The voices were coming from in there.
Chip knelt down and peeked in the keyhole.
The fire in the furnace was roaring.
There were two hooded figures in the room standing just below the vent. They had their sleeves rolled up past their elbows and were carving red lines, bloody lines, into their arms with identical red dragon switchblade knives. One of the hooded figures turned toward him. It was Al, grinning like a panting dog.
Then the other hooded figure turned. Dark, maniacal eyes peered out from the dark triangle of the hood, eyes that glowed bright red. Chip remembered that face from the summer football league. Johnny Murphy!
Chip watched in dazed horror as Al and Johnny smeared their bloodied arms together.
"Now we're of the same blood. Now and forever," Johnny said in a mesmerizing voice, his psychotic eyes boring into Al, as if hypnotizing him. Eyes that burned like bright red rubies. Just like in Chip's dream. Al nodded dumbly, a lurid grin stretching the skin ludicrously tight across his face. "All others must die…"
"All others must die…" Al repeated as if in a trance.
"Ashes to ashes," Johnny said.
"Ashes to ashes," Al repeated.
The eerie glow from the crackling fire made their faces look like skulls.
They're planning to kill me, Chip thought as another chill cut through his body.
And stuff me in the furnace.
Like the others before me.
And the others after me.
Chip could feel his chest heave as he tried to keep from hyperventilating, his eye still glued to the keyhole. Then a tremendously loud pounding on the side door upstairs distracted him. Still kneeling, he shot a glance over his shoulder.
More pounding.
Then he heard his name called.
"Chip! Chip!"
Alicia's voice.
The examination room door suddenly burst open.
Startled, Chip toppled backward.
Al and Johnny stared down at him. Two sets of wild, homicidal eyes boring into him like laser beams, their switchblades still in their hands.
At first they seemed surprised to see him there.
And then happy.
Al was still grinning his lurid grin. "Well, well, well — look who's here. Save us the trouble of coming up to get you."
More pounding on the door upstairs.
"Chip! Chip!" Alicia's voice was frantic.
"Hail, hail, the gang's all here," Johnny sang in a grotesquely cheerful voice.
Panic-stricken, still on the basement floor, Chip began to pull the long cutting knife out of his belt, but Al easily kicked it away. Out of reach.
Johnny loped across the basement floor to the foot of the stairs. "Come on down and join the party!" he shouted up to Alicia in Chip's voice. Chip's identical voice.
Chip stared at Johnny with a bewildered expression. Even Al's eyes flickered nervously.
"Chip?" came Alicia's voice from the top of the stairs, sounding small and faraway. "Is that you? Are you all right?"
"Down here," Johnny said in Chip's voice. "Alicia Norris — come on down!" Johnny bellowed enthusiastically as if he were a game show host.
Alicia hesitated at the top of the stairs.
"Ali — run!" Chip shouted.
"Alicia Norris — come on down!" Johnny called again in a cheerful version of Chip's voice.
Alicia came partway down the stairs, then froze. Her mouth locked in shock and terror.
"Run!" Chip shouted again. He knew he was doomed, but maybe she could still escape.
Chip watched as Johnny beckoned to Alicia with his finger. Only now the fingernails were long and sharp and had turned black like an animal's claw. "I want you to meet someone special," Johnny said, this time in a voice that was oddly metallic and inhuman.
"Yeah, Alicia," Al said, his voice hollow. "Johnny's been telling me some mighty interesting things I thought you might like to know. Seems he did a little digging around in the state hospital files before he broke out. He found Krueger's old file. Turns out Krueger had a son after all. And he really was a chip off the old block. And guess who it is?"
"Yeah, guess," Johnny said, his eyes glinting madly, glowing red like the furnace fire across the room as he kept beckoning to Alicia to come down the stairs with fingers that were now growing long and knifelike. Razor-sharp fingers.
Chip thought his mind might come unglued.
The furnace fire crackled loudly.
"I'd like you all to meet my son. He's a chip off the old block." Johnny's voice had turned rough and gravelly, like he had a throat full of ground-up glass.
Then Johnny walked over to Al and gave him an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder with a razory hand.
"Say hello to the nice people at home — Alfredrick!" Johnny tugged down his hood. Then he pulled a fleshy mask off his face with a sickening tear. The face underneath was hideously scarred and melted, the slimy brains exposed and shining like a bowl of glistening oatmeal.
Chip couldn't take his eyes off the savage, brutal face. Frozen in terror, he was stuck to the ground, like a fly caught in a spider's web.
Alicia screamed.
Al slowly turned his head toward Johnny, his face filling with horror. "Dad?" Al rasped in disbelief.
The boiler fire flickered madly.
Freddy Krueger cackled loudly, his raspy voice breaking through Alicia's screams, his foul, disgusting breath filling the basement air with a stench worse than decaying meat. He smiled, revealing two uneven rows of small, brown, rotten teeth. "The game of life's a lot like football. But this is one game I think's going to end in sudden death!"
Krueger smiled wickedly at Al. "Right, son?"
"Right, Dad," Al replied in a hoarse whisper, the words choking him. His pale blue eyes lit up and burned brightly with madness. "It's so great to meet you after all these years. I knew someday my wish would come true."
Then Al slammed the red dragon switchblade knife into Krueger's heart.
Krueger tottered backward, shock registering on his hideous face. A razory hand gripped the red dragon handle of the knife sticking out of his heart. He staggered toward the open examination room door and almost stepped on Chip.
Chip rolled out of the way and rose shakily to his feet, his mind numb with the horror unfolding before him.
Suddenly Krueger's mouth dropped open and flames shot out as he pulled the knife out of his heart and plunged it into Al's skull. He braced himself against the door frame with his other hand, struggling not to fall.
Al fell to his knees. The knife jutted grotesquely out of his head.
Adrenaline pumping through his system, Chip bolted past Al. He ran across the basement floor and headed for the stairs. He ran partway up the stairs, tripped, and slipped back down the stairs.
He flashed a terror-filled glance over his shoulder.
Krueger pointed at him, then at the furnace fire. "You're up next!" he said and cackled loudly.
Chip screamed hysterically, unable to move.
Then suddenly Alicia was at his side. She yanked him to his feet. "We've got to get out of here!" Alicia shrieked, shaking Chip, shaking him hard, shaking him out of his dazed state.
"No!" Krueger roared in a husky voice, still clinging to the doorway, blood dripping from his heart. "You're mine!"
Chip's stare swiveled to Krueger. Krueger's eyes were shining a bright red, drawing him into the examination room, drawing him into the fire, drawing him with irresistible force.
Then Al, the knife still sticking repulsively in his skull, suddenly leapt from the floor and slammed into Krueger with a football tackle, slammed into him with all his might as if he had been shot out of a cannon.
Al drove Krueger back, back into the fire, his momentum carrying both of them into the glowing furnace.
And then the boiler door slammed shut with a resounding clang as Chip and Alicia escaped up the stairs and out into the chilly night.
Epilogue
&n
bsp; Fire was everywhere.
The hellish flames licked all around the tall, angular man, climbing their way up his body.
With razor-tipped fingers, he tossed a football into the air. It burst into flames and exploded in a shower of sparks that rained down over his striped football jersey.
"I love a good halftime show," Freddy Krueger said, adjusting the shoulder pads and slicing a rip into the fabric of his uniform. His red eyes glowed and the pupils turned into little TVs. On the screens, Chip and Alicia were racing out of the house on Elm Street.
"But you know what they say: 'It's not over till it's over… "
Fatal Games Page 13