Chapter 24.1
Small Sacrifices

Inside her fevered dream Melissa ran. She ran from one dreamscape to another. Freddy on her heals at every step. She stopped at a quick halt when she noticed herself going around in circles. She stood in a hospital hall way then. It was clean, dark and quiet, but for a whimper coming from a near by door. She listened carefully and walked to it. She peered inside the small glass window and saw a young girl huddled in a corner. Melissa took hold of the handle and pulled, but the door was locked. She tapped on the window.

"Hey!" she called. "Hello?" but the girl didn't acknowledge she was there. Instead she stayed curled up crying. Then she watched as she saw Freddy materialize in the corner behind the girl.

"Hey!" Melissa screamed. "Wake up! Behind you! Wake up!" but the girl didn't seem to hear her.

Freddy walked to the glass and stared at Melissa from behind his. "I can't hurt you, but that doesn't mean I can kill them." He growled.

"No!" Melissa screamed and pulled on the door. She watched as Freddy snuck up behind the girl, knowing full well she couldn't see him or hear him, and taunted Melissa by putting his claw right next to her but not killing her. He just watched as Melissa tried to knock on the door. She may have been strong enough to escape her own nightmare, but now she was trapped in someone else's, and couldn't fight back.

"NO!" she screamed again. "Leave her alone you bastard!" she grabbed hold of the door and thought hard. The metal groaned as she pulled. She imagined the metal bending, and in her hand the lock squeaked as she pulled even harder.

Freddy stood and looked at the door as it began to bow from the strength Melissa gave it. He looked at it curiously. 'What the hell is happening?' he thought. Then he saw the wall burst away and door fly back. When the debris stopped falling he looked up and saw Melissa standing there, sweat pouring off her face, her hair damp with perspiration and she looked pissed.

"I said.leave her alone." She growled with equal anger to his own.

Freddy backed away from the girl and dissolved in to the matted wall. Melissa walked over to the girl and knelt down next to her. She reached out and put her hand on the girls shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked. The girl spun around and Melissa saw her face half burned away, the scorched flesh hanging across her eye. "Never better" the voice growled in her throat. Suddenly the girl was Freddy and he had Melissa caught by the arms.

"Crazy little bitch!" he screamed. "I gave you a little too much power."

"You didn't give me shit!" She screamed in return. Freddy gripped her arms and the room suddenly caught fire and burned away around them leaving her back inside the boiler room. "The beginning shall be your end asshole!" And Freddy punched her hard.

"Time to show you a little trick." He said and laid her down, and then slowly he lay on top of her and dissolved into her skin. Melissa convulsed on the floor as she began to lose consciousness.

When Freddy opened her eyes, he found himself staring in to the back of the seats inside Neil's car. He turned slightly in the seat, he could feel Melissa's bones hurting. 'Better lay off the punches.' he thought to himself. He could feel every ache from where he had beat Melissa down.

In the front seat of the car he heard the doors open and Alice and Neil get in. quietly he lay still and listened as they started the car and inched the car around the cemetery.

"Which one is it?" Alice asked. Freddy looked up and saw the back of her strawberry blond hear. He so badly just wanted to reach up and bash her head in, but it was too soon to give himself away. He decided just to listen.

"That one at the end. I scouted it out weeks ago." Neil answered. "I already prepped it for us. I didn't want to leave anything to chance."

"It's already been dug?" she asked.

"Yeah, not many people come this way. I was glad of that. I was able to dig it up, make sure it was empty."

"good." Alice replied.

Freddy inched his wrist through the ropes that bound him. He felt as the car went over a bump, then violently pressed Melissa's thumb down, breaking the bone. The shock of feeling her pain caught him off guard and he let a slight scream, with Melissa's voice. Alice turned quickly as Freddy lay lifeless again on the seat.

"God! What is he doing to her in there?" she asked.

"Well we know he can't kill her, just be glad of that." Neil said as he slowed the car and put it in to park. He and Alice got back out of the car and circled around to the trunk. When he knew he was again alone, Freddy pulled his hand out of the ropes and pulled his hand in front of him and began to untie his feet. The palm of his hand began to turn purple from the bruising broken bone underneath, but he knew it was all well. 'I don't feel it.' He thought. 'I don't feel.'

He sat up and grinned. Carefully he inched over the seat to the front of the car. He glanced up as he saw Alice and Neil walk to a tarp covered grave. When he was sure they were not looking he reached for the wheel to help pull himself over, but that is when he noticed the sack in Alice's hand. 'No..it couldn't be.' he thought. Then he watched as they pulled the tarp off the grave and he saw his name etched in to the stone. He looked around and saw they were inside the cemetery, and he almost could feel the panic of Melissa's heart as he saw them toss the bag of bones in the ground. He fell back in to the seat and with a quick movement kicked open the door of the car.

He stepped out and looked over at them. Anger boiled in his veins, they were endangering his plan for absolute revenge, and he wasn't going to let them get away with it.

"Melissa?" Alice asked looking back as she heard the car door slam shut again. Freddy looked down, almost forgetting he was inside Melissa's body, but he knew once he had complete control he couldn't hid in her forever. He tried to use her voice, but as he began to say 'hello' he could hear his deep burned voice inside. He couldn't get away with it like that. "Melissa, it's almost over." And Alice turned back to the grave as Neil again to the flask and began to prey.

"NO!" Freddy roared and ran towards them pushing Alice in the grave and turning to Neil. Neil then saw the burning eyes of Freddy's inside Melissa's.

"You!" Neil exclaimed as she saw the evil inside the young girl.

"Yes." Freddy replied in his own voice. "Long time no see, too bad I didn't kill you then, would have saved me a lot of trouble."

Neil held up the bottle of holy water and looked down in to the grave; Alice had landed on the bones and had been knocked unconscious. He looked back at Freddy who smiled seeing he could not bless the bones. Instead Neil made a quick movement and splashed Freddy in the face with the water. Freddy grabbed his face and screamed, but put them down quickly and smiled. He was not harmed by the water inside Melissa's body, for the water could not reach his soul which lay underneath.

Neil grabbed his shovel and swung it hard at Freddy who jumped away. He swung it again and Freddy reached out and smacked the shovel back towards Neil. Neil lost his grip and dropped the shovel. Then from behind them another shovel landed hard on Freddy's head. Melissa's body fell hard to the ground. Alice threw the shovel back in to the ground and looked up at Neil. "I've got to help her." Alice pleaded. "There has been enough sacrificed for this rancid soul." Neil looked down in the grave. Destroying the bones would not help with his soul inside Melissa's body. He would lose them both if the tried to kill him now and the nightmare would not end. He nodded to Alice who reached down and checked Melissa's pulse.

"Her heart's beating."

"Let's try at least."

Neil looked down at the bones and took his flask. He prayed and blessed the bones. Unlike Amanda's they didn't turn to dust. He watched as they began to glow, but suddenly stopped, and from beneath them blood began to saturate the surface of them. Melissa's body flinched and struggled. Alice looked down at her and reached to her face. She shook her and slapped her face.

"Wake up!" Alice screamed. Neil pulled her away from Melissa as she struggled in her dream. Blood spurted from her mouth and her eyes opened, white filmed and bloodshot. Away from the body watched as the bones in the grave bleed more, more blood then bones could hold.

Then the light filled Melissa and the bones. From her pain stricken face she gritted her teeth and let the evil burn. Her skin began to blister and redden. Then with all the strength she could muster she called out to Freddy's soul. "The beginning shall be your end!" she screamed loud then. From inside her the scream turned, deepened, and became more ragged, until it was the unmistakable tone of Freddy Krueger.

The bones below caught aflame and Melissa's cloths began to smoke. Alice tried to reach for her to help her but Neil held her back. Melissa's whole body burst in to flames and in a blinding light her body began to burn like paper, and as quickly as it had begun, it ended. In a burst of energy the bones in the grave turned to ash, Melissa's remains too. The sudden blast caused Alice and Neil to fall back away from the grave. It took them a moment to even realize they were still alive. Then when they did, they looked up and saw smoking spot where Melissa had been, and looked in to the grave and saw the razor glove burn away, the blades dissolved and soak in to hell. Around them they watched as the smoke began to thicken around them from the grave. Then they saw them, as though formed from the smoke. It was the forms of the souls who had died. Alice and Neil could make out the faced of Nancy, Kristen, and many others they had known who had been claimed by Krueger's hate. Then a gust of wind came, parting the smoke, clearing the grave yard to where only they stood there.