Psych
Psych 'r Treat
Based on the TV series Psych, created by Steve Franks
Prologue
1988
"…I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil…" Henry Spencer heard from his TV set as he walked in the door. Henry knew that line of dialogue; he'd seen the movie a hundred times. His son Shawn was undoubtedly watching the horror film known as Halloween. Henry cursed under his breath, this had happened before, just a couple months ago it seems. Wait…Henry thought. I just grounded him yesterday for watching Ghostbusters…
How did all of this happen under Henry's own roof without him knowing? That was an answer that Santa Barbra's number one cop wanted to know.
"Shawn!" Henry barked.
"Yes, Father?" Shawn said in what Henry swore was a British accent.
"Didn't I tell you yesterday you couldn't watch TV?"
"I don't recall that," responded Shawn.
Henry was fuming now.
"Turn off the TV...wait what are you doing watching Halloween? I told you that you're too young."
"But it's Halloween, how can it be Halloween if I don't watch the movie Halloween?" Shawn asked. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Go Trick or Treating with Gus." Henry said.
"I finished that an hour ago…" whined Shawn.
What? Henry thought, he didn't think he'd been at the station that long.
"What time is it?" He asked.
"Nine," Shawn answered.
Nine? Pondered Henry, he stepped back in amazement for a second to address how much had changed in the eight hours he was gone.
"Who allowed you to watch this movie?" Henry asked, even though he knew the answer.
"Mom."
"Of course," Henry mumbled. "Turn it off," he demanded.
"But Mom said…" Shawn started.
"Your mother clearly didn't understand that you were grounded, you however, were in full understanding of the rules."
Shawn's mom, Madeline, walked in.
"What's going on in here?" She asked.
"Did you let Shawn watch this movie?" Henry questioned.
"Of course I did."
"You can't do that…" Henry began. While his parents argued, Shawn started watching the movie again. That's when he saw something that would scar him for the rest of life…or well, for a week or so.
He saw the film's antagonist, Michael Myers, shove a knife into a man's chest and then hang the man from the knife. Myers tilted his head, as if to admire his work. Shawn would be having nightmares tonight.
If only he followed the rules.
Chapter 1
2011
Halloween. Shawn always loved Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the movies, the attractive women in said costumes, and just about everything else that came with the holiday. This year, Shawn was throwing a costume party. Due to the lack of space in Shawn's apartment and the Psych offices, the party would be held at Henry's on Halloween night. The theme of the party was "Eighties". Shawn and Gus had agreed to be characters from Weird Science, but when Shawn dressed up like Garry Wallace; Gus dressed as Michael Jackson…again.
"Gus!" Shawn said. "We were supposed to be people from eighties movies, not music."
"I am from an eighties movie, I'm from Moonwalker." Gus responded.
"That is the worst excuse to dress like Michael Jackson I've heard. Come on, Gus, Jules is going as Lisa, my dad's gonna be dressed as Roman Craig…" Shawn started.
"Roman Craig? Who's Roman Craig?" Gus asked.
"Where did you go wrong, Gus? Roman Craig? Dan Aykroyd's character from The Great Outdoors?" Shawn said.
"Why is he going as him? No one likes that movie."
"I know that! You try telling him." Shawn shouted.
"Why are we having this discussion?" Gus asked.
"Because Halloween is tomorrow, and Jules and I won't go with you if you're dressed like Michael Jackson." Shawn said.
Just then Shawn's phone started to ring the Halloween theme song. He looked down at it "It's Juliet."
"Hey," he said "tell Gus, he can't go to the party dressed as…oh, we'll be right there."
"What is it?" Gus asked.
"A murder," Shawn answered.
Gus looked at his watch, "At ten-thirty?" He asked.
"Murderer's don't have watches," Shawn said.
"I'm pretty sure they do."
"Gus, don't be a smashed Jack-o-Lantern. Now come on."
…
The murder scene was a blue two storied house, in the suburbs of Santa Barbra. Shawn and Gus pulled up, only to receive a disappointed look from Head Detective Carlton Lassiter.
Lassiter was one of Shawn's greatest skeptics; as far as Lassiter was concerned Shawn should be in jail for robbing that Best Buy, or wherever it was. Shawn could swear his innocence, but they never caught the partner. Ever since then something had changed in the SBPD: the order, the system, the way everything was done. They now relied on a so called "psychic" to solve every case. The chief didn't used to call on Spencer, he would just show up. But now? Now he was on Chief Vick's speed dial. The idea of that made Lassiter sick.
Shawn and Gus walked past a forensic officer who was holding a plastic baggie. Inside the bag Shawn saw a pink hairbrush with blood on it. They then stepped under the police line and walked up to Lassiter and Detective Juliet O'Hara.
O'Hara was the complete opposite of Lassiter; she was one of Shawn's biggest supporters. And that wasn't because she was dating him. The change that Lassiter felt was something O'Hara noticed as well.
She liked the change. In fact, she was often the one to call on Shawn and Gus. Shawn looked around; there was something familiar about this.
"Where's the victim?" Gus asked.
"Already at the morgue," Lassiter said.
"So…" Shawn started.
"The chief wanted you to come and see if you got any psychic readings around the house." Juliet said.
They walked into the house. Up to the room where the person had been murdered.
"Who was the victim?" Shawn asked.
"Seventeen year old, Elliot Reid, she was found lying by that chair in a state of undress." Lassiter told them.
"Who found her?" Gus asked.
"Her boyfriend," answered Jules.
Shawn looked around the room and saw the pulled back covers, saw the clown mask on the vanity dresser.
Something was very familiar about this.
"Why was her boyfriend here?" inquired Shawn.
"Well, he was here earlier, but he ran up to the gas station to get…" Lassiter started.
Gus nudged Shawn.
"Hurry up and find something so we can get out of here!" He whispered.
"I have." Shawn whispered back. "Attention everyone! I have an announcement."
"Yes?" Juliet asked.
"This girl, as foolish as she was to participate in pre-marital sex…" Shawn began.
"Actually, she never had sex, just prepared for it," Officer Buzz McNab, who materialized out of nowhere, said.
"Anyway," Shawn started again, "this girl was murdered…"
"What, are the spirits ten minutes behind, tonight?" Lassiter grumbled.
"Can I have no other interruptions, please? As. I. Was. Saying. This girl was murdered identically how a girl was murdered in the movie Halloween!" Shawn shouted.
"Someone get him out of here!" Lassiter commanded.
"Whoa!" Shawn yelled as he put his right hand to the side of his head, "The spirits are saying the killer attacked Elliot while she was brushing her hair, but Elliot tried to defend herself with the hair brush!"
"How'd you know about that?" Lassiter asked.
"The spirits told him," Gus answered.
Lassiter sighed, "Fine." He said, "But regardless what the "spirits" say, this murder is not a reenactment of the movie Halloween."
"Um, it is actually." McNab said, "A murder just like this happens in the first five minutes of the movie."
A dead silence broke over the room. Then the theme song to the movie started playing. Everyone looked around.
"Sorry, phone," Shawn said.
Chapter 2
The Santa Barbra police station was typically a cheerful place—or well, cheerful for a police station—but on this night, there was a dreariness that overhung. Maybe it was the murder that the Detective Juliet O'Hara was investigating, or maybe it was the fact that is was two in the morning and the only other person in the station was another detective working on a robbery case. Everyone else was at home or walking the beat. O'Hara, however, was searching feverishly for any information she could find on the murder. She had gone through the suspects, looked over her school records and tried to learn everything she could about young Elliot Reid. All she had found was that Reid was captain on the cheerleading team, dating the school's star football player and had a reputation for dodging the pregnancy bullet more than once. Juliet couldn't find anyone who would really want to kill her though. Sure there were the occasional glee club kids who hated her for being easy and for the rumors that she slept her way to good grades. While a lot, there wasn't anything credible for motive. O'Hara had searched through Reid's text messages, emails and Facebook statuses and messages. Everything turned up…average, just typical teenage conversation. So, Juliet thought back to what Shawn had said about the murder modeling a scene from Halloween. She first went to 7-11 Redbox machine and rented the original Halloween. She brought it back to the station and watched the scene over and over again. Darned if it wasn't identical to the murder. So she took to Google and started searching for similar murders across the country. No results. It seems there weren't any psychos out there who were interested in recreating their favorite movie…that is except for one. Or maybe Shawn was wrong. Maybe this was just a coincidence. But she believed her boyfriend and she believed in his "gifts". But, something wasn't right; this was too much of a coincidence. Someone had to have copied this from the movie. No, that couldn't be it. She had been staring at the screen for too long. Way too long. O'Hara spun around in her chair and rubbed her face. She looked at phone to check the time. Four-thirty, she had been sitting there for four hours.
She wasn't sure she had even blinked. She thought back for a second and realized she needed to get back to work. She spun her chair back around and continued her search. She started looking through some pictures Elliot's mom had given her. They were all very generic, birthday parties, holidays, sleepovers, the usual. She listened to some messages on Elliot's phone…still nothing. Juliet was tired of doing this, but her stubbornness refused to let her quit. This was one of the first big murder cases she had been given control of. Lassiter wasn't exactly willing to hand over the case, though.
"Are you sure you're doing the right thing?" Lassiter asked the chief when O'Hara had been put in charge of the case.
"Of course I am. Detective O'Hara has paid her dues and certainly earned a chance to lead her own homicide investigation." Said the chief.
"But, listen, I don't know if this is a good idea. Remember, she's dating Spencer…that could impair her judgment!" Lassiter called as the chief was walking away.
"I have full faith in her judgment." Chief Vick responded.
"I…" Lassiter began.
"My decision is final." The chief said in a stern tone.
"Yes, Ma'am." Lassiter said, meekly.
It had been a tough battle indeed, but here she was with her own homicide case. O'Hara couldn't screw up, or she'd be stuck in the bottom of the food chain at the Santa Barbra Police Department. She continued to type and search for another thirty minutes or so. And then it happened, she found a lead. A man in Arizona had gone around killing people, with the murders modeling movies. But after reading a while she found out the man had been put to death twenty years ago. Another lead gone. About twenty minutes later the chief walked in.
"O'Hara!" She called. "Have you been here all night?"
Juliet nodded.
"Have you found anything?" The chief asked in a hopeful voice.
O'Hara got a childish, embarrassed look on her face as she shook her head slowly. The chief sighed.
"Look," Chief Vick said, "you've been here for hours, go home, get some rest and get ready for the party tonight. You'll finish working tomorrow."
"Thank you, I'm sorry I couldn't find anything," O'Hara said "it's just I looked everywhere and checked her texts and such, then I thought about what Shawn said, so I rented Halloween and…"
"Detective!" Chief shouted.
"Yes ma'am?"
"Go home."
"Yes ma'am."
Juliet began to walk out as the chief called her. "And O'Hara!"
"Yes?" She asked.
"Happy Halloween." Chief said.
"Thank you, ma'am," O'Hara replied.
Chapter 3
Halloween night was here. Despite the happenings the night before, Shawn's party was in full swing. A dance remix of Monster Mash blared threw Henry's surround sound speakers as he tried to navigate through his house, which Shawn had covered in decorations. It looked like Martha Stewart and Wes Craven had a Halloween special that threw up all over Henry's house. Henry was dressed in some stupid Indiana Jones costume that Shawn made him wear.
"Shawn!" Henry called over the music as he swatted his way through a fake spider web. "Shawn!" He called again. He found Shawn talking with Gus and Juliet. All were three in costume.
"Shawn," Henry said, "you didn't tell me there were gonna be this many people here!"
"I said it was gonna be a dozen or so." Shawn said, "Besides, I told you that you could bring some of your friends."
"Well, I appreciate that, since the party is at my house!" Henry shouted over the music.
"Hey," Shawn said, "you're wearing the costume I bought. Now I feel special."
"Well I feel like an idiot." Henry said.
"It's better than being Roman Craig."
"At least if I was Roman Craig, my friends wouldn't see me in this ridiculous hat."
"Where are your friends, anyway?" Shawn asked.
"Over there," Henry said pointing to three older men dressed like Ghostbusters. "That's Steve Franks, Andy Breckman and Matt Nix; they're old cop buddies of mine. And somewhere is Scarlett Middleton, my neighbor. Come on over, guys." Henry said to his "cop buddies".
The three men walked over.
"Hey!" One said.
"Steve," Henry replied, "this is my son, Shaw…"
"I'll handle this, Dad. Hi, I'm Shawn, and this is my friend, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. That was my name too, but whenever I went out, the people would always shout, so for obvious reasons I changed my name." Shawn said, interrupting Henry.
Henry continued the introductions as Shawn felt someone rub his lower back; he turned around to see an older woman.
"You must be Henry's son," the woman said.
"Yes," Shawn answered, "I am. And I have a girlfriend."
"Oh, well, who's your friend?" She asked motioning towards a heavyset man dressed as John McClane from Die Hard.
"Him?" Shawn asked. "That's our ghost hunter friend Bill; we met him a couple weeks ago."
"I think I'll go introduce myself. Oh, wonderful party, by the way. I love Halloween, the movie and the holiday." She said as she began to walk off.
"High quality friend, Dad," Shawn said.
"She's just a little possessive of men; she was like that with her ex-husband, even to an extent, her son." Henry said.
"Wow, that's weird." Shawn said.
"Not like that…" Henry started.
Shawn, Gus and Juliet saw Detective Lassiter and started walking towards him. Thriller had begun playing and Gus had a certain dance-like bounce to his step.
Lassiter was talking to Buzz McNab who was wearing a plaid shirt with suspenders under a jean jacket and orange vest.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Lassiter asked him.
"Marty McFly," McNab answered.
Lassiter gave him a blank look.
"From Back to the Future?"
Lassiter continued to stare at him.
"One of the greatest movies of all time? Ya know, with Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox?" McNab added.
"I'm sorry, officer, but, I don't waste my time watching cheesy eighties movies," said Santa Barbra's head detective.
"Lassie!" Shawn called. "How are you my friend? Hmm, you don't seem to be in costume."
"Yes I am." Lassiter replied.
"Wait…you're Clark Griswald?"
"No."
"Commissioner Gordon?"
"You must not have heard me over this horrible music, Spencer, I don't watch cheesy eighties movies."
"George McFly?"
"Who?"
"Ya know, from Back to the Future?" Shawn said.
"Never seen it." Lassiter said.
"What?" Gus shouted.
"Let me say it one more time, nice and slow. I don't watch cheesy eighties movies." Said Lassiter.
"Alright fine, who are you?" Jules asked him.
"I'm the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day off."
"Alright," Shawn said, "that's not a cheesy movie?"
"It's a quality movie." Lassiter argued.
"I'm sure it is," Shawn said, walking away. As he did, Henry walked over to him, carrying a chip.
"Shawn!" He said.
"What, Dad?"
"This dip is disgusting." Henry told him.
"What? Why are you telling me this, I got it out of your fridge." Shawn said.
"You took food out of my fridge?"
"Not just your fridge, those are your chips, soda and chicken wings."
"Why didn't you get your own food?"
"Because, food's expensive."
"Shawn!" Henry started.
Just then a techno dance remix of the Ghostbusters theme started playing.
"Sorry Dad, gotta dance." Shawn said as he ran off to Juliet.
"Why can't you ever follow the rules?" Henry mumbled to himself.
Chapter 4
"Who ya gonna call?" Shawn shouted along with the music as everyone did the Conga Line around the house. Well, everyone except Henry, and Lassiter, who stood awkwardly in a corner.
"Ghostbusters!" Shawn Conga Liners would shout back. Both Henry and Lassiter had splitting headaches. The music was too loud, Shawn's fog machines and spider webs made it hard to see, and every time someone walked by the life size Freddy Krueger it would say "My house is on Elm Street, I'll leave the light on." Henry had wanted to pull the head off the talking manikin, but restrained himself instead.
Things weren't any better for Detective Lassiter, who already had a negative opinion of Halloween. There were too many psychos who came out on this day. From egging houses and killing children, you could pretty much guarantee that every cop would be busy on this one day. Speaking of being busy, Lassiter was annoyed that his partner, Juliet O'Hara had convinced him to take the day off for the party, which Lassiter didn't even want to go to. Lassiter looked around. Spencer and his ridiculous decorations…unbelievable. I bet this cost him at least a thousand dollars for some cheap thrills, Lassiter thought. He tripped over a stuffed zombie lying on the floor while trying to get to the snack table. Henry followed him.
"This is madness," Henry said as Shawn and the Conga line walked past him shouting "Bustin' makes me feel good!"
"I know," Lassiter agreed, "look at them, making fools out of themselves."
"Yeah, they try to make this crap look fun." Henry said.
"Yeah…they do make it look fun." Lassiter mumbled.
"But it's not…trust me." Henry said, unsurely. "That is…unless you wanna jump in the line, real fast…just to prove to them it's not fun."
"That sounds like…a good idea." Lassiter said.
The two jumped into the back of the line as a dance remix of the Halloween theme Began. Shawn saw Bill go to the kitchen and someone slip off after him, but didn't think much of it. After a few minutes, Shawn saw Scarlet walk into the kitchen, as soon as she did she screamed. Everyone stopped dancing and ran into the kitchen. That's when they saw it. A sight very familiar to Shawn. Too familiar. Bill was dead, hanging by a knife. Just like in the movie.
…
The party was officially over. The music had stopped and the body was being taken away. Everyone had to go to the station to be interrogated. As Shawn looked around the crime scene he saw the broken counter top, saw the torn piece of black costume fabric on the ground saw the knives knocked over on the floor. All Shawn could make from that was that Bill fought back against his killer, breaking the counter, spilling the knives and tearing what Shawn thought was Bill's costume.
"This is pretty weird, too murders based off one movie." Gus said.
"Yeah," Shawn said.
"Everybody, let's move, everyone!" Lassiter called.
"Let's go." Gus said.
…
The Santa Barbra police station was full of suspects, all for one murder. After Lassiter, Juliet, Shawn, Gus and Henry had been interrogated and cleared; they stood in the chief's office.
"Does anyone have an idea what happened tonight?" The Chief asked.
Everyone shook there heads.
Shawn kept trying to think, something wasn't right.
"Eric Middleton, Elliot's boyfriend was no help and so far nobody here tonight saw anything." Chief said.
Middleton, Shawn thought, I've heard that somewhere. Then he remembered.He remembered that Middleton was Scarlet's last name. Eric was most likely her son. Remembered how Scarlet said she loved the movie Halloween. Remembered how Henry said she was very possessive.
It all made sense now.
"Whoa!" Shawn shouted as he put his hand to his head. "The spirits are feeding me information! Scarlet Middleton…she…she…she killed Bill and Elliot!"
"What?" Everyone shouted.
"Here's what happened…" Shawn began, paying homage to a detective he and Gus helped out a few months back. "Scarlet has to have control over the men in her life, but when she found out her son was going to have sex with Elliot, she murdered Elliot to keep her son from devoting all his time to his girlfriend. Bill was murdered simply because he wasn't interested in going out with Scarlet! She murdered them using methods shown in Halloween, because anyone could've seen the movie!"
"That's insane." Lassiter said.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news…but, he's right. She just confessed." McNab, who once again appeared out of nowhere, said.
Lassiter sighed.
"Well then," Henry said.
"No reason we can't finish the party. It's only eight-thirty." Shawn said.
"There's blood all over my kitchen, Shawn!" Henry shouted.
"I'm not having a party where some dead guy's been." Gus said.
Juliet nodded in agreement.
"Well, since your guests are all here…let's get some music and order a pizza, the party can finish up here." Chief Vick said.
Epilogue
Halloween night was here. Despite the happenings a few minutes ago, Shawn's party was in full swing. A dance remix of Monster Mash blared threw the surround sound speakers as Henry tried to navigate through the police station, which Shawn had covered in decorations that had been bought from the dollar store last minute.
"Shawn!" Henry called over the music. "Shawn"!
Henry found Shawn taking turns bobbing for apples with Gus.
"Yeah, Dad?" Shawn shouted.
"What do you think you're doing throwing a party in the police station?" Henry asked.
"The chief gave it the okay." Shawn said.
Of course, Henry thought.
"Give it a try," Gus said, motioning towards the tub of apples.
Henry sighed, but figured, Halloween is only one night a year, so why not?
Henry began to bob for apples when Shawn dunked Henry's head in the water. Henry pulled his head up.
"Shawn!" He shouted.
"You had it coming, Dad."
"Why can't you ever follow the rules?" Henry said as everyone laughed.