"So, your father works with real estate development? That's cool. I mean — not the fact that your mom passed away. I'm really sorry—"
"It's fine." Carmen quipped, trying to match Richard Deeney's long strides. It seemed the boy detected her curt tone and quieted some. She was glad. She was afraid that he'd start asking questions that she couldn't answer without crying.
Stupid Richard, who was rather handsome looking and who only wanted to get to know her more. He must've been very outgoing. The girls must love him.
Stupid Richard.
"So this is where you'll find most of your classes," Richard said, propping a door open for her. They entered into a separate annex of the building.
"Since this is where most of the senior lockers are, you won't have to worry about bumping into any underclass —"
A scream splintered the hallway, sending Carmen cowering behind the shadow of her peer. Richard shifted in front of her with his closed fists raised as a girl scrambled from the restroom, her pale hair in disarray. The terror drained the color from her face as a burly hand closed around her wrist and yanked her back. Carmen barely withheld her scream when the girl twisted around and struggled against a figure whose face was a white…
Emotionless...
Mask.
The blonde turned around so quickly and swung her arm out as her hand knocked off the uncanny Halloween prop.
The pale face flopped to the floor.
What revealed behind the mask were plain hazel eyes framed by brown hair and the girl slapped him again. The sound resounded off the lockers, finally drawing an incensed teacher out of his classroom to the commotion, demanding a reason for the uproar.
"Sorry Mr. Rhinehart! We'll be right out of here!" Richard said apologetically.
The older man shook his head and returned to the classroom to resume his instruction with the door slamming shut.
"Where're you goin, Jen? It was a joke." The boy asked teasingly. "I thought you wanted to try something new."
The blonde whirled around out of his grasp and eloquently extended her middle finger before strutting out of the hallway.
"Fuck you, you sick son of a bitch," she hissed.
This time Richard fixed the boy with a glare of his own. "Jimmy, seriously?" The senior that volunteered to tour Carmen around school crossed his arms over his broad chest. "Have a little respect for her."
Jimmy regained the limp mask off the floor. "Mind your own fucking business, man." He waved dismissively and blinked at the girl accompanying Richard. "Who're you?"
"This is Carmen Doe. She's from Saint Louis," Richard said. He glanced at her, eyes twinkling, and she smiled.
"I wasn't asking you." Jimmy said off handedly then to Carmen he offered his hand. She quickly glanced at the mask rolled up in his left before she shook it.
"Call me 'Jimmy,'" the boy said. He wasn't charming, Carmen noted, but at least he was trying to be.
"Shouldn't you be in class?" Richard asked as she released the troublemaker's hand.
"'Shouldn't you be in class'?" Jimmy mocked. "Earth to Richie — you need to stop walking around town wearing daddy's badge. Go back to tying knots for middle schoolers, scout."
Richard rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't have to worry about my dad. But, keep at it with your Michael Myers bullshit and you'll get shot by Sheriff Brackett."
Michael Myers.
Carmen hated how the name could evoke goosebumps on her arms.
"If he can catch me." Jimmy chuckled though Carmen thought it was an oddly placed sound for such a dark topic. "It's a damn shame they sent that guy to the loonie."
"But, wasn't he a killer?" Carmen finally spoke, feeling a little out of place discussing a topic that was so intimately connected to the Haddonfield residents.
There was some odd degree of coldness in Richard's face. "He's more than that and he deserves to die."
"Yeah, this guy's also in a coma. You think they'd try him while he's unconscious?" He scowled but then his face lit up ironically. "Actually — that sounds pretty legitimate. Let's put a noose around his neck while he's hooked up to an IV. We should appeal to the judge right now. Let's gather an angry mob!"
Frustration dripped into Richard's visage like acid, burning away much of the amicable boy she had met earlier. Carmen took one hesitant step back. "You think he's all a joke?" Richard spat. "He massacred an entire hospital."
"Exactly," Jimmy retorted, "Isn't that funny?"
The same teacher, Mr. Rhinehart, poked his head out of his classroom and pinned the three seniors with a blistering gaze. When the threat that he'd write up all of them for detention reached their ears, Richard hastily apologized and prepared to leave, with his hand on Carmen's back, guiding her away. As they exited the building, Jimmy followed their path until he was well outside.
"Well, I'm out of here." Jimmy spun on his heel in the opposite direction. "Heard Penny Nickson hits the showers around this time."
"You're a pervert," Richard said over his shoulder.
As he walked away, Jimmy replied by flipping the bird.
"Asshole." Richard muttered under his breath and removed his hand from Carmen. "Hope he didn't give you too much of a scare. I know it's the season and all—"
"Everyone deserves a good scare." Carmen interrupted lightly. "Good thing I'm not easily frightened."
Her smile was small, but it was convincing enough.
"Sounds great." Richard grinned. "Then, I'd say you're ready for Halloween."
"I don't celebrate Halloween."
Richard took a moment to recover from that admission. "I mean.. I guess me too — I don't believe in all the lore behind it. But, I do take my little sister out trick or treating. Just to get her off my back, you know?"
"I don't have younger siblings…" Her answer diminished to a murmur. "Just a—"
"Oh, yeah, that's right!" He exclaimed. "Adam Doe is your brother."
Adam Doe…
The child who'd stayed with her father after the separation.
It all seemed so unreal, the truth her mother judged her unworthy of knowing.
"...He's a great guy! I usually see him working on construction projects around the outskirts of town. I met him once and told me he'd talk to his manager about considering me for internship. You're lucky to be his sister-"
"I don't feel so lucky, Richard," Carmen said, looking at her peer sadly whose confusion was plainly seen.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"I hardly know anything about my brother."
Or Haddonfield for that matter.