(22)-Lindsey and Tommy.
In the kitchen, Tommy and Laurie, who was wearing an apron, stood over by the counter, with the 8-year old boy cutting around the top part of the pumpkin with a big kitchen-knife while Laurie held the pumpkin with both of her hands. Once he did that, he removed the top of the pumpkin and placed it on the counter.
The door-bell then rang.
"I'll get it." Tommy insisted before handing Laurie the knife and then exiting the kitchen. He made his way through the dining-room, went over to the front door in the living-room, and un-locked and opened it, revealing Laurie's friend, Annie, and Lindsey standing on the porch, with Lindsey holding a red bowl of popcorn and Annie wearing nothing but a white long sleeve button-up shirt, her socks and shoes, and a big rainbow-colored blanket that was wrapped around her shoulders. Or at least he thought it was a blanket.
"Hi, Tommy." Annie greeted before she and Lindsey entered the house.
"Hi. Come on in. We're makin' a Jack-O-Lantern." Tommy said.
"Ah." Annie said.
"I wanna watch TV." Lindsey said as she and Tommy went over to the sofa.
"Annie, i'm in here." Came Laurie's voice from the kitchen and the sound of Annie closing the door.
Tommy and Lindsey sat down on the sofa, with Lindsey sitting the bowl of popcorn on the coffee-table, and they began watching 'THE THING'.
As they watched the movie, Lindsey looked at Tommy out of the corner of her eye, examining him. She had secretly had a crush on him since the first grade in 1975 when she was 4 and he was 5 and was always shy when around him. But as the years went on, and as they spent time together and became friends, she started to feel calm whenever they were together. When Annie offered to set her up on a night at Tommy's house, she couldn't say no. Here she was in the house of the boy she had been crushin' on since she was 4 and his parents weren't even home. Stuff like this only happened in her dreams. The fact that she was spending the night here with him was like a dream come true. Lindsey always felt safe when around Tommy because she knew he would protect her from all kinds of danger if the time ever came.
The 7-year old girl then started thinking about that day when she and Tommy were at the carnival last summer in the swimming pool.
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HADDONFIELD CARNIVAL
June 10th, (1977)
At the Haddonfield Carnival, 6-year old Lindsey Wallace, wearing a pink swim-suit, was relaxing on a yellow donut-shaped floaty in a huge pool with 7-year old Tommy Doyle, who was also resting on a yellow donut-shaped floaty, wearing light blue knee-length adidas shorts. Many other people were also in the pool, with most resting on donut-shaped yellow floaties and some in the water.
"Tanning is really not your strong-suit." Lindsey teased. Although she had to admit to herself, she loved looking at this current form of Tommy. Him being wet...shirtless...showing off his skin...his imaginary muscular arms...his imaginary abs and pecks...and his imaginary veins. He looked so...hot...sexy...handsome...cute...and delicious. Lindsey always saw Tommy as a man instead of a boy. To her, he was an absolute hunk. She didn't know what these kinds of feelings were that she was having when it came to Tommy, as she was only 6 years old. But she did know this much: She really, really LIKED him. But she could never get that delicious dude to notice her that way.
"Yeah, okay. Maybe it's because i'm not a girl. Girls tan more naturally, right?" Tommy said.
"I don't think that's how it works. Besides, your hair is long and goes down to your neck. Are we sure i'm the girl here?" Lindsey said.
"I'm pretty sure. And as for that comment about my hair being long...it's the 1970s. Lots of guys have long hair. It's kind of the thing in this period. I'm willing to bet by 2018, guys will still be letting their hair grow long." Tommy said.
"At least i didn't cheat going down the water-slide. I totally beat you and you cheated." Lindsey said.
"You're the cheater." Tommy said.
Lindsey gave a playful look, then pushed Tommy off his floaty and into the water.
Tommy surfaced quickly and stared back at Lindsey, making the 6-year old girl laugh. But then the boy went back underwater and suddenly re-surfaced under her floaty and turned it over and made her fall into the water.
Lindsey laughed, trying to re-emerge out in the open before Tommy dunked her underwater. Once she surfaced back up, she dunked Kyle in retaliation.
Tommy flailed his arms as if he were being drowned.
Lindsey knew Tommy's sense of humor and she just laughed. Tommy had a ghoulish persona and always pulled creepy pranks on her since the first grade and she knew that this was no different.
As he looked up at Lindsey from underwater, Tommy stopped struggling and his blue eyes rolled into the back of his head, making them milky white like a zombie.
"OH, NO, TOMMY!" Lindsey freaked as she let go of the 8-year old boy.
Tommy surfaced, sucking in a mouthful of air, followed by his eyes rolling back into their proper position.
"Oh, my gosh." Lindsey said before giving several deep sighs of relief when Tommy's eyes returned to normal. "I held you under for way too long, i'm sorry!" She said, apologizing frantically.
Tommy panted. "I was so...so close to passing out...a-and my whole life...flashed before my eyes. And i felt like my soul was leaving my body, and-and-and...it was awesome!"
Lindsey gave an un-amused stare. "Two years of knowing you and i fell for it again."
"Hahahahahahaha!" Tommy laughed relentlessly.
Lindsey shook her head. "You always pull the most ghoulish tricks. I thought that was real! And how you always talk about this stuff. You're either gonna be a morgue doctor...a funeral director...a horror movie maker...a horror book writer...a paranormal investigator...or a serial killer."
"That last one would make a great horror flick." Tommy said. "Tommy, The Serial Killer"." He said, looking up in the air and seemingly imagining it.
"Come on, psycho. Let's get something to eat." Lindsey said.
Tommy and Lindsey then swam off to get out of the pool, dry themselves off, and get dressed.
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Back in the present year, Lindsey was so tuned in to her own little world, and Tommy was so focused on the movie playing on the television that neither one of them had took the time to notice that Annie had left. As the two kids watched the movie, however, Tommy could've swore he heard the sound of a distant car-horn coming from outside. After a few more minutes, the car-horn stopped. Tommy figured it was probably just one of the neighbor's vehicles acting up again. It happened sometimes in this neighborhood. Not a common occurrence, but it did happened.
Tommy then looked at Lindsey and saw that she was so focused on the movie, she didn't even notice him. Nor did she see him get up from the sofa, head to the back of it, and hide behind one of the window curtains.
"Lindsey. Lindsey." Tommy called in a spooky voice, alerting Lindsey, who looked beside her where he had once sat.
Lindsey stood up. "Where are you?" She asked before looking around the room for any sign of Tommy.
As he hid behind the curtain, Tommy happened to look out the window at that moment. He saw the Boogyman carrying the limp body of a teenage-girl out of the Wallace's garage. But why would he be over at Lindsey's house? Unless...he planned on taking her next after he got him. Tommy felt a surge of fear like none he'd never known. As he watched the scene unfolding before him, he could've sworn that the girl the monster was carrying looked very familiar. Was he seeing things or was the girl in the girl in the creature's arms Annie? He watched as the Boogyman carried the girl inside the Wallace home and closed the door afterwards. Tommy backed up and bumped into Lindsey, who had her back to him.
"AHH!" Lindsey screamed, turning to face Tommy.
"AH!" Tommy screamed before he fell forward into the open blind-window. "THERE HE IS, THERE HE IS, IT'S THE BOOGYMAN!" He screamed hysterically as he came out from behind the curtain and looked at Lindsey, pointing at the window of the curtain he once hid behind.
Hearing all of the commotion, Laurie rushed out of the kitchen and into the living-room.
"THE BOOGYMAN IS OUTSIDE!" Tommy screamed as tears filled his eyes. "OH, MAN, THE BOOGYMAN IS OUTSIDE!" He screamed.
"What's wrong?" Laurie asked as she ran to Lindsey's side.
"THE BOOGYMAN IS OUTSIDE, I SAW THE BOOGYMAN, HE'S OVER AT LINDSEY'S HOUSE!" Tommy screamed as the tears ran down his face.
"Oh, Tommy, stop it." Laurie said.
"BUT I REALLY SAW HIM!" Tommy screamed.
"You're scaring Lindsey." Laurie said.
"I SAW HIM-"
"Tommy, stop it." Laurie said, cutting Tommy off. "Now, there's nobody out there." She said, looking out the window, seeing nothing but Lindsey's home. The street was empty. Her house looked the same as it always did. There was nothing. Nobody. "There's no Boogyman, and if you don't stop all of this, i'm gonna have to turn off the TV and send you to bed."
That threat had the desired affect. Tommy made his way back around to the front of the sofa and sat on it on his knees where Lindsey once sat. "Nobody believes me." He said poutingly.
"I believe you, Tommy." Lindsey said before she went back over to the front of the sofa and sat back down next to Tommy where he once sat as he sat back down on the sofa on his bottom and wiped the tears from his face.
With all of that said and done, the kids went back to watching the movie on the television while the babysitter returned to the kitchen to finish making the Jack-O-Lantern.
If only Laurie...had listened to Tommy.
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Well...looks like we're gonna be finishing up this story in the month the new Halloween movie comes out. How ironic.
Please review.