A Nightmare Reborn Ch. 04

Michael got to his feet and felt his mask. It was still there, the one comfort he had to take with him on his journey. Everything else was inconsequential. The mask had become a part of him, and he would no sooner leave from hiding without it than he would his clothes. The darkness inside had allowed him that one small luxury. In return for everything he was, it gave him the mask. It became him as the mask had become a part of the whole.

Michael wondered sometimes if he was even human anymore, if he even qualified as being a man. He thought not.

The cursed doctor had known that about him from the beginning, and maybe that's why he had lasted so long. The doctor always seemed to escape. Maybe that's why the doctor was able to capture him, not once but twice. Michael still remembered the flames from the hospital that night so long ago. He could still remember his flesh being seared and burned. He still remembered the pain and agony of his immolation. And yet, he didn't care. The pain was fleeting and he knew no matter what they did, he would not die.

The darkness wouldn't let him die.

He still had work to do.

Michael pulled his mask tight and gripped his knife. It was still light out, and he would have to move carefully. He wasn't sure where he was, but he knew where he must go. He could feel the masked man already on his way there too. And Michael could feel the doctor's son presence. He could sense him like he could the others in his family. Michael supposed that was what the doctor, and now his son had become to him. They were family.

Michael was the caretaker of that family, the vessel for the work of the darkness.

And the doctor's son would die as all the others had.

One way or another.

***

Dr. Loomis looked at the police officers around the station and then back at Lori and Will. He felt a twinge of stage fright as he looked at them all, as he saw their uncertain looks and disbelief in his words. He knew that Lori and Will understood. The expressions on their faces said it all. But the others, in particular Sheriff Williams, he doubted could be persuaded to listen. They had been functioning under a lie, under a misguided attempt to save their town.

And now, Loomis had to tell them things were about to get worse.

"Sheriff, you have a bigger problem that just Fred Krueger and Jason Voorhees," Loomis said.

"Really?" The Sheriff leaned against his doorway, "And that would be?"

"Michael Myers," he replied, the name making him feel sick to his stomach, "Michael Myers has come to Springwood."

"The Haddonfield killer?" the Sheriff laughed, his eyes wide with disbelief, "The guy who hacks up babysitters on Halloween night? This is May for Christ's sake."

"Not just on Halloween. Not just babysitters," Loomis shook his head and thought of his father, "Many, many people have fallen under his rage over the last few decades, and he intends to kill here as well. We need more help."

"We are not going to expose this to the outside," The Sheriff hissed, now completely tired of explaining himself to civilians, "This is town business, and we're going to handle it. We can't bring outsiders into this."

"You said another man in a mask attacked Jason," Will interjected, looking dead at the Sheriff.

"Rollins," Sheriff Williams began.

"This town is going to be cattle to the slaughter, sheriff!" Loomis insisted, "Beyond what Krueger and Jason will do, Michael Myers will bleed your town to death."

"And what proof do you have he is here?" The Sheriff asked, his voice short with irritation. He looked at Will, "Other than another bumfuck running around in a mask?"

Loomis bit his lip and reached into his coat pocket. He yanked out a piece of paper, unfolded it and shoved it in the Sheriff's face. He said, "Look at him! That's the face of an inhuman monster. He's here! How many will die before you understand this?"

"I don't mean any disrespect, doctor," Williams said and took the photocopy of a black and white shot of Michael Myers face. It looked like a coroners photograph. He glanced at it and felt a chill raise goosebumps on his arms. After a moment he said, "Renaud!"

Sean stepped forward from behind the front desk, "Sir?"

"You seen this guy before?" Williams handed him the photocopy.

Sean took the copy and looked at it. "That's him."

"An eye witness," Loomis said to the sheriff.

"That's him," Sean repeated and held it up to show Don, who stood a few feet away beside Tessa. Don nodded.

"You're certain?" the sheriff asked. God, they couldn't handle one killer running lose let alone two. But to add a third?

"Positive," Sean said, "That's the fucker that tossed Jason around the road with a pipe."

"I'm sorry," Lori stepped forward and stood by Loomis, "You said he tossed Jason around?"

"He's very strong, miss," Don looked at her, "I'd bet my pension that fucked-up puck-jockey weighs over two-fifty, and this guy lifted him like he was a ballerina."

"Goddamit," Williams shook his head. He placed his hands on his belt and thought for a moment, consumed in silent acceptance. Sean Renaud was not a man given to hysteria or mistakes. Williams might have expected someone else to be more confused after the slaughter last night, but not Renaud. If the man said he saw Michael Myers, then he was telling the truth. He turned to Loomis, "All right. Myers is here. But you said we're all victims of a trap. Care to explain?"

"The memorial service," Loomis said to Lori, "When did you first hear about it?"

"The day I saw you last," Lori said, "That morning Charlie Linderman's mom called me up and said there'd be a memorial service for the massacre."

"Sheriff, does this Linderman woman still live here?" Loomis asked.

"No," Williams frowned, "She moved after her kid died."

"Then who called me?" she asked.

"Freddy Krueger did," Loomis said flatly and motioned back to the holding cells, "Through my ex-wife, Mary. He's inside her."

There was silence around the office.

Loomis sighed, "Don't you see? Freddy Krueger has been playing everyone here from day one. He waited until someone was stupid enough to go to Crystal Lake, the place where he was separated from his physical body during his fight with Jason. He needed a host to do his work for him. He possessed Mary like a demon would and used her to set these events in motion. He wanted Lori and Will to come back to Springwood, as he wanted Jason to come back. He manipulated them and tricked them into coming here, as I was tricked into coming here. He'll use Jason to stir up trouble and make people remember."

"And Michael Myers is his insurance?" Will ventured as he sat down on one of the desks.

Loomis nodded, "He knows he can't fight Jason and win. So Michael will do it for him."

"This shit is crazy," Tessa whispered to Don under her breath.

"Yes it is," Loomis agreed, startling Tessa. She hadn't imagined the doctor would be able to hear her, but apparently he had the ears of an eagle. He said, "I believe that Freddy Krueger cannot stay in Springwood anymore. He won't. Between Jason and Michael, he'll expose your local secret to the world. Everyone will know his name and people will fear him... and then we're all dead."

"Why bring us back?" Lori asked, "Why go to all that trouble?"

"You and Will defeated him," Loomis said, "Do you honestly believe he's beyond revenge?"

"Then why bring you here?" Sean asked, his powerful arms crossed over his chest, "Why bring people here who could figure out his game?"

"I'm bait, officer," Loomis sighed, "Bait for Michael Myers."

"And how do you know all this again?" Tessa asked. Her face was like everyone else in the room, shocked and filled with disbelief.

"Mary told me so."

And then a scream let out from the holding cells, high pitched and agonizing.

***

Sean and Tessa arrived first, their boots skidding across the concrete floor and mouths wide open as they beheld the horror before them. Mary, the crazy bitch Tessa picked up by the lake, had reached through her cell and grabbed the kid from the van wreck. She lifted him up in the air by his hair, his body pulled against the bars tight as he screamed. Mary stood on her cot and lifted him higher off the ground. The kids' boots were banging against the bars in hollow thumps as he tried to shake her grip.

"What in the name Christ?" Williams shouted as he came up behind the two deputies. He fell into the same shocked stupor that seized Sean and Tessa as Mary turned her head and faced them, her eyes glazed over and her grin pulled back like some insane clown. She laughed out loud, but her voice was deep and animalistic. It echoed through their ears as she held the boy out with her hand, his hair pulled tight in her balled up fist.

"What's the matter?" she asked in her demonic man's voice, "Something wrong?"

"What the fuck?" Will said from behind them as he, Lori and Loomis stepped into the cell room.

Mary regarded Will with a predatorial cock of her head, "It's the Westin Hills refugee..."

She looked at Lori and sneered, "... and the bitch..."

And then she looked to Loomis. Mary chuckled, "... and the good doctor..."

"Freddy," Lori whispered.

"In the flesh, so to speak," Mary spoke for Freddy as she raised her right hand in the air. The blades exploded from her fingers, defying the laws of physics and reality right in front of them. Blood and rotted flesh fell to the floor as the knives glistened in the harsh lighting of the room.

"My errand boys will be here soon," Freddy warned them. Mickey was crying now, his hands still batting at the merciless grip of the possessed Mary Stilfreeze. Freddy raised his hand to strike and Sean pulled his gun faster than the eye could follow.

"Don't," he said softly, his eyes focused and stance steady as a rock, "Put the boy down."

"Or what?" Freddy laughed defiantly, "You'll kill me?"

"If I have to."

"Listen up, dickwad," Freddy spat at him and took his bladed index finger to Mary's head. He cut a long line down the middle of her face, from the top of her scalp to her chin. The crimson line was thin at first, and then it began to split open. Gleaming raw muscle flexed in the opening as her face split apart. Tessa pulled her gun and aimed. She stifled her gag reflex as the countenance of Mary Stilfreeze slid off her skull in a slimy mess. Lori gasped and grabbed Will's arm. The pale white flesh fell away into separate sloughs of dead skin and meat. Blood trickled down her body and soaked her stolen uniform as the reborn, angry face of Freddy Krueger glared at them.

"How can you kill someone who's already dead?" Freddy asked.

"Oh my God," Loomis stood there, utterly shell-shocked as he watched what was left of his ex-wife wither and die.

"Let's find out," Tessa said and fired.

Sean followed her cue and they fired several shots at Krueger. The bars sparked and the room filled with deafening noise as the dead man in his woman suit recoiled slightly from the rounds. Freddy grinned and raised his glove again, looking at Mickey like the cat that ate the canary. Mickey's skull rebounded off the bars as Freddy yanked him hard against the cell.

"Open the damn doors!" William shouted, his paralysis broken.

"Fuck this shit," Sean growled. He put his hand to Tessa's arm, ceasing her fire and ran up to the cell door. He shoved his gun between the bars and fired. The bullet caught Freddy in the left eye and blew the back of his skull out. His brains slid down the cinderblock wall in a lumpy wet mess. Freddy swayed for a moment in a dead man's lull. His one good eye looked at Sean and then winked as he rammed his blades into Mickey's back. The boy howled and gurgled as the knives pierced his lungs and severed his spinal cord. Mickey convulsed and then went limp as blood spilled from his mouth.

"Looks like you fucked up," Freddy guffawed, "AGAIN!"

"Goddamit!" Sean unloaded his magazine into Krueger.

The killer staggered back against the wall and dropped Mickey to the floor. The kid fell in a broken heap, his head smashing on the ground and fracturing his skull. Tessa came up and fired her remaining rounds into Freddy's convulsing body. Her lips drew back into a hateful snarl and she found herself screaming as she repeatedly squeezed her trigger. No one deserved to die like this, especially not a kid like Mickey. The casual manner in which Krueger had committed this murder angered the deepest recesses of her heart.

"Enough!" Williams yelled above the acrid gun smoke and deafening blasts. He put his hands on their shoulders, "Enough, you got him!"

They all stood there in silence as their ears rang from the blasts, staring at the bloody heap that had once been a woman named Mary Stilfreeze. Loomis felt tears threatening his eyes as he realized she was gone. Any illusions of reconciliation or of mending their broken marriage was gone, the fine thread of their relationship cut by the blades on Freddy Krueger's right hand.

Everything she was and everything she had known was lost. He felt remorse over his hate towards her, and now found himself wishing he said something more to her. He wished he could have comforted her instead of grilling her. He wished more than anything else he could find a way to bring her back.

"Oh dear God," he whispered and put his hand to his mouth.

"Fuck you," Sean spit at Krueger's body, or rather the grotesque, smoking hybrid of Krueger and Mary.

Lori buried her face in Will's chest. He held her close and tried to comfort her as he looked away from the bloody holding cell. He knew it would never end. If he had ever needed proof of that, this was it. Freddy had wanted them back so bad he used this poor woman to do it. He would follow them, or he would dupe some fucker worse that he was to do it for him. Freddy, Jason and even Michael. It didn't matter anymore. Their lives had been trapped in Springwood since they were kids, and Springwood would not let them go now.

"What are we going to do?" Lori asked.

Will looked to Dr. Loomis and reached out with his free hand. He grasped the doctor's shoulder and met his eyes. He said, "Doctor, he's not dead."

Loomis looked at the Krueger/Mary abomination on the floor, still jerking and mewling. "I agree."

"Listen up!" Williams shouted. His remaining deputies, Sean, Tessa, Don and the four other cops in the hall behind Will and Lori snapped to attention, "We're going to sweep this town from one end to the other. Find those two assholes and shoot them on sight."

"Guns won't do it, Sheriff," Loomis stood in his way, "You're treating them as though they're human."

"Let's see how your friend Myers recovers from having his head blown off by a twelve-gauge shot gun," Williams dismissed him and walked out of the holding cell room. That was it. End of story. Sean and Tessa looked at each other doubtfully as they followed him. Sean looked at Loomis and warned him from pursuing it any further, "Let it go, doc. We'll find them, okay?"

"You're making a terrible mistake," Lori said.

"Either way, we have to find them," Tessa said and left the room.

"Officer Renaud," Loomis called.

Sean turned as he ejected the empty magazine from his gun. "Yeah?"

"All of your bullets didn't stop them," he said, "Six good cops couldn't stop them. How many have tried as you will now? How many have failed?"

Sean slapped the new magazine in and chambered a round, "I won't fail."

***

"We'll go in groups of two," Williams told his deputies as they loaded their guns and looked to him for guidance. Every policeman, at some point in his or her career, faced a challenge that was overwhelming, a no win scenario. Often, being the consummate 'Star Trek' nut that he was, Don would call it the Kobyashi Maru Test. The time had come for Williams to face that test, and he was determined not to let his subordinates down. He was determined not to let this town die, the town that had looked to him to protect their children.

"Sir?" Don spoke up.

"Deputy Frank?"

"What if Loomis is right?"

Williams shook his head, "No one can survive his head being blown off, Don."

"Freddy Krueger survived his head being chopped off," Tessa said. She hadn't thought she would say anything until her mouth opened and the words came out just then. She believed the doctor, and she knew that they weren't playing the typical game of good guys vs. the bad guys anymore. This was Freddy's game now. This was Freddy Krueger vs. the world. His rules, his game.

"Tessa," Williams pointed at her, about to give the lecture about following orders and doing what you're damn well told when he abruptly stopped. Everything was in slow motion for him as he saw Sean's eyes go wide. The deputy was reaching for his sidearm and aiming apparently right at him. It looked like his deputy was about to shoot him.

"Renaud? What the-"

"Behind you!" Sean bellowed.

Williams spun on his heel. Even before he completed the turn, he felt the presence of the man behind him. He looked up into the cold dead eyes of Jason Voorhees and smelled the stink of death on the killer's breath filtering through the holes of his mask. Williams heard a gun fire and even saw the spray of Jason's own blood mist in the air, but he no longer cared. The machete plunged into his stomach, the sharp side up and punched out his backside. He tried to scream and slammed his fists against the massive torso of the killer's body. But his strength ebbed and the world faded away. He was dimly aware of Jason leaning down and then the sensation of cold air blowing on his insides. With a mighty and violent jerk, Jason split Sheriff Williams open from the center of his stomach to the crook of his neck.

Blood geysered to the ceiling and cooked on the light panels as Williams stood for a moment longer before realizing he was dead. Jason raised the bloody machete high above his head, raining blood down on his prey. The sheriff felt his body split and fall apart in two halves with a squelching rip. His internal organs spilled out onto the floor as gore spewed the deputies and coated the bullpen. Williams last image burned into his mind as he watched Jason Voorhees look down at him and then step on his face. His skull cracked and the Sheriff was no more.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Sean opened fire, as did the rest of the officers around him. Jason staggered back as countless rounds drilled into his body like rain from a metal storm. Tessa had to fight the rage inside her at what she had just seen as she steadied her aim and fired at his head. Her first shot went wide as Jason recoiled from a shotgun blast to the thigh. She aimed again and then was knocked forward as one of the deputies behind her crashed into her back. It was Carl Buechner and his weight was too much too fast for her to deal with. She fell flat on her stomach, the hefty policeman pinning her down as her right ankle twisted and exploded in pain.

"Carl!" she yelled over the hail of gunfire, "What the fuck?!"

She looked at him and then stopped shouting. She realized he wouldn't respond no matter how much she yelled at him. His neck was opened wide in a violent slash and spurting blood on her.

"Tessa!" Sean spun around and then froze.

From the shadows of the break room came the ghostly face of Michael Myers. He stood there, studying them for a moment. Sean felt his body unfreeze and fired his gun, hitting Myers in the shoulder. He seemed unaffected as he brought his blade up. Another officer, Rod Higgins, rushed Michael in a full on tackle. Myers was carried backwards and to the wall, but not before he stabbed the knife into Higgins lower back. The man cried out as Michael withdrew the knife and then lodged it in Higgins skull. The officer twitched and then moved no more.

Jason moved forward and batted the other two deputies out of the way with his machete. Sean screamed and ducked down to his knees as their bodies flew apart. A man's torso rocketed over his head and drenched him in sticky fluids and blood. He could hear the heavy wed thuds of body parts on the carpet, a sound that reminded him of a big load of laundry being dropped. He felt himself losing it, losing his cool as he shoved the dead cop off of Tessa. He steeled himself and channeled his fear and his anger into moving the dead man.