A Nightmare On Elm Street 9: The Dream Messenger

It had been 3 days since Ellie’s horrific encounter. She had kept herself awake with a mix of energy drinks and determination. The library internet had informed her that this man’s name was Fred Krueger, a child murderer back in the 60s. The last of the reports were from over 10 years ago, and the information was vague and many of her questions had remained unanswered. She had no idea where all this had occurred, the article just said that his house was abandoned after the last recorded murders.

She decided to go to school today, something out of the ordinary lately. With no parents around to bitch at her, she rarely ever attended her high school. She was a freshman, 14 years old, and an orphan. No one was aware of this, however. Her mother had abandoned her at the beginning of last summer in the rundown apartment building they had moved to in Springwood. Ellie had continued with her summer job, going full time and told no one of her situation. She would rather stay alone then be pawned off on some hateful foster family. She had never really liked people anyway, they always seemed dirty, tainted, and too proud of their pathetic lives to be allowed to live. She had thought about murder before, mostly due to countless abusive stepfathers and hateful peers at school.

She arrived late in the day, just after 11:00, and went strait to the library to see if she could find any additional information. She sat in one of the private computer cubicles and stared blankly at the screen. She couldn’t seem to remember how to work a computer. The lack of sleep was finally getting to her. Her vision blurred and she shook her head to clear her mind. A hand roughly grabbed her shoulder and she yelped in fear. Whipping her head around she saw her friend Ashley glaring at her.

“Ashley, you scared me!” Ellie whispered in a strained and tired voice.

“Where the hell were you this morning?!” Ashley demanded, digging her fingernails into Ellie’s shoulder, “You missed science class and you’re the only person in there that I can stand to work with!”

Ellie snorted, “Only cause I do all the work…”

“Look, I only hang out with you cause I feel sorry for you, living with that whore of a mother, so be grateful anyone even gives a shit and be there when I need you!” Ashley stormed out, Ellie glaring daggers into her back. She really did hate Ashley, but she was right, no one else would even talk to her and the thought of being alone and unwanted scared Ellie more than anything.

She sighed heavily, leaving the school and heading home. She was angry at herself for being upset, but Ashley didn’t even notice the harsh red gash sitting plainly on her face. As she walked she let her mind wander back to her dream. She was positive that the monster was Krueger, and his face lingered in her mind always. The wounds he had inflicted didn’t hurt as much as she would have thought. She lightly dragged her fingers across her injured cheek, remembering the feeling of the razors sliding over her skin.

“I must be going crazy…” she said to herself, stepping up on the porch of the abandoned house she now inhabited on Elm Street. Her minimum-wage job couldn’t possibly cover the cost of rent, so she had somehow ended up here. It was strange, though, all the electricity still worked, and so did the plumbing. It was filthy and rundown, but within the short time she’d been staying there it had improved a lot. The kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom were still rundown, but clean enough to live in.

This street was very strange. Though the town was a growing rapidly into a city, no one lived on this street. None of the new renovations had seemed to make it this far. The street signs were old and faded, the road was cracked and full of potholes, the cemetery was overgrown, and the ‘for sale’ signs that littered the lawns were weatherworn and illegible. It was lucky for her because the last thing she wanted was for some snooping neighbor to report her trespassing or some shit like that.

She went into the kitchen and got a glass of water from the sink. She had been staying there for over 2 months and no cops had shown up, and she hadn’t gotten any electric bills or anything. She smiled sadly at her good luck. Life really sucked right now.

“Well, no use bitching.” She said to the sink as she gathered cleaning supplies to start on the living room. She often did that; talk to inanimate objects. When you’ve been alone for a long time you tend to create your own company. As she worked she began speaking her thoughts aloud.

“Why do you want to kill me, Krueger?” she questioned her absent attacker, “Have I done anything to upset you? If I did, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

She continued this crazy conversation through cleaning the living room and a few of the closets.

“There’s so much stuff here, Freddy. Who do you think left it all? Why?” She asked her imaginary companion, while she hauled old clothes and boxes out of the dusty closet. After she had separated the usable clothing from the garbage, she hauled them upstairs to the bathtub to wash later, then carried the boxes up to her bedroom one by one. She finished off the closet quickly, still chatting with the empty space beside her.

When she was done at last, she made a quick stop at the kitchen to wash her face and hands before heading up to her room. She decided she’d do the clothes later tonight; she was too curious to paw through the contents of the boxes she had unearthed. She settled herself on her bed with the smallest box and pried it open, the old tape peeling away easily. Inside were photographs, old ones. There was a family in a backyard garden, the mother and little girl smiling happily beside a tall man whose face was blurred out from the glare. The next few pictures consisted of the same scene, strangely all without a clear shot of the husband’s face. Then came a couple of school pictures of the little girl, a few pictures of other little children, probably her friends or something.

What she grabbed next, however, made her a bit nervous. It was a yellowed newspaper clipping about how the wife from the photographs mysteriously disappeared. She skimmed through the article, then continued looking through the contents of the box. There were many more clippings, most of them about missing children. She became frantic, flinging the boxes contents everywhere as she scanned through them. One of the last clippings made her spine crawl with fear.

'Fred Kruger, the man suspected of murdering his wife, was released today from court on the account of insufficient incriminating evidence. Townsfolk are outraged…'

Her tormenter’s face glared back at her from the paper, his skin normal, but his eyes showing the same insanity and hate. She recoiled from the paper in horror. He was here! It was him! Right here in Springwood! She grabbed more of the clips, reading each one as quickly as she could.

And then she saw it. Another family photo, only this time in front of a house. This house. Her house. The house she was in. Right now. She screamed and scrambled off the bed. She ran for the door and stumbled over the unopened boxes. She fell backwards, feeling a sharp throb as the back of her head connected with the corner of the dresser. One thought lingered as her vision blurred out, "Please don’t kill me."

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Okay, I know it's rushed.>.< I'm trying to follow the pattern of the movies, so I don't want to spend too much time on the explainatory scenes. If I've missed a loophole in the movie plotline please let me know. BTW, this is set 6-8 years after Freddy vs Jason, just incase that didn't come across well enough in the story. I'll be quiet now and let you (hopefully) review. T-T