CHAPTER 3: Nightmares and Dreamscapes
The same night Logan had his nightmare Karen was sitting in her room watching Friday the 13th, trying to stay awake.
She was feeling very sleepy, her eyelids once again felt like lead weights and it took an incredible amount of energy to even stay sitting. She took another swig of coffee but it was hopeless, she was going to fall asleep one way or another. She yawned but quickly silenced it. She couldn't let sleep overcome her, she was scared about what would happen.
Suddenly someone screamed on her movie, and she had forgotten to turn it down far enough. She put the coffee mug down and scrambled around for the remote, which lay somewhere on her bed. She finally found it and turned the sound down until the shriek was more of a squeak.
Suddenly her door was pushed open and in her doorway stood her mother.
"Honey, it's one in the morning! You should have been asleep hours ago! Now turn off your movie and go to sleep!" Her mother hissed but not harshly.
"But-" Karen started but was cut off by her mother.
"But nothing, you need to get some sleep! You don't want to be falling asleep at your party do you?"
"No mum" Karen said, giving in.
"Now go to sleep" Karen's mum said, slowly closing her door.
Karen turned her TV and DVD player off and laid her head on her pillow, pulling the covers up to her chest. She closed her eyes hoping for no more nightmares, but when she opened her eyes she was somewhere else.
She was in front of her sister's house, 1428 Elm Street.
Karen slowly walked forward and up to the door.
"Sara! Sara, are you there?" Karen called up to the house, but there was no answer. She had expected this, so she slowly opened the door.
It swung inwards after she let it go. The house looked exactly the same as it should; even the lights were on, though Karen's sister was nowhere to be seen. Karen slowly walked inside and the door slammed shut behind her. She jumped at the sound and turned around. There were now bars covering all of the windows and several different locks on the door.
"Karen…" the dreaded voice called.
Karen spun around. The man called Freddy Krueger was walking down the stairs, sliding his knife-fingers down the wooden railings making long scratch marks.
"Krueger!" Karen said in a surprised voice, though she felt no such emotion.
"That's right, bitch" Freddy told her, setting foot off the stairs and onto the ground.
Karen ran to the right through a doorway. She skidded around a corner and into the kitchen. She twirled around and there was Freddy, leaning against the kitchen's doorway casually.
"You can't escape your nightmares, Karen, they always catch up with you" Freddy taunted and let loose one of his frightening laughs.
Karen violently pulled out a draw and pulled a large knife from it. She brandished the knife in front of her, as if it was a shield.
"Stay back!" Karen screamed nearly hysterically.
Freddy just laughed maniacally again and pointed at Karen's hands. She looked down to find a large snake in her hands instead of a knife.
Karen screamed as the snake began to coil up her arms, tying them together. The snake was striped red and green…
Karen struggled to get the snake off, knocking off some plates and pans from the sink. The snake just kept growing right out of her hands. She couldn't move her arms anymore; the snake was now up to her shoulders.
Karen screamed again as the snake coiled around her neck and squeezed…
And she sat up in her bed, wet from perspiration.
She let out a relieved sigh and raised her hand to her neck.
That was too close… Karen thought.
The morning after, Karen was sitting on her couch watching TV. She didn't have to go to school today as it was Saturday, tomorrow was the Halloween party. Her mother was out shopping for some food for the party, against her sister's wishes of course.
Karen flicked through the channels slowly, and came to the news.
"Rain tomorrow for Springwood with storm fronts rolling in from the west." A weather woman said, and the camera cut back to the newsman sitting at his desk.
"Thank you Sally, tragedy struck in Springwood High yesterday with 14 year old Frank Esponade being brutally killed. The boy was found by his history teacher Jeffrey Kingston. The boy was found to have 4 deep holes in his neck. The cause of these holes is thought to be some sort of sharp object and not a gun. The murderer has not been found as of yet" the newsman informed.
She couldn't let this get to her; after all it was probably all in her head. But what about the burn?
She looked at her elbow to reassure herself that it was all real. This wasn't just in her head, it was real…
Karen was walking down the street whistling, heading for Anna's house, around an hour after.
Suddenly Logan came hurrying around the corner and crashed into Karen.
Karen stumbled backwards and Logan shot out his hand. He grabbed hold of her wrist and steadied her.
"Hi Logan, what's the rush?" Karen asked.
"He's real Karen, he's real" Logan said quietly, trying not to rush.
"What do you mean? Who's real?" Karen asked, but she already knew what his answer would be.
"Freddy Krueger…" he replied, and Karen froze.
"What did he do to you?" Karen asked, trying to keep her composure.
Logan pointed at the long scar down his cheek, and Karen gasped.
"I'm fine" Logan told Karen as she reached her hand for it, "But that might not last that long."
"But what can we do? No one will believe us, Joey proved that yesterday, so what can we do?" Karen asked, nearly begging for an answer.
"First off we have to find out who this guy is, his back-story" Logan explained.
"And how do we do that?" Karen asked.
"Why, the internet of course" Logan said, giving Karen a small smile before hurrying back the way he came.
Karen stood there for a while thinking, and then hurried towards Anna's house.
When she got there she rang the bell.
After a few moments Karen rang the bell again. Anna's parents wouldn't be here, her mother worked and her dad was dead. But Anna was most surely there.
The door opened and there stood a little boy, Anna's younger brother Billy, who was 10 years old.
"Hey Billy boy, where's Anna?" Karen asked.
"She's in the lounge room, watching some horror movie" Billy replied.
His tired look changed into a smile straight away when he saw her. Anna had told Karen that he liked her, but Billy didn't know that.
Anna was in fact watching a horror movie, it was Halloween.
"Hey Karen!" Anna said at the sight of her.
"Hey Anna. You ready for the party tomorrow night?" Karen asked.
"You know it! I can't wait!" Anna replied, and just as she was about to say something else Billy came in.
"What party are you talking about? I want to go to the party!" Billy said with a pleading look on his face.
"It's a Halloween party, and it's only for older kids. You can't go!" Anna replied, perhaps a bit too sharply.
"But why?" Billy pouted.
"Oh come on Billy, you can't even watch Gremlins without me!" Anna said.
Karen felt like laughing, but she held it back. Billy's cheeks quickly went red.
"I don't need you to watch a horror movie!" Billy pouted, very embarrassed.
Billy stormed out of the room and Anna started laughing.
"Hey Anna, Sara asked me to help her and Henry set up for the party tomorrow, wanna come?" Karen asked.
"Sure, quite, the best part's coming up!" Anna hissed, watching the television.
That night Logan sat on his coach with Michelle lying next to him, they were watching Friday the 13th part 3, Logan's favorite Friday the 13th. His father was away, probably at his dad's girlfriend's house where he nearly always was. He hated his dad's girlfriend; she always degraded him and laughed at him.
Logan had his arm around Michelle's waist and Michelle had her head lying on his shoulder. It was late and they were both tired.
Logan had found nothing on the internet about Freddy Krueger that day, everything that had any relevance had either been removed or had nearly everything blacked out. Though he had found a few words, 'The Springwood Slasher' they had been. That was when Michelle had come around.
Michelle shrieked when Jason (with his new hockey mask) fired the harpoon gun into the girl's eye. Logan himself had flinched then, but Michelle hadn't seemed to notice and hugged herself against him. He hated to think how much that would hurt, being shot in the eye.
They had nearly finished the movie when they dropped off to sleep.
Logan opened his eyes, but he wasn't in his house anymore. He was in a boiler room. Steam hissed from nearby and he could feel the heat.
Logan got to his feet and suddenly heard Michelle scream out.
Logan sprinted towards the sound. He ran through the maze of pipes and climbed up a ladder when he reached it.
When he reached the top he saw his girlfriend held against the wall by Freddy Krueger.
"Krueger! Let her go!" Logan yelled.
"As you wish…" Freddy said, and pulled her over to the railing. He held her over the edge and dropped her, and she fell down to the concrete.
"No!" Logan screamed as he heard the sickening thud from Michelle's body crashing into the hard ground.
Logan rushed at Freddy and knocked him into a wall. Freddy let out a small cry of pain but then looked at Logan with a smirk on his face.
"Come on Logan, let's fight!" Freddy said and threw a hard punch into Logan's face.
It connected and Logan flew to the ground. He quickly got back to his feet and threw some of his own punches. Each one connected with Freddy, who was knocked backwards.
Suddenly Logan's hand was caught and twisted hard. Logan heard the crack and screamed in pain.
Freddy laughed out maniacally and shoved Logan into the wall behind him.
Logan fell to the ground with his arm held against his chest. He slowly made his way to his feet again, using the wall as balance.
When he looked at Freddy again he saw that he had his hand up, his index-knife pointed straight at Logan's face.
"You're going to hell now, tell them Freddy sent ya!" Freddy said and suddenly his index-knife came flying from his hand and into Logan's eye. The knife went straight into his brain and he fell down, dead.