The New Nightmare of Springwood – Chapter 2

Wesley wakes up on a slab of stone. He looks around and everything he sees is dark and cold like some kind of damp cave. He tries to sit up but has a splitting headache. He feels his head but all his hair is shaved off like a buzz cut and his clothes are covered in mud and dirt. He then runs his fingers down his face and notices cuts across it.

He looks at his fingers and sees more mud and blood. "What is going on?"

"Welcome to my home, Wesley."

"Who is there?"

Wesley looks into the darkness but sees no one. Suddenly a figure in a red and green sweatshirt with a hat pulled over his eyes walks closer to him. Wesley tries to make out his face but the hat casts a shadow over it. "Who are you?"

"I am the skeleton in Springwood's closet."

"What?"

"They tried to hide me, but I will get back at them. I will get back at all of them…through you."

"What are you talking about, mister? Where am I?"

"My name is Fred Krueger, Wesley. And you are in hell."

Wesley gets to his feet and backs away from the man. "Hell?! No. No. This can't be."

"Think, Wes. What is the last thing you remember?"

"I remember yelling at my mom. Then partying and…oh God. Oh my God."

"Yes. Yes. They did this to you. They sent you here."

"But why?"

"Because they hate you. All of them. They all hate you, Wesley."

Wesley drops to his knees and starts to cry. The man kneels down next to him and puts his hand on Wes's shoulder. "Don't cry, son. Don't cry."

"Who are you?"

"I am a man that has been sent here because I did a lot of bad things. I too know what it is like to be haunted by tormenting children. So I took my revenge on them. I killed them. I killed as many of them as I could. Even after I died they couldn't stop me. I haunted them in their dreams. I made their nightmares a reality. I made their nightmares into their deaths. And now I want to pass this gift on…to you."

"What?"

"What if I told you, you could get back at them? All of them."

"I…I don't know."

"You do know. You want to hurt them, Wesley. You want to kill them. I can make it possible."

"I can't. I don't have it in me. I can't kill."

"Yes you can, Wesley."

Wesley looks at the man whose hat is still covering his face. The man lifts up the hat and reveals a burned and scarred face. "If I can do it then so can you."

Wesley stumbles backwards. "You! You! You're Freddy!"

"The one and only."

"I heard stories about you. You're a murderer."

"If I am…then so are you."

"Why? What are you talking about"

"I'm your grandfather, Wesley."

"What?"

"You're mother is my daughter. She is the one who sent me here. She killed me."

"But why? What is going on?"

"Her precious children, Wesley. She loves them more than you; doesn't she?"

"I…"

"She does. She killed me for her children and she would do the same to you."

"Yes. Yes. You're right."

"Embrace my gift to you, Wesley, and you can get back at them. Get back at all of them for what they have done to you."

"I will. I must."

Curtis, Paul and Chris all walk into Laurie's house the next morning. Laurie is sitting on the couch holding Valerie in her arms. Chris sits down next to them and pulls a tearful Valerie into his arms. "How is she, Laurie?"

"How do you think she is? We killed a kid last night."

Curtis smacks Paul in the shoulder. "No. This idiot killed him."

They all look at Paul with a slight disgust. "Hey! Don't you guys look at me like that. We all had a part in what happened last night."

Valerie stands up angry. "No we didn't! Laurie told me you slashed his face.

What were you thinking?! I thought we were just going to scare the kid and you end up mutilating and killing him!"

Paul yells back at her. "I know, ok?! I couldn't stop myself. We were all so trashed. That shit we smoked made us like half asleep and it was like I was watching myself do it. You think I wanted this? You think I wanted this kid's death on my conscience?"

Chris leans back and looks up at the ceiling. "What are we going to do?"

Laurie sits up on the couch and leans forward. "He didn't have many friends. The only person I think even knows he's alive is his mom."

Curtis waves his arms nonchalantly in the air. "Yeah. Yeah, that bitch that runs the youth shelter. That's his mom and I doubt she gives two shits about him."

Valerie looks at them all in shock. "Are you seriously saying what I think you guys are saying? You want to act as if this never happened?!"

Laurie puts her hands and Valerie's shoulders. "Think about it, Val. I doubt the cops care. He will just go on to be just another missing person. I heard in Springwood they used to have a ton of them."

"No. No way. We need to go to the police."

Paul steps forward. "Forget it, Valerie. I'm not throwing away my football career for some punk kid. Nothing we do will ever bring him back. We need to forget about this. Let's take an oath."

"What is wrong with you people?"

Chris stands up and holds her. "Listen to me, Valerie. He is dead. Nothing is going to bring Wes back. And chances are his mother will be the only one that cares. The cops won't do anything and he had no friends at school. He will be a ghost. Do you really want to throw your future away for that?"

She sits down and buries her head in her hands. "It just can't be like this."

Paul leans over her. "Well it is. Now, do we all agree?"

Curtis nods his head. "You know I'm in."

Laurie shrugs her shoulders. "I guess so."

Chris gives Curtis a high five. "Me too."

Paul kneels down by Valerie. "Come on, girl. Do it for us. Please."

She looks up at everyone and reluctantly agrees. "Ok. I'll do it."

"No, he really doesn't have anyone he hangs out with."

Maggie Burroughs, Wesley's mom, is on the phone frantic with one of her colleagues. Her son didn't come home last night and has not returned today.

The sun is setting and she begins to seriously worry about him. "No. He has never done this before. I think he might have run away. We didn't really have a fight yesterday but he said some pretty mean things and…I don't know.

"I mean where would he go if he ran away? He has no grandparents…no relatives because you know why. It's just…I just want to know he's ok. Sorry, I can't sleep. I know I should but…ok, I'll try. Goodbye."

She hangs up the phone and walks over to the medicine cabinet. She opens it up, looks at one of the bottles and swallows three of the pills.

Afterwards she closes the cabinet, heads to her bed and lies down. She then takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes.

Maggie wakes up in the middle of the night absolutely freezing. She looks at her thermostat and notices that the fire in the boiler must be out.

She heads down the stairs into her basement but it is different then how she remembers. Her small tiny basement now stretches far beyond her eyes. She walks around looking for the boiler and eventually finds it after several turns through the room.

She lights the boiler and the fire blows up in her face. The flame blows her back and she flips over a steel rail behind her. Maggie falls several feet and lands on the floor of hell.

She gets up and looks around but all she sees is darkness and damp walls illuminated by small fires on either side of the cavern. She slowly gets up as she hears a haunting voice from the shadows. "At what point were you going to tell me?"

"Who…who's there?"

"How long do you think you could have hid it from me?"

She watches a dark figure come out from the shadows. The figure slides several knives along the cave walls creating sparks and sending a screeching echo through out the cave. "No. I watched you die."

"Oh really?"

The figure comes in the light and standing before Maggie is her son. Wesley is covered in mud and blood. His jeans are worn down and the hood of his grey sweatshirt is covering his bald head. Freddy Krueger's infamous glove of knives is on his right hand but the most gruesome feature of the newly transformed Wesley is the four slices across his face.

His mother slowly walks backward in shock. "Oh my God, Wesley. What's happened to you? Where did you get that?"

"Where do you think, mother? My grandfather. Fred Krueger."

"Why? Why is this happening?"

"Because you can't stop evil, mother."

"You are not evil, Wes! You are a good boy."

"And how would you know? You never spent the time to find out who I really was."

"I loved you."

"Too late for that now. I'm already dead and soon you will be too."

Maggie shakes her head and turns and runs in the opposite direction. She trips and falls to the ground landing in a pile of maggots, cockroaches and worms. She tries to get up and run but instead sinks into them like quicksand. She falls deeper and deeper into the insect filled cavern floor until only her arm is left exposed.

She reaches for something to grab onto and feels cold, hard steel wrapped around her hand. It pulls her out from the floor.

As soon as she pokes her head through the floor, Wes grabs her by the throat with his other hand and brings her up close to his horrific face. "Before you die I want to let you know: I will enjoy killing every child in Springwood. Every last one."

She gasps softly as he slides his glove into her chest. Then he watches her face as her life slowly slips away.

Maggie wakes up and gasps sharply. She looks down at her chest and sees blood starting to seep out from wounds that aren't there.

She struggles but can barely breathe through one of her punctured lungs. She rolls out of bed and crawls to her phone. As she slowly puts one hand in front of the other to move forward, she feels more wounds open up and more blood drip to the floor.

She knocks the phone to the ground and calls 911. "911 emergency. How may I help you?"

"Help…me….ughhh."

She's stabbed again and gasps dropping the phone. Soon after, she falls to the ground and the operator hears her crying. "Hello! Hello! Miss?! Are you there?! I'm tracing your call and sending someone right away!"

As she lies on the ground dying, the last thing Maggie Burroughs can think about is what has she done to drive her son to such evil.