(24)-The Boogyman.
Tommy and Lindsey rushed downstairs into the living-room for their lives, screaming as they Boogyman chased after them, with Lindsey wearing a white pair of Tommy's pajamas and socks. The Boogyman, with his right arm, grabbed ahold of Tommy, who screamed as he struggled in the creature's grasp. The monster made his way over to Lindsey as she ran up to the front door and scooped her up in his left arm and both she and Tommy screamed in terror as the Boogyman carried them back upstairs.
In Tommy's parents' bedroom, he and Lindsey where lying on the master bed, as the Boogyman had placed them there and tied their hands behind their backs with ropes and tied their feet together with ropes by their ankles, put duck-tape over their mouths, as well as tied a rope around their bodies, binding them together.
Tommy was on top of Lindsey, lying on his back, and Lindsey was lying on her stomach as they both struggled to break free while muffle-screaming, to no avail.
The Boogyman then picked the muffled screaming kids up off the bed and carried them out of the room to head downstairs to leave the house with his next two victims.
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Tommy's eyes shot open when he heard a loud CRASH against the house from outside. The noise had also woke Lindsey as well, who was wearing a white pair of Tommy's pajamas, as she hadn't bought any of her own to change into. For her, it felt like a second dream come true to be wearing some of the clothes and socks of the boy she had a huge crush on. The sleepy 8-year old got out of his parents' bed and went over to the window, putting his right hand above his eyes.
"Who is it?" Tommy asked, squinting out the window, only to see Laurie standing on the porch of the front door.
"TOMMY, OPEN UP, IT'S ME!" Laurie screamed.
"Okay, i'm coming." Tommy said before he moved away from the window, exited his parents' room, and headed for the stairs.
"TOMMY, PLEASE! TOMMY, HURRY UP! TOMMY, PLEASE!" Screamed the voice of Laurie as the sound of her banging on the front door from outside was heard while Tommy headed down the stairs.
Once he made it to the bottom of the stairs, the 8-year old rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his left hand as he headed towards the door as Laurie continued banging on it.
"TOMMY!" Laurie screamed before she banged on the door again. "TOMMY, HURRY UP!" She screamed as Tommy walked up to the door. "TOMMY, PLEASE!" She screamed as the 8-year old un-locked and opened the door. "Tommy, get upstairs!" She said as she rushed into the house and closed the door and locked it.
"What is it, Laurie?" Tommy asked as he looked at Laurie. The 17-year old girl looked scared out of her mind and the left sleeve of her shirt had been ripped and her shoulder was bleeding. What was going on?
"Tommy, get upstairs, get Lindsey and lock the door!" Laurie said.
"I'm scared." Tommy said.
"Do as i say!" Laurie said as she looked at Tommy.
"The Boogyman is-"
"HURRY!" Laurie screamed, cutting Tommy off.
Tommy rushed back upstairs to his parents' bedroom, closed the double-doors outside the room and locked them, then rushed into their bedroom where Lindsey was standing, and he closed the door, followed by rushing over to the right side of the bed and sitting down on the floor and then folding his arms around his knees.
"What is it, Tommy, what's wrong?" Lindsey asked as she got down on he knees beside Tommy. He looked like he was scared out of his mind.
"He's here." Tommy answered with a fearful expression on his face.
"Who's here?" Lindsey asked.
"The Boogyman." Tommy answered. "He's come for me tonight...just like Richie said he would." His thoughts then went to Laurie and all kinds of questions raced through his head concerning her. Like why was she outside on the porch? Why had she thrown something up to the wall of his parents' bedroom window? Why had she been banging on the door and screaming to be let in? It wasn't like she didn't have a key to the house.
Then he thought back to when he said the Boogyman was over at Lindsey's house earlier tonight, as well as Laurie looking out one of the open blind-windows in the dining-room. His mind slowly began to paint a picture of what he thought happened. It all made sense now. Laurie must've gone over to Lindsey's house after putting him and her to bed to investigate the matter and prove to him once and for all that the Boogyman wasn't real, only to run into the Boogyman and be proven wrong herself. The monster must've attacked her before she managed to get away, which would explain the torn left sleeve on her shirt and her bleeding shoulder.
The Boogyman must've chased her back here. If Tommy was right, and the creature had followed his babysitter back here to his house, then chances were it was too late. He was already in the home. Now it overwhelmed him. The reality of monsters. The horror of reality penetrated to a brain that since birth had been programed to perceive horror and monsters as something that could be contained within the perimeter of a TV or a storybook. The shock was so violent, he thought he could go mad.
The kid felt like he was having one of his nightmares about the Boogyman, but he had always been able to wake up from those. He felt like he was trapped in a scary movie or a horror book. He could always turn off the TV or stop reading the book if he got too scared. But this was no nightmare, scary movie or horror book. This was real life. Reality. If there were any remaining doubts in his mind about the Boogyman's existence, they were long gone at this point.
Over the years, since he was 4 years old, his parents had assured him that the Boogyman wasn't real. That he was just some kind of myth or urban legend grown-ups made up to scare children into behaving. The school therapist assured him that the Boogyman wasn't real. Laurie assured him that there was no such thing as the Boogyman. That he was just make-believe for Halloween. They had all had assured him that the Boogyman wasn't real, but there was no reason to believe that now. The myth/urban legend had crossed over into the real world.
But the thing was...he wanted to believe them. He wanted to believe that they were telling the truth. He wanted to believe that the Boogyman was just some creature that only existed in his nightmares and was all in his head. He wanted to believe that the monster wasn't real and was just some myth or urban legend or made up ghost story to scare little kids. He didn't want to be, especially now. He wished he had been wrong. He didn't want to believe it. Any of it. He didn't want to believe that the Boogyman was in his house downstairs with Laurie at this very moment, trying to get to him.
Then again, Tommy always knew this day would come. He always knew he would be the next kid to be taken by the Boogyman. The 8-year old looked at Lindsey, who looked to be just as terrified as he was. And who could blame her? A monster that abducted kids was downstairs with their babysitter, who was probably fighting him with everything she had to keep him from getting to them. Tommy then began to experience a twinge of guilt. He blamed himself for Laurie and Lindsey being in this current frightening situation. After all, he was the one the Boogyman was after, not them. Of all the nights Laurie could've babysat him, why did it have to be tonight? Why did Annie have to drop Lindsey off at his house tonight of all nights?
The poor kid just felt responsible for all of this.
With his unknown fate near at hand, a host of crazy thoughts tumbled through Tommy's brain. It was not exactly as they said, your life passing before your eyes. It was more like random snap-shots pulled from an un-sorted collection. A trip to Michigan with his parents for Christmas in 1975 when he was 5 years old...going camping in the woods with his Dad during the summer of 1976 when he was 6 and going fishing with him...and a road trip he'd taken with his Dad the summer of last year when he was 7. He wondered what it would've been like to grow up with Lindsey. He wondered who, if anybody, would ever find him. He wondered what grades teachers gave kids if they disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. He wondered what kind of funeral his parents would have for him without his body and how they would be able to live in a world without him. He wondered what would've happened if his parents hadn't gone out tonight. He wondered what it was like to be abducted by a monster and what life was like in the monster world.
Finally, after sitting in his parents' bedroom for what felt like an eternity-
"Tommy, Lindsey?" Came the voice of Laurie from outside.
"It's Laurie." Tommy said before he and Lindsey rushed over to the door. He opened it and they ran out of the room, into the hallway, and up to the double-doors where Tommy un-locked them, followed by him and Lindsey opening them, revealing Laurie on the other side.
"Babies." Laurie said as the kids ran into her arms and embraced her with a hug, with her hugging them back. They then ended the hug and knelt down on the floor. "Now, we're gonna take a little walk."
"What about the Boogyman?" Tommy asked. He then noticed that Laurie's right hand was cut and badly bleeding. It had to have happened while she was over at Lindsey's house when she encountered the Boogyman. That was the only thing that made sense.
"I'm scared." Lindsey said.
"There's nothing to be scared of." Laurie assured.
"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.
Laurie nodded.
"How?" Tommy asked.
"I killed him." Laurie stated.
"You can't kill the Boogyman." Tommy said. The Boogyman was a monster. A paranormal creature, not a human being of flesh and blood. There was no way he could be killed, much less taken down so easily in such a short time. He had to still be alive. And sure enough...Tommy was right. For when he looked over Laurie's right shoulder, he saw the Boogyman standing behind her a few feet away, wielding a kitchen knife.
"AAH!" Lindsey screamed, also seeing the Boogyman.
Laurie turned to see the Boogyman standing behind her a few feet away, holding a knife in his right hand.
"AAH!" Tommy screamed.
Laurie and the screaming kids got up and rushed down the hall over to the bathroom door. Though the fight had all but drained out of her, Laurie knew she had to save the children. "Get in there, come on, Tommy." She said as she opened the bathroom door, allowing the kids to rush inside, followed by closing it. "Now lock the door." Said her voice on the other side.
Tommy did as he was told and locked the door to the bathroom. Although he wondered what good it did to lock doors when it came to dealing with a creature from the monster world. He and Lindsey ran over to the tub and got in it and sat down, with Tommy folding his arms around his knees. The kids stayed quiet, as they didn't want to attract the Boogyman's attention. Tommy's mind then went to Laurie. She may have found a safe hiding place for him and Lindsey for now, but what about her? Where was her hiding place? There was nowhere for her to hide but in his parents' bedroom. And even then there were only two placed should he could: That was either under his parents' bed or in their lower walk-in closet. Those were the choices.
What good either one of them would do, Tommy didn't know, as any living thing from another world, like the Boogyman, would not be phased by a bed or a closet. Nor would a locked door stop it. But perhaps it would buy him a few minutes to think. To prepare, to defend himself and Lindsey. Or maybe it would merely buy him and Lindsey three more minutes in this world before the Boogyman took them.
"So this is where you get taken." Tommy thought. "Maybe Laurie'll knock on the door at any given moment, requesting for me to un-lock it, which i would, revealing her and Annie on the other side with the Boogyman, who would then take off his mask, revealing himself as a person, and they would all laugh and say it was all a Halloween prank and that the out-cold teenage-girl you saw the creature carry out of the Wallace garage and into Lindsey's house was just a cleverly made up store-dummy, and you can come out now and Lindsey can go home and we'll see you next Halloween. Or maybe the Boogyman would decide he had had enough reign of terror for one night and would leave and go back to Boogyland where he belongs. Sure, Tommy, sure. Still dreaming right up to the last second, aren't you?" He thought.
If anyone had told him he would be hiding from the Boogyman in the bathroom of his own home several hours ago, he would've probably laughed at that person and said that they'd watched too many monster movies. But now that he realized that this nightmare wasn't going to end by itself-that no one was going to shake his shoulder and say "Come on, wake up, it's time to go to school"-he felt like anything could happen. He had in the course of several hours gone from an 8-year old innocent little boy to an un-willing participant in this terrifying game. No soldier had ever gone through a quicker basic training.
A knock on the bathroom door snapped Tommy out of his thoughts and he and Lindsey immediately tensed up. Who was on the other side of that door? Was it Laurie...or the Boogyman trying to get in and take them?
"Tommy...un-lock the door." Came the voice of Laurie on the other side.
Both kids breathed a sigh of relief. It was Laurie.
Tommy then looked at Lindsey, who appeared to be ten times more scared than earlier in his parents' bedroom. He'd heard of the term of being scared to death and now he knew...he knew it was entirely possible. As it was, this little girl and babysitter would forever bare the horrid memories of this terror-filled night in their minds. And he knew that he himself...wouldn't be excluded from that department either.
Both kids got out of the bathtub and went over to the door where Tommy un-locked it, allowing Laurie to open the door.
"Come here." Laurie said as she took Tommy by the right hand and placed her left hand on his right shoulder as she led him out of the bathroom, with Lindsey following him. She let go of his right hand. "You guys listen to me." She said before she and the kids knelt down onto the floor.
Tommy looked in his parents' bedroom and could see the Boogyman lying on the floor on his back by the closet, with the knife beside him. Weather he was dead or out-cold remained to be seen. The boy could also see that the double-doors of his parents' walk-in closet were open and that one of them was badly damaged. Laurie must've chosen it for a hiding spot and finished off the Boogyman in there. If he even was finished, that is. "He's got to be dead." He thought.
"I want you to go down the stairs and out the front door...and i want you to go down the street to the Mackenzies' house. I want you to tell them to call the police...and to tell them to send them over here." Laurie said.
Tommy just looked at Laurie. The police? What good were they in a situation like this? The cops arrested bad people, not monsters. And even if they did manage to arrest the Boogyman, he would just escape, go back to his world, and come back for him and Lindsey next Halloween. "Laurie-"
"Now, do you understand? Go do as i say." Laurie said.
But Tommy didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay behind with Laurie and make sure the monster that had terrorized him in his nightmares since he was 4 years old was dead. He would never be able to sleep again if he did not witness for himself that it would never again haunt or take another kid.
He didn't want to flee the house and leave Laurie here all alone. Suppose he did and when the police arrived here, Laurie was dead and the Boogyman was gone? Would he ever be able to sleep peacefully again, knowing the monster was back in his world alive and waiting for next Halloween to come after him again? No. He must either go with Lindsey to the Mackenzies' or stay here with Laurie and stand guard with her here outside his parents' bedroom or...or go in there and look upon the creature's body so that he could comfort himself with the image of the monster's dead body whenever the horror of this night visited his dreams. That is...if he were dead. Suppose he wasn't? He wished he could stay behind with Laurie and stand guard with her until help arrived...but he knew what she had instructed was the right thing to do.
Tommy and Lindsey got to their feet and ran off, heading down the stairs, into the living-room and up to the front door where Tommy un-locked and opened it, followed by them screaming in terror as they rushed out of the house to head for the Mackenzies'. They were so scared and terrified, they didn't even notice a bald-headed old man, wearing a brown trench coat, standing on the street as they ran off.
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Okay, Halloween fans, this concludes the chapter 24 of "Halloween: The Boogyman". I hope you guys enjoyed it. What do you guys think of it? I thought it played out very well like the movie did. I really felt myself in that bathroom with Tommy and Lindsey. Anyway...only two chapters remain after this one, so make sure to stay tuned in for those.
Please review.