Freddy vs. Ash

by A. Eggleston

  And lastly, there was Jill. Her best friend. The person who was by her side and made her feel safe when she first left home. And she too was taken. Possessed by the evil. In her mind, she saw flashes of her demonic form. It bore no resemblance to the bright and happy face that belonged to her friend. Evelyn kept seeing her, crawling on the ceiling, defying gravity. She saw her bend in a way that made a contortionist in a carnival sideshow appear boring. And then there was her death. Watching Steven dismember her body with an axe, and bury her, limb by limb, in the backyard.

  Freddy had caused all of this. He was the reason why everyone she loved was dead. Not only dead, but had their souls ripped from their bodies and have them be absorbed by him. They were tortured and used for as long as he was alive and breathing.

  She knew it was dangerous and irresponsible, but she kept walking slowly behind Ash. She wanted nothing more at that moment, than to bring him as much pain and suffering as he had caused her and her friends.

  Evelyn felt a hand in front of her stomach, barricading her movement. She looked down to see that it was Ash. She stared at his blood spotted shirt sleeve, her eyes trailing down, fixating on his nub. Her head snapped up, looking into his eyes. He looked at her, almost angrily, and spoke curtly to her.

  "No." he said. "You stay back."

  Her nostrils flared as she let out a frustrated exhale. She understood why he didn't want her out there. She knew that he understood her abhorrence toward Freddy, how lonely she felt right then, but she just wished that he would let her put an axe between his eyes and watch him bleed.

  She heard Freddy's voice. "Oh..." he said inquisitively. Evelyn turned her head to look at him. He had his head tilted to the side. He was smiling deviously. When he spoke her name, he drew it out, savoring every syllable in her name. "...Evelyyynnn..."

  He kept walking slowly. His gaze had been taken off Ash and was now directed towards her. "Being the little woman warrior, are you, hmm?" He cocked his nonexistent eyebrows. His tone was demeaning and taunting. "You couldn't save your boyfriend, what makes you think you can save him, huh?"

  She didn't know what had come over her. The only thing she felt at that moment was pure rage filling her body. Her head had been clouded, all she saw was red. All she wanted to see, was his blood on the floor. Evelyn tried to run for him, but was blocked by Ash. She felt her feet lift off the ground and her arms reached for him, even though he was twenty feet away from her. She screamed. "I'll kill you, Freddy!" Her voice cracked. "You're dead, you bastard!"

  Freddy took his left hand out of his pocket. He put both hands in front of him and waved his fingers back and forth. He called her forth. Beckoning her. Daring her. "Come and get it, bitch!"

  Ash's ears had twitched as soon as he heard the word "bitch" escape Freddy's blistered mouth. While still holding Evelyn back, he turned his head and snapped at him. "You leave her out of this!"

  Evelyn stepped back, not wanting to cause any more trouble.

  Freddy stopped moving. His legs were just outside of his hips. His shoulder was slumped. His head was tilted down slightly. He laughed faintly and smirked. "It's too bad you're all going to die here, tonight. You won't get to see my reign of terror all over the waking world."

  Ash lifted his chin and looked at him, derogatively. His tone was cool and confident. "In your dreams, scars and stripes."

  Freddy's devious smile down turned into an angry sneer. His sharp teeth were partially visible behind his charred mouth. A powerful, malevolent growl emerged from inside him. It was trembling. If Ash had closed his eyes, he would have mistaken it for that of a wild tiger's.

  In the blink of an eye, Freddy raised his gloved arm and shot it out, shadowboxing it in front of them. He used his newly found powers against them.

  In that instant, a concentrated, invisible force engulfed the entire store. A low, ominous hum echoed as the force emerged. It moved forward, starting from where Freddy was standing, all the way to the back of the store. Everything except the Deadites were affected by it.

  All of the racks, all of the tables, and every item that sat upon it, were lifted off of the ground. They shot out, like a cannonball, to the far end of the store. Ash, Evelyn, Steven, and Faith, were also knocked off of their feet.

  The evil force sent them hurling into the air. All four of their screams filled the building. It sent in different areas of the store, separating them.

  Steven felt himself start to fall downward. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the carnage that may occur as a result. It felt like the kind of dream where he's not quite asleep, but somehow feels himself falling into a bottomless pit of darkness. It was terrifying, yet it filled him with adrenaline. His landing was abrupt. He was now in what used to be outdoor aisle, as there were folding chairs and tables all over. He felt his back land against a hard surface. He fell onto one of the folding tables, which quickly toppled over as soon as he made contact with it. He then opened his eyes to see himself on the floor, amongst the debris.

  Faith had fallen a couple of aisles across from where Steven was. She landed on her side, causing excruciating pain in her right arm and her hip. She groaned in pain. "Oh...ugh..." She sat up, supporting herself on her knees. She looked around, noticing that the aisle she was in had not been tipped over. Judging from all of the butcher knives, steak knives, and other utensils, she knew she was in the kitchen aisle. Thank God this one didn't tip over, or I'd be impaled in fifty different places right now. she thought.

  Evelyn braced herself for impact as she saw the ground getting closer to her. Once she landed, her body began to roll on the tile until she hit the wall in the very back of the building. Her back hit the wall, stopping her motion. She grunted. "Ugh!" She let her face rest on the floor, waiting for the rest of her body to stop ringing from the impact. She looked around. There was debris and merchandise everywhere. She had no idea what area of the store she was in. All she knew was that it was somewhere in the very back.

  "Whoa!" Ash screamed as he was knocked off of his feet. He flew in the air for a short amount of time. His body tilted upward. He was able to look at the gaping hole in the skylight as he was being forced back. Ash finally landed on his back, only fifteen feet away from where he was originally standing. Once his body landed on the floor, Ash slid back on the sleek tile floor another ten feet away from Freddy. His legs went up over his head for the duration of the slide and then quickly dropped down. His back and shoulders ached from the fall, a wave of pain raced up and down his spine.

  Once the damage had been done, Freddy lowered his arm down beside his hip. He scanned the store, taking in all of the destruction. It looked as if a tornado had made its way into S-Mart. Everything inside had been moved, knocked over, or destroyed. Knowing that Ash and his band of brats had been separated, Freddy sent the Deadites to do what they do best. He barely parted his lips to speak. When he did, his voice was warbled and low, almost to a whisper. "Go."

  They followed his command. As soon as he spoke the word, the demons no longer remained still. They practically pushed themselves from the wall and ran across the store. They shrieked and laughed in perverted glee.

  Once Ash heard the parade of Deadites howling their way through the store, he picked his head up to see Freddy, taking long strides towards him. He looked over to his left, and saw, in the middle of scattered glass shards a few yards away from him, was his chainsaw and his Boomstick. He acted quickly. Ash fought the pain in his upper body and picked himself up as hastily as he could.

  He ran over to grab his weapons, hoping that the broken glass wouldn't cut through his boots. When he reached down to grab his chainsaw, he felt a pair of decayed hands grab him by his shoulders. They were rough, blistered, and had long fingernails that poked through his work shirt. Not long after that, the figure behind him jumped onto his back and held on tightly. Ash knew that this was a Deadite, judging from its warbled screams.

  Ash grunted. "Ugh! Argh!" And turned around sharply in attempt to get the demon of
f of his back. "Get the fuck off of me!" But the demon simply wouldn't let go.

  He knew that this tactic was going nowhere, so he acted on pure impulse. "Hyah!" Ash shouted as he jumped and fell back hard on the glass. He body slammed the Deadite down to the floor to be pierced with hundreds of glass shards. Ash rolled back to his feet, carefully avoiding the glass. When he stood back up, what he saw was a pale faced, convulsing demon laying in a pool of her own blood. She was tall, thin, and wearing a yellow tank top and flannel pajama shorts. Her skin was dark brown in comparison to her wretched, much paler face. She had dark, black circles beneath her white eyes. She had slash marks on each corner of her mouth that reached up to her ears. When she opened her mouth to howl, the entire inside of her mouth was visible.

  His eyes grazed a few inches to his left. Luckily, his shotgun was now by his feet. Ash bent over to pick it up. He pointed the barrels in front of the demon's face. "Didn't anyone ever tell you," he said as he clicked the safety off. "to stay away from broken glass?" Ash pulled the trigger.

  BOOM!!!

  The Deadite's head exploded from the impact of the shell. Blood, skull fragments, and pieces of scalp had spread all over the area. The glass was stained with red, and lying in the middle of all the shards, was the headless body of a female Deadite.

  Ash rested his shotgun on his shoulder. The smoke slowly drifted up from the barrels. He stared at the Deadite's unmoving body. Aside from her face, the rest of her looked absolutely normal. I guess this chick had just turned, and didn't have enough time for the rest of her to look like the living undead. he figured. "Too bad..." he said to the unresponsive corpse. "You looked good from the neck down."

  Ash bent down to grab his chainsaw. As he stood up, he put his Boomstick back in his holster. He then latched the chainsaw back on his right arm. He was now ready for action.

  He looked across the absolute mess that had become of S-Mart. He couldn't see the kids right off. He mumbled to himself. "They must've gone pretty far." He knew he needed to get to them as quick as possible. They were smart kids. And resilient. But still, he worried about how they would survive (or wouldn't survive) being alone and with that many demons. He scanned the store from left to right. "All I gotta do now is find you guys." he took in all of the damage that had been done to the store. "You spend seven hours a day stocking shelves, and then it all goes to shit."

  Ash took one step forward when he felt someone lightly touch his shoulder. He turned his head, hoping that it was one of the kids, and that they found their way back to him. When he whipped his head to his left, he didn't see either Evelyn, Faith, nor Steven's face.

  It was Freddy. He had his gloved hand resting on Ash's shoulder. His left hand was balled up into a fist. His arm was bent and pulled back by his ear.

  He only saw his scowling face for a brief second before Freddy launched his fist. He punched him. Hard. And square in the face. Freddy had hit him right on the bridge of his nose. Ash closed his eyes and could have sworn that he saw stars. A deep, throbbing pain made its way from Ash's nose and across the top of his head. He heard a crunching or a snapping noise when Freddy socked him in the face. Blood poured from both of his nostrils.

  That son of a bitch broke my nose!

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Please let this all have been just a bad dream...just a horrible, horrible nightmare. Please let me wake up from this. Evelyn lifted her eyelids to find herself lying on the cold, hard, floor of S-Mart. The building was close to being in ruins. Shelves had been tipped over. Light fixtures were broken. Broken glass was scattered across the floor. It was not a dream. It was a living, waking nightmare. ...Damn...

  Evelyn felt a ribbon of warm blood slowly drip down from her scalp, along the bridge of her nose, and across her full lips. She got a taste of it as she wiped it away. She was laying on her stomach, feeling every bone in her body ring from the fall. I can't just lay here all night. I have to keep moving, or I'll die.

  Evelyn moved her arms and placed the palms of her hands beside her, in a push-up position, and tried to get back on her feet. Once she began to push, a numbing pain throbbed in her left shoulder. She let out a surprised gasp as she retreated her left arm from she ground. She used her right arm to support herself. Once she was brought to her knees, Evelyn looked around and noticed all of the stoves and refrigerators on display. I guess this is the Kitchen department, or what's left of it anyway.

  She stood on her own two feet, slumped and broken. Her shoulder was drooping down. It had been dislocated and was simply hanging there, limp and useless. The pain was unbearable. Plus, it felt so strange to have her own arm hang there by her side, like a meaty piece of string. I'm going to have to force it back in the socket. She looked around to find something that she could use.

  Ten feet in front of her, was a line of fifteen different refrigerators on display. How they survived the powerful force that blew them away, she didn't know. I think I can use this. The raven-haired girl limped over to the fridge that was closest to her, the one right in the middle. She positioned herself on the left side, and propped her left elbow on the wall of the fridge. She gripped the stainless steel handle with her operable arm, and spoke to herself softly. "This'll hurt. But that's okay, because it'll only be a second. I can do this. I have to."

  Evelyn moved to find the right angle to lock her arm back in place. She kept muttering to herself that everything will be--"Okay, okay. One...Two..." She took a sharp breath in, and pulled the handle. She practically jumped forward, forcing her shoulder back in the socket. She heard a loud snap as her bones reconnected. Her muscles began to tear, and a mind-numbingly painful wave of pain raced through her left arm. The pain was more brutal than having her joints separated in the first place.

  She pursed her lips shut to keep from screaming, but she couldn't help but allow pained moans reverberate in her throat. "Mmmm! Nnnng!" Evelyn rested her forehead on the wall of the fridge as she let go of the handle. Slowly but steadily, she slid down to her knees, and panted heavily. She pain was subsiding, but it couldn't have gone away quickly enough. Her eyes began to burn with tears. She closed her eyelids, forcing a single tear to race down her cheek and fall to the floor. It's over now. The hard part's over.

  Hiiiiisssssssssss! Hiiiiiissssssssss!

  "...Ha ha ha ha ha!"

  Evelyn lifted her head and looked to her left, where the noise was coming from. Looking in between the rows of stoves and other appliances, Evelyn saw a lone female Deadite. She was a few aisles away, but from the direction that she was walking, she was heading for Evelyn. Her hair was bleached blonde and stringy. Her skin was pale, almost white, with black veins visible under her face and arms. Dark, red, blood splatters surrounded both of her opaque eyes. Her lips were so cracked and dry, they appeared to be red.

  Evelyn's eyes widened, and she quickly leapt up. Every bone in her body rattled out of fear. I don't have a weapon, I'll have to hide somewhere. She looked around, searching for an adequate hiding spot. Her gaze was automatically directed to the object that was three feet in front of her: The refrigerator. She breathed a sigh of relief and muttered quietly to herself. "It'll have to do."

  She grabbed the handle with both hands, slowly and quietly opening the door. As she looked inside, she realized that she wouldn't be able to fit because of all of the shelves. She looked ahead and noticed that the Deadite was getting closer. She hadn't spotted her just yet, but it was only a matter of time before she would. Evelyn acted quickly and slid both of the racks out of the fridge and set them on the floor. It's small, but I think I can fit. It's too late to run now.

  Evelyn crept inside and quietly shut the door. She now sat, hunched and cramped, in the enclosed space. Surrounded by darkness. It was so quiet, that the only sound she could hear was her own breathing. She then realized that she should probably steady her breathing so that the demon wouldn't be able to hear her. She whispered her own advice to herself. "Shh...Calm down. How many movies have we seen where the girl's bre
athing so loud, it sounds like they're having an asthma attack?" She then took a calming inhale and exhale. I wonder how long I'll have to hide in here.

  The she-demon crept closer towards the ruins of the kitchen aisle. She knew there was someone there. She could practically smell the fear. Her evil senses led her to the row of display refrigerators. The Deadite had a feeling that someone was hiding in that area.

  She grinned perversely and quickened her pace towards the display. She slowed down once she was behind the last fridge from the right. She ran her decrepit hands over each and every one. She trilled in her warbled, almost child-like voice. "Ready or not...Ha ha ha ha ha..." She then sang her next words.

  "We're gon-na get you,

  We're gon-na get you,

  Not another pe-ep,

  Time to go to sle-ep!"

  The Deadite walked to the other side and made her trip again. This time, she would search inside for fresh souls. She stopped once she was in front of the fridge in the middle of the row. She looked down to the ground and noticed two racks that had been tossed aside. She smiled. "Found you!"

  She pushed it down to the ground. The demon stood over the one that contained Evelyn inside. She gripped the handle and shouted with glee, "Lunchtime! Let's see what's good!" The door flew open, almost coming off of its hinges.

  The Deadite bent over to get a look of the fresh soul that was inside. She was immediately met with a sharp kick. Evelyn's right leg shot out from the fridge and made contact with the demon's jaw.

  The demon cried as her head was forced to look up to the sky. "Aak!" She had lost her footing, and took a few steps back, away from Evelyn.