I own no rights to the character Freddy Krueger or any of the characters from the original Nightmare on Elm Street stories. I do retain the rights to the charcters I invent for the story(s) I write.
I sit, nevously watchng the news and eating my dinner as the vicious stories about me are retold on the nightly news.
"The serial pedophile and murderer is known as one, Frederick Krueger, and while police say he is only a 'person of interest', the local townsfolk are up in arms over this suspect."
I change the channel.
"People close to the story say that Fred Krueger was a quiet and lonely man who they could see committing these atrocities."
Angered, I flip the TV off.
My neighbors and 'friends' are standing there with reporters claiming I committed these horrible acts against the children I loved. Children who lived on my street; children who I let play in my yard and swim in my pool on our yearly 4th of July block parties!
I am innocent, yet these ... these ... unmentionables, dare claim I molested and murdered their children!
I admit, I'm not the usual guy. I live alone, now, and have no interest in dating for the simple fact I LIKE being single. People may talk and gossip, but the idea of being tied down to one person for the rest of my life never appealed to me, so I didn't follow that path in life.
I'm just a simple man who works, pays his taxes, and retires each night to reruns of I Love Lucy.
It was never a big thing till the children went missing.
Ten children in as many months have disappeared, and I've helped look for them as much as, if not more so, than their own parents.
I love children, and can not imagine the loss their parents are facing, because I can not have my own.
Years ago, with my wife, we learned that we were unable to have children because, well, it's embarassing to say, but, let's just agree that my little swimmers couldn't make the marathon.
She left me, and I don't blame her; women want families, and I couldn't give that to her. I'm not upset or hate her for the unhappiness that ensued. She is now married with 2 children, and I couldn't be more happy for her.
I just live my solitary life with my dog and cat, and work, diligently, at my career; I look at it as the child I can't have. If I can't invest myself in a child, then I'll focus that energy on my career.
If life gives you lemons, than I'll make lemonade!
That's how it USED to be, before the murders.
Now, everyone is looking at and blaming me.
I don't know why, I've always been a good neighbor -- left their newspaper on their porch when it rained; picked up their doggie doo when they left it on someone else's lawn; I even spearheaded the search for Connie Wanger's child that got lost in the nearby woods ... and FOUND her!
Yet, for some reason, I was the first one the list of suspects of those who would commit such travesties.
I'd seen the news reports, and some of the horrible pictures leaked to the press, and each one made me want to vomit! The idea some PERVERT would do such things to .... to ... ANYONE, let alone, children made my blood boil!
I am robbed of giving life, and someone out there is destroying that which I desperately wish for.
Keep all that in mind when you consider that I was somehow the first 'person of interest' (said suspect) in these cases.
I understand this is somewhat an autobiography, so I can see you think I might be lying, but I promise to you that everything I say is the truth! I'm dead now, so why would a lie matter?!
The police took me to the station, put me through their interrogations, lie detectors, and other 'aggressive' techniques, yet I came up clean. They let me go, but someone leaked me to the press, and they had a field day!
Newspapers SCREAMED my name and my supposed crimes.
Editorials called for my blood and the people of the city wanted me dead ... despite the fact I had alibis for ALL the times of the kidnappings and the police had proven, with DNA evidence I could NOT have been the killer.
Despite all that, the rumors persisted, and community hatred conspired against me.
Thus, I sit here, alone in my house, eating a tv dinner nervously, when a bomb was thrown through my window.
I assume it was called a 'molotov cocktail', but it exploded and lit the house on fire.
"COME OUT, KRUEGER! WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID, AND YOU WON'T LIVE FOR IT!" yelled the mob outside.
I should have done something more, but I panicked and fled.
I ran out the back door to my car, but it was already on fire, so I glanced around, in terror, and ran and jumped over my fence into the ravine that ran behind my house.
By that time, my home was engulfed in flames and the mob had bounded over the fence into my back yard and were hoping to hear my burning screams from the house. Upon not hearing them, they looked over the house, saw me fleeing through the ravine, and jumpeed over the fence and started chasing me through the inky black night.
I couldn't think or even breathe, despite the fact my lungs were crying for rest after the marathon I had run. Suddenly, to my right, I saw a natural gas plant, and I ran up the sides of the ravine to it, hoping that these stupid people would not be so asinine to burn down a place that was pretty much a bomb looking for a fuse.
I scrambled over the fence of the plant and searched for SOME way inside. I couldn't find one, and the mob was close behind me, so I finally broke a window, clambored through, getting some nasty glass cuts on my way, and then scooted back as fast and far as I could before I hit a gas tank at the far wall.
My mind feels stuck on fast forward, yet time feels like mollasses as I see the flames of the torches glow brighter on the walls around me.
"KRUEGER!" I hear, "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!"
"Why are you after me!" I yell, "I didn't do anything!"
"YOU KILLED OUR CHILDREN, AND YOULL BURN NOW AND IN HELL! the mob yells, almost in unison.
I try to cry out in my defense when a flaming bottle filled with gasoline flies through the window I fled through, smashes on the floor, and ignites. It is followed by many, MANY more and the room I am trapped in is suddenly submerged in the fires of hell.
I try to escape, but the accelerants reach me and I ignite in flames and writhe around in pure torture. Having been raised in a good church, I know what hell is supposed to be like, and I finally understand it.
I meekly crawl through the flames towards the window, with a strength and power I don't understand, and as I finally collapse, in agony, I see a face appear through the smoke above me. It was Nicholas Raymond, beloved mayor of the town. He smiled at me and winked, and, at the last moment of my life, I got it!
HE was the one, it was HIM who hurt these innocents!
That was one of my last thoughts as the fire completely overtook and engulfed me.
As my consciencousnes slowly dripped from me into the void of death, I heard Nicholas, and a few others in the mob laugh as I burned.
My soul suddenly lurched out of me as I died, yet, my force of will brought it back into my charred body.
I WILL TAKE THE SOULS OF THE WICKED WITH ME TO HELL! THAT AND THEIR CHILDREN! THEY SHALL ALL PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE!!!!
With that, I shuffled off this mortal coil, and lost my soul ...
Kelly Knechtel shreiked and sat up in bed; completely drenched in sweat and shivering like a hypothermia victim.
The dream she just had, of a man being burned alive for crimes he didnt' commit, dug deep into her soul and shook her to her core.
Wiping away the dregs of sleep, and finally coming to grips with the fact it was a stupid dream, she lay back down and tried to fall back into slumber.
Kelly was never one to have nightmares, but THIS one was more real than any experience she had ever had.
It took her a good half an hour to convince herself that what she has seen was NOT real life.
She finally fell back asleep, but as she did, she swore she heard children singing.
As the darkness overtook he thoughts and she lost the night, she would have sworn she heard a nursery rhyme ...
One, two, Freddy's coming for you! Three, four, better lock your door! Five, six, grab your crucifix! Seven, eight, better stay up late! Nine, ten, you'll never sleep again! ** ** That's it for part one. Hope you liked it! Trust me, this story will fit into the themes of Nifty, I just found a new idea for the story of the Nightmare on Elm Street series ... what if Freddy WAS innocent and he is now a vengeful ghost ... or maybe he isn't! Give me feedback at ender2155@gmail.com ;-)