The Dead Of Night
Robin lay down on her pillow, intent on getting a good night's sleep, however, she did not get her wish and had a harrowing nightmare instead. In her dream she was walking in a park when suddenly a cat walked out from some bushes; probably a stray. She bent down to pet it, and it nudged her leg lightly with its head. She noticed something strange about the cat. On one paw, was a miniature glove, with blades sticking out. It took a swipe at her arm, and it drew blood. She pushed the cat away, and started to walk away. Looking, back, she noticed the cat was now wearing a dirty brown hat. It was following her. She quickened her pace, and so did the cat. The cat rose on all fours, and fur began to fall off, as it grew in size. When she looked back, it was no longer a cat, but a grotesque man wearing a striped red and green shirt. "Time for the cat to eat little Robin!" He snickered, and grinned an evil grin.
She started to run, but the madman was quick to chase her. She suddenly heard in the distance what sounded like a firebell ringing. She closed her eyes, too scared to look. All sound subsided, except for the bell. She dared a peek through her eyes, to see her bedroom. She was safe, at least for now.
Her mother opened the door, slowly. She smiled and said, "So, you're awake, sleepyhead. Listen, Julie is here, time for school, summer vacation's over."
As her mother left, she got out of bed. When she got out from under her covers, she noticed a few small scrapes on her leg. She thought that she must have cut herself on the way home the day before. She quickly got dressed, and walked out the front door. Julie was standing in front of her car, a gift for her last birthday. Robin hopped in Julie's new car and immediately started --
"I had the weirdest dream last night. There was this cat. It tried to kill me. It had this little razor edged glove on one paw. I started walking away, and it, like followed me. Then it turned into this ugly guy. It was really weird. But the strange thing is... the cat scratched me on my leg. When I woke up, I saw the same kinda scratches."
"Hmm.. That is weird. I don't usually remember my dreams." Julie replied. At that moment, they pulled up to the school driveway. "Well, here we are!" she exclaimed.
"First day of school and I'm already sick of it." Robin sighed. "School is such a drag."
"Well, it's a new school for you, so maybe you'll like it. I'll introduce you to a few of my friends from last year." Julie replied trying to be reassuring.
Later, inside the school building just before the bell rang, Julie met up with a group of people and started to introduce Robin.
"Everybody, this is Robin, Robin, this is Mark," she gestured to a cute, tall boy with dirty brown hair.
"...Peter," this time to a tall, black haired boy, with slightly long hair. He bowed slightly.
"...Kelly," a blond, blue eyed, thin person who seemed to be popular.
"...Mike," an oriental with black hair, wearing glasses.
"...and Tracy," a slender girl with long red hair.
Mike smiled, "We're all in the same class.. Me and Peter broke into the computer files."
As the bell rang, there was a stampede of people running for their classes. They were right outside their room. They walked inside, and sat in their seats. The next person to walk into the door, was a pretty lonely looking girl with brown hair. She timidly asked, "Is this room 104?"
Mark turned around to look at her, "Yeah, sure is, have a seat, anywhere." To Kelly he whispered, "Hey, she's kind of cute. She must be new here. Introduce yourself,"
The new girl sat in a seat near Mark, but not too close. The day passed uneventfully until the seventh period, where a bored Julie fell asleep in class. She apparently woke up less than a second later, however, the class seemed to be empty, except for the teacher, who was scribbling on the board. In a calm voice, the teacher said,
"Now now Julie, you know from last year that sleeping in class means immediate detention. Start writing on the board, 'I will always listen to Mr. Freddy.' 5 billion times."
The teacher turned around. He was wearing a striped sweater, and a brown hat was shading his face. He pulled off his hat, revealing a burned face and a beard. He held a piece of chalk between two blades with his left hand.
"You'll be late for class...for the rest of your afterlife,"
he continued.
She tried to get up from her desk, but she was locked inside. She heard a door slamming behind her, and she strained to turn her head. A woman with long blondish hair was standing there, looking mad. It was not Kelly, nor anyone she knew.
"Let her go Freddy!" she screamed.
Freddy ran from the desk,
"Alice! It's so GOOD to see you again. How's little Jacob?"
"Leave him out of this." she replied. " You've killed enough, now its time to stop."
"You may know that I can't kill you, you're too strong.. and you also realize you can't kill me," he responded in a mocking tone. " We're too strong to be killed. Only one person can truly kill me, and she doesn't know I exist. But I can kill others." He lunged towards Julie, and Alice raced for her as well.
Alice screamed, "Listen, whoever you are, WAKE UP! If you die here you die for real!"
Julie screamed, and suddenly the whole class was staring at her. She was covered in sweat. She muttered something about a big spider, in an attempt to cover up her breaking the rules. But then she noticed the teacher was gone, as he usually was during study periods.
She looked at her watch. Class was over, early because it was the first day. She met up with Robin in the hallway,
"You know that dream you said you had last night? With that guy with the razor hand or something? I fell asleep in this class, and he was there. His name was Freddy, or something, and he started fighting with a woman named Alice. She warned me to wake up or I'd really die," she couldn't get the words out fast enough.
"Was he wearing a red and green striped sweater and a brown hat?" asked Robin.
"Yes, he was as a matter of fact," answered Julie in an agitated tone.
Suddenly, a new voice from the back quietly asked, "Was his face horribly burnt?"
They both turned, to see the new girl, and in unison said, "Yes, he was."
Then Robin asked, "You're the other new girl aren't you? What's your name? I'm Robin, and this is Julie."
"My name is Christina. You're talking about someone you dreamed about?" she replied.
"Yes. They've been really scary... have you had them too?" both Robin and Julie seemed to almost speak in unison.
"Yes, I have. Mine had something to do with a forest and a cougar, that turned into that guy," answered Christina. " Listen, I gotta go find my locker, so I better go now. Hope to talk to you later."
"Yeah, you to," murmured Julie.
Christina walked further down the hall, looking at her locker number in confusion. She accidentally bumped into Mark.
"Oh, hello," he spoke with a smile. " You're in my Geography and Spanish classes aren't you? My name's Mark.
"Nice to meet you" responded Christina. " I'm Christina. Can you help me find my locker?"
"Sure, what's the number?" he replied.
"90210..I think," she mumbled.
"Hey, that's right beside mine, I'll show you where it is," he said. Christina and Mark walked down the hallway together.
A week later, Christina had begun making friends at the school. After school one day, Julie and Robin caught up with her.
"Hi Christina," Robin said.
Christina closed her locker and turned to face them. "Oh hi Robin, hi Julie."
"We wanted to invite you to a sort of slumber party at our house." Robin continued. " It's like a tradition for me, Kelly, and Tracy. We thought you might want to join us this year."
"Sure, sounds like fun," replied Christina.
"Ok, here are the directions to my house," Robin handed Christina a folded slip of paper, "Arrive around 7, ok?"
"Ok, I'll be there," she replied happily.
Christina pulled up to the address on her directions. Her black convertible slowed, then stopped. She walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell. Julie answered, "Come on in Christina, you can change upstairs, first door to your left."
After a few hours of trading secrets and pigging out, they decided to go to sleep. No sooner had their heads touched their pillows, then their pillows had vanished. They were lying on a dirty floor, with musty air everywhere. "Where are we?" Robin asked.
"Oh no, we're here! The house of that madman!" Christina yelled.
A light turned on in a corner. A throaty voice said,
"Are you talking about me? I appreciate the compliment, but flattery will get you nowhere." He grinned and raised his right hand, flicking the blades slowly. He lunged at Christina, who closed her eyes and shielded her head with her arms, awaiting the impending blow. The blow never came. Freddy's razor passed harmlessly through Christina.
"Well, ain't this an interesting development." Freddy yelled in surprise.
"Do whatever you want! This is just a dream, you're not bound by physical laws. Don't get hit!" Christina screamed.
Tracy bent on all fours, and grew hair, changing into a cheetah. She jumped at Freddy, who held her up. He grabbed a hold of her paw, and pushed it into her stomach, the claws making her bleed. As he threw her to the ground, she appeared to change back into a human form and died.
"1 down, 7 to go!" he yelled triumphantly.
Freddy moved in on Robin. She dodged, but got cut on her stomach. She fell to the floor. Kelly tackled Freddy before he could do anything to her. Robin waved a hand over her injuries, and they seemed to heal before her eyes. Kelly, while trying to escape, got a small cut on her arm. The rest of the girls huddled near Tracy's body. Someone else broke into the room. It was Alice. She ran to the group, shielding them with a sort of force field.
"We're safe here, for now", she told the girls in a reassuring tone.
"I have to talk to you," she continued. " Everybody concentrate on the house you're sleeping in. Hopefully your combined thoughts will be enough to take you there. I hope I can get to you before Freddy does. Remember, when you're in the house, you'll still be dreaming. Now... concentrate!" The figure's vanished before their eyes.
"What's going on? Who is he? What's going to happen to Tracy?" Julie asked.
"You're friend, I'm afraid, will probably die as a result of the injuries. She'll die in real life," replied Alice. " The man's name is Fred Kreuger, and he controls dreams. He's after you and your friends!"
Suddenly, before their eyes, the body of Tracy vanished. A blue light appeared in its place, which separated into two, one going through the wall somewhere, the other into Alice.
"I've collected your friend's power! She's dead!" Alice started to fade while she was speaking. "My dream power is weakening! I won't be able to contact you anymore! Tell your friends...and WAKE UP!!!" Alice vanished, and everyone woke up. Except Tracy. She was no longer in her bed, indeed, there was no longer a bed for her.
Julie's mother walked into the room, "Oh, I hope I didn't wake you, but it's time for school soon anyway."
Julie looked up at her mom, exasperated, and asked, "Do you know where Tracy is?"
"Tracy? Who's Tracy?" asked her mom.
"Tracy! One of my best friends from last year! She came for the sleepover tonight," Julie answered.
"I haven't seen any Tracy," her mom sounded surprised.
Hours passed... They were in school by now. In none of the classes was Tracy's name even called out in attendance. In the seventh period, all of the group of friends shared the geography class. After class was over, Mike asked, "Hey, where's Tracy anyway?"
"You remember Tracy?" asked Julie.
"Of course!" he answered in astonishment.
"And the rest of you?" they all nodded. "Oh my god, that means Freddy's after US!" yelled Julie.
"Are you sure?" asked Christina.
"Yes! When Freddy killed Tracy, he said there were 7 of us to go! There are 7 of us here!" replied Julie.
"Waitaminute! Who killed Tracy? What's going on?" Mike asked.
Julie told the story to the rest of them, including the fact that no one but they seem to remember that Tracy even existed.
"So what should we do then? If this Freddy guy can kill us in our sleep, how can we defend ourselves?" asked Mike.
"Band together. Tonight, lets all try to go to sleep at the same time, and concentrate on staying with each other," suggested Robin.
"Ok.. Me and Peter have to go to Computer class." Mike spoke in a whisper.
"Class, I want you to type the test from your workbooks. You have the whole period, so be ACCURATE, but not at the expense of too much SPEED." Those were the computer teachers most often used words; speed and accuracy.
Mike, the fastest in the class, seconded by Peter, finished after half the period. The teacher was nowhere in sight, so, wearily, he fell asleep in his chair.
When he awoke, his computer was displaying some files by itself. It went into the MacPaint directory, and opened a file called 1,2 Freddy's Coming for you. On the screen sprang an image of a black and white man, wearing a hat and a striped sweater. His face was burnt. The picture started moving, slowly. It's hand moved towards the front of the screen. A burned fist grabbed Mike's sweater. He heard a digitized voice yell,
"I just love today's Technology!!!!!"
Mike pushed himself back, escaping the grip. He ran out of the class, only to run into the madman, in full color this time. He slowly walked back into the computer class. He kept thinking to himself,
" It's a dream, it's a dream."
He pulled his hands around his head, and noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the computers were falling into pieces. Parts of the computers flew at him, surrounding him with metal. He felt as if he was joined with the computer. He shot an electric shot at Freddy, who fell to the floor, apparently dead. Mike smiled to himself. Suddenly, everything vanished and Peter was looking at him.
"Peter is that you? What are you doing in my dream?" asked Mike in surprise.
"I was just gonna ask you what YOU were doing in my dream? replied Peter in surprise.
"I just killed that Freddy guyieieie!!" Mike said triumphantly.
As he was speaking, Freddy reached up from the ground and pulled out cords from Mike's body causing Mike to fall. Peter tried to help Mike, but he felt as if his was frozen and he wasn't able to move. At that moment, Freddy took Mike's body, folded it in half, and shoved it headfirst into the only remaining computer.
Freddy laughed and yelled, "Don't you just hate it when your computer CRASHES, Peter?" Peter screamed, and awoke sitting at his desk, still screaming.
The teacher looked at him. "What are you screaming for, Peter?"
"Mike! He's dead!" he yelled as he continued screaming.
"Mike who? You must have just had a bad dream! Calm down!" said the teacher.
Peter stood up, and moved to the desk where Mike sat. There was a large message on the computer. It said,
"3, 4, Better Lock Your Door!"
The file then deleted itself, and Peter could swear he heard maniacal laughter.
It was ten-thirty, the time they had agreed on for facing Freddy. Freddy had confused them, sending them to different rooms of his dream world. This diminished their power and Kelly, Julie, Mark Robin, and Christina were left to themselves.
Kelly appeared in the boiler room. She suddenly realized that she had a splitting headache, and she looked into a mirror. But then she noticed that it was not a mirror but rather an exact copy of herself. The image seemed to multiply every time she looked at it. All of them smiled. Freddy burst into the room from the boiler. "Well, well, well. I see you'll be providing me with five times the fun!" He sliced at one, which died right away. The others surrounded him, kicking him with their $200 high heels. In turn, Freddy killed each one, until only the real Kelly was left. She twisted and turned, trying to elude Freddy's clutches. She ran out the door, and into the mall. She looked behind her, and Freddy was gone.
She made four more copies of herself, and ran into a clothing store. All the manikins were wearing a striped sweater and a dirty brown hat. Their faces turned to that of Freddy's, and they moved towards each of the copies. "Five of you, five of me! It's only fair..." Freddy laughed, and Kelly screamed. As if they were in a hall of mirrors, every Freddy killed every Kelly at the exact same time.
Julie found herself in a carnival. There was a large funhouse, and there was a large clown's head fun house. She walked inside the tongue ramp, and the mouth closed. The face's features transformed themselves, turning into that of Freddy. Julie slipped down what appeared to be a throat slide.
She was inside what looked like a human stomach. There were humanoid bodies stuck to the sides, screaming. She saw a cheetah, who turned into Tracy; a robot, with a mechanical face like Mike; five images of Kelly; and a doctor whom she vaguely recalled as having died in a mental hospital in Springfield... a doctor Nancy something. They were all screaming out to her, and Mike shouted,
"Look out!!!!"
Julie looked behind her. Freddy was standing there, waving his hand at his stomach. "I thought you'd like to see your accommodations before you move into them... forever! So, Julie, getting to know me, INSIDE AND OUT?" He laughed, and lunged at her.
She suddenly vanished, appearing in back of Freddy. She kicked him, then when Freddy turned around, she was riding him piggyback. She pulled him to the ground, and vanished again. When she appeared again, she stomped on his head, and then vanished. Freddy stood up extremely fast, and twirled around. Julie appeared right around his razor hand. She grasped her stomach in pain, and flew into the wall of Freddy's stomach. Freddy vanished, and she was left with all the other souls.
Three of the souls started singing, "5, 6, grab your crucifix..."
Mark, Robin, Peter and Christina were all together, in a jungle glade, near a waterfall. "Where's Kelly and Julie?" Mark asked. The waterfall slowly turned pink, then blood red. Freddy jumped out of the blood fall. Moving at lightning speed, Mark whizzed around him, striking super fast punches. But Freddy flipped Mark over, into the pool. Covered in blood, Mark climbed out. Peter grabbed a rock, which disintegrated in his hand. He started to glow, and fired out a ball of energy!
"Cool! Just like the comics!!" Peter yelled!
Mark, now partially cleaned of the blood, punched Freddy. Freddy sliced at Peter, who fell backwards. Mark continued fighting. Robin rushed to Peter's side, healing the wound quickly. Freddy picked Mark up, and threw him towards Christina, who became intangible. Robin healed Mark.
"We'll never defeat this madman!" Peter yelled.
"Madman! That's it!!!!" Robin yelled. "Distract him!"
Peter continued to fire the energy balls, disintegrating things to gain more power. Mark zoomed around Freddy, and Christina tried to make his glove intangible. Robin grabbed onto Freddy's head from behind.
She could have sworn she heard from the blood fall, singing. It sounded like, "7, 8, Gonna stay up late."
Robin yelled as she grabbed onto his head, "Got.. to.. Heal.. his.. MMMIIINNNDDD!!" Freddy fell back, screaming. His face broke into two. His glove fell into the water.
The blood fall finished it's song, "9, 10, Freddy's dead again!" The blood drained, and the water returned.
The rest of the night was uneventful and filled with pleasant dreams.
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