Chapter 14: The Kids Do.

"No! No! NO!" screamed Freddy Krueger as he struggled without any particular target to fight against as the face of Dracula began to take shape on his chest and started moving higher up towards his face.

Freddy spoke, but the voice coming from his mouth was not his. "You have destroyed my body! Now I claim yours!"

Allen blinked. "You got Dracula's soul when you killed him! Just like whenever you kill a kid!"

"This . . . can't be," said Krueger in his own, strained voice. "Vampires don't have souls!"

The other voice coming from Krueger's lips said, "Everyone has a 'soul,' foul bogeyman. The real question is, does everyone own that which makes them who they are?

"Or, are these individuals' souls actually owned by another, third-party?

"You should not attempt to steal that which already belongs to another!"

The face of Dracula sculpted out of scar tissue moved higher on Krueger's body, and was now just below Krueger's chin on his throat. But it was Krueger's own voice that screamed, "NOOOOOOO! GET OUT OF MY BODY! IT'S MINE! MINE! LIKE THIS HOUSE; MY BODY'S MINE, YOU BLOODSUCKING BITCH!"

As the monsters fought for control of Krueger's body, Alen Browning ran out the basement door and up the steps of the storm cellar, making a beeline for the ladders to cousin Norie's back yard. But about halfway there, he felt himself being tackled hard from behind and falling, face down hard on lawn. Dazed, he felt himself being roughly turned over.

Though the sun was in his eyes, Allen could see that his attacker was Freddy Krueger, without any traces of Dracula forming on his body.

"The Vamp's gone, kid! I threw him out! Now, agree to work for me and tell my story to the world, or- UGHHHNNN!"

Freddy felt the baseball bat strike his head, knocking him off of Allen. Wordlessly, Pamelynne Conroy swung the bat again, bringing it down on the wounded bogeyman. She repeated this attack five more times before going to Allen, helping the boy to his feet.

Then, Pamelynne spoke. "Are you alright, Allen? Do you think you can walk?"

"I – I think so, Pamelynne. Krueger tackled me pretty hard, but I'll try . . . ."

Pamelynne helped Allen to his feet. But in spite of the severity of her attack, Freddy Krueger started to rise, causing the girl to swing the bat again at the bogeyman's head. But Krueger grabbed the bat with his left hand in mid swing, stopping Pamelynne's attack before it could land home. "Not this time, bitch!"

Wrenching the bat from Pamelynne's grasp, Krueger hefted it with his good left hand, and advanced on the frightened kids. "Payback's a bitch; BITCH – ARRRGH!"

Krueger dropped the bat and fell to his knees as the face of Dracula again appeared on the bogeyman, just below his collarbones, and as Krueger screamed it moved up onto his face.

Then, Freddy Krueger became Vlad III Drăculea, and the screaming ended in the voice of the Springwood Slasher, and continued in the voice of the Lord of the Undead as Dracual took full control of Krueger's body, and the vampire spontaneously combusted when the morning sunlight shone on him. Soon, the vampire's screaming was drowned-out by the fierce roar of the flames that quickly consumed him. It was over in seconds, with nothing left but ashes scattered by the gentle morning breeze being all that remained of both monsters.

Pamelynne and Allen looked at each other, daring a smile of relief after what seemed like hours. Allen said, "Do you think they're both really gone, Pam?"

"For now, anyway," said Pamelynne with a sigh. "I can't see how either of them can come back from this . . . ."

"I wonder where Cousin Norie, Taylor and Treavor are?" said Allen.

"When Dracula had me hypnotized, or something, he told me to meet him in the basement of the house," said Pamelynne. "I think I have an idea where they might be . . . ."

A short time later, Lenore, Taylor and Treavor were reunited with Pamelynne and Allen; who brought them up to speed on what happened before Dracula locked them in Krueger's secret room.

"That explains all the noise we heard out there," said Lenore. Though none of them even had any memories of how they got into the dark, barred room in the first place. "The last thing I remembered was coming in here to stake a vampire for Krueger.

"But he never told us that the 'vampire' he wanted us to slay was THE Count Dracula."

"Voivode, actually," said Taylor absentmindedly. The real Vlad Dracula was actually a Prince – a "Voivode," in Slavic Languages – not a 'Count' like Bram Stoker said in his novel."

"That must have really pissed him off," said Treavor. "So, what now . . . ?"

"Now," said Lenore thoughtfully. "We make sure Freddy Krueger NEVER comes back."

The next day, Allen rode his bike through the open gate of his Aunt Karen's backyard, ran through the sliding back door and was upstairs where his cousin Norie waited with Taylor, Treavor and Pamelynne in Aunt Karen's bedroom.

Cousin Norie and Taylor were looking out the back window to the house behind them at 1428 Elm Street while Treavor sat on the bed as Pamelynne was changing the dressing on her boyfriend's abdomen.

"This is weird," said Pamelynne with a touch of amazement. "Your cuts are almost completely gone. I expected worse after what Norie told me. But they just look like scratches, now, if even that."

"Thank G-d for small favors," said Taylor reverently. "Explaining four, parallel cuts on a teenager's body here in Springwood has the potential to get . . . interesting."

"That's an understatement," agreed Lenore. She then turned to Allen, and said, "What did you see when you rode past that house?"

Allen said, "A car showed up a few minutes ago, and three Catholic Priests got out and went inside through the front door. They had Bibles and other stuff with them, too." When Allen described the "other stuff," Taylor filled in the blanks.

"A thurible," said Taylor. "And an aspergillum. This looks like they're planning to perform a full-on Rituale Romanum, again. But this time, they'll also get Krueger's secret room, as well.

"And check it out! One of the Priests is coming up and out of the storm cellar to the back yard. No way they didn't see the torn-up drywall and the bomb shelter door!

"That should keep him out of the house, and from what Krueger told us, that was his anchor to this world. Maybe this town's long nightmare with Freddy Krueger is finally over."

Allen beamed. "And we helped get rid of Count Dracula, as well!"

Lenore ignored her younger cousin, and said, "It's still not over, yet. Not until we destroy all the newspapers and other stuff I found that I was going to put online. We also got to destroy my hard drive so absolutely nothing may be recovered that might expose Krueger.

"I wanted to expose what I thought the town was hiding that cost my brother his life. I'm still mad about that. But if exposing the town's secrets means possibly giving Freddy Krueger a way back into our world where every child would know about him . . . ."

By late afternoon, all evidence of Frederick Charles Krueger's 1968 Reign of Terror as the Springwood Slasher that had been gathered over the past several years by Lenore and her cousin Allen had been destroyed.

When they were done, Treavor said, "Pamelynne's parents are coming back tomorrow afternoon. We were going to go out for dinner tonight."

"Would you and Taylor like to join us, Norie?" added Pamelynne.

"Hey, what about me?" said Allen.

Treavor smiled. "You too! Us "Monster Slayers" have got to stick together, after all . . . !"

With monsters slain, misunderstandings resolved, and old friendships rekindled, five kids in Springwood, Ohio, all got to be kids once again.

And that night, everyone slept safe and well.