Title: Fighting Fire With Fire

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Chapter: Six

Molly sat up, sweating, her heart beating a mile a minute.

She groaned and buried her face in her hands. It hadn't worked… In the back of her mind, she had sort of been hoping that 'he' and Freddy would kill each other off, and she would be left to her own devices.

It seemed, though, that it was not to be. They could not harm each other, and now it seemed that she was to be the prize of whatever demented game they came up with while she was awake.

Sitting there, she felt completely drained; a voice in her mind whispered for her to escape, and she briefly considered it… but quickly decided against it. She'd already run away, really. This was her last place to run… her very last hope.

She had no doubt that if she left this place then 'he' would find a way to be sure she could not access Freddy's playground from the outside, and then 'he' would find her again, and she'd just be back in the same situation as before, except that he would probably find a way to increase her suffering, since he was so obviously pissed that she had come here.

If she stayed, she could see two things that would happen… if 'he' won, she'd be back in the same situation, and 'he' would keep her alive until the end of her years, inflicting upon her whatever horrors he felt like.

It would be Freddy who she would want to win. At least if that psychopath won, then he would probably torture her, then kill her… at least then she'd be dead, and away from 'him' where he could never ever reach her.

Sighing, she got up and re-dressed herself, then left.

Walking with deliberate steps back toward the place where she'd left Marcus, she detachedly observed the scenery around her; if everything went the way she was hoping for, then this was most probably her last day to live.

Strangely, though, as this thought occurred to her, she didn't mind. Long, long ago she had grown used to the idea of her dying. At first, she had several times thought that 'he' would kill her, and 'he' brought her close oh-so-many times, but each time he brought her back. It was an unbearable torture, and she had actually started to wish that her misery would be ended.

And it seemed it would be now.

When she knocked on the motel door, a bleary-eyed Marcus answered. "Jesus, do you know what time it is?" He squinted at her. "What the hell's up with you? You look like a fucking ghost."

And she did. Her skin paler even than usual, dark circles ringing her bloodshot eyes, Molly looked like a ghost… or perhaps a corpse.

She shrugged and brushed past Marcus, who closed the door after she was inside. Digging in her bag, she pulled out something and held it out to him. "Here's the rest of your money."

He took it. "You ready to go home, then?"

She shook her head. "I… I might not be going home."

"Huh?" he looked confused.

"You can leave without me now, if you want, or you can wait around for me. I'll be leaving again tonight. If I don't come back tomorrow, then… I won't be coming back. You won't be seeing me again, then, and you can just leave without me. Or now, like I said."

Throughout all of this, her voice had been strangely emotionless, and Marcus blinked. "I'll wait for you, but… is there something going on with you, Molly? 'Cause you seriously don't look well and –"

Molly coldly interrupted him. "I'm paying you for rides, not for getting into my business."

He frowned. "Fine."

The rest of the day passed by in a blur and, before she knew it, Molly found herself back at 1428 Elm Street. She went through the same preparations as she had the night before, except that she stayed, sitting, for a few moments, looking around. She might never again awake.

As she fell asleep, Molly didn't notice as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Back in the dream world, Sere 'awoke' in shackles, as she had been in when she had fallen asleep. However, instead of being at the end of a long metal mesh walkway, she was on the floor, in a large square area, though it was quite obvious that she was still in Freddy's playground.

Said Nightmare King was there, waiting for her, as was Jireziah. Both demons had sure-of-themselves smirks on their faces.

It was Jireziah who spoke. "We have decided upon a game."

Freddy waved his clawed hand, and a large portion of the floor was covered by alternating black-and-red squares. The game was –

"Chess," Sere said. Her voice was, surprisingly to her, more sure than she would have expected.

Freddy and Jireziah each moved to specified squares, and the outfit of each changed slightly. Over his normal outfit, Freddy now wore a long black leather duster, and was holding a kingly sword in his ungloved hand.

As for Jireziah, he was now wearing a king's robe over his outfit and was, too, holding a sword. A golden band graced his brow.

Freddy was red, and Jireziah black. The reason the board wasn't the usual white and black was obvious… neither demon would have agreed to being white.

On each of their sides, one of the pawn's spaces glowed slightly.

"You are playing, too, Serenity," said Jireziah.

Freddy gestured with his claw, and his gravelly voice sounded out. "Pick your side, Bitch."

Surprised, Sere looked back and forth between the two glowing spaces uncertainly. She was playing, too? It would be idiotic to pick 'his' side, but if she picked Freddy's, and 'he' won, she would surely be punished even more severely later…

…Oh, well…
Holding her head high, showing no fear, Sere made her way to the glowing space on Freddy's side. Her clothes immediately were changed to brown pants and a red tunic-shirt, and a wicked looking dagger was strapped to her waist.

The look on Jireziah's face was priceless. "I assure you, Serenity," he intoned, "that when this is over, you will be severely punished."

Freddy sneered. "You won't be punishing what is mine."

A moment later, the squares on Freddy's side seemed to have movement in them. People were crawling out of them… Sere was horrified to see that the person who had climbed out of the square beside Freddy, dressed in queen's garments with her wavy brown hair up, had horrible stab wounds. This was Nancy, a girl who Sere knew had been the first to banish Freddy, only to be killed by him at a later time.

Looking around, she could see that all of the other players on Freddy's side were past victims whose souls he had collected, all looking as they had when they had been dying. One girl, with light brown hair, looked like she had been overstuffed with food.

The looks on their faces were agonized, but they didn't talk, only occasionally made an agonized moan.

Freddy looked around at his 'children', and chuckled menacingly, a sort of demented proud look upon his fire-ravaged face.

Sere looked over at Jireziah's side to see if he had summoned his pieces, wondering despite herself what he would use, and let out a gasp of horror. She shouldn't have been surprised… she really shouldn't… but she was.

Jireziah smirked even more maliciously than usual as he watched Sere's eyes take in his pieces.

At Jireziah's side, in the position of the queen, was Sere's mother. In the positions of the knights were her brother, Carl, and a male friend of hers whom she'd known for years, Alan. In the positions of the bishops was her ex-stepfather, Michael, and… what the!

She couldn't believe it. She couldn't fucking believe it… family and friends were nothing new for him, though she hadn't expected them here… but this? The other bishop was who she thought was the sexiest guy on earth, the lead singer of her favorite band, My Chemical Romance… Gerard Way. Standing there in all his sexy glory.

In the corners, the rooks were her little sister, Ashley, and her best friend since they were little, Angela.

Five of the pawns were her ex-boyfriends, Jesse, Josh, Sean, Willy, and Tony. One pawn was her ex-stepbrother, Brandon. The last two pawns sort of confused her; why on earth would he use these two? They were two people who had bullied her since Kindergarten, a black boy named M.J. and a snobby girl named Shelby.

Jireziah was such an ass. He was just doing this to bug her.

Not long into the game, Sere got an unpleasant surprise. Whenever one piece took out another piece, they were to kill them.

Freddy, whenever he chose for her to move, had her choose where she would move, so long as it was within the rules of the game.

It wasn't long before she was in a position where she found an obstacle. Freddy had gestured for her to move. She was in a position where she could take out either of two of Jireziah's pawns… It was Jesse and Josh.

Jesse, who she had gone out with for three years, who hadn't even told her that he was moving. She'd shown up at his place one day to visit to find the place abandoned and empty.

Josh, who had broken up with her because his parents had said she was a bad influence.

She looked helplessly back and forth between the two. She would have to actually kill one of them! Even if it wasn't real, it still… seemed so real to her!

Freddy tapped a singular claw against his pant leg in impatience. "Make your move, Bitch," he growled out.

Tears shined in her eyes. I've gotta do it, she reminded herself. Besides, it's not real. Resolution hardened her tear-filled eyes, and she took a step towards Jesse. Terror filled the boy's eyes, and he pleaded with her, "Molly, please don't kill me! I know I should have told you, I was stupid!"

Her jaw set resolutely, Sere stepped forward and plunged her dagger into Jesse's chest. As she pulled the blade out, blood flowed out of the wound and onto her hands, staining her flesh. Jesse slumped to the ground, and she stepped over him, into the square where he had stood. Tears shined in her eyes, but she kept them from falling. This wasn't real. She would be strong. She would be free.

It wasn't much later before she came up against another pawn. She noticed that she could have been taken out, but it seemed that Jireziah was avoiding doing so. Knowing him, he probably wanted to save all the physical pain he would inflict upon her for later, and just torture her with the mental agony of seeing all this bloodshed to those she knew right now. Most likely, he wasn't worried about her, really, since she was just a pawn. A weak piece.

The pawn she was up against… it was M.J. Looking at the boy in front of her, knowing that she would have to kill him, Sere felt something stir within her. This boy… since Kindergarten, he had gone out of his way to make her life miserable. He had found ways to outcast her from the other students and, because of him, she had had to spend most of her days in elementary and junior high completely alone but for a couple of friends.

As she moved towards him, memories of it overtook her mind, and rage filled her eyes. M.J. backed away. "Come on, Molly, it was just a joke. Kid stuff, ya know?"

She didn't seem to hear him. Grabbing him by the shirt with her left hand, she laughed, in a voice unlike her own. "Kid stuff, huh? Let's see if your twisted little mind thinks of this as kid stuff, you sadistic son of a bitch. I should have done this to you years ago." With that, she ripped the dagger across his stomach deeply, so that M.J., shock in his eyes, had to grab his stomach to keep his own bowels from falling out. As he fell to his knees, Sere grabbed him by the hair and viciously slashed his throat. The boy collapsed sideways and his hands left his stomach so that his entrails spilled out. A pool of blood and bile quickly surrounded the boy, filling the heated air with an unbelievable stench.

Paying no heed, Sere stepped into the mess, into the square where M.J. had been.

As the red rage and the memories faded, Sere could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins along with assorted emotions. There was, of course, the natural guilt that she felt for harming and killing someone. But, underneath, there was that something which she had felt stirring, that darkness… in the act of killing M.J., she had felt a sort of sinfully delicious pleasure at harming him, at causing agony and death to one who had made her so miserable.

She stared down at her blood-covered hands and clothes, at the mess at her feet. What was she? What had she become?

Sere was pulled out of her reflections by the feeling of eyes on her. Looking a few rows ahead, she could see Jireziah watching her, a smirk on his face. Damn him! He had planned this. This was why he had added in enemies of hers.

But that wasn't all…

Feeling his eyes burning into the back of her head, Sere turned to find Freddy staring at her, his eyes darkened, an unreadable expression on his face.

The game had been going on for hours. Corpses littered the board.

Many of the pieces on both sides had been taken out. At one point, Jireziah had pulled a clever move and taken out Freddy's queen, Nancy. Freddy had done the same to Jireziah's queen, Sere's mother. In fact, he had personally made that move, tossing his sword aside and taking great pleasure in shoving his blades deep into the woman. This game was really getting to him… he didn't have this patience.

To get to where she was, just one row from the end of the board, Sere had had to kill multiple people… including her own brother, and then Angela. The look of betrayal on her friend's face was torturous.

The singer, Gerard Way, was still alive. The pitiful thing was, she still found him sexy, even though he was very, very spattered in blood. Oh, god, was he sexy.

Freddy had Jireziah almost trapped. But not quite. Each time Freddy moved someone into place to take the asshole out, he would move forward a space, or sideways a space, etc., to find a way out of it.

As Freddy was about to make his next move, Sere called out, breaking the silence she'd kept of herself for most of the game. "Freddy."

He glanced at her, and the look in her eyes said she wanted to move. He sneered. "Fine, then. Make your move, Bitch."

So Sere did. Jireziah should have taken her out when he had the chance, but he hadn't.

She took a step forward to the next square, and the effect was instantaneous. Her blood-stained peasant's clothes were replaced by beautiful, velvet crimson-and-ebony queen's robes, and a golden tiara sat on her head. The dagger at her waist was replaced by a jewel-encrusted sword in her hand.

Pawn to queen.

She was now standing down the row from Jireziah. If he moved in any direction, he would be put in the way of one of Freddy's other pieces.

His face whiter than usual, Jireziah stepped back, unaware that he was making his move into the square behind him.

Her face triumphant, Sere strode forward and plunged her sword into him.

Freddy's voice was smug and triumphant all at once as he spoke.

"Checkmate."

The look on Jireziah's face as he faded out of sight was one of fury and complete loathing.

They had won.

QS: (READ!) The End.

*waits for everyone to start leaving, and is surprised to find them all glaring at her. Gives an innocent look* What? Why are you all still here? she grinz Sorry, I was just joking. Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you guys like that.

As you can see, I ended up choosing chess. I just hope I creeped it up enough. I didn't go into details of the whole game, 'cause I figure that would be too boring, and I'm not a good enough player to write a well-played game of chess. Any chess errors I made, I don't care. Let's just say I changed it to suit the story.

After this, there is only one chapter left to write. I can't believe I'm finally ending this fic. I hope you have all liked it. When I started out writing this, based upon the horrors of my own nightmares, I was hoping for one thing. I wanted to write a NOES fic that was different from all of the others. One that would stand out in your head, and not because it sucked. I wanted this one to be one of the best in this particular category. I hope I succeeded, because I have put so much effort into this fic that it is not even funny.