Fic: Of Living Nightmares (Buffy/Dean) R - 2/?

[blue_icy_rose]

Title: Of Living Nightmares
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,902
Characters (this chapter): Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara, Giles, Dean, Sam
Summary: When Dawn and her friends read the diary of Nancy Thompson, they start a chain of events that bring the Winchesters to Sunnydale.
Timeline: AU during season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and season one of Supernatural.
Warnings: Character death, violence
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or anything else related to the show (except for DVDs and comics *g*). Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke, and A Nightmare on Elm Street belongs to Wes Craven. Banner made for me by dhfreak.
Note: I wrote this in answer to Angela's "Nightmare on Revello Drive" challenge at Route 66. Enjoy and feedback's always welcome!

Previous Parts


One, two, Freddy’s coming for you...

Dawn sucked in a breath and looked around, frowning. She didn’t know why she was at the mansion and she didn’t care. She was going home.

Three, four, better lock your door...

She shivered as she heard the child’s voice singing. It was almost as if she could hear it echo throughout the building. She paused at the words, trying to remember where she’d heard them before.

Five, six, grab a crucifix...

Her eyes widened as it came to her in a rush. No, not heard. Read. She’d read these words. They’d been in Nancy Thompson’s diary.

“The old nursery rhyme,” she breathed. She felt the panic start to build. “Freddy.”

Seven, eight, stay up late...

“Give the girl a gold star.” From behind her, Freddy laughed.

Dawn felt a shiver go down her spine at the sound. She bit her lip and fought down the fear rising up in her. There had to be a way to get out. She had to wake up or she was dead. Looking around she didn’t see anything that would help so she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

Nine, ten, never sleep again.

She yanked open a door and ran through, pulling the door shut behind her. “Oh God,” she whispered, taking in the sight of the boiler room.

“God has no place here.”

Dawn stumbled back as Freddy turned the corner and headed straight for her. She turned and nearly burst into tears when she saw the door was gone. She turned again, looking around for another way out and screamed just as he reached out for her.

“BUFFY!”

“Dawn, wake up,” Buffy said, shaking her.

Dawn’s eyes snapped open and she stared up at her sister for a moment. “Buffy?” At her nod, Dawn threw her arms around Buffy, burying her face against Buffy’s shoulder the way she used to when she was a little girl.

Buffy frowned and tightened her grip on Dawn. “Bad nightmare?”

“I need to talk to you about that.” She pulled back and stared at Buffy, fighting not to cry as she realized how Tammy had actually died. And those other kids too. Maybe if she’d figured it out sooner they’d have been able to save at least one of them. “I borrowed a diary from one of the boxes I was looking through a couple of weeks ago. For the sleepover at Janice’s.” She sucked in a breath. “We just wanted something fun to look at, you know?”

Buffy let out a breath and touched Dawn’s cheek. She couldn’t bring herself to scold her, not now. “Did you put it back?”

“What?”

“The diary. Did you put it back?”

“Yeah but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” Dawn closed her eyes. “I mean, it’s related but that’s not the point. We didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Dawn, it’s okay. Just relax. We won’t even tell Giles, okay? As long as you promise not to take anything else without asking, even if it’s just for the night.”

“No, that’s not it either. Buffy,” Dawn took a deep breath and opened her eyes, forcing herself to look at Buffy, “I know who killed Tammy.”

“Who?” Buffy stared at Dawn as if the answer would be clear in her expression. “Who did it, Dawn?” Tammy’s death had been the first in a string of murders that the Scoobies were looking into. The fact that the police seemed to believe they were random just further convinced them that it was something they needed to look into.

Dawn took a deep breath. “His name is Freddy Krueger.”

~*~*~

“So, this is Sunnydale,” Sam said as he and Dean pulled into town. “Doesn’t look like the type of place where random murders happen.”

“They never do, Sam.” Dean shook his head as he kept an eye out for a motel. He couldn’t see the normal signs that a town had been hit with a string of murders. Yeah, people were walking in groups and some looked spooked but other than that, people seemed like they were going about their day. “Tell me that’s not weird. Barely anyone looks worried. People usually end up hiding in their houses for stuff like this.”

Sam considered this, watching the people outside. “It’s different this time, though, isn’t it? The murders are happening in people’s homes, where they’re supposed to be safe. Maybe they feel safer being in town.”

“Maybe. Still, even then, you ever notice that people stay home anyway? Like they don’t believe anything can happen to them.”

“Not everyone reacts the same way, Dean.” Despite his words, there was a look of suspicion in Sam’s eyes when he looked back out at the people this time.

Maybe Dean was right. Maybe there was something different about this town.

He let out a breath as he watched a group of people walk into a magic shop.

They’d find out soon enough.

~*~*~

Buffy looked at the others as she leaned against the counter where Dawn was sitting. She could feel Dawn’s nerves from where she was standing and reached out, touching her arm briefly.

“What’s up, Buffster? Something new?” Xander asked as he settled in one of the chairs around the table usually reserved for research.

“You’ve all heard about the murders happening around town.” She looked at each of them, noting the way they had all straightened. “We were right. They’re not normal deaths. These kids are being murdered and I know by who.”

Willow frowned. “How? How did you find out?”

“Dawn told me.” Before anyone could ask any questions, she continued, “And I think it’s for her to tell you as well.”

Dawn shifted when the others in the room turned to her, relaxing slightly when Buffy nodded at her.

“Janice had us over a couple of weeks ago for a sleepover and I was supposed to bring something interesting from the store for us to look at.”

“You stole from the store?” Anya burst out.

“No!” Dawn paused and looked down. “I borrowed from the store. And I brought the diary back the next day and put it right back where I found it.”

This time it was Giles that interrupted. “What diary?” His voice was quiet and that made Dawn want to flinch as if he’d raised his voice. It was never good when Giles kept his voice that low and used that tone of voice.

“It was in one of the boxes near my pile during inventory.”

Giles sighed. “One of the boxes that you were supposed to leave alone, I take it?”

She bit her lip. “Yes.”

“Is it a demon?” Willow asked, drawing the attention away fact that Dawn had looked through boxes she shouldn’t have. She understood that Dawn had done something wrong but more kids dying was a more important issue.

Dawn shook her head. “He used to be a man.” She let out a breath. “His name is Freddy Krueger and we read about him in a diary that belonged to Nancy Thompson.” When no one reacted to the name, not even Giles, she continued, “He tortured and murdered twenty kids in the town where he lived, Springwood. But after he was arrested, he was released because the search warrant wasn’t signed. So a bunch of the parents got together and locked him in the boiler room of the plant where he worked and they started a fire and he burned to death.”

“Holy crap,” Xander muttered.

“All of this was in the diary?” Giles asked. Dawn shook her head.

“No. Nancy’s mom told her about the parents killing him because her mom was a part of the group that did it. I looked up the rest on the internet – which was pretty hard actually. It looks like Springwood has managed to block or completely get rid of any mention of Freddy entirely.”

Tara frowned. “Well, if Nancy Thompson wrote about him, then she wrote about how she beat him, right?”

“It said she lured him out of her dreams and into reality and then turned her back on him when he went to kill her. Somehow, that drained him of his energy.”

“How could that drain him of energy? A serial killer is about to have at you and you beat him by turning away?” Xander shook his head. “I don’t get that or how it could lead to him being here now.”

“A part of it is belief. Nancy believed she could beat him and she technically did. She got rid of him. But it obviously wasn’t permanent. He didn’t have power if no one believed in him.” Anya looked at Dawn. “Did any of your friends seem afraid of Freddy?”

Dawn’s lips trembled briefly before she pressed them together. “Tammy. Tammy was scared but Kim told her that even if that kind of thing was real, Nancy had won so she didn’t have anything to worry about. So we kept reading.”

“And I bet all of you were at least a little afraid that Freddy was real.”

“So, what? Their fear is what gave him the power to come back?” Buffy asked. When Dawn looked down, she put a hand on her back to reassure her. Dawn had already paid a price for taking the diary in the form of Tammy.

“Exactly.”

“I’ll have to read the diary myself. There could be something useful in there that the girls overlooked,” Giles said, already turning towards the boxes.

“There’s more.” Dawn looked up and then glanced at Buffy. “There’s something I didn’t tell Buffy.” Beside her, she felt Buffy tense.

“Dawn?” Buffy turned towards her, looking ready to move at any moment.

“In the diary, Nancy wrote that each of the kids Freddy went after were kids that dreamed about him.” She took a deep breath. “I had a dream about him last night.”

~*~*~

Dean tossed his jacket onto the bed, his frustration clear as he began to sharpen his knife.

“Nothing. So far, these kids have nothing in common.” He shook his head. “There’s a connection there, we just have to find it.”

Sam nodded as he looked from John’s journal to the site he had opened in hopes that he’d be able to find something between the two. “I know.” He frowned. “Even without the connection, I don’t see how all these kids have died and there hasn’t been a single witness.”

“It’s not a spirit. They tend to stick to one area, not run around town picking off random people.” Dean frowned. “Of course, it could be different here. Did you see how many cemeteries this place has? Jesus.”

“Maybe it’s a demon.”

“Still not seeing a connection between the victims though. So why would a demon go after them?”

Sam paused as he remembered the magic shop in town. “Maybe someone’s controlling it.”

Dean looked up at the tone of Sam’s voice. “You got an idea?”

“I’ll have to look into it more but yeah. I think I’ve got an idea.”

He nodded. “Then let’s get moving on it before another kid dies,” he said, putting down the knife. Dean didn’t say anything else as he took the journal and began looking through it in search of any mention of people controlling demons as Sam began a new search on the internet.