We both spun immediately to face the demon that had appeared out of nowhere. My instinct was to assume that Devin wasn't real then, but glancing over at him as he gawked at the newcomer, there was no doubt that he was no trick.

"Here I've been politely leaving you alone after trying to help you out," Freddy placed a hand on his chest to mock having his feelings hurt, "And you've just been trying to get strong enough to kill me."

"I already told you I'm not playing your fucking games!" I growled, stepping slightly in front of Devin protectively until he finished processing what was happening, which didn't take long.

"Holy shit, look at that fucker," he said as he kept staring.

The blades on Freddy's chest clicked as he shot a glare at my friend, "Look at yourself, bitch!"

I looked toward Devin again, half-expecting him to actually look down at himself, yet he never did. Instead, he took another route at handling our problem, "I'm curious though, Mark, about what he has to say."

I squinted at him and whispered, "Are you insane?"

"You should listen to your friend," Freddy purred, lifting his hand from his chest and pointing at Devin with a blade.

My eyes darted between the two, Freddy having started to tap his foot, further displaying the impatient nature I had seen before, and Devin tilting his head toward me long enough to wink. I sighed, relenting under the assumption that he had good reason for humoring the demon, "What are you talking about, then?"

"Well..." he began walking slowly around the perimeter of my living room, "You say I'm the one toying with you, but as I recall, it was those little ghost pals of yours that roped you into this and then dumped you when they couldn't get to me."

Devin and I had instinctively matched his steps to keep the same distance between us. I took a moment to consider Freddy's possible train of thought before answering. It had been clear that he was trying to play up to being on my side by alienating me from Emma and the others. That I understood. What I questioned was why he continued to act like he wasn't the enemy even after they had pushed me away. Thinking back to what Devin had said about me being a threat to the demon because of some spiritual power, it made the most sense that that was indeed it.

"Maybe they did," I agreed, "But that doesn't change the fact that you murder children! So even if they used me, I still have to kill you."

"You act as if you could!" Freddy chuckled, stopping where he stood and stretching his arms out to his sides in a confident stance.

"Then prove me wrong," I baited. "Kill me first."

The demon's arms slowly fell back down as his grin faded and he snarled, "Why would I want you dead, buddy?"

"I think the question is why don't you want him dead," Devin piped in.

There was a pause and I could tell Freddy was contemplating how to respond. I beat him to speaking though, "You said we were similar...that you appreciated my existence."

"Oh, so you were listening," he purred with the reminder, "Exactly. You're more like me than you realize and you're already on the path to figuring out why." When nothing was said after Devin and I exchanged glances, the demon continued, "Why do you think I was granted this new life, hm?"

"Because you made a deal with higher demons," I stated plainly.

He didn't like that I had referred to others as better than him, but he shoved the anger away to clarify his point, "But why do you think they would make that deal with me? Hm? Well, I'll tell you. It's because, like you, I was spiritually gifted before I died."

"Oh so that's it," Devin said thoughtfully, "Mark has the potential to be powerful and you don't want the competition."

I had to admit, his nonchalant behavior in the dangerous situation was impressive...something Freddy clearly did not think as he cut sharp eyes at the human upon reaching that conclusion.

"Well, you're wasting your time because I would never join you and I'll never stop trying to destroy you until you're gone for good!" I spat, "So you might as well fight me now."

"If that's the way it's gonna be," Freddy growled, "You'll regret turning on me, bitch!"

And with that, the demon appeared directly in front of me, swiping his claw at my face. However, having readied myself since he first entered, I drew my own blade and easily parried his blow. Pushing back against his unyielding brawn, I decided instead to duck back and spin in a semicircle to lunge at him from the side. With a swing of my weapon, I cut into his back and caught his clothes on fire once again. He yelled out in frustration, quickly disappearing as he changed the setting to his boiler room. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before, but I understood then that it was his place of power...where he had the home field advantage, so to speak, because I noticed that the light of my sword had dimmed even though I was holding it just as firmly as I before.

"Devin?" I called upon turning and realizing he was no longer with me.

Everything fell quiet except for the sound of steam hissing from pipes in the distance and the occasional clinking of chains hanging from the ceiling brushing against each other as if someone had recently run through them. I attempted to flow more power into my weapon, but the flame wouldn't rise any higher. I then began stepping carefully toward where those chains were swaying, being certain to keep an eye all around me. When I reached them, I head a yell sound behind me, causing me to twist quickly where I placed my eyes on Devin within Freddy's grasp and unable to get free...the demon's claws pressed tightly against my friend's throat.

"Let him go, asshole!" I ordered, starting to run forward, yet the twitch of Freddy's blade against Devin's neck made me cease the attack.

"That's a good boy, Mark," Krueger grinned, "You may be a formidable opponent, but you don't want your boyfriend to get hurt now, do you?"

Ignoring the fact that we weren't dating, I grunted, aggravated at this sadistic trick, "You fucking pussy! Too scared to fight me so you're going to pull someone else in?"

"Unh-uh," he chuckled, "You were the one that brought him in. I'm simply playing with the pieces you provided."

"Mark, just fucking kill him!" Devin forced the words out only for his captor to react by pressing the steel further into his flesh to draw a few trickles of blood.

"STOP!" I shouted, lowering my sword. "Just leave him alone."

"There. See? I knew you could be reasonable, buddy," Freddy laughed, not loosening his grip.

"Let him go now," I commanded, the fire around my weapon disappearing as it fell completely to my side.

"First, we need to make a little deal," Freddy purred.

I inhaled sharply, willing to do what I needed to save Devin while simultaneously plotting how I could get around my current predicament and slay the demon. But as I dropped the sword in my hand altogether and Freddy removed his claw to shove Devin to the ground, there came a sudden twist in our standings. Instead of falling into his freedom, my friend latched onto the arm that loosed around him and pulled himself back up, mustering all his strength to twist Freddy's hand and turn his own blades back on him. In the surprise of the attack, the demon succumbed to the blow, growling and shouting at the human as his claw pierced into his stomach. But the victory was short-lived. Freddy instantly retrieved his hand from his abdomen and swiped viciously at Devin, cutting deep into the man's face, scratching down his neck, and tearing the tanktop he wore.

"DEVIN!" I shouted, gathering my sword from the floor and lunging forward to catch my friend as he fell.

I had never tried pulling myself out of a dream before, but somehow in the intensity of the moment, I did just that. Waking up in my bed alone with my chest heaving, I rushed to the living room, switching on the light as I ran, and kneeling next to the couch.

"Shit shit shit!" I cursed, staring at Devin laying there, his face pouring crimson from the massive gashes across his face.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Mark," he choked out with a weak grin, the pain he was in obvious.

There was too much blood! I couldn't tell the full extent of the damage... "Wait here! I'll be right back!" I cried, shooting to my feet and jogging haphazardly out of the room.

I grabbed every clean towel out of my bathroom as well as alcohol and gauze before running back to Devin. He had closed his eyes, the hint of a smile he had shown faded as he lay still, trying to take deep breaths in and out. I threw the supplies on the ground where I was once more crouched and used a towel to begin blotting away the blood. However, as soon as I cleaned any of it away, more came rushing out.

"Flour."

"Huh?" I had barely made out the word he whispered.

"Put flour in the cuts...it will help it clot," Devin managed.

Without a second thought, I was on my feet and in the kitchen, pulling the last bit of flour I had out of the cabinet and rushing back to his side. I patted his wounds with the towel again, quickly sprinkling the white powder into the gashes which were just as large as I had first thought. He was right about it, too. After pouring tiny mountains of the stuff into the cuts, the blood started to thicken, not getting very far at all before the clumps of it stopped, leaving odd piles of red all over his face.

"I gotta take you to the hospital," I breathed.

"No," his eyes opened again, "I'll be alright.

"But you're going to need stitches and-" I protested, but he cut me short by putting two fingers over my lips.

"Stitches is just a fancy word for needle and thread," he chuckled, "I can do it myself."

Softly, my hand found his and removed it from my mouth. Lowering it onto the couch beside him, I rubbed his hand between mine comfortingly, "Are...are you sure?"

"Yeah," he was grinning again, "Bastard didn't hit my eyes so there's no need for surgery. As long as I keep them well cleaned, I won't get infection either. Besides," he gave a short laugh, "I really don't want to sit around the emergency room and try to explain my way around this one."

I smiled, "Especially since you just got out of the psych ward for fighting."

He laughed more heartily then, "Yeah."

I sat there at his side for almost the next hour, tending to his wounds- cleaning, patting, cleaning again and finally getting him to tell me how to sew him up so he didn't have to do anything except rest. I thought during that time how fortunate it was that I had wanted catfish not too long ago so I had the flour, and that I had poured out an old box of mine and found old tools including a sewing kit. Needle, thread, and flour weren't things I normally kept.

After that, I cleaned his face once more and found him a new shirt. I helped him keep the dirtied and damaged tank top from hitting his face as he took it off and likewise made sure the new piece of cloth didn't touch the wounds either as he put it on. I didn't expect Freddy to be back any time soon as he'd only returned at all to try and get me on his side again. This last encounter would sure be enough that he understood that wasn't going to happen, so why risk running into me again? Besides that, I felt confident that if I watched over Devin, focusing my energy into protecting his mind, he would be safe.

So as he finally fell back asleep, I sat there on the floor beside the couch, putting this intent on him as I continued to rub his hand and arm so that he knew I was there.