
"What the hell do you want me to do?" She asked bitterly.
"There is one soul I haven't seen claimed yet. I say we summon it."
Andrea's mind raced. Who was she going to try to contact that she hadn't already given to Freddy on a silver platter? Alice didn't explain. She didn't have much time. Melissa was growing weaker, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep Freddy busy before she could get inside. Her poor voice echoed inside Alice's ears. "Help me!"
"It's okay Melissa," she whispered "I'm trying."
