Chapter Two: Him
"You mean you didn't see him? He was horrible! Burned to death with knife fingers! What kind of loony bin is this?" Gregory yelled still staring at the girl as the doctor she was clutching onto checked the slash marks on her face. Sidney wanted to say something but felt everyone's eyes on her and Gregory gave her a silencing look to remind her not to talk to him out loud.
"Dammit now she's been exposed to him." Debois said angrily as she disposed of the empty syringe.
"Exposed? What the hell are you talking about? What just happened? Who the fuck shit is
him?" She demanded.
"Come with me." Debois demanded and walked out of the room. Sidney followed to see a few patients all her age or younger poking their heads out of their rooms. "Beth will be fine. You all just go about your day." She said to them and they returned to their rooms. Sidney followed Debois back to her office. "Take a seat please." She instructed and Sidney reluctantly sat in the chair in front of her desk and Debois set a small bottle of pills in front of her. "Take these and you'll be fine."
"Fuck you! I never have and never will take any of your
medicine. Tell me what the hell is going on!" Sidney demanded as she read the label on the pills in front of her. They were labeled 'Hypnocil'.
"They're just dream suppressants you'll be fine. Please just take them and forget about what you just saw in there. I can't risk having a new person exposed. We've lost too many." She explained with a sad look in her eyes.
"Dream suppressants? I don't fucking think so! Dreams are my only escape from this hell I'm supposed to call my life. Tell me what just happened! Gregory is even freaked out! He said something about a burned man with knife fingers!" She screamed.
"Oh dear… you've seen him too?" She said shaking her head.
"Who is him? Gregory saw him not me. Who in the fuck is
him?" She demanded.
"Sid don't you're only going to make things worse!" Gregory pleaded.
"Just who is this Gregory character? Is that your friend you were speaking to earlier?" Debois asked looking confused. Sidney knew it was already too late to take back what she had said and might as well run with it.
"Gregory is a spirit I accidentally released seven years ago. He told me he saw a man burnt to death with knives for fingers attacking the girl. He also told me that a lot of people here have died yet there are no lingering spirits. What is going on here?" She asked as Debois began reading through a file in front of her ignoring her questions.
"It says that you were originally committed seven years ago after your parents caught you doing a ritual in an attempt to bring back your Brother's soul after he died. I take it that's how you freed your spirit friend?" Debois asked as if it wasn't uncommon to hear of such things.
"You mean… you believe me?" Sidney was in complete shock.
"We know all about those kinds of things here. It's not uncommon in the least." She said further reading into her file.
"Then let me go. If you know I'm not insane then I'm free to go right?" Sid asked with hope.
"Dear God please say yes…" Gregory said crossing his fingers.
"Of course not! You've seen too much here and you obviously aren't going to cooperate with our protocol. But you'll learn in time." Debois explained calmly.
"What? Fuck you and your stupid
protocol! I hope whomever this
him is kills all of you!" Sidney yelled and threw the bottle of pills at Debois who dodged it in time and it hit the glass medicine cabinet behind her shattering it. She ran down the hall and to her room ignoring the stares from the other patients and locked her door behind her and began screaming into her pillow.
"Sid I'm sorry. I wish I could help you make it better." He frowned wishing he could just hug her. She finally unburied her face from the pillow with tear stained eyes and took her smudged glasses off and set them on the nightstand and kicked her shoes off.
"It's not your fault. I should've known this place was too good to be true. I should've kept my mouth shut. Dammit! Someone finally knows I'm not insane but they still won't let me go! Screw this I'm taking a nap." She said firmly.
"Good idea. I'm a little freaked out though. Why would they want you to take dream suppressants? And that girl, she kept screaming 'wake me up'." He said looking a bit afraid.
"I don't know and I don't care, but what I do know is that without you and dreams I would lose my mind for real." She explained propping the desk chair up against the door under the door knob just in case they had a key.
"Me too, dreams make being a spirit worthwhile, well with you anyways." He smiled lying in the bed next to Sidney as she got comfortable and closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was standing outside an old decrepit house lit by the setting sun in the distance. They stood in the middle of its dead front yard filled with nothing but dirt and dead grass. Weeds were sprouting out from between the cracks of the broken sidewalk that led up to the front door.
"Where are we?" She asked staring up at the looming house.
"I don't know. I thought you brought us here." Gregory looked at her questioningly.
"I wanted to go to the park and swing on the swings… I've never seen this place before." She explained looking at its boarded up windows. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "What the..?" Turning around she was surprised to see that it was just Gregory.
"Did you feel that too?" Gregory asked surprised as he pulled his hand away from her.
"Yes… I've never actually felt anything in a dream before." She said as the strong smell of dirt and mildewed wood hit her.
"I feel… almost like I'm alive again. I can even smell the dirt in here…" He said breathing in through his nose.
"Me too… what is going on?" Sidney asked as something flashed on the second story window through a large crack between the boards.
"What was that? I'm kind of freaked out from demon man I saw earlier. But I'm so excited about this new dream world at the same time. Come here." He said suddenly forgetting about the flash he saw from the house and embraced Sidney in a hug catching her off guard.
"What are you…" She stopped in mid sentence and hugged him back. No one was ever this close to her since she was committed. Only Gregory but she could never feel him before. The only human contact she ever made was being dragged to her room or being man handled by escorts between hospitals. She didn't want to let go. Gregory slowly released her and looked into her eyes.
"I've wanted to do that for so long." He smiled down at her and looked at her hesitantly and he ran a finger along Sidney's cheek making her breath catch in her throat as it sent a warm shiver through her. She froze under his touch unsure of what to do and he slowly trailed his fingers over her neck and wrapped it behind her head pulling her into a kiss.
"Whoa…" Sidney said in a daze trying not to fall over.
"I'm sorry. I tried to stop myself. It must be weird for you… please forgive me. You have to remember when we met you were only a few years younger than me and all these years I…"
"Gregory it's ok." Sidney said with a giggle interrupting his nervous rant.
"That was very ungentlemanly of me. I promise I won't do it again, unless you want me to." He said blushing with a shy smile.
"Gregory I…" A loud metal screeching noise came from the house cutting her off making them both jump in fear.
"Knives for fingers…" Gregory said staring at the house in horror remembering the horrible demon of a man he saw attacking that girl on the ceiling. They both jumped and held onto each other as a loud knocking noise erupted all around them and the front door to the decrepit house began to shed dust as someone knocked on it from the inside. The knocking noise was becoming deafening and the door burst open to reveal something shining attached to a body with red glowing eyes.
The sun set leaving them in darkness and the glowing eyes began to move towards them. The knocking still continued and as the eyes got closer Sidney and Gregory turned to run in the other direction and when they turned around they met with a brick wall, they were trapped.
"Sid it's
him!" Gregory said with fear and she turned to see the shadowy figure step off the porch into the light of the full moon above them. It was what looked like a man whose skin was burnt beyond recognition with knives on his right hand in a faded red and green sweater with a fedora to cover his burnt head. His demonic red eyes pierced right through them and the demon suddenly stopped in his tracks just a few feet away from them.
"Brent…" He rasped angrily and disappeared. There was one last ear piercing knock and Sidney was suddenly sitting up in bed to see Debois sitting next to her with a needle prepped and ready. She didn't react in time and Debois stuck the needle into her leg injecting the medicine into her system.
"No! Sid!" Gregory yelled as a huge burst of energy hit her and she kicked the doctor off of her and punched the doctor on the other side of her in the face and screamed in frustration.
"You bitch! What did you give me?" Sidney demanded.
"It's just a shot of adrenaline and Hypnocil. You'll be fine." Debois said picking herself up off the floor.
"Hypnocil! You stupid cunt! You have no right to take away my dreams!" Sidney stood from the bed and was about to attack her when the other doctor got to his feet and grabbed her. Soon another doctor ran in with a straight jacket and they forced it on her. She kicked and screamed. Gregory was angry. He'd been slightly upset before but now he was furious.
They may have saved Sidney from the demonic man by waking her up but taking away her dreams now that he could actually touch and
feel her in the dream world made him completely livid.
"Let her go!" Gregory yelled and rushed at all three doctors and in his anger he actually pushed them all out of the room and slammed the door shut behind them locking it.
"Holy fuck Gregory! That was amazing! I can't believe you just did that." Sidney said in shock and attempted to get to her feet. Gregory attempted to help her up only to go right through her as usual.
"Too bad it was short lived. I wish I could help you out of that damn loony jacket." He sighed and sat on the floor next to her feeling suddenly exhausted. "I didn't know I could get that angry…"
"I'm glad you did." She thanked him and noticed that there two sets of keys on the floor by her night stand closest to her door.
"Looks like they won't be getting back in here any time soon." Gregory smiled.
"Good." Sidney sighed as she finally got to her feet and sat on the bed. She stared into Gregory for a moment before remembering the horrible demon of a man they saw in the dream world. "What do you think
he is?" She asked as they ignored the commotion and confusion going on outside her door.
"I'm not sure. All I know is he frightens me and I'm afraid of him coming after us again in your dreams. Yet all I want to do is dream with you again. And there's no telling how long that dream suppressant lasts." He said blushing slightly.
"It better only last a day at the most. Fucking bitch… I can't believe they forced their medicine on me." She shook her head.
"Maybe they thought you were in danger. What if it's how they keep that demon from hurting them?" Gregory explained trying to make her feel better and attempting to make sense of everything.
"I don't know. But don't you want to explore that world more. We can
feel in our dreams now. It's almost like…" Sidney stopped herself unsure of how to properly word her thoughts without completely giving herself away.
"Like what?" He asked curiously.
"Well if we can feel we can live in the dream world as if we would have had we met when you were still alive…" She said looking at him shyly through her messy hair. Gregory gave her a smile and she blushed and hid her face from him in her pillow and rolled off her bed to the floor laughing and Gregory joined in as they laughed nervously together knowing what each other were thinking about. An angry knock cut their laughter short.
"Sidney open this door we
need to talk to you. We promise we'll tell you everything. Please." Debois pleaded on the other side of the door.
"What should we do? Can you even unlock the door with that loony contraption on? I kind of want to know what's going on." Gregory admitted.
"Me too. But not at the cost of possibly getting drugged again." She explained and got to her feet and stood by the door. "I can
try to open the door. But you have to promise you'll let me out of the jacket and no more Hypnocil unless I decide take it myself, and you better tell me what the heck is going on." Gregory stood through the door to find Debois accompanied by a doctor he hadn't seen before. The rest of the hallway was clear.
"Why'd you give her Hypnocil in the first place without her permission? You know the rules. We made them for a reason." The tall doctor whispered. He was only a few inches taller than Debois and wore a blue and grey collared shirt and jeans with short messy blonde hair.
"I'm sorry I didn't know what to do." Debois admitted.
"Yes of course. Please open the door." The male doctor pleaded. Gregory told Sidney what the doctors had said.
"Ok just give me a second to figure out how to do this. I'm in a fucking straight jacket." Sidney said through the door as she sat on the floor and reached the doorknob with her feet and used her toes to unlock it. She rolled away from the door and the two doctors entered her room.
"I'm sorry about all this. I'm doctor Delvin and I can assure you there will be no more Hypnocil for you unless you want to take it. Of course it doesn't help that you don't quite fully understand what's going on." He explained giving Debois a glare as he undid her jacket. She shook out of it and got to her feet.
"Thank you." She said and smiled slightly giving him a handshake and gave a quick death glare to Debois who looked a bit afraid and took a step back.
"So tell me just how did you lock this door in the first place?" He asked curiously.
"They pissed Gregory off so he threw them all out and locked the door behind them." She explained calmly making Gregory smile.
"Has he done this before?" Debois asked butting in.
"No. He's never been angry before either though. So that might be why." She said as Gregory stood beside her and stuck his tongue out and Debois.
"Interesting. Ok well I want you to join me. A group session has been called and I would like for you to join me. You don't have to say anything at all if you don't want to. I mostly just want you to listen and ask any questions you might have." Delvin explained and Sidney nodded in response. "It'll start in about ten minutes in the meeting room across from Debois' office." He said and headed down the hall with Debois in tow.
"I think I definitely like him better than the lady doc." Gregory said staring after them.
"Me too." She agreed and grabbed her glasses off the nightstand and cleaned them before putting them on. After slipping her shoes back on she made her way down the hall. Gregory walked beside her and she couldn't help but notice how close he walked to her. She was so used to it that she never paid much attention to it but his hand was going right through hers every step of the way and it made her long to just be able to hold his hand. Now she knew that she could in the dream world.
"What're you staring at?" Gregory asked and Sidney quickly averted her gaze to the floor ahead of them.
"Um… nothing…" She replied awkwardly making him smile to himself.
They made it to the door of the room and when they walked in all eyes were on Sidney. There were three patients and they were all sitting around a round table with Dr. Delvin. Sidney slowly sat down at the empty chair. She now sat between Delvin and a boy with brown short spikey hair that looked to be her age. Delvin nodded at her and the boy beside her gave her an odd smile.
"Everyone this is Sidney." Delvin introduced her and the two boys nodded and the girl sitting across from her with long curly brown hair waved making Sidney wave back at her and her eyes went wide.
"Did you get that scar from him?" She asked and Sidney quickly closed the palm of her hand and put it under the table.
"No. It was from the ritual…" She explained almost forgetting she had a scar on each of the palms of her hands from making a blood sacrifice in the ritual she performed all those years ago.
"The one you did that freed your spirit friend?" Delvin asked and Sidney nodded. "Ok well before we begin let me introduce you to everyone else. This is Darrien." He said motioning to the older boy sitting on the other side of him and he smiled looking rather un-amused as he ran his hand through his blonde hair that stopped just above his ears.
"I'm Nikki." The girl sitting across from her smiled and waved.
"And I'm Brent." The boy beside her said as he winked at her.
"I don't like him." Gregory said standing between Brent and Sidney. "Wait a minute… didn't that scary demon man say his name before disappearing?"
"So you're Brent." Sidney said and the boy's eyes were suddenly filled with confusion.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked as he gave her a silencing look.
"The burnt demon he was coming after me and Gregory then he said your name and disappeared." Sidney explained.
"Brent… What did I tell you about taunting him?" Delvin asked disapprovingly.
"I promise I only did it this time because I knew she had fallen asleep I was just distracting him from her." He said motioning to Sidney.
"Are you people ever going to tell me who in the fuck this
him is?" Sidney asked becoming annoyed.
"His name is Freddy Krueger. He wants to kill all of us." Darrien said motioning with his hands.
"About twenty years ago or so he was a convicted child murderer and abuser and for some unknown reason they let him go. So our grandparents and a bunch of other people in town burned him alive in the boiler room where he used to torture children. They figured if the legal system couldn't give them their justice they'd do it themselves." Nikki continued.
"Then something happened. We still aren't sure what. But he came back for their children in their dreams. Since then he's been killing us off and tormenting us spreading the fear. Once he's in your dreams you can't get away from him. Even if you move away from Springwood he'll still be able to get you. When you get hurt or die in his world it's for real." Brent explained.
"Ok… and I'm just supposed to believe all this crap? I mean I've seen him and so has Gregory. But since I've been here dreaming has been amazing. I'm not giving that up." Sidney explained making Gregory blush at the last part.
"Sidney he'll kill you the second he gets the chance. You can't hurt him either. We've tried so many times. But he's so strong there is no way to weaken him. We've even pulled him into our world and nothing has worked. He can use the powers he has in the dream world in the waking world as well. We won't force you to take anymore Hypnocil until you're ready to, but in the meantime please be careful in your dreams. You're lucky he didn't hurt you already." Delvin said with concern.
"Ok we explained it can I go back to my room now?" Darrien complained.
"That's fine." Delvin replied and Darrien quickly left the room.
"Don't mind him he just has no emotions. That's the only way he knows how to cope." Nikki said staring after him.
"Cope?" She asked.
"Yeah Freddy got his sister and his little brother a few years ago." Brent explained as he stood from his chair.
"Where do you think you're going?" Delvin asked with a glare.
"I was…" Brent stared at him trying to come up with an answer. "Just going to your office because I know you want to yell at me in private." He grinned and ran out the door and down the hall.
"Sorry Sidney. I have to go after him. And your Hypnocil should wear off in a few hours. Debois only gave you a weak dose. Please be careful." Delvin apologized and ran down the hall after Brent.
"Brent is so stupid. He thinks it's funny to taunt Freddy since he knows how to wake himself up. He used to do it every week when his Hypnocil ran out. One of these days though he's going to mess up and he's going to get it real good." Nikki said glaring out the door and down the hallway.
"I take it you don't like him very much." She asked.
"Not really. If it wasn't for him Freddy would have never gotten to me in the first place and I wouldn't have to live here." Sidney urged her on with her eyes kind of surprised this girl was talking to her since no one ever paid her any attention before.
"When I was fifteen we were driving through Springwood like we always did to go and see my grandma up in Toledo. We stayed in a hotel for the night and I snuck out of the room to go into the Jacuzzi in the middle of the night when a boy, Brent, was thrown off the balcony by an invisible force into the pool. I jumped in and saved him to find he had four slash marks across his back and he kept singing this song 'One, Two Freddy's coming for you…' Then after everything was taken care of and he was taken to the hospital I went to sleep and Freddy came after me. I could easily stay with my parents if I wanted to. I'm just afraid that I'll forget my Hypnocil and my parents will see me getting attacked in my dreams and the fear will get the best of them and the next time they come through Springwood Freddy will get them."
"I don't understand how could he get to her so easily, how did he get to us in the first place?" Gregory asked.
"How does Freddy get to any of us in the first place?" Sidney asked.
"It's our fear of him, just simply knowing that he exists. Its one thing if someone just tells you and you live somewhere else. But here in Springwood anyone related to the people who burned him alive he can get to. And if you're in Springwood when you hear about him he'll get you and he'll never go away until he kills you, or you can just do what we all do and take Hypnocil the rest of your life. He has no mercy." Nikki explained.
"I can't stand not having dreams. I'm not taking anymore Hypnocil. Everything in the dream world feels so real now. And Gregory…" She said blushing making Gregory smile.
"Gregory? Delvin was telling us about him. I saw when he shoved Debois and the other two MD's out of your room. We've experimented with dark arts to use against Freddy before but nothing worked, but having a ghost friend that's so cool. Must be nice to have a best friend that follows you everywhere." She smiled and looked around the room. "Is he here now?"
"He's always here. He can't actually go very far from me without reappearing beside me. I think during the ritual I accidentally bound him to me. He's even in my dreams. That's why I love them so much." She said with a smile finding that she really liked being able to talk to another person for once.
They sat and talked for awhile and she explained all kinds of things about Gregory to her and Gregory enjoyed himself as well as Sidney relayed what he was saying to Nikki. No one had ever wanted to talk to him before. Nikki asked all kinds of things about what things were like in his time.
They talked so much that the three of them had almost completely forgotten about Freddy.
"Oh I wish I wasn't so afraid of Freddy and my dreams so I could meet him." She sighed. "Oh it's just about dinner time. Want to join me?" Nikki asked as Sidney's stomach began to rumble.
Nikki cooked them some spaghetti for dinner and Brent and Darrien joined them. Nikki was going on and on about Gregory to the two boys and Brent just rolled his eyes and left the kitchen annoyed.
"Brent doesn't care about that kind of stuff. So Sidney what book did you use to conjure Gregory up? I mean I know you said it was an accident that you got him instead of your brother but… with the resources we have here we could get it right. We've tried before and it hasn't worked. But Delvin seems to think that anyone killed by that asshole is impossible to bring out." Darrien explained. "Awhile back I tried for my brother and sister…" He said sadly.
"I'm sorry… but it was so long ago, I have no clue. But it doesn't really matter. My parents burned the book. I'm pretty sure it was the last one of its kind. I found it in an old book shop by my Grammy's house. I don't even remember what it looks like." She apologized.
"It's ok. Thanks for making dinner again Nikki." He half smiled and stood almost hitting his head on the hanging light over the table. "See you tomorrow. Maybe." He said putting his dishes in the sink and made his way to his room. Nikki stared after him.
"He'd be so much cuter if he wasn't so grim all the time." She sighed and bid goodnight as well.
"Weird day huh?" Gregory asked sitting in the empty chair beside her.
"You said it. So apparently some dream demon guy wants to kill us and I have sort of two new friends and they know you exist and aren't afraid of either of us. Weird doesn't even touch what today was." She shook her head replaying all the new information in her head.
"You think we'd be afraid to go to sleep after all of this." Gregory laughed.
"Nope not at all." She smiled blushing a bit.
"Hey you should go play that Nintendo thing. I want to watch." He suggested knowing how anxious and scared they were to dream together again.
"Ok." She smiled and they headed to the game room. Brent was in there sitting in a bean bag with a pair of headphones on watching a movie. He turned to see it was her and continued to watch his movie ignoring her.
"Ass." Gregory spat at him making Sidney laugh. After much debate on which remote turned the giant fancy TV on Brent finally got out of his bean bag and came to help her.
"Do you always talk out loud to your ghost friend?" He asked turning the TV on with ease and handed her the remote to the Nintendo Wii.
"Yes. It's not like he can read my mind. What the hell is this thing?" She asked holding the strange remote in her hand.
"It's the controller to the Wii." He replied annoyed.
"A what? I haven't got to play video games in seven years ok. Hook me up with the Game Cube
please." She demanded and he pressed a few buttons on the remote.
"It's in here. Haven't played a Wii before. Where the hell have you been?" He asked pointing to a small shelf under the TV.
"In eight different asylums being treated like a loon for talking to my
hallucinations." She spat at him.
"Oh… Sorry I didn't know." He apologized and pulled the Game Cube out of its cubby and set it on the floor. He turned the Cube on and returned to watch his movie. Sidney picked out a game to play and sat in the game chair in front of the TV.
It took a few minutes for her to remember how to use the controls then her and Gregory were 'oohing' and 'awing' at everything as she played. Brent watched her out of the corner of his eye every so often as she talked with Gregory. They had both totally forgot that he was there until he left saying goodnight.
Sidney had lost track of time and was enjoying herself. Finally Gregory realized that it was three in the morning and she turned the game off and they headed to her room.
"Time to dream." Gregory smiled happily making Sidney hide her face in her pillow.
"I know." She said nervously and got under the covers turning the light off. "Sweet dreams."
"They will be." She heard Gregory whisper as she drifted to sleep.
