Freddy vs. Ash

by A. Eggleston

  A mouthful of blood made its way up his throat, nearly making him choke. Steven coughed it up, spitting out the thick glob of blood. He wasn't strong enough to spit it out on the ground. The red mouthful simply left his lips and dripped from the corners of his mouth, to his cheeks, and to his eyes. Steven closed them to avoid being blinded by his own blood, allowing it to flow down his eyelids. He felt weaker by every passing second as the blood rushed to his head, making him dizzy.

  He had used every ounce of strength in him to hold on to the Necronomicon. Even when Freddy was thrashing him around, he still gripped the book tightly in his hand.

  Steven felt swarms of thin branches crawl on his skin, like spiders. He opened his eyes and looked down, technically up, at his feet. He counted approximately fifteen, maybe twenty, branches tangling themselves all over Steven's body.

  A long, leafy branch slithered its way down Steven's arm. The wood scraped and scratched it, leaving red lines along his forearm. The branch crawled down to his wrist and to his hand. It was the same hand that securely held the Book of the Dead.

  His eyes darted down to where the branch was wrapping around the book. His grip tightened and he fought the immense pain to shout. "No! No!" He moved his arms and legs in attempt to free himself, but the more he moved, the tighter they constricted around him. His voice was hoarse. "Let go!" He felt the book slipping from his hands as the branches took it from him. "No, you bastard!" he shouted. "Give it back!"

  The branch coiled around the book. He took the Necronomicon from his hand. The branch hastily pulled away from Steven, giving him no time to reach for the book. "You should never take what isn't yours, Steven." said Freddy. "Didn't your mommy and daddy tell you not to steal?"

  The many branches that touched Steven's body were now wrapping themselves tighter around him. From all directions, pieces of the tree lowered down upon him to constrict his body. To trap him even further. To suffocate him.

  His arms, chest, and legs were now covered in tree branches. Each of them were long, thin, and jagged, like the pointed finger of an old woman. They were wrapped around his skin tighter than a small rubber band. He could feel his limbs growing numb and cold.

  Just then, Steven was turned right side up again. He was held up solely by the mercy of the frail branches. His head swirled as the blood returned back to the rest of his body. He could now see Freddy's wretched, wooden face. Why couldn't he have just covered my eyes with branches, too? he wondered.

  Freddy roared in his face with his booming voice. "Guess you're gonna have to learn the hard way!" He used his powers even further to squeeze the boy even tighter until he could see the agony in his face.

  He was being squeezed to tightly, he could hardly speak. To do so would cause his chest to expand, which would break his ribs from the pressure. Instead of screaming for help, like he wanted to do, he simply let out a feigned gasp. "Ack...Ack..."

  Relief washed over him as Freddy loosened his grip. He could finally breathe. Steven inhaled deeply, thankful for the air that was given to him.

  He felt small branches touch the side of his face. His heart began to pound as he feared the worst. The thin wood cut into his face and slid under the skin. One of them went into his mouth, grazing his gums and the back of his throat.

  Steven's muffled screams went unheard as more branches went inside his body. The twigs cut him and made their way under his skin, like IV tubes. So far, there were five branches inside his left arm, and six in his right. Approximately a dozen branches each had crawled up his pant legs. They tore through the denim. The twigs sliced through his skin and muscle and crawled inside his knees and thighs. He looked down and could see spots of blood forming in his jeans.

  Three extra branches, approximately two centimeters in diameter, slithered their way up his legs, scratching the surface of his skin. His bloodied legs stiffened and twitched once they crawled under his boxers. Steven tried to scream, but it only caused his throat to hurt even worse.

  Freddy's echoing voice felt like fire to his ears. "What's the matter, Steven?" he taunted. "Can't handle a little morning wood?! Haaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The sharp-ended twigs quickly sliced away at his inner thighs and then his penis. The branches crawled to the other side, tearing the top layer of his skin as they did so. Steven shouted purely out of reaction. "Annng!" The pain was excruciating. The entire lower half of his body was now wet with his own blood.

  More branches crawled up his shirt, ripping through the thin, black fabric. The pointed tips gently caressed his skin before cutting through it. Steven shouted in protest, but his cries were muffled from the branches already down his throat. "Mmmm! Mmmm!" But his cries were useless, the twigs easily sliced through his ribs and stomach as if they were scalpels.

  As the wood cut through the muscle tissue, and wrapped themselves around his many rib bones, Steven felt pain beyond his own comprehension. He screamed so loud, that it was almost clear despite the twigs in his mouth. "Aaaannng!" Tears streamed down the corners of his eyes. He started to hyperventilate, which mixed in with his crying. He hadn't cried this powerfully since he was a child.

  By this time, every inch of his body had been cut, scraped, and stabbed. Dozens of wooden branches were under his skin, slicing through the muscle, wrapped around his bones. He had gotten an acupuncture treatment, with the Freddy Krueger touch to it. From head to toe, from back to front, the inside of his body was filled with tree bark.

  There was no relief from pain. No area left untouched. His entire being had been violated. He felt like an empty vessel, barely clinging to life. He had one job to do, and he failed. Why didn't I run faster? Why couldn't I have just looked where I was going? Why did I have to get sucked into this whole thing? Maybe if I'd just did one thing differently...maybe... Steven blamed himself for his misfortunes. He desperately wanted to be anywhere else than where he was now. Even if it meant death. He pleaded. "I don't want to hurt anymore." Please, take my soul. Just don't let it become his.

  When he saw another thin branch slithering up his stomach, he prayed that it would be the one to bring him death, swiftly and quickly. The tree branch crawled ever so slowly from his stomach to his chest, Steven knew that Freddy was making it so slow only to tease him. To prolong his suffering. To see just how much lower he could go.

  He watched it meticulously as it moved up, stopping at his collar bone. His eyes never strayed from it. The branch tickled his skin as it reached under the collar of his shirt. It intertwined with the chain of his necklace, the chain that supported his silver cross. What is he doing? Steven wondered. The branch pulled back from his neck, bringing out the crucifix from under his t-shirt. It moved faster away from Steven, bringing the necklace with it.

  Freddy spoke, his voice was unnaturally boisterous. His tone was smooth and taunting. "Five, six, grab your crucifix..."

  Steven felt a tug on the back of his neck as the chain snapped. He gasped once he realized that his necklace was now gone from his person.

  The glimmering cross fell to the ground, disappearing in the grass. The silver chain, still looped to the cross, followed behind it. The chain shined in the moonlight before becoming lost in the dirt.

  His cross, his sign of protection, the item that he always kept close to his heart at all times, was now gone from him. Hanging in the air, suspended by tree branches, filled with immense agony, without the one thing that gave him comfort, Steven felt alone. His breathing became heavy and uneven. His eyes darted in all directions. He knew that the pain would only heighten from this point. He did the only thing that he was physically capable of doing: crying out for help. He spit out the moving twig in his mouth and screamed for dear life. "HELP ME!" He shouted at the top of his already wounded lungs. "PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEEEAAASE!"

  But when Steven looked around for his friends, no one was around to hear his cries. In fact, upon turning his head to look to his left and right, he noticed something that made his heart drop.

  Everything was go
ne. His friends were nowhere in sight. Ash was not around. The Deadites had all disappeared. The parking lot. The S-Mart building. The rest of the town that had previously been within his view. All of it was gone. It was as if everything, except Freddy and Steven, ceased to exist. All that surrounded them was complete and utter darkness.

  "No one can help you now, Steven." said Freddy.

  Steven shook his head adamantly from left to right. "No! No!" He kept looking around, hoping that Ash and his friends would come into view. "Ash?!" he shouted. The sound of his humming chainsaw was completely gone. "Faith?!" He begged and pleaded to find his beautiful Faith coming to save him from Freddy's clutches, but she too was absent. "Evelyn?!" The rock in their group. The one who kept them going when everything seemed bleak, was gone. "PLEASE HELP ME!"

  Freddy soon cut off his screams by filling his mouth with tree bark. Three branches darted into his screaming mouth. His eyes went wide as he soon discovered that he had a mouthful of twigs. The sharp edges of the wood cut into his throat. The taste of his blood was bitter as it slid down his tongue and fell down his esophagus. He choked and gagged on both the blood and the wood.

  He thought that all hope was gone. Freddy now had the Necronomicon, and there was no stopping him now. Even the promise of a quick end to his life was out of the question as he could feel himself slowly bleed to death. Being pulled apart, inch by inch, by those wretched branches. He closed his eyes and cried, waiting for Freddy to do his worst and get it over with already.

  SCHIIING!!!

  Wait--What? Steven opened his eyes and looked at Freddy's stiffened face. He could tell that he was angry, as his brows were arched upward and the bark that made up his lips were scowling. The branches that wrapped around him like boa constrictors were now loosening their grip. What's going on, what is he looking at?

  "Ugh!" Steven heard a familiar voice. He knew it had to be Faith.

  He looked off to the side of the trunk and saw Faith hacking away at the trunk with an axe. Steven smiled and his eyes glimmered.

  The axe was stuck inside the trunk. Faith put her hands on the metal handle and pulled back, dislodging the blade from the bark. The sweat from her brow fell down, cascading down her pale cheek as she raised the axe above her head. She gritted her teeth and yelled at the Freddy-tree angrily. "Let him go!" She plunged the axe into the base of the tree again. This time, when she pulled the blade out again, large pieces of bark came out along with it. "I'll chop you the fuck down!" she threatened as she raised the axe again, holding it like a bat. As soon as the blade hit, she insulted him again, each syllable that left her mouth was matched with an axe hit to the trunk. "You cock sucking--" Faith pulled the axe out and swung again. "mother--" She pulled the axe back as far as she could to ensure that her next swing would be the one to release Steven. "fucker!"

  SMACK!!!

  Before the axe could even make contact with the trunk, Freddy lowered one of his branches and used it to knock Faith out of his way. It sent her flying though the air.

  "Ack!" Faith cried as she crashed against the wall. Her entire body was being crushed as she was caught between the wall and the enormous branch. Her nose had been broken. A few of her ribs had been cracked as her rib cage continued to be caved in from the compression. Although it continued for only mere seconds, it felt like hours to her.

  Once Freddy retracted the branch, he allowed Faith to land on her feet, falling on the grass. She dropped the axe to the ground and curled up in the fetal position. She soon discovered that she had the wind knocked out of her lungs and could not breathe. Faith rolled over and got up to her hands and knees. She desperately gasped and gulped as she fought for breath. "Eck! (hiccup) Ugh!" Faith dropped the axe to the ground and rubbed her throat, reaching for air.

  Freddy watched her the entire time. Once she was finally vulnerable, he slithered one of his many branches through the grass. It made its way towards her axe and coiled around the handle.

  Oh my God! Evelyn's eyelids opened wider and her knees buckled. Her feet stomped on the ground as she charged toward Faith. "Faith!" she yelled, hoping to get her attention. "Look out!"

  Faith caught her breath just in time to tilt her head up and see the axe blade aimed at her face. The sight of the shining blade under the moonlit sky, surrounded by leafy branches was almost beautiful, until she realized that it would be the last thing she would see before her demise.

  Before she could move one muscle, she felt Evelyn tackle her, moving both of them out of the way. She grunted, "Oof!" as Evelyn's body slammed against hers. Both of them rolled on the grass, narrowly missing the fatal blow of the axe.

  Instead, the blade merely lodged into the wall of the store building. Freddy had no time or reason to dislodge it. He had better weapons in his arsenal.

  Evelyn laid on top of Faith. By pushing her out of the way, Faith had landed hard on her side. Her shoulder dug into the ground, and Evelyn being on top of her was only adding salt to her wounds. She immediately got up and grabbed Faith's hand to assist her. Both of them staggered as they regained their balance.

  "Come on." Evelyn said hastily. "We can't stay here, we have to run back." She didn't let go of Faith's hand. Instead, she gripped it tighter as she led her back to the store entrance, running as fast as she could.

  Faith lagged behind. She felt a rising, intense feeling in her heart. Something that made it pound and her entire body shake. Something that made her not want to get out of harm's way. "Wait!" she said, still running behind. "What about Steven? I can't leave him!"

  Evelyn felt just as bad as Faith did. But, she knew that if they stayed their even a second longer, they would both be killed. There was nothing else they could do. She tried to explain without making it seem like she was trying to purposefully abandon her friend. "He's too strong." she said. "He would've killed both of us back there."

  As the both of them ran back, they began to see dozens of thick branches lower down like party streamers before them. They hung down, trying to trap the two of them as they ran by.

  The two girls slid past the serpentine branches as they coiled up and tried to capture them. They could feel the sentient wood as it brushed by their hips, their arms, their legs, and all over their bodies.

  Soon, the grass and part of the concrete lot was littered with moving, pulsating tree bark. Faith and Evelyn found themselves having to take leaping steps to avoid the branches.

  They finally reached the front entrance of the store. Luckily for them, it was too far away for Freddy's branches to reach them. They were in the clear. Only a few more running steps and they would be safe inside the store.

  Faith looked behind her as she ran. Her eyes locked on Steven's bloodied face. The image of him, bound and gagged by the wooden manifestation of Freddy, kept shrinking the further she ran from them. Even though it was only thirty feet, she felt a thousand miles away from him.

  What she couldn't stand, the thing that she couldn't live with, was the fact that she was leaving him there to die. She was abandoning the one she loved. No. she thought. Her footing began to slow down. I can't do this. I can't do this to him. I can't do this. I can't do this. "I can't do this." The words left her lips softly. Like a whisper.

  The bottoms of her boots were planted firmly on the concrete. She and Evelyn were just outside of the front entrance.

  Evelyn felt a tug on her arm, and then found herself being stopped in her tracks. She turned around to see Faith, paused, looking at Steven and the monstrous oak tree that was now Freddy. "Faith, what are you doing?!" she asked. She looked past Faith to see the hoard of Deadites not too far from them. "We can't stay out here!"

  Faith whipped her head back to look into Evelyn's eyes. She gritted her teeth. Her brown eyes were alive with fury. "I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!"

  Her eyes began to well up in tears. She didn't want to leave him either. But there was a choice to make: Try to save Steven and have all of her friends die, including herself; or, do whatever she could to save Faith and
herself. "I don't want to lose you, too!"

  "I thought you said you were going to do everything you could to make sure that asshole doesn't kill any of us!"

  Her voice began to break. "But we can't save him without getting killed ourse--"

  Faith unlocked her hand from Evelyn's and pushed her away. "FUCK YOU!" She turned away from Evelyn and ran back to Steven.

  Faith had pushed her so hard that Evelyn fell down. She landed on the concrete, the hard surface scraping her arms and back. Her head hit the ground. The pain was unnerving, her entire skull throbbed and vibrated from the impact. She turned her head to the side, fighting the pain to open her eyes.

  What she saw was Faith, running as fast as her feet would take her, back to Steven. She rolled to her side and got up to her knees. She yelled at the top of her lungs. "FAITH, NO!"

  She could her Evelyn's voice. She could hear the pain and the worry in her tone. But she ignored it. Her only objective was to save Steven. I'm not going to leave him to die. I don't care how dangerous this is. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do everything I could to save him. Faith dodged and darted through the slithering branches, escaping their grasp.

  She could see her axe lodged into the wall. I could pull it back out, but it would take a few tries. I'll have to be quick.

  Faith was just within running distance of the axe when one of Freddy's branches shot out at her like a whip. It coiled itself around her neck. Her body leaned back as the branch pulled her away. She put her hands on the branch, trying to free herself. But she more she fought back, the tighter Freddy squeezed.

  She looked up. She was so close, and yet so far away from Steven. All she could do was stand there and watch as Freddy continued to torture him.

  Steven was suspended approximately ten feet from the grass at this point. He heard Faith's voice a couple of times, elating him for a split second. But, he realized that even if Faith was successful in cutting him down, there would be no saving him. Every inch of his body had been punctured. Crusty, jagged wood melded with his tender muscle tissue. He could feel them as they slithered within him. Even his ribcage had become tangled with twigs. The pain was unimaginable. He wanted to blackout just to be relieved from it, but somehow he was being kept alive. Aware of everything that was happening to him. Everything Freddy was doing to him.