Ch. 10

I dodged the blades, and he hit the pipes I'd backed up against. Like any stupid kid in a horror movie, (or in this case, nightmare), I ran for it.

I could hear him chasing me, laughing with dark delight.

"You can run, but you can't hide forever!", Freddy screeched happily, his voice echoing around the warehouse.

I knew I couldn't run much more, as out of shape as I was. So I ducked into this little recess in the alleyway, and, to my shock and surprise, he ran past me, completely oblivious to where I was.

I looked around the dark recess, feeling around with my hands to "see" if there was anything that might be able to help me.

My hands found a small box, and I, very hesitantly, crept to the edge of the recess, to see what it was.

Matches.

Of course., I thought. Jason died by water, and he's afraid of it now. Freddy died by fire, so why wouldn't he be afraid of it?, I thought, slipping the matches into my pajama pocket.

I stepped out of my hiding spot, still afraid of the glove, but strangely and stupidly braver with the box of matches in my pocket.

It might not work, I thought. But it's a chance I'll have to take.

I crouched, and walked around like that for a bit. But when nobody showed up, I straightened up and sighed in relief. Maybe I can make it all the way through the dream until I wake up without getting killed, I thought.

Poor, stupid me.

Someone landed on the ground behind me, and I turned around.

"Nice to see you again, darling. You miss me?", he said right before he raised his glove-hand and charged.

"Yeah. I missed you so much, I even got something for you.", I said, and struck a match in his face.

He screamed in agony, and as much as it made me sick to hear a human in such agony, I reminded myself of what this man could do, not just to me, but to others.

He slashed at me blindly, and this time it was my turn to scream in agony.

The pain.

It was horrible, ripping out from my stomach to my body, the blood dripping from my ribs and stomach, the spots where he'd slashed me, to the floor.

I hunched over, breathing painfully. He straightened, saying nastily, "Not so nice, are you now, you son of a —!"

I automatically hissed at him, a reaction to people cursing at me.

"Why don't you kill me now, you mother —!"

Two could play at the cursing game, in my opinion. And if I was going to hell for some reason, I figure I might as well go all the way.

He tilted my head up with one of the blades, forcing me to look at his horrible face full on for the first time.

I winced.

"You would be very pretty, but for the acne.", he contemplated.

"And you could be handsome, but for the burns.", I replied. He jerked the blade away, cutting my chin, and growled at me in response. I lowered my head, grimacing in pain.

"At least your face could heal. Too bad it doesn't.", he retorted, putting one of his blades back up to my chin, forcing me to look back at him.

"Like I don't know that!", I cried, tears suddenly falling silently down my face.

He jerked the blade away again, cutting my chin for the second time, and said, "Explain."

"I have to go to school every day, and see people look at me, and look away immediately. I know why they won't look at me for more than one second, even if they won't admit it: my face! That, and nobody respects, me, not one person respects me!", I hissed.

He stepped back halfway, startled.

"I can fix that."

"Damn you! —! —!—!", I cursed angrily, in so much agony that I didn't even know what I was saying any more.

Then, for some random reason, I thought of Michael and Jason.

Couldn't they hear me screaming?, I thought. Shouldn't they be able to see the "effects" of the nightmare on my body? Maybe they weren't around… Oh great! They probably went looking for the man who's going to kill me, leaving me totally defenseless, forgetting, if they even knew in the first place, that he could get me in my sleep! Fan-bloody-tastic!

My matches had done nothing, and my body froze as his free hand went into my pocket, and took the matches out and threw them in a puddle, where they became wet and useless.

"Oh, you don't like that, do you?", he snickered.

I winced again. He cocked his head with a contemplating expression on his horrible face, as if he was looking into my mind again.

"No, it seems you don't.", he said, smiling after a moment.

I flinched away as his hands came near me, and I growled and hissed at him like an animal, showing all my braced teeth.

He went with the "game."

"C'mon, doggy. Obey.", he said teasingly, the claws and his free hand brushing against my shoulders, and now tracing my face.

I flinched again as I thought of what was going to, and what could, happen to me. But then I thought of the one word that would save me, or at least, that I thought would save me.

So I leaned close to his face and screamed, "AMANDA!"

He froze with a terrified expression on his face.

"AMANDA!", I screamed again.