A Nightmare on Elm Street:
Freddy's Alumni
Chapter 1-The Boy and the Light
~
The boy with the brown hair and blue eyes tossed yet again, turning around yet again, and was unable to rest—yet again. It was rare he fell asleep too early, not by free will but by a means much greater. Every night the same; he would lie on his bed staring at absolutely nothing for what seemed to last forever. At night, anything was possible: time was endless. What seemed to last hours in the boy's mind turned out to only have been five minutes in reality. It was hell.
But tonight—tonight was different. I will fall asleep, I will! the boy with the dimples and slightly tanned skin thought. He was sick and tired (well, perhaps not tired enough as he would have fallen asleep by now) of staying awake in boredom. Besides, he knew perfectly well enough it was not healthy. His mother knew not of his sleeping troubles. His stepfather knew not of his insomnia, not that the boy with a mildly gapped toothy smile really believed his stepfather cared; they were never too close. But it wasn't just that. Not even his girlfriend, Hallie, nor his best friend, Michael, remotely knew. Sure, they could perhaps guess by the wide circles around his sleepy, light blue eyes, but did they really know? Of course not. Only he knew, the boy with the scar on his right eyebrow from as long as he could remember.
Fall asleep…please let me fall the hell asleep! he yelled at himself from within his mind. Just a little while, don't let me stay like this…
~
It was the first in a series of extraordinary events, that night, as far as the boy with a handsome look to him even along his imperfections went, as far as Elm Street went, as far as all of Springbrook went. But of course, it did start with him, after all. And perhaps it may have ended with him as well, perhaps it never really ended at all. Elm Street was always a strange place for strange happenings, after all. There was always the boarded up house with rumors that seemed endless, and another house in which a boy had been murdered. Actually, the boy with the longish wavy hair lived next door to the old Lantz house and just one house away from directly across the abandoned one. It was his grandparent's house, his mother's house as a child. And he hated it.
~
As for the first of extraordinary events, it was the boy who wore the same chain around his neck's falling asleep early that was so odd. Well, not necessarily early, but as far as the boy of nearly seventeen years of age went, midnight—was very early.
But no—soon enough, something startled him. He glanced at the clock, struggling to read it. He figured he had only been asleep about a half hour or so. Much to his horror, it was not a number to be found on his clock but a simple two words the boy with the normally optimistic personality had never feared, yet retained an abnormally afraid manner.
"I'm here" the digital clock read. How those words fit on such a small screen, he didn't know, but they did. Perhaps it was the sheer oddity of the words that gave him fear.
"Who's home? What the hell is this?" he asked, not relatively looking for an answer (and perhaps hoping no one would answer) but merely wondering aloud.
Suddenly, a noise rumbled, and only a slight turn toward the window revealed a sight the boy had not seen in his sixteen years of living on Elm Street. The light in the old Thompson house, the same boarded up house across the street, was on.
The boy, slightly taller than average at six foot two, wandered through his house down the stairs, only to find the lights on in the dining room. And yet another house had lights on, the home of the elderly Lantz couple, now childless since the loss of their only son. Yet as the boy with naturally rouged cheeks peered through the window, he realized at least one light in every house excluding the one on the end was shining not brightly…but cruelly, as if taunting him. Why would all they be on at this hour, around one in the morning? Weirdest yet of all, at the same instant, every light flickered and burned out at once. Things were definitely feeling stranger and stranger, as the boy shuddered a cold chill although it was nearly eighty degrees. As he turned to return to his room, he felt a stabbing pain in his left shoulder, as if a hand with sharp fingernails was grabbing him.
The boy, now paralyzed with fear, opened his mouth to scream—but no sound came out.
~
"Wake up, sleepyhead," his mother's pleasing voice called, shaking him lightly on the shoulder.
Oh…it was just a dream, he though, relieved. He sighed. "I'm up, I'm up…" he replied, waiting for his mother to leave so he could dress himself. "Excuse me." Suddenly, however, the light shaking on his shoulder evolved into painful spasms of near strangulation, and his mother's kind looks of curly blonde hair and small glasses morphed into what was the most terrible sight.
"What, SWEETIE, Mummy dearest can't stay to be with her little boy?" a cruel voice spoke.
It was a man. A man with burns, a man with claws—no, knives—on his fingers…it was a man with the most ratty, old attire, and worst yet, the most cold expression the boy had ever seen in his life.
"Wouldn't want you to sleep in too late—HONEY," the evil voice called again, and he began a cold unfriendly laugh, tightening his grip on the boy.
Oh God! Help me, get me away from this psycho—
~
"Wake up, sleepyhead."
Kai jumped back, panicking. "What?! What do you want from me?" he yelled.
"Honey, it's school time, that's what I want from you," his mother ignored his near shouting. "You'd better hurry, or you'll be late to pick up Hallie and get to class."
Kai was still shuddering, his heart pounding furiously. "Okay…Ma."
As his mother exited the room, he took off his night shirt to reveal dry, matted blood—on his left shoulder. He rushed to the bathroom, and in the midst of showering, a loud crash made Kai jump nearly a thousand miles. Everything this morning seemed to be scaring the hell out of Kai after that terrible nightmare. After "waking up" the first time, it was even getting to be difficult to tell whether he was dreaming or awake!
Calm down, Kai. It was just a dream. Don't freak out on everyone!
As soon as he was ready, Kai bolted out the front door to his 4x4 and drove quickly to pick up Hallie and bring her to school. He sure didn't want to freak on her, too. Oh well, at least he wouldn't be late. Nowadays, anyone who was anybody worth knowing lived on Elm Street—Hallie, Michael, Tara, Damian—the works.
As Kai knocked on the door to meet Hallie, she came down a bit slowly, as if nervous, but rushed down the stairs as soon as she spotted Kai, giving him a tight hug and a swift kiss.
"Good morning, baby," she smiled, walking to and entering the ruck.
Good morning? Kai though, Some good morning….well, it's good now.