THE SPRINGWOOD SLASHER
CHAPTER 20- LOSS OF TWO


“Ready...clear!” the emergency room doctor yelled, administering the shock paddles to Quinton, whose body shook violently from the charge. The paramedics had just managed to get him into the emergency room when he suddenly and unexpectedly flat-lined, sending the ER into panic-mode.

The doctors were flabbergasted. They couldn’t figure out how someone in such stable condition could have gone downhill so rapidly. Even as he came through the front doors, his pulse and heartbeat were near normal, but now, just like that, they lost him? It didn’t make sense.

The team of doctors worked tediously trying to revive Quinton, but nothing seemed to work. One doctor pumped tirelessly on Quinton’s chest, hoping it would somehow bring him back around. It didn’t. Another gave him mouth-to-mouth until he was red in the face hoping to change his status. It didn’t. Quinton was unresponsive no matter what they did. Finally, when all else failed, the doctor charged up the shock paddles and attempted to jumpstart his heart one final time.

“Clear!” He yelled, shocking Quinton’s chest and shaking him violently one more time. The team then stepped back hoping to see a change in his heart monitor, but there was none. The straight red line on the monitor never flinched one bit, and the high-pitch whine of the machine continued. Sighing, they ceased the resuscitation efforts and unplugged the heart monitor and shock paddles. After nearly 15 minutes, Quinton was pronounced dead at 10:17 p.m.


***


Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of hell, Veronica sat silent, hiding behind a smoking boiler. She had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to go, but hopefully she lured that bastard away from Quinton and Apryl long enough for them to escape.

She kept looking around in all directions as she sat there curled up into a ball, hoping Krueger wouldn’t find her. All she could hear was the steam shooting from the boiler and the tiny droplets of moisture dropping to the metal grating around her. She tried as hard as she could to stay quiet so she could think up a plan. It was obvious she was asleep and had been for some time. The only way to truly escape this nightmare would be to wake up, but how could she do that if she was still his hostage in this god forsaken place?

It’s a question that haunted her for what seemed like an eternity as she pondered moving from her spot. Her patience was beginning to wear thin until she heard the footsteps approaching. Accompanied by the slow, deliberate screeching of the claws along the metal railing, Krueger was closing in. “I’m gonna get you!” Krueger mumbled shrilly, standing right next to her boiler but not seeing her.

Veronica saw him standing there tapping his foot, and really began to tense up. What do I do now? She thought. Just stay quiet. Stay the fuck quiet, whatever you do. As she held her silence, she noticed a long metal pipe lying on the floor in front of her, and instantly an idea popped into her head. Fight, the voice inside told her. Fight like hell. You’ve never backed down from anything in your entire life, and you are not about to start now. Besides, who the hell was this faggot anyway? He was nothing but a dirty old man who got his jollies off of killing kids in their sleep. Yes, the decision was made. She would fight. Cautious, she cunningly grabbed the pipe and held it to her chest, slowly standing back up in the process. However, through it all, Krueger had an evil grin on his face. He knew she was there long before the pipe came into play. This was simply his way of flushing her out.

A few seconds later, Veronica charged at him with the pipe, screaming her lungs out. “Die!!!!” she yelled, belting the dream stalker over the head. “Ahhhh!” Krueger yelped, retreating backward toward an overhang. Veronica continued beating the hell out of him, repeatedly smashing the demon with all her might. There was little Krueger could do, as his claw could only do so much to block the blows. “This is for Apryl!” she yelled, bludgeoning his ribs. “This is for Quinton!” she echoed, blasting his back. With Krueger howling in pain and hunched over, Veronica moved in for the knockout. “And this is for me!” She screamed, but just when she went to bring the pipe down, Krueger disappeared, laughing the entire time.

“No!!!” she yelled in dismay, throwing the pipe down in an echoing roar. “I had you, you bastard!” Pissed, she dropped to her knees in tears and rubbed her eyes, sensing her opportunity going by the wayside. However, when she opened them again, all memories of Krueger vanished. In fact, the entire boiler room had vanished as well...

She was five years old again, back in her living room playing with her Barbie dolls. Only, she wasn’t really there, it was almost like she was in a time warp and somehow was watching herself from afar. Veronica half-smiled as the early childhood version of herself twirled her Barbies, drove them around in her Barbie corvette, or put their bathing suits on to meet Ken at the pool. Giggling, she pranced around the big pink Barbie house with her hair in two pony tails and red ribbons in each of them. Veronica couldn’t help but think how cute she used to be as a little girl.

But then, just as soon as she smiled, a large mirror appeared in front of her, as if to show her what she had become in her gothic attire. Veronica had little time to look, however, as a loud screeching of tires was heard, followed by the thud of a large impact and more of Krueger’s maniacal laughter. The mirror smashed into a million pieces, forcing Veronica to shield herself from the shower of glass raining toward her. When the glass cleared, she didn’t have to look twice to see that it was her father who had crashed. And died. “Daddy!” she yelled, tears streaming down her face. She tried to run toward the wreckage, but it was as if her feet were stuck to the ground. Looking down, she saw that she was running through what looked like quicksand, and couldn’t get out. “Noooo!!!” she yelped, reaching back toward what was once her innocence. However, everything was different. The Barbies were all melted now, leaving behind only a mangled mass of smelly plastic. The pink corvette was broken into three pieces, Ken’s leg was cut off, and the Barbie house was no longer Barbie’s house at all. It was Freddy Krueger’s house, complete with barred-up windows and the blood-red front door.

Still fighting to emerge from the quicksand, Veronica turned back around—and saw the evil Fred Krueger standing above her, laughing. “Ahhhh!” she yelled, frightened, as Krueger stomped her the rest of the way into the quicksand, burying her.

“Ahhahahaha!” Krueger quipped as Veronica disappeared into the dark abyss below.


***


Falling for what seemed an eternity, Veronica finally bottomed out in a narrow walkway. It was pitch black, save for the moonlight and a tall staircase, which led up into the dark. She was surrounded by walls on all sides, and there was a bunch of tools, hoses, and other garbage scattered on the floor around her.

That was what she could see. What she couldn’t see was Fred Krueger, whose evil eyes glared upon her from the top of the staircase. She slowly felt her way around the room, grabbing and pushing herself along like she was blind, deaf, or both. Then, all of a sudden, a small boiler flared up directly in front of her, illuminating the entire room. Now she could see. She was in someone’s basement. All she had to do was go up those steps and she’d be home free—

But when she turned around, she ran right into Freddy Krueger, or what she thought was Freddy Krueger. It sure looked like him, but this guy was much darker, much more scary. He was sporting a big black fedora on his head with a trench coat to match. His red-and-green sweater was even darker, looking more like maroon and pine green than regular red-and-green. If she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn Krueger had just gone goth on her. He hissed at her, glaring at her with evil intent as he rolled his forked, snake-like tongue. And that’s when she remembered what Apryl told her when she snuck up on her in the hallway the other day—“Someday, someone’s gonna do that to you and you’ll know how it feels.”

Well, now she knew how it felt, and she didn’t like it, especially when Krueger revealed his longer, sharper claws that glinted in the firelight.

“Like my new look?” Krueger joked in a deeper, more sinister voice.

Veronica screamed, but Krueger grabbed her by the throat and raised her to the sky with inhuman strength.

“Did you think you was gonna get away from me?” Krueger stated.

“You can’t win, asshole!” Veronica squealed, coughing the words out. “Apryl and Lexi are gonna kick your ass, and then you can kiss mine! It’s gonna be fucking sweet!”

“Sweet...Dreams...Are Made Of...This, Bitch!” Krueger yelled, burying his goth-claw deep into Veronica’s gut, piercing it out her back. He then laughed in his deeper, more sinister voice as Veronica’s vision slowly faded to black and her life slipped away, the latest victim of this madman.

Krueger then winced with a smile as Veronica’s soul exited her body and entered his in a white apparition, joining the likes of Quinton, Principal Shaye and Luke Swanson.

“Getting strongerrrrrr,” He gawked, rolling his eyes and inhaling the souls like a drug addict who had just gotten his fix.


Proceed To Chapter 21
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