by A. Eggleston
Ash felt transfixed by the scene that he had caused. For the first time in years, Ash had actually felt bad about killing a demon. I mean, sure, she was nothing but a filthy Deadite, but still...she was just a kid. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have just shrugged it off with a smart-ass quip, but this one was different. This girl didn't just become possessed by ancient spirits, she had to have her mind, her body, and her soul, tortured by Freddy before it happened. Judging from the slash marks on her chest, Ash could only imagine the vile things he did to the girl before he killed her. Ash felt his heart become heavy. This was the reason why Freddy had to die. This was the reason why the Necronomicon had to be destroyed. No longer would the world be consumed by the likes of him.
He felt a hand grip his arm. Ash turned around to see that it was Evelyn. He could see in her eyes that she was worried about him. He returned back to reality as she spoke to him.
"Ash?" said Evelyn in a troubled voice.
"Huh? What?"
Evelyn pointed in the direction of the Deadite hoard that had been scaling the walls. They had now reached the roof and were running towards the four of them, all at once.
Ash pulled out his pump shotgun and began to back up quickly. "Okay, we gotta split!" Ash turned around to run. He saw Faith and Steven already heading down the stairs. He heard Evelyn's footsteps running alongside him. Among those noises, were the sounds of dozens of Deadites screaming and taunting them as they run behind them. Their distorted voices became increasingly louder.
Ash pumped his shotgun and quickly spun around to unload a round into the skull of the Deadite closest to him. He spotted one that was a mere eight feet behind him. Ash squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!!!
The demon fell dead, bleeding out on the concrete.
Evelyn pulled back the hammer of her revolver. She turned around briefly to shoot another demon.
BLAM!
Ash and Evelyn continued to waste at least three more Deadites as they headed downstairs.
The two of them raced down the narrow stairway. The laughs and cries of "Join us! Join us!" only became louder in the enclosed area. They finally reached the door that would bring them back inside. Evelyn entered first, pushing on the handle and opening the door wide.
She continued to hold on to the door handle until Ash ran through. Once Ash had entered back inside the store, Evelyn slammed the door as hard and as fast as she could. As soon as door closed, Ash held it closed as he turned the lock beside the knob, locking it shut.
The Deadites continued to bang on the door, rasping and shouting at them. A few of them tried to reach under the door, poking their decaying fingers through the crack between the door and the floor.
Annoyed by their persistence, Evelyn kneeled down to the floor, raised her axe, and lowered it. She chopped their Deadite fingers in half. Blood poured from the cut-off point in the knuckles. The demons finally retreated their hands and began to quiet down. "God, that was getting annoying." Evelyn sighed.
"Hey, look at that!" shouted Steven.
When she looked back down at the floor, she saw the fingers that she had just butchered, begin to move on their own.
Eight Deadite fingers moved around on the marble tile, slithering like worms. They moved in all directions.
Evelyn immediately stood back up. "How can they do that?" She remembered what happened last time one of those filthy appendages came after her. Before she could think of something to do to get rid of them, she saw Ash's work boot come down on them and smash them to a pulp.
Once every wiggling finger had been thoroughly smashed, Ash looked back up at them and cleared his throat. "Yeah, that happens sometimes." He said while he put his shotgun back in his holster. He turned to Steven and led him down to the medical supply aisle. "Alright, Steven. Let's get you bandaged up."
Steven nodded. He mumbled, "Okay." and followed Ash.
Ash looked at his pale face. He looked as if he had gotten two shades paler since the last time he saw him. "You lost so much blood, you look deader than those things up there."
"Do I?" asked Steven. As the both of them walked by, they strolled past a display filled with sunglasses. Steven stopped for a moment to look into the mirror that was at the top of the display. He looked up into the mirror, touching the side of his face. Wow, he wasn't kidding. he said to himself. Aside from the streaks of red and green blood on his forehead, Steven's face was a sickly white. "Huh, you're right." he said to Ash. "I look like a piece of paper."
Before he could turn his head away from the mirror, he saw Ash holding a box of tourniquets in his hand. He presented them to Steven, waiting for him to take it from him. "Here." said Ash. "Wrap yourself up with this."
Steven took the box from his hand, and peeled away the plastic wrapping.
Approximately fifteen minutes had passed by. By that time, Steven's wound had been properly cleaned and dressed. The bullet, however, was still lodged in his arm, but there wasn't enough time to try to take it out. Also, judging from Steven's appearance, he couldn't afford to lose any more blood from amateur surgery.
Steven sat down on folding table, which used to display two dollar DVD's, but had since been cleared, not counting their weapons. Faith stood on Steven's left side, holding a wet cloth and blotting the excess blood that had escaped from the bandage.
All of them, including Ash, had set their weapons down for now. Ash's chainsaw, two shotguns were on the far left. Evelyn's revolver and axe were beside his weapons.
Steven's axe and Faith's rifle were laid out on Steven's left side. He rested the Book of the Dead on his lap, never leaving it out of sight.
He felt better knowing that the bleeding had stopped, but he still felt a stinging pain from having the bullet still lodged in his arm. He winced as Faith applied a little more pressure than usual while wiping away the dried blood. "Tsst! Ow!"
Faith pulled back her arm and looked up at him. "Oh, sorry."
"It's okay, it's just still feels a little raw." he said. Steven turned his head to look at Ash. He stood a few feet away from him, with his arms crossed. Since he had taken his chainsaw off temporarily, he hadn't put his metal hand back on. This was the first time Steven had seen Ash's nub. It was strange to look at, but he tried not to stare as he spoke to him. "Ash, this hurts like hell. How come I have to leave the bullet in?" He felt another throb of pain race down his arm. "I know S-Mart has stuff you can use to cut a bullet out of me."
Ash firmly turned him down for the second time. "Because I said no."
"Come on, Ash. This thing's touching the bone, it fucking hurts."
"For the last time," he pointed a finger at Steven. "it's too risky. You've lost too much blood already. I can't have you passing out when it's time to open the rift."
Steven begrudgingly accepted defeat. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "Fuuuuuck..." When Steven opened his eyes, he spotted something that made him repeat his previous statement. "Oh, fuck!" Steven twitched his legs and jumped off of the table.
Faith looked at him in confusion. "What? What's wrong?"
"Yeah kid, have you lost your mind?" yelled Ash.
Steven stood in the middle of the circle that Faith, Evelyn, and Ash had formed around him. He pointed his finger to the sky. "Up there! Look!"
They all looked up at once. Steven had been pointing at the skylight. On the other side of the glass, was the last remaining winged Deadite that had flew away previously. It had been hitting and banging on the glass, causing it to crack. A large, spider web-like pattern of cracks had formed on the glass.
"The little bastard came back." noted Ash.
After repeatedly smashing on the glass with no avail, the demon jumped and flew upward about thirty feet, like a rocket. The four of them continued to stare, their nerves began to rise.
After a few seconds, the demon flew straight down, plunging itself into the skylight. The demon broke through.
CRASH!!!
Thousands of glass shards dr
opped down upon them like rain.
Ash shouted. "Get down!" The four of them lowered down and covered their heads. Once the glass had stopped falling, they looked up to see that the demon had quickly turned itself up, no longer falling down.
The undead menace flew at such a speed, that it was but a blur. The winged Deadite flapped its bat-like wings as it flew toward the front of the store. It shrieked, the high-pitched noise echoed throughout the store. It propelled itself into the barricade that blocked off the entrance to S-Mart. The foul thing launched itself through, bursting through the other side.
CRASH!!! CRUNCH!!! SNAP!!!
The dozens of 2x4's that had been used to keep the Deadites out, had now been snapped into pieces. There was now a gaping hole in the wall.
Ash, Evelyn, Faith, and Steven uncovered their heads, and stood straight up. They looked in crippling fear as they saw that the only thing keeping the Deadites at bay, had now been destroyed. They all shared the same symptoms of anxiety: Their hands began to shake. Every bone in their body felt stiff. They could hardly bring themselves to breathe in. Their eyebrows lifted and their mouths gaped in shock. They had finally found a way to keep themselves safe, and now...Hell had been brought to them.
The Deadites began pouring in the store like a bad flood. The decaying, rotted messes all ran through the large, jagged hole in the wall. Each of them, laughing and sprinting inside, claiming the building as their own. Some of them screamed out of excitement. It was like an undead, demonic, Beatle mania was taking place.
Ash stepped forward as he suddenly noticed a figure standing in the middle of them all. This one was the only one not moving. As all of the Deadites went into a frenzy, this one simply stood at the entrance, taking it all in.
Once most of the demons had made their way in, and the crowd had slowed down, the figure became visible. There at the entrance, stood Freddy Krueger. He had his head lowered slightly, his fedora titled down, almost hiding is blue eyes. His shoulders had been slumped to the side. His right arm hung lower than the left, as the weight of his glove pulled him down. He twiddled the blades on his glove. It made a sleek, metal on metal noise.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Freddy laughed just loudly enough to be heard over the commotion of the Deadites running rampant. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha..." He raised his gloved hand, flicking up his index blade. It was this blade that he used to touch the brim of his hat, and tilt it up. His entire wretched face was now out in the open. The burns and sinews of flesh that peeled away from his skin were now even more horrifying under the florescent lighting. His eyes, were mere slits, like the eyes of a snake. His brows were arched narrowly, locked in a permanent expression of twisted deviancy. As he smiled, his shark-like teeth were exposed.
Once he lifted his hat, Freddy then brought his blades to his face, and slowly licked the wet blood from his knives one by one. It was the young girl's blood. The one from the roof. Her blood was still fresh, and he was saving this spectacle for Ash's eyes only. Freddy swallowed down the girl's thick, bitter blood. He locked eyes on Ash, and said in his guttural voice...
"Miss me?"
Chapter Thirty Three
S-Mart. Only yesterday, it had been nothing more than a simple warehouse store in the middle of Springwood. Now, it had become the very center of Hell on Earth. In fact, all of Springwood began to look like the dark bowels of Hell itself. By this time, the entire population of the small Ohio town, all fifteen thousand of them, minus the four living souls held captive inside the store, were now hosts to Kandarian demons.
Every shop, every suburban home, every street was filled with the decayed masses of the Deadites. They rampaged the town, running amuck and causing death and destruction everywhere they went. But, no matter where they came from, each of them were headed to the same location. They blindly followed the orders of their Master, Freddy. They were his servants in darkness. They sought after the Chosen One.
Ash was the bane of their existence. It was his purpose in life to rid the world of evil. And it was their purpose in death to take him to Freddy, and end his. Then they would live again. No longer would they be dead by dawn. Under the rule of their new leader, every waking moment would be consumed by darkness. All light, all life, all hope would cease to exist.
The Deadites surrounded every corner of the S-Mart building, both inside and outside. There was no place to run or hide without being attacked by one of them. They all stood side-by-side behind the wall, like suspects in a line-up. Faint hisses and murmurs could be heard throughout the store. In their dark, sinister voices, they whispered amongst each other.
"Her soul will be mine..." A female Deadite said as she looked at Evelyn.
"Not if I get it first!" The male demon next to her rasped.
"Ash has no chance against Freddy." One said from the far corner.
The one beside it agreed. "Yes, our lord shall make it rain blood on all the mortals!"
The florescent light fixtures on the ceiling began to flicker. Everything would be bright, almost unsettlingly crisp to the eyes. But every few seconds, the store would be under the cloak of darkness, as if they were out into the night again. Although, considering all of the horribly disfigured faces lurking in every corner, being blinded temporarily wasn't something to complain about.
While the entire area had become a scene of chaos, there was only one thing that had everyone's undivided attention. Everyone inside the store, whether it be the Deadites, or the kids, all had their eyes locked on two figures: Freddy and Ash.
Freddy Krueger: The gatekeeper of nightmares. The man every child feared. And now, he was the wielder of dark powers beyond anyone's comprehension.
Ash Williams: Clerk by day. Demon slayer by night. He is the man that no Deadite has been able to claim. He is the one chosen by God to rid the world of evil.
Ash and Freddy took slow strides across the store toward each other. The distance between them shortened step by step. All sentient beings inside the building fell silent as they watched the two of them walk.
Ash's face was frozen, locked in place. His eyebrows were narrowed. His lips were pursed slightly. He seemed to show nothing but pure anger towards Freddy, but the truth was in his eyes. Behind his brown eyes, glistening under the florescent lights, showed not only rage, but also fear. Despite Ash's skills, his artillery, and knowledge of all things demonic, Freddy had proven to be something different than what he had faced before. His powers may have come from the Necronomicon, but Freddy Krueger was no mere Deadite. He wasn't just some demonic entity harboring inside the body of a person. Freddy had powers that were completely his own. He lived in people's nightmares. He festered inside their minds, raiding through the deepest, darkest areas of their subconscious, and used it against them. And no matter how many times, no matter how many people have tried, no matter how many times he died and went to Hell, Freddy always came back. Ash was afraid that, this time, he had come across a demon he couldn't kill.
Freddy looked at Ash, relishing the fear in his eyes. He kept his charred, left hand resting inside his pants pocket. His right shoulder was slumped. He had bent his right arm, lifting it high enough so that his forearm was parallel to the ground. His palm was facing the ceiling. His steel blades, spotted with the blood of his previous victim, lifted up and down, starting from his pinky to his index finger. His walk was cool and relaxed, as if he was merely gliding off the tile. While Freddy kept his signature cocky smile and intimidating look in his eyes, inside he wasn't as confident as he was with his usual victims. That was because, Ash wasn't like his usual victims. Sure, Freddy had come across a few headstrong young girls, not to mention the towering lunk that was Jason Voorhees, but Ash was different. Ash never tried to run away from him when he spotted him in a dark corner. He never simply stood in front of him, dumb and silent. Ash always had a smartass comment on hand. That in particular annoyed the hell out of Freddy. That was his thing. Most of all, Ash was mortal, and yet he had survived every encounte
r with Freddy. There was something about him. It was what made his soul to most valuable to obtain. Ash was powerful in his own human way. His soul was pure.
Freddy ignored his own fears about Ash, and kept it cool. He sneered as he looked at the bloodied demon slayer. "So Ash," he said derisively. "ready for round two?"
Ash kept his face still as a rock as he would stride closer towards his enemy. He was determined not to let Freddy's words get to him. From here on out, Ash's only goal was to kill Freddy Krueger. No more resurrections. No more Deadites. No more nightmares. He was about to say something to him, letting him know he wasn't intimidated, when he heard quickening footsteps emerging from behind him.
Unbeknownst to Ash, Evelyn had been following behind him the entire time. She didn't know what had come over her, it was as if her legs had a mind of their own. She felt herself drawn towards Freddy. All she could see were flashbacks of the horrible things he had done to the people she loved.
She saw the bloodied mess in the bedroom where he had raped and killed her friend, Meg. Her lifeless body, laying on the tattered sheets. Her eyes, listless and empty. Every inch of her body, cut open and stained with blood. And the others kids he had slaughtered in the hallway. She couldn’t get the image of their blood splattered on the walls out of her head.
And then there was Cooper's mutilated body, laying limp in her arms. His eyes, slashed. His mouth, gaping as if trying to plead for help, but help never came. As if having the love of her life taken from her wasn't tragic enough to bear, he also became possessed and tried to kill her. She'll never forget the look of absolute evil that spread across his face. She'll never forget looking at him through the sights of a gun before she put a bullet between his eyes. That would be the very last image she would have of him. Dead. Bleeding. Brains and skull fragments spread out across his face. Rotting and decaying on the floor of his apartment.