Chapter 9: Freddy's Master Plan
Fred Krueger clicked the blades on his Glove yet again, and the Conroy's backyard instantly transformed around the three teens. Now, they all stood in what looked like the cluttered basement of a house, not too different in layout from the basements in the houses they lived in. But Allen and Pamelynne were not with them.
"What happened?" said Treavor. "The last thing I remember is me and Pamelynne going to bed after we left Lenore's house."
Lenore said, "I remember that. After Taylor left, Allen and I ate and went to bed, ourselves."
"I went to bed after making your delivery, Norie," said Taylor. "This has got to be some weird, shared dream!"
"Good call, kid," said Krueger laughing. "And you're ALL still dreaming – but still in the 'safety' of your own beds!"
Lenore and Taylor helped the wounded Treavor to his feet. After they did this, Taylor wordlessly removed his outer shirt, and handed it to Treavor to help him staunch the bleeding cuts on his belly. Treavor, wearing nothing else but the swimsuit he had on earlier, accepted it gratefully. For a dream, it all seemed incredibly real!
Lenore turned to Krueger, and said, "What have you done with Allen and Pamelynne, you bastard?"
But the girl's last word only made Freddy laugh harder. "Yes! I AM a BASTARD! I'm the Bastard Son of a Hundred Maniacs!
"As for those two little piggies; they're safe . . . for now . . . .
"But whether or not they stay safe – whether or not any of you stays safe - will all depend on what you three do, next!" Krueger pointed to Lenore, making the girl swallow hard. "You and the little kid did a pretty good job, finding all those old newspapers about me. But those papers don't tell my full story! Please allow me to fill in all the blanks!
"Now, gather round, my three little piggies, and pay attention! This will all be on the test . . . !"
Transforming the dreamscape around them, Frederick Charles Krueger gave Lenore, Taylor and Treavor a show-and-tell of his wretched life, his career as the Springwood Slasher, and what happened to him after he died.
Krueger had been all that the old newspapers said he had been, and more: He was a kidnapper, a torturer, a child molester, and - of course - a murderer. He was a pervert and a sadist, and his only real regret was that he couldn't kill more children before he was caught.
And Krueger showed the three captive teens his handiwork in gruesome detail, showing them each child's capture through their last breaths, as he tortured them in the "Secret Room" of his basement, while his own wife and daughter remained completely oblivious to his depravities until the very end.
The scene shifted to a courtroom setting, where Krueger was let free due to a technicality with the Search Warrant, smugly laughing as the Bailiff had no choice but to remove his handcuffs.
And again, the scene shifted; this time to the boiler room where he worked, and Lenore, Taylor and Treavor watched as a Vigilante Mob surrounded Krueger, doused him with gasoline, and set him afire.
As Krueger died laughing, the teens saw three, wormlike creatures with heads like deformed human skulls, offering him unlimited power if he agreed to their terms. Of course, Krueger wholeheartedly agreed.
In all, Fred Krueger claimed to have committed his unspeakable crimes against nineteen* children, while he was alive. And not only did death itself not stop him, it actually made him even more dangerous when he accepted the offer of the vile Dream Demons, and he became an undead dream-stalker.
"But for me to get anyone in their dreams," said Krueger shaking his head, "they gotta know about me, first. And THAT'S where you little piggies come in!
"I got work for you three: I wanna "go viral!" I wanna website that tells MY full life story! Let's see the 'good people' of Springwood try to censor THAT with their Magic Markers, scissors, paste and paper recycling drives!
"Then, kids everywhere will know about Freddy Krueger and what I can do to them in their dreams! Their fear will call me to them! They'll ALL be 'my children,' then!
"But wait; there's more! You see, I also got a little "squatter problem" in my house at 1428 Elm Street – the one behind Lenore's. Some vampire decided to move in, and I want him gone! But I can't kill him in his dreams, and he can't destroy me. So, I'll also need you three to kill him for me!"
As Lenore, Taylor and Treavor listened, Freddy laid-out his plan: When the sun came up in a few hours and the vampire was helplessly sleeping in his coffin in the basement, the three teens would break into the house behind Lenore's and stake him – turning the vampire to dust.
And then, the teens would get immediately to work on Krueger's website. "I want it up and running before tomorrow night!
"Do this for me," said Freddy balefully. "Be my minions, serve me, and I'll let you all live, so long as you continue to be 'useful.' Refuse, and you all die – starting with the slut and the kid!"
Lenore dared to speak. "W-we can kill the vampire for you. But if you want that website up, we need more time or more help!
"When the vampire is staked, let Pamelynne and Alan wake up! If nothing else, we'll need their help to get it up by tomorrow night."
Before Krueger could protest, Taylor added reasonably, "It's not like we can escape from you. We can't stay awake forever, and we can't fight you in our dreams. You got us.
"But we do need all the help we can get to get your website online by tomorrow night!"
The Bogeyman considered what the boy said, nodded and agreed. Pamelynne and Allen would be released the moment the vampire was dust, and then the work on his website would begin.
"The sun will be up soon," said Krueger. "Just go in through the door in the back yard, it's never locked, and drive a wooden stake through his heart! Shouldn't take you more than ten minutes tops."
Treavor said, "W-what about all those guard dogs? How're we supposed to get past them."
The bogyman was at the boy's side in seconds, putting his arm around the wounded teen, who nearly jumped out of his skin as Krueger gently tapped his chest with the blades of his fearsome Glove. Freddy said, "Don't worry about the vampire's mutts, kids; they'll all be dead before you even jump the fence!"
Freddy told the teens that the vampire's guardian canines were telepathically linked to him, and would warn him of any possible danger while he slept. But the bogeyman said that he should be able to kill the dogs as they dreamt, and make the vampire think that the hellhounds are still alive and on duty, watching over him while he's sleeping.
Taylor said, "So, kind of like "looping" the footage on a security camera to fool the guards in a spy movie?"
"Pretty smart, kid," said Freddy nodding. "But I can only make it work for a short time before the vampire suspects that something's . . . 'off' . . . .
"So, set your watches! I'm going to take out the hellhounds at 6:45 am. From then, you should have about ten minutes, so don't waste your time! Jump the fence, go straight to the basement, and stake the bloodsucking bitch through the heart!
"Now, go! Go and kill for me! Then, get to work on my website, and shill for me!" Laughing at his own cleverness with words, Freddy clicked his blades, and the three teens woke up.
Treavor McClardle woke up in Mrs. Conroy's bedroom, with Pamelynne lying motionless beside him, breathing softly. For a moment, he thought he'd just had a horrible – but wholly fictitious – nightmare. And then he saw and felt the four parallel, weeping cuts on his abdomen.
Worse, Pamelynne couldn't be awakened, no matter how hard he tried. Realizing that this was as real as real could be, Treavor quickly put on his jeans and shoes, wrapped Pamelynne in the bedsheet and, carrying the comatose girl gently, went straight to the Browning's house.
When he got there, Lenore had the door already opened, waiting for them, and quietly motioned for him to come upstairs to the master bedroom where her cousin Allen already lay on the bed; just as deeply asleep as Pamelynne.
"Put Pamelynne next to Allen on my mom's bed, Treavor," said Lenore. "Taylor should be here, soon. He called a few moments ago, and said that he was going to sharpen a wooden stake to use on the vampire before he comes over.
"For now, you'd better let me take care of those cuts. Who knows how filthy Krueger's blades could be . . . ."
Treavor sat on the edge of the bed as Lenore daubed at his wounds with hydrogen peroxide before bandaging them as best as she could with sterile pads and gauze. Their eyes met, and Treavor started sobbing.
"I should have been able to protect Pamelynne, Norie! B-but Krueger was just so strong . . . !"
Lenore nodded sympathetically as she finished her First Aid on the wounded boy. Treavor was Springwood High's Star Athlete, and he was said to be stronger than any other two Springwood High Seniors put together. His plans were to play sports professionally when he graduated – after first serving in the Marine Corps.
Lenore said, "If Krueger had been some random guy, maybe. But we're dealing with some kind of supernatural bogeyman."
Treavor wiped his eyes and offered a wry smile. "And a vampire. Don't forget the vampire."
"As if I could," said Lenore. "Besides, I'm really the one to blame for this whole thing, you know.
"If I hadn't been trying to uncover what 'they' did to my brother-"
"-we'd still have a vampire in the house behind you." Treavor finished. "And anyway, we couldn't have known that vampires and bogeymen are for real!"
Lenore nervously chuckled, "Help. We've fallen into an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and we can't get out!"
Lenore looked Treavor seriously, and said, "Listen, Treavor; about that someone looking at you from mom's office window . . . ."
"Oh, forget about it," said Treavor as he stood to check his bandages. The cuts still stung him, but at least Lenore had managed to stop the bleeding. "I was ten myself, once. I get Allen's curiosity. I'll let him know when Krueger lets him go, first thing!"
"Allen didn't do it," said Lenore. "He doesn't have the key to mom's office. I do. It was me."
Treavor blinked incredulously. "You were spying on us?" Lenore shrugged, and Treavor continued, "I – I didn't know you liked girls, Lenore," adding quickly, ". . . not that there's anything wrong with that, of course! But it freaked Pamelynne out!"
"No," said Lenore, "there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't 'like' girls. I like boys . . . .
"You have no idea how often I've thought about what it must be like to touch your – pardon the expression – "shredded" abs. Most girls at school probably wonder the same. Be careful what you wish for, I guess."
Treavor glanced over at Pamelynne, unconscious on the bed. Blushing, he turned to Lenore and nodded. "Well, as flattered as I am that you 'like' me; I'm very much taken. And trust me, even if I weren't; I'm definitely not your 'type.'
"But . . . I do know a guy who'd love to have you look at him the way you just looked at me."
Lenore sighed. "Taylor Albert Swift." It was a statement, not a question.
"He told me that he had a crush on you ever since second grade . . . back when we were on speaking terms. We used to be best buds. Then, things . . . changed."
"Well," admitted Lenore. "I kind of like Taylor, too. "But things . . . changed."
Treavor nodded. "When your brother was killed." Another statement, not a question. "Because he asked about Freddy Krueger."
Then both Lenore and Treavor were startled by a voice coming from the doorway to the bedroom. "Don't feel too bad, Norie," said Taylor, who suddenly appeared in the bedroom doorway, holding his school backpack. "If that happened to anyone I cared about, I wouldn't have let it go, either.
"There's no way you could have known about some psycho from fifty years ago who became an undead bogeyman! How could you have known, much less believed, something like that?" Taylor took a single, wooden stake crudely sharpened to a point out of his school backpack for Lenore's and Treavor's approval.
"You only made one stake, Taylor?" said Treavor somewhat incredulously.
Taylor shrugged - noting that for the first time in a long time, his old friend Treavor didn't call him "Tay-Tay," or "T-Swizzle" - before replying, "Well, we've only got one vampire, Treavor."
"And a bogeyman," said Treavor. "Don't forget the bogeyman holding my girlfriend and Lenore's cousin hostage."
"But to get them back," said Taylor, "we've got to let the world know about Krueger. If we do that for him, no child anywhere will be safe! I don't want to be responsible for something like that."
Lenore shook her head, and let out a frustrated sigh. "The town was just trying to protect us from a supernatural killer who could get us in our dreams if we knew about him; not trying to 'cover up' their taking the law into their own hands on some maniac fifty years ago.
"Who knows how many kids could have died if Chris had asked too many questions, or told the other kids about what he found?
"But there had to have been another way!" Lenore insisted. "'They' didn't have to dope Chris up until he died!"
"And what about us?" said Treavor. "If we save Pamelynne and Allen – even if Krueger keeps his word to leave us alone – we'll still be responsible for every kid Krueger kills from then on because we put his story online!"
The room went so quiet, the only thing that could be heard is Pamelynne's and Allen's steady breathing. Then Taylor looked up and said, "Are you both wide-awake? Is there even a slim possibility that either of you think you might 'nod-off' - even for a second - before we have to go out and slay the vampire when the sun comes up in a few hours?"
When both Lenore and Treavor shook their heads, Taylor said, "Me either." Taylor then pulled a prescription medicine bottle out of his backpack.
"I realized that there's a way that we can kill the vampire and the bogeyman. The vampire will be relatively easy – or at least more straightforward. But to kill the bogeyman – Freddy Krueger – we're going to need this . . . ."