I felt something sharp prodding at my leg. I wanted to say ‘Ow’ but I couldn’t move my jaw, it felt quite stiff and taut. Actually, most of my body felt stiff and taut. Even though my eyes were already closed, I could tell there was a bright light aimed at me and it was quite bothersome, so I clenched my eyes tighter shut. A wave of distant aches and pains poured over me, coming from every pore of my body. I managed to make a moaning sound from the back of my throat, whining in protest to the pains. As I moaned the sharp prodding stopped, waited, then continued again. My stomach felt sick, my head hurt, and I could barely catch enough breath. What happened? I thought. Then I remembered what happened. A cold passed through my spine, but I didn’t shiver, my muscles were already too tensed for that. The prodding was getting sharper and more annoying. I groaned in my throat, hoping that maybe if I did so the prodding would actually stop.
“Alesha? Are you awake?” I heard a deep voice ask. The voice sounded very familiar but I couldn’t figure out who it was- it sounded distant and a little bit far off, like someone standing at the end of a hallway was whispering to you. I slowly forced open my eyes, the light being quite blinding, and looked around me, squinting. A large, dark brown shape was looming in my main of vision, blocking out a decent amount of the light, yet I still couldn’t distinguish what the figure was. I felt something lay heavily right next to the left of my head and heard a metallic clicking echo distantly from it. I tried opening my jaw again and was able to manage forcing it slightly ajar, but with much energy draining effort. I heard a small whining sound emit from my mouth before it snapped itself back tightly shut like a bear trap. The figure loomed closer to me and I felt something running smoothly through my dark, thick hair. I remembered that I didn’t like being touched and shied slightly away from whatever was in my hair, assuming that whatever it was had something to do with the figure.
“Thank god you’re finally awake. What the hell happened to ya, kid?” I could detect a large mixture of emotions in the deep voice; relief, anger, exhaustion, curiousity, and a many number of other things that my foggy head still couldn’t wrap itself around. I let my eyelids flutter, trying to blink out the tears that were caused by the blinding light. My surroundings were starting to come to a little bit more; I saw a tint of red and green in the looming figure, blocks of white and dark blue in something behind the green and red figure, blocks of colours posted on white walls… I also noticed that whatever I was laying on felt…cushy. Weird….. last thing I remember lying on was the cold hard ground. I guess I was moved at some point…. The red and green figure leaned in close to my face, so close I could taste the hot breath that radiated from it, and the taste wasn’t exactly a pleasant one.
“Alesha? Can you talk or what?” My vision getting clearer and clearer, I noticed some details on the figure- it was wearing something on it’s head, it had dark eyes, and looked a lot like someone I knew…. Then the realization that it was Freddy Krueger burst through the walls of fog that clouded my mind and I almost wanted to slap myself for not seeing it before. I stiffly shook my head “no” at him in reply to his question. He breathed an annoyed sigh in my face. I saw his eyes move in a way that suggested he was looking me up and down.
“Well, you look pretty fucking beat up, kid. What the hell happened? You get in some MMA fight or something?” I stared at him, wishing I could give him an answer- I could hear that his voice was particularly strained with worry. I don’t know why he’d worry about me, I was just another human teenage girl, after all. I felt the prodding at my leg tighten then suddenly stop. The dark blue and white blocked figure suddenly grew a lot taller and moved closer to my face. I could tell its face was pure white and the rest of it was a dark blue. It stared at me for a moment, tilted its head, then reached at my face, taking my face in its hands and gently turning it side to side, still staring carefully at me. I looked questioningly Freddy- he was watching the figure very intently. It stopped turning my face its hands for a moment, keeping me tilted to the right, then the white face leaned in very close to my own, seeming to be very immersed in staring at the left side of my face for whatever reason. We stayed like that for what seemed like many minutes but was probably only about 15 seconds, then it released my head and stepped away, crouching back down to grab something. I looked quickly at Freddy- he was still watching the figure very intently.
I stared down the figure too, trying to see what it was. White face, dark blue outfit, large body structure….. I shut my eyes for a moment in hopes of clearing them of the watery tears, and when I opened them again the white was right in my face. I would’ve jumped with surprise if I could’ve, but I did manage the slight squeak that would accompany the jump. With my vision almost fully clear and the face so close I could finally see that it was Michael Myers. Michael Myers? What was he doing here? Then again, not like I should be all that surprised- he does stalk me daily, after all. But he never came inside my house. He took my head in his hands again and tilted it to the right, bringing something very close to my face. Then the prodding feeling started, slowly running down along my cheekbone. I stared at him while he silently worked, doing whatever it was he was doing to my face. Whatever he was doing couldn’t be that bad since Freddy was letting him, so I pushed the worry-fueled nausea that was rising in my throat back down to the depths of my stomach, trying to squelch it down to nothing. I could tell the prodding should be hurting, but the pains coming from the rest of my body were over-riding the smaller pains from the prodding.
After a moment I felt a tighter tug and heard a small snap, then the prodding stopped and Michael pulled his hands away from my face. He stood staring at me for a moment, examining my body carefully, then turned his head to stare at Freddy. Freddy caught his gaze and nodded, picking up a small white plastic bottle from my dresser. He opened it and tipped it into his hand, small rattlings coming from inside it like bones being thrown across a rock. He replaced the bottle on the dresser and walked over to me, showing me the small, white, round pill he was holding.
“Take this. It’s supposed to help relax you.” He gently pried my mouth open and slipped the pill near the back of my throat. He let go of my mouth and it snapped shut with a small click sounding from my teeth knocking against each other, and I swallowed the pill, though it didn’t go down easily. I layed there and waited for the pill to take effect, watching Michael apply different medical type things to my body where it was needed. Hmm. I wonder why Michael was fixing me up in the first place? He had never exactly seemed like a gentle type of guy to me, what with his physical appearance and lack of speech and all. Then again, Freddy wasn’t exactly someone I would consider to be gentle either, yet he was usually gentle and careful around me, trying not to break me all the time, although sometimes he would lose his temper and snap at me, sometimes hurting me and other times catching himself before he did.
It was all so confusing. Freddy was a different kind of guy to me, and I just can’t understand why; why he’s nice to me and not someone else, why he always seemed to be around me, why he’d help me, try to make me laugh, comfort me when I cried, take revenge when I couldn’t. It just made no sense. Why was he so different to me? What made me special? I mentally shook myself, snapping back to reality. I daydreamed too much. I realized with a bit of a start that my muscles did feel a bit more relaxed and that I could actually move my jaw now without so much effort needed. I decided to test my voice, to see if it was any different with the stiffness of my jaw.
“Fr…Freddy?” I choked out in a raspy, worn voice. It was still pretty hard to talk, but not impossible. My voice grabbed his immediate attention. With eyes wide, he said rushedly,
“Alesha? Can you talk now? What the hell happened to you?” I stared up at him and instinctively gave him the answer he hated the most.
“I…..I don’t know.” His face rapidly changed from worry to anger, his eyes growing dark, balling his hands into fists at his sides, his already red skin actually turning even redder.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?!” He screamed, but not at me directly, he screamed it to the ceiling, but the question was obviously directed to me, not the ceiling.
“I mean…I…I know! I think…kinda…..?” Freddy looked at me through narrowed eyes. He crossed his arms at his chest.
“What do you mean, you think, kinda?” I stared helplessly back at him.
“Well, I mean that I kinda remember…..a lot was going on at once and it was really confusing.” His anger was starting to fade.
“Okay then, tell me, what happened?”
“From what I recall, they trapped me at school and started throwing rocks at me. I didn’t think I was going to get out because they had me trapped pretty good, but I was able to get away by kicking in a school window and hiding in the basement, I think it was? I remember being in there for a long while, and eventually they left and I started walking home. I don’t remember anything after starting to walk home though.” Freddy’s faced changed, but I couldn’t tell with what: Shock? Rage? With him, who knew? He was staring off into the great distance of my wall anyways.
“How did I get here, anyways?” He didn’t break his gaze from the wall and spoke in that voice you get when you’re only half there.
“Myers was watching you try to walk home, and you passed out on the sidewalk, so he picked you up and carried you back here. Looks like you lost a lot of blood, kid….. is there anyone specific you can point out?” My thoughts immediately flitted to the blonde girl’s face.
“Well….there is this one girl…..” Freddy became reanimated and jumped up, looming over me, his hot breath on my face in a matter of seconds.
“Who??”
“Well I don’t know her name but I remember what she looks like…”
“Can you draw her?” Freddy knew of my drawing talent and sometimes would have me draw the people if I couldn’t remember their names. My right hand automatically twitched in response to the challenge, but even the twitch hurt.
“I don’t think I can even draw a circle right now, nonetheless a whole human.” Freddy grunted in frustration.
“Well can you describe the bitch to me?”
“Well…” I racked through my foggy skull for any good details about her that would let Freddy be able to identify her. After all, if I just went and said that she’s blonde and skinny, we’d probably end up with over half of the town’s population wiped out within a week. I thought really hard about any speck of detail I could of in the blonde girl.
“Well….she has blonde, flat hair, and is very skinny….umm….green eyes, wore pinks and wears skirts often...” Freddy narrowed his eyes in frustration.
“That’s not exactly much to go off of, kid. I need more!” He grabbed me by the arms and gripped tightly. I felt my eyes widen in panic as I desperately searched through my head for any details, any at all, that could help me. Suddenly something clicked in my skull. I remembered that she was someone I had often watched and overheard her conversations, analyzing how she worked, what made her tick when I was alone with nothing better to do. Suddenly everything came out in a verbal rush.
“Her name is Kira, she’s a popular girl, her boyfriend is the captain of the football team, Chad Miller. He was there too.” Freddy slowly shut his eyes and loosened his grip on my arms.
“Anyone else?”
“Well there were a lot of people, but none that I know. Kira seemed to be the ringleader of the event, anyways….” His eyes flew open and he let go of my arms, backing away from me quickly. He side-stepped to the door and nodded at Michael, then looked back at me. I just stared after him, thoroughly confused at what just took place. He held my gaze in his for a moment longer, then opened the door and stepped out of the room, closing it hard behind him. I stared at the door for a few seconds then tried to get up, to go after him, to see what he was doing, but something held me down.
I looked up to see Michael towering over me with his large hand on my chest, holding me down. I looked questioningly at him and his gaze flickered from my eyes to the desk beside me. There was a small piece of paper resting on the table. I couldn’t read what it said from where I was, but I could tell it was Freddy’s hand writing and that it was in a list form. I gingerly reached toward it, looking carefully at Michael. He didn’t react so I assumed it was okay to look at it. I snatched it from the table and held it close to my face, reading it. I was right, it was a list, but a list of things to do, and it sounded like it was about me.
A loud buzzing sounded next to my ear, and I jumped at the noise, letting out a whine of pain afterwards. Why was my alarm clock going off now? I didn’t remember ever setting it for this time for any reason whatsoever. I noticed the dark blue figure move in the corner of my vision, and when I looked he was bending down over a bag again. Wonder what he’s doing? The buzzing of my alarm was annoying me, so I turned over and slammed my sweaty palm on top, making the thing become silent. I fumbled with a few knobs and buttons with my left hand, keeping the right at my other side, and turned off the alarm all together. Sigh. I turned back over just to see Michael looming darkly over me with something small and fragile looking in his hand.
He grabbed my right arm and held it a bit roughly, taking the thing from his hand and bringing it to my arm’s main vein. My eyes went terribly wide in fear when I realized what it was: a hypodermic needle, filled with some light blue, opaque liquid. Shots and needles are a HUGE fear of mine. I squirmed and struggled weakly, pain searing through my veins, screaming at me to stop moving and just accept the needle, but I couldn’t, I was too scared. Michael held my arm completely still without using barely any effort whatsoever against my struggles. The needle slid cleanly into the main vein of my arm, and Michael quickly pushed down on the plunger. I could immediately feel the thick, chilled liquid chugging its way down my arm, into my hand, through my fingers, and back up the arm to the rest of my body, to my heart. He pulled the needle from my vein once the all liquid was drained into my system. Blood began to ooze instantaneously from the puncture, quickly running down and around my arm, already eager to cascade and pool to the floor.
Michael quickly placed gauze on the wound and taped it down with a clear medical tape. I was too busy still struggling to really notice that it was over already. Michael let go of my arm and it fell limp to my side. I stopped squirming and blinked at the ceiling for a few seconds, then stared at Michael with owl-like eyes. He stared back for a few seconds, then walked over to the other corner of the room. My eyes stalked him. He sat down in a large chair I had set a few years back and picked up a book, opened it, and began to read. I strained to see what he was reading: it appeared to be Moby Dick. I couldn’t help but smile at this: Michael Myers sitting in a chair reading Moby Dick, of all things.
Presently a wave of lightheadedness rammed into me, almost forcing me to roll off the bed in which I was lain. I blinked at the ceiling, one hand holding my head, the other gripping the bed for support. I felt a bit chilled from the inside- the liquid must be taking effect, whatever it is. The room began to spin slowly, but picking up speed by the second. The spinning and the lightheadedness made me feel nauseous. I tried, foolishly, asking Michael what was happening to me, what mysterious substance he injected into my bloodstream, but my words came out so slurred I couldn’t even understand a single word of what I was saying. I quickly gave up on communication. The room was pulsing from bright to dark, shadows creeping in like monsters from the corners on my vision, making little cobweb homes then expanding them till all that they left me with was a diminishing pinpoint of light. Whatever Michael gave me must be knocking me out, and I’m guessing it’ll knock me out cold for a good while. I don’t want to go out though, I want to stay up and wait for Freddy to come back, to be sure that I was okay, that everything was okay.
But of course I wasn’t going to be granted that peace of mind before I knocked out. The sound of my heartbeat shrilled in my eardrums, my whole body, the whole room appeared to be pulsing with my heartbeat, like everything was one big organic organism throbbing for dear life. All these feelings were just too overwhelming for me at once, and I unconsciously decided to just give in so that I wouldn’t have to endure this odd torture any longer. The second my body gave in the spider webs in the corners of my vision burst open, little shadow baby spiders swarming and spewing everywhere till I could see nothing but a writhing black. Then, once again, I lost consciousness.