Chapter 6: The Second Battle
The next morning when Freddy entered the dream of the sleeping vampire, he felt something different. Dracula was not sleeping in his coffin at 1428 Elm Street; he was sleeping elsewhere. Smiling, Freddy said, "So, Batboy, you decided to leave my house after all!"
Dracula scowled. "No, Frederick Charles Krueger. Though I sleep elsewhere at the moment, I have not abandoned my rightful claim to the house at 1428 Elm Street."
Freddy blinked. "Wait, how do you know my full name?"
"After our first encounter, I spoke with the Chief of the Springwood Police Department. I found what he had to say about you to be most informative. And disturbing . . . ."
"He told you about me?" said Freddy somewhat surprised. The people of Springwood always bent over backwards to keep Freddy's existence a closely guarded secret.
"He did not want to, at first," admitted the Vampire Lord. "And his will was strong. But my will – as you well know, bogeyman - is stronger.
"Chief Williams told me all about your "reign of terror" some fifty years earlier, as the so-called 'Springwood Slasher.'"
"So, Leech-lips, you know who I am . . . ."
"More to the point, filthy bogeyman, I know what you are." Dracula's expression sharpened as he spat out his next two words like bitter poison. "Pederast! Sodomite!"
Reacting with exaggerated hurt, Freddy said, "Aw, Drac, you say that like it's a bad thing! That's hurtful! I may be The Bogeyman, but I have feelings too, you know . . . !"
Dracula hissed. "Had I found anyone such as you when I was Voivode of Wallachia, I would have been hard-pressed to find a stake high enough, rough-hewn enough, thick enough, and blunted at the tip enough, to serve for your punishment!" Again, the vampire hissed.
"You sound like a tire with a slow leak when you do that vampire hissy-thang," sassed Freddy. "And what right do you have to be all sanctimonious with me, anyway, Fang-Boy?
"Sure, I may have been a little naughty back in my time.
"But how many little kiddies did YOU shish kebab back in the day?"
"More than you can possibly imagine, bogeyman," said Dracula with a tone that could almost be regret. "I've had countless children impaled as their distraught parents watched!
"They died in agony, this is true. But they died unsullied by my hands, or by the hands of my soldiers! I'll have none of that in my lands, nor will I have it in my house!"
Freddy just snorted. "Well, in any case, now that you are away from my home; you'd better stay away, you Coffin-Sleeping Bloodsucker!
"I may not be able to kill ya in your dreams, you big Leech, but you can't kill me, either. And whenever you fall asleep, wherever you may be, I'll be there to torment you!
"You'll never have a moment of peace in your dreams so long as you live under my roof, and as you can see, it doesn't matter where you put your damned coffin! You're marked! Wherever you are, I'll find you! Even a vampire can't stay awake forever! The only way to be rid of me is to admit that you lost, and leave my house, Bitch!"
Dracula's expression remained sharp. "No, Frederick Charles Krueger. The house at 1428 Elm Street is now mine. Even as I did not back down and show throat and belly before Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottomans, I shall not cower in fear and shame before a pervert such as you.
"I expel you from my house, bogeyman! I will not even permit you to leave of your own will! I expel you! I destroy you! Even Satan himself cannot protect you from the wrath of Dracula!"
"You Asshole . . . ," snarled Freddy as he brandished his Glove, preparing to strike. "THIS . . . is Satan!"
"When next I dream, you will be gone," insisted Dracula.
"Oh, yeah?" spat Freddy. "And how are you gonna make me leave, Tooth Fairy, huh? I'm anchored to this house! You can't expel me, much less kill me! 1428 Elm Street is MINE, Bitch! MINE!"
Dracula began to fade as he willed himself awake, his lugubrious voice echoing from everywhere as he vanished. "When next I return to my dreams, you will be gone . . . ."
Freddy roared as the vampire vanished, lunging forward, and slashing at the space where the Vampire had been standing moments before with the blades of his Glove. "Come back here, you Transylvanian Tick! You don't come into my dreamworld, drop a challenge, and then just leave, Bitch! Come back here and show me what you've really got, you bloodsucking freak!"
And then, Freddy's boiler room – the default form of his Dreamworld – began to shake violently as though struck by an earthquake.
Pipes wrenched loose sending sprays of water and clouds of steam amid the toppling tool tables and lockers. With the screech of tortured metal, heavy equipment fell from the walls and ceiling, and Freddy swore as he barely dodged the expanding chaos that was once his carefully constructed Dreamworld.
But the Bogyman had no time to process what was happening. The wall furthest from him was beginning to crumble and through the cracks, a horrid, pure white light shot through that filled Freddy with terror.
And then it got worse. Much, much, worse . . . .
The far wall collapsed completely and Freddy saw three backlight figures slowly approaching. One was swinging a thurible from a chain, spewing smoke that dissolved everything in the dreamworld that it touched. Yet another was wielding an aspergillum, sprinkling Holy Water. And every drop that touched an object in the dreamworld struck with explosive force.
But worse of all, the third figure was reading from a book . . . THAT Book. And every word, every syllable, pierced Freddy's ears like a red-hot dagger.
Though it set his mind on fire, two words came unbidden to Freddy's evil brain: Rituale Romanum. That's what Dracula meant when he said that Freddy would be gone. That was why the Vampire was sleeping elsewhere when he confronted the Bogyman for the second time.
Freddy realized that the Bloodsucker must have called the local Archdiocese to "cleanse" the house at 1428 Elm Street; an opportunity that the Church had no doubt hoped and prayed would come to them over the past five decades. And now, they had it.
As the Dreamworld collapsed, Freddy ran away from the approaching trio of priests, but there was no place to run. Eventually, the smoke or the water would get him, and he would be sent straight to Hell in agony where he would have to explain his latest failure to Old Nick, who was not known for suffering failure from any of his minions.
But before Freddy Krueger could resign himself to his fate, he saw an island of stability in the twisting Dreamworld. The main boiler was still relatively intact, though the flame within was guttering weakly. In desperation, Krueger dove into the open hatch, pulling it closed behind him in a desperate attempt to hide from his approaching doom. Instinctively, Krueger curled into the fetal position as he did his best to prepare for the worst. Outside the sounds of collapse became louder and the boiler shook even more violently under the onslaught of the implacably advancing Exorcists.
And then, it stopped. After waiting for what seemed like hours, Freddy opened his eyes and looked around. He was no longer inside the boiler. Instead, he was in a dank, dark and cool, empty room.
"Wha . . . ? This isn't . . . Hell . . . ," thought Freddy. "But, where the Hell am I . . . ?"
Then Freddy realized where he was. It was his Secret Room; the place where he took his young victims when he was alive, and where he would take their young, innocent lives slowly over the course of days. A place where they would never be found, a place where their screams would never be heard . . . .
Originally, it had been a bomb shelter; constructed by his adoptive father - that bastard-in-a-class-by-himself, Mr. Underwood - way back in the late 1940's when everybody was afraid that the Reds would bomb us all into oblivion.
But when Freddy became the owner of 1428 Elm Street, he put the hidden room in the basement to better use as a holding cell and torture chamber during his reign of terror as The Springwood Slasher. Yet, it only served that purpose for less than a year.
As part of the town's effort to erase all traces of Freddy's very existence, his home had been bought by the detective who finally caught him. That man, Detective Thompson, had covered the basement entrance to the bomb shelter with a two-by-four framework and drywall, hiding it from the world; including the priests who just now sought to banish him - unknowingly on behalf of Dracula, Lord of the Undead.
Though the Priests did not banish Freddy to Hell, they did effectively trap him in the Secret Room that they did not know about, and could not properly cleanse. And to Freddy, this was a fate even worse than Hell. At least in Hell, he had the chance, however slim, to earn the opportunity to once again return to the world of the living and slay teenagers in their dreams.
But now he was trapped; the way he had once trapped one of his victims in a Roach Motel . . . .
Freddy exploded in a violent burst of rage, stomping around and slashing the air violently with his fearsome - but currently useless - Glove. He wanted to throw something, but there was nothing to throw. He wanted to kill someone, but there was nobody to kill. For one thing, nobody knew about him on the outside. And if nobody knew about him, they could not dream about him thereby letting him in.
And even if there were kids out there who found out about him, he was still trapped in his hidden, secret room, unable to venture out through the cleansed environment around him to invade their dreams and feed on their souls.
"EXORCISTS! Bellowed Freddy. "EXORCISTS! THAT BLOODSUCKER ACTUALLY CALLED IN EXORCISTS TO BANISH ME TO HELL! WHAT KIND OF DEMON DOES THAT, ANYWAY?
"WHY, THAT DIRTY BLOOD SUCKING, NECK BITING, SLEEPING-IN-A-COFFIN, BAT-TURNING-INTO, BITCH!
"HOW DARE HE?! HOW DARE HE! THIS IS MY HOUSE! MY HOUSE! MINE! MINE! NOT HIS; MINE!"
But then Freddy stopped his tantrum as a smile came over his burned face when a new thought dawned on him; something that he should have realized from the very beginning.
What was it that that Dracula had so adamantly proclaimed to him before awakening from their last dream encounter . . . ?
"When next I return to my dreams, you will be gone."
Of course! 'Dracula' was coming back! This was a matter of pride for Fang Boy! He fully intended to return to reclaim 'his' house at 1428 Elm Street, and why not? For all that Bloated Tick knew, the house had been consecrated, and any demon within its walls had been banished to Hell. But sauce for the goose was also sauce for the gander . . . .
Freddy also realized that the only way the Vampire could reenter the consecrated house was to have it profaned, once more. And however he did that, it would also release Freddy from his temporary prison, with the added bonus that the Vampire would think that he was rid of Freddy, permanently. And then Freddy would be able to turn the tables on the Vampire.
As fate would have it, Freddy did not have too long to wait. That evening, a coven of Satanists, led by the flamboyant and controversial Ashton LeCrowe, the self-proclaimed "High Priest of Satan, Lord of Hell," performed a 'ritual' of their own that would once again allow the Vampire to return, even as it set Freddy free.
And even better still, when Freddy ventured out of the confines of his Secret Room, he could sense that not just one, but five kids now knew about him, and that they were all asleep and ripe for the plucking. Even better still, one of them was preparing a website that would tell the entire world about Freddy, and once it was up and running, he would then have millions of kiddies to choose from and slaughter in their dreams!
If only that Vampire was out of the way . . . .
The Vampire would undoubtedly return to 1428 Elm Street soon, now that he believed Freddy to be banished to Hell. And Freddy would be there, waiting for him.
And this time, Freddy would be much, much stronger than the last time he and the vampire fought. This time, Freddy would be fortified by the souls of four teenagers and a ten-year-old boy that he would kill in their dreams before paying the vampire another visit.
But as soon as Freddy had that thought, he immediately rejected it. Even if he faced the vampire stronger than the time before, all the Bloodsucker had to do to escape would be to wake up, and call the Exorcists back to repeat the process; but not before conducting a thorough search for the place where Freddy had hidden to escape the Rituale Romanum the first time it was performed.
And besides, the deaths of five children in their sleep in one night would set off all kinds of bells and whistles. The police would be called in to investigate – the Springwood Police. And they would undoubtedly conduct a thorough search to find out exactly how these five kids found out about the Secret of Freddy. And once this was found, it would be destroyed. Hypnocil would be prescribed to everyone under 18, and in short order, Freddy would once more be forgotten about.
No, that most certainly would never do.
Right now, Freddy understood that his only real advantage was that the Vampire thought that he'd won, and that the Bogeyman was consigned to Hellfire.
And then, Freddy had yet another insight. The Vampire quickly realized that he could not kill Freddy, directly – at least not in the Dreamworld. But he could still employ "proxies" to do his bidding in the physical world, and destroy Freddy indirectly. And with the Exorcists from the Springwood Archdiocese as his unwitting accomplices, the Vampire almost succeeded - and may yet succeed, in the next attempt.
This gave Freddy a new, even better idea.
The Bloodsucker had used the time-honored Vampire technique of employing human "minions" to do his bidding during the day.
Well, The Bogeyman could play that game, too. All Freddy needed was to get some 'human minions' of his own to stake the Bloodsucker while he slept helplessly during the day in his coffin. And Freddy could think of five potential "volunteers" to be his new minions right off the bat.
It wouldn't be easy. Freddy's new 'minions' couldn't just simply break-into his old house where the vampire was squatting. Though the vampire had no human guards or employed a professional security service, the Bloodsucker DID have his five, vicious hellhounds to protect him as he slept helpless in his coffin during the daytime; dogs that the vampire was undoubtedly telepathically connected to.
But this would be no, real problem for the Bogeyman.
After all, Freddy mused, dogs – even hellhounds – had to sleep and dream, too . . . .
And once Freddy took out those mutts, he would make the vampire think that he was still in touch with his hellish, canine familiars, and that he was still safe - right up to the moment Freddy's teenage 'minions' drove a wooden stake into 'Dracula's' undead heart.
Then, after the Bloodsucker was turned into a pile of dust, Freddy's minions would get to work on his website to spread the word about Freddy via the internet, making Freddy more powerful than any demon before or since.
And then, all the children of the world would belong to Freddy . . . .