Chapter Eight
Freddy's Nightmare
Freddy hobbled across the boiler room slowly, leaning against his wooden cane for support. His tired blue eyes gazed around the massive labyrinth of hissing furnace.
He raked a hand through his white hair and sighed a shaky sigh. His red and green sweater was so old it was losing thread and starting to unravel.
Freddy Krueger walked down the street peering at the suburbanized houses...If he could carry it out, he would capture a child. He was so tired and he needed his afternoon map.
"Hello little children." His old voice warbled. The two twin boys peered at him questioningly. The only children out playing.
"Are you my Grandpa?" One asked. He grit his teeth.
"I, am Freddy-" His false teeth catapulted unto the sidewalk. He struggled to bend down and pick them up.
"Ewe!" The boys squealed in unison.
"Get over here!" Freddy rose his rusty old blades up menacingly, shoving his false set of teeth into his mouth. The boys tore down their driveway and Freddy limped towards them. "Come back here now!" His voice cracked and he stopped to cough horribly. His wheezy cough. Seventy years old and still killing...Well trying at least. But the kids always seemed to get away nowadays.
He touched his wrinkled face. So many wrinkles- no he wasn't burned. It had never happened. He was mortal.
"You still haven't died? You were around when I was a teenager!" A woman's voice exclaimed behind him. It was Alice! How old was her son now? How old was she?
He coughed wearily again.
"You're fucking old." She gasped. She took a quick bouncy step towards him and shoved the old man.
"Ugh!" He moaned as he fell over on his side. She kicked his cane from under him and it skidded down the pavement.
She tore down the street to her car and got in.
His old bones willed him to climb to his feet five minutes later. His false teeth weren't in quite right so he fixed them.
"I'm getting a little old for this." He croaked.
It wasn't easy getting around on a cane- for one thing he was so weak it felt like he would keel over any minute. Everything was so different from what he remembered.
The streets were so much quieter and cleaner and there were no children around... They were all inside playing on their up-to-date computers. It was as if there were no such thing as hop scotch and jump rope anymore. The batch of kids from the 80's and early 90's era were the last of the unmodernized children.
Loretta was alive. She and Katherine lived with him. Loretta was awful looking too. Wrinkled and practically transparent, so many blue and purple veins, sipping prune juice from a flowered china glass. Katherine was reading the newspaper.
"Father would you like your tea?" He nodded weakly and as he sat in his chair his bones cracked. Katherine was forty five and still lived with her parents.
She poured it for him and three minutes later the hot substance was finally making its way down his throat.
"Here's your tea biscuits father." She plopped the box down in front of him.
"Thanks Katherine."
"I picked up some Viagra." Loretta told him with a smile on her pursed lips.
"Oh." Freddy said opening the box of tea biscuits with trembling white fingers.
Curse these dreams- and children thought the dreams where he came were scary? Try dreaming you're practically 100 years old.
He lurched into the living room where Loretta was knitting a sweater made from red and green yard.
"Sweetheart we might have to get you a walker. That cane is becoming a real pain." She said with a warm smile. Sweetheart- yuck. Hate when she called him that.
"Get any children?" She asked. She had promised not to tell and she hadn't apparently.
"Not today. You know Loretta, not many children play outside anymore. It's getting harder and I'm getting older." He rasped. "But I have an idea."
He heard Katherine taking her shoes off at the front door.
"Hello Dad- hey mother."
"Katherine do you think you could show me how to use the computer?"
"Whatever for?" Katherine asked puzzled but perplexed.
"Ah, well I thought I'd use those absurd chat rooms to lure children." Freddy Krueger would be slave a woman before he EVER resorted to the Internet chat rooms to do his dirty work.
"Okay well let me show you." she led him to her laptop and logged on to the service for him. She showed him where to go, how to use the mouse and where to go to find websites, chat and search engines.
"Thanks I think I can manage." It was still pretty complex considering the era he had grown up in but he could do it.
He registered with Katherine's help onto Kid Chat. A website for kids between the ages 8-12 could talk sports, games, movies or anything in general. He chose the room for kids who lived in Ohio. The site warned not to give out any personal information to strangers. But he had a way with kids.
F Krueger: Any kids want to talk?
B-Ball Player: Me! evry1 else is ignoring me.
F Krueger: I won't ignore you. I live in Springwood.
B-Ball Player: Me 2
F Krueger: Really? What do you like to do? How old are you?
B-Ball Player: I like sports like basketball. I'm 9. My name is Charlie.
F Krueger: I'm 10- you could call me your big brother. I'm Freddy.
B-Ball Player- I always wanted a big bro Freddy
F Krueger: Well then today is your lucky day.
B-Ball Player: Thanx. What skool do u go 2?
F Krueger: Springwood Elementary.
B-Ball Player: Me 2. So u r in the 5th grade?
F Krueger: Yeah.
B-Ball Player: Kool.
F Krueger: Want 2 come over to my house to play sometime? 2 play video games and basketball?
B-Ball Player: Ya!!! :) But I hafta ask my mom. she's a drag.
F Krueger: Aren't all parents?
B-Ball Player: Lol. Ya. Where do u live
F Krueger: 1428 Elm Street. Don't tell your parents where you are going. Just say to a friends. Come over after school- like at 4:00.
B-Ball Player: 4:00?
F Krueger: Ya.
He shut down the computer feeling satisfied as the sleeping Freddy watched in complete dazed horror. No! It couldn't be! A chat room- that's where desperate mortal pedophiles went to lure children not Freddy Krueger!
"Want some prune juice?" Loretta asked when he limped into the living room. "Here." She rose the fine china to his lips.
"No!" He mumbled- he hated that crud.
"It's good for you Fred!" And he hated when she called him Fred.
"NO!" He spoke slightly louder.
She tipped the glass to his lips.
"NO!" He screamed waking up in Lola's bed. He was covered in sweat and his hair was a mess. "What a nightmare." He groaned meekly and glanced at the alarm clock. Still hours until Katherine helped them figure something out.
He panted heavily. If those parents hadn't burned him to death he'd be so damned old. He shivered under the duvet- and he'd be resorting to the Internet! In that dream, he had definitely lost his touch and his style.
"I hate being human." He pouted.