Surreality

Drip...ting...drip...ting...

The rhythmic sound of water dripping against a metal surface echoed all around the cold, dark room as Carrie stared with wonder at what she saw. Before her stood a massive boiler, old and rusted from years of disuse and trapped amid a skeleton of pipes.

She stepped closer and pressed her palm against its surface, only to yank it back sharply and suddenly. The surface was searing hot, though it looked as cold as the dead. Quite a deceptive old machine. She looked down at her scarred and blistered hand almost with amusement. Though it looked quite painful, she felt nothing; no pain, not even a dull throb.

She glanced back at the ancient steel creature and slowly reached out with her other hand. A sudden roar erupted from the hearth, as if the steel beast were in pain, and flames leapt out to gently lick at her fingers.

She stared, fascinated, as the fire refused to burn her. She tilted her head to the side and stroked the orange flames before they slowly descended back into the hearth and returned to smoldering embers.

She watched, her hand still outstretched, as the embers cooled and the beast became silent once more.

"Carrie!" A sudden flash of light and shrieking voice yanked her back to reality. Carrie sat up suddenly in bed and shrieked, clutching her blistered hand.

"Carrie, honey, you've burnt yourself!" her mother exclaimed, grabbing her hand.

"I'll go get the first aid kit, honey. You don't have to go to school today, just lie down, alright?" she said and raced out of the room.

School? Carrie glanced at her clock. It was 7:30. She was supposed to meet Allison for school.

"It's alright, Mom. I'm fine, but I have to get to school or Miss Barrey'll kill me!" Carrie shouted as she scrounged around her room in search of her clothes.

She grabbed a black tank-top and short black skirt, quickly pulling them on. She ran a brush through her strawberry blonde hair and raced downstairs.

"Bye, Mom. See ya after school!" she shouted as she grabbed her backpack.

"Wait, honey. At least let me tend to those burns." her mother pleaded.

"Fine. But, be quick, I'm gonna be late." she sighed.

--------------------

Carrie scratched at the gauze around her hand. The antibiotics her mother used always made her itchy. Carrie figured she had a mild allergy to it, but her mother always told her that it was supposed to itch; that it meant it was healing. Yeah, right.

"You alright, Carrie?" Allison asked. "You seem...different. How did you burn yourself, anyway?"

"I'm fine, Allie. My mom says I burned myself on the radiator, you know, the one next to the bed, but I'm not really sure. It does get pretty damn hot sometimes, but hot enough to burn me like this? There must be something wrong with our furnace." Carrie replied, idly scratching at the gauze. "I had this really weird dream last night, too. I dreamt I was in an old dirty basement standing in front this huge boiler."

"A boiler?" Allison asked and glanced at her friend.

"Yeah, I burned myself on it. My mom says it's because of the radiator that I dreamt about a boiler, that it was 'external influence' or something like that. But I don't know. It was just weird." Carrie sighed and shifted her backpack. "So, what's this myth I keep hearing about?"

"Oh, that. It's nothing really, just something a couple of kids made-up back in the 80's. Claimed some guy was killing them in their dreams, if you can believe that." Allison replied, scoffing.

"Cool, tell me more. You know how much I love myths and legends."

"Well, apparently this guy, Fred Krueger, kidnapped and murdered almost twenty kids here, most of from Elm Street. The papers called him the 'Springwood Slasher'. And when he was finally caught and brought to trial, he got off on a technicality. This kinda pissed off a lot of people. So, the parents of all the kids he'd killed tracked him down to where he lived--in the old abandoned power plant out at the edge of town--and they burned him alive!"

"Woah!", Carrie exclaimed incredulously, "They actually killed him?"

"Yeah." Allie replied, "And according to the legend he came back 10 years later and started murdering all of their kids in their dreams."

"How can you kill someone in their dreams?" Carrie asked.

"I dunno," Allison shrugged. “I remember hearing that whatever he did to them in their dreams, happened to them in real life."

"Wow, that sounds a bit like what happened to me, though in my case, I guess it was just my clumsiness and sleeping too close to the radiator." There was a twinge of uneasiness in Carrie's voice since the whole experience earlier that morning had been so bizarre, but since she never saw any serial killers in the dream and her mom's explanation made sense, she relaxed again and asked some more questions about the myth. "So, did anyone really die when this Freddy guy supposedly came back for revenge?"

"My mom said there were a string of odd deaths among some of the teenagers and adults during that time, but my understanding is a lot of them were really suicides, and the whole Freddy myth was invented after those events." answered Allison.

"I see... Are any of the people that were involved in the myth still around?" Carrie asked, scratching at her burns again, "I might want to talk to them and find out the real story behind this guy."

"I don't know. I think most, if not all, of the people in the story moved away. I guess it was just too hard for them to stay around with tourists asking them questions about the Springwood Slasher." Then Allison remembered something else, "Actually, I think one of Freddy's victims used to live across the street from you! That house was abandoned for a long time though, and I doubt the current owners know anything about the previous ones. But that's basically it." Allison finished.

"Cool, so you really think this Krueger guy was for real?" Carrie grinned.

"Not Really. It's mostly just used now to scare little kids, you know, the whole 'You be good, or Freddy Krueger will get you' sorta thing. Oh, by the way, it's...kind of a tradition here to scare the new kid." Allison said.

"Really?" Carrie asked.

"Yeah. They like to take kids out to the old power plant down by the edge of town, the Krueger place, and see if they can stay there all night; sort of like an initiation. I'll try to keep them off your back for a while, but you will have to do it eventually, alright?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I can handle anything. You know that." Carrie replied.

"Well....alright, because they're planning to bring you there tonight and I just thought you'd like to be...prepared. Come on. We're gonna be late." Allison said as she grabbed Carrie's arm and dragged her into the school just as the bell rang.