A Nightmare Reborn Ch. 05

"We're the ones who fought," a woman with shortly cropped dark hair said in the front pew. She stood up, clad in a simple white dress that revealed her to be a slim and athletic woman. Her face was strong and her eyes filled with a powerful inner flame. She smiled warmly at Lori and said, "All of us faced the evil at one time or another."

"Who are you?" Lori asked as she stepped down into the aisle of the church.

"My name is Laurie Strode," she replied kindly, "My brother was Michael Myers."

Lori thought of the man in the white mask at the police station, the one who had killed her husband and the one Loomis had seemed the most afraid of. She asked, "What happened to you?"

"I died," Laurie turned to one side and opened the back of her dress. A vicious stab wound had been deeply cut into her back. Blood was thick and clotted around the gouge and yet there was no stain on her pure white dress, "Michael finally found me. I fell into darkness."

"Freddy Krueger killed me," another woman stood up just behind Laurie. She was younger, her hair full and curly and her face that of a little girl. Her eyes were large and doe-like, and Lori again felt the strangest sense of having known her before. She said, "My name is Nancy Thompson. I beat him once, but he tricked me and killed me."

Nancy lifted her dress up, revealing her naked body and then the four wicked puncture wounds on her flat stomach. Like Laurie, the wounds were bloody and awful but left no mark on the white dress. Nancy let the dress fall back into place.

"You lived on Elm Street," Lori nodded, "Your father was the one who caught Krueger."

"Yes," Nancy replied.

To Nancy's right another woman in white stood and faced Lori. She was even younger than Nancy, green eyes wide and face freckled with a tomboyish innocence. Her hair was short and red hued. There were wounds on her neck that forced Lori to look away. Her head had clearly been torn off along with half her neck, and yet she looked fine and at peace with that fact. She noticed Lori's reaction to her and smiled shyly.

"My name is Alice Hardy," she said, "I was at Camp Crystal Lake once. I killed Jason's mother on the shore the night she murdered all my friends. And then Jason came for me and did this," Alice ran a finger along the hideous line of torn flesh and ragged muscle encircling her neck, "He killed me."

More people began standing up, some of them looking even worse than Alice Hardy. She saw a boy in a yellow shirt that read "Bannon" further back in the chapel. She could see through his empty eye sockets, all the way back to the doors of the church. A woman, badly burned and bald was standing next to him looking sad and tortured. Lori could feel herself becoming light headed.

"Don't fear them, Lori," Alice Johnson put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"There's so many..."

"Yes, there are," the Dream Master nodded.

"Remember who you are," the burned woman in the back called out, her blue eyes wide and filled with desperation "Don't give in to hate."

"It will never end," the boy with no eyes shook his head, "They never quit."

"Alice," Lori turned to the Dream Master, "Who are these people really?"

"They're like us, Lori," Alice said, "They were the ones who survived the storm and stayed to fight on. They are the balance to the equation. For every Michael Myers, there is a Laurie Strode. For every Mrs. Voorhees and Jason there is an Alice Hardy. For every Candyman there is Helen Lyle and for every Freddy Krueger there is a Nancy Thompson...there is-" she pointed to her self, "... an Alice Johnson... or a Lori Rollins."

"Me?" Lori pointed at herself, "I'm no warrior, Alice."

"Yes you are," Alice insisted, "Look into your heart."

"I don't know how to beat him," Lori said, "I don't know the first thing about it."

"You don't' have to beat him," she replied, "I've realized after years of thinking and deep introspection that my job in life was never to defeat Freddy Krueger..."

"It was to cage him," Lori finished her thought, remembering what Loomis had said about the Dream Master earlier.

"Exactly," Alice said, "It was never my place to kill him. And that's where I failed."

"Face the evil," the ghost of Laurie Strode said.

"You must protect others against them," Nancy Thompson added.

"Don't give in to hate," Helen Lyle called from the back of the church again, her skin smoldering as she raised her hand to Lori, "Don't let them change you."

"Be at peace," Alice Hardy told her.

"Where there is peace..." added the dead sister of Michael Myers, Judith, from behind Laurie Strode.

"... there is no fear," the boy with no eyes finished.

Lori looked out across the church and realized that hundreds of people were in the pews now. It seemed the church had grown in size to accommodate the number of victims claimed by these madman and monsters. Faces, both serene and tortured looked to her with concern and curiosity. The world of the dead had opened up inside her mind and she was now seeing the fluid space between reality and the supernatural. Lori suddenly felt both very safe and very sad.

"It's your destiny Lori," the Dream Master told her, "Take your place and make your stand."

"I can't," Lori shook her head, "Will is dead and I can't-"

"I lost my sister," Laurie Strode whispered in her mind.

Then came Alice Hardy, "I lost my friends..."

"I lost my life," was the quiet lament of the boy with no eyes.

"I lost my soul," Helen Lyle breathed.

"I lost my son," Alice Johnson said, "I lost my brother and my father. I lost the only man I ever loved."

"I lost my husband," Lori began to cry. She looked out into the sea of faces and felt her heart stop as she recognized the broad features of Will Rollins. He was among the dead now, forever withheld from the living. His wounds were hideous like the hundreds of people crowding the church. He was towards the back of the chapel now, which had grown to the size of a majestic cathedral. Will simply looked at Lori and smiled that cocky half grin that had made her fall in love with him in the first place. He seemed at peace.

"Oh Jesus," she covered her mouth and sank to her knees.

"Let him go," Alice knelt beside her as the congregation of the dead watched, "Let him go, Lori. Honor him and love him and let him go."

Lori wept into her hands until Alice pulled her close and held her tight. The older woman felt helpless in comforting the girl. The Dream Master simply stroked Lori's blonde hair and rocked her back and forth. No one had been there for her when her dad died, and no one had been there when Jacob passed away in the hospital. Alice had been alone for so long she feared she might have lost her humanity in the process. But now, as she held Lori Rollins in her arms and cared for her, she found that she wasn't as out of touch as she had thought.

Lori looked up at her husband, immediately finding him in the crowd that now numbered in the thousands. She met his eyes and smiled at him as the thick lump in her throat threatened to steal her voice. Lori whispered to her dead husband the words she had not wanted to say. She knew wasn't ready to say them yet, but she couldn't deny that she felt a new purpose rising within her. Lori was being torn apart by her past and by her future.

"I love you Will," she told him as tears streamed down her cheeks, "But I have to let you go..."

Will smiled and spoke to her in a silent language only she could hear. Lori felt her heart begin to heal a little as her grief subsided enough to give her clarity. Will nodded to her and gave his blessing on her departure from his hand in marriage and life. He knew as she did that their separation would not last long. Here in the world beyond the living, an eternity was a relative matter. Will began to fade away and then disappear into the sea of faces.

"Goodbye," she whispered.

Alice squeezed her hand.

There was a rumbling outside the walls of the church and plumes of dust fell the cathedral ceiling. Lori felt a sudden pang of claustrophobia as the church somehow grew smaller, like an optical illusion. The walls were closing in and returning to their original shape and size as the crowd of ghosts made their exits. One by one, the dead turned and began filing out of the chapel as quietly has they had entered. They stepped through the doors of the church, swinging the heavy wooden gates open wide and returning to their respective eternities. Alice watched them leave as cool draft of the structure suddenly warmed.

"What is going on?" Lori asked and wiped her eyes as dust swirled around her and her feet shook under the power of the dream quake.

"He's coming," Alice said quietly.

Lori almost asked who but then thought better.

"Freddy's found us," Alice told her.

***

"What do you think they're doing?" Tessa asked as she peered through the front window.

"Some kind of half-assed séance?" Sean muttered.

"I'm not entirely sure," Loomis said as he strained to see through dusty glass into the living room. Lori and Alice were on the floor, sitting quietly and holding hands. Their arms were crossed one over the other and their faces tilted to the ceiling. Alice's mouth seemed to be open and working in silent words while Lori was breathing hard. Her breasts heaved up and down under her sweatshirt as tears streamed down her face.

"Oh my," Loomis whispered. He felt his heart breaking for the young girl and it bothered him that he had lost his detachment with his patient. Up until now, he had been able to keep his clinical distance from those he treated and counseled. But Lori Rollins had been a special case. Everything about her and her husband had stuck a strong personal resonance with Loomis. In Lori he saw himself, even the memory and commitment of his late father.

"Are they dreaming?" Sean looked to Loomis as he braced himself against the windowsill.

"I suspect so," the doctor tilted his head, "But why now?"

"This shit is getting weirder and weirder by the minute," Tessa shook her head.

"So what do we do?" Sean asked.

"We wait," Loomis sighed and walked over the porch swing. He sat down and folded his hands neatly in his lap.

"We wait?"

"Yes," Loomis nodded.

"The world is falling apart as we speak and we wait?"

"That's right."

"That's crazy," Sean replied.

"Are we not pursued by three homicidal maniacs?" Loomis closed his eyes and tried to relax. He tried not to remember how horribly Will Rollins had been murdered. He tried not to remember the screams of Lori being held back from her dying husband. He tried not to remember what had happened to Mary. He asked, "Are we not in danger of imminent death from clearly supernatural phenomenon?"

"Yeah," Sean agreed hesitantly.

"Crazy is our only option."

Loomis closed his eyes and after a moment, despite how scared he was fell into a light sleep.

***

The church had shrunk back down its normal size.

The dusty walls and wooden structure warped and tightened as the faux reality of the dream world began to fall under the influence of the dream killer. Dust was falling in thick clouds now, coating the pews and the two women in a haze of thick ancient crud. Lori coughed and covered her mouth, a salty flavor burning in the back of her throat. It reminded her of the taste of sweat. In her mind she imagined the dust being the desiccated and dried remains of Freddy's victims. Her stomach lurched and she staggered back against Alice.

"He does this," Alice stood still and defiant against the herald of Krueger's arrival, "He can be overdramatic or subtle."

A violent tremor shook the foundations of the church.

"Either way," Alice looked to Lori, "It's all show."

The doors of the church blew open and smashed against the walls with a thunderous bang that echoed through the building. Black crows took flight from thin air at the feet of the man standing in the doorway. The beating of their wings filled the soundscape of the world and hurt Lori's ears as they rocketed overhead and then into the shadows of the upper ceiling structure. They cawed and squawked angrily in the infinite space of the ceiling, flying back into the oblivion from whence they came.

"My favorite bitches!" Freddy Krueger announced as he raked his bladed fingers over the church doorframe. He scrawled splinted gashes into the ancient wood as he passed. His yellow eyes fixed on Alice for a moment with hateful recognition and then rolled wetly to Lori. He crossed his arms over his green and red striped sweater, tapping the blades on his arm. He smiled, revealing the broken and rotted brown teeth behind his burned lips, "Fancy meeting you here."

"Always a pleasure," Alice replied.

"If only Nancy were here," Freddy walked slowly down the center aisle, "I mean then we'd really have some fun. Three bitches at the same time."

"In your dreams," Alice said.

"I thought we were," Freddy winked a demonic eye and added under his breath, "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I got laid?"

Alice shook her head.

"By the way Alice," Freddy reached behind his back and then pulled the body of a ten year old boy out from behind him like a ventriloquist with his prize dummy. The little boy was pale and dead, his face limp and sagging. Krueger held him by the skin of his bald scalp, the blades of his fingers dug in deep and pulling on the skin. Wet hospital pajama's clung to the boy's flaccid body as dead blue eyes stared into the void. Freddy shook the body and made it dance in an obscene electric jive, the bruised feet slapping against the floor, "How's your son doing? I hear he's dead on his feet."

Lori could feel Alice tense up at the sight of her dead son.

"Fuck you," Lori shouted.

"Lori," Freddy sighed, "Can't you see I'm trying to get reacquainted with an old friend here?"

"Leave her alone!" Lori screamed.

"Lori," Alice put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head, "No."

Freddy made the corpse of Jacob Johnson talk, a gross parody of Willie Tyler and Lester. Freddy looked surprised and shocked as he threw his voice and Jacob spoke, "While Uncle Freddy, it's been so long. I missed you."

"Jacob, you little scamp," Freddy chuckled and patted the dead boy's forehead with a proud mischievous grin, "You're mom is here to say hello."

The head of the corpse turned and stared at Alice, "Hello bitch."

"That's no way to talk to your mom," Freddy laughed and shrugged at Alice, "Kids say the darndest fucking things, don't they?"

"You're still just as pathetic as you were back then," Alice said.

"Whoop-dee shit, bitch," the corpse laughed mockingly, "Oh, Dad says hello Mom. He's burning in hell right now as we speak. He says he misses you."

"Stop it now, you fuck!" Lori screamed as a single tear rolled down Alice's cheek.

"Ohhhhh, such big fucking talk," Freddy eyed her and then leaned in closer as he tossed the dead body of Jacob Johnson into the front pew. It landed on the hard wooden bench with a wet crumpling sound and a loud echoing thud.

"You really are a bastard," Alice said quietly.

"I can't say you're wrong," Freddy nodded thoughtfully and put one dusty boot on the first step leading up to where Lori and Alice stood, "If the shoe fits, right Alice?"

"I'm going to stop you," Lori glared at him, her blue eyes filled with vengeance.

"Oh no," Krueger put his hands to his slimy burnt cheeks as his eyes went wide with mock fear. He raised his voice to a high squeal and whimpered as he pranced in place, "Oh please don't kill me! Please Mrs. Rollins! I've been killed so many times before that I can't do one more roll with the punch! Mercy!"

Krueger threw his head back and laughed, holding his stomach with both hands.

"He likes to hear himself talk," Alice glanced at Lori.

"Let's just get this over with," Freddy rolled his eyes, "I have a town to conquer, innocent people to murder and a world set ablaze."

"By all means," Alice stood in a classic fighting stance.

Freddy mimicked her and danced around like a twisted version of a champion boxer, his bottom lip sucked in and feral eyes wide with amusement. He rolled his fists in the air and did a gleeful dance. Freddy laughed and chuckled to himself as Alice watched him impassively. Krueger wasn't taking any of it seriously.

Alice made to lunge for him and then Krueger stopped, opening his right hand and extended the blades out. Alice was within a foot of him before an unseen force shoved her backwards hard. She lifted into the air and was thrown back into the large center window of the chapel. The glass shattered and fell in sharp slivers as she passed through and out of sight. Freddy looked at his knives like a well-manicured businessman appraising his nails before an important meeting.

"I can't tell you," the dream killer shook his head, "How fucking good that felt."

Lori looked out the window helplessly and then back at Freddy. He removed his dark fedora and looked at her with all the compassion of a venomous snake.

"We're going to stop you," Lori said, though she had a hard time believing it. She hated herself for not having the courage to face him. It was as though she were being drained from the inside out, like someone had pulled the plug on her soul and all of the essential parts that made her who she was were being flushed away. As she looked into his cold eyes and felt his stare on her she discovered a fear she hadn't known since the time she had faced him at the dock on Crystal Lake.

"What will it take?" Freddy ignored her, "What does a guy have to do to get rid of you? Was killing your husband not enough? Was killing your father not enough?"

"Liar!" she screamed, "My father is not dead!"

"Well, technically he killed himself," Freddy shrugged, "But regardless... DEAD!."

"Liar!"

"That's good," Freddy laughed and took a step back, "Denial is always good. Makes my job easier."

Lori wanted to jump on Krueger and beat the shit out of him until his head caved in. She wanted to avenge all the deaths he had caused and all the horrific crimes he had committed, but found herself paralyzed with fear. Her legs would not move and her arms remained frozen at her sides, trembling slightly as the fear enveloped her like a sackcloth cloak. Lori gritted her teeth and fought against the fear.

"Poor Lori," Freddy sighed and then pointed to the far side of the chapel. Lori saw her father there, slumped against the wall. His head was gone, only a raw and smoldering stump where the neck should have been. She could smell his cooked flesh and thought she might vomit as she looked at the wall behind him. Her father's face was in chunks and spatters across the surface. She could make out his mouth, sliding wetly down the wall past a destroyed eyeball. The eye seemed to look right at her.

"You're death, Lori," he father's corpse whispered through disembodied lips. When the fleshy lips moved, she could see the plaster behind the mouth, "Everything and everyone you touch dies."

Suddenly his torso opened up and revealed his inner workings like some gory flower yielding to the bloody sunlight. Ropes of gristly intestines looped out and roped across the floor towards her like spastic snakes. The pale tubes of flesh writhed and slithered for her feet. Lori hitched a silent scream in her throat as the intestines coiled around her legs and worked their way up her thighs. She could feel a warm length of the long organ slip up her pants leg and slide along her calve.

Thick membranes tore and separated as organs ruptured and fell to the floor. They scooted and squirmed towards her as that lone eyeball splattered on the wall watched her. The veins deeply embedded in the fleshy monstrosity began whipping out of their beds and lashing about like whips. The veins ripped away and followed the kidneys and lungs inching their way towards Lori.