WESTIN HILLS
CHAPTER 19- WEB OF DECEIT


Feeling the heat at her back, Lexi regained consciousness as perspiration began to bead up on her forehead and trickle down her face. Still bound, gagged, and tied to a post, it didn’t take her long to realize just where Krueger had put her—deep in the trenches of the steaming boiler room, his own personal playground.

Working feverishly to loosen her restraints, Lexi paid close attention to the flaming inferno brewing behind her as Ty, who was also awake, looked around in every direction of this vertical abyss, hoping and praying that son of a bitch didn’t return. Tugging at the knots, Lexi twisted and turned with every ounce of momentum she could muster and finally managed to get her arm loose, then removed her gag.

“Ty! Ty!” she called out, eliciting a surprised glance from her fellow prisoner. “We don’t have a lot of time. Can you move?”

Shaking his head from side to side to signal a negative reply, Ty began breathing heavily and nearly hyperventilating as the entire area around the boiler began to feel like a sauna. Steam began to whistle from the large pipes and water began to evaporate rapidly inside the main corridor, blanketing their field of vision in a coat of fog as the door to the boiler slowly creaked open behind them.

“Sit tight, Ty. I’m gonna get us out of here,” Lexi informed him, trying to think of a way to get them out of the hellish fortress.

Reaching down to free her legs, Lexi was just about to help Ty—

—when they both heard it.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!

The loud, piercing shriek of Krueger’s steel blades echoed loudly in the stank, musty boiler room as Lexi quivered, instantly recognizing his calling card as a chill rocketed down her spine.

Wasting little time removing Ty’s gag, she then turned her attention to his arms and legs, which were bound tightly to the post.

“I can smell that motherfucker,” Ty stated as he cleared his throat, happy to speak again. “He’s here somewhere. Watch your back.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lexi assured him. “We have to get back to the others before he does.”

But just as she said that, the loud screeching echo was heard again, this time directly behind her.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!

When she turned around, the smoke cleared, and she spotted the dark silhouette of the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, Fred Krueger, dangling his finger knives at his side in rhythm with one another across the railing of the walkway, showering them in sparks.

“Ah...Ahh...Ahhhh!” Krueger quipped, waving the index finger of his claw at her back and forth three times. “Just what do you think your doing, little piglet?”

Showing no fear, Lexi stared him down eye to eye, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“Ohhh, I get it now. You wanna play, is that it?” Freddy stated, glaring right back at her with the same cold, lifeless eyes that had claimed dozens of lives before her.

“Lexi, what are you doing?!” Ty called out, jerking at his restraints. “Get me free. We can fight him together. Come on! Lexi!!!!”

But despite being right next to him, Lexi never heard a single word he said. Her mind was concentrated fully on Krueger, and the menacing monster sensed that.

“I’ll give you something to play with, bitch! Come on!!!” Freddy snarled, stepping toward her in his dirty brown work boots.

Lexi stomped forward at the same time, eager to combat her nemesis.

However, just when they were about to clash, Freddy disappeared and Lexi fell to the ground in a thud, shocked and angered at his disappearance.

“Come on out and fight me you bastard!” Lexi shouted, her voice echoing loudly as Freddy’s sinister laughter reverberated throughout the entire lair.

Krueger’s response, although not face-to-face, was swift. “You’re forgetting why you’re still alive, princess.”

Taken aback by that statement, Lexi glanced over to Ty briefly, then at the brick wall that once contained the mangled remains of Suzette. All at once, the entire brick wall collapsed and disappeared, Suzette with it. In its place was a vision. A vision of someone fading in and out of consciousness being carried by two men. Two awfully familiar men at that.

Hey, aren’t those guys orderlies? Lexi pondered, but her thought process was interrupted by Ty, who immediately recognized who they were carrying.

“Hey, that’s Maria!!!” Ty shouted. “The son of a bitch is going after her. We gotta stop him! Come on, get me loose!!!”

Emerging from her momentary daze, Lexi ran back to Ty and freed him, and together, they took off running to the far side of the boiler room, where a large metal door awaited them.


***


What the hell is this? Maria thought. One minute I’m in my room startled out of sleep by Suzette— was that really her splattered across the wall? And the next, I’m here in this dingy cellar? What gives? Somebody had to know something. Maybe that nerd Simon could help or that dumb cowboy Tex. Those two had to be good for something right?

Heading down the corridor, Maria was surrounded by narrow walkways and a never-ending maze of steam pipes and boilers. Feeling the heat around her, Maria assumed she was somehow in the basement of the hospital. “Hey, are you guys down here?” she called out, expecting to find Suzette, Simon, or even Dr. Graham. She didn’t.

Disgruntled, Maria kept walking forward as a couple of the valves on the pipes mysteriously turned on their own, sending even more heat and steam out into the already stuffy air. The room was rapidly beginning to fog up as well, and she could barely see her hand in front of her face.

“Suze, where are ya?” Maria yelled. “Gwen? Lexi? Anybody?”

There was no response.

Instead, she spotted a dark figure approaching in the distance, but due to the fog and steam, Maria couldn’t quite make out who or what it was.

“Hello?” she yelled. “Who is that? Say something, damnit!”

“Maaaaarrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiaaaaaaa,” Krueger said slowly, pronouncing every syllable of her name separately.

“What the fuck do YOU want?” she piped back.

“What I want,” Freddy replied. “Is you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, I brought some friends of yours,” Freddy stated, pulling out a couple syringes from his pocket. “Recognize them?”

“I gave that up a long time ago, asshole!” Maria insisted, sounding extremely weak, like she would break at a moment’s notice.

“Oh really?” Freddy laughed. “Then what’s that?”

Maria was shocked when she looked down at her arms and saw hole after hole carved into her arm like a pincushion. Distraught, she tried to hide the scars, but it was too late. Freddy was on them in a second.

“Come on, babe, let’s get fucked up!” Krueger growled, injecting himself, then her with whatever drug was in those needles. Fighting it at first, Maria found she just couldn’t prevent the darkness from grabbing her...

...And when she finally came to, Freddy was gone and she had a gigantic headache. Glancing around, everything was a total blur. Her head was spinning when she realized that the thick fog all around her wasn’t even fog at all. Rather, it was some sort of disgusting webbing, and she was wrapped in the stuff. It was all through her hair and around her body, smearing her makeup and choking the back of her throat. Gagging, she soon realized she was trapped—stuck in the webbing like a fly. How the hell did I get myself into this? she thought suddenly as her worst fears became a reality.

There, standing in front of the helpless Maria, was a giant spider, its fur tinted strangely in red and green stripes. Maria’s eyes widened in terror as the monster approached, its large red eyes glaring at her in lust. There was something oddly familiar about those eyes, Maria recalled, but by the time she remembered it, the spider had her entire body web and all, lynched between its fangs.

Maria screamed and spit out a large swash of blood as the fangs pierced her stomach— then her heart, crushing her like a bug.


Proceed To Chapter 20
Back To The Lair Of Horror