AS22: ok, still no good and gory action, but it will start in the next chapter. For now though, rules and angst. Read and review! Please! ….please?
Chapter 4: Deadly Sins
The day was miserably hot, so I stayed inside again. By the way, I live alone now. I get money for short stories I write. Anyway, I did more research on my new friend. Turns out his power comes from the souls of the ones he kills and from fear. If no one knows him, no one fears him, and no one gets killed, so Krueger was almost back in hell when I came to him.
He had killed many kids, and then he actually came to the real world a few times. I say stay in dream land, its more fun in there, but I'm just a kid.
I wonder why he decided to teach me anyway… it's all good for me, so it really doesn't matter…
I got bored, so even though the heat was in the triple digits, I went to the local park. I like to observe people, that's how I know people so well. That's how I knew the way Mike and Brittney would react to my tone, my walk, even my little chant. This is how my kind picks out their next victim.
I watched, and saw a child fall off the jungle bars and hit the ground. Instinctually I wanted to head after the kid, but the mother did.
They're so good… so innocent… unaware of death.
I recalled a scene where I had been playing at a playground and skinned my knee. My mother came right to me and lifted me off the ground. It hurt, but just having my mother there made the pain stop.
The child wiped his eyes dry and ran back to the slide. I shifted my gaze away from the scene to another.
XxX
That night my mother's memory came back to me. The image of her in the bed… her mouth wide open… the blood, and the knife on the floor, bloody. I knew she didn't do it to herself, I had heard her scream, but the cops ruled it a suicide.
When sleep did come, I was back at 1428 Elm Street, Krueger's old home. He was waiting for me like he had the night before.
"One, two, Freddy's coming for you…"
The rhyme started again, so I sang along with the dead girls. I passed rooms full of kids that weren't really kids, but more like tiny corpses.
"Three, four, better lock you door… five, six, grab a crucifix… seven, eight, better stay up late… nine, ten, never sleep again!"
"Have you come to play with us?" a little boy asked. He was followed by the rest of the kids/corpses.
"Sure. Krueger brought you all here?"
"Yes, Mr. Krueger was mean at first, but then he kept brining us friends. Did he bring you here too?" a little girl with pigtails asked.
"No, I came on my own. I'm going to help bring you more friends."
"You shouldn't do that…"
"You should be nice."
"Bringing us friends is bad."
"The world isn't nice, kids. It's bad, really bad." I said.
"It is only bad because your mommy is dead."
"How did you know-"
"You know how we know, Angel." Another little girl said.
"Yeah, I know…" I walked past the kids and further down the hall.
"Good evening, Angel." He said.
"I've been watching the news. Our little stunt last night worked. Rumors of Freddy Krueger's return are spreading like wildfire. The public park was only half full today." I said as I took my seat, "And a rumor of an accomplice working with you is spreading as well. I've been dubbed the Angel of Death."
"So much for Slashing Angel." He laughed.
"I really don't care about the name, just the reputation."
"All of our kind thinks that way." Krueger said.
"Our kind? Yeah… so, how does this test work? Multiple choice or short answer?" I asked slyly.
"Do you know the seven deadly sins?" I nodded, "No you don't, because no one can agree on what they really are. Anger, pride, sloth, gluttony, violence, fraud, greed, envy, and lust are just nine of the possibilities of the deadly sins, though most people want there to only be seven. Makes it easier to seem nice when there are fewer rules. Each one has its own level in hell."
"So how do I use this insightful information?" I asked.
"You must kill teens committing these sins. One kid, one sin. Pick any seven, and once all seven bitches are dead, you'll be my equal."
"That's it, huh? So, when do I start?" I asked, standing.
"Right now, but you'll be on your own, I won't help you or bail your ass out. If you get killed, you're mine bitch, understand?"
"Yeah, I get it Krueger. This should be fun." I went toward the front door and placed my palm onto the doorknob and it was hot. When I opened the door flames shot in toward me. I closed the door and looked back at Krueger.
"Oh, did I forget to warn you? It's hell out there." He laughed.
"I guess you'd know." I said, opening the door again and stepping out.
XxX
Do I really want to go through with this? Do I really want to become a nightmare hunting killer? I'll be betraying my mother's memory…
My mother was the best negotiator for the president before she met my father. She spread peace across the world in her own way.
"If you remember anything I ever tell you, Angelina, remember that love and peace is what our world needs, not hate and prejudice..."
My mother's voice… it was so hard to make out now. Her face faded from my mind. For now, I couldn't dwell on it. Not only would it hinder my work, but in this world of dreams and nightmares she could appear, and most likely not for the best. Most likely it would be to torment me.
There are seven sins… I must find someone committing one of these sins, either while I explore here or in the real world.
"The sun will rise soon! If you're going for someone tonight I'd hurry!" Krueger's voice echoed throughout the world.
He's right, as much as I hate to admit it…
So maybe I'd have to search by day first, that's okay. I had errands to run tomorrow anyway, so it would be easy to spy on potential victims.
And as I feared, my mind went back to my mother, and the realm around me changed to the house I had lived in for five years.
I was watching the scene from a third person view. I was in my room, watching a little blonde girl sleeping, holding a stuffed unicorn. I still had it now, but I had painted it from pink to black. Like I said, Goth is my thing now.
The silence of the house was shattered as a scream pierced the silent night. The little girl that use to be me jerked up into a sitting position and stared at the closed door. She got up, carrying the pink unicorn by its horn, and opened the door. I followed her as she started down the hall.
The hall seemed to grow longer the further we walked, but then it had seemed that way to me that night. We finally made it to the door and she stopped again.
"Don't open the door, please, don't. I'll lose who I am." I said, but the younger version of me couldn't hear me. She opened the door.
"Mommy? Mommy, are you okay?" she asked, then she dropped the unicorn and screamed. I couldn't help myself, it was so vivid that I screamed as well.
My mother was face down, her head turned just a little, just enough to see that the mouth was open. A knife was on the floor, covered in blood. The sheets, the walls, even the ceiling had blood smudges.
The scene faded and altered to the cops, asking me if I had heard anything or if I knew anything. They asked things like, did mommy even take medicine that didn't exactly come from a doctor, or, did mommy ever say anything mean to you? Of course the answer was no, but they ruled her death as a suicide from grief from her husbands death. It had been four years, and she had me, so why would she kill herself? Who knows, maybe she did.
The world around me started to shimmer, like hot pavement from a distance looks in the summer.
"You're waking up, Angel. Guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow…"
The last thing I heard as the sunlight warmed my face was the laughter of the Nightmare Slasher.