A Nightmare on Elm Street Page #22

MARGE:

S'curity.

NANCY sits on the bed, a surprising compassion entering her

voice.

NANCY:

Mom, I want to know what you

know about Fred Krueger.

MARGE:

Dead and gone.

NANCY:

I want to know how, where --

if you don't tell me, I'm going

to call daddy.

MARGE gives a laugh -- a rasping chachination from deep in her

chest.

MARGE (CONTD)

Your father the cop. That's a

good one.

(colder)

Forget Fred Krueger. You don't

want to know, believe me.

NANCY:

I do want to know. He's not

dead and gone -- he's after me

and if I sleep he'll get me!

I've got to know!

MARGE blinks at her a moment, then cracks a terrible, crooked

grin.

MARGE:

All right.

126. INT. NANCY'S CELLAR/NIGHT 126.

MARGE drags NANCY headlong down the cellar stairs and across the

room with a crazy fury, twisting her down near the foundation.

And she thrusts her face so close to her daughter's that NANCY

reels from the alcohol.

MARGE:

You want to know who Fred

Krueger was? He was a filthy

child killer who got at least

twenty kids, kids from our

area, kids we all knew. It

drove us all crazy when we

didn't know who was doing it --

but it was even worse when

they caught him.

MARGE draws herself up with a shake.

MARGE (CONTD)

Oh lawyers got fat and the judge

got famous, but someone forgot to

sign the search warrant in the

right place, and Fred Krueger

was free, just like that.

NANCY:

So he's alive?

MARGE smiles grimly.

MARGE:

He wouldn've stopped. The

bastard would've got more

kids first chance he got --

they found nearly ten bodies

in his boiler room as it

was. But the law couldn't

touch him.

At the mention of "boiler room", NANCY gives a shake. MARGE

misses this, too busy taking a pull on the bottle that's never

left her hand.

MARGE (CONTD)

What was needed were some private

citizens willing to do what had

to be done.

She reels slowly, looking at NANCY is defiance.

NANCY:

(hushed)

What did you do, mother?

MARGE cradles the bottle.

MARGE:

Bunch of us parents tracked him

down after they let him go. Found

him in an old boiler room, just

like before. Saw him lying there

in that caked red and yellow sweater

he always wore, drunk an' asleep

with his weird knives by his side...

NANCY:

(dreading it)

Go on...

MARGE reaches over and taps a dusty two-gallon jug of gasoline

near the lawn mower.

MARGE:

We poured gasoline all around

the place, left a trail out the

door, locked the door, then...

She mimes striking a match --

MARGE (CONTD)

WHOOSH!!!

Her arms shoot up and her eyes go wide with the light of that

fire. There's awe in her voice. Then she drops her arms.

MARGE (CONTD)

(hushed, remembering)

But just when it seemed not

even the devil could live

in there any more -- he crashed

out like a banshee, all on fire

-- swinging those fingerknives

every which direction and

screaming he... he was going

to get us by killing all our

kids...

She stops with a sudden quake and drinks for a long moment. But

the intake doesn't hide the image. Her face bathed in tears, she

looks at her daughter and shakes her head.

MARGE (CONTD)

There were all those men, Nancy,

even your father, oh yes, even

him. But none could do what

had to be done -- Krueger rolling

and screaming so loud the whole

state could hear -- no one could

take your father's gun and kill

him good and proper except me.

She sweeps her hand across the air in a terrific slash, then

stops, her hand shaking, her voice hoarse and terrified. She

looks at her daughter, begging.

MARGE (CONTD)

So he's dead Nan. He can't

get you. Mommy killed him.

For someone who started this film at a very young seventeen,

NANCY's now the battle-tempered veteran as she takes her mother

in her arms and rocks her.

NANCY:

Who was there? Were Tina's

parents there? Were Rod's?

MARGE sags back.

MARGE:

Sure, and Glen's. All of us.

But that's in the past now,

baby. Really. It's over.

(slyly)

We even took his knives.

The woman twists around and opens the door on an old furnace -- a

furnace unused since the newer gas one nearby was put in. She

fishes inside the cavity -- as then we hear a touch of the

familiar 'SCRRIITCH'. Next moment she pulls out an object

wrapped in rags, opens it and displays the long, rusted blades

and their glove-like apparatus.

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