A Nightmare Reborn: FVJ 02

"Michael," he called out, "I'm here!"

***

"They're out," Sean looked at Lori and Alice as Tessa secured the door. Both women looked serene as they slept huddled together. Sean noticed they were both sweating, their shirts soaked and damp.

"I hope they're okay."

"They will be."

"Okay," Tessa nodded, "Who goes out?"

"Goes out where?"

"One of us has to stay with them," she said and flipped the safety on her Uzi off, "The other goes with Loomis. Who's it gonna be?"

"Jesus, Tessa," Sean rolled his eyes, "Stay with them."

"No," Tessa put a hand on his chest, "No macho bullshit. This has to be fair."

"All right," Sean growled and jutted his closed fist out. Tessa did the same and they hammered their fists in the air three times before showing their best shot. Sean had kept his fist balled up in the form of the impenetrable rock, but Tessa had revealed the open palm of paper. Sean swallowed and felt guilty as he knew Tessa would not be stopped from her duty. He sighed, "Suicidal bitch."

"Arrogant asshole," she hugged him and kissed him, "I love you.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

Tessa smiled at him reassuringly and then opened the door. She checked to make sure she had all her ammunition with her and looked back at Sean. There was something final in their silent exchange that said more than any act of lovemaking ever could. It was a declaration of their commitment and their love for one another without the hurdle of words or of misunderstanding. It was pure communication and the closest either of them had ever come to knowing what it was like to be a complete person.

"I won't say it," she looked back at him.

"Don't," Sean said and then stood in front of Lori and Alice, "Go baby."

Tessa was gone and Sean was left alone. He shivered and looked down at his two friends, feeling both overwhelmed and frightened. He beat the fear down as best he could and put a harness on the little bastard, forcing him to work hard for Sean. He beat the fear into submission and cleared his mind of all clutter and of all distractions. His mission was to protect Lori and Alice no matter what. If Tessa and Loomis did their jobs, it would make his easier. And there was a chance they may all come of this together, alive.

But something, maybe his experience as a cop or just as a survivor of one of the worst massacre in decades, told him that if something could go wrong it would.

He heard Loomis in the shadows as the lights flickered, "Michael... show yourself!"

Sean took a deep breath and put his finger on the trigger of the Uzi.

"Please God... just a little help."

***

Lori watched as Alice and Freddy dueled with their bladed right hands. They were moving fast and furiously across the flagstones that littered the surface of Freddy's churning lake of fire. Steaming water lapped at them in powerful spurts, hissing and mewling with each splash onto the weathered stone formations. Column of flames not seen since God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah arched through the sizzling atmosphere of the dreamscape and swirled into billowing, black clouds of carbon and spent matter.

Alice was dodging and thrusting with her glove like a martial arts expert, flipping over Freddy and parrying with him. Lori never could have imagined that Alice could possess such skill and grace. She was almost like a ballet dancer as she fought the dream killer, her moves deft and smooth to the angry lashed of Krueger. They were old enemies and knew each other intimately and it showed through the silent manner in which their fight played out.

There was no glib dialogue or witty taunts as they fought. The blades sparked and slashed against each other as they worked around the corners of the caves. Each attempt to strike a killing blow was dodged or deflected as they hopped from stone to stone. Freddy swung hard and missed Alice by a hair, shaving rocks off the wall of the cave in an explosion of sparks.

Alice spun her leg around and connected with Freddy's jaw, sending him reeling backwards and into the water. Alice jumped back as Freddy disappeared into the flaming liquid, readying herself. Lori stood back as well and watched, bracing herself against one of the pillars.

'It can't be that easy,' Lori thought.

And it wasn't.

Freddy exploded from the water in a shower of glowing flame, his black overcoat billowing like a cape from behind him. His arms were out to his side in a predatorial maneuver of balance as he shot into the air, legs tucked under his thighs. Alice leapt backwards in an effortless flip, her bladed glove scraping against the stone. Freddy came down hard and cracked one of the flagstones in half.

They attacked each other, slicing and grunting as they tried to outmaneuver each other, outsmart each other. Alice jabbed at him and caught Freddy just under the arm, sinking her blades in deep. She withdrew quickly and swung again, elegantly sweeping up and to her right. Four long wounds opened wide across Freddy's face and gouted black blood as his eyes began glowing a golden yellow.

Alice could feel the heat of the fire against her skin as she let her mind flow freely, her hand working under its own method and design. With every slice of the glove that took some of Freddy's flesh away from his body she remembered those she had lost to him. With every drop of his black, ichor blood she reclaimed a part of her life she had lost to him. Her lips drew back from her teeth in a snarl as she hacked away at him, her blood surging though every vein furiously.

"You bitch!" Freddy gaped as his left arm was severed and thudded to the ground.

Alice stood back and screamed at him like a wild animal, rage and anger seething from her eyes like fire. She kicked the arm away and lunged again. Freddy deflected her blows with his one hand as Alice forced him back towards the cave wall. Lori's heart was thundering as she watched, scared to death but swept away in the momentum of Alice's attack. She found herself gripping the pillar with both hands as she watched.

Freddy fell backwards and landed on the flagstone as fire raged around him. His bloody stump was spouting blood in a high-pressure stream as he looked to Alice, his bladed fingers over his face.

"Kill him!" Lori screamed and slapped the pillar.

Alice raised her hand high, Freddy's own infamous bladed glove composed in the final blow against him. She said, "You're dead."

And then she stopped.

Freddy smiled.

Alice choked and staggered back. The blades on Freddy's hand had extended out and elongated faster than the eye could follow. The five knives has extended to eight-foot long lengths of metal from Freddy's hand and impaled through Alice's body. She faltered for a moment as she looked at him, the reality brutally clutching her at.

Lori gasped as she watched the amorphous stiletto like knives poke out the back of Alice's t-shirt and glimmer with red blood. Alice dropped her gloved hand to her side and looked at the stretched out knifes piercing her ribs, left breast, sternum and heart.

"Alice!" Lori screamed.

The Dream Master looked at Freddy with eyes that were blurry with tears and the cloudy touch of death. Blood trickled from her mouth in a steady stream as Freddy gleefully smiled up at her, his face alive with triumph and uncontained joy. He jerked the blades out and Alice collapsed to the stone segment in a pool of her own blood. Freddy stood over her and waved his bladed index finger mockingly as his left arm suddenly popped out of his body, regenerated and complete again. He said, "Tell me, Dream Master... how do you kill what's already dead?"

"You don't," Alice wheezed as blood seeped from between her lips.

Freddy looked at Lori and bellowed with laughter until he disappeared from her sight like a ghost. Lori's paralysis broke and she ran to Alice, hopping and jumping across the stones. Her legs felt like stilts, off balance and a million miles away. Her lungs ached from the noxious air of this world, her eyes burning from potent fumes and heavy tears.

As Alice died, the entire dream world seemed to grow darker and more dangerous. The walls of the cave were closing in on her as she reached her friend and knelt beside her. A low tremor shook through the dreamscape, loosening rocks and debris from the ceiling above them. Lori shielded Alice as the boiling water splashed and rolled in waves from the impacts of house-sized boulders. She cradled Alice gently in her arms and brushed her beautiful red hair out of her pale, blood and dust smeared face.

Alice smiled at her with such love, "Oh look what I've done..."

Lori couldn't speak as hot tears stung her eyes and a thick lump formed in her throat. She stroked Alice's face once with fingers that trembled and then held her left hand to the dying woman's chest. She hadn't been able to save any one. From the moment her mother had been murdered by Krueger to Will being slain to now, Lori knew she had failed in every possible way. Her guilt swelled inside her like a terrible cyst, threatening to burst and poison her. She closed her eyes and tried to resist the breakdown that was almost upon her.

"Lori," Alice said with no small effort as she coughed up blood that spattered her chin, "Lori listen to me. Don't carry the weight of the dead. He'll use it against it you. Draw strength from them and finish what we started."

"I will," she looked into Alice's glassy eyes as her breathing became watery and strained, "I swear I will."

"Don't look back," Alice smiled at Lori and then saw beyond her into what lay beyond the world, "You have a choice..."

Lori nodded, her face contorted in a vain effort to keep her composure.

"I'm not afraid anymore," Alice whispered, her eyes fading to a dull wash of their former color.

Lori watched in stupefied horror as Alice Johnson took one final breath that rattled in her throat for a moment and then escaped from her lips along with her soul. Her slender body went limp, and after a few moments, began to feel cold. The Dream Master died in the netherworld between reality and fantasy, comfortable in the arms of Lori Rollins.

Lori shook uncontrollably for a minute, her sobs deep and painful. Fat tears rolled down her flushed cheeks as she brought her fingers to Alice's open eyes and gently shut her lids. Lori hugged Alice to her body and wept for her friend. She could find no reason or logic to hold on to. In Alice's death she relived those that came before. She was alone now, completely and finally alone. The universe seemed to grow so quiet it was unbearably loud.

"Get up," she breathed. Lori laid Alice down on the stone and closed her eyes. She put her hands on her knees and felt the tremors of guilt and fear surging through her. She had to get up. Lori closed her eyes and summoned herself to task in a way she had never before. She had to get up.

"I'm not finished," she said through gritted teeth, a declaration not only to Alice but also to Will and to her father and to her mother and everyone else who had died under Freddy's blades, "I swear to God I am not finished."

Lori took a deep breath and then kissed Alice gently on the lips. It was such a simple act of love, that one kiss. There was no sexual motivation behind it nor was there a pressing need for her to make contact. Lori simply knew it was the right thing to do, for it seemed that no words could ever truly express the depth of what these two women had come to mean to each other.

"I'll see you again," she whispered and folded Alice's hands together on her unmoving chest. She looked at her hands and saw they were covered in blood. Alice's blood, wet and warm against her flesh. In her hands was the essence of life. Lori stared at it, the color and meaning behind it.

And then, a new sensation...

Lori could feel it rising inside her, devouring her rage and fear. Something hot and overwhelming passed from Alice to Lori like a spectral arc of electricity. Lori threw her head back, her mouth wide open as the power of the Dream Master was bestowed upon her. Her hips bucked in an invisible orgasm as she was filled to capacity with the otherworldly power. Her teeth chattered and her skin burned with the sheer energy of the gift being given to her.

Lori was in the dream world and yet she was everywhere all at once. She could see everything that came before with perfect clarity, all the wrong and hatred of men like Krueger and the truth about his place in this world. She felt herself on the verge of hyperventilation as her mind was filled to capacity with knowledge and what she believed was a divine understanding. In the years that passed during the mere seconds of transference, Lori began to understand.

Moments later when her eyes opened, they glowed blue.

"I was wondering if you two were more than friends, " Freddy chuckled from behind her, "Such a touching little kiss."

Lori heard his words, but in a new context. She took the glove off Alice's limp hand. The weapon was light in her hand, the leather rough and stained.

"Any tongue, Princess?"

Lori stood up, her back to Krueger and his old glove in her hand.

"Lez-be-friends?" he taunted her, wiggling his fingers in the air and dancing like a demonic cheerleader, "So hot! Lori and Alice sitting in the tree! F-U-C-K-I-N-G!"

"She was my friend," Lori said and threw his glove into the boiling fire water. The tears in her eyes began to dry away as she watched it sink into the unknown depths.

"I'm sure she was," Freddy laughed, "But I can't tell you how satisfying killing her was, Lori. It was on my wish list of things to do before the new millennium, but you know how hectic things can get, right?"

Lori turned and faced him, her eyes no longer glowing but filled with her own internal fire. Her hands were clenched into fists as she stared at him. Lori was no longer afraid of him. He was terrifying every way imaginable to be sure. The cries of the children he had murdered sang out in a chorus confirming his sins and the viciousness of his crimes. His unrepentant stare reminded her that he not only planned to kill her, but also to violate her as well. Lori looked down at the wide neck of her t-shirt and glanced at the scars Freddy has left on her chest two years prior.

"Not again," she whispered.

She remembered the feeling of the blades against her inner thighs and became angry.

"Never again," she shivered as smoldering rage began to swell inside her.

"So scary," Freddy sneered as his black coat whipped around him in the gusts of ember-laden wind, "Let's wrap this up, shall we?"

Freddy opened his right hand and flashed his wicked blades.

"Once and for all," he added with an arrogant grin.

"Have it your way," Lori opened her right hand and concentrated. There was flash of pain in her fingertips as she summoned her new powers to task and took it on faith she could do what needed to be done. Lori felt a pulse of something so alien to her that it both shocked and aroused her as it coursed through her body, electrifying her nerves and raising gooseflesh on her arms.

Freddy looked at her, again feeling uncertain as she concentrated. This was the part he hated most. He hated the goddam uncertainty of it all. No matter how much he planned for it, these stupid kids were always trying to one up him. Freddy growled and stepped forward to attack while the moment was open, but was suddenly compelled to give Lori some room as her eyes met his and she glared at him.

From her fingers sprang five, long metallic claws that were identical to the ones Freddy wielded and equally as dangerous. He watched with no small measure of loathing and fear as Lori held her hand out, blood streaming down her forearm in thin ribbons. She worked her fingers back and forth and then motioned for Freddy to come to her as Alice had done. She was mocking him in his own domain. Freddy felt his seared flesh burn anew with pure hate as he gritted his rotted out teeth and prepared.

"That's a cute parlor trick, bitch," Freddy growled.

"Come to me," she said quietly.

"And just who the fuck do you think you are?" Krueger sneered.

"I'm the Dream Master," Lori graced him a secret smile and then added "... bitch."

***

Loomis was taken by surprise as Michael lunged from the shadows. The machete hissed through the air and lodged in one of the large pipes bolted to the dust-covered ground. Loomis teetered on the edge of the basin and almost lost his balance when Michael grabbed him by the neck and pulled him forward roughly. Loomis gasped and struggled for air as Michael choked him. He batted at Michael as hard as he could, and from the way Michael was jolting from the hits he knew it had to hurt.

"Gack!" he squirmed in Myers grip as his shotgun fell to the floor in a metallic clatter. The killer only looked at him impassively and squeezed harder. The veins in the doctor's eyes began to burst and spread out across the whites. His vision was going blurry as the life was taken from his body slowly. He thought of his father and how he had failed him. Loomis kicked futilely at Michael and then again once more before his eyes began roll back into his head.

And then there was a gunshot.

Myers staggered back and Loomis was freed. He fell hard, gulping like a fish out of water for air as he rolled towards the basin. He grabbed onto the lips of the huge hole, his fingers scraping across the rusted steel seal and rivets. Vertigo swept over him as his body was pulled down into the basin, his only lifeline being his worn out fingers. There was another burst of automatic gunfire as Michael fell backwards against the pipes. His head hit hard and busted open one of the sheet metal tubes causing a plume of steam to erupt.

"Doc?" Tessa came running up to the basin, her gun still trained on Michael, "Matthew?"

Loomis looked up into the flickering lights hanging from the ceiling, "I'm here!"

"Hang on!" she shouted and shouldered her Uzi, "I'll get you out."

And then a shadow fell over her. Tessa saw the horrified look in Loomis eyes and before either of them could react Jason gripped Tessa's shoulder and flung her back against the wall. She rebounded off the surface hard and fell to the dirty floor. Jason saw his machete on the ground and grabbed it, looking at Tessa like a shark about to bite into a swimmer.

She staggered onto her feet, her eyes spinning from the blow to her head. She raised the Uzi up to fire and felt it rip away from her as Jason's machete caught it. The gun spun away from her and slid into the shadows between the pipes. Tessa cried out and reached for her boot knife, a long ten-inch hunting blade. She unsheathed the dagger with her left hand and tried to stab Jason but only found his huge hand waiting for her. He grasped her wrist and slammed her against the wall again, lifting her up by the neck so her feet were dangling. With one quick, insanely easy maneuver he forced her to stab the dagger through her own right shoulder. Tessa screamed as the blade punched through the meat and bone and lodged in the wall.

The pain was nearly blacking her out as she struggled to keep conscious. She wouldn't die passing out or losing her head. She would meet this asshole face to face to spit in his eye when he delivered the final blow. Tessa shuddered as her shoulder rippled with excruciating pain. She refused to cry and kicked him hard in the thigh, screaming, "Fuck you!"

Jason seemed to understand this comment and raised his machete for the kill.

"Tessa!" Loomis screamed as he tried to pull himself up out of the pit and then to Jason he pleaded, "No, don't do it!"

More automatic gunfire sounded off from the shadows. The cloth of his ratty jacket shredded and blood misted from the torn meat across his right shoulder as Jason was thrown back to the ground. Sean came running past, his gun unloading every round into Jason's body with precision accuracy. He looked at Loomis and screamed, "Get her out of here now!"