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The viscous potion slid down Hellboy’s throat, warming every fiber of his being like the best whiskey you’d ever sip on. It tasted of warm, fresh milk tinted with the slightest bit of ash, and finished off with a bit of lilac. It was meant to completely calm the drinker, and quickly send them into the Dreamscape. He hated taking potions if he was being honest. He felt they often dulled his ability to hit things really, really hard. They had a place in his line of work, like tonight, but still. Red had always preferred the straightforward method, and probably always would.

He handed the vial over to Nancy, who downed her portion of the liquid, and instantly fell asleep. These kinds of things worked fasted on humans than the did on the hulking demon, in the same way some scrawny freshman would get drunk quicker than alcoholic. Still, before long Hellboy felt his eyelids droop, and he passed into the dream realm.

It was a weird sensation to consciously pass into the realm of dreams. Most people would never experience it, as they could not control their access to this other plane of existence. Hellboy probably should have warned Nancy about the sensation. It was like stepping through a thick, choking fog, nearly like a solid membrane. Someone like Hellboy, who had done this before, could feel the slight weightless feeling in the dreamscape that others couldn’t comprehend. It was like you lost a few pounds in a manner of seconds.

When he emerged through the swirling, struggling membrane, he found himself once again in the midst of Springwood. Little had seemed to change in the transition. Some of the colors were deeper and more vibrant, while the shadows were slightly darker. It was like a photo that was slightly out of focus.

Hellboy looked around the street in a search for Nancy, but quickly realized she was nowhere to be seen. In the mere seconds between the two of them falling asleep, Krueger had either chased Nancy away from where Red would be entering the dream world or he had split them up upon their entrance. The latter of which would have been the scarier proposition, as it meant Krueger had a ton of power.

A scream drew his attention down the street towards where Nancy’s house would have been in the real world. Hellboy took off towards the sound as fast as he could.

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Nancy Thompson knew this wasn’t real. She knew it was all just a dream. But after the events of the last week, she also knew dreams could kill, which is why she let out a bloodcurdling scream as Freddy Krueger transformed from a man into a giant, grotesque spider in front of her face. His mouth turned into a disgusting smile of pincers, and his terrible, yellow eyes multiplied and spread over his face. Hairs grew from the burnt, desiccated skin, creating a matted, sticky mess. His spindly, reaching legs were each tipped with a blade like the glove he wore on his hand.

“Oh come on, Nance!” the spider Freddy hissed at her. “More arms means more fun! Come give Freddy a hug!”

“Get away from me you sick freak!” she yelled at him and took off down the street.

“Not so fast, little girl!” the spider clambers over her and comes to a sliding stop, sparks erupting from the knives on the bottom of his legs, cutting her off from her escape route. Behind her, the street was cut off by a wall that came out of nowhere. The only thing left on the street was a telephone pole next to her. “Oh, you seem to have hit a wall.”

Nancy slid over towards the telephone lines, snarling at Krueger as she did. If she was going to go out, she was going to go out defiant. “You want me, freak? Come and get me!”

“Freak?” Freddy raised one of his bladed appendages and smiled, somehow, with his awful spider-mouth. “Now that wounds me, Nancy. Let me return the favor!”

He raised a leg and swiped at the young girl, who ducked at the right time. He had played right into her hand. She wanted him to take a swing. She didn’t know if she’d be able to duck out of the way, but she knew either way that Krueger would clip the telephone pole as well. He cleaved through it with ease, and the pole came crashing down. It slammed into the giant arachnid, sparks flying from the electricity. Krueger growled in pain and backed away from the teenager.

“Nice move, dumbass,” Nancy sneered at the murderer. “That’s for Glenn.”

“Ahhh, sweet Glenn,” Krueger growled. “Shame you didn’t give him a taste before he died in a horrible and painful way. At least he could have died after getting a little bit.”

Before Nancy could respond, a shot rang out, and the joint of Krueger’s back left leg exploded in a cascade of green goo. He cried out in pain as his body contorted back into his human form. He crawled towards one of his fingers, which now wiggled bleeding across the pavement like some grotesque worm. Freddy picked it up and shoved it back onto his hand, and turned to find Hellboy pointing his modified revolver “The Samaritan” at the spectral serial killer, “Hey, pizza face. I know I’m a bit older than what you usually go after, but hell, let’s try it out, just this once.”

“I’m not sure you want that, demon,” Freddy smirked broadly. “You might not like what you see.”

Hellboy wasn’t impressed, “I wake up to this face in the mirror every morning, pal. Granted, it’s better than yours, but I’m used to ugly visions.”

“Yea, well-AUGH!” Freddy flinched as Nancy stabbed him with a jagged shard of the telephone pole left over. Freddy spun around and slapped Nancy who went flying into the brick wall behind her. She hit hard, before disappearing from the dreamscape. Liz must have saw she was in trouble and woke her up.

“Well, well,” Hellboy rolled the wrist of his giant right hand and flexed its fingers, “looks like it’s just you and me now, princess.”

“Fine by me,” Krueger chuckled as everything around Hellboy turned to blackness. “They told me about you, Hellboy. That you’d probably come at some point.”

“Yea, well, I hope they told you how I’d kick your ass.”

“They said you would try,” Krueger mocked from the darkness. “But I know what you fear, Hellboy. You fear that your destiny will lead to this.”

The darkness exploded into a burst of fiery light, forcing Red to shield his eyes. When they adjusted, he found himself in the ruins of a city. Buildings crumbled around Hellboy and clouds of dust rolled through the street he was standing on. He spun around to find bodies lining the streets. Some had been crushed by the falling debris, their blood and viscera painting the sidewalk red. Others were impaled on spikes, moaning weakly as the life dripped out of them drop by drop.

“Why...Red...why?” one of them called. He turned to find Liz, the spike sticking out of her chest, blood seeping from her eyes. “Why did you do this?”

“You betrayed us all,” Abe, whose body below his pelvis was crushed by a skyscraper, pointed at Hellboy. 

“No, no,” he shook his head. “I wouldn’t...I couldn’t.”

Another building fell behind Abe, revealing a throne of human skulls spiraling into the sky. On top sat Hellboy. His horns were grown in their full glory, and on top his head sat a crown of flickering flames. From his mouth and eyes poured orange smoke, and purple storm clouds swirled in the sky above him. It was grand and terrifying. The two Hellboys locked eyes, and the exalted one smiled and bellows, “Behold Anung Un Rama and despair, for he has brought about the end.”

“You have failed, my son,” a familiar voice said from behind him. He spun to see Professor Broom, decayed as if risen from the dead. He pointed at Hellboy, the little flesh remaining on the bone hanging off like scraps of ribbon, “You have betrayed everything I taught you.”

“Father, no,” he said dejectedly. He had to snap out of this. Krueger was getting to him, and that would give the bastard even more power. He snarled and threw a punch with his right hand at the specter of Broom, which connected solidly. As the corpse flew back, it transformed back into Freddy Krueger. “Big mistake, pal. You try to use my father against me, and I hurt you even more than I was gonna before.”

Freddy laughed as the world around them changed to an old, steamy boiler room. 

“Fine, Hellboy. You want to tussle? Well, welcome to my nightmare.”