The Nightmare on Elm St. - Rewritten

This dream played as a movie in my head. I was watching a movie, not active in the dream.

Freddy got a bad reputation. He loved his wife, that's all he was guilty of. He would kill for her. He would die for her. She was everything to him and he loved her.

His wife was a ruthless, cold, calculating woman. She was short in stature with a reddish brown bob and petite. She was curvy, but not fat. She always wore business suits with short skirts. Her appearance was always pristine. She was never less than perfect. Kruger had fallen for her looks, her poise, and her grace but he should have paid more attention to her flaws.

She was currently buttoning up her clothes. The plumber, the Mason's boy from down the street, was currently zipping up his pants. He wasn't so bad in the sack but he was dumb as a bag of rocks. This guy would do anything she told him, all for another chance to sleep with her. She cooed in his ear and slid her arms up around his neck and whispered into his ear. He was going to get rid of one of her problems.

They owned a three bedroom house in the suburbs. They also had a teenage daughter, Leslie. She lived in the top right bedroom of the house. Peter, the newborn baby boy the couple just had, lived in the bottom left bedroom. The couple, lived in the top center bedroom. Kruger pulled up to the house in his black F150, excited about seeing his newborn son. He had always wanted a baby boy. He took two steps before a giant blast knocked him back on his feet. He was knocked behind his truck. When he got to his feet, he saw that the room where his newborn son had been, was a giant, black, burnt hole in the side of the house. His son was dead. He started screaming and tears rolled down his cheeks. He tried to run to the side of the house but locals held him back. No one saw the Mason's boy driving away from the scene.

Leslie knew what her mother did. She knew her mother was responsible for Peter's death. Her father refused to believe it or see the signs. But, it was obvious. To make her point, she hid her father in her closet. He protested at first and then agreed. He knew his wife wouldn't, couldn't conceive of something so horrible. So, to please and quiet his daughter, he hid. His wife came into the room and saw Leslie. She smiled, a cold and calculating smile. She looked around and then spoke.

"Too bad that he didn't kill you as well. It's amazing how far men will go to get off. One day you'll learn how to do that, if you don't ... let's say," as she tapped a nail against her cheek, "have an accident first. Your father will. I've grown tired of him and he's just not as useful to me as he once was. That's why I kept him around for so long."

Kruger gaped in shock from the closet.

"I thought you loved father."

Leslie whispered, slowly. Her mother just laughed.

"Loved? NEVER! I never loved him! I just used him! Thank you, Leslie, I needed a good laugh today."

Kruger balled his fists.

Leslie's father had been useful to her mother because he used to kill for her mother. Her mother was a cannibal. She was too perfect to kill for herself - too much blood. So, she slept with Kruger and manipulated him into killing for her. He would bring the bodies to her and she would feed. Leslie would take the victim's clothes, which were stripped from their bodies before her mother ate, and wear them. Leslie liked the scent of the blood, but would never eat human flesh.

Her father burst through the closet door and hit her mother. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and she laughed as she wiped it away.

"Did you really think that I ever loved you? I didn't want kids, I only had these mistakes to keep you happy so that you would keep bringing me food. You're NOTHING! NOTHING TO ME! DO YOU HEAR ME, KRUGER?!? NOTHING!"

Kruger, at that moment, punched her so hard that the mother landed across the room and cracked her head open on the edge of the steel corner of the bed. She lay silent on the floor.

Then, the police came in. Leslie and Kruger could hear them from the top floor.

Kruger turned to Leslie.

"They'll never believe me that I had nothing to do with all of this. It's up to you to get out of here and clear my name."

He said as he showed Leslie a way out. He opened the window and gave her the way out. Leslie kissed her father on the cheek and jumped out of the window, landing on the trampoline. She ran, as fast as her feet would take her, away from her childhood home.

As soon as Leslie felt she was a safe distance away, she stopped and turned to watch her dad. She almost screamed. Her childhood home was now on fire and she saw the police retreat, but never saw her father. She watched as her father and mother burned alive inside of the house she was just in. She was the lone survivor of her family. It was all taken away from her in a day. Just a day. She turned her tear stained face away. She had to keep moving. She couldn't let anyone know who she was or what she was doing. So, she ran again.

She saw her father in her dreams. He was always there.

A few weeks later, Leslie got a job at a camp as a counselor. She was going to some place called Crystal Lake. This place would help her cope with what happened. She would need to forget who she was and become someone else. She looked up as a male counselor across the room smiled at her. After what she'd been through, Leslie was ready for anything.

She smiled back.

The Forensic Pathologist

It was a dark, cold, rainy night. I was working alone that night. I had just finished an autopsy and was finishing closing the Y incision when I received the call that I had two more patients on the way. I sighed. This was going to be a tough case. The officer told me that there was a family in a car crash. The wife was driving with the husband in the passenger seat and the newborn baby in the car seat in the back seat of the car. The wife had hit a tree and then the car burst into flames. The husband and daughter burned to death but the woman escaped with third degree burns. She was being air lifted to this hospital. However, I had to stay and preform the autopsies on the rest of her family. The doctors had put the woman in a medicine induced coma. The bodies arrived from the ambulance and were transferred to the slab that I worked on. The small burned body was so tiny. There was barely anything left. The man, if you could call him that, was burned beyond recognition. There was hardly anything left of him either. There was a stale, burnt pork smell. I started my job. I decided to start with the baby first. As it turned out, the baby died of smoke inhalation so she had a bit of a merciful death. The husband suffered more. He burned for a long time before he finally died. I recorded my findings in the official report and scrubbed up. I went downstairs to deliver the report to my supervisor. He looked miserable and then informed me that the wife was awake. He told me that I would have to be the one to explain about her family. She didn't know. My mouth dropped. How do you tell someone that their whole life had changed? She lost everything ... her husband and her newborn daughter, and I had to tell her. I walked into her hospital room with my file. I tried to smile and ask how she was doing. She wasn't interested in small talk, just how her family was. I told her as gently as I could that her family was dead. I told her that they didn't suffer and died quickly. I knew it was a lie but she deserved some kind of peace. She told me that a dog had run out in front of her car and she tried not to hit it. She lost her entire family while trying to avoid a dog. She started sobbing. All I could do was just go up to her and give her a hug. What else could I do?