Ch. 23

I turned around and saw the silhouette of Krueger, clapping his hands at my feat.

My face slightly turned pink, and I grimaced. My eyes teared up at the thought of what I'd just done; I'd never meant to kill, just to protect this place that I thought was my first home.

"Awww.", he growled. "Don't worry."

"How was the kid?", I asked, my voice shaking.

"Alright.", he said, looking lazily at his bloody knives.

"Boy or girl?"

"Boy. I finished him off with no hesitations, don't worry."

I looked down and whimpered, the guilt finally getting to me.

I heard the whoosh of him as he neared me. I saw his pants and boots, and the bottom edge of his red and green sweater, and his hands, both the burned one and the one covered by the glove, and that was all.

Another reason why I liked Krueger was, unlike my parents, he didn't say that I smelled (I don't, trust me), or that my face was too pimply (what, you can't control acne, or at least, I can't), and he didn't complain about the way I dressed. (He smelled like smoke and musk, he was disfigured, burned all over, and he dressed in a fedora, a red and green sweater, brown pants and boots of some sort, so he couldn't say anything.) But he didn't seem to want to complain about any of those things.

He took my head up in his hands and forced me to look at him. He had this sort of small smile on his face, and his eyes sparkled.

"You'll get used to it.", he murmured, and put his arms around my back and gently pressed me against him. He breathed in the smell of my hair.

"You smell just like you always did.", he whispered, burying his nose in my hair.

"…Huh?", I sniffled, crying silently. "How do you know what I smell like?"

"I was always there, in your unconscious, ever since you were born, waiting for you to discover me and find me out. I knew you were the kind of person to do so."

"…Why…why didn't you kill me?"

"…'Cause you were special. Always the one to stick up for the underdog…And besides, you were Ochsner's special baby. I couldn't kill that."

I breathed out, just starting to get my bearings.

"One of Ochsner's preemie babies…all grown up.", he breathed into my hair, tickling my scalp.