Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them; they pick you."

- John Irving, The Last Chairlift

"His hand spells death

He breathes his vile breath

No way you can stop him once he's out

He haunts your sleep

In the tub, he hides down deep

He rips your face, and no one hears you shout"

- Freddy Krueger, S.O.D. Stormtroopers of Death

Earth-878992: Port Washington, Wisconsin

An unknown figure broke into the home of the Foster-Lambert family. A man dressed in a miner's suit, gas mask and all. He rammed through the backdoor-breaking it with his pick axe in tow.

As he breathed heavily, he stomped quietly from the kitchen to the living room until he reached the stairs.

The miner, known as Axel, had been traveling around the multiverse since that fateful day of stealing that vehicle that allowed him to escape his universe and had been continuing his murderous streak since dispatching couples.

As he opened the bedroom door that led to the parents, Frank and Carol, the door creaked opened as he turned his head to a bed covered in sheets.

Underneath his mask, Axel's eyes narrowed into a glare.

Axel raced over to his targets and torn off the sheets and threw them to the floor and raised his trademark weapon; the pick ax.

But then he paused.

He froze. Almost in shock.

He bore witness to the dead, bloody bodies of Frank and Carol Foster-Lambert. Their necks slit open into gory and bleeding gashes.

Frank's body with slash marks from his crotch to his chest to his face, while the chest itself was torn open and exposed his broken ribcage; certain sections of the ribcage were snapped in two. While Carol had slash marks across her face and a bloody open hole in her chest. Both eyes of the wife and husband were left open.

Axel wondered if he had been beaten to the punch already?

He touched the bodies by each of their arms, determining their pulse. To his shock, the bodies were still warm.

They were killed seconds before he arrived. Surely, Axel would have known.

There would have been a scuffle. All sorts of noise to give the impression of a struggle. And Axel definitely would have figured he'd hear footsteps of the killer.

Except, no open windows or force of entry of some kind.

Something happened. And some day, he was going to know what.

As Axel left the bedroom and with his own thoughts, he failed to notice the ceiling with a peculiar message in a blood splatter fashion:

Freddy was here

Earth-231163

A dark brown skinned man with a shaved head and mustache, wearing a brown leather jacket, an orange multicolor shirt, jeans and red and blue shoes, stepped out of a blue Police Public Call Box and stepped into a cafe in Spain.

"Ruby!" The man, known as the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor, called out a companion of his.

Ruby Sunday had recently stayed with her family after the incident regarding Sutekh.

But not long after, the Doctor felt a strange, unnerving and hugely evil presence as did his previous incarnations. He knew it could not had been Sutekh given he was destroyed.

Yet, this presence he felt was something, or rather someone, far more worse than even a god as Sutekh. Someone far more cruel and that was saying something.

Perhaps, the Doctor imagined even Sutekh would had feared this presence.

The Doctor was surprised to see the cafe empty. Everything as of it remained untouched.

Hesitantly, the Time Lord walked inside further.

"Ruby?" He called her softly in a whispered tone.

He walked softly as he felt the eerie silence of the Cafe. So much silence that you could actually hear a pin needle drop.

The Doctor peered over the counter.

Nothing.

The Time Lord wondered if an evacuation had occurred. But from what?

The cafe was intact, but like everything else surrounding it, all empty. As if human life had never existed.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of scratching from behind.

Alarmed, The Doctor whirled around to serve the source of the sound.

Again. Nothing.

Then The Doctor heard footsteps. Creaking footsteps despite the marble floor.

The Doctor turned around constantly as he tried to find the face of this presence.

Suddenly, he froze in shock. He stopped in his tracks.

The Time Lord felt something breathing on him. A breath of heat; fire and ash.

The Doctor had a look of fear on his face. Not even since The Maestro. That was a cake walk in comparison. There was just something that brought more fear to him than anyone else.

Not helped that on the brick wall, much to his shock, was a shadow.

A shadow of a man with a fedora hat. And with it, from behind, a dark and sinister chuckle as he felt his arm was grabbed.

With a scream and a gasp, The Doctor woke up to find himself back in front of the TARDIS control console.

The Doctor realized as he breathed heavily but to his relief, he merely drifted off. How long was another question but regardless, he laughed softly in relief. Though he frisked himself in order to be sure he was in one piece. He sighed in further relief.

Though he remembered he would had felt it since he would had been on the verge of regenerating.

But something alarmed him. He turned his head to the right and saw something that turned his expression to one of terror; four slash marks on the TARDIS doors.

Earth-101515: Paris, France (Pre-Villain War Convergence)

Marinette was sound asleep in her room; her own home whilst also a bakery.

Sleeping peacefully in her bed alongside her kwami Tikki, sleeping equally peacefully.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that required turning into the superhero known as Ladybug.

As both Marinette and Tikki were sound asleep, above them was their bedroom wall.

Normal, at first.

But tiny claw-like waves appeared at first before disappearing.

A facial feature blurred by as if it were in the water. All accompanied by the sound as if it were hollow and metallic.

But finally, a figure pressed himself through the wall; retaining its pink purple color but went through as if it were rubber.

His left hand was normal and his right hand had what looked like claws on his fingertips.

The figure, whose facial features looked scarred, growled lowly yet sadistically as he eyes on Marinette as began to toss and turn; like an predatory animal spotting its prey-ready for the kill.

But to the disappointment of the stranger in the walls; he spotted the sleeping Tikki.

He had not seen her before and yet, something about this creature had too good of an aurora of goodness like the crucifix or at the very least, what seemed to be a symbol of pure love. Especially one of creation.

The figure retreated back into the walls and returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

Marinette's eyes fluttered up opened briefly.

She wondered if someone was in her room. In any case, she went back to sleep.

Earth-090290: The Dream Zone

A group of children and their talking dog, Pottsworth, all known as the Midnight Patrol who protected the Dream Zone, had gotten a disturbing and unnerving message from their Nemesis, The Nightmare Prince.

A single letter that had the word: HELP!

The Midnight Patrol, consisting of Carter, Keiko, Rosie and Nick, alongside Pottsworth and Nick's sentient toy Brontosaurus, Murphy, were shocked as rarely he would call for a truce, let alone in need of help.

The butler, Sebastian, a servant of the Grand Dozer, warned the group that it could be a trap. Carter and Keiko assured him they won't be taken by surprise.

As the Midnight Patrol marched toward the kingdom of the Nightmare Prince, they immediately halted in their tracks.

The palace was in entire disarray. Smoke poured from the destroyed exteriors and the foundation looked more poorer than ever and small drips of blood seeped through the holes.

"What on Earth happened?!" Rosie exclaimed loudly in shock as she covered the eyes of her superhero little brother Nick.

"My word!" Potsworth spoke in shock in his usual British accent. "What happened?!"

The Midnight Patrol was then startled by a mysterious yet painful sound; the sound of metal screeching.

"What is that awful noise?!" Cried Keiko as she and the others covered their ears.

"Should we go inside?" Asked Nick despite Murphy literally shaking in fear.

"We have to if we want to know what's going on!" Said Carter as he dashed forward to the kingdom with everyone ekse joining him.

As they raced toward the castle, the inside horrified all than the outside.

Bodies of the Nightmare Prince's minions were spread out and in some bizarre cases, splattered onto the ceiling leaving a bloody mess. Rosie felt like throwing up as she and everyone looked horrified.

"Who did this?!" Asked Keiko, clearly frightened by the gory sight.

"And why?" Pottsworth added, appalled by the gory sight.

"What barbarian did this?" He then asked.

"Someone not very nice!" Nick gulped with Keiko nodding in agreement as she trepidly rode on her skateboard as the others explored what remained of the palace.

They walked through the palace as there were a dozen slash marks on the walls and blood splatters on the floor.

Each of the Midnight Patrol were grossed out-feeling the need to vomit. It seemed like every part of the hallway grew progressively more bloody and gory than the last.

Finally, they reached a particular room. Like everywhere else however, slash marks were on the door. Not just that however. There was even a hole where the doorknob should be which suggested it was broken into. And the hinges slightly torn off.

At least, that was what Pottsworth theorized.

Despite the hesitation, Keiko and Carter open the door first. Keiko peered her eye in first. The room was semi dark with flickering lights being the only source of such.

Finally, all the children opened the door. They realized it was the surveillance room of sorts given all the screen monitors but to their horror, not only as before, henchmen were dismembered and tossed around everywhere and created a bloody mess, in the middle of the monitors was a figure with the head resembling a crescent moon and a black cloak and a crown flipped upside down to his head-piercing through it as blood dripped out.

The entire Midnight Patrol was horrified at the sight before them.

Their nemesis, the Nightmare Prince, was dead. His body pinned to the television monitors like a crucifix. With snapped in two bones acting as the nails on the cross as they were stabbed through his wrists.

"Man, he did not deserve this!" Screamed Carter, horrified at the sight.

"Hey, where's Potsworth?!" Keiko exclaimed.

"And Murphy?!" Nick cried in distress as Murphy always kept him comfortable and safe.

The children looked all over for any sign of their missing friends.

"Stay together, guys." Keiko said as the children stood back to back in a huddled group.

Then they heard the scratching again. Louder than ever as they cringed at the sound.

But then, silence.

An eerie, intense moment of silence.

Nick was facing the door first. He was fearful the most as behind the door was total darkness. Like any child, the dark was never a feeling of something good.

Suddenly, an object was thrown at him and landed near his feet.

Nick screamed in horror and despair to the point of tears. The Midnight Patrol instantly saw to their horror was Murphy; dead and his sides had the same slash marks but in a bloody fashion.

"Murphy, no!" Nick screamed.

Suddenly, a familiar canine body swung by the group from behind.

Keiko and the others felt the wind behind them. Their teeth chattered in fear as they were afraid of what was behind them.

Their fears were confirmed when they did but their expectations were exceeded far worse than anticipated; it was the body of Potsworth with his neck hung by the rope onto a non-existent ceiling.

"Potsworth!" The Midnight Patrol screamed in sadness and shock.

Finally, they heard the sound of a door kicked open. With a startled scream, they whirled around to see the apparent perpetrator.

"Who is that?!" Screamed Katie.

Shutting the broken door behind them was a tall, lanky man in a red and green sweater, brown pants and shoes, as well as a fedora hat. But what stood out was on his right hand was a razor glove with four finger blades and his burned face and skin illuminated by the dark shadows of the room.

The man laughed sinisterly as he walked toward what remained of the Midnight Patrol in a menacing fashion.

The children were prepared to fight back but were suddenly physically held back.

To their confusion, chains that were tied around their bodies appeared out of nowhere. The children stared at the man with despair on their faces as the man wagged his bladed right index finger "no" as he chuckled.

He then stopped to stare at the dead body of the Nightmare Prince as if he were admiring his own art piece.

The man used the tip of his finger bladed index finger to trace around the shape of his head as he laughed softly.

He then faced the children with a demented grin of glee.

The children now felt powerless for the first time as the man approached them as hid right razor gloved hand scratched the monitors. The unnerving sound commenced once again, except this time the sound was accompanied by glass breaking and static erupting a bit.

As the children were backed into a corner, they screamed for their lives as the man placed his razor gloved hand further higher with his fingers contorting as the Midnight Patrol screamed as they tried to escape frantically but to no avail.

Until finally, the razor gloved hand rained upon them. He roared as he slashed the children apart as he lived up to his moniker when he was alive; The Springwood Slasher.

Earth-2004

Hugo Strange had remained in a catatonic state ever since The Joining gave him the one thing in his exact words: vast knowledge of the universe.

But it seemed they figured that was enough to betray him as Hugo Strange's brain could not handle that much information.

Since then, his catatonic body had been sent back to Arkham Asylum where he had been under medical care since. As his still body lied in bed with heart and brain monitors galore around him, his mind had a different story.

In his forever dream state, Hugo Strange had his mouth sewn shut. He attempted to scream but could not. Only the desperate muffled pleas.

To his horror, the man responsible was in front of his bed, which included straps. A man with burned skin, a fedora, a red and green striped sweater, dirty brown pants shoes and a razor glove on his right hand.

"Can't have you squealing." The man, Freddy Krueger, grinned as he waved his razor index finger "no."

"You wanted the entire knowledge of the universe, well, not only you got it," said Freddy as he snickered. "But you made my multiverse traveling so much easier."

"Why don't we check your temperature, Doc?" He then said.

Freddy pressed a searing hot towel on Hugo's forehead much to his discomfort as the five hundred degree towel was enough for him to scream albeit still muffled.

Freddy mockingly tsked.

"Oh, you're burning up!" Freddy exclaimed in a sarcastic manner.

"That's too bad." He then added.

"Let's check your heart!"

Freddy then pressed his left bare hand on Hugo's chest, where his heart was and went through it as if the skin were some kind of batter and very cleanly, ripped out Hugo Strange's heart.

"Huh. Guess you have a heart." Freddy remarked curiously in surprise, as he knew about the mad doctor's exploits.

Freddy then squeezed Hugo's heart, increasing the discomfort much to the mad doctor's horror. The Springwood Slasher squeezed the heart as hard as he could, all while sporting a look of sadistic glee.

Then his razor gloved right hand formed a fist and began to punch the heart-leaving blade marks all over. Hugo began to twitch and spaz as his body contorted and winced upon each impact.

Freddy grinned as he paused pounding on Hugo's heart. Reveling in the torture he was placing on the mad doctor.

"Too uncomfortable?" Freddy asked as his bladed index finger tapped Hugo's left arm.

"Let's try physical therapy." With that, Freddy snapped Hugo's arm by slamming his knee into the mad doctor's elbow.

Hugo again screamed despite his mouth sewn shut as Freddy chuckled before full on laughing.

Hugo began to emit tests from his eyeducts. All from feeling helpless, ever unable to be free of his pain.

"Aww, poor baby!" Freddy mockingly cooed before cackling.

With that, he inserted his entire razor bladed index finger into Hugo's ear much to the even more discomfort of the mad doctor.

"Just want to see what's in that brain of yours." Freddy grinned.

Suddenly, his grin faded slowly. The man's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Freddy took out his finger blade and stood around.

"Who's watching me?" He asked darkly, before he spat, "What are you staring at?!"

A young girl in her late teens with dark red hair, woke up with a gasp and shot up on her bed.

Sweat covered her face as she breathed heavily. This was not a dream Barbara Gordon would normally have. This was new and felt too real.

Barbara was concerned if Hugo Strange really was tortured by this burned skinned man with the razor glove. And more importantly, was that man even real to begin with?

Earth-090184: The P*lace

It was fun being a member of Kids Incorporated. Beloved and getting to sing songs in front of kids their age, just seemed like living the dream.

There were members who had to leave for one reason or another. While sad, but nothing too tragic. But later on, for Stacy, some things ended up being tragic later on.

The first time, when Mickey moved away, he was found in a car accident days later as his head chopped off, seemingly by a wire. His parents looked none the worse for wear.

Gloria had been found at her music school with a slashed throat with the implications being it was suicide.

The Kid died during the flight to Africa as his brain became non responsive by the time he arrived. And Renee whilst visiting her cousin Samantha in England, both girls were found what looked like a fight had gone on in their room that resulted in a gory death with heads stabbed open wide and a skull crushed.

Stacy, the leader of the musical group Kids Incorporated, was disturbed when she had read each newspaper that went into gruesome detail for each former member.

Disgusted and frightened, she tossed the newspaper aside as if it were literally toxic.

Stacy was alone at The P*lace. It was only mere minutes after closing time despite the lights being still on but she needed a quiet place to contemplate after she had found the news and recent whereabouts of her former band mates.

She drummed her fingers on the table for a while. Until she was startled to hear it drummed back to her.

Stacy moved her head back and forth to find the source of the sound. But nobody was sitting at any of the tables.

'Maybe I'm just spooked out of my mind. That's all.' Stacy assured herself.

Suddenly, the lights turned off.

Stacy was now in full panic mode as she heavily exhaled in order to calm herself.

As she stood up, Stacy attempted to leave but froze in place. Stacy suddenly had a look of fear on her face as someone had forced her to stop. Someone was behind her.

One that smelled of burned ash and brimstone. Stacy's eyes were widen open as as dinner plates as her eyes turned to the right; dreading what was behind her.

Her head followed and instantly, she was grabbed by the man in the red and green sweater by her neck.

"You just sang your last concert!" Freddy said.

With that, he stabbed her in the chest.

"You'll join your friends soon." Freddy added.

As he released his grasp on Stacy, she fell to the floor-dead. Her eyes opened and blood poured from her mouth.

Freddy laughed as he clasped his hands as he eagerly anticipated what was going to come next.

Stacy's soul escaped her dead body and was shot into Freddy's chest.

"Yes!" Freddy exclaimed in excitement as he felt a rush of adrenaline energy.

"Hope you missed your friends, kid." Freddy then grinned. "You're gonna meet 'em real soon!"

With that, he laughed at his new victory.

And soon enough, many future members of Kids Incorporated would one by one fall until the group existed no more.

Earth-081191: Bluffington

Doug Funnie was no stranger to nightmares. But a specific man targeting him after killing his friends and his sister Judy, was new and traumatic territory for the pre-teen.

As he ran toward his house, to avoid the killer, he gasped as he discovered the very same man, Freddy Krueger, sitting on the stairs as he read his journal much to his horror.

"'Dear journal...'" Freddy read aloud. "Yadda, yadda, yadda. 'And now Patti is gone and I don't know what to do. Even Roger Klotz didn't deserve what happened to him.'"

He read each word with increasing mockery as he laughed afterwards.

"You this much of a punk ass bitch?" Asked Freddy as he tore the journal in half.

"My journal!" Scream Doug as he threw himself to the floor to grab what remained of his journal. Only to find himself pinned to the ground by Freddy as he stepped on Doug's spine.

He cried in pain while Freddy laughed.

Then the Springwood Slasher leaned over to Doug Funnie's neck with his razor glove and slashed his neck open just as he stomped on Doug's spine hard enough to break it.

"Not the first Doug I killed." Freddy remarked. "Tie wearing fuckhead."

Freddy then laughed heartily.

Earth-11052: Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters

Rogue slept peacefully in her bed. No nightmares or thoughts or memories from people she touched to intrude on her sleep.

She tossed and turned a bit before settling on the right side of the bed.

Suddenly, four finger blades pierced through the mattress and glided their way toward Rogue while tearing through the sheets and mattress cover in the process.

The blades came closer and closer toward her face and stopped. Slowly but surely, the finger blades rose up and followed by an entire razor gloved hand and a red and green striped sweater arm and ready to strike as the finger bladed fingers were spread out and contorted.

As the razor gloved hand started to fall upon her, Rogue woke up with a gasp. She shot up on her bed in her shared room with Kitty Pryde who was still asleep.

Rogue breathed heavily but did not know why. Yet, she had the feeling she had a close call but why? And from what?

Nevertheless, Rogue was grateful to be still alive.

But then, she noticed something was amiss.

The young southern girl noticed on her mattress and bed blankets that they were torn up into slash marks. Even the mattress covering. Rogue's eyes narrowed in fear and suspicion. Someone or something was in her room. And she was going to find out who did it.

Earth-092485

Mike Seaver was enjoying his life into adulthood. Still married to his wife Kate and still in good touch with his family.

In fact, tomorrow was the Seaver family reunion. It had been a long while since Mike had seen his family, especially after his little brother Ben tried to sell the family home before having a change of heart.

As he slept, Mike found himself in an elevator as he woke up.

"What the?" He stammered as he was confused over his new surroundings.

Suddenly, the elevator dropped down and he felt the full force pin him to the floor as Mike felt the gravity being forced upon him hard as the elevator increased its speed to insane degrees.

Mike regardless tried to get up and crawled toward the elevator doors and barely managed to open them.

To his shock, the outside was nothing more than a black, empty void of an abyss. He closed the doors half out of fear and half out of his strength giving in.

The elevator continued to drop until it went into a screeching halt.

Mike felt a sigh of relief. He could move normally again. He weakly backed himself to the back of the elevator as he breathed heavily and felt whiplash from the huge drop.

As his eyes were closed, he could hear the elevator doors open. Mike had an expression of horror on his face as he opened his eyes.

Mike was once again greeted by the darkness outside. An eerie silence filled the elevator and awaited out of fear what was possibly going to come next.

After a moment, he saw a hand with finger blades slowly grasp the top of the elevator. And another from the middle left. Followed by another from the middle right. Until all corners of the elevator doors were occupied by razor bladed hands.

Until he saw the razor gloved hand in the middle retract from his sight. But was replaced by Freddy Krueger peeking his head into the elevator.

"I was hoping to run into you!" Freddy exclaimed with sadistic glee as he entered the elevator.

"What do you want with me?!" Mike screamed in fear as he frantically stood up and tried to run.

Mike tried to run past him but the Springwood Slasher quickly grabbed him by his neck before he could escape.

"No, no, no!" Freddy chided his next victim. "You ain't going nowhere, Mikey!"

He then cackled as he threw Mike into the left corner of the elevator.

Very quickly, Freddy stomped toward him and lifted Mike up by the collar of shirt and then stabbed him deep right into his stomach. Freddy grinned as blood began to pour from Mike's mouth as he stared aghast at the child murderer.

"Why...?" Mike gasped the only word he could emit from his mouth.

"Why not?" Freddy retorted before he not only plunged deep into Mike's stomach but his arm literally went through his entire chest with his razor gloved hand both Mike's stomach and his heart, pierced onto the finger blades.

Freddy laughed in triumph as he completed his next kill.

Earth-502: Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1950s)

It was a normal night for the Cunningham family in the 1950s as usual. By now, everyone was in bed asleep. Including a tall young man with dark red hair named Chuck Cunningham.

Asleep in his bed peacefully, he had big dreams about basketball as he wanted a full scholarship and to join the big leagues. A dream he wanted to live. Of course, he literally dreamt that he was accomplishing exactly that.

Chuck was scoring constant slam dunks back to back. He was having the time of his life as everybody cheered on every win he had.

"Quit hogging the ball, asshole!"

Chuck was about to run to one of the hoops with the basketball in tow but stopped when he heard one of his teammates angrily telling him off.

He turned around in confusion as the other players got equally aggressive.

"Yeah, fucker!" Another player concurred. "Let someone else have the ball for a change!"

Chuck began to sweat out of fear as the other players, even the referee and the crowd angrily shouted accusations at him.

"You're a ball hogger, Chuck!" He heard his father, Howard, scream.

"W-what-what'd I do?" Chuck stammered as everyone began to converge around him like zombies.

Suddenly, one of the players violently removed his face to reveal a burned face man with the rest of the body following to reveal a red and green sweater, a razor glove on his right hand and so forth.

Everyone followed suit to reveal the same as they emitted evil cackling and were prepared to strike with their respective razor gloved hands as the Freddy duplicates ganged up on Chuck.

In response, Chuck threw the ball at one of the Freddy duplicates and made a run for it. The Freddy duplicates slashed at his entire body as he made his way through the crowd until he reached the locker room and locked the doors before using a bench to block it further to prevent the Freddy duplicates from breaking in.

Satisfied, Chuck ran again.

Only out of nowhere as Chuck did not look ahead, Freddy stopped him by stabbing him in the chest before he moved his razor gloved hand from there to Chuck's neck. Creating an ugly gash of bloody slash marks.

Chuck looked at the Springwood Slasher in despair while Freddy gave a small smile.

"Don't lose your head!" Freddy quipped.

With that, he forcibly removed Chuck's head from his body.

As the rest of his body dropped to the floor like a stone, Freddy held Chuck's head like a ball.

"Alas, poor Chuck." Freddy paraphrased Hamlet in a darkly mocking manner as his left bare hand held up Chuck's head. "I barely knew thee."

With that, Freddy threw Chuck's head into a laundry basket like a basketball.

"Two points!" Freddy raised his fist in triumph as he laughed.

As Freddy gained Chuck's soul, instantly, Chuck was now officially erased from his universe as if he never existed as part of his ever growing abilities that allowed him to gain new ones.

Chuck was not the first nor will he be the last to be killed and erased from his own universe.

Earth-1773

"James, we're lost!"

"We're not lost!"

James Hiller, Henri LeFebvre and Sarah Phillips were out and about in the woods on a small camping trip for rest and relaxation. While not their first time sleeping in the woods but after their journeys throughout the Revolutionary War, James and Sarah in particular, at least felt it would be nice for a recreational activity.

But upon attempting to find a supposed camping site James knew about, things went south fast.

"Do you even know where your supposed camping site is?" Asked an irritable Sarah.

"Of course I do, it's just..." James trailed off as he struggled to think of an answer. "Some things changed while we were elsewhere!"

Sarah made a noise signifying she did not buy the excuse. Neither did Henri as he merely facepalmed at his friend's remark.

"Just admit it, James." Sarah said. "We are lost. Let's just-"

"Do you hear that?" James cut her off as he paused his trek through the forest.

"Hear what?" Sarah asked before James shushed her.

"But I do not hear anything!" The French boy, Henri, concurred.

"You don't hear it?" James whispered.

James listened intently as to what he heard.

"I think someone is calling us." James said as he whispered quietly.

"How can you tell?" Asked Henri.

Suddenly, Sarah grasped her head as she groaned. As if her head were pounding as well.

"James..." Sarah gasped softly. "I may have heard it too."

Henri suddenly felt the same pounding in his head like Sarah.

"Me too!" Henri cried out to which James shushed him again.

"I think it's coming from this direction!" James said quietly.

After another moment of walking through the forest, the trio finally found a clearing at the end of the forest.

As the trio head out of the forest, to their astonishment, they saw before them a mansion. To Henri, it looked more like a castle given some of the upper roof areas. Nevertheless, they were hoping they could find some help at last.

James, Sarah and Henri raced over to the mansion and all three of them knocked on the door rapidly.

"Hello?" Sarah cried out.

The trio waited a moment but there was no answer.

"Hello?" James cried out to the door next. "Can you please help us?"

They waited again. No answer.

Impatient, James pressed on the door handle and to his and the others astonishment, the door actually opened. It was never locked at all.

"James, you can't just go into a stranger's home uninvited." Sarah scolded her friend.

"I'm sorry!" James apologized. "I got kind of desperate!"

"It doesn't look like anybody is home though." Henri remarked as he looked at the entire area of the mansion.

James and Sarah concurred as they looked around the entire living room of the mansion, it looked empty despite the furniture. From simple chairs to tables to untouched books on shelves. The living room of the mansion looked very bare and looked like it hadn't been used in decades. No candle lights or anything to indicate anyone still living in the mansion.

"Where is everyone?" Asked James as he, Sarah and Henri looked around.

They noticed not just the living room but a door in the middle of an upper floor. Sarah was the first to notice a staircase on the left. As well as another door on the farther left.

"Who would leave this abandoned?" James then asked.

"It seems this place hasn't been touched in decades." Sarah remarked as she observed one of the cobwebs on a small table much to disgust.

"It can't be." James objected in disbelief. "The mansion looked brand new on the outside!"

"Well someone clearly cared about the outside more than the inside apparently." Said Sarah.

Sarah then stared at the door on the farther left. She stared at it as if something about it enticed her. She did not understand why however.

James was not dealing at it any better as he stared at the upstairs as if it were beckoning him to come.

Henri, likewise felt the same way as he stared at the door in the middle and underneath the balcony.

All three of the children felt temptation as they stared at their respective locations. They stood in silence for a moment-contemplating whether they should move in or not.

Finally, James made the first move and walked up the stairs. Followed by Sarah as she walked toward the room on the further left. And Henri walked over to the door in the middle.

Sarah opened the door and was greeted by a simple staircase and darkness. A void of seemingly no light. She wondered whether to get a candle or not.

But as if her question were answered, lights came on much to her shock. There were no candles to illuminate downstairs. From her perspective lights came from the ceiling much to her confusion. Although rather than bright, they were noticeably a bit dim; constantly blinking on and off.

Sarah descended on the stairs albeit hesitantly. She could feel the cold chills the more she walked down the stairs. Sarah breathed and exhaled as she could not help but feel fear the more she walked down.

When she reached the last step, Sarah immediately noticed something peculiar.

Surrounding her were all sorts of objects that were unfamiliar to her in an otherwise, almost empty room with a catwalk above and stairs. It felt desolate and chilly.

On a table to her right were a series of items. The first she noticed was an object with what looked like tiny rope attached of sorts; it was an old school phone from the 1980s.

The second, she noticed, was what looked like a crudely done model of a house; with a green rooftop, boarded up windows and a red door.

The third, a crushed object that was labeled "roach motel." The fourth, what she did recognize somewhat as a newspaper but not like one she had seen before. It was obviously cut from a larger paper she could read the headline:

Krueger Woman Still Missing

And with it was a photo of an older woman with short hair in a bowl cut and some kind of tower Sarah was unfamiliar with.

Sarah could only express confusion the more she stared at the objects. The next one on the table was a peculiar and rather frightening one as while she recognized it was likely mechanical but far, far, far too advanced for something in the 1700s. It looked in a way, futuristic. But the intimidating part for her was on the four finger tips were finger blades.

And the last object on the table was to her, some kind of face mask with too many holes; it was a hockey mask.

Then she noticed two more peculiar objects.

To her left was a black, demonic looking baby carriage with long spikes on the front. And to her further right, much to her even more confusion, what looked like a large horseless carriage albeit colored yellow and multiple windows on the left and right; a school bus.

Sarah felt overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all. She did not know what to think and yet, everything she felt frightened by all the way.

Suddenly, a ringing noise was heard and yelped upon being startled.

Alarmed, Sarah attempted to find the source. Until she looked at the table with the mysterious objects.

Hesitantly, Sarah approached the table and deduced the ringing was coming from the odd object with the rope.

Sarah took a deep breath and picked up the object that to her surprise, could be split into two seemingly. As she struggled as to how to approach it, she placed the object into her right ear.

"I'm your boyfriend now, Sarah!" She heard a disturbing message from a gruff sounding man.

But to her horror, a blob of burned skin with a small appeared on the bottom of the object near her mouth and in turn, the tongue attached licked Sarah's chin in a disturbing fashion as it made kissing noises.

Sarah breathed heavily and screamed as she threw the object down and stomped on it.

"Disgusting!" Screamed Sarah as she touched her face to remove any saliva and shuddered at what had just transpired.

She breathed heavily as she struggled to regain her composure.

Suddenly on her left, a light shined on a particular figure.

Sarah turned to see who it was and to her shock, it was someone she recognized; her father.

She recognized her father's frontier clothing and raccoon skinned hat. He sat on a rocking chair in an ominous manner with his back turned away. Sarah felt relief but at the same time, she felt something was off.

At first, she approached him in a few steps, carefully and quietly.

"Sarah..." She heard him say in a quiet tone of voice.

Sarah stopped in her tracks upon hearing his voice.

"Father?" She spoke aloud hesitantly.

Upon hearing her voice, he stopped the rocking chair.

Her father stood up and turned around to reveal his pale body, devoid of anything remotely human, not even eyeballs. Just empty sockets. His body was beyond skinny. Just everything lacking muscle as if he no longer had blood.

He raised his razor gloved hand with his chest opening up to reveal similar looking ghouls who moaned and attempted to reach out to Sarah as if they were pleading for help.

Sarah screamed as she backed away. Only to hear a brief sound of laughter. She looked above to her right to see a man with burned skin in a red and green striped sweater, a fedora hat, dirty brown pants and shoes and a razor glove on his right hand, on the catwalk.

"Watch the men slaughtered. The women suffering. The children burn." The man taunted his chant ominously. "And come to Freddy!"

Freddy then knelt down as he laughed and stretched out his right hand.

To Sarah's shock, the razor gloved right hand grew enormous in size like a giant and she soon found herself face to face with four giant razor blades, all in front of her with the index razor blade being inches away from her nose.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief and terror as she backed away.

"This isn't real!" Sarah screamed.

Sarah ran in another direction only to be met by Freddy who stood by the school bus.

"I'm more than real!" Freddy growled with a grin.

Frightened even more, Sarah ran back toward the stairs. As she raced up the stairs, she saw her mother at the top with bright lights obscuring her body standing by the door.

"Mother!" Sarah cried out in relief.

"You've been naughty, my pig bitch of a daughter!" Her mother cackled before she angrily shouted, "Did you fuck that blonde American fuckwad when I wasn't looking?!"

To Sarah's horror, her mother wielded a razor glove on her right hand.

Sarah turned to the back, only to see the entire bottom had disappeared with only the stairs present and extended.

"But this can't be!" Sarah shouted, aghast.

Suddenly, Sarah felt she was sinking. She looked down to see her feet sinking into the steps.

"What?!" Sarah exclaimed in shock as she struggled to walk up a single step.

"What on Earth is this?!" She then screamed despite almost lifting her foot but failed to do so.

Meanwhile with James, as he walked up the stairs, he was greeted by a hallway of doors; each leading to a different room.

James however simply went for the first door he noticed, one being on the left.

As he opened the door, it looked relatively normal. But the first thing immediately to take his interest was a printing press machine.

James eagerly examined the machine as this printing press looked new. He recognized it as the first model built by Johannes Gutenberg.

"Guten tag, my boy!" James heard a voice coming from his left.

He saw an old man with a long white beard in fashion straight out of the Renaissance.

"Tell me, little boy." He spoke in German. "What is your profession?"

James stared blankly at Gutenberg given he did not speak German. Something Gutenberg himself picked up quickly.

"What is your profession?" He repeated again but in English.

"Oh, I'm a reporter!" James answered eagerly.

"A reporter, you say?" Gutenberg said in astonishment. "That must be an exciting career for you!"

"Oh, you bet!" James replied. "The stories I can tell you!"

"Then would you like to see first hand how my printing press worked?" Gutenberg then asked.

"I do! I do!" James exclaimed in excitement.

"Come on here." Gutenberg allowed James to first explore, for example, the wooden plates of the printing press.

"First, you go in!" Gutenberg exclaimed as he suddenly, without warning, tossed James into the printing press.

Suddenly to his shock, the pressing mechanisms changed into something alien to him. The middle portion became something of a hydraulic press and the wooden boards were now a mini conveyor belt.

James quickly turned around despite the conveyer belt moving and tried to get off but was stopped by Gutenberg, who attempted to force him back on.

In an act of desperation, James grabbed Gutenberg's beard but to his shock and soon subsequent horror, the beard was not only torn off but so was Gutenberg's face. And to his horror, the man who he thought was Gutenberg was replaced by a burned skinned man.

"Bad news for you kid, you ain't gonna cut it in this business!" Freddy said as he tore off the rest of his disguised clothing and revealed his trademark clothing instead like the fedora hat, red and green striped sweater, the razor glove on his right hand, etc.

"The good news though?" He then added before cackling. "Your death is gonna be all over the front page!"

James had a look of horror on his face as Freddy, out of nowhere pulled up a newspaper with the headline:

Fucker Bratty Kid Dies In The Printing Press!

Complete with a photograph of James's body splattered all over the printing press in blood and dismembered body parts such as his legs and arms and a mangled head tossed onto the floor.

"I think it got your bad side!" Freddy laughed as he tossed the newspaper aside.

James then hung onto the end of the conveyor belt despite the running mechanism burning the palms of his hands. Nevertheless, Freddy laughed at the child's predicament.

Henri meanwhile, entered through the door below the balcony in the living room.

The room was dark as soon as he closed the door. But to his surprise, the room was lit up by a dozen candle lights and illuminated the room completely.

And even more shocking, the room was surrounded by farm animals. Horses, pigs, chickens, goats and the like.

Henri felt at ease a bit as the animals looked cute and friendly

Henri nevertheless expressed confusion over the room. He thought it was a mansion, not a farm. Why would a mansion as fancy as that have farm animals inside?

But suddenly, a peculiar animal approached him; a black billy goat with a sign around his neck that said:

Hello, My Name Is Jake

"Uh...hello... Jake?" Henri greeted the goat awkwardly.

"Jake from State Farm." The goat quipped.

Henri screamed in response as he jumped a few feet away in fear of the talking goat.

"You can talk?!" Henri screamed. "Goats do not talk!"

"Yet I can." Jake snorted.

"What is even this State Farm?" Henri then asked in a further confused manner.

"Wouldn't you like to know, you stupid jackass?" Jake angrily retorted with a huff.

"Hey!" The French child exclaimed, offended by the remark.

"I'm not the one asking questions!" Jake's nostrils flared which in turn, caused Henri to gulp nervously.

"Are-are you a friendly goat?" Henri hesitantly asked.

"Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?" Jake asked.

Henri expressed further confusion at the question.

Jake the goat then turned around as he motioned his head as if he wanted the French child to follow him.

Henri clearly got the message as whule hesitant, he followed the goat into what seemed like an endless void of darkness with the path only lit by random candlelight.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Henri noticed a faint light from the distance as Jake continued to lead him to it.

The light grew closer to reveal some kind of bonfire. A few feet upon seeing it, Henri paused. As to his shock, a coven of naked women danced around the fire with Jake standing in front of Henri with a glare in his eyes that was illuminated bybthe fire.

The women chanted loudly a mysterious language Henri could not understand. Yet, he was intimidated. He had mixed feelings about the women dancing naked. He was stunned by their beauty. Henri could not help but feel his mixed emotions as to what he was looking at. In his mind, though, the chanting sounded satanic and therefore, he should reject it as everyone around him would. And yet, he did not feel like he should.

The women stopped chanting and turned to stare at Henri, as did Jake.

Henri now feared for his life and began to back away. Only to run into Freddy Krueger himself.

"Like the view, kid?" Freddy grinned as he leered at the women before glancing back at Henri. "I don't blame ya!"

In turn, Freddy cackled as he made a motion of jerking off much to Henri's disgust as he backed away from the dream demon himself but accidentally bumped into one of the women who screamed and laughed at his face as their laughter turned into cackling with exaggerated faces much to the shock of Henri.

Henri screamed loudly as he accidentally kicked one of the fiery logs and right into what Henri assumed was a curtain as it got caught on fire and soon enough, the entire room was now in flames.

The woman screamed in furious anger as their faces soon turned demonic and roared at the French child and Jake in response attempted to ram Henri but moved out of the way. But as he ran, Freddy literally pushed him down with his foot literally shoving the French child down by his butt.

Henri rolled over fast to see Freddy raise his razor glove and attempted to slash him before Henri bolted away quickly.

Soon enough however, he ran into the farm animals again, who now had much demonic looking appearances to the point of red eyes, sharp teeth and even exposed skeletal parts such as the neck or the ribcage.

Henri screamed in fear in a loud high pitched fright as he finally reached the door and found himself back in the living room. But to his shock, now the entire mansion is on fire.

He had a brief sigh of relief however as he saw Sarah and James frantically running back as well.

"Henri, James, let's go!" Sarah screamed to the two boys.

The trio paused however to see Freddy himself burst through the door beneath the balcony. He looked at them with eyes of anger as he raised his razor gloved hand.

Freddy lunged at them with his razor glove in tow as the trio froze in fear.

The Springwood Slasher roared but debris immediately fell on Freddy-burying him.

Enough to give the trio time to run away from the burning mansion.

The trio finally ran out of the mansion and continued to run for their lives, until they turned back to at least have one more look at the mansion, which was now burning in flames.

Suddenly, the trio tripped and fell-immediately hitting their heads face first on an exposed tree root.

Then James, Sarah and Henri woke up simultaneously with a gasp of fright.

The trio remembered they had already made camp given the tent and the small campfire they had made.

"Did anyone...?" James began to ask before Sarah and Henri responded with a solemn "yes!"

"I don't know who that man was but hopefully that was the last of him!" Sarah exclaimed.

"That was a weird dream!" Henri concurred.

"You know, let's just head back home." James proposed. "I'm sure Moses is worried anyway if we're safe or not."

"Agreed!" Sarah nodded rapidly.

"Yeah!" Henri concurred again.

The trio made their way through the forest after packing their tent and supplies and rushed out-still feeling shaken up by their shared nightmare.

Once again, they had found a way out of the forest and stumbled upon an open road. Where they were greeted by an approaching carriage.

"Hey, can you help us?!" James called out to the carriage driver with Sarah and Henri shouting for help as well.

The carriage driver noticed the trio and forcibly had the horse stop galloping.

"Thank you! Thank you sir!" James and Sarah thanked the carriage driver as they stepped inside the carriage.

"Merci!" Henri thanked the carriage driver in French as he stepped into the carriage.

The French boy closed the door behind him. But like his friends, he noticed something was amiss; they were literally the only ones inside the carriage. James and Sarah on the front and Henri on the back.

They had expected at least a baron or someone of higher status who saved them but no one was inside.

Sarah immediately had an uneasy feeling.

"James..." Sarah said.

"Maybe we should..." James said as he tried to open the carriage door but to no avail.

It was locked.

"James, what's going on?!" Sarah asked in distress.

"What's happening?!" Henri asked.

But suddenly, they noticed the shape of the inside of the carriage changed. The seats felt different. Like they were rubber. The windows were somewhat oddly shaped.

Then they heard a noise; music. But none like they heard of before.

The words they first heard were "Did you ever see a dream walking? Well I have!"

James and Sarah soon noticed a look of paralyzed terror on Henri's face as he slowly lifted his index finger to point at what whilst shaking in fear.

James and Sarah now felt the fear of God in them as they slowly turned around. Immediately they noticed lounging in front of them was a familiar razor gloved hand. Their eyes soon looked up to see a very familiar man with burned skin.

"They're playing my song, kiddos!" Freddy grinned.

He then immediately cackled as James, Sarah and Henri screamed as they frantically tried to escape whilst begging to be let out.

The carriage had transformed into a red Cadillac with a red and green striped roof top. Freddy pressed on the gas and sped away onto the road with the three children screaming loudly as they could before their screams were muted and fainted as the car drove into the darkness of the night until the car was no longer seen nor the screams of James, Sarah and Henri being heard as the rest was forever silence.

Earth-199999: Sanctum Sanctorum in the Dreamworld

"I'm sorry." Alice apologized. "Explain to me what this is about?"

Alice had been traveling through the multiverse through dreams in search of Krueger. But during her search through the dream realm, Doctor Strange and Wong had accomplished astral projection upon sensing her presence.

"We've done our research ever since we detected his presence and theorized." Said Strange.

"This Krueger entity as you told us about has been seeping through the multiverse." Wong explained. "Somehow, either he has found this power to travel through the multiverse or it was given to him."

"You think someone would willingly give him that power?" Alice inquired.

"There are forces who are more than willing to let others cause harm in other universes." Wong replied.

"We detected his presence a few weeks ago." Strange added. "It was a presence we weren't exactly familiar with and we had to do our investigation."

"At least until you appeared in Wong's dream." He then added.

"Sorry about that." Alice apologized.

"No need." Strange said. "Your presence finally gave us context as to who we're dealing with."

"What's our next move then?" Asked Alice.

"Only one way to find out." Doctor Strange replied.

With that, Strange cross legged in mid air and meditated with the Eye of Agamotto glowing green.

"What's he doing?" Alice asked in confusion.

"Foreseeing every possibility." Replied Wong. "He's done this before with Thanos."

"Thanos?" Alice once again asked in confusion. "I've heard his name before but I don't think I ever got the full story."

Wong sighed in response, "Thankfully Strange looking over every possibility will take a while because there is a lot you don't know that will require a lot of explaining. Trust me."

Earth-011899: Ben's Books of Millions, Hope Springs, Colorado (October 15th, 2024)

At the Ben's Books of Millions bookstore, a woman in her thirties with long brown hair in casual clothing was at her desk signing books for people in line.

She was signing her recent book, In The Darkness is the Light: An Autobiography by Fi Phillips.

Each copy, Fi signed "Embrace Weird" followed by her signature of her name underneath the following:

To my mother and father, Molly and Rick. And my brother, Jack. Rock on.

"Your parents will no doubt be proud of you." Fi froze as the next person in line had a familiar voice to her.

Fi looked up to see an older Chinese woman in a green jacket with a silver flower pattern and a scarf around her neck that was green and with purple flowers and a scar on her right eyebrow.

Accompanying her were a Scarlet Witch variant with the Cloak of Levitation and a blonde woman with yellow goggles in a brown and orange jumpsuit, fingerless gloves and black boots.

"Ms. Wu?" Fi cried out softly upon seeing her remove her sunglasses.

"Wanda?" Fi eyed the other two. "Holtzmann?"

Holtzmann in particular was chewing gum and gave Fi a grin and a wave.

"Yo!" Holtzmann cried out.

"Fi, we need your services again." Wu said to the older Fi.

"I'd love to given the twenty five plus years with you guys but not only I have a book signing and a tour-" Fi hastily explained before being cut off.

"Fi..." Wu said sternly.

Wanda sighed before she said, "Fi, he's back."

"Who?"

"The one force of evil that every supernatural being in your universe fears." Wu confirmed to one of the Illuminati's top consultants. "Even Bicuru and the evil forces who took your father are afraid of him because of how evil he is."

Suddenly, Fi froze in fear. Echoes of Krueger's laughter were heard in her head. Her expression turned to that of anger. She remembered she swore vengeance over what the deaths he committed to Molly and her brother Jack all those years ago as she breathed heavily.

"Where is he?" Fi asked Wu in a dark manner.

"That's what we're trying to find out." Wanda, the Sorcerer Supreme said.

Earth-199999

Wong had kept Alice up to speed about Thanos, the snap and the multiverse at large even despite Alice finding it all hard to swallow but nevertheless, accepted the explanation.

Finally, they heard a gasp from Strange-signifying he was done looking at every possibly outcome.

"So what happens next?" Alice asked the Sorcerer Supreme.

"First of all," Strange began. "There is only one outcome where Freddy's defeat can be accomplished but you're not in it."

Alice expressed shock.

"What do you mean I'm not in the possible outcome?" Alice asked.

"The thing is," Strange continued. "Every other outcome involved either you dying, the so called prophesied girl dying or both of you dead. This Krueger won over every possible future except for one."

"And the other thing in common," Strange added. "Apparently you were told of this prophecy by his mother Amanda."

"Yes," Alice nodded. "What about her?"

Strange's face turned grim as he replied, "That was not Amanda you were talking to that day in your dream."

Alice felt her jaw dropped; shocked at the revelation.

"What?!" Alice shouted. "How?!"

"Krueger tricked you." Strange replied. "He was in disguise the entire time."

He continued, "As he gloated, it turned out you were just a means to an end. Bait in order to lure out this girl Freddy intends to kill."

Alice stared on in horror. She did not think for a moment she would be responsible for Freddy winning.

"Don't stress out!" Strange assured Alice. "Now that you know, you can prevent this!"

Alice took a deep breath and exhaled.

"What do I do?" Alice asked.

"Nothing." Strange replied simply.

"What?" Alice flatly said.

"This girl Freddy is after, it is obvious something about her has him intimidated." Strange said simply. "I don't know why exactly but he was counting on some kind of collision course that he would take advantage of had you accepted the bait."

"Alice," Wong said to the young mother. "It is evident that whoever this girl is, needs to conquer this Krueger on her own and it seems she is the only one to beat him."

"Can you even tell me who she is?" Alice then asked.

"I didn't get her name." Strange replied simply.

"The best thing for you to do now is return to your universe and your son." Wong advised.

"Only hope for the best." Strange said.

Alice sighed as she realized perhaps this was for the best.

"Thank you, Strange." She thanked her two allies. "Thank you, Wong."

"I hope you both are right." She added.

"Believe us, we hope ourselves." Wong said.

Suddenly, a door opened behind Alice.

"Your cue to return to your universe." Strange said.

With a wave goodbye, Alice ran toward the door and returned to her universe as the door shut behind her and dematerialized.

"Do you think it was for the best to tell her the outcome?" Wong asked Strange.

Strange replied with a sigh, "I hope so. The girl I saw is indeed the multiverse's last hope against Krueger."

Earth-616: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

A young Cheyenne girl after putting on her pajamas, went under the covers in her bed and slept peacefully. Unaware of the future dangers to come after her.

Earth-1773

A bearded man in a frontier outfit, Samuel Phillips, the father of Sarah Phillips, went to a lake to refresh himself.

He merely intended to take a refreshing drink from the lake. He cupped his hands to drink from the lake's water.

Afterwards, he spat out water immediately in shock as he saw in the reflection of the lake, a burned man in a red and green striped sweater, a fedora hat and a razor glove on his right hand, holding his wife and mother of his child hostage as he bent her arm and covered her mouth with an expression of demented glee on the man's face.

Samuel turned around in horror, only to discover nothing. He stared back at the lake and the reflection revealed just himself and his reflection staring back.

Suddenly, he looked up to see on the other side of the lake were three little girls in white playing jump rope as they began to sing a peculiar rhyme.

"One, two, Freddy's coming for you..."

Suddenly, Freddy burst through the ground and grabbed Samuel.

The man screamed as Freddy took a strong hold of him as Freddy wrapped his arm around Samuel's neck in a tight chokehold and pulled him into the hole where Samuel's body contorted and made sickening crunches as he was forced into the hole as his bones were now broken as Freddy Krueger himself dragged Samuel Phillips underground, never to be seen again as the little girls continued to sing the rhyme.

"Three, four, better lock your door..."

"Five, six, grab your crucifix..."

"Seven, eight, gonna stay up late..."

"Nine, ten, never sleep again."

Chapter Text

Without further ado, my behind the scenes:

- A Nightmare on Elm Street is not just my number one favorite Horror movie but my number one all time favorite movie, period.

Something like this had been in my brain since 2019, long before I discovered Infinity Crisis. More the concept of a series of vignettes and the original conception was more ambitious as I thought about writing 40 vignettes but well, that was an intimidating task. Ironic given I ended up writing this long as I did.

But the point is, I wanted to do something when A Nightmare on Elm Street was going to hit 40 in a couple of years at the time and I wanted to pay homage to the original and the franchise. Hence this one shot.

And what also isn't like what I originally thought years ago was making this the beginning of a story arc of Halloween themed one shots. I'm thinking about three but there's a strong possibility it'll extend to five parts, just in case the finale wouldn't be rushed and just to correspond with each anniversary of the first five Nightmare on Elm Street films.

- Regarding my portrayal of Freddy Krueger in this, I admit hyping him up as like an ultimate evil like this is partly bias as he is my number one favorite villain. The thing is, I see him as like all the evils and horrible things about humanity can be capable of rolled up into one entity. And the fact that he kills people in their dreams I find to be a frightening concept.

But also certain viewpoints seeped into my head that influenced how I wrote Freddy. The first being in an episode of the podcast 80s All Over about November 1984, I think Drew McWeeney or probably Scott Weinberg said that Freddy was so scary, they had to defang him in the sequels.

In that sense, I wanted to put the fangs back.

The other was a video by Pop Arena that I requested all those years ago about the original Elm Street, he said near the end that Freddy is a petty, vengeful, angry god. You don't know why he's killing you. And he loves it.

Which I feel is an accurate assessment of Freddy in a way.

So for this, and I'll get back to this later, I wanted to show Freddy had grown more powerful since he discovered multiverse travel.

- I wanted to homage how some of the sequels had quotes about sleep or dreams, I tested a few, none quite worked but then I found this quote John Irving and I went, "there, go!" Because it sounded perfect for A Nightmare on Elm Street.

- As a bonus, I decides to include lyrics from the song Freddy Krueger by Stormtroopers of Death.

- A cameo of the Miner from My Bloody Valentine was something I discussed with Ben2Dartmouth when going for this idea. I wanted to pay homage to his one shot where he now travels through the multiverse killing more victims.

But I also thought it'd be darkly funny if it turns out a slasher villain got beaten to the punch by another slasher villain, in this case being the miner Axel and Freddy Krueger.

But I do think it's a good way to build up Freddy anyway.

- I hate Step by Step so why not kill off two of the characters from that show.

- Since in The Janitors one shot, I had most of the Doctors detect Freddy's presence that the 15th Doctor should get a vignette.

- The description of Freddy's breath being fire and ash came from an unfinished Elm Street/W.I.T.C.H. that I haven't published, only an outline that's not done where I had Will Vandom feel Freddy's breath from behind and put in a similar description.

I may have gotten it from somewhere but I don't remember.

- Originally I did write a scene where Sutekh feared Freddy gunning after his job during the events of the Doctor Who episode Empire of Death. But when I presented the concept in the Infinity Crisis discord chat, despite my best attempts explaining why, it didn't land. So I decided to cut it out of the concerns it made Freddy too powerful.

- A shout out to one of the famous scenes of the first Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy on the wall as he preys on Nancy.

- I felt it'd make sense if a Kwami like Tikki being the God of Creation would be something of a Crucifix deal that would ward off Freddy.

- Midnight Patrol. This was a case of acceptable targets when searching for victims for Freddy to kill. Hanna Barbera cartoons were among the best choices and they have plenty of obscure cartoons to choose from.

And admittedly I remember such a crossover would be suitable for a Robot Chicken skit I once read in a forum.

- That being said, not a fan of the show. Did the best I could with what I've seen.

- This one I just decided the kid gloves come off, time for a lot of violence and the outcome for the Nightmare Prince was my way of doing that.

- I had a brief idea of Freddy placing a sign on the Nightmare Prince that said "False King" but it sounded too Zack Snyder and I don't want to be like his work so that got done away with and the idea didn't make much sense anyway.

- Given one of the Midnight Patrol kids has a stuffed dinosaur toy becomes alive in the dream, I couldn't resist referencing New Nightmare and especially that scene when Freddy tore the toy open.

- Purposeful reference to the bus scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge given Freddy menacingly approaching the kids in the same fashion.

Added chains for the kids though given their abilities in their dream world.

- If anyone recalls in the last episode of The Batman, Hugo Strange teamed up with The Joining but got backstabbed when his reward of being given all the knowledge of the universe, put him in a catatonic state.

So remembering that and an episode of Freddy's Nightmares called Dreams That Kill, I pay homage to that episode of that show as Freddy similarly tortures a guy while he's in a coma. No killing. Just flat out torture in his dreams.

A concept I'm surprised the films didn't take on except for with what ultimately became a rejected script for what was supposed to be the sixth Nightmare on Elm Street before it became Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, being sort of the only one to attempt it.

And believe it or not, that idea came from Peter Jackson. Yes. That Peter Jackson.

- I thought it'd be neat I didn't reveal who was watching Freddy until I reveal who's waking up.

- Plus, the moment Freddy asks "What are you staring at?" That's lifted from the Freddy's Nightmares episode Dream Come True.

- Related a bit to Midnight Patrol, I also thought of a Nightmare on Elm Street/Kids Incorporated crossover as a Robot Chicken skit. I don't know why.

- Deaths I made up aside, that was how any of the kids that left Kids Incorporated were written out when certain cast members left the series. For real.

- The Nickelodeon cartoon Doug, just not a fan of so I thought, why not kill him off? Okay yeah, I killed him off because I don't like him.

- I hate what Doug Walker said in his video about Freddy vs Jason, I refuse to call it a review, I'll just leave it at that.

- Doing one in the X-Men Evolution universe was something fairly last minute. I got greedy and wanted one more vignette.

I didn't realize it until I rolled with it that I actually made a call back to the very first fanfic I ever wrote which was a crossover between X-Men Evolution and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

It's gone forever and lost to time mind you but yeah, it was something I wrote way back in 2003 and when I was 13. You can expect how that turned out. Not very good.

- Overall moment with Rogue is a homage to New Nightmare with a very similar scene.

- Well, I hate Kirk Cameron technically so killing off a character he played in Growing Pains seemed fair game to me.

- The overall idea of Mike Seaver in the elevator is lifted from what the original plan for Rick's death scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 but wasn't filmed due to budget constraints. Like literally, they ran out of money. So it's why you have the scene they went with ultimately.

- This was something I've thought of in a creepy sort of as I thought what if I used the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome trope to nightmarish degrees? So this came up.

A few people in the Infinity Crisis discord chat did mention Pighead writing something about it which I forgot in my defense but not only did she clear that up with everyone, I showed her the vignette in question and she approved that I decided to keep it.

- The overall idea however was I wanted to go with an idea Freddy's Dead established. Being that Freddy had grown too powerful that when he killed Carlos, Spencer and the John Doe, he literally erased them from existence. Which I feel is a creepy idea to begin with.

So that's why I wrote Chuck Cunningham being killed by Freddy and "explain" why he disappeared and he won't be the last.

- I did remember someone I once knew wrote Dash from Danny Phantom being killed by Freddy which I believe I submitted that idea for a fanfic of his Halloween Unspooktacular 2 I think it was called. I had the scene on my brain but I wanted to be careful not to copy it. Whereas for example, he went with Dash being accused of cheating, I went with ball hogger and of the course, the outcome I wrote.

And to be fair, the defining traits of Chuck seem to be he was into basketball and was a total ditz.

- Why Liberty's Kids? I thought it'd be fun to have the characters of that show go through hell by Freddy.

- This section I discussed with Ben2Dartmouth the most and had the most brainstorming over like the mansion for example. In plenty of cases, he was right to point out that Freddy would for example, create an accurate mansion that would fit their time period.

- Freddy calling out to James, Sarah and Henri I left intentionally vague, at least not mention it on purpose for the sake of effective creepiness and vague enough for the kids to seem a bit crazy.

- For Sarah, for starters the stuff she discovers are from and are shout outs to the following:

Nancy's phone (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

School bus (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge)

Popsicle stick and paper machel replica of the Elm Street house (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)

Roach motel (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master)

Baby carriage from hell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child)

Newspaper column clipping (Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare)

Animatronic razor glove (Wes Craven's New Nightmare)

Jason's hockey mask (Freddy vs Jason)

I purposefully left out the remake because I am not referencing that shit movie.

- And yes, I know SC8 established Wes Craven's New Nightmare as a different universe. Not objecting but I just wanted to reference the film anyway.

- Of course, wanted to make a shout out to the infamous scene of the original anyway.

- Some moments I wanted to make homage to a specific Nightmare on Elm Street fan film called In Dreams, which my friend Jennifer introduced me to, as I feel that of all the fan films, that one is the best and truly got the spirit of the original film and the franchise. The image of a giant finger blade moving close to a girl's face is burned into my brain and really nailed how weird and surreal the dreams get.

- Of course, another shout out to the original film and New Nightmare with the sinking stairs.

- Ben2Dartmouth's idea to have Freddy disguised as Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press.

He did contribute a line but I don't think it would have fit given what I wrote sadly, I just wasn't sure.

- Henri went through some revisions during brainstorming. I originally thought of Freddy using the guillotine on him but Ben2Dartmouth pointed out wouldn't make any sense as one, French Revolution didn't start yet and Henri isn't related to a noble man.

He did suggest farm animals which I rolled with as I could turn them demonic later and given I wanted to pay homage to The Witch, I included a black goat meant to resemble Black Phillip but he suggested the goat demon named Jake from episode 4 of She-Hulk, the one Madisyn met which yeah, I immediately gravitated to.

Didn't stop me from dropping a certain line from the film however.

Though he did say I can still reference The Witch with the coven from the ending of the film which, yeah, worked out well for me.

- State Farm joke was an idea of Ben2Dartmouth.

- Technically, Ben2Dartmouth suggested to make it a carriage Freddy drives and I partially used that suggestion but I also wanted the guy to drive a car in homage to both the ending of the original movie and one of the alternate endings where when Wes Craven was forced to include an ending where Freddy wins as opposed to the happy ending he intended, he thought of Freddy driving the car while Nancy screamed in terror.

And I also had the ending of Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II in mind as well which is one of my favorite Elm Street rip offs. So I made a shout out to that film's ending a bit.

I did briefly think of a skeleton horse for the carriage though. But ultimately, I liked the visual I thought of in my head of the car driving into darkness while the kids scream until there was total silence.

- Originally I did think about extending where it was yet another fake out nightmare, this time with Sarah and her mother. I was going to lift it from the ending of Alien: Covenant where Sarah would figure out after her mother has an expression that tips Sarah off it's Freddy and that he suffocates her by fusing his left hand with her mouth and nostrils.

Ultimately, I don't think it's needed. So, out it went.

- So, elephant in the room; SC8 wrote in one of their fanfics for Infinity Crisis that had Alice Johnson from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5 and that because I introduced Freddy Krueger traveling the multiverse and so forth.

Here's the thing though, I did not give this person permission to do that. I have an idea who is going to be the final girl, I even talked with Ben2Dartmouth about it but it wasn't going to be Alice.

I don't want to be mean about this, I don't want to be confrontational but it annoyed me a lot and I got kind of pissed off that SC8 didn't ask me, or even thought about asking me. The worst answer I could say was a downright no but at least I would have appreciated they asked but they didn't. And I admit, it still bugs me.

But why not include Alice? Simple. I just think her story is done. Alice as far as I'm concerned got her happy ending at the end of Part 5. She survived, she got her son back, seems happy being a single mom.

And no, I'm not counting the comics. Just the movies. Her story is done.

So as a result, I had to think of a way to write Alice out but not kill her off, I just feel that would be too mean. So ultimately what I put in seemed like the best way to do it. And even include the retcon about Alice talking to Amanda Krueger who was Freddy in disguise.

It's the best I could think of.

- I was going to put in more information about the prophecy and even moments of how and who gave Freddy the ability to travel through the multiverse but I feel that would just be lore info dumping and ultimately, I'm saving them for a follow up.

The thing is, the whole purpose was establish Freddy Krueger has made his move on the multiverse, he's more powerful than ever, etc.

- Ben's Books of Millions, a play on Books a Million but named after Ben2Dartmouth as a tribute.

- Yes, Fi Phillips from So Weird is going to be part of the storyline. I did think about briefly going with her as a child but maybe it'd bring an edge if she were an adult.

- I will say, Fi has been one of the top supernatural consultants of the Illuminati since she was a kid. Like, has been a consultant since after her last appearance in So Weird. And she's like the supernatural equivalent of Robert Langdon from The DaVinci Code in that she still goes into crazy adventures. Just on a multiversal scale.

- I thought whether or not to show who the final girl of the story arc I intend to be is but I think ultimately to avoid further mishaps like the one before, I decided to straight up show who it is and it's Dani Moonstar of the New Mutants.

- I'll go into a bit detail in the near future but a fan crossover comic not only I ended up loving but it gave me the idea of what exactly to do and how I end the story arc.

- So a couple of reasons for this ending; One, pay homage to the original Elm Street. Two, I wanted to subvert expectations regarding the gender of whatever final victim and made it a dude instead of a woman. Three, I didn't have the Freddy rhyme so this was an easy excuse. Especially as a bookend to the ending of The Janitors.

- I did originally thought of Freddy pulling Sarah's father into the lake but I thought maybe Freddy pop out of the ground instead.

Though I may have unintentionally made a shout out to the ending of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday.

That's everything. Hope what I explain helps and hope it did its job as a Horror crossover story. And look out for my future works in Infinity Crisis. See ya soon!

And Happy Halloween everyone!