Chapter 20
Hide and Seek

Melissa crouched down in a corner next to the massive boiler. It seemed she was alone in the dank place. She had not heard a single screech or step from Fred Krueger the whole time she hid. 'What is he waiting for?' She thought. She stood cautiously and slowly stepped around to the front of the boiler. She looked in to the open flames where the bodies had been burned and the evil forged. As she looked in to the flames however she saw only the gold light they cast upon the walls and her face. It took only the feeling of this heat to awaken the reason she could not find Fred Krueger.

It started as a slow burn in her chest. She backed away from the fire and held her chest tight as the burn began to increase. Then she could almost feel the ribs inside her body crack as a force so strong she knocked back on to the floor exploded from her chest and leaped in to the flames. The bruised pain was almost too much to bare. She rolled on to her side and pulled herself away from the boiler. She ached as though ever vain in her body had suddenly retched itself from her skin, but it was only a shadow of the pain she knew was to come. She moaned in agony as she reached the 10th foot away from the heat and fell back against a warm pipe.

She looked up then and stared in to the flames and she knew where he had been hiding. Fred Krueger had hitched a ride within her to get to his glove and when she fought him back inside she had angered him greatly. He had released himself from her and threw himself back in to the fire, and it was there he reemerged.

The flames collected forming a solid mass. Large and round this mass snaked out of the boiler to reveal a huge head of fire. The yellows and orange flamed formed the features of the burned man and stared at her with evil eyes.

"You bitch!" it growled.

"What do you care; you psycho motherfucker!" Melissa screamed. She had had enough of having her stings pulled. "Kill me and get it over with!" She picked up a near by loose pipe and threw it into the glowing head, but it past threw him landing red hot on the other side. The massive head chuckled and stared at her.

"I don't think so, little girl." He replied. "I've got much more planned for you."

Meanwhile inside the basement of 1428 Elm Street Alice closed her eyes and thought hard of the soul that had saved them so many times. Then she felt it. The pointer twitched and slid across the board. It stopped at 'Yes'. Alice could feel Andrea shaking through the pointer as the pointer circled the board.

"Who is this?" Andrea asked. The pointer slid to letters A.M.A.N.D.A. Before the pointer could finish Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

"Amanda, this is Alice." She said.

The pointer slid to 'Yes'.

"He's back. He's claimed all the souls he ever had now, and he keeps hijacking this girl's body." Alice explained.

'Yes'

"How can he do this?" She asked.

P.U.T.T.O.R.E.S.T.

"Put to rest?" Andrea questioned.

"But we have tried, you have tried, why won't he rest?"

S.O.U.L.M.U.S.T.R.E.L.E.A.S.E

"How do we release him?"

S.A.C.R.F.I.C.E

Alice sat stunned as the pointer circled.

"His soul must be released through sacrifice?"

'No'

S.O.U.L.S.A.C.R.I.F.I.C.E.S.E.L.F

"Soul sacrifices self?" Andrea asked.

Alice was equally stumped by this. It seemed as though the spirit was speaking in riddles.

'goodbye'

"Damn it!" Alice cursed and threw the pointer across the room.

"What do we do now?" Andrea asked bitterly. Alice sighed and looked around the room. The bodies in the corner, the furnace beside them, the rope...the rope!

Alice reached over and grabbed the rope next to them and pushed the crate away. She took Melissa's hands and tied them to the brace underneath the steps, then bound her feet tightly.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked.

"He is able to take her while she sleeps, so incase he does.I'm tying her up. We'll be safer."

"No, I'm going home and there I'll be safer." Andrea got up and prepared to leave, but Alice stepped in from of her, blocking her from the stairs.

"No you don't." Alice warned. "You started this, your going to help me finish it. I'm not going in their alone. So you go back over their tie that sack of bone really tight and sit your ass down!"

Andrea did as she was told and sat down and Alice sat on the landing at the foot of the steps. She rubbed her eyes slowly and breathed deep fighting back the anxiety she felt. She felt her heart be slow and she leaned back against the wall and stared over to Andrea and sat nervously across her. Alice's eyes drooped and she laid her head back against the wall and thought 'Melissa'. The room suddenly felt warmer, and soon after stickier. Alice opened her eyes and she awake inside the boiler room. She saw the flaming head over Melissa who was lying on the floor under it. The flaming head turned and saw Alice enter. Alice flinched when she saw the face, twisted and scared and made of fire. She turned and ran away from it only to face a metal door. She took hold of the handle and felt a force push her through the door. Alice opened her eyes then and noticed she was no longer in the boiler. She was lying in the grass at the Springwood Cemetery. She got up slowly and looked around until she saw a row of stones. Each plot burned and aluminates the headstone. Alice swallowed thickly as she stepped closer to them to read who they were.

She didn't have to read them, for in her heart she knew who they were. She read the names of her brother, her friends, then her father, and last her son.

"Fuck you!" She screamed. "The hell I'll let you get to them!"

A flame rose from the grave of her son and formed the body of a man. He stepped from the flames and materialized as Freddy Krueger. Alice backed away from him and suddenly fell down back over another headstone, only the fall didn't stop her. She fell down in to an empty grave; the stone above etched her own name. "NO!" she screamed. Freddy stood over the grave at her and smiled.

"Rest in pieces bitch!" and he took hold of a shoved and threw the dirt down on to her.