Chapter Text
Halloween.
For many people in the world, that one little word struck happiness and excitement through their lives, with thoughts of candy, Halloween parties, and the one occasion where you could be literally anything you wanted to be for one night without worrying about your real identity.
But for some other people, mainly those of the residents of Haddonfield, Halloween usually struck a different chord in that small town. Fear .
And for one reason alone - Michael Myers.
—
It was a crisp, chilly fall day like any other. Colorful leaves fell off trees and drifted away onto streets and sidewalks, crunching underneath your heeled boots as you walked to your parked car in the driveway.
Halloween was just two days away and because of the holiday’s fast approaching date, last minute candy and costume needs were high demand where you worked.
It was a little shop just ten minutes from your house, that usually specializes in selling anything you could think of to grab at a regular grocery store but with cheaper prices. But, the main reason the shop did so well was it’s impressive stock of Halloween decorations, costumes, masks, and an even decent supply of candy.
They did it every year, making sure to keep up with new trends and new scary masks. It wasn’t the best job around, sure, but you needed the cash to pay rent so it was the only option for now.
You sigh and hurry inside your car, flicking the radio to a good station before pulling out of the driveway.
—
Work was slow. Half the day you spent by either stocking shelves or helping a few customers find costumes or candy while listening to them drone on and on about how they forgot to stock up sooner and that it was better late than never.
You just smiled and nodded along, pretending to be interested in the conversation all the while hoping a coworker would come along and help you get out of it.
That rarely happened though, seeing as how you only had two coworkers, Gina and Ben, and they were usually too busy sucking face in the back room to help you out with work.
But nevertheless, there were times when business slows down mid day and you were left to do whatever you wanted, which usually meant aimlessly wandering around the building, checking out the creepy Halloween masks and realistic costumes.
One costume catches your eye, a creepy clown one with a silver mask to match. You stare at it for a second or two before the sound of someone saying, ‘ Anyone working?’ causes you to hurry out of the aisle and back to the counter where a familiar face waited.
“Billy.” You greet your, well not really friend, but, acquaintance, with a smile and glance at the items he placed on the counter.
A creepy mask, a fake bloody machete, a black cloak, and fake sharp claws. “Interesting costume.” You say while scanning the items.
“Can you guess what I’m going as?”
“A deranged, machete wielding, werewolf?”
Billy’s brows narrow, “Funny. I didn’t realize that you worked here, Y/N.”
“I’ve been here since we graduated high school.”
“I’ve never seen you here in those three years.”
“Didn’t realize you were looking for me.” You lean forward, elbows resting on the counter.
He doesn’t respond so you lean over and hand him a bag with his items in it and say, “See ya around, Billy”, before taking a look behind him to find Ben and Gina exiting the back room, both fixing their clothes.
“See you later.” Billy murmurs to you, and you turn your attention back to him, watching him walk away with a sigh.
“Did we miss anything?” Ben asks and sidles up next to you behind the counter.
“So you and princess are a ‘we’ now?” You ask and give a pointed look to Gina twenty feet away by a shelf.
“Careful, Y/N,” Ben teases, waggling a finger in your face, “Talk like that might make me start to think that you’re jealous.”
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I’m ever jealous of her. ”
“Is that so?”
“Mm-hmm.” Is your response and you watch while Ben hops on the counter, evading your personal space purposely. You do your best to ignore him and roll your eyes, turning your attention to a random zigzag pattern on the floor below you.
“Y/N…” You feel him poke your shoulder again and again, before you had no choice but to engage with him.
“What?”
“I’m not dating Gina.” He leans forward to whisper to you and you quirk a brow.
“Is that so? And you felt the need to tell me this because?”
“Because,” He leans even closer, and your eyes drift to his lips, “I have a reputation. Don’t want people in this town thinking I’m getting soft and settling down.”
“Ohh, okay.” You whisper back with a chuckle, then look up, finding Gina glaring at you.
“Benny.” She calls him over with a fake smile and you watch as Ben hops off the counter and heads over to her, shrugging.
You watch for a few minutes as the two argue over God knows what, but when Gina drags Ben into an aisle, you roll your eyes and turn around, glimpsing out the window.
For a little while, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Leaves fell, people drove or walked by, birds chirped… it wasn’t until you notice a shape of someone standing near a tall tree down the road do you pay attention.
They were too far away to really get a good look at them, but you could tell that it was a man and that he wore what looked to be dark overalls.
A customer enters shortly after that, so your attention is taken away from the mysterious man but the image was still burned into your mind.
—
By the time you were getting ready to leave work, it was after six and already dark outside so you were always on high alert when walking to your car in the vacant parking lot.
This time however, you were really on alert when you were still thinking about that man standing next to the tree earlier. “Hey, Y/N, wait up.”
Ben’s voice makes you stop for a second and you glance back at him, “Yeah?”
“You okay? You seem a little quiet.”
“I’m just ready to go home and relax.”
You can’t help but feel like your being watched and nervously glance around, finding nothing there. “Y/N? What is it?”
“Nothing.” You turn back to him, “Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ben nods, “Get home safe, okay? Lots of weird shit happens in this town around Halloween.”
“It’s not Halloween yet.” You say, though your earlier uneasiness was still there.
“Just be careful. Goodnight.” He says and waves to you before heading back inside the building to finish closing up.
“Night.” You whisper after Ben was already inside and turn back to your car, unlocking with a sigh as you glance behind yourself.
Any other time you’d roll your eyes and scoff at your paranoia, but, it wasn’t until you just happen to look down and find that the two tires on your side had been slashed.
Your eyes widen and you hurry over to the other side, finding that, yes, all four tires were slashed. “Oh God.”
You take a deep breath and spin around, finding that Ben must have went into the back room to get busy with Gina again and locked the door in the process.
“Shit.” You curse and turn to the street. It wasn’t exactly unlit, with the streetlights turned on and some neighboring house had their lights on.
Everything in you was screaming that this was a bad idea, but what choice did you have? So, with a reluctant sigh, you slowly make your way onto the sidewalk, glancing behind yourself every so often.
After about fifteen minutes, you round a corner and it wasn’t until that very moment did you realize how deep in trouble you really were.
Standing about twenty feet ahead, stood a tall figure, his back to you, a sharp knife in his hand, blood dripping from it, and you look down, seeing a man, who looked to be your age, cowering in fear on the street, hands raised up in surrender.
Then it hit you. Michael Myers. You needed to do something, needed to help this man. You take a few steps forward, causing Michael to glance over his shoulder, hand clenching over his knife.
He turns, takes a step forward away from the man on the street to face you.
“Michael.”
The name is barely said above a shaky whisper and yet, it seemed to be enough to make him stop mid-step, knife gleaming by his side in the moonlight.
“Michael.” You say again, this time a little more firmer and watch as he tilts his head at you. The terrified guy in front of you nervously glances at you, silently asking you for help as he stands closer to Michael than you do, and he was also obviously the intended target, not you.
But with Michael’s attention being drawn away from this man to you, you’re able to quickly motion the guy forward and help him scramble behind you, and it was only then did you notice that the stranger was bleeding from a cut on his arm.
“Let’s go!” The man screams out to you as Michael snaps out of the little trance you managed to put him in and slowly stalks towards you two again.
He grabs your hand and urges you to follow him and you have no other choice but to nod and trust this new stranger in your life to help you get the hell away from this madman with a knife.
And with one glance back, you find that Michael was still in hot pursuit of you two, seemingly catching up while still only walking, knife raised by his side menacingly.
“In here.” The stranger whispers to you after a few minutes of running and motions you to duck inside a dark building that was guarded off by a rusty fence.
Reluctantly, you hurry behind the man and watch as he quickly climbs over the fence and hops over, waiting for you to do the same. “By the way,” He whispers again as you climb up the fence, “My name’s Steve.”
Awkward time to be exchanging names with someone but here you were, almost laughing at the ridiculous timing, “Y/N.” You whisper back and hop over the fence, thankful when Steve catches you so you don’t fall. “I’d say ‘nice to meet you’, but we really aren’t meeting under great circumstances.”
“Welcome to Haddonfield, right?”
You start to respond, but stop when you hear footsteps close by, “We need to get out of here.” You whisper again and Steve nods, gently grabbing your hand to lead you further away from the fence. One thought rings through your mind though as you and Steve quietly make your way to safety.
It wasn’t even Halloween yet.