Halloween Eve in Los Angeles was bursting with festive energy. Candy boxes and jack-o'-lanterns were everywhere, and citizens in full costume makeup turned the city into a lively spectacle. As night fell, the streets filled with all sorts of ghouls, ghosts, and superheroes, creating a chaotic, almost demonic dance of revelry.
This made things tough for the FEA (Federal Enforcement Agency). Agents couldn't possibly check every person in wild costumes, so they spread out across the city's main roads, ready to rush to any incident that popped up.
Meanwhile, 1,200 kilometers away in Falls Town, the Halloween vibe was noticeably quieter. Here, it was mostly kids and young people who got excited about the holiday—adults weren't as into it.
Take Nancy Thompson, for example, someone we haven't checked in on for a while. After graduating, Nancy stayed in Falls Town, helping out at her family's diner. Roy had once invited her to join him at UCLA in Los Angeles, but Nancy felt she was just an ordinary girl, not cut out for the big city, so she turned him down.
Her decision wasn't surprising. Deep down, Nancy knew there was a huge gap between her and Roy. In terms of looks, she felt she ranked near the bottom among the girls around him. As for skills, she didn't have any standout talents to boast about. The only thing that made Nancy special? She was the heroine of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
So, Nancy decided to tuck her final semester with Roy away as a cherished memory, content with the occasional flutter of butterflies when she thought back on it.
Today, after a long day helping at the diner, Nancy was exhausted and decided to turn in early. Soaking in the bathtub, she flipped through a photo album, letting the nostalgia ease her mind. But she relaxed a bit too much and, without realizing it, drifted off into a dream.
In her dream, Nancy found herself back at her old house on Elm Street, a place tied to too many painful memories she'd rather forget. Unfortunately, she had no control over her dreams, so she was stuck.
Suddenly, a few figures appeared with their backs to her. Even after nearly a year, she recognized them instantly—her friends from Elm Street, including her ex-boyfriend, all killed by Freddy. Shocked, she stared at them.
"Why are you all here?" she asked.
"Nancy, why didn't you save us?" they replied in unison.
Their voices were eerie, and as they slowly turned around, their appearances—exactly as they looked when they died—were terrifying.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything back then," Nancy said. Having faced supernatural events before and moved past the trauma over the last year, she stayed relatively calm.
But the ghostly figures kept repeating, "Nancy, why didn't you save us?"
She shook her head, knowing words wouldn't help. The figures kept chanting and began closing in, surrounding her. Nancy frowned, sensing something off about this dream.
In an instant, her dead friends vanished, and she realized she wasn't in her old house anymore—she was in Freddy's house.
"No way!" she gasped.
Rushing outside to confirm, she saw it was indeed Freddy's place. In the distance, three familiar little girls were jumping rope, chanting:
"One, two, Freddy's coming for you,
Three, four, better lock your door,
Five, six, cover your face with a quilt,
Seven, eight, hold your breath tight,
Nine, ten, never sleep again!"
The chilling nursery rhyme sent fear coursing through her. She knew what hearing it meant, and the one person who could save her—Roy—was far away in Los Angeles.
"Calm down, Nancy, stay calm! Maybe it's just a regular nightmare," she told herself, trying to steady her nerves. But then she heard it—the sound of metal claws scraping against a wall.
A voice she dreaded most echoed from the distance. "Oh, oh! Dear Nancy, do you remember your Uncle Freddy?"
The black fedora, red-and-black striped sweater, clawed glove, and that nightmarish, grotesque face—it was Freddy, and Nancy felt utter despair.
"No! It's impossible! I saw Roy kill you!" she cried.
Freddy crept closer, his face twisted in a wicked grin. "Oh, yes, I was dead. But now I've crawled back from hell! Aren't you touched, little Nancy?"
Nancy didn't dare move. All she wanted was to escape this horrific nightmare. But this revived Freddy seemed stronger than before. In her first encounter with him, she'd managed to wake herself up through sheer willpower, but today, she couldn't.
"Heh, Nancy, it's no use! Today, I'll savor the sweet fruit of revenge!" Freddy's expression turned feral as his clawed arm stretched unnaturally long, lunging for her face.
At the last second, a tall, striking woman appeared in the dream, blocking Freddy's claws.
"Freddy?" the woman said, surprised.
Freddy, equally shocked by his failed attack, snapped, "Who are you? How are you in Nancy's dream?"
"I should be asking you that. I thought Roy took you out," she replied.
At the mention of Roy's name, Freddy flinched like a startled animal, stepping back. Realizing this woman wasn't someone to mess with, he bolted from Nancy's dream.
That was Freddy's style—his power came from the fear he harvested in dreams. His usual tactic was to announce his return in the victim's dream, kill off their loved ones to build his strength, and then go for the main target.
Nancy, now safe but shaken, looked at the woman curiously. "Who are you, ma'am?"
The woman, confirming Freddy was gone, said, "Let's talk outside."
With that, she pulled Nancy out of the dream.
Nancy's eyes snapped open. She was still in the bathtub, the water long gone cold. Wrapping herself in a bathrobe, she stepped into her room and saw the same striking woman sitting there—the one who'd saved her in the dream.
"I'm Lilith, a friend of Roy's. I was in Falls Town and sensed something was up, so I came to check on you," the woman explained.
Nancy nodded, the pieces clicking into place. She'd met Lilith before, but back then, Lilith was in Jennifer's body, so Nancy didn't recognize her new form.
"Ms. Lilith, was that really Freddy? Is he back?" Nancy asked, her voice trembling.
"I'm afraid so. Nancy, you'd better not sleep tonight. I have some things to take care of and can't stay with you. But by tomorrow, someone will deal with Freddy."
Nancy exhaled and nodded. "I'll stay awake."
"I'll head out then," Lilith said, then leapt out the window, leaving Nancy in a daze.
As soon as Lilith left Nancy's house, she tried calling Roy. Unfortunately, Roy was already at a sorority Halloween party, dressed as Captain America—a costume with no pockets for his phone, which he'd stashed in his inventory. After several unanswered calls, Lilith gave up.
"I hope nothing goes wrong tonight," she muttered, sensing something big was brewing. But she had a complex ritual to prepare for, which would take hours.
"Lilith, where are you? We need to start prepping for the ritual!" a voice called.
"Coming!" she replied.
Elsewhere in Falls Town, at the old Jennifer estate, a fire-ravaged ruin no one wanted to buy due to its bloody history, something stirred. A pair of hands broke through the collapsed rubble, and a burly man pushed his way out. He surveyed his surroundings, then headed toward the town center. Along the way, he found an old white rubber mask discarded on the ground, picked it up, and put it on.
A voice whispered in his ear, "Michael, come to me."
The man, Michael, tilted his head as if thinking. A ring of fire appeared before him. Without hesitation, he stepped through it, and the fire vanished as if nothing had happened.
At Sawyer Manor, with the lady of the house away, only Ella remained. Wendy and Misty lived in a secluded part of the estate's woods. The two witches and the doll weren't fond of crowds, so the manor felt eerily quiet.
Suddenly, Misty sensed something. "Wendy, something feels off."
Wendy looked at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"It's hard to explain, but it's like something terrifying crawled out of the earth."
As a swamp witch, Misty was highly attuned to wetlands and soil. Her instincts were spot-on. In the backyard of Sawyer Manor, at the Sawyer family cemetery, a hand emerged from the dirt. Soon, a muscular man climbed out. He glanced around, then heard classical music coming from the house—Ella playing her vinyl records, a favorite pastime.
The man grabbed a shovel from the cemetery and pulled an empty burlap sack over his head. He was about to enter the house to "clean up" when a voice called, "Jeb, come to me."
A ring of fire appeared before him. After a moment's hesitation, he stepped through, and the fire vanished.
Wendy and Misty arrived at the cemetery just in time to find a freshly dug pit. "Weird. Did someone dig here?" Wendy wondered.
Meanwhile, strange events were unfolding across America. At Crystal Lake Camp in Louisiana, a restricted zone closed off by the FEA, a hulking man emerged from the lake. He tore through the barbed wire fence, triggering an alarm, and picked up a tattered hockey mask from the ground, putting it on.
"Jason, come to me," a man's voice called.
For some reason, Jason, who only ever listened to his mother, obeyed. A ring of fire appeared, and he stepped through, vanishing from the camp's perimeter.
FEA agents arrived after the alarm, finding a human-sized hole in the fence but no one around. The tracks stopped just beyond the wire, as if the intruder had vanished into thin air. The incident became an unsolved FEA case, filed away forever.
Outside Los Angeles, three hulking killers and one scrawny creep appeared together, staring at each other in silence.
Finally, Freddy broke the tension. "What, none of you talk? All mutes or something?"
The three big guys—Jason, Michael Myers, and Leatherface—stayed silent and still.
"So, you're not just mutes, you're idiots too?" Freddy scoffed.
It was true: in their movies, Jason, Michael, and Leatherface never spoke, and their intelligence was questionable, with all their stats dumped into raw physical power.
Freddy rolled his eyes. "Who the hell brought me here with these three morons?"
A voice answered, the same one that had summoned him. "That would be me."
A refined middle-aged man stepped from the shadows, exuding an imposing aura that instantly cowed the four infamous Hollywood slashers. Since the other three were mute and dim, Freddy spoke up. "And you are?"
The man's presence was clearly extraordinary, so Freddy kept his tone polite.
"You can call me Mr. Lecter, or perhaps another name—Beelzebub."
Freddy's eyes widened, realizing this was the King of Gluttony. He quickly tipped his hat. "Greetings, King of Gluttony!"
The other three just stared dumbly at Hannibal.
"You're all dead," Hannibal said. "I brought you back from hell for a purpose. Today, on this special night, you're going to kill someone."
"Who brought us back, my lord?" Freddy asked. "Who do you want us to kill?"
"Your common enemy, Roy Black."
"What?!" Freddy's reaction was the loudest, but even the three silent brutes stirred at Roy's name.
Hannibal smiled. "Don't worry. I'll grant you immense power."
"My lord, you can count on me to kill Roy Black!" Freddy declared.
Jason, Michael Myers, and Leatherface: .-.
They're here. They've arrived!