CHAPTER 2: Realization
Karen was very shaken by her dream, and hadn't fallen back to sleep that night. The next day she walked down to breakfast.
"Good morning honey, I made bacon and eggs for you" Karen's mum said cheerily.
"Thanks mum" Karen said sleepily.
Karen sat down at the table and her mum put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her. Her mum walked back over to the kitchen bench, just over her head on the pantry was a calendar informing Karen there was only two more days until Halloween.
"Hey mum, have you ever heard of Freddy Krueger?" Karen asked slowly while starting to eat her breakfast.
Her mum dropped the plate she was holding and it shattered on the floor.
"Where did you hear that name?" Karen's mum asked.
"He was a man in my dream" Karen answered
"No, I've never heard the name. Haven't you been taking your Hypnocil pills?" Karen's mum said in an aggravated voice, and, even though Karen thought nothing of it then, she seemed frightened.
"No, I forgot" Karen said, looking back at her plate as she raised another forkful of egg to her mouth.
Karen didn't see any creepy little girls on her way to school, but the image still stayed in her head. When she arrived at Springwood High Anna was sitting on the edge of the fountain with Joey Lankerson, Michelle Gordon and Michelle's boyfriend Logan Henrikson.
"Hey Karen, what's with the sleepy look?" Logan asked.
"I didn't get much sleep last night, I had a nightmare" Karen answered.
"So did I, I was in a boiler room or something and from around the corner came this horrible long Screee. And then this man came around the corner, he had a dirty red and green sweater on, a brown hat and-" Anna started.
"And a glove with knives for fingers…" Karen finished.
"How did you know?" Anna asked, mystified.
"He was in my dream too! I backed into a pipe, and I got burned. And when I woke up I was actually burned. He told me his name was Freddy Krueger, and he was my worst nightmare" Karen explained.
"That's a load of crap! I mean, come on, a boogieman that tries to kill you in your dreams?" Joey said unbelievingly.
"It's true! Just look at my burn!" Karen replied, grabbing her arm and showing her elbow to Joey.
"I bet you did that on a stove or something, and you just made up this story to scare us!" Joey protested, pushing Karen's arm back down.
"Fine, don't believe if you don't want to, but don't come complaining to me when he carves you up!" Karen pouted and walked on to the school's doors just as the bell rang.
Karen sat with her head resting on one of her hands, staring at Mrs. Mallory up the front of the room.
She started to close her eyes but snapped them back open.
Can't go to sleep, he's waiting; he knows I can't last forever… Karen thought.
She felt her eyelids drooping again and put her hand up.
"Yes Ms. Davis?" Mrs. Mallory asked, looking at Karen as if Karen interrupting her class was a crime.
"Can I please go and get a drink?" she asked.
"Fine, but don't dilly dally!" Mrs. Mallory snapped.
Karen got to her feet and walked outside. She walked over to the drink taps and got a small drink. She fell against the wall beside the drink taps and slowly slid down into a sitting position. She was so tired, her eyelids felt like lead weights.
Her eyes slowly closed and she enjoyed the experience of it. She hadn't closed her eyes longer than a blink for fear of falling asleep, but she couldn't stay awake.
Suddenly she was awoken by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She snapped her eyes open and fumbled around in her pocket. She pulled the phone out and flipped it open.
"Hello?" Karen asked.
There was no answer except for ragged breathing.
"Hello? Is this some sort of prank?" Karen said angrily.
"Don't worry Karen, Freddy's here!" the voice came through the phone.
Karen felt something on her chin and quickly pulled the phone away. Instead of the bottom of the phone was a burnt looking mouth with its tongue out and licking the air.
Karen screamed and hurled the phone onto the ground, shattering it into a million pieces.
A laughter rose up from nowhere, echoing through the halls.
Karen snapped back awake, still sitting on the ground next to the taps. She breathed a sigh of relief and started to rise to her feet.
As she rose she saw her phone, completely intact, sitting on the ground in front of her.
Suddenly the phone flipped open and spun around so it faced her.
"One, two" a little girl's voice came from the phone, but it suddenly changed into a man's voice, Freddy's voice, "Freddy's coming for you!"
That sadistic laughter came from the phone and suddenly it fell apart by itself. The laughter still rung out through the halls as Karen stood horrified, staring at the remains of the phone.
Karen stared for a few more seconds, and then took off running. She skidded to a halt and walked as fast as she could into the girl's bathroom.
She stared into the mirror in there and splashed some water onto her face.
She looked down at her hands on the basin; they were white as a sheet.
That night Logan lay in his bed, thinking about what Karen had said that day about the man in her dreams, the man with the knife fingers and a dirty red and green sweater.
"Joey was probably right; she was just messing with us, trying to make us scared for Halloween. Anna was probably in on it too" Logan whispered to himself. Saying it made him believe it more, and it calmed him down.
His eyes slowly closed and he slipped into sleep.
He opened his eyes and found himself in the school, out the front of the boy's bathroom.
From inside came the sound of crying and Logan walked inside.
He walked over to a stall where the crying was emitting and slowly pushed open the door. A little girl in a yellow dress was sitting there on the toilet, she was crying, but her face never moved. The sobs had now stopped, but tears were falling from her eyes..
"What's the matter little girl?" Logan asked, he was always good with kids.
"You should be scared" the girl said simply, her tears still falling but her voice never faltered.
"Why should I be scared?" Logan asked.
A bang came from behind him and Logan turned around, looking for the origin of the bang.
When he turned back the little girl's eyes had been removed, and her tears were turned to blood.
"You should be scared. Freddy's here…" the little girl said.
Logan spun around and instead of the spotless and white bathroom he found blood smeared over the wall and splattered on the windows. He looked over his shoulder and the little girl was gone.
A man suddenly appeared in the mirror, he had a brown fedora hat on and a dirty red and green sweater. On his right hand was a glove with knives for fingers.
The man Karen had called Freddy Krueger stepped forward, his leg coming straight through the mirror, but it didn't break. It was as if he was stepping through a wall of water without getting wet. He put his gloved hand through and pulled himself fully through the mirror.
He jumped down from the basin and stood in front of Logan.
"I'm not afraid of you, you don't exist. This is my dream; you're just a figment of my imagination!" Logan babbled as Freddy moved closer.
"Oh, am I?" Freddy asked.
Logan backed up to a wall, and when he looked behind him he found out that he was now in a boiler room backed up against the railing surrounding the pathway. Behind him was pipes, and to his right and left were pipes, he had been forced into a corner.
Freddy was standing a few metres away from him and put his hand out, it scraped against the railing, making a long screee sound. Anna was right, the sound was horrible.
When Freddy reached Logan he pulled his hand away from the railing and put his index knife, that's what you could call it, on Logan's chin.
"How sweet, fresh meat!" Freddy said and slowly took his claw away from Logan's chin and placed it next to his eye.
He pressed the claw into his skin and pulled it down, making a long and bleeding scar down his face. Logan screamed in pain.
Suddenly Logan woke up in his room, thrashing around and screaming. He fell to the floor and scrambled to turn the light on. He was back in his room alright, and that maniac was gone.
He put his hand on his head and felt a sticky wetness. He retracted his hand and saw the blood on it.
"He's real…" Logan said in amazement.