The morning after the seal ceremony, Elm Street was different. The air was heavier. The sky was gray even though the forecast promised sunshine. Everything felt... wrong.

Alex sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the black mark etched into his arm. It pulsed subtly, in time with his heartbeat. Riley watched him from across the room, her own body still sore from the night before.

"It's not just a mark," she said finally. "It's a brand. A beacon."

Alex nodded. "It talks to me in my dreams now. It shows me things... things not even Freddy saw."

"What does it want?" she whispered.

Alex looked up, his face pale. "A vessel. A way back. Freddy was only ever a gateway. This—whatever this is—it's the real nightmare."

The Possession Protocol

They returned to the basement archive that afternoon, driven by desperation. The diary of Madeline Krueger now glowed faintly at the edges, reacting to the seal. Alex opened it to a section that hadn't been visible before—written in symbols and ink that shimmered only in shadow.

"The Possession Protocol," Alex read aloud. "A method to sever the link between the host and the entity before full integration."

"Integration?" Riley asked.

"That means before it completely takes over."

The instructions were arcane: dream salt, bone ash, a vessel of memory, and a blood tether. They would have to enter Alex's dream and perform the severance ritual from within his subconscious.

"You'll be inside your own mind," Riley said. "And I'll be there with you. But if we mess up..."

"I won't wake up. I know."

Preparation and Descent

They gathered the components. The dream salt was extracted from crushed nightshade petals mixed with river sand. The bone ash came from an old urn in the cemetery. Riley brought a photo of them together—her chosen vessel of memory. The blood tether was literal: their hands bound with a single thread soaked in their combined blood.

As they laid in bed, they began the incantation. Slowly, their consciousness blurred and folded into itself. Then, they fell into a world unlike any nightmare Alex had faced before.

Inside Alex's Dreamscape

They landed in a burning forest. The sky was cracked glass. Trees wept black ichor. And at the center stood a monolith—a towering black stone engraved with the same symbol as Alex's arm.

The Entity waited beside it.

It had no true shape—just shadows and screams. Faces from Elm Street's past flickered in and out of its body: Freddy, Sarah, Madeline, others long dead.

"You shouldn't have come," the Entity hissed.

"We're not leaving until you're gone," Riley snapped.

The Entity turned to Alex. "You invited me. I gave you power. You were weak. I made you strong."

Alex raised his arm. The seal glowed brightly now, fighting back. "I didn't ask for this. And I'm not your vessel."

The ground shook. Vines erupted from the soil, trying to bind them. Riley held the memory photo against her chest, chanting the severance lines. Alex joined her, his voice shaking but determined:

"Dream and shadow now divide, from this host you may not hide. Memories pure, blood entwined, sever now this cursed bind."

The Entity screamed.

It surged toward them, claws extended. Riley flung the photo into the air. It burst into light, forming a shield around Alex.

Chains of memory coiled around the Entity's limbs.

But then—

Alex collapsed.

The seal on his arm turned white. Something was wrong.

"What's happening?!" Riley cried.

The Entity laughed. "You've weakened the bond—but not severed it. He's still mine. And now, so are you."

It dragged Riley into the air, pulling her toward the monolith. Alex stirred.

"No! Let her go!"

"You can save her," the Entity whispered. "Just accept me. Let me in."

Alex stood, shaking.

He reached for the seal.

And then—

He grabbed the Entity instead.

"I'd rather die than give you control."

With the last line of the ritual shouted, light surged from the chains and the monolith shattered.

A shockwave blasted everything into darkness.

Awakening

Alex woke gasping again, the ceiling of his room spinning above him.

Riley's voice was faint. "You did it..."

The seal was gone.

But a scar remained.

And in the silence that followed, Alex felt a deep rumble in his soul.

Not from within.

But from beneath.

The Entity wasn't destroyed.

It was buried.

And it was learning.