I was beginning to feel that crime was much easier to go about in real life than they made it out to be in movies and books. Though I guess I could count beginners luck and the fact that not much time had passed so it waiting longer could prove my downfall. Not that I saw what I was doing as a bad thing... Wrong, technically by normal standards, but not bad in my eyes, thinking about it logically. Not really. Everyone dies sometime and I wasn't hurting anyone out of spite. It was simply a means to an end at this point. Like Freddy said, the important thing was that I was enjoying myself at long last. Didn't I deserve that?

Our school cafeteria generally gave us two options for meals. You could get whatever was scheduled on the menu that day or grab a tray with burger and fries. I knew there were certain standards for the food they provided as per health regulation and all that, but giving students the option of having a burger with fries every day did not seem healthy. Anyway, there were some days when the only trays available were those with the regular meal. I don't know what made them choose those days, but today was one of them. It would have been great if the meal was stew or something like that, but it was turkey, peas, and cake. The turkey was sliced and served with gravy poured over.

That would work. The lunch ladies usually began cooking around ten and the meals were served at twelve and twelve-thirty though, of course, that day they were all at noon. An hour before then, I had English class, one of my best courses. And my grades and attendance was superb so I had been exempt from the final exam. So just after eleven, I asked for a library pass and made my way to the cafeteria.

It had been just as easy to slip into the kitchen and empty the bottles of tranquilizer into the gravy pot, giving it a quick stir, as it had been to acquire the drug in the first place. The kitchen was a decent sized room, but very crowded due to all the equipment. It also stayed humid and a bit foggy from the heat of the ovens and poor ventilation. The cooks were all older women. The youngest of whom I think was in her mid-fifties. When I had gone to the side door and peered through its screen to see what was going on, I saw two women standing in front of an on oven, poking at something inside of it. They never looked my way so I watched until they were done, closed the oven door and walked away. I had been keeping an eye around me as well and nobody had come around.

I pulled the screen door open. It creaked a bit, but the him of the working kitchen seemed to cover the sound from traveling. I crept over to the stove top behind where the women had been standing to put eyes on a huge pot of gravy. One glance about then I dumped the tranquilizer in and began stirring. There was a noise and my head shot toward it as another worker came into the area. They weren't looking in my direction yet, so I ducked out quickly.

Everything seemed to have moved super slowly up until that point and then things slowed even more... The next half-hour was full of stress which was overcome by anticipation when the lunch bell finally rang and everyone walked to the cafeteria, grabbing their meals and sitting. I sat alone at the end of a table with a couple of obvious groups of friends and just studied the entirety of the crowd. Not everyone immediately dug in and some had brought their own food from home. I sat, heart beating fast, hoping that the medicine was strong enough. They were concentrated vials, meant to be diluted, so...

Every bite took minutes, every footstep was unrealistically loud. I was afraid they'd only get sick instead of sleeping, but then... Plop. The first head hit the table. Students began turning and I saw that actually several people were falling asleep. Gasps and whispered filled the room, followed by a couple of kids vomiting and more falling unconscious. Curious voices became frightened and one guy even warned others to stop eating the food. That's when I reached into the purse I had carried that day even though I hated carrying a bag in addition to the one I used for books. I pulled out a bottle of headache pills. Although what was inside was really the last bit of undiluted tranquilizer.

"Bottoms up," I smiled to myself, tossing the disgusting tasting medicine back, waiting to pass out. It would be the last time I was awake...

I entered dream world in an odd way, shifting violently among various dreams of my fellow students...kids whose faces I had seen before falling asleep. It was as if I was drifting over their individual thoughts. For some reason, I had thought we would all have one mass dream, but everyone was having their own, and I was somehow connected to every one of them.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Freddy's laughter sounded loudly and suddenly I stood in a clearing in front of him. He stood holding the heads of the two students that had been sitting nearest to me.

"Why'd you do it?" the boy's head spoke, part of his spine still connected to his sloppily decapitate head. It looked like someone had sawed through his neck, stopping at the bone and then just pulled it off the rest of the way.

"What did we ever do to you?" said the girl's. Her head was more cleanly decapitated at its base, but it was dripping dark blood.

I stared at the dead, animated faces momentarily, thinking about what Freddy had puppeteered them to say. But there was no guilt within me. Looking at them, I didn't care that they were dead. It wasn't personal. Just survival. And without thinking about it, I skipped forward and kicked the girl's head straight out of Freddy's grip. He began cackling as he turned to watch it soar away from us, then suddenly, the other had disappeared as well and he was upon me with claw in my face.

"You're in my world! What happens here is reality," he rasped, then growled, pushing me away from him, "Go earn your keep!"

When I fell back, it wasn't onto the ground or anything else. Instead, it was like falling off a cliff. I watched Freddy fade from sight and gradually, I was caught by invisible hands and replaced in a standing position in the middle of the lobby outside the school gym. I heard voices coming from inside the court...

"What's going on??" a girl screamed, followed by another "I don't know!" by a male student and random whisperings from whoever else was inside.

I walked to the glass doors to the side of the room, carefully pulling one open and creeping inside. It was dim, but everything was still seen easily enough. There was a group of about twenty kids, I'd say. I had never been good at doing approximate head counts. They were mostly all staying near the opposite end of the court, toward the entrances to the locker rooms and showers. They were all standing around awkwardly. A few girls were hugging each other as well as the one known gay couple at the school. A few were pacing and most were staying silent. They must not have decided on a course of action... None of them seemed to have noticed me so I took the time to contemplate my own course.

It was a dream... That meant I could influence it. Shoot up the school, huh? Hm... I looked down to my hand, curling and uncurling it's fingers in front of me in thought. I did my best to recall the look and feel of the rifle my dad had taught me how to use when I was younger. It wasn't automatic and I wasn't a good shot. I don't think I could change my aim even in the dream world, but maybe my mind could change the gun to fire rapidly if I could get the damn thing to... There it was. The rifle appeared, barrel in my outstretched hand and butt resting against my shoulder. It was heavy like I had remembered it and it was made out of both wood and metal. It pissed me off that I couldn't think of the name though...not that it mattered really. I shifted the weapon into a position where the butt was pressed against my shoulder with one hand holding the barrel above the trigger an my right grasping onto the that. I took a deep breath and began sauntering over to the other students.

"What's that?" a girl squeaked as my form started to show.

The rest of them turned necks and spun bodies to where she was looking as well. It didn't register at first who I was or what I was approaching with though I didn't expect any of them to actually recognize me. At least not in the knowing my name kind of way. Some guys and a couple of girls took a few steps in my direction and stopped, but the one guy that I had already picked out as the most dominant of the group continued walking toward me until he saw the rifle aimed at him. Then, he threw up his hands and pedaled two paces back as the others realized also and a few gasps, even a scream echoed in the gym.

"Woah, hold on there," he spoke in a surprisingly strong voice given his predicament. "No need in that. We don't want any trouble."

"Then we understand each other," I smirked, my own confidence was surprising. "Because I don't either."

And just like that, I shot him. Straight in the chest with three quick rounds. I guess I had been able to make it an auto. Ha! Awesome. The boy thudded to the ground, sending everyone around him into a panic. I could see on their faces that they wanted to run, but there was nowhere for them to escape to except for to run past me which they were obviously too terrified to try. Instead they huddled close to each other, almost simultaneously backing away from me. It was refreshing to see them shy away from me yet unable to flee. I was in control. For once, in my life, I was the one choosing what I wanted to do- who I wanted to be. And they were the ones that had to obey me.

I stepped forward, keeping my weapon aimed at the group as I came upon the body on the floor. Glancing down, my lips pursed in thought. I had honestly expected it to be more difficult to kill someone in a dream. Not sure why. Maybe just because dreams were so distorted compared to reality as a rule. I felt that the mind when faced with sudden unexpected death, typically fought the idea whether the body could or not. Dreams being controlled by the mind...well, you see what I'm getting at. Nonetheless, he was motionless, blood still bubbling from his chest and pooling beneath it. I probably should move forward and get the others before anyone else realized they were in this world and tried to manipulate it themselves...but I couldn't help from pausing long enough to place my foot on my first victim's chest and press into the red to see it creep up around my shoe and stain it.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" another boy called.

Great, I thought, a noble type. I took no time in removing my attention from the fallen kid and shooting again at this second guy. I think I hit him twice before I began swerving the barrel of my gun, doing my best to keep it in position straight along my shoulder as I fired into the crowd. Three, four, six, eight more students fell. Some not fatally injured at first so I kept approaching them and firing freely. In my brain, my weapon had endless ammo like an cheat in a video game. Experienced dreamer as I was, I knew that these things could still be touch so I only hoped that my vision of the gun held true to their nightmare's reality. As I neared, I noticed that some of the kids had fled into the locker rooms while a couple other, more brave, students, actually ran past me on either side.

My first instinct was to re-position and shoot the ones running behind me, but logic stepped in and told me that I'd be less likely to hit them, use more ammo, and in the meantime, focusing on them could give the others enough rope to start escaping as well. No, it was best to stay on the group. So I did. I easily dropped six more kids, making me realize that my earlier guess of twenty total had been wrong...though not by far. When all of them in front of me were on the ground, not moving, I twisted my torso to look from where I'd come. The three that had run along side me were not in sight. I sighed and shifted the rifle, allowing my stiff shoulders and arms to shake a moment before taking a new breath and moving in on the locker room.

Once inside, I was met with the split in the short hall that divided the sexes. Hm. I saw four people go in, but I didn't see what they looked like. Not that that would really help. Looks were deceiving and I doubt if they were too concerned with following these societal rules at the time. I stopped there and put my eyes to the floor as I tried to listen beyond. I could hear water dripping...other than that, I was lost. I started to walk into the men's division, but on last thought, went into the women's instead. Initially, I saw nothing. There was no movement and nothing seemed disturbed. As I neared the end of the line of lockers and showers, I figured I had guessed wrongly, but with every pace, my footsteps were making a squishing sound that apparently alerted the escapees to me and I heard a soft sob. The sound stopped mid-way through it as if someone had attempted to silence it.

I smirked and turned around the last shower wall. Three girls knelt there behind the partition. All had been crying...one still was. "Please!" the one holding her weeping friend tried, "Please don-"

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

All three were dead in an instant, their blood draining with the rest of the water. However, I didn't have time to celebrate yet. Something hard hit me across the back of my head. Dream strength or not- it hurt, but didn't do me in. I spun around to see the gay couple from before. Both were holding baseball bats, though it seemed only one had attacked me and he was readying for another swing by the time I was facing him. His expression was one full of hate; his partner's was one of fear. I jumped back to dodge the second blow as I took proper hold of my gun again, nearly tripping over the bodies in the shower in the process. Five more poorly aimed shots and the two young lovers were dead as well.

Baseball bats. What a cute coincidence. I lowered the rifle, staring at the two boys a moment, then back at the girls before heading out. The gym was still empty except for the pile of corpses on that side of the court. I took a casual stroll around them, stepping over and beside their bodies and taking in each face. There would be so much heartbreak over this...no doubt. So many young lives lost by the loner yet unsuspected psychopath. Their families would be devastated. Hm. Maybe not the gay ones. I heard that their parents greatly disapproved the relationship. One pair even forbid it, but they didn't really have the option to keep him out of this school. Wonder if they'd love him now?

I had remained in a state of determined focus...an almost calm during the actual killing. However, I now had a heart leaping in my chest and found my face and palms sweating, my breathing almost labored. Was this it? Did I need to look for the others? I was upset with what I had done...not until...I waited and waited...and...still heard nothing.

"Freddy?" I finally called, scanning the room. I made my way out into the lobby, then into the parking lot beyond. "Freddy?" All I heard was the wind howling...birds in the distance cawing...Where was he?? Had I done something wrong??? Why wasn't he answering? I kept expecting to hear his cackle...to see him pop up in some random location as I strolled and scare me, but nothing... Oh god...

AUTHOR'S NOTE:: Chapter originally written 4/13/2016
Chapter rewritten 11/5/2017

AK47. Jesus Christ, it was an AK47! That's the gun my dad gave me when I was young though I was taught to shoot on a P38 and a 9mm. I never shot the AK until I was a teenager. It was so hard for me not to use the actual name of the rifle, but Francine's character called for her not to remember or know too much about guns! XD