Chapter Seventeen

We Meet Again

One Month Later
"Well, well, well..." Lola dared to breathe as she took in her surroundings, an all too familiar setting of a bleak boiler room, one which had seen its prolific share of murder and anguish. It was as if the room were alive and breathing. Puffs of hissing steam rose in clouds around her, like a gentle, warm mist.

She felt the frigid cold of solid metal against the flesh of her bare arm, her nostrils catching the also familiar scent of steel and decay. Her nightgown was thin and practically transparent and she was pimpled with goosebumps.

Great. Just perfect. Another chance for Krueger to catch her off guard.

"Freddy?" She exclaimed, spinning around to face an equally surprised child murderer. "Long time no see." She finished, clasping his grimy left hand in hers.

"Cep." Hr growled.

"Where have you been?" She fought the urge to pull him into a bear hug.

"Around." He retorted. "Dreams to invade, people to kill." He shrugged nonchalantly. What was it worth if he didn't show off a little?

"I wish you could come to my 18th birthday party..." She patted him affectionately on the shoulder and he swiped at her arm. "But I think all the victims might turn you on." She laughed.

"I don't exactly get along with your set of friends." He sniffed. The image of Brie and Zoe popped in his head for a split second and vanished as quickly as it had come.

"Happy early birthday." He grumbled.

"Thanks!" She giggled. The words just didn't seem right coming from Mr. Almighty-Elm-Street-Killer. "When's yours?" She asked, smirking.

He scowled.

"I've never celebrated my birthday."

She clucked her tongue and shook her head in disbelief.

"Never had a birthday party, not even growing up?" He shot her a nasty glare that stopped her shortly. He didn'tmind her- but that didn't mean he wasn't entitled to push her around and tweak her low, teenage self esteem.

"You know I still haven't gotten my driver's license." She frowned at this. Most of her friends did, Lola just hadn't gotten around to it. "Maybe you can give me some pointers?"

It had been a long time since he had gotten behind the wheel, besides driving that bus into the desert grounds and scaring the pants off the mullet-happy 80s' teens, as well as smacking head on into the John Doe. That didn't really count.

"You bother me." He clenched and unclenched his gloved fist. She took note of this reflex and laughed it off.

"Your threats amuse me, Krueger. You would never hurt me. Never." She smiled broadly and he cracked a tiny smile, which was more grimace than anything.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." He trailed off. You could never be too sure with Freddy Krueger. His presence called for keen ears and acute vision. You always had to be on your feet, waiting and watching for his every sinister move.

"Well anyway, when I do get my license I'll give you a drive because it'll be my first taxi job-" She exclaimed eagerly.

"I think not." He interrupted, cutting her off in mid sentence. "I'd rather be dissected." He never stopped pumping out the insults; they came as naturally as smoothing your hair down on a windy day is.

She bit her lip until she tasted the metallic tang of her blood. She was almost offended by his comment, but chose to maintain what little dignity she retained, after the many days spent curbing his aggression.

"You've got serious anger issues." She lamented. Then her face grew grave as she remembered something that had happened five weeks ago. Something the whole of Springwood was grieving on. They may not have agreed on the proper techniques to nourish a flowerbed, or if Mr. Jones was sleeping with the Spanish gardener, but the death of, "a nice boy, one had a real good head on his shoulder" was undoubtedly the town tragedy.

"You murdered Kurt."

He bowed low with pride.

"That I did." He beamed. "Quick and messy." He recollected that night. Remembering how great it had felt to be back in the business, the natural adrenaline rush the slaying provided. The feeling still hadn't ebbed away.

"Well at first I was sad about it..." She trailed off, thinking of what to say next. "He was my boyfriend; he was the first real semblance of normality I had moving to Springwood. But then I thought about it." A smile crept upon her face. "And I thought about it real hard, and then it hit me; good riddance!" She raised her palm with a crooked smile. Freddy stared for a few seconds before it clicked in what she wanted him to do. "Don't leave me hanging!"

He slapped her palm with his non-gloved hand.

"I thought you'd be pissed." He pouted. He was hoping he'd put Lola into a state of unimaginable unhappiness because that was what he liked to do- upset the friends and relatives of loved ones after he killed them until they were past normal recovery.

She shook her head.

"He wasn't an honest guy. He betrayed me after I gave him everything." She let out her breath- okay, so it was a little upsetting that a person with whom she had once been inseparable with was now buried six feet underground. But only mildly.

"Ah, well." Freddy drummed his blades against a railing. "It's a real shame you didn't see the look on his face when I sunk these bad boys into those rippling biceps." He blew on the tips of his blades.

She shuddered inwardly, thoughts of blood, guts, and gore surfacing-about Kurt.

"You went through so many hardships being me for awhile." She chuckled at the memories. They had occurred only weeks before, but it felt as though it had been another lifetime. Time passed quickly, and that was good enough for her.

"I'd say." He grimaced and shivered.

"I quit the play by the way." She told him.

It had been difficult and unnerving to approach Mrs. Renner and deal with the guilt the eccentric teacher would force her hand upon. And, try as she might to be calm, collected and reasoning, the director had been livid, yelling, and near tears, begging for Lola to logical reason as to why. No one else in their right mind was willing to play the erotic role Freddy had been, and Lola knew how "right" his state of mind was.

They had probably made the right decision to cancel the production, as well as saved a good chunk of the money designated to the drama department. She couldn't very well explain that well, she hadn't exactly been herself when "she" had piped up for the part. Mrs. Renner thought it was Lola she was casting as the lead female, not a legendary serial killer who never really died.

"I'm not much of an actor." She shrugged. Like Freddy cared. He had, as he had proclaimed in the past, moved on to bigger and better things. "Hey!" Her face lit up as a means of changing the subject (the thought of Mrs. Renner's bloated face and teary beady eyes as Lola excused herself from the major play production of the school year was not reassuring) "Want to arm wrestle?"

"No." He replied automatically. He had never been much of an arm wrestler and his biceps had never exactly been body builder replicas. And heck, he didn't want to risk losing to a girl. Frankly, it was bad enough all those chicks had defeated him back in the 1980's. Like Kristen and Nancy, Alice and that girly-boy Jesse. Though, he was no longer a twentieth century man.

"I do knives, not combat." He shook his head.

She nodded. "Well gosh It's pretty cool seeing you again. I didn't think you would ever return- in fear I might go and switch us again!" She smiled at the trace of alarm on his face.

"If that ever happened again I'd slit my wrists." He brought a hand limply to his forehead in faux-dramatic, such as he had seen some of his male victims do when he interrupted their acoustic guitar playing-the ones with the styled black hair and tight pants.

He began pacing. He was wasting precious time here, he could be preying upon a kid tight now, not making small chat and losing brain cells.

"Oops!" She covered her mouth with her hand as if she had forgotten something, and she had. She pulled something from her nightgown pocket. It was concealed inside a dirty old rag.

"Here is the glove, the very one that took the last breath from thousands of kids and caused a chaotic switch." She handed it to him, but wasn't sure why. Letting go of it also let go of the thousands of recollections this tool had brought her.

It was almost a sort of warped souvenir- a reminder of what they had experienced together, and the toy of a person who was far from forgettable.

"You carry it around with you?" He scoffed. "Who do you think you are? Freddy Krueger or something?"

She scowled as he snatched back the glove.

"I don't know why I keep it." She blushed and added lamely, "Protection I guess."

"Protection? From whom?"

"From nightmares. Not you though- you don't scare me."

He let out a small growl and she chuckled, playfully punching him on the arm.

"I'm kidding Freddy-you're terrifying!" She said as her stomach let out an angry growl of protest.

"I'm starving! Think you could teleport us to Taco Bell or something?" She asked and it wasn't long before he was aiming another warning look in her direction. She came to the abrupt conclusion that Taco Bell and food in general would have to wait.

"Truth question: did you have a crush on any one at my school? Any busty babe?" She urged.

"Get the fuck away from me!" He snarled, making a swipe for her chest.

"Hey, this is my dream!" She objected, leaping backwards. "Let's maintain our anger!" Freddy ignored her and began walking in the opposite direction, ducking around corners whilst the teen followed close behind.

"Where are we going?"

"To kill!" He grinned knowing she would never stick around for a proposition like that. She poised an eyebrow.

"Most kids around Springwood are probably extinct around here because of you."

He stopped suddenly and she crashed into his rigid body. She let out a groan of the momentary pain and backed out of the way.

"Why are you following me?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Oh come on, we're friends and you know it!" She laughed and dodged another swipe.

It had taken a long time to transfer her thoughts from Krueger into the daily scuffles and forget her feelings for him. When she had finally succeeded, here he was in her dreams again. The dreams that only came when the moon illuminated the sky and the city slept, (and she had taken a lot of daytime naps). There was a long silence following. Okay, Lola was being a bit of a nuisance-but only a bit.

"Sorry, Freddy. I was just kind of excited to see you."

This stopped him quickly and she knew it had affected him, despite his impenetrable surface. She glanced down at her stopwatch and realized how much time had crept up on her in the boiler room. Time seems to soar when you are asleep and dreaming deeply. Her alarm was ready to go off in three minutes for school.

"I've gotta go soon, Freddy. Any last words?" She asked feeling almost regretful, knowing this would probably be their last encounter. It was how it was meant to be.

"Nope." He fixed the fedora atop his head.

"Bye Freddy!" She threw herself at him, also throwing away her previous inhibitions, and took him in her warm embrace, squeezing for all she had. Only jumping away quickly to avoid any chance of finding his blades embedded in her skin.

His wide eyes finally managed to subside to their normal size.

He had met many people in his life. All kinds of them. Varying in age, shape, size, race and sex. Despite their differences as humankind, they had all one thing in common. It was the kind of emotions they revealed, that only a boogeyman can withdraw from within a person, but no one had displayed the kind of unconditional affection Lola had just.

"I have one thing to say kid..." He said slowly, crossing his arms across his chest, the memories of Lola's havoc never fading..."Don't go snooping in any abandoned furnaces in the near future."

In response, she winked.

The last glimpse of Krueger she would ever see was the bemused smile that stole across his face, before her alarm sounded and the boiler room disappeared before her eyes-but for the final time.