Chapter Text
"Ronnie, watch out!" I yell.
I run towards Veronica, who doesn't seem to notice me until I grab onto her and she screams as I push her into the bedroom where we both fall to the floor. I slam the door shut with my foot and reach up to lock it from the inside.
"What the bloody hell was that thing?!" she demands, panic evident in her voice. "What's happening, John?!"
"Everything's going to be alright, I won't let him take you away, I promise," I say to her in as much of a calm voice I can muster. "I'm going to stop this. I have to go after him. He's leading me somewhere and if I'm not around, he won't bother you, ok?"
"John, what was that thing?" she asks in between heavy panting breaths.
I barely hear her as I yank open her closet door only to see just clothes hanging up and pairs of shoes in a neat line on the floor.
"I...I don't understand this," I say.
"Understand what?" she asks in confusion.
Just as I was about to answer her, she was suddenly dragged by her ankles, and pulled underneath her bed. She screamed and I dove forward where I grabbed onto both of her arms. I held on with all my might and felt myself get dragged along the carpet with her towards the underside of her bed which looked like a maw of pure darkness, ready to swallow the both of us up.
Grunting and pulling back from the strong unseen force, I brace myself against the bed's leg, determined to not let go of her.ย I'm stronger than you! You can't can't have her you bastard!
"John!" Veronica cries.
"I've got you, I won't let go!" I promise.
"John, help me!" she screams in sheer terror.
"I've got you!" I grunt as I fight against the powerful force.
I pull and pull with all the strength I have as waves of adrenaline course through me, my shoulders and back straining against the effort, causing beads of sweat to run down my face. I could feel his resistance. The shadow man hated losing. He was a stubborn bastard and wasn't going to back down from this at all.ย Well two can play at this bloody game.
I pull harder, groaning from the strain on my back. I feel Veronica slide towards me a bit.ย Yes, come on!ย I squeeze my eyes shut, yelling from the effort, refusing to give up on this fight, and I pulled until I felt her coming my way. By now she was sobbing and screaming, pleading for me not to let go of her.
"John, please!" she wails in between her tears. "Please don't let go of me!"
Finally, I manage to break her free of the Boogeyman's grip, and I'm knocked backwards as Veronica flies out from underneath the bed and falls into my arms. I envelop her in a protective embrace and roll us away from the dangers of the bed. I quickly get us to our feet, my arms still around her, and we stand there for a moment, catching our breaths and holding on to one another as if we were the last two human beings left alive on Earth. I briefly had a fucked up thought in the back of my mind that maybe we were the last ones left. Maybe the Boogeyman killed every last human in the entire world and Veronica and I were the only two left, destined to fight for our survival until the day we eventually die.
At this moment though, I also felt an enormous sense of relief flood through me that I was able to save one person from this nightmare. I wasn't too late this time.
"Oh my god, what was that?" she whimpers, tightly clinging to me.
"Shhh, it's ok now," I whisper to her, rubbing circles on her back in a comforting gesture.
A loud angry snarling screech broke the silence as the Boogeyman erupted from the darkness underneath the bed, reaching out for us with it's shadowy clawed hands, determined to snatch his prize up. But before I could move us away, he succeeded in his mission by grabbing onto both of us. Veronica and I screamed as we were thrown to the floor and dragged across the floor and underneath the bed where we fall out through a door into my old childhood bedroom. I hear someone else scream in surprise as Veronica and I land on the floor with a thud.
"Jesus Christ, what the fuck were you two doing in there this whole time?!" I hear Roger screech out. "You fucking scared the shit out of me!"
Wait what the hell is Roger doing here?ย I look up to see him sat down at the foot of my old bed, playing around with the contained electricity inside of my nebula ball. Everything else, including the chair I had drilled down into the floor, was the same.
"What are you doing here?" I ask in confusion.
"Well hello there, who's this?" the blonde asks, smiling at Veronica.
"Roger, there's no time for introductions, you need to get out of here right now, it's not safe!" I tell him.
The drummer frowns. "What?"
"Please just listen to him!" Veronica says to him urgently, pulling him towards the open doorway.
"What the bloody hell are you two on about?" Roger asks confused.
"Who's in here?" I hear Brian say as he walks through the door, his eyes widening when he see's me. "John, where's Freddie?"
"I-I-I don't know," I stutter.
"John, I won't ask you again, now where is he and what have you done?!" he shouts angrily, quickly approaching me. "We found out about a transaction he made on a motel room with both your names on the bloody activity log, and when we got there, the door was open and there was blood on the bathtub and wall of the washroom! Where's Freddie?! What the fuck have you done with my best friend?!"
"Bri, take it easy!" Roger shouts at him.
Brian suddenly charged forward and I felt nothing but pain as his fist connected with my face in a powerful blow. I fall to the floor in a daze and feel warm liquid oozing from my nose while tasting copper in my mouth.
"Brian, stop!" I hear Roger screech.
Veronica runs over to my side but Brian pushes her aside, cursing angrily as he bends down and tightly grabs hold of my shirt collar. He roughly hauls me to my feet, anger and fear written out all over his face.
"Please don't hurt him!" Veronica pleads.
"Brian!" Roger screeches again, attempting to pull him away from me. "Stop or I'm phoning the bloody police!"
"Go right ahead, see if I give a fuck!" the taller man yells angrily. "I'll just tell them what he did to Freddie! The evidence is back at the motel room and all over John!"
"We don't know if it was him for sure that did anything! Fucking let him go right now, Brian!"
I feel my eyes roll into the back of my head from exhaustion and lack of food and sleep, but I'm quickly brought back into the present as Brian shakes me awake.
"Tell me what you've done?!" he shouts in my face.
"That's it, I'm calling!" the drummer says.
Brian watches them both head for the door when all of a sudden, it slams shut with a loud bang.
"What the fuck?!" Roger screeches. "Oi, let us out!"
"Open the door!" Veronica screams.
"I'm bloody trying!"
"He's coming for you, Johnny Boy. And you're all gonna die just like the rest of them."
Over Roger and Veronica's panicked screaming, I start to giggle with the voice in my head and Brian slowly turns to look at me, his eyes wide with horror, realizing that I had spoken those words out loud.
"John, what the fuck?" he whispers in a fearful voice. "Who's coming?"
"Him.ย He's coming. Now let me go. I have to finish what I came here to do."
"Where's Freddie?" he asks, his voice shaky and breathing uneven as if he were close to tears.
"He's fucking dead. He killed him..."
"Who killed him?"
"The Boogeyman," I say. "Now let me go, Bri--"
"Liar!" he screams in my face. "You're a lying bastard! He's not real, John! You made it all up in that fucked up head of yours for attention!"
"He's real."
"Bullshit!" he argues. "He's not real, John! When will you grow the fuck up and get that through your bloody head?!"
"Let me go--"
My words were cut off by a low rumbling sound coming from the closed closet door that vibrated the wooden floor we stood on. Something about the quality of light in the room changed as well. Veronica and Roger stop pounding on the door of the bedroom, their breaths heavy. Brian and I both look over at the closet as the rumbling noise began to get louder and louder by each passing second, almost as if a freight train was quickly approaching the house.
"He's coming back," I warn him. "Please let me go, Brian!"
I twist away from his tight hold and push him back as he stares wide eyed and speechless at the closet door. I have to get them all away from me. I have to faceย himย one on one. The three stand close to each other with frightened looks on their faces.
I turn back towards the closet. "Come on out and show yourself, you bastard!" I challenge. "Let me see your ugly arse."
In response, the door suddenly burst open, and like being shot from a cannon, a huge blast of cold water came flying out towards me, filling the entire room. The others scream in terror from getting soaked, which are soon drowned out by the sound of rushing water, and I get knocked down as something solid crashes into me. My eyes nearly pop out of my head in total shock when I recognize the limp naked figure on the floor in front of me.
"Freddie?!" I gasp out, leaning over him.
The sight of him chilled me to the core, his beautiful body covered in multiple scratches and bite marks, no doubt done byย him.
"Oh my God!" Brian yells out breathlessly. "Freddie!"
Him and Roger come running over through the water, completely soaked.
The guitarist shakes him. "Freddie, can you hear me, open your eyes! John, where did these wounds all over his body come from?! Who fucking did this?!"
I try and answer him, but I'm in too much shock for my voice to work. All I can do is stare. Roger runs over with an old dusty blanket from the bed and places it over the front man while pushing me away.
"Roger, he's not breathing!"
"I'm starting CPR--"
The rumbling noises in the closet start up again, causing the whole entire room to shake like an earthquake.
"Roger, we don't have time, get the door!" Brian shouts in complete panic while lifting Freddie up into his arms.
"It still won't fucking open!" the drummer cries, kicking at it with his feet.
"JOHN!"
Shadows begin to form in the closet as a crackling flash goes off from my nebula ball giving off strong electrical currents. Blue and purple coloured lightning bolts form together within the closet. Behind me, I hear Brian, Roger, and Veronica screaming in fear to what's happening in front of me, and my eyes widen to a loud growling snarl as the Boogeyman finally presents himself in all his menacing form, and I instantly knew what had to be done. I close my eyes to the one weapon I hoped would work, the one my father taught me to use whenever I always felt scared or close to having panic attacks.
"One..." I begin in a shaky breath.
Images of me as a child, scared and hiding under the covers from that night flash before my eyes.
"Two..."
I see the menacing toy figure on my bedside table, staring down at me.
"Three..."
"Dad, he's in here, let me out!"ย I hear my younger self cry out.
"Four..."
My bathrobe and jeans draped over a chair, the darkness making it look like the silhouette of the shadow man sitting there, waiting for me.
"Five!"
Tim's voice with the question he had asked me from the other night entered my mind.
"But what happens when you get to six?"
I wasn't sure, but I was about to find out.
"Six!" I hiss, opening my eyes.
Shadows danced around the dark closet as everything else in the room goes completely quiet except for Roger, Brian, and Veronica's heavy breathing.
"Is he gone now?" Brian asks from behind me.
I stand up while keeping my eyes on the closet ahead, the baseball bat and the nebula ball appearing in my mind in a moment of clarity.ย Of course, it all makes sense now.ย Knowing what had to be done, I move over to the bed where my old baseball bat is.
"John?"
I wrap a hand around the bat and lift it from the same spot of where it's been all these years.
"Deaks, what are you doing?" Roger asks.
Back in front of the open closet, I wait with the baseball bat in my grasp, ready to strike, and a moment later, the Boogeyman pops out at me, roaring in anger. I quickly spin around and swing the bat at the glass nebula ball, shattering it to pieces. The Boogeyman screamed in super sonic high pitched agony as arcs of electricity shot out from the active ball, electrocuting us both. The force throws me backwards to the floor where I thrash and flail around in unbearable pain, my whole body seizing up against the electrical currents shooting through me. It ends when I suddenly drop the bat in the process, and I gasp for air, my chest and lungs burning from the aftershocks of being electrocuted.
In the center of my room, I could see that the Boogeyman reassembled himself and was now charging after Brian, Roger, and Veronica to take Freddie back from them who was trying to protect him.
"Leave him alone!" Roger screams at the Boogeyman over the high pitched roars. "John, do something!"
I had to put a stop to this...and fast. I jump to my feet, my whole body aching in protest and I grab my bathrobe off the desk, gripping it tightly as I bring out the utility knife from my pocket. The Boogeyman turned and charged towards me, his shadowy clawed hands reaching out to stop me.
"WATCH OUT!"
I feel something sharp pierce through my chest that takes my breath away as clawed hands wrap tightly around my throat, lifting me into the air. I cough and choke, struggling to break free from his hold. The Boogeyman looks up at me, growling and smiling evilly, his eyes glowing bright red. With what little strength I felt I had left, I returned his smile when I realized the bathrobe was still in my clutches.
"Go to hell!" I manage to gasp out, my breathing labored and heavy as I feel my mouth fill with blood.
I spit into his face of death, and digging my fingers into the thin material of the terrycloth robe, I pull with everything I have. The piece of clothing rips straight down the middle seam. The Boogeyman ripped apart as well, right down the middle.
Screeching in pain, he drops me to the floor, and a strong ferocious wind like that of a tornado picked up. Pieces of the shredded Boogeyman were sucked into a vortex from inside the closet, and so was everything else that was in close range of the open doorway. Including me. I fly through the air and manage to grab hold of the desk chair I drilled down into the floor. Brian, Roger, and Veronica who were all safe and huddled around each other in the far corner of the room, protecting themselves and Freddie against the current, screamed and yelled for me over the powerful wind to hold on. Even my mind was screaming at me to not let go. I hold on with all my might, determined to beat him once and for all.
Clothes, books, sheets and pillows from the bed, and my lamp take flight past me, disappearing into the massive swirling vortex. The bed starts to scrape along the wooden floor. I steal a glance behind me, my eyes widening to see the Boogeyman, angry as ever, fighting against the powerful pull of the wind, trying to advance on me. I knew if he got any closer, I'd be done for.
I watch as all the remnants of my childhood fly past me through the air, vanishing into the closet. The wind picked up with more speed and that's when my nightstand slid across the floor and crashed into the back of the chair.ย Get it, John, get it!ย In a sudden burst of energy, I take one hand off the chair and pull open the top drawer, grabbing onto the creepy action figure that's been inside there all these years.ย Yes!
Over the wind, I heard the Boogeyman's shrill scream of pure anger as I raised my hand high that held the toy. The plastic figure was aged and felt brittle, almost like it would crumple in my grasp. I smash it against the top of the nightstand with all the strength I have left. It shatters like fine china, into millions of tiny pieces.
The Boogeyman's final high pitched screams of pain echoed loudly over the wind to the point where I was sure I would go deaf. Then, the closet door slammed shut and I fell to the floor. All was quiet, the strong winds now gone. I hear running footsteps approach me as I struggle in using the chair to get up. But I fall back down, exhausted. Everything hurts.
"John!" I hear Veronica say.
"F-F-Freddie...is he..." I start to say as I weakly roll over onto my back.
Veronica gasps and cradles my head in her lap while softly stroking my forehead. "John, don't move or you'll bleed out. Just stay still."
I turn my head towards the far corner to see Roger furiously working on Freddie while Brian stands by trying his best to help.
"Come! On! Freddie!" Roger yells in between chest pumps.
"Roger..."
"No! For fuck sake, breathe Freddie, come on now!"
Please still be alive Freddie, please.
"You're! Not! Dead!"
Please come back to us.
"Come on goddammit!" he screams, desperation in his voice.
"Freddie..." I cry out weakly, instantly fearing the worst.
In answer to my plead, the sound of spluttering and choking coughs suddenly filled the room as I see Freddie turn over and cough up a bunch of water.
"Oh bloody hell, thank you!"
"Easy now, you're ok, Fred."
Through the pain, I feel my heart swell with joy. My vision begins to darken as tears spill from my eyes.
"Where's...Deaky?" I hear him gasp out in between coughs.
"Shhh, just take it easy for a moment."
I hear more footsteps hurrying over towards me and Veronica, followed by Brian's frantic voice.
"John!"
I hear someone crying, but I don't know who it is.
"John, stay with me!"
My eyes start to close and I feel a soft hand on my cheek. Images of my mum's smiling face appear in front of me. She looks so beautiful in her white vintage nightgown. Her lovely raven hair and light brown eyes are the same as I remember. In her arms is a little boy. Stood next to her is my father, smiling and happy to see me. I feel at peace and safe now that I defeated the Boogeyman. Now I can dream.
~*****~
"Deaky?" I hear a soft voice say to me from far off.
Freddie?
"Can you open your eyes, darling?" he asks.
I'm laying down in something soft. I feel his soft hand in mine.ย Oh, I love his hands. So beautiful. So lovely.
"Please open your eyes," he whispers. "I miss you, darling."
There's a sniffling noise as I feel his lips on my cheek and then a light weight on my chest with little sobbing whimpers.ย Don't cry.
"I love you darling. Please open your eyes for me."
I'm trying, Freddie.
I see bright light that burns for a second as I slowly force my eyes open to unfamiliar surroundings. Everything's blurry and I wait for my sight to adjust. I look around, white ceiling and white walls greet me once my vision focuses. I'm in what looks like a small hospital room with some wires attached to my left arm. Freddie is curled up next to me with his head resting on my chest. I can faintly smell his familiar scent of cologne. He's making little sniffling noises which makes me feel sad to hear. I've never heard him cry before.
I reach up with my left arm and place it on his head. "Don't cry, Freddie," I say in a raspy voice as I stroke his soft beautiful hair.ย Shit, my voice is wrecked.
The front man sits up, his eyes wide as he turns to look at me and touches my face. "Deaky darling, you scared us all," he says.
I wipe his tears away and caress his beautiful face where I see he has bites marks that have healed over. "What happened?" I ask.
"Quite a lot," he says. "I didn't think any of that was real. But you've been out for almost two weeks now. We've all been so worried."
"I almost thought you were dead," I whisper.
"I thought you were as well with the injuries he caused you," he says, his dark brown eyes filled with worry. "Oh darling, I'm just so glad you're ok now."
He leans down and presses his lips to mine in a soft kiss.ย Oh those lips.ย I kiss him back, happy to have my best friend and lover in my arms again, happy that we made it out alive, and happy that I was able to defeatย him.ย I wrap my arms around Freddie as tears spill from my eyes.
"I love you, Freddie," I breathe against his lips.
"I love you, too," he says. "And I'll always protect you, darling. Forever..."
ย
The End โค