"Give up on yourself, and you give up on all of us."
The light was extinguished an instant later. Colleen smelled smoke once more. And felt pain. And heard Lance calling her name. Instead of responding to him, she kicked out with all her might. Both feet connected solidly with Mrs. Wodell's stomach. Her grip loosened slightly and Colleen kicked out again. This time the librarian fell back.
Denny was right, she realized. If I give up, I give up for more than just myself. And Lance was right, too. A bully's a bully. This time Lance was able to pull her through the window before Mrs. Wodell could recover fully. While the librarian was still doubled over in pain, Colleen shoved with her feet, using the leverage to knock the heavy bookcase onto Mrs. Wodell. She looked up just as it hit her.
Lance pulled her onto the lawn of the library. Both of them lay still for a minute, breathing heavily. Smoke billowed from the windows of the library's upper floors. Lights and sirens from an entire fire department company approached.
Colleen looked back into the basement. Mrs. Wodell lay pinned by the heavy bookcase. Only her face and right arm were visible. Whatever powers it had, it could not lift the bookcase to escape. And the flames were closing in. The screams rose in pitch. Mrs. Wodell's face became an almost unrecognizable mask of terror.
Unable to look away, Colleen watched as Mrs. Wodell's white hair finally caught fire. All at once, her entire body was consumed in an intense blaze, the hull of Mrs. Wodell burning away in an instant to reveal a form underneath. Still struggling, still screaming, the shape of a man now lay where the old woman had been only moments before. But this wasn't a normal man. His face was a mass of charred flesh, much more terrifying than Denny's. He stank of evil, and Colleen knew instantly that this was the true dark man who had plagued them all. And by the claw of his right hand, the way it slashed the air savagely, she knew the identity of the dark man.
Freddy Krueger. Legendary child killer of Springwood.
The heat in the basement had become so intense, Krueger's steel talons had begun to glow red-hot. Flaming books began to fall from the bookcase behind the demon, covering him like a swarm of deadly butterflies. Then the whole bookcase came crashing down on Krueger, becoming his funeral pyre. Colleen finally tore her eyes away. Lance sat beside her silently, in shock. And later, explanations to the police and fire officials were not easily made.
No body was found in the ruins of the library's basement.
Epilogue
Time to write "The end" for another tale of terror. That girl Colleen may have burned me up, but I still got plenty of recruits for Freddy's summer reading program. It's going to be a hot one, believe me.
And don't feel too bad for my latest batch of victims. They all got what they wanted beyond their wildest — heh heh heh — dreams. Kirk is now sitting at the wheel of his very own Porsche Spyder, the same kind of car his idol, James Dean, died in. At his side, the wind blowing through her spiked hair, is Vicki. She's more his speed than Colleen was, anyway. Don't you think? And in the backseat sits Ricky, bookended by Tish and Melina.
Who could ask for more than best friends, together for all time, cruising down the road in a fast car? And they lived happily ever afterlife. Right?
Right. Except for the concrete wall Kirk runs into while driving over 150 miles an hour. And just to make sure he gets it right, I let him do it over and over again. Forever. He and his friends have become eternal crashtest dummies! Heh heh heh…
Now it's back to my current book, the complete story of Jack the Ripper. It's been a long time since I've read a classic fairy tale with a happy ending. What's surprising is that some people were actually afraid of this Ripper character.
Between you and me, I consider him a hack.
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