Danielle dropped her phone when she heard Lydia shriek. She snatched it off the floor and brought it back to her ear, "Lydia?" When the terrified girl made no response, Danielle repeated, "Lydia?" She pulled the phone away to glance at the screen. The cellular device was dead.
"Something wrong?" Tiara asked as Danielle grabbed her purse and rose from the table.
"I have to go! No time to explain!" Danielle replied while running out of the cafeteria.
When Danielle got home, she dropped her purse onto a table and rushed upstairs. "What was that scream for?" She demanded. She stepped into the doorway to Lydia's bedroom and stood there in shock.
Lydia sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Her eyes were locked on the corpse lying in the floor at the center of her room. "A-after I called you..I went upstairs..th-that's when I screamed.." She slowly explained, her voice shaking almost as much as her hands.
Danielle carefully stepped over to the body and knelt down. "Lydia..Lydia, who is this?" She asked.
Lydia shook her head and whispered, "I don't know."
Blood blended into the dead man's red hair, and several gashes could be seen on his body. The skin on his knuckles was torn off. In fact, random spots of skin throughout his body had been ripped off to reveal the muscle underneath. One knife was lodged deep into his eye, and another was stuck in his chest. His dirty tshirt had been torn many times from the rips of blades, and some of his organs had been pulled out and scattered around his corpse. One of his hands had nearly been severed, and an empty bottle of hot sauce and salt packets rested at his side, indicating it was more than murder; it was torture. Cuts ran in every direction along his arms, and near the inside of an elbow the flesh was so dismantled that a bone was visible.
Danielle nervously slid her hand into the man's pocket, withdrawing his wallet. She opened it to find an identification. Once she found a card with his name, she labeled the corpse, "Joey-bob Arnold?"
Lydia got off the bed to take the wallet from her. She pulled out his money and returned the tattered wallet to Danielle.
"What is wrong with you? You can't just kill someone then take their money! Oh my god!" Danielle exclaimed.
"I didn't kill anyone!" Lydia argued, stashing the cash into her purse. "I just..I woke up in the living room covered in blood and called you, then came up here-"
"You KILLED him!" Danielle shouted.
"How can I kill someone if I don't remember it?" Lydia countered then screamed in frustration.
"I'm going to the mall or something because you go psychopathic and kill me too." Danielle decided and rushed out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house.
Lydia sighed and sat on her bed again, glancing to the corpse. What, exactly, was she supposed to do with it? At least she got twenty-seven dollars out of it. That was nice. She needed clean clothes though and a shower, of course. She fetched a new outfit and went to take a boiling hot shower.
After cleaning up, she returned to her room in a Michael Jackson tshirt and comfy, black pants. She laid on her bed and picked up her cell phone. Maybe Danielle had texted her? No, there was nothing new on it. When she sat the phone aside and sat up, she screamed.
"You! No..I'm not even asleep.." Lydia grabbed her blanket and laid down again, pulling it up over her head as a shield.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Freddy chuckled in amusement. "You don't have to be asleep. Not anymore." He crawled across the bed to lay beside her, cutting the blanket with a blade as he spoke, "Your fear, your anger..it all has given me the power to manifest outside of your dreams."
When Freddy pulled the blanket back, Lydia stared at him for a few lengthy moments before asking, "So then..you are free?"
"Not exactly. It would appear that I can only be in this world if I am around you." He answered, sliding a strand of her hair through two blades. "But even then.." He trailed off and gazed back at Lydia as he contemplated his situation.
Lydia spoke softly, "Did you kill the Joey-bob guy?"
"No," Freddy smirked, "You did."
"No! I didn't! I don't even know him!" Lydia argued, rolling out of bed. She hit the floor and tried to crawl underneath it, but it there wasn't quite enough space. Freddy got up and grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet and pushing her against a wall.
"Physically, it was you who killed him. Consciously, it was I who killed him!" Freddy explained, using his ungloved hand to hold her by her shoulder against the wall while his blades glided up and down her side.
"You mean you like...possess me." She concluded.
"Yes, that's exactly what I 'like' mean." Freddy gave her a wicked grin.
"I...I don't understand. Why do you want me to do it if you can manifest here now?" She asked.
Freddy calmly cut into her hip while he answered, "It takes energy to do so. I cannot stay in this form for long, but controlling you is the perfect solution."
"You can't put all this on me! I don't want to get arrested!" Lydia proclaimed, trying to wiggle out of his grasp.
"You will do as I say, and you will learn to kill for me. To kill with me. If you want to learn the art of getting away with murder, seek out Sarah."
"Sarah? Sarah who?" Lydia questioned.
"Sarah." Freddy repeated and vanished.