Fic: Of Living Nightmares (Buffy/SPN/Nightmare on Elm Street) R - Chapter 1

[blue_icy_rose]

Title: Of Living Nightmares
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,893
Characters (this chapter): Buffy, Dawn, Janice, Sam, Dean, Freddy and a couple OCs
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 and also as an entry for this week's challenge at spn_btvs. The challenge is to cross the shows with a third fandom. Enjoy and feedback's always welcome!


Dawn glanced down at the book in her hand and then over her shoulder. If Giles or Buffy caught her, she would be in so much trouble. She turned back to the book. Still, she had promised Janice that she’d bring something cool from the Magic Box for the sleepover tonight. Her decision made, she shoved the book into her bag and turned to ask what book she was supposed to be looking for.

That old diary should work she thought as Giles repeated the title of the book needed.

~*~*~

“A diary?” Janice said, staring at the book that Dawn had put in the middle of the circle. She exchanged a look with Tammy and Kim before looking back at Dawn. “That’s it?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “You didn’t think I’d be able to get away with something really big, did you? I’d have been dead if I’d gotten caught taking even this.”

“Still, though,” Kim interrupted. “Not even a spellbook?”

“Sure, I’ll walk out of a magic store with a spellbook while they’re doing inventory and no one will notice.” Dawn raised an eyebrow. “They do keep track of this stuff, you know. It’s this or nothing.”

Janice sighed and looked back at the diary. She stared at it for a few moments and then grabbed it, flipping it open. “Fine, then let’s check it out and find out what’s so important about Nancy Thompson’s diary.”

~*~*~

Nancy Thompson, it turned out, was some teenage girl who’d had nightmares about some guy with knives for fingernails (or so her diary said – Dawn hadn’t heard of anything like that in all the researching for demons that they’d done), Freddy Krueger. Dawn looked up and noticed how pale Tammy was as they listened to Janice read the next entry.

“Let me get this straight,” Tammy said, interrupting. “She had a dream about this guy and so did her friend Tina and then the next night, this Freddy guy kills Tina in her dream and so she dies in real life? That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone else thought according to this.” Janice motioned to the diary. “They all decided the boyfriend had done it. In here it says that he told Nancy that someone else was in the room with them, someone you couldn’t see and that it was as if Tina was being cut open with four blades at once.”

“So this could just be something that this Nancy girl and her friends made up or something?” Tammy looked at the others and then down at the diary. “Like the boyfriend said that to Nancy and got her to believe it and that’s why she wrote all this down.”

“Could be but there must be something to it for them to have kept the diary around,” Kim said. “Where’d you find the diary, Dawn?”

“Looking through a box of books that weren’t for sale that I was supposed to leave alone. I dragged it over with the boxes I was supposed to be looking through and then looked through that box when they told me to see if one of the books they needed was in one of my boxes.” She grinned. “And voila! I found that.”

Tammy bit her lip. “So you think Freddy is real then?”

Dawn gave her a reassuring smile despite the little bit of doubt that was eating at her. “I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

A look of relief flickered over her face and she turned back to Janice. “Well, what are you waiting for? Read what happened next!”

~*~*~

The feeling of power was nothing new to him despite the fact that he hadn’t felt it in years. The girls’ fear began to grow and for the first time in a long while, he felt himself begin to get stronger.

Freddy smiled.

~*~*~

Dawn glanced around the shop and she fought back a sigh of relief that no one else was in the room. She so wasn’t in the mood for a lecture if she got caught. Like she was the only one who snuck things out anyway. She just bet that Willow used the stones and herbs and stuff for spells.

Quickly, she pulled out the diary and stared down at it, remembering everything they’d read about the night before and shuddered.

She really hoped that Nancy had just been crazy but looking down at the rest of the books in the box, somehow she doubted it.

“Dawn?”

Her eyes widened and she shoved the diary into the box and turned towards the door. “Yeah?” she asked, looking at Buffy and trying her hardest to look innocent. If it had worked on Mom for Buffy then maybe it would work on Buffy for her.

“Looking for something?”

“Just checking to see if these were new boxes to go through.”

Buffy stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “Those are ones we finished going through yesterday. We’ve got some others in here if you want to help.”

She let out a small breath and made sure not to let any relief show. “Sure.” She shrugged. “I’ve got nothing else to do.”

“No homework?” Buffy asked as they both walked to the back.

“Finished that during study hall. A research project. Please, like I don’t know how to research.” She grinned. “Easy A.”

Buffy laughed and tugged on her hair and as they began to go through the latest batch of books, Dawn was able to push everything they’d read the night before to the back of her mind.

~*~*~

Tammy blinked and looked around, wondering how the hell she’d gotten here. One minute she’d been sunning in the backyard and now suddenly she was standing in the street and it was night. And she was still in her bathing suit.

If that wasn’t random, she didn’t know what was.

She sighed and looked around. At least she was still in the neighborhood. She’d just go home and change and vow never to drink that weird Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Sprite and Coke/Diet Coke mix that Dawn had come up with. Especially if she was going to be sunning.

“Tammy.”

She tensed and looked over her shoulder, trying to see if anyone was there. The fact that she couldn’t see anybody didn’t relax her. She remembered how Dawn had said going out alone in Sunnydale was one of the stupidest things a person could do and Tammy hadn’t been able to deny that that’s when most people got hurt.

“Who’s there?” She couldn’t keep the slight tremble out of her voice and she really wished that she was braver. Kim would probably be rolling her eyes and Dawn would be smart enough to get inside. And Janice would probably laugh at the voice.

The sound of a high screeching filled her ears and she felt her stomach tighten with dread as she remembered the descriptions from the diary they’d read the day before.

“Not real, not real, not real...” she muttered, backing away from the noise. Cruel laughter echoed throughout the street causing her to flinch. Her breath came faster when she saw the shadow passing over the houses. Not wanting to believe what she was seeing, her eyes moved over the shadow, following it until she saw who cast it. Eyes widening, she screamed at the sight of the burned man with the red and green striped sweater and fingernails like knives. She turned and ran back towards her house, feeling the way the rocks on the street cut into her feet, causing her to wince everytime her foot touched the ground.

She felt a flash of relief at the sight of her house. Somehow, she hoped that getting inside, making it to her room, would keep her safe. Finally letting a small smile cross her face, she burst through the front door, nearly falling over her own feet at the sight that met her eyes. She stared in confused horror at her backyard and spun back towards the door, screaming again when she came face to face with Freddy.

He smiled. “Boo.”

“MOM!” Tammy stumbled back a step, praying that she could somehow get her mother’s attention as she remembered that her mom had been in the kitchen.

Freddy laughed as if hearing that scream was the best thing he’d heard in years and began walking towards her. She sobbed and turned to run again, not paying attention to where she was going, tripping over the patio chair and falling into the water.

She gasped, choking as water flooded her mouth and nostrils. She kicked her legs, using the momentum to push herself above water. Sputtering, she coughed and sucked in a few breaths.

“MOM HE—“

It was all she managed to get out before she was pulled under. She fought to kick off the grip around her ankle and only succeeded in slicing her leg. Her lungs burned and she let out a scream as the water around her began to darken with her blood.

She only had time to scream once more before she felt four blades rip through her.

She never felt the other cuts.

In the real world, Tammy’s mother ran outside at the sound of her daughter’s scream and stared in horror at the sight of her daughter’s body floating in the pool as the water rapidly turned red. Finally, she screamed.

~*~*~

“The first murder was two weeks ago,” Sam said, scrolling down through Sunnydale’s headlines. “Tammy Hoffman, killed in her backyard.”

“And you’re sure it’s something we should look into? It’s not just a random murder or a serial killer?” Dean asked. Sam shook his head.

“Doesn’t look like it. According to this, Tammy was tanning in the backyard while her mom was in the kitchen. Mom hears her scream and by the time she gets outside a few minutes later, Tammy’s dead in the pool.”

“Yeah, okay, but drowning isn’t murder, Sam. Hell, it’s not even supernatural.” He paused. “Usually.”

“It is when the victim has multiple stab wounds and no one else was seen in the backyard.”

Dean raised an eyebrow. “Okay, now you’ve got my attention.”

Sam motioned him over, switching windows when Dean stood behind him so that they could look at pictures of the crime scene. He shook his head at how easy it had been to get into the police’s files. “Look at these—it’s like she’s been stabbed by four different knives at once.”

Looking at the photos, Dean nodded. “Got the same marks on her leg.”

Sam looked at the picture Dean had pointed out and enlarged it. “Four slices.”

“What about the other cases?”

Holding up a finger, Sam began typing, bringing up two other files. “Danny Cameron and Cassie Graham. Both murdered in their beds. Danny was found with gaping holes in his wrists and throat as if something had been shoved through them and Cassie was strangled, though her sheets were torn up. Both teenagers, both alone in their rooms at the time, probably asleep.” Sam glanced up at his brother. “Something’s killing these kids, Dean, but no one’s connecting them.”

“The cops are thinking it’s random because the way they all died was different. But there’s connections if you look for them.” Dean sighed. “Looks like we’re heading to Sunnydale.”