A/N: So. This is awkward. *Shuffles uncomfortably*

It's been...awhile since my last update. Believe me, I've felt like an asshole for not getting this chapter up sooner, but as I said in the announcement on my profile page (in case you missed it), my sister got married and moved far away, my dog died, my current job cut my hours down to part-time (without my consent), I'm starting a second job and dealing with some nasty, sticky financial issues, my brother is recovering from a car accident and my mom broke her foot (and hospital bills are basically excerpts from the Satanic Bible, scrawled out by demons to torment us broke-ass mortals here on earth) AND SO MUCH MORE. It's been a shit-storm in my head, 24/7.

I don't know why I'm spilling my guts to you anonymous internet people (I love you guys, but seriously: this is just TMI). So I'll stop here and leave the gut-spilling to the professionals. Like Freddy.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own A Nightmare on Elm Street or any of its characters.

WARNING: CERTAIN CHAPTERS OF THE FOLLOWING STORY WILL CONTAIN GRAPHIC SEXUAL CONTENT, GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, AND ADULT LANGUAGE. TO AVOID SPOILERS, THERE WILL NOT BE INDIVIDUAL WARNINGS FOR EACH CHAPTER.


Chapter Eight: The Hunt for Chicken Nuggets

Nothing stood between Nancy and the open doorway, but she felt as if a plate of glass kept her from crossing the threshold and reaching the scene that played out inside. She stood stock-still, watching the scrawny little boy drag a chair across the creaking wooden floorboards and climb on top of it to reach the lock on an old liquor cabinet. The keychain rattled in his hands as he twisted it to the left and the glass door swung open. He grabbed a square, brown-tinted bottle and unscrewed the cap before hungrily gulping down the alcohol inside. He drank not with a curiosity to learn about the world of adults, but a need to escape it. Nancy didn't have to wonder why he was doing that for long.

Knowing innately that her words wouldn't penetrate the doorway, she was unable to warn him about the tall, leering figure in a dirty white tank top creeping up from behind. She flinched as the man hit the boy in the side of the head, knocking him off the chair and onto the floor.

"The fuck you doing, boy?" the man snarled.

The boy turned over onto his back, but didn't dare to stand. He stared up at the man with wide, fearful eyes. "I'm sorry, Mr. Underwood. I'm sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry," said the man, swinging his heavy boot hard into the boy's ribs. "Damn right, you're fucking sorry. I aught to string you up and leave you in the attic for a week, then we'll see how thirsty you are."

Mr. Underwood jammed a thumb behind the strap in his belt buckle and ripped it open, snaking the long brown leather out from around his sagging beer-gut. He glared down at the cracked bottle on its side, pouring a thin stream of bourbon into the floorboards.

"You no-good thief. Look what you did." He crouched down and seized the boy by the back of the head and shoved his face into the expanding puddle of burning alcohol. "You gonna steal my booze, are you?"

The first snap of the belt on his leg split the air. The boy howled, curling onto his side and grabbing his sore thigh. "I'm sorry, Mr. Underwood."

"You straighten the fuck out and take your medicine, boy," he growled. The child let go of himself and lay on his stomach, taking the blows of the belt buckle all over his back, butt, and legs. The dirty, worn-out scraps of clothing he had on did little to protect against the buckle, which tore several new holes in the fabric. His little body trembled, but he held still.

The door slammed shut in Nancy's face. She turned to see Freddy standing further down the twisting hallway, beckoning her forward with a single blade.

"Let's go," he said. "Stop wasting my time."

She caught up to him and followed his frustrated strides past all the open doors as he shut each in his wake. Through them, she saw fragmented glimpses of another life. A kindergarten classroom full of chirping children came into focus on her left. One scrawny blonde boy was thrashing in the grip of two larger boys while a third bully shoved his fingers up the helpless child's nose, pushing it back into a pig-snout. She heard faint snickering from a handful of students while the rest ignored what was happening in the back of the room. The kids were jeering "Oink, piggy! Oink!" and something about a hundred maniacs. Nancy shuddered after the door closed.

The hallway seemed to grow even more narrow, and the walls swelled with breath. The pungent smell of rotten meat radiated from the corridor in waves as if she were walking along a pulsing artery in the bowels of some colossal beast. Her eyes were trained on the next open door.

She recognized the face as belonging to the little bullied boy from the classroom, but he was much older now. He was no less than twelve or thirteen, showing a hint of maturity in the length of his nose and the size of his young jaw. This door in particular made Nancy uncomfortable as she approached it because only a small closet lay on the other side. She could have reached out and touched the boy; he was that close.

The boy stood leering over a petite seven-year-old girl with the skirt of her dress bunched up in her arms. "This is a weird game, Freddy," she said with a tone of complete innocence. "Why do you want to see in my underwear? That's where people pee." At that last word, she crinkled her nose in disgust.

"Yeah, it's gross, but show me," he said.

The little girl hesitated.

"Do you want a piggy back ride, or not?" insisted the young Freddy.

"I do."

"Then show me which hole you pee out of."

Nancy was past the doorway at this point, but the conversation followed her down the hall and around the bend. For some reason, Freddy had let that door stay open. He probably got off on it. Fucking pig.

The walls were oozing a translucent pink liquid that trickled down and dripped lazily over the open doorways like thick saliva in a gaping mouth. The floor squished beneath her feet like a sponge, releasing a clear slime that puddled around her shoes before being sucked back down when the weight was lifted.

Grunting, crying, screaming, and noises that she couldn't (or didn't want to) understand mixed into a discordant mess as they flowed out from each door. She refused to look into any of them, keeping her eyes down at the squishing, sucking floor and at the sinking heels of Freddy's black work boots. But one sound floated high above the rest. It contrasted like a tiny burning candle wick against a sheer black void; it was laughter. Not demented, sadistic laughter, but joyful giggling.

A bright backyard with afternoon sunlight pouring over well-kept flowerbeds appeared through a doorway on Nancy's right. The grass rustled, fluffy in some places and trampled into the dirt from play in others. A man in a green polo shirt and khakis was lying on his back with a little girl straddling his waist. Her brown pigtails flopped around on the sides of her head as she bent down to blow a raspberry kiss into the hollow of his neck. She laughed at his expression of mock-offense.

"Oh, you think that's funny, huh?" the man said. "Well now it's daddy's turn."

He flipped the giggling girl off him and pinned her on the ground. Her legs and arms flailed in a vain escape attempt as he tickled her belly.

"Daddy!" she cackled, trying to catch her breath.

"Hold still, baby girl," he said with a smirk. "This won't hurt a bit."

He tickled her until her laughter swelled into happy squeals and screams. Then he loosened his grip enough to let her slide free and chased her around to the trees at the back of the lot, laughing the whole time.

"Daddy's gonna get you, Katherine."

Nancy jumped when the door slammed closed in her face. She hadn't realized that she'd come to a dead stop with Freddy far ahead, waiting in front of a large door at the end of the hallway. She didn't need to see his face to know he was bitter about the scene she had just witnessed. He carried a heavy tension in his shoulders and a stiffness in his back in place of his usual slinky posture. He kept his gaze level and uninterested as Nancy craned her head all the way back to stare up at the imposing slab of oak. The other doors had been of the common variety that you might see in any American home, but not this one. Intricate carvings cascaded down each side and across the top, spelling out words in a language of symbols that she'd never seen in any history book. With a wave of Freddy's blade, it swung open as slowly as the stone door of a mausoleum.

A blinding light cracked along the edge of the doorway, filling the empty space as it opened completely. Freddy grabbed her upper arm and walked through with her. On the other side, the brilliance died down and the door closed itself behind them as Nancy squinted against the overhead glare to survey the world they had entered.

Sloping dunes of golden sand stretched out to the blue horizon, molded by the direction and force of the wind. A huge sun sat alone in the clear sky and released a flood of oppressive heat on the land below. The scorched air in the distance was bent and quivering. Nancy felt her throat already drying and sticking to itself when she swallowed.

"Where are we?" she asked, turning around to see the giant, solitary oak door standing in the sand like a tombstone. The breathing hallway had vanished, and nothing but bleached sand lay on the other side. The thin outlines of two birds soared under the sun, screeching like the banshee.

"Just start walking before we both turn into raisins," he said as he tipped his hat down to shield his eyes. He was staring off in a specific direction as if looking for something, and he pointed toward what Nancy guessed was east. "This way."

She tried to keep up with Freddy's long, angry strides, but the sand sloshed around her feet, making her stumble and slide down the dune. He marched on without looking back.

"Why are we walking?" Nancy groaned. "Can't you teleport us to wherever the hell we're supposed to go?"

Freddy stopped and glared at her from under the shade of his hat. "No. I can't. So shut the fuck up."

"Why not?"

"Because my powers don't work here, you stupid cunt," he growled. "They don't want me bothering them unless it's important, so they make me walk through hell to reach them. It'd be a miracle if we get out of here without sand in our ass cracks."

Nancy shook her head as they continued walking. The sand swallowed her feet with every step, scalding her toes and building up inside her sneakers. Her scalp was hot enough to fry an egg, and it burned the tips of her fingers when she touched it. She winced, fanning her hands out over her head for a small patch of shade. Her raised arms cooked in the sun like a burnt sacrifice as sweat drops trailed down her back and over her stomach, and an uncomfortable dampness collected under the swell of her chest. The white pajama top that she was stuck with in this afterlife clung to her wet skin, soaking up the salty sweat and turning almost transparent. She was glad that Freddy was in front of her. The only thing that could make this situation worse would be his staring at the outline of her bra.

They left long grooves through the sand like snail trails, trudging along under the painful heat. As her mind began to fog, she wondered if Freddy was really leading her somewhere, or just dragging her through the desert for his own amusement. His figure split into doubles, splotched out by purple shapes that appeared and disappeared wherever she looked. After several blinks, he came back into focus. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself.

Nancy watched him, sensing that something was off. Something difficult to pin down. It took a few seconds, but she got it: It was his size. She could have sworn he looked like he was growing. His body got bigger and bigger…and his wide back hit her in the face before she realized that he had stopped and she hadn't.

"Watch where you're going," he shouted. "Ain't there enough space in this whole goddamn desert for two people to walk without slamming into each other?"

"Why did you stop right in front of me?" she asked, her brain switching on again after the break in monotony.

He stretched his back and tilted his fedora up. "We're taking a break."

"Again: Why?"

"Because my nuts are sweating," he grumbled, tugging at the overheated bulge in his trousers.

"I don't give a crap about your nuts; it's a hundred and fifty degrees out here, why do you want to drag this trip out any longer than it needs to be?" Nancy asked. She gripped her hips and tried to stand up straight, but the exhausted sagging of her eyelids undercut the message. She was almost ready to pass out too, and they both knew it.

"I always take a break at the bridge," he said, plopping down onto his tired ass. "Stop asking so many fucking questions. You're annoying the hell out of me."

Looking past him, she saw a deep ravine carved into the earth. The bottom - if it existed at all - was concealed in darkness, giving the impression that two halves of the world were joined here and held together by one long, rickety bridge. The planks of wood were faded and cracked from the sun, and some were split down the center, dangling from a few rusty nails. The railings were broken in several spots; the unbroken parts didn't look like they could support the weight of a kitten's paw without snapping.

"What-"

"Don't ask what a bridge is doing here. I had nothing to do with the creation of this oversized sandbox," he snapped.

Letting her legs collapse under her, she sat in the sand a few feet from Freddy. She thought for a second that she might just lie back and let the sun fry her like bacon, crispy and crunchy. Maybe if she died again she'd end up in the right place.

She glanced at Freddy, scanning his winter clothes with a cringe. Boots. Gloves (technically, glove), thick trousers, a hat, and worst of all…"It's so fucking hot here. How can you wear that sweater?"

"You think this is heat, bitch?" he scoffed. "Try being burned alive."

"I'm working on that," she muttered before falling flat on her back. The edges of the sun blazed in the vast, empty sky above her.

"Let me see that orb," he said. When she sat up to look at him, he already had his gloved hand extended. The blades twitched impatiently.

"Hell no," Nancy said, folding her arms. "Amanda told you not to touch it."

"She said it was dangerous to touch it in front of those fuckers, not out in the middle of nowhere. Hand it over."

"Tough shit, Kruger. I said no," Nancy spat.

Lunging forward, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into him. "Give it to me now."

"Screw you," she said as she tried to push him away. He wrestled down her other arm before getting kneed in his nuts, which were now throbbing in pain in addition to sweating. She crawled backwards as quickly as her groggy limbs would allow, collecting a pile of hot sand at her back. A rough hand clamped onto her ankle and yanked her closer, and the sand slid up into her shirt and coated her sticky body. She thrashed as he dug through her pockets.

"Where is it?" he growled, patting her down. His eyes lit up when he reached around to her back pocket and felt the bump. He slipped a hand inside to pick it up, giving her butt a few squeezes before she ripped herself free.

"Give it back," she said. She sprung to her feet, but he was on the bridge before she could reach him. The structure creaked under his weight; she didn't have the nerve to put even one toe on the first plank. She stood on the sand, glaring at him. "Bring it here, Kruger. Stop messing around."

"Come and get it, bitch," he called, rotating the orb to examine every side of it. It didn't look like much; just a little white ball. Who could guess that cracking it open would release enough power to destroy three immortal sacks of shit like the dream demons?

Just do it, Nancy told herself. Do it.

She shifted her weight onto the edge of the bridge. The first board didn't crack, but she hadn't expected it to: it was firmly embedded in the earth. The second board didn't crack. With the cautious precision of a surgical slice, she slid her foot farther out to test the bridge's strength. It seemed like it would hold her.

"Krueger, come on," she said, inching closer. "You're acting like a little kid. Why don't you…holy shit look out!"

But he didn't look up in time. He was staring into the gleam of the orb, and so was the giant crow that swooped in and plucked it out of his hand, knocking him down. He tumbled over the broken-down railing but managed to grab onto the edge of one of the planks. His hat slipped off and disappeared into the darkness below as his legs dangled over the abyss.

"What the fuck did I tell you?" Nancy shouted.

The tips of his blades scratched the wood in a failing attempt to get a better grip. He snarled at her. "Is now really the time for that?"

Nancy froze, staring at the huge bird as it flexed its shiny black wings. Two heads branched out from the base of its neck, and both sets of eyes revealed a keen intelligence. It held the orb in one beak while the other head tilted to the right and to the left, examining the shiny new toy.

"Drop that right now or I'll have you for dinner tonight, chicken nuggets," Freddy said. The tip of one knife poked at the crow's dry, cracked talons. The head that held the orb leaned in as if to show off its prize, and the other head pecked at Freddy's burnt skull.

"You little feathered fucker," he snapped, cringing away from the sharp drill of its beak. "Nancy, what the fuck is taking you so long?"

Nancy edged closer, wanting to run to the bird but terrified of every creak and crack that she made in the planks beneath her. She slid her feet along in three-inch increments: certified snail speed. The crow rolled one set of eyes up to glance at her as she approached. It left Freddy, rushing forward on the narrow bridge and puffing its neck feathers. It fanned out its wings and raised itself up until it was almost as tall as she was, leering at her in an obvious display of intimidation. She stumbled back as it spread its wings as wide as a car and beat them against the scorching air. Then it took off, soaring high over the sand dunes across the gorge.

She bent down to offer Freddy a hand, which he took ungratefully before scrambling up onto the bridge. A thin cloud of dry dirt puffed out from under him as he plopped onto his back. His chest was heaving. Not even ten seconds had passed before he jumped to his feet, storming across to the other side of the gorge. Nancy clung to the flimsy railing.

"I ain't carrying you, so move your ass," he called over his shoulder. "If we don't get that stupid fucking marble back before the crow swallows it, we're screwed."

"You don't have a back-up plan? Can we get another orb from Amanda?"

"I'm not talking about the plan," Freddy snarled. "If chicken nuggets eats it, it'll release all the light inside and those demons will come flying over to see what the hell is going on, and they'll be pretty fucking curious to know why we're trying to smuggle an orb as pure as an angel's vagina into their palace, and then-"

He stopped, turning around to glare at Nancy. She was in the process of carefully shifting her weight to her left foot, and she was maybe, maybe two feet closer than she was a minute ago.

"I said move your ass," Freddy growled, twitching his blades more from impatience than as a threat. "Move. Your. Sweet. Little. Fucking. Ass. Or I'll come over there and tear you a new hole."

With a new and sudden sense of urgency, she sprinted over the bowing, cracking planks of wood. Her jaw was clenched and her body was wound up like an over-wrung bath towel, bracing for a fall as if each step would be her last. Her shoulders relaxed when she splashed onto the ground on the other side.

"It went that way, down towards those dunes," Freddy said, ignoring her breathless heaving, and pointing with his index blade. "I think I saw it land."

They climbed dune after dune, sand sloshing around their shoes as their feet sunk in with each step. The wind caught a trace amount of cascading sand and carried it away in thin sheets. It lashed at Nancy's skin. She tugged the collar of her blouse up over her mouth and nose like a mask to keep the dust out of her throat.

As they descended the other side of the slope, with sand flowing down into their shoes, she squinted at a flat, blurry strip of blue nestled between two high dunes. The air bent the image, making it twist and shake, but she could see it as clearly as her own hand in front of her face.

"It's water," she croaked, lifting a limp finger to point straight ahead. Freddy trudged up beside her and squinted against the glare from the flaming sun.

"That's just a mirage, you moron," he snarled weakly with the last bit of moisture in his throat. A hacking, wheezing cough seized him as a puff of dust invaded his airways. His lips, already cracked from the fire that took his life years ago, split even more in the merciless heat. They fused together with the sticky saliva he tried to wet them with.

They dragged their burning feet, one after the other, and soon the high sand dunes were towering above them like golden mountains. Nancy craned her neck, shuddering at the thought of climbing the dauntingly steep slope. She lifted her foot like a robot with drained batteries.

She was panting thin breaths with her head hanging low by the time they reached the top. Freddy wasn't making any sound at all, and she turned back half expecting to see him lying facedown in the sand, sizzling like ham in a skillet. But he was still on his feet, and he looked like he was holding his breath.

"You motherfucker. You were right," he breathed.

At the base of the dune, bouncy young palm trees had popped up around a large pool of blue water. Their wide, smooth leaves rustled in the desert breeze, casting an inviting shade on the ground beneath them. Taller trees loomed around the other side of the water with bending, bleached trunks that peeled in the sun. The surface of the pool glistened white along the edges and at the peak of every tiny ripple.

Without another word, Nancy slid down the dune on one outstretched leg, letting the other collapse under her. A tailwind of dust blew out behind her, and it engulfed Freddy as he tried to follow with staggering, irritated steps. She tumbled out over herself at the bottom, crawling on hands and knees to the water's edge. Her fingertips broke the surface slowly, as if she were afraid to discover that it was all an illusion. But the cool wetness on her hands was real (at least, as real as anything could be to a disembodied soul), and her head bobbed low in anticipation of a long, satisfying drink. Her parched lips stretched out towards the rippling water, already tasting the refreshing liquid in her mind. Relief was so close.

"Don't drink that."

That couldn't have been Freddy's voice telling her not to drink this wonderful, God-sent water. It couldn't have been Freddy's rough hands grabbing at her, pulling her away from the edge of the pool, holding her back in spite of all her thrashing. Not even Freddy could be that cruel. If she hadn't known his voice better than anyone else's and seen his striped sweater-clad arms around her, she wouldn't have believed that he was doing this.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted, clawing at his arms like an animal, "Let me go! It's water, right there. Right there."

Her tongue, her lips, and her throat felt as if they would tear themselves away from the rest of her body to reach the water if they had to. Her mouth hung open, her tongue lulling off to the side like a dead, shriveled slug. "Please," she whispered.

"Take a closer look," Freddy said, "I knew there was a reason those bastards would plant an oasis in the middle of this hell-hole. I said look."

Nancy crawled again to the edge of the pool, this time peering down into its depths. It was far deeper than she had expected, and what lurked in the dark water almost looked beautiful until she understood what it was. Droves of bloated corpses drifted along with an undercurrent through the drowned ruins of an ancient city. It carried them past crumbled stone towers and through the holes and archways in the decrepit wall that enclosed many of the central buildings. The people's limbs were weightless around them and brushed against other bodies that drifted nearby. Some grazed the black algae that coated parts of the thick, porous stone. Their hair trailed behind them, curling and swishing in the absence of gravity. Around and around they went in an endlessly-circling whirlpool, driven on by a current that flowed from nowhere and to nothing. She widened her eyes and stared down as if gazing at the expanse of the world through a small window.

One of the bodies caught her eye as it floated higher towards the surface. A mat of long black hair on the back of its head swayed in the water like tangled seaweed. The skin on its naked back was wrinkled and bubbled out in a few places, looking almost detached from the bones and decaying muscle beneath it. With a shift of the current, the body turned slowly like a pig on a spit, and a stream of water swept the hair away from its face as it turned belly-up.

A wide pair of lidless eyes darted up at the bright surface of the pool but never settled on anything, as if following the chaotic path of a buzzing fly. Its gaze flickered over Nancy, and as it tried to open its mouth, one side of its rotting jaw came unhinged. She reeled back from the edge, falling into the warm sand beneath a shady palm tree.

"It's still alive," she said, feeling a wave of nausea come over her. She tried to settle herself; vomiting now would knock her unconscious, and that was the last thing she needed.

"That's what they get for drinking the water. But go ahead and have a sip if you feel like joining them," Freddy said. His voice was a low grumble with only an obligatory trace of anger. He sounded more weary than anything. "Dumb-ass."

A brief rustling sound distracted Nancy from the energy-wasting words she was about to spit at him. They turned and looked up at two sets of gleaming black eyes. The crow sat perched on a gently sloping branch, letting its heads cock this way and that way as it watched them. Its black breast feathers puffed with pride, and the orb glimmered from between the tapered points of its beak.

Freddy snarled and twitched his blades. "Don't get cocky with me, chicken nuggets."

The crow's eyelids drooped like a snobby billionaire.

"You motherfucker," he said, charging at the base of the tree. He clutched onto the narrow trunk and tried to dig his heels into the smooth surface. "I'm gonna fry you up and dip you in ketchup."

The tips of his claws left ruts in the tree as he slipped down and landed squarely on his backside. He dusted himself off, muttering every conceivable combination of swear words. Then he locked in on Nancy.

"I'm too old for this shit," he said.

"…and?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"And you're young. Nimble."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Nancy said. "You're the one with the knives. You go up and get it. That thing will peck a hole in my skull."

He rolled his eyes. "Who gives a shit? You're already dead."

"Yes I am, and that's just one more reason why I'm not taking a beak to the face for you. It's your fault the damn thing got the orb in the first place," she said, propping her hands on her hips.

"Fine then, bitch," he said as he walked past her along their trail of footprints. "We can turn around and go back to the boiler room for all I care. I'll find another way to kill those fuckers, and you can stay caged up like a dog in one of my caves for the rest of eternity."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, trying to suppress the worried quirk in her eyebrows. He'd said before that it was in both of their best interests to retrieve the orb before it…detonates, for lack of a better word. The dream demons would be after him before he even reached the doorway that brought them here. "You wouldn't risk getting caught," she said. But Freddy could hear the uncertainty in her voice, and he knew he'd won.

He was part-way up the slope when he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Yes I would. If you want to earn your way out of here, then you better pull your fucking weight."

Her jaw tightened. She wanted to lash out and scream at him, but she knew that wouldn't do any good. The crow was still sitting high above them like a king enjoying a show put on by his court jesters. It let the orb roll back over its thin tongue as if toying with the idea of swallowing it.

"Alright," she grumbled. "You pain in the ass."

"That's my girl," he said with a smirk as she dragged her feet over to the tree. Placing both hands against the slim trunk, she craned her neck back. The angle made the sun-edged palm leaves seem impossibly far away.

"Here we go," she said under her breath before narrowing her focus, inhaling, and latching onto the tree. She scrambled to lift her feet and settle them against the trunk. They wobbled on a dangerous angle. Squeezing her leg muscles for all they were worth, she inched her trembling hands higher and tightened her grip again to draw her legs up. The sweat from her palms slicked the trunk, turning the bone-dry dust on the bark into streaks of damp dirt. Beads of perspiration accumulated at her hairline and threatened to drip into her squinted eyes.

And then the falter.

Her foot slipped, undoing the careful balance that kept her steady, and she slid down the smooth trunk, hands burning raw, mouth opened to scream but too surprised to make a sound.

"You clumsy cunt," Freddy said after he'd stopped her mid-descent. His arms were braced against her thighs, holding her up so she could regain her footing. She didn't respond to the insults, but fired a glare that he couldn't see up at the crown of palm leaves when she felt his hands shifting to a different position.

"Get your hands off my ass, Krueger," she yelled.

He cupped a fleshy swell in each palm, pushing into it to lift her higher. "Only trying to help," he snickered as he gave her left cheek a squeeze.

With unprecedented speed and strength, Nancy climbed up the trunk and away from his lecherous grasp. His outstretched fingertips were the last thing she felt on her bottom. "You're a pig," she called down to him.

"…What'd you say?" he asked. "I was distracted by the view."

Her face burned with rage and embarrassment as she heard the smirk in his voice and sensed his wolfish gaze locked on her butt. The fact that her entire body was wrapped around a giant phallic symbol didn't help, either. She grimaced.

He seemed to pick up on her discomfort, and, as if reading her mind, he grinned. "Give those coconuts up there a nice little massage for me."

And that was the end of her patience. Nancy snapped her face down to snarl at him. "Krueger, you motherfucker," she screamed, "You're gonna eat sand when I get down there. I'm sick of you acting like you can say and do whatever the hell you-"

Her rant was cut short by a tiny tap-tap-taping on her head. She looked back up, staring into a set of black eyes, gleaming and curious. But the curiosity didn't last long before it was replaced with boredom, and the crow drilled its beak into her forehead.

"Ow," she yelled, flinching away, "knock it off."

"Get the orb, you dumb bitch," Freddy reminded her. She squinted to see through the blur of her eyelashes, reaching past the head that barraged her with nips and stabs, reaching closer to the other head that had stretched itself away from her. It was almost within her grasp.

"Shit," Nancy gasped. The bird raised itself to deliver a powerful peck that embedded its beak into the skin above her eyebrow, and she yanked her face away too quickly. Her arms couldn't support the strain of her jerking movements, losing strength and slipping. She clamped onto one of its thin, rough legs before sailing backwards through the air, forgetting the unbearable heat in the rush of wind. The blistering sun, the sweat soaking her clothes, the stinging cuts on her face, and (of course) the giant cranky bird on top of her all disappeared from her thoughts until she blinked away the head trauma and found herself on her back in the sand. The crow's other massive claw was closed on her shirt, its crushing mass keeping the air from returning to her lungs as it continued to barrage her head with its beak.

It was fast and angry and unrelenting. Overwhelming. She couldn't move or scream, wondering if it was possible for her to die a second time, and if this ugly crow-head hammering down on her would be the last thing she'd ever see.

And then it was over. The pecking stopped. A splatter of hot liquid hit her neck as she heard the squelching sound of knives in flesh. The bird dropped dead on top of her, and she squirmed to free herself out from under the oppressive weight, seeing Freddy standing over them with red-soaked finger blades. Giving the crow one hard shove with his foot, he kicked it off of her and it rolled to the ground. Sand stuck to the open wound that ran through the base of its two necks.

He ignored Nancy, stepping over her like she were just another corpse and bending to retrieve the orb from the crows twisted, lifeless beak. He shined it on his elbow and lifted it up to see it in the sunlight.

He tossed it to her as she was standing to her feet and dusting herself off, and she snatched it out of the air. Her head throbbed a second later. She clutched it, brushing her fingers over the scattered cuts on her forehead.

"Let's go; haul ass, princess," he said, already hiking up the next sand dune. She jogged clumsily through the sloshing sand to catch up with him. Their feet sunk and slid down with every step, but soon enough they reached the peak and stopped. Freddy shielded his eyes with his hand to stare far into the distance, and Nancy did the same. Beyond the rolling slopes of white sand and puffing clouds of dust sat the hazy purple silhouette of a palace, distorted in the rippling heat.

.

.

.

To be continued…


A/N: Well, there you have it, folks. I hope that extra-long chapter made up for my hiatus. The next chapter will be posted in a more timely manner, but I can't promise any specific date. My schedule is just too unpredictable right now.
Ah, how I miss the summers when I had nothing to do all day but sit in my room and type-tippity-type my stories until the sun went down...

If you have a spare minute, please let me know what you think of this chapter (or the story in general, if you're so inclined).