Chapter 4
As Ron made his way to the counter at Bueno Nacho after being dropped off by Officer Thompson and his deputy, Shego and Kim found a booth and slid into it on opposite sides. They weren't trying to make Ron choose which one to sit with and there was no animosity between Kim and Shego any more so it wasn't like they didn't want to sit beside each other.
It was more of a unspoken plan. As soon as Ron returned and chose which ever side he wanted to sit on, the one on the other side would get up and slide next to Ron. Thus trapping him between Kim and Shego.
Shego liked to think of it as the Ron sandwich special but she was careful not to say it out loud to keep from embarrassing Kim or Ron. Shego also had no illusions about who Ron would chose to sit by first. It was going to be Kimmie and Shego knew it.
Normally the thought that a man or woman Shego was interested in would pick someone else to sit with would have made her green with jealousy.
Shego suppressed a tired snicker on her part. She was always green but just not this time with jealousy. She knew Ron was hopelessly devoted to Kim and that didn't bother her because she knew the blond headed man was also in love with her as well.
That and it would be hard to be angry that Ron was devoted to Kim when Shego was starting to feel that way herself.
Closing her eyes for a moment Shego tried to relax and forget the horrific bedroom scene that her and Kim had so recently seen. She knew Kim would want to discuss it as soon as they finished eating but Shego was taking this moment to relax and try to forget it.
Hearing someone walk over to the table and then a thud as a tray was sat down on the table, Shego figured it was Ron bringing the food and opened her eyes to look at what he had picked for them to eat.
There was a large Naco shell filled with meat but it looked vastly different than what Shego was familiar with from the local Middletown Bueno Nacho. Instead of beans, cheese and hamburger meat this one seemed to be filled with chunks of white and pink bits of meat.
"They change your recipe Ronnie? This looks different." Shego asked as she raised a fork and picked at the contents of the fried Naco shell. Shego supposed the pink and white meat might be shrimp and chicken but she never heard of Bueno Nacho serving seafood before.
As the fork turned over the contents a small round object was revealed under the other bits and rolled to the edge of the Naco shell. Shego eyes grew wide as she realized it was the severed head of Rufus. In horror Shego realized that if the pink bits in the shell were Rufus's mangled body then the white parts could only be one thing. Rufus's owner who never went anywhere without his little buddy.
Shego turned to look at the person standing beside the table who had brought the hideous meal.
He was wearing a uniform that was splattered with blood but still recognizable as a Bueno Nacho uniform. A name tag on the shirt caught Shego's attention. It said simply. Hello my name is: Freddy.
It was his face that burned itself forever into Shego's mind. He looked like someone had held his head in the deep fryer for five minutes.
A voice like gravel came from the person. "Too Spicy for ya? You haven't even tried it yet. The naked mole rat is especially fine today but it is the extra special sauce of blond loser that sets it off the best." The man raised his right hand to his lips and made the Italian gesture of kissing his fingers and then lowering his hand showing that something tastes really good. The fact that the 'fingers' of his right hand was covered in some kind of leather and knife glove only made the gesture that much more horrific.
Shego, her hands already glowing with green plasma started coming up out of her seat to seek revenge on whoever the fried freak was who had killed her Ron and Rufus.
There was a lurching feeling and suddenly Shego found herself holding Ron by the collar of his shirt with her other hand glowing green fire about ready to take off his head.
Ron's eyes were wide and he was holding a tray of food.
Ron gulped once and then attempted to say in a joking manner. "You didn't want Diablo sauce with your Naco?"
Shego immediately released Ron's collar but didn't extinguish her plasma fire. "Where is he? Where is that fried face freak?" She growled and quickly scanned the crowd inside the restaurant.
Kim was sitting at the other side of the table looking at Shego as if she had lost her mind and the few other tables that had people sitting at them were looking over at her in shock.
Shego not seeing the burnt faced man turned back to look at Ron and seen that he had gone completely white.
Shego opened her mouth to explain herself but was stopped when Ron stuttered out. "You saw him too?"
"Shego! Turn off your glow and sit back down! You are attracting attention! And Ron sit down before you fall down. You look like you have seen a ghost. Shego didn't mean to threaten you with her powers again. She just had some kind of nightmare." Kim hissed at the two.
"Shego reluctantly turned off her plasma fire and sat back down. "Nightmare?" She asked Kim.
Kim nodded her head. "Yeah. You sat down when we came in here. Closed your eyes and the next thing I knew you had your head down on the table and were snoring." Kim had a stern look on her face that softened slightly. "You were so cute."
Shego snorted. "I'll take sultry. I'll take beautiful. I'll even take hot looking but I don't do cute."
Ron shakily sat down beside Kim and slid over next to her. Kim could see that Ron was still pale and his hands shook a little as he sat the tray down and moved it to the center of the table.
Shego stiffened in her seat and looked over at Ron. "Where's Rufus!" She asked suddenly.
A few seconds later Rufus appeared climbing up on the table from where he had obviously climbed out of Ron's pocket. "Hi!" The rodent said at Shego and gave a little wave before boldly diving into one of the Nacos on the tray and began eating.
Shego finally allowed herself to relax and getting up she crossed to the other side of the table and slid over next to Ron. As she drew herself closer to Ron she could feel him trembling slightly and felt a wave of guilt come over her. She had once again threatened Ron with her plasma powers even if she hadn't meant to.
"Ron I'm really sorry about..." She started.
"Did you see him too?" Ron asked once again.
"Seen who?" Kim asked looking first at Ron and then past him to where a suddenly pale Shego was sitting.
"He has a horribly burnt face." Ron began.
"And he wears on his right hand a glove made of leather with knife blades attached to it." Shego finished. Ron merely nodded.
Kim continued to look between her two lovers. "What are you two talking about?"
Ron seemed to shake himself out of some kind of daze. "There is something going on in this town. Something a lot worse than one really weird murder. You better call Wade and see if he can get us some information."
Kim after a moment nodded her head and pulled the Kimmunicator out and folding out a stand from its back she sat it on the table in front of them so they could all see and hear Wade.
"Wade? Are you there?" She called out as she pressed the talk button on the device.
The small screen lit up but instead of Wade sitting at his desk it showed a empty chair. In the background the group could hear the flushing of a toilet and a few moments later Wade walked over and sat down in his chair and peered out at Kim with a look that was a cross between disgust and annoyance.
"Kim, the next time you take a scan like that last one you did... Call me in advance so I can prepare myself. The visuals on my computer made me lose my lunch."
Kim had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry Wade. It was pretty intense wasn't it? Just be glad that he Kimmunicator can't transmit smell."
Wade shuddered. "I can imagine." With another shudder he then added. "But I really don't want to."
"What did you find out from the scans?" Shego asked leaning forward.
Wade still wasn't used to Shego talking to him or being part of the team but after a moment he addressed her. "Not a whole lot I'm afraid. The computer agrees that there was far too much blood for that to have come from just one person... Or for that matter a dozen people either."
Wade's dark skin visibly paled. "The scans also show that there are bits of human flesh on the walls, ceiling and carpet of the room and they also come from multiple victims as well but since the computer could not detect any fragment larger than a postage stamp there isn't much hope for identifying who or where they came from."
Shego grimaced. "Well there goes any desire I had to eat anything." She then glanced over at the tray that contained their Nacos. Rufus had his small head up peering over the edge of one of the Naco shells at her.
"Rufus! Please don't do that!" She said with a shudder.
Rufus looked confused but then shrugged and went back to eating.
Wade peered at his screen at them. "Are you guys in a restaurant?" He asked in amazement.
Kim nodded. "We had to think of some place we could talk without being overheard by the sheriff of this town." Kim looked sideways at Ron. "I don't think Ron or Shego trust the guy."
Ron nodded his head. "If Wade doesn't have anything more to add about that bedroom I have some info to tell you all about lieutenant Thompson."
Ron had Kim, Shego and Wade's full attention now. He related to them his talk with the deputy and his sneaking over to look into Thompson's house and what he saw there.
Kim frowned as Ron stopped to take a drink from a soda on the tray. "But what has that got to do with the murder?"
"I'm getting there." Ron explained. "Nancy, that is Thompson's daughter's name by the way, told the police that someone named Freddy was trying to kill her mother. When Thompson and Nancy went upstairs to her mother's room, they were in there for a while and then Thompson came out and told sergeant Parker that his wife was missing and to file a report, he then took Nancy and no one in town has seen her since."
Shego's eyes grew wide when she heard the name Freddy. "That is the name of the guy in my nightmare. He had a name tag on that said his name was Freddy."
Kim looked past Ron to Shego. "It could just be a coincidence?"
"A coincidence that I dream of some guy with a burnt face that I've never seen before that just happens to be named the same name that the daughter of this town's head of police says was trying to kill her mother?"
Ron quickly related his dream in the patrol car to Kim, Shego and Wade.
At this point even Wade was nodding his head. "By your description he certainly sounds like the one in Shego's nightmare as well but what does that mean?"
Ron looked thoughtful. "That is what we need you for buddy. Can you do whatever it is you do to find information and see if you can find anything significant about the name Freddy? Also see what you can find out about Nancy Thompson and where she is right now."
Wade looked doubtful. "Well it should be easy enough to find information on Nancy Thompson but Freddy? It is kind of a common name and without a last name it might be difficult."
"He did have a burnt face. Maybe he was connected in some way to a fire in this town? That might help?" Shego added.
Kim looked between Ron and Shego and then Wade. "Don't you three think you are getting off the track here? We are here to investigate a murder. How can someone you two saw in brief dreams have anything to do with it? I mean its not like something in a dream can hurt you, right?"
"Actually Kim, many cultures believe that dreams can hurt you. The American Indians have legends of 'Dream Walkers' or medicine men that can enter the dreams of their enemies and kill them that way. The Chinese have stories of dream assassins as well." Wade stated.
"Wade. I don't think we are looking for some Chinese dream assassin or some kind of medicine man with a vendetta." Kim said angrily. "We deal with reality, and in reality these things don't happen."
Ron looked over at Kim and then shook his head. "Yeah. Reality. Like creatures from other dimensions wanting to hack people apart for their hearts or skin them alive."
Shego clutched briefly at her chest at the reminder of what nearly happened to her. "Or dead bodies that rise from lakes to kill anyone who gets too close to their private swimming holes." She added.
Kim's anger melted a little. "Okay granted some weird stuff has happened lately but still, dream killers?"
Ron frowned at Kim. "Kim! Something came out of a guy's mattress and dragged him down into it and killed him. How can you explain that?"
"Just because I can't explain something doesn't mean I have to search for answers in the Twilight Zone."
Ron and Shego both opened their mouths to argue with Kim further but was stopped by Wade on the Kimmunicator.
"Um guys? I found it."
All three turned to look at the communication device.
"Found what?" Kim asked.
"The information on Freddy."
"I thought you said that was a fairly common name. You found him by the burns didn't you?" Shego asked.
"Actually? No. I found him because both you and Ron mentioned the knife glove he wears. There is no reference to Freddy having been in a fire but I did find mention of a Frederick Charles Krueger. He was a suspected child molester/murderer who was known to use a knife glove like you and Ron describe. The search warrant that the arrest was based on wasn't signed properly so they had to release him and he disappeared not long afterwards..."
"So it could just be this Krueger guy doing the killings and not have anything to do with dreams at all." Kim stated triumphantly.
"Um... Well..." Wade said.
"What?"
"The thing is Kim, the murders and the arrest took place in 1990." Wade replies
Kim opened and shut her mouth a few times. "But that was 16 years ago. It can't be this guy. He would be, what? Around his 50's by now?"
"And it doesn't explain him being burned either." Shego points out.
"I'll keep digging for more information. But for right now I found the info Ron wanted on Nancy Thompson. She's been committed to the Westin Hills psychiatric hospital. Her father put her there the night he disappeared with her."
Ron turned to look at Shego. "Then I think we should go and see this Nancy Thompson. She might be able to shed some light on Freddy and what's going on in this town."
Kim folded her arms across her chest. "Ron I really think you and Shego are letting your imaginations run wild. We would be wasting valuable time going to some psychiatric hospital and seeing some girl that had a breakdown because her boyfriend was killed."
Ron glanced over at Kim. "Okay Kim. Then where do you think we should look for more clues?"
Kim opened her mouth but shut it without saying anything. She gave a desperate look at the Kimmunicator. Wade for his part helplessly shrugged. "Ron has a good point. We are at a dead end with the facts we have. Who knows? Maybe this Nancy does have some answers? At the very least she's lived in that town, she will at least have some idea who it could be that did the murder."
Kim sighed. She knew when she was beat. "Okay we'll go talk to Nancy Thompson."
Ron shot Shego a triumphant grin and she started to slide out of the booth to let Ron and Kim get out.
Some elderly customers were walking over towards their booth with the look of someone who thinks they see someone famous but isn't quite sure but are going to ask for a autograph on the off chance they were right in the first place.
"But I'm telling you..." Kim said to Ron and Shego. "I think we are wasting our time with this Freddy Krueger business."
The elderly couple's face turned white hearing that name and they quickly moved away from the trio without speaking. Kim noticed their actions and frowned. Looking around she spied some younger people looking at them curiously but the older crowd in the restaurant were backing away and leaving the place fast as if her group had suddenly gotten the plague.
Kim looked over at Shego and saw that the older people's reactions were not lost on her either.
"It may have been 16 years ago but obviously this Freddy person's name carries some unpleasant memories with it for the older people." Shego stated.
Kim nodded her head and reaching over picked up the Kimmunicator from the table. "Wade we'll need a ride to this Westin Hills place."
Wade looked thoughtful. "Um Kim you guys have never been to that town before so we don't have anyone in that town that owes you any favors."
Ron picked up a very full and very contented Rufus who had eaten all their food while they had been talking and carefully placed his little buddy back in his pants' pocket. He knew Rufus would probably go back to sleep now that he was full.
Shego sighed. "Look, just have Wade contact the local cab company and I'll pay for the cab ride out there."
Ron looked at her in confusion. "How do you have any money?"
"I don't. But I do still have this." Shego said with a grin as she pulled Dr. Director's Global Justice credit card from her pocket.
Kim frowned at her. "I thought Dr. Director told you not to abuse that card."
"I'm not! We are investigating a murder. That is what Global Justice is in the business to help stop, no? So I'm just using it to help Global Justice along." Shego replied innocently.
Kim let out a sigh and then looked at the Kimmunicator in her hands. "Wade? Just call us a cab if you will."
"Already did Kim. It should arrive in a few moments."
Kim frowned. She wasn't sure if she liked how quickly Wade was starting to take instructions or suggestions from Shego but she shrugged it off a moment later. Shego was now part of their group just like Ron was. It really didn't bother her that Wade was getting used to the green skinned woman, did it?
Author's notes:
I wanted to take a moment to explain a few things about this story. For the information on Freddy I've been using sources like the official Nightmare on Elm Street website and Wikipedia. I did move Freddy's arrest date forward a little to keep it current. The original NOES came out in 1984 so Freddy's arrest date reflected that time.
Since my story is a 'current' one I moved the date forward a little to better reflect that. Other than that I've tried to remain completely faithful to history and canon of NOES.
On reviews:
I have received outstandingly good reviews on this story and all my previous stories and I wanted to take a moment to let you all know that I really appreciate them. I know I don't acknowledge every one of them like some authors do and I want to assure you that is not because I don't read or appreciate them, I do. I just am really lousy when it comes to accepting compliments graciously.
But be assured, I read every review and take the suggestions and criticisms seriously.
On the length of time it takes me to update this story:
I'm honestly sorry about that. I am trying to update more often but in addition to real life which keeps me from writing as much as I would like, I also have an original story that I write and post in a blog for some of my friends online. It is called The Upheaval and if any of you are curious enough to hunt it down it is available on the www. website.
The art and graphics work on that journal isn't mine btw but the work of one of my very good online friends named Silence. She is also the reason I update that story more often as she tends to be violent and threaten me with bodily harm if I don't post often to that story.
(waves at Silence if she ever reads this. I'm just kidding.)