On the evening of October 30th, Annie is trying hard to avoid what the next day marks by carrying on with her regular routine. She makes supper, sets two places at the table, and eats alone when Laurie doesn't come down from her bedroom. See? Just like normal.
"Hey dad, you want some spaghetti? It's meatless, but I figure you can deal."
"How about you take a seat, sweetheart, I need to talk to you for a second."
"The scene I worked tonight was a triple homicide. The weapon is the same as his and whoever did it hasn't been caught yet," Annie nods along numbly as Sheriff Brackett fills her in. "It obviously isn't him, but we're all a little nervous about a copycat. I just need you and Laurie to stay locked up in here tomorrow, okay? Just to be safe."
Annie agrees with a quick "of course", standing and gripping onto door frames and railings to keep her knees from giving out as she makes her way upstairs.
Laurie's in the middle of drinking when she walks into her bedroom. Of course she is.
"What's up with the booze?"
"Oh, meet my new best friend." Laurie shakes the can in her direction, eyes narrowing, daring Annie to take offense.
"Whatever," Annie scoffs, halfway tempted to just get out before this turns into a fight. "Look, Laurie, shut up for a second, okay? This is serious."
Laurie rolls her eyes, taking a sip, and Annie figures that's as good a response as any.
"Three people were killed last night," that gets the blonde's attention. "My dad is saying it's just a copycat, but I know it's him."
"But-" Laurie starts to protest, confusion all over her face.
"I know you shot him and I know they had a body for, what, two seconds? But it's him, Laurie. Trust me on this one."
"What exactly are you saying?"
Annie glances away and roughly shoves her bangs out of her face before she responds. "We need to get the hell out of here tomorrow morning. I don't give a fuck about our fighting, or our lack of communication, or the fact that you haven't even touched me since August, I'm asking you to run away with me."
"What should I pack?"
The next morning Annie stands in the kitchen in her robe, making egg whites and coffee. She's continuing with her routine until her dad leaves; then she's packing up and leaving it behind.
As Sheriff Brackett grabs his coffee and turns to head for the door, she stops and pulls him into a hug.
"I just wanted to say thanks for everything the last two years, dad."
"I'm just doing my job, honey" he says, his hand coming up to lightly cradle the back of her head mid-hug.
She watches him go down the driveway before jumping into action, yelling "Laurie! Are you getting ready?" up the stairs. She swipes at her eyes as she places a letter where she knows her father will see it when he gets home.
They're quietly moving throughout the house together, triple checking to make sure they have everything they need, when Laurie breaks the silence, "I need to stop by Mya and Harley's house before we get out of town"
"Those girls you work with? They didn't strike me as the type of people that need emotional goodbyes."
"Jesus Christ, Annie. I'm packing my shit up for you. I'm running away with you. So could you please cut it out with all this fucking jealousy?"
"That won't be a problem," Annie spits out as she turns on her heel, slamming the bedroom door behind her as she stomps out.
Once they reach Mya and Harley's house, they're ushered in by the blonde friend, Mya, Annie remembers. Laurie grabs the nearest spot on the sofa, leaving Annie to nervously twist her hands before taking a seat in an awkward spot next to the brunette with the tattoos. Harley, she notes, when Laurie addresses her during explanation of why they're skipping town.
"Shit, baby, you're really leaving?" Harley whines, reaching for Laurie's thigh. Annie bristles and considers that maybe cutting out the jealousy isn't as easy as she thought it would be.
Mya eventually gets Annie involved in something other than providing information from the background by leading her into the kitchen to make some tea.
"Here," Mya gets her attention, handing her an envelope. "It's just a couple bucks, directions, and the phone number for my brother. He lives in Georgia and I already called him and told him you guys are on the run and he offered to take you in for a week or two."
"But why would he do that?"
"Because Laurie's my friend. And Matt and I both know what it's like to be on the road, running away from bad people," Mya shrugs. "Just stay safe, okay?"
Annie nods, sipping at her drink as she turns to shoot a quick glance at Laurie and Harley in the living room.
"And you don't have to worry so much, either. I think you're more Laure's type than anyone else could ever be"
Halloween night is spent in Tennessee. It's a halfway point between them and Georgia, hopefully far enough that Michael won't be able to track them down before morning.
While it's still light out, they pick up hair dye, scissors, and pizza on the way to the hotel. Annie keeps her mouth shut when Laurie orders regular crust and extra cheese and eats it without a plate. Afterwards, she lets Laurie lock her in the bathroom and chop her hair to her shoulders. And when Laurie takes the hair dye out, "chocolate mousse" labelled across the side of the bottle, Annie motions for her to turn around and let her do it.
"With your coordination you could get it in your eyes and end up blind."
Annie is in the middle of showering when she hears a screech come from the bedroom. She pushes herself out of the bathroom with her robe barely on, her hair dripping all over the place, and the water still running in the shower.
She's met by a distraught Laurie, surrounded by ripped up pages of a book, with a half-full duffle bag in her arms.
"Tell me you didn't know. Please, please tell me you didn't know." Laurie is sobbing so hard Annie can barely make out what she's saying.
"Know what? What are you talking about?"
"Fuck it. I mean, Daddy's little princess knows all, right?"
"Hey, stop. Calm down. Look at me," Annie places herself between Laurie and the door. "What's going on, Laurie?"
"I'm Angel Myers" is all Annie can manage to piece together between the sobs and shouts as a crumpled page is shoved in her face.
Laurie moves toward the door, bag still spilling out all over the floor.
"Please don't go," Annie presses her back against the door to keep Laurie from making a move towards it. "Stay. I'll call my dad, I'll take you back home in the morning, I'll do whatever. Just don't run out on me tonight."
Laurie's bag falls to the floor while she falls into Annie, her face pressing roughly into the other girl's shoulder. Annie just grips at the back of her shirt, whispering variations of "I swear I didn't know" until they don't make sense anymore.
The sun is rising on November 1st when they wake up in a heap on the bed, shoes still on and hands clasped together in case they needed to get away at some point during the night.
They know they're going to have to stay on the move so he doesn't know where they are when next Halloween rolls around, but they breathe a sigh of relief anyway.
In the month following Halloween, they still bicker about both little things (whose turn it is to drive) and more serious things (how much money is left in their bank accounts; can they afford to stay the night at a motel or will they have to sleep in the car), but they can still see an improvement in their relationship.
They sleep separately, if their place for the night allows, but more often than not Annie finds herself in Laurie's bed. Now it's less out of fear or because she feels like she has a responsibility to and more just because she wants to.
Whenever it's Laurie's turn to drive, she holds Annie's hand, and it makes the brunette blush in a way it hasn't in almost two years.
Winter brings a certain feeling of safety with it. The chill and the snow always remind Laurie of Christmas with her parents and Annie of the snowball fights they had when they were kids. It reminds them both of how when they were thirteen they kissed on their way to Laurie's house in a snow storm and then tried to pretend it didn't mean anything.
Either way, winter doesn't remind them of Michael at all.
They ring in the new year under the sheets of some hotel on the east coast. Annie is pressing kisses to the scars on Laurie's chest and stomach that no one else ever gets to see and there's cheap grocery store wine on the nightstand.
Afterwards, when they're both lying on their sides, curled around each other, Laurie whispers "I love you" into Annie's neck for the first time they can remember in the last year.
"I love you more."
They spend the remainder of the winter traveling around the east coast, never staying in one city for more than a week at a time. The snow is clearing in Boston when they meet a couple backpacking across the country: Brady and Rachel don't seem to have any idea who they are, but it might have something to do with the fact that they introduce themselves as Lauren and Anna, young newlyweds from Georgia. Annie is very careful to always call Laurie "Laur" around them, while Laurie calls her "baby" so sweetly so often she thinks their new friends are starting to second-guess their own relationship. They travel together in Laurie's car, sharing the cost of gas and hostels until they reach Ohio.
"Rach and I are planning to go up through Indiana and Illinois to stay with my cousin for a few days. You guys in?"
Annie shuts her eyes tightly in the passenger's seat, feigning sleep and leaving Laurie to handle this.
"There just isn't a whole lot happening in the Midwest these days." Laurie forces out as casually as she can along with an excuse about wanting to see friends down south before they head west.
As they drop the backpackers off at the nearest bus station, Rachel pulls Annie into a hug, whispering a quick "good luck" as she slips a piece of paper into the pocket of her cardigan.
The paper turns out to be a short letter detailing that Rachel knows who they are, but didn't want to scare them off by bringing it up. She gives them the names and numbers of friends who'd be willing to keep an eye out for them and possibly set them up with some short-term employment at some point, ending with "maybe in a few years you guys could get married for real. I can see it happening." Annie rereads that line until it's engrained in her memory.
Texas ends up taking so long to get through they give up halfway and settle into a small apartment.
Staying in one place for more than a week, and somewhere where there isn't a stranger in the next bedroom or questionably clean sheets with mints on the pillow, makes it hard to readjust. Annie does day babysitting in their building while Laurie works at a small café down the street. They kiss over egg whites every morning, smile a lot more, and the owner of the flower shop next door knows their names. Eventually, Laurie doesn't constantly check over her shoulder when she walks home.
On a Saturday morning walk through the park, something that's become a staple in their new routine, Annie points out that the leaves are starting to change. The next day the heat is notably less unbearable. It may be Texas, but October is still on its way. That's when they realize it's time to leave.
Trekking through the Midwest in October isn't one of their brightest ideas.
Annie cries the first night in Nebraska, gasping out "I miss home. I miss my dad. I hate feeling scared all the time." in between sobs and it breaks Laurie's heart. All she can do is rub circles across her shoulder blades and murmur "I know" and "it'll get better once we get out of here".
The next day she calls Sheriff Brackett from a gas station and organizes for him to meet them in Portland after they get through Halloween.
Spring is approaching and they're establishing themselves in Seattle for the next few months, sharing an apartment with one of Rachel's friends and doing various part-time jobs, when Annie turns twenty-one. She's been able to work her way around buying alcohol since she was sixteen, but she buys a variety of liquor and spends the night drinking in bed with Laurie.
Laurie's gift is placing kisses and I love you's all over. If you ask Annie, it's better than anything she ever could've bought for her.
Summertime finds its way back to them the same time they find their way back to Illinois. Annie spends the week-long visit home ranting and raving about how her bed is the best bed she has ever slept in and how she is incapable of missing anything more while Laurie spends it contemplating.
With close to two years on the road under their belts, is it time to come home? Can they ever really come back to Haddonfield and feel safe living here?
On their fifth night in town, Laurie crawls out of bed, careful not to wake Annie, and makes her way down to the kitchen.
"Hey, Mr. B, can I talk to you about something?"
"As much as I want you two back in Haddonfield where I know I can keep an eye on you, I think you need to keep going," Sheriff Brackett addresses Laurie's concerns over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. "You don't seem settled yet. I think when it's time for you to settle, you'll know. You'll end up somewhere and just know this is it."
Two days later they're on the road again, heading east this time.
They've been on the run for exactly two years when the news of Michael Myers' death comes to them in the form of a visit from Sheriff Brackett.
If Laurie's honest, she thought she would be the one to kill him. And if Annie is to tell the truth, part of her thought he would never die. But it's official. Michael was found smeared across a Midwestern highway, his identity determined by tests that also proved him to be severely malnourished after years in the woods. Cause of death was a transport truck that didn't see him crossing until it was too late.
As Annie and Laurie collapse against one another, a shocked sigh of "finally" falls between them.
When they finally settle, it's where their journey began. They take a loan out on a tiny house in Georgia; Newborn has all the charm of Haddonfield without all the bad memories.
Sometimes Annie mentions moving back to Haddonfield someday, having their future children go to the same school they went to, but they've both come to the decision that that is something in the cards for the future, but won't become a possibility until a few more Halloweens come and go. Mya, who moved into her brother's old place in Macon, provides a distraction from this reality, stopping by once in a while and playing the role of their piece of home.
Laurie enrolls in a social work course at a nearby community college while Annie gets a job as an assistant at an office in town. Much like in Texas, they fall into a routine of kissing over breakfast, smiling frequently, and waving at neighbours that know their names. Except now when the leaves change, they pull on sweaters and stay put.