My thanks to John Carpenter and Deborah Hill for allowing me to borrow Michael Myers and Dr Ranbir Sartain for this novel. Caution: While crucial to the storyline, this novel contains scenes some readers may find distressing. Violence, rape and distressing themes.

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"You were so staring at that girl's tits, I saw you!" Gary jabbed me in the shoulder, making my irritation towards him which had been simmering under the surface all evening spike towards genuine anger. Gary was my best friend, but right now I really didn't like him. He knew I argued with my wife tonight and wanted to fix it and he was acting like it didn't matter. I'd told him so earlier. Gary didn't do well with girls. He wasn't arrogant, but neither was he good looking. He was the kind of guy who tried to push it with women which ended up having the opposite effect and they'd run from him. I had once felt sorry for him when we were young, but as we'd grown up and he'd persisted, my sympathy had faded. Don't get me wrong, I'd tried to tell him countless times why girls weren't interested, what his problem was and how to correct it, but he never listened. His last girlfriend, Amanda had adored him. He could do no wrong in her eyes. She didn't necessarily mind his staring at other women, it was when he'd actively tried to flirt and even sleep with them that she'd cracked. She'd come to me in tears over him after ending it with him when she saw him kissing another woman. I hadn't been staring at the woman's breasts, but he certainly had. I only had eyes for my wife.

"Want some advice?" I snarled as we headed out of the club. "Stop shit stirring and shut the fuck up!"

"Come on! It's not like either of them are going to find out are they?"

"Just give it a rest will you?" I desperately tried not to show my anger or how badly his teasing was affecting me. He knew how much I loved my family, how much I hated arguing with any of them.

"Isn't that what we came out for? A bit of pussy?"

"You perhaps," I was becoming seriously tempted to punch him. I wasn't normally a violent man, but right then he was pushing all my wrong buttons. "I'm married you twat!"

"So?" He smirked at me as we headed towards the entrance of a dark alley which we had to go through to get towards his house. I was seriously tempted to tell him to fuck off and walk home alone. But he was really drunk. I tried to tell myself this was why he was teasing me this way, but it didn't help much. Gary was normally a kind thoughtful guy who wouldn't purposely hurt anyone.

I remembered the day we'd met. 29 years ago, first day in primary school. Gary was the kid standing all alone in the playground, the one everyone else was avoiding and didn't want to play with. So, there was little 5 year old me, approaching him and saying "do you want to play with me? We can be best friends."

So here we were, 29 years later. That was how it happened. We'd played football, hit clubs, watched girls, read books, watched films, even a little porn together over the years. We'd had our good times and bad like any other friends, but we'd always come through in the end. We'd never slept on an argument or fallout between us. When we'd got to university we both signed up for the same accountant's course. That was when my life changed forever.

During one of the very first lectures I couldn't stop staring at the beautiful woman behind me. It wasn't lust either. I genuinely wanted to get to know her. With her long hair, blue eyes and stunning body. So, after the lecture, I'd asked her name and that'd been it. We'd started dating within days. To summarise, I'd sat down in that lecture and in had walked my wife.

"Too right!" Garry continued and I realised now he was slurring. "I don't have a girlfriend right now, so what's the harm?" "Your wife's not going to find out is she and from all accounts from what you told me earlier she was being a cold bitch!"

"You did have a girlfriend," I could hardly speak for anger now. "You fucking cheated on her! Good God you really don't care do you?"

That was when the three women walked past us. They were either strippers, or if not should be. They were wearing so little clothing I could see the goose flesh on their skin. Gary looked like he was in heaven. He seemed to forget all about me immediately and started trying to attract their attention. I sighed. Here we go again.

"Alright darlings?" He slurred, staggering in their direction. "Can I buy you drinks?" His eyes were openly on their breasts and the little clothing between their legs. The women looked back, then continued on their way without a second glance. That was it. For the first time in my life I actually punched him, my fist connecting squarely with his nose. Drunk or not he was being an absolute asshole. I loved him, but right then I hated him. Gary staggered against the wall of the alley looking at me with shock. I didn't regret it at all. He'd been winding me up all evening since he'd started necking the whisky. I hadn't caused him a nose bleed, but he'd have two seriously black eyes in the morning.

"Knob!" I snarled. "You are the biggest one I've ever met and that's all you think with! Your knob! Jesus Garry!"

I didn't see exactly when his expression changed from shock to pure terror, but the next thing I knew when he looked up again his face was white as a ghost.

"Come on!" I said feeling disgust now. "Get the fuck up Gary! It wasn't that hard. You look like I fractured your damn skull! Get up, idiot!"

But he didn't.

It was totally silent and pitch black down here. There was another way to get to Gary's, but it took a lot longer. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. It didn't penetrate much, but enough for me to see Gary face down against the wall.

But what the fuck was that?

I leant down and Shon my phone at the ground. Holy shit it was blood. A fuck load of it. Coming straight from Gary's throat.

It was only then I heard the calm, measured breathing behind me. I turned, and it was my turn to feel total, paralysing terror. Because I was looking at a blank, deathly pale mask and a massive carving knife. The bloke holding it had to be 7 foot at least.

I knew exactly who was standing in front of me and also knew that Gary Emerson, my best friend of 29 years all the way from our school days aged 5, was dead. But right at that moment I was too scared to feel grief. I looked back up at the cold blooded killer standing in front of me.

Michael Myers.

I was sure he'd been in a mental hospital. Well that was wrong… I only had a second for all this to go through my mind before the lethal knife drove in to the back of my neck. The pain was unreal. I staggered, then hit the ground next to Gary's corpse. Hearing the distant whale of a siren I glanced up and saw a police car driving past. When I turned my gushing neck to look, Myers was gone.

I raised my phone and just managed to hit 3 nines. Already my hands were ice cold as was the rest of me. I was dying… "Ambulance," I just managed to whisper as I crawled a little way away from Gary and towards the alley's entrance. But I could say or do no more. I felt my body slump back, before my eyes rolled up and I fell in to darkness.