Chapter 11: Fighting Monsters

At 6:45 am, just a little after the sun came up, Lenore, Taylor and Treavor made their move. Using two ladders, they scaled the backyard fence on the Browning's property using one, sliding the other over into the Richardson's backyard.

Holding the crowbar, Treavor said, "Let me go first." When he didn't see any dogs, he motioned the others to join him.

"Are you sure the dogs are dead?" said Taylor nervously as he set foot into the yard behind Lenore's house. "Maybe they're hiding back here, or still inside?"

Lenore shook her head. "Allen says the dogs are always outside, during the daytime. K-Krueger must have already killed them inside the house."

"Too late to turn back, now," said Treavor. "Alright, 'Buffy,' 'Van Helsing;' let's do this!"

"Lead the way, 'Master Chief,'" said Taylor nervously.

The three teens went straight to the backyard storm cellar doors which, like Krueger said, were unlocked, as was the door to the basement itself. Once inside, they immediately saw the coffin just to their right up against the back basement wall.

They cautiously entered, and were startled by Lenore shrieking at the sight of a large, but motionless black dog curled up in front of the coffin. Cautiously, Treavor prodded the body with the crowbar, and when he got no reaction said, "It's . . . it's dead."

"Krueger must have killed it," said Taylor. "I wonder where the other four are?"

"Probably upstairs," said Lenore as she caught her breath. "After my scream; they'd have been down here by now - if they were still . . . alive."

Treavor said, "Alright, let's get this over with. The sooner we stake this vampire, the sooner Krueger will let Pamelynne and Allen go, and the sooner we'll be able to stop Krueger before he can kill any kids!"

Lenore's, Taylor's and Treavor's hands shook as they lifted the coffin lid, which made a sound like a rusty nail being drawn from a wooden plank. There, lying on a layer of dirt, arms folded across his chest, was a middle-aged looking, dark haired man wearing jeans and a tee shirt.

"I don't know about you guys," said Taylor. "But I kind of expected him to be in a Tuxedo."

Lenore nodded, "And wearing a cape lined with red satin."

Treavor said, "Let's get this done, already!"

The plan had been for Taylor to hold the stake while Treavor drove it home the wooden mallet. But before Taylor could put the stake in position, Lenore started to have second thoughts.

"Y-you guys," said Lenore. "Wait! This just doesn't seem . . . right . . . .

"I mean, what if this guy isn't a vampire at all; just some poor guy who bought this house and Krueger wants him gone?"

Treavor shook his head incredulously. "How can you even think that, Lenore? Especially after everything we've seen and . . . felt?" The cuts on his belly stung as he said that.

"I dunno," said Lenore. "But, I mean, look at him. Does he look like a vampire? What if Krueger is trying to make us murder a real person?"

"If that were the case," said Taylor reasonably, "Krueger wouldn't need us; he'd just kill this guy in his dreams, and be done with it."

"Unless he can't kill adults in their dreams," said Lenore. "Maybe he can only kill kids that way."

"LOOK at him!" Treavor insisted. "H-he's not even breathing! Much less waking up from all the noise we're making! He's gotta be a vampire!

"We've wasted enough time! Krueger said that he couldn't trick the vampire into thinking that his dogs are still watching him for very long! We gotta do this NOW!"

Lenore looked conflicted, but before she could reply, Taylor said, "Look, I got an idea." He then took a small eyedropper vial from his pocket and held it up. "This is Holy Water, Lenore. I got it at the Church before I carved the stake while you were taking care of Treavor's wounds. I thought we might need it.

"I'll hold the stake while Treavor gets ready to bring down the mallet," adding as he nodded to Lenore, "you put a drop of Holy Water on this guy's forehead. If it sizzles, smokes, or has any other kind of weird rection; Treavor pounds the stake in. If not . . . we'll think of something else.

"But we gotta do SOMETHING, here and now! Allen, Pamelynne, and every kid in the world is depending on what we do, next!"

With new resolve, the three teens took their positions. Lenore's hands were surprisingly steady as she filled the eyedropper and positioned it just over the man's forehead. Time seemed to slow down as she squeezed the eyedropper and a single drop of Holy Water flowed like maple syrup in zero-degree weather . . . .

In the dreamworld, Freddy Krueger strained to keep the illusion that the vampire's fallen, guardian hellhounds were still alive and on duty. What's keeping those kids? Krueger thought. They should have been done with it by now . . . .

And something didn't feel right to Dracula. Sensing some indescribable unease, the vampire willed himself awake, opening his eyes . . . .

. . . . just as the drop of Holy Water struck his forehead.

The effect was instantaneous. The teens saw a burn worse than anything on Krueger appear on the man's forehead, sizzling and smoking, as an inhuman, animal-like roar of surprise, pain and anger erupted from the body that had been still and quiet seconds ago. Immediately, the man rose from the coffin - his body completely stiff as a board, pivoting at his heels - knocking Lenore, Taylor and Treavor aside as he spread his arms.

The man – no, the vampire - moved fast, and with incredible strength, forcing all three teens into the basement corner, pressing them so hard that they could scarcely breath to answer his barrage of angry questions.

"Who are you?"

"Why are you here?"

"Who sent you?"

Though stunned and shocked, the three teens answered each question the vampire asked; more out of a strong compulsion to simply obey him, than fear of being harmed or killed. When the vampire got all the immediate answers he wanted, his questioning became more specific. And the teens told him all.

"So, Frederick Charles Krueger wanted you to slay me as I lay helpless in my coffin?

"But how could that foul bogeyman escape the exorcism I had performed on my house? The Rituale Romanum is inescapable!"

Taylor was the one who answered: "The exorcists didn't know about a hidden room – an old bomb shelter from the 1950's – hidden behind the basement wall your coffin is set against.

"Krueger hid in there to escape being exorcised, but was unable to leave it until you had those Satan Worshippers profane your home so you could reenter. Then he found us, and forced us to kill you so he could take this house back."

For what seemed like hours, the vampire stared at the three teens, baring his fangs with a low, menacing hiss as he considered his next move.

For now, killing the intruders and drinking their blood was out of the question; especially when he still had the Hanoverian Pederast as a thorn in his side. If nothing else, the deaths of three 'upper-middle-class' teenagers – five, if you counted the two at the girl's house, catatonic as their minds were imprisoned in the bogyman's dreamscape – would attract too much unwanted attention; even if Krueger took the full blame.

Questions would still be asked. And even a cursory investigation could uncomfortably expose his existence – and the existence of all vampires - to the world. For now, the vampire's greatest defense was that they were believed to be mere fairytales by the people of the 'modern' world.

But if this belief were seriously challenged, Dracula and his kind might find themselves facing a new breed of vampire hunters armed with modern weapons specially designed to destroy the undead, once 'fantasy' was determined to be hard reality.

Dracula had to bring the situation under control, and he drew on his experience as a Warrior Prince to form a strategy that prioritized his current threats.

First, the vampire conceded to himself that the house at 1428 Elm Street was ground that needs must be ceded – though not to the depraved, sodomite bogeyman who attempted to evict him. He would not permit Krueger even that small victory.

No, this house had already drawn too much unwanted attention. Besides, it wasn't as thought Dracula had nowhere else to go. He never had a main residence without also maintaining several more, strategically located 'safe houses' within a day's travel; each one furnished with a coffin lined with the soil from his native Wallachia, to protect him from the scourge of daylight.

Dracula commanded the teens, now firmly in thrall to his will, to remain in the corner he drove them into. The vampire then moved his coffin away from the wall behind it and, using his bare hands, tore at the drywall and 2"x4" studs to expose a heavy, metal door held shut by a simple metal bar which in turn was held fast by brackets crudely bolted to the door's frame.

Removing the bar, Dracula flung the door open saw an empty room that had once been the sadistic pedophile's hidden torture chamber, where he kept his young victims as he took their lives over the course of hours, if not days.

For a moment, Dracula remembered his own youth, and his time as a Royal Hostage in the Ottoman Court to ensure the loyalty of his father as the Sultan's liegeman, when he was only a little younger than the teens sent to slay him on the bogeyman's behalf.

Rounding to his captives, Dracula hissed, "How could you aid such a perverted wretch?"

Lenore said, "He has our friends, and threatened to kill them if we didn't stake you for him."

Treavor added, "Krueger also wants us to make him a website, so the world will know about him and he'll be able to prey on children everywhere when they dream about him.

"But we couldn't let him do that. So, our plan was to stake you, and then expose the door behind the wall, like you did just now, and then call the Springwood Archdiocese to send the exorcists back, and this time, cleanse the bomb shelter as well."

Dracula's demeanor slightly changed. "But you had no intention to give the bogeyman his website." It was a statement, not a question. When the teens all nodded, the vampire said, "Very well. You may yet prove to be useful to me. Wait here."

The vampire went upstairs, and then returned a few minutes later. "I have emailed the Springwood Archdiocese, and bade them to return, this time tomorrow morning, to repeat their Rituale Romanum; as I have 'discovered' another space that needs . . . cleansing.

"We'll call the first attempt a 'dry-run,' if you will. This time, Frederick Charles Krueger will find no hiding place, and be banished to Hell for all eternity."

"Now, I need your assistance." The vampire gestured to the body of his hellhound guardian on the basement floor, and said, "We will carry my loyal servants to the back yard, and I shall properly dispose of them, later.

"It wouldn't do for the priests to find five, dead dogs in my house when they come over. If they saw that, they might just be tempted to forgo the exorcism and call the police . . . ."

At the vampire's bidding, Treavor and Taylor then carried the dead animals to the back yard, placing them out of sight under a tarp for when the priests came. When the vampire was satisfied, he bade the three teens into the bomb shelter to await further instructions.

"For now, you will stay here, as will your companions when I free them from the bogeyman's possession. Tomorrow night, you will all accompany me to one of my safe houses, while the priests perform their exorcism."

Lenore said, "T-thank you."

The vampire raised an eyebrow. "Don't 'thank me,' young lady! I am not concerned with the well-being of you or your friends. I do not want Frederick Charles Krueger to feed on their fear, much less their deaths, and become stronger when we next face each other. Not that it will avail him."

"Wait, you're going back in the dreamworld to fight Krueger?" said Taylor. "Won't the exorcists get rid of Krueger for you?"

"Just so," The vampire said, "But first, the "Springwood Slasher" must pay for his insolence and disrespect to the Voivode of Wallachia, the Lord of the Undead!

"Now, you will go into the 'bomb shelter' and await my next command while I do for Krueger.

"From now on, you will serve me, without question, for as long as I exist!"

Lenore said, "W-who are you?"

But if the vampire was offended or felt any disrespect at the girl's question, he did not show it. On the contrary, he seemed to appreciate the opportunity to be properly introduced.

As Lenore, Treavor and Taylor obeyed the vampire and entered the bomb shelter, he favored them with an answer just before closing and bolting the door to keep them out of his way when he once more faced Freddy Krueger in the dreamworld.

"I am Vlad Drăculea. . . ."