Halloween IV Novel Excerpt
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Excerpt 4 |
Ten years is a long time to wait.
Michael Myers is a very patient man. And the wait is well worth it: he has a mission and nothing will stop him. He will search out and destroy the lone survivor of his last bloody rampage.
Doctor Loomis has watched Myers very closely for ten years. He knows first hand the evil festering beneath the calm exterior--his face bears hideous scars as a constant reminder. He knows Michael Myers is playing out a waiting game and he knows if Myers wins, the town of Haddonfield will lose.
It's Halloween and Michael Myers is going to treat the town to his bag full of tricks.
Haddonfield, Illinois, at one time long ago had been a peaceful town, just like any typical town away from the boisterous ramblings of factories and packed, bumper-to-bumper cars and busses and cabs on busy streets and intersections. Instead of smog, pollution, and haze, in Haddonfield there was only clear air, the sweet smell of home baked apple pies cooling off country porches and the joyous cries of children's laughter echoing forth from games of tag and jump rope beneath the shade of maple trees. This was a town of the seasons: a town where the magic of Christmas and the building of carrot-nosed snowmen waltzed with time's glorious dance of tradition; where Easter egg hunts and the July Fourth fire works show down at Fulbrook Park were anxiously awaited by everyone year after year.
And then there was Halloween.
Halloween used to be no exception to the thrilling festivities of yearly customs. Children never used to fear the night of October thirty-first, when they gathered their share of candy as they trick-or-treated down chilly sidewalks, usually getting treated and rarely getting tricked.
But the horror began back in nineteen sixty-three, when a scream of murder broke the Autumn silence in Haddonfield. And, years after, the horror returned, and this time to a more gruesome and terrifying magnitude.
Time had been unsuccessful in keeping out the horror; in the midst of innocence and quietude there is always a share of horror. It is a fact we must face. But sometimes the horror goes away.
In Haddonfield, however, the horror keeps coming back.
"Better?" Rachel asked Jamie
"Yeah."
The sun prepared to set upon the two girls, strolling down the sidewalk, they carried double-scoop cones of ice cream, their long shadows accompanying them as they went.
"Ready for tonight?" Rachel said.
Jamie smiled expectantly. "I'll get lots of candy?"
"Lots." she answered. "But let Mom go through it first. Sometimes people play mean tricks on kids.
"you mom's real nice, Rachel."
"She's your mom too. And pretty soon, who knows maybe my parents will make it legal."
Casually and happily, Jamie continued to lick her cone until she caught sight of something ahead suddenly and she froze in her tracks.
Up at the end of the block, standing partially within the shade of the tree on the front lawn of the corner house was the Shape, the dark man; the one she ran into unexpectedly at the Discount Mart. The one she didn't quite frankly want to run into ever again.
It was the nightmare man.
It was Uncle Michael.
Rachel turned and looked at her. "What's the matter?"
"Its him," Jamie all but whispered.
Rachel was confused. "Who?"
She turned only to see an empty distant shadow beside the corner house. At least, that was where Jamie seemed to be casting her fearful glare. Rachel looked around there were only a few children Jamie's age walking on the opposite side of the street, and a Plymouth passed them by.
Nothing more.
"The nightmare man." Jamie answered, still staring. There was this distant, far-away stare deep within her eyes, as if she were entranced; Rachel also noticed a certain shade of terror within that look. Or was it momentary shock? Regardless, Rachel was concerned. "He was next to that house."
There was no one there now.
"I'll go look, okay?" Rachel told her, to which the little girl didn't at first reply.
Then, as Rachel proceeded to walk over to the shadows, Jamie cried out diffidently, "Rachel don't"
But Rachel continued, and as she did so, she stepped around the edge of the corner house and out of view.
Long seconds passed; too long for Jamie. her worry ached within her, growing into irrepressible panic.
Now Rachel had joined the Shape's absence.
"Rachel?" Jamie called out
Nothing.
"Rachel!" she repeated, yelling.
There was no one there.
A door stood opened where he thought the figure had been. There was a sign indicating with a red arrow where the restrooms were. Another sign indicating public telephones. A silent video game with a cardboard sign taped over the coin slots reading OUT OF ORDER.
Blinking, Loomis crossed over to the open door. Carefully, he peered inside and discovered a dimly lit hallway leading into a series of back rooms, two of which were marked WOMEN’S and MEN’S. Mounted onto the wall across from them to the right were two pay phones, the receivers torn away. Frustrated, the doctor turned and stepped back into the main room. What he saw then made him freeze. Terrified, he could say nothing; he barely let out a single breath, his heart nearly ceased its frantic beating.
There It was.
It was just standing there, motionless, occupying the space where the body of the strangled waitress lay; where Doctor Loomis had been only a few minutes before. Hospital gown now absent, the shape now wore mechanic’s coveralls. His face was shadowed, yet Loomis could feel his cold gaze---that aweful, hideous gaze.
Loomis held his gun up at eye level, attempting relentlessly to aim, his finger trembling against the trigger, his arms far from rigid.
Silence.
Then, finally, Loomis spoke. “Why now?
No answer.
Loomis continued, a nervousness in his voice. “You’ve waited ten years. I told them to let you burn. I knew this day would come.”
The shape stood, remaining there, silent and still. The diner was so incredibly tomblike at that moment that the doctor could detect the figure’s steady, oppressive breathing, even from his distance.
“Don’t go to Haddonfield,” Loomis demanded, lowering his gun. “If you want another victim, take me. But leave those people in peace.”
Yet another moment of silence. Then, finally the dark shape turned and walked away toward the door of the kitchen.
At once, Loomis again raised his gun.
“Goddamn you, Michael!”
The overwhelming silence of the diner was now interrupted by the booming thunder of three rapid shots. Michael was down, fallen behind the counter.
Loomis waited.
Nothing.
Quickly, he raced over to the counter. Brushing aside dishes and glassware, he cautiously leaned over the side.
Michael was gone.
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