Halloween IV: The Ultimate Edition (14 page)

“Let’s drive home first,” Darlene said. “Rachel said they wouldn’t be out long.”

Richard looked around and spotted who he was looking for. “There’s Justin. I better say goodnight.”

“Richard….”Darlene called after him, but he was already on his way to speak to the man.

He called out to his wife behind him, “I’ll take two seconds.”

He went over to Justin Fallbrook, a man in his late forties, and a very wealthy man at that. He was in the process of bidding an older couple goodnight.

“Justin,” Richard spoke out to him.

Mr. Fallbrook turned. In a kindly but nonetheless worrisome voice, he said to him, “Richard, I’m so sorry you can’t stay for dinner.”

“I hope you understand,” Richard said.

“No apologies,” he replied. “Children come first in my book, too. Look. I’ll see you tomorrow morning on the third floor. Nine sharp. Okay?”

Richard was momentarily stunned. With a mixture of delightful surprise, he exclaimed, “Third floor?” At first, he wasn’t sure he quite understood, then the reality crept over him and he wholeheartedly welcomed it. “I got it?” He felt like a little kid.

Behind him, Darlene was calling him. “Richard, come on.”

Richard was overcome with both relief and tremendous joy. This was something that he had worked very, very hard for. Very hard indeed. “I got it!” he cried.

Darlene came up behind him and clenched his arm. The door to their car was opened, and it didn’t take too long for the two to make it inside and drive away, their car intermingled with the flow of traffic the news report had created from the Fallbrook party.

And all the way home, Richard kept repeating, “This was one hell of an evening, let me tell you.”

Chapter Twenty

An open lot dotted with the lofty, darkened configurations of towers marked the presence of the Haddonfield Transformer Station. A network of city power cables sprawled out into the night in all directions like hundreds of giant, many-legged spiders in their blackened webs.

A utility truck was parked beside a main circuit junction box, and nearby there was a lone utility worker carrying out routine maintenance on opened power panels. As he wearily continued to work, taking an obscure sort of electrical tool and placing it into the trail of brightness flooding from his pocket flashlight, he brought his gloved fingers around multitudinous wires and switches and carefully went about his adjustments. He paused for a brief moment and removed from his pocket a package of Wrigley’s, opened the wrapper, and popped a stick between his teeth.

Suddenly he looked up.

There, not far from his truck, stood the darkened shape of a man. It began to move, taking a few dilatory steps across the expanse of the lot, passing close by in shadow.

“Hey,” the worker shouted. “Hey, shit—for— brains! This is city property. No trespassing.”

The shape continued to walk. Frustrated and angry, the worker moved away from the junction box and stepped into the shape’s path. The shape continued toward him until the man reached out his hand, planting it firmly into the figure’s chest and stopping him cold.

“Are you
deaf
? Or are you just stupid?” Absolutely nothing from the shape. It stood motionless, facing the worker. “I could have you arrested, asshole.” Still, there was no response. The worker could hear the breathing sounding in slow, hissing emissions from behind whatever the hell this man was wearing over his face---something like a large, distorted white mask. The worker continued with the Halloween freak.

“You are one dumb son of a bitch,” he exclaimed, finally. The thing before him was giving him the chills; this was way too strange, and here he was, out there, alone amidst the low humming of the power cables. “All right, I’m on the radio to the police right now. Don’t even think about leaving.”

The worker went back toward his truck. Behind him, the shape proceeded to follow. The worker quickly spun around, startled at the shape’s sudden proximity.

Silence. No one made the slightest movement.

Until....

A hand shot out from the obscurity of the shape and clenched the man’s neck. Stunned, there was little time for the worker to struggle. He managed a swift kick, then another---both legs flinging into open air at the thing’s side. In his overwhelming terror, he realized that he was no longer on the ground. He was being held there, fighting helplessly for his life, and it was then, at that very moment, that he knew he was going to die. He could feel the coldness of the shape’s hand, feel the sensation of it seeping through his skin as if his neck were made from a gelatinous putty. He attempted a scream, but the wind inside of him found no means for escape. He feared that at any time his neck would simply snap from the force.

The shape lifted him even further from the ground and flung his limp body into the circuit junction box, impaling him. Amidst his own blood and flesh sizzling against the flying spark he finally managed a single, agonizing scream.

Then it was all over.

His dead body remained quivering there as the shape watched, its head cocked in morbid fascination. The box continued to short circuit around the body, and all around the encompassing area the transformers began to shower a spectacle of sparks. Lightning arcs of rampant power surges began to shatter cables. The station’s transformers began to turn into a forest of flaming brilliance, storms of electricity erupting from all directions.

The shape continued to walk on. The last of his presence developed into a silhouette against the festivity of powerful light, then it disappeared in the direction of the town and into the night.

In the streets of Haddonfield, true and ultimate darkness set in.

Chapter Twenty-one

Throughout the entire town, darkness set in as the electrical power died. Parents rushed their children into cars. Others pulled their kids from the sidewalk and behind closed doors, a sense of undefined panic clouded their faces.

Panic indeed. It ran rampant through Haddonfield this Halloween night. Panic of not knowing what was going on, panic spawned by what the news people were saying on their television sets intermingled with the sudden power failure. Some didn’t take the mysterious circumstances all too seriously, thinking that the whole thing would all blow over shortly and that the town would be up again on its feet. But there were the others, terrified, not knowing what to do except to heed the final words of the news report and to stick close together with their families behind locked doors, huddled close to burning candles and emergency kerosene lamps.

Jamie wandered through the darkened streets as the last remaining children were scurried into cars and driven off, including the small band that she had joined. Kyle had been suddenly picked up by his mother, who had scolded him for failing to come when she called him over the first time.

Now, she was left alone.

She didn’t understand what was going on. All she knew was that all the lights in all the houses and all the street lamps around her had died, and right before that parents had shown up, grabbing their kids in a frantic rush and taking them home. Something was certainly
wrong
here, and not Jamie was certainly scared. She looked around for Rachel, but her foster sister was no where to be found.

“Rachel?” she cried out once, and once was enough. Her own voice frightened her, perhaps because its echoes made her realize how alone she was in the darkened street.

Now, there was only wind and silence. She turned and began to cross the deserted street, eyes darting this way and that, searching for any sign of

Rachel…..
or even
somebody
....as long as it wasn’t……the nightmare man.

No; please, no. She didn’t want to think about that. Not now, not ever. But there, in the darkness, when everyone suddenly deserts you, a little girl’s thoughts could run wild.

She’d dare not think of him. She’d dare not think of how she stepped into her uncle at the Discount Mart, how he scared her, how he reached out.”

Then it hit her.
Maybe that was why everyone suddenly went away. Maybe it was because the nightmare man was coming
.

No, Jamie. Don’t think about it. Don’t
even
. You’re just getting yourself even more scared than ever.

She was shivering. She realized she had to look for Rachel, and that Rachel was probably looking for her, too.

Please, God. Don’t let anything happen to Rachel. Please.

Jamie didn’t know that what she was fearing all along was just behind her, a little way into the darkness along the street’s opposite side, tracking her, watching her every move through the hollow of its mask. Finally, it appeared almost directly behind her, stepping out into the middle of the lane.

Jamie reached another corner and stopped. The sound of another pair of footsteps continued for another second longer from her rear, then stopped as well. Quickly; the little girl spun around towards the sound.

There was nothing but emptiness.

“Rachel?” she called out, her voice cracking. “Is that you?”

Still, there was nothing. No answer.

She turned and proceeded around the vacant street, the eeriness of her haunting surroundings growing, aching throughout her mind and tugging on her nerves.

Stopping in her tracks once more, the second echoing steps continued. They were closer now. Then they halted.

The little girl turned again.

In a firm but innocent voice, shaking, she told the darkness, “Whoever you are, I’ve got a big dog with me. He bites.”

But yet again there was no reply.

She stood still, waiting to hear something, anything, but all there appeared to be was the encompassing darkness. But as she stood there, she heard the footsteps once again. They were approaching her, and she could not see a single soul. Her eyes searched frantically.

“You hear me, I’ve got a dog,” she managed to speak out, but it only sounded forth in a mere whisper.

She tried to run this time, but she found that she couldn’t. She was frozen in place, stiff, like a terrified rabbit knowing that there was a python in its cage ready to feed but not knowing where it was.

The footsteps were growing closer…

…..
closer still....

....until…..
suddenly….

She miraculously began to run. Her movements were fast and swift, the wind on her back helping her along. In the midst of her panic, she nearly fell. She was paying more attention to what was behind her than where she was going, panting and gasping tremendously, barely being able to breath. She almost swore she was going to simply die from exhaustion before whoever it was that followed could get to her. The world before her now was a whirlwind of blinding haze, bucking and yawing in one fantastic fit of frenzy. Then she ran directly into a figure, nearly knocking it down and her along with it. She uttered a startled scream as hands grabbed at her, and she fought them blindly. It was no use.

Rachel bent down close to her.

“Jamie,” Rachel said, fearfully, “Jamie, calm down. Jamie, where have you been?” After both girls caught their breath, Rachel having been running herself, she scolded her. “Don’t
ever
run off on your own at night. You hear me? Not
ever
!”

Suddenly the two girls were washed in the brightness of automobile headlights. A car swerved to the curb and stopped, and within the next second, Sheriff Meeker and Doctor Loomis began to climb out and rush over to them. Meeker was the first to cry out.

“Rachel Caruthers. Jamie Lloyd. Thank God.”

The two girls were confused. But that was only part of it.

“What’s going on?” Rachel demanded.

The other man with the overcoat spoke out, “Get in the car.”

As the two girls reluctantly obeyed, Loomis turned and stopped cold in his tracks.

There in the distance, as far as the darkness could allow him to see and with the assistance of the car’s high beams, was Michael Myers. He was simply standing there, motionless, on the sidewalk across the street.

Stricken with fear, Loomis stood frozen. Meeker caught what was happening and followed the doctor’s line of sight. Then he saw him.

“Is that him?”

Loomis continued his seemingly thoughtless gaze.

Meeker repeated, desperate,
“Doc, is it him?”
Loomis quickly and urgently drew out his pistol. “
Yes
!”