Chapter Text
The boiler room was far angrier then usual, various pipes hissing out strong bursts of steam and the atmosphere as a whole was drenched in a far more saturated crimson then normal – but given its master’s current condition, it was far from illogical. Deeply drowned out by the boiler’s constant creaking, faint gasps for air and groans could be deciphered, all of which belonged to the boiler’s owner - Freddy Krueger. He was lying on the cement floor, his body aching in pain as if he was on fire again but on the inside – but that wasn’t the worst of his ailments – oh, no.
He was painfully hard, the most solid he could ever recall, and nothing he’d tried could soften him.
Now, one might’ve assumed that this all meant Freddy simply needed to have a random one-night stand and all of this agony would go away. He’d thought so too! It hadn’t taken him long to locate some attractive dreamer he could have some fun with, but after staring at the dreamer for little over twenty seconds, Freddy had strangely felt nothing but nausea over even thinking about doing the devils tango with them. That wasn’t even an isolated incident either as he’d tried again about two more times the night afterwards, all ending with the same result – repulsed by his chosen partner, every time.
Not even attempts to jerk off did him any good, and it was then Freddy realized that this was far from normal and a suspect had immediately sprung up in his mind…
A wretched little copycat had mysteriously shown up about a year ago, becoming his ‘neighbor’ as his dream demons called it, and the slasher hadn’t liked that one bit! There had been times when The Springwood Slasher had to deal with copycats in the past, but this one straight up was taking his entire identity, looks and all! And no, Freddy didn’t care that this copycat’s birth certificate stated that his name was “Fred Krueger” or that the guy didn’t even know who he was – the copycat was only saying that to defend his stupidity, Freddy thought, all while dismissing any alternative explanations.
Freddy had made his intentions known to the other when they’d first met, but the copycat had refused to yield which had let to cycles of scuffles over the next months. The only reason they hadn’t outright killed each other yet was, well, Freddy didn't know how to kill another of his kind embarrassingly enough. Besides that problem however, their goals were very different. With that, a cease fire was made on the grounds of them being able to focus on said desires first. Not that Freddy was entirely happy with that arrangement, but it would have to do for now. He had souls to collect while the other cared more for some imaginary garden or whatever, Freddy decided to focus on his murder spree for now while keeping an open eye towards his ‘neighbor’. The moment he found an effective way of getting rid of him, he’d have the advantage that he needed.
From this truce, the killer and the gardener had agreed to circumvent the awkwardness of their identical names by calling each other ‘Freddy’ and ‘Fred’ respectively. Freddy still continued to call the other 'copycat' in his mind though.
After the one-night stand fiasco, Freddy had tried to confront Fred about three days ago regarding his potential involvement in his questionable… condition, but when he’d found him, the copycat was quickly taken off the suspects list. Fred had arguably looked even worse off then himself, in his opinion – while his ever increasing frustration had caused him to fade into his more demonic form, Fred meanwhile resembled a walking zombie in comparison, his melted skin almost completely devoid of pigment and his body quivering in pain far more violently then his body had, with large shadows under his eyes.
He also wasn't wearing any pants. His puffy sweater just barely able to cover his privacy with its frizzy fringes.
The moment the copycat had laid his eyes upon him he’d hastily scurried away with a surprised yelp, a burst of life having unexpectedly sparked through him. Freddy had let his sight follow the fleeing man until he’d faded into the shadows, having a hard time breaking his eyes away. The urge to chase him down was hindered by his aching body, restricting him from faster movement. Freddy tried to call for him, but was answered with a sentence that somehow managed to pierce through his stony heart, right into his pride.
“Not efficient enough...”
Dispirited from the rejection, Freddy had returned to his part of the dreamworld in defeat, the agony within him intensifying with each passing day, his mind continuing to puzzle over his condition.
˜
By the fifth day Freddy had finally reached his breaking point, Freddy furiously slams a fist into his gut. He didn’t like to ask the dream demons for help as he greatly valued his independence, but after suffering through this pain for almost a week now, he saw no other way out – as much as it hurt his pride.
“Argh, what the hell is wrong with me!”
Giggles and muffled whispers echoed within the burnt man’s mind, agitating the already jittery killer.
“Get the hell outta there and tell me, damn it!”
Soon enough, three bony snakes began to materialize within his field of vision, the three ol’ dream demons who’d given him his place here in the dreamworld. After a moment of snickering, at least one of them felt like saying something worthwhile.
“Oh, we apologize for the amusement you’re giving us, but this sight was just too entertaining.”
“Aha!" Freddy pointed at them accusingly. "So you do know what’s going on?!”
“Well, of course we do!” Another demon chirped. “Seems like mating season is hitting you pretty hard.”
Freddy freezes in place, his finger still in the air and jaw turning slack as he registered what the demon had uttered. His eyes stared at them as if they’d just blown up half the planet right in front of him, and he wasn’t tolerate any of that.
“Don’t you come here and bullshit me now! I’ve literally spent decades without experiencing this--”
“But have you spent more then a year with another one like you next door?” One demon interjected, which cause Freddy to turn quiet as his face contorted in realization as he was unable to rebuff that claim. He had lived with this other copycat guy next door for about a year and there was nothing he could do to twist that fact. The dream demon continued as it noted Krueger’s bewildered silence. “It’s obvious that you wouldn’t be affected by the season if there wasn’t anyone around to mate with, but now you do, so your hormones now have a reason to act up.”
“But then, why aren’t you three in pain like me?” Freddy asked, still somewhat baffled that he was even having this conversation with anyone.
“Do we look like we’re able to reproduce?” All of them responded, to which Freddy answered with a light shrug as he wasn’t able to come up with a way for some small, bony snake-demon to breed effectively. Its not like they had much to hide, given their lack of skin and muscles.
“Pure-born dream demons are unable to propagate on their own, and because of that, only you may breed in our stead.”
“Oh, what a great reproduction cycle you got there! No wonder there are so few of you,” Freddy exclaimed sarcastically as he rolled his eyes at the demons, before he began to grasp an oversight in the contract he’d agreed to with them in his dying breath, which caused his arms to flail around in agitation. “Hey! I didn’t sign up to be some breeding stud!”
“Hmm? Didn’t take you for someone who’d reject a free session of copulation like that.”
“Of course not! Or… I mean--” Freddy was having a hard time stringing his words together, feeling completely lost at the moment as his mind refused to really acknowledge what was being said. He felt almost tired but he had a hard time conceptualizing what he truly felt. The killer shook his head violently, hoping to clear his head but it still felt oddly misty…
Freddy licked his dry lips. “--I just don’t like the lack of control in this!”
“What do you mean? You are perfectly able to skip this season if you wish,” one dream demon retorted with a surprised tone. “You can remain precisely where you are and not follow your instincts at all. Sure you'll need to endure the pain some more but you’ve managed to reach the last stretch of the season so far! Only two more days and you should be back to normal.” The promise of his pain’s eventual removal eased Freddy somewhat. Having to wait two more days however sounded extremely daunting to him, but if it would free him from this agony he’d go through with it – until another of the demons somehow managed to utter one sentence that broke him entirely.
“But then, what if someone else come in and gets to his neighbor before--”
“OVER MY DEAD BODY!”
Something within Freddy’s psyche snapped. He could almost hear the distinct crack of a twig breaking under someone's heavy foot in his ears. After failing to properly asses his aching need for so long, the moment it got the chance to push back it struck with all the frustrated force Freddy had tried to keep buried up till now. The mere idea of a rival made the deeply buried instincts swiftly take hold of his thoughts and making him think of only one thing:
Securing what was his from any intruder.
“Well don’t just stand there, boy. Go get ‘em!” The demons cheered on as Freddy made a mad dash towards the door which linked the other’s part of the dreamworld, intent on staking his claim. His dream demon companions followed him in pursuit before disappearing as Freddy reached the door which separated him for his goal, letting their words of encouragement and worries echo within his mind.
“If you were able to keep yourself stabilized for this long I can’t imagine how the other guy’s been coping! I can tell he’s way less experienced then you are.”
“He’s probably touching himself right as we speak, just waiting for you!”
“I really do hope his hormones didn’t start too early. You might’ve missed his peak otherwise by now! Oh, and you’ve missed the courting period...”
All of which just egged the slasher on further into bestial madness.