by A. Eggleston
Before the metal catwalk collapsed to the ground, Ash escaped to the dark corners of the boiler room.
Damn it, he got away. Freddy looked around, surveying the top levels, trying to predict where Ash could have gone.
Tap...Tap...Creak!
Above, in the left wing of the boiler room on the fourth level, Freddy heard footsteps. He smiled faintly, and flicked the knives on his glove, anticipating the stabbing of his blades through Ash's flesh.
He disappeared in a flurry of smoke and fire, only to reappear in the exact spot where he initially heard the noise.
Freddy strolled across the walkway, the weight of his bladed glove pulled his arm down, slumping his shoulder. He wiggled his knives back and forth, growing restless the longer he waited.
Freddy was nearing a turning point in the walkway. He placed one of his knives on the guardrail and scraped it along as he prepared to turn the corner to his left.
Scrreeeechhhh!
He mumbled the wretched nursery rhyme that was all too familiar to him. "1, 2, Freddy's coming for--" Freddy turned sharply poking his head out from the corner. "--YOU!"
But Ash was not there. Freddy growled and retreated back to where he began. Where did that jackass go? he wondered.
Clink!
Freddy heard the sound of rustling chains. They seemed to be coming from behind where he was standing. Behind one of the boilers. Freddy turned around to see Ash swinging from one of the chains hanging from the ceiling.
Ash lifted his feet up as he propelled himself toward Freddy. Ash let out a battle cry as he swung to Freddy. "Tally ho!"
Freddy's blue eyes went wide as he saw the bottoms of Ash's work boots launching straight at him. The next thing he knew, Freddy felt Ash's boots crash against his stomach. He was knocked off his feet and hurled into the air.
Ash let go of the chain and dropped to the walkway as he watched Freddy fall four stories, landing back at the bottom floor. "That oughta slow you down!" Ash said as he traveled down the metal stairs.
Freddy shakily picked himself up. Every bone in his demonic body buzzed from the fall. He lifted his head to see Ash hovering above him.
"Hey. Tall, burnt, and ugly." Ash sneered. "Show me the way to the book, and I promise to make your death short and sweet."
Freddy stood up. He opened his arms emphatically. "I am the way." he echoed.
"All right," said Ash, annoyed. "I've had enough of your cryptic, psycho-babble, bullshit." Ash pointed a finger at him. "Now, unless you want me to kick your crispy ass again, I suggest you get with the program and--"
Freddy launched his bladed glove near Ash's ribcage. He slashed Ash's side from his underarm to his hip. Four, jagged, cuts appeared where Freddy attacked him. They quickly became red and wet from Ash's blood.
He couldn't speak. All Ash could do was gasp as his shirt was soaked with blood. Freddy didn't cut him deep enough to kill him, but he did tear the skin open, causing immense pain. Ash grasped his side and crouched down from the agony. He shut his eyes, wincing and moaning.
Freddy shouted in his ear. "No, you get with the program!" He pointed his bladed index finger at Ash's cheekbone. He kept applying pressure to it until he pierced the skin. Freddy retracted his glove, watching the stream of blood fall down Ash's face. "You actually think you still have a chance to stop me?" he said with haughty derision.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Freddy lifted Ash above his head. He held him above with seemingly superhuman strength. "You really are dumber than I thought!" he looked at Ash as he held him above. "You can't stop me! I've. Already. Won!" Freddy threw Ash down, slamming him to the ground.
Freddy underestimated his own strength. He threw Ash so hard, that the big lunk fell through the floorboards. "Huh." Freddy observed Ash clumsily fall through the underground level of the boiler room.
CRASH!!!
CRASH!!!
"Aaaaah!" Ash screamed.
THWACK!!!
CLINK!!!
"Whoa! Whoooaaahh!!!"
THUD!!!
Then, Freddy remembered. "Damn!" That was the area where he kept the Necronomicon. I can't let him get to my book.
Ash found himself in a very dark...very cold...area of the boiler room. There was no more fire, no more boilers, no more furnaces. Ash counted his blessings.
He rubbed the knot in his head as he pushed himself up and got back on his feet. Ash blinked his eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden change in light.
Ash touched his right side, where Freddy had slashed him. "Tsst! Ah!" he hissed. The wound was still tender to the touch, but he had noticed that, somehow, the blood flow had already stopped. The wound was starting to cauterize. Strange...How am I healing this fast?
He decided to set aside that thought and take care of more pressing matters. Like, for instance, ...finding that damned book. He looked around him, feeling a strange sense of familiarity with this place.
This was the same basement where Ash had found the book in the first place. He recognized it: The low ceiling, the dirt floor, the workbench filled with scrap metal and various tools. Yes! The injuries he sustained weren't for naught. When he thought of it, the place wasn't much different from his own work area. Except his didn't have dried blood on the walls or old toys that once belonged to children. "This must be where he keeps the book." he whispered to himself.
Ash walked towards Freddy's dimly lit workbench strewn with bloody mementos of his past victims. He felt his entire body become pumped with adrenaline when he saw the Book of the Dead before his eyes. His eyes widened in surprise and he opened his palms to grab the book. He ran his fingers along the rough, leather surface. It was finally his.
Ash held the book close to him as he turned around from the workbench. When he lifted his gaze from the rotten, fleshy face of the Necronomicon, his eyes were met with another, equally terrifying face.
Freddy stood before him. His eyes glowed furiously in the shadows. Freddy gritted his teeth. "You just don't know when it's time to die," He raised his glove and rubbed the knives together.
SCHIIING!!!
"Do you, Ash?"
Ash was cornered. There was nowhere else to go. He figured he better just take whatever was coming to him, and hope that he lives through it. Ash stood his ground and braced for impact.
Freddy swung his metal glove from right to left, ready to rip Ash apart like a fucking paper shredder. But when he brought his blades down toward Ash, he was gone. He had disappeared in the blink of an eye. And he had taken the book with him.
Freddy realized what had happened. Evelyn and the rest of the kids, found a way to bring him back. "That fucking cunt woke him up!" He knew what he had to do next. And when he would arrive back to the waking world, he would make them pay. Ash, those little brats, and especially Evelyn.
Such a sweet little thing. He couldn't wait to defile and tear her apart. I'll slice her up and down, and fuck her corpse.
"Time to pay a visit to the land of the living."
Chapter Twenty Nine
The three of them hovered over Ash, watching in horror as he kicked and screamed during his sleep. They wanted to look away when they saw cuts and slashes appearing on his skin, with pools of blood soon following, but their eyes were locked on him. It was a maddening, revolting, sideshow being displayed before their eyes.
Every time a fresh wound raced across his arms or face, Evelyn and Faith would mop up the blood and wrap the area with gauze or bandages. Steven would end up sprinting back and forth through the aisles to get more medical supplies.
They all wanted desperately to help him, to bring him out, but nothing seemed to work. Evelyn had eventually given up on trying to communicate with Ash through his dream. No matter how loud she shouted, or how powerful her cries were, Ash wouldn't wake up.
The only time he moved or spoke, was during fits of pained screams or uncontrollable convulsions. Ash would jerk his legs and arms, his chest would heave and lift from the chair, like he was being throttled. He
would briefly flutter his eyes. Whenever they caught a glimpse, the whites of his eyes would be bloodshot. Bruises appeared beneath the surface of his skin. Dark, purple splotches were around his neck and on the side of his face.
Ash's pores would open and he would sweat profusely. His skin would glisten, and his face would burn red. He would then open his mouth and let out a spine-chilling scream. Freddy was killing him. And they would be spectators to his gruesome death.
After the screaming had subsided, they simply sat by him, watching over him. The three of them were riddled with tension, leaving them restless. But they couldn't leave Ash by himself. They would be with him, either to see him awake, or be there during his final moments. Each of them would run through cycles of twiddling their thumbs, rapidly tapping their feet against the floor, causing their knees to dance up and down, and biting their lips, leaving them red and chapped.
Faith was hunched over on her knees at Ash's left side, waving smelling salts under his nose. She had been doing this for several minutes, and her arms were growing tired. But, she kept on. Faith had a keen feeling that, judging by the way Ash was fluttering his eyes underneath his lids, he was slowly coming to.
Steven sat on a plastic chair adjacent to Faith, putting himself near Ash's feet. When he wasn't nervously scratching the back of his neck (all of the chaos that had unleashed
had left Steven's nerves raw and sensitive, and made him realize how annoying it was to have all of that hair constantly tickle the back of his neck), he was holding his silver crucifix in between his thumb and index finger. He gripped his tightly, praying that Ash would wake up before it was too late.
On Ash's right side, was Evelyn. She sat down on the floor so that she was at eye-level with him. She had been sitting in that same position for several minutes. Her feet were getting numb, her legs were sore, and her back strained from being hunched over for so long, but she didn't care. Her throat had become sore from crying out to Ash in hopes of waking him, so she gave up on speaking. She kept her hand placed on his shoulder, thinking, maybe, keeping physical contact with Ash would drive him away from the dream...and away from Freddy.
She started to grow anxious and mad. Evelyn worried that, without Ash, they would have no way of stopping Freddy and his army. This drove her towards anger. How dare Freddy take her friends, her boyfriend, everything that she held dear in life? He exploited her deepest fears, and left her cold and lonely. And now, he wanted not only her life, but also the life of the only person who could save them. How dare he? she thought. How dare he try to take everything away from me? Freddy might have gotten others before me, but not this time. I won't let him take me. And I'm not letting him take Ash, either. Freddy will pay for what he did to him. To me. To all of us.
Suddenly, Ash's eyes opened. He gasped, taking a long, wheezing inhale. He jerked his upper body, sitting upright. He practically leaped from his seat when he awoke. He tried to steady his breathing, calming his breath as his shoulders heaved up and down. Ash looked down and noticed the Necronomicon was still secured in his arms. He held it as he did in his dream, clutching it tightly against his chest.
Everyone jumped. They tensed their muscles and gaped their mouths in surprise. They didn't expect Ash to wake up at all, especially not in the dramatic way that he did.
Evelyn's heart beat faster, pounding against her chest like a bass drum. Her eyebrows lifted and her green eyes twinkled when she saw Ash lucid and awake. She fought the knot in her throat when she shouted. "Ash!" She lifted herself from the floor and reached out to hug him. Her arms gently wrapped around his neck, and she rested her chin on the top of his matted, black-and-silver hair. Evelyn could barely contain her happiness. Her eyes watered, and she was okay with it, because this time, she cried tears of joy rather than sorrow. "I can't believe it!" she said. "For a while, we thought you weren't coming back."
Ash was glad to be back and far away from Freddy and that blasted boiler room. But he forgot that every encounter with Freddy left you beaten, bruised, and bloody. Even though it happened in a dream, all of the cuts and bruises he had acquired were very real. Once he awoke, his entire body was sore. The cuts on his arms and face, not to mention the large animal-like slash mark on his side, were still raw. They left a burning sensation deep in his skin.
But as he looked down, surveying his own body, he noticed that he was covered in bandages. Most of the blood had either been washed away, or dried under the wrap. The cuts were still fresh, but they were no longer throbbing like they had been in his dream.
As Evelyn hugged him, it reminded him of the tender bruises on his neck from when
Freddy strangled him. He appreciated the gesture, but it hurt like hell. Ash winced. He put his hand on her arm and politely pushed her away. "Yeah, yeah." he said, strained. "Careful with the neck."
Evelyn retreated her arms and gave Ash some space. In the heat of the moment, she forgot all of the fresh injuries Ash had sustained. She still kept a hopeful smile on her face. She was just glad that he was alive.
Faith threw the smelling salts across the aisles. There was no use for them anymore. "I have to admit," she said with a half-smile. She embarrassingly admitted, "For a while, we, uh, kind of thought you were a goner."
"I almost was." he admitted. "Whatever you did, thanks."
Steven sat up and moved closer toward the three of them. His eyes were fixed on the Necronomicon that Ash still held close to his chest. It was the first time he had ever seen it. Over the past few days, he had imagined what it must have looked like. He knew that it would be dark and grim in appearance. Now that he finally laid eyes on it, he was oddly mesmerized by its course, grotesque design.
He remembered how Ash said that the book was made out of skin and was written in blood. He could easily believe that now that he saw the wrinkled, leathery cover. The more he stared at it, the more he realized that the book was staring at him. It seemed as though it had eyes and a mouth. Almost like, ...it was made out of someone's face...He could just imagine some frightened person, having their skin ripped off and then have it be used as a book cover. Was the person dead when they did that? Or were they...still alive? He didn't want to think about it any further.
Steven diverted his gaze from the book and looked to Ash. "You got the book." he said. After all of the torture he had witnessed Ash go through, he was glad that he at least got what he came for. It made Steven relieved that they were one step closer to taking Freddy down.
Ash looked at Steven and nodded. His voice was still faint and weak. "Yeah. It wasn't easy though." he winced again from the cuts on his left side.
Evelyn took the book from Ash while he placed his hand on the slash marks, hoping to ease the pain. She barely touched the edges with her fingers. The feel of the book made her cringe. She wasn't pleased by the feel of rotten flesh. Yet, she stared in awe of it. This book, this wrinkled, bloody, tome, was the key to saving them all. It brought forth destruction and evil, but it also contained the reversal to such damage. "So, this is what's going to kill Freddy and send the evil back?" she asked, hoping that their was no catch.
"That's the plan." said Ash.
Evelyn sat the book by Ash and ran her fingers through her black hair. She was nervous about asking her next question. "About that--how are we supposed to use this?"
"Yeah," Faith joined. "didn't you say it was Kandarian? I mean, I barely passed Spanish, how am I supposed to understand a fucking thousand year old, ancient language?"
"You're not." he said bluntly. Ash then turned to Steven and pointed a finger at him. "He is."
His eyes went wide. His mouth parted, like he was going to say something. He had several things she wanted to say at once, but the first thing that left his mouth was, "Did
Freddy drop you on your head while you were down there?"
Ash sat up to meet his gaze. He stared at him. "As a matter of fact, he did. But, that's not important right now."
Steven looked up and matched his stare, trying to s
how him how serious he was. "I don't know, Ash." He looked down at the book, picturing all of the things that could go wrong. What if I mispronounce a word? What if I start reading, and one of those things come after me? His eyes went back to Ash. "You'd be risking a lot...and...I can't be responsible for anyone else dying around me."
"Listen, kid." he said sternly. "You're the only ones who can do this for me, and I trust you with it. Just like I trust Evelyn, and Sailor Moon over there."
From across the way, Ash could hear Faith shout at him. "Fuck you!"
Evelyn stepped forward so that she was now standing a few feet from him. "He's right." she said. "You can do this, Steven. And, you're not alone. We're here for you."
Faith moved to Ash. "Yeah, I know you were incapacitated at the time, but we handled things pretty well while you were..." Faith semi-sung the rest of her sentence to the tune of "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. "...Off in never, never land."
"Really?" Evelyn said, almost chuckling. "Metallica lyrics, is that what we’re doing right now?"
"Yes, that is what we're doing right now. Will you let me finish?" she sniped. She counted all of her achievements on her fingers as she spoke them to Ash. "And Evelyn, too. While we were all going crazy, it was Evelyn's idea to come to S-Mart, board up the doors, and try to get you out of the dream."
She looked back at Evelyn. "She even wasted one of those Deadites on the way over here!"
Steven sniped under his breath. "She almost killed us with her driving, but other than that..."
Evelyn ignored his comment and turned to Ash. "I know we're not your choice to do this, but you can trust us." She then turned away, and put her hands on Steven's shoulders. "And I know you're scared. But to not be a little scared right now would be stupid. You have only one job, and it's to read a book. We'll protect you, okay?"
Steven's voice was small, almost a whisper. "Yeah, okay." he agreed.
Ash put both feet on the floor and stood up. He took the Book of the Dead from Evelyn and offered it to Steven.
