The day rolled by and evening had come without much preamble. Against her hopes, her morning hadn't turned out for the better. It was, in fact, worse than all of her waking moments in Haddonfield combined.
It didn't help falling asleep in the bathtub that morning, only to be awakened by a haunting illusion of Michael Myers looking down at her. She shivered and thought the images her mind produced were colder than the autumn breeze blowing through her legs.
Perhaps, she would heed her father's warning and put all of this Halloween nonsense behind her.
As she walked back home, she spotted children playing in their yards and passing empty cars parked on the curb. Dry foliage crinkled under her feet as she walked the remaining four blocks from her house. A child's ball rolled out onto the street and under a stationary orange car. A murder of crows swarmed high over her head. It looked like a black cloud floating in the wind.
She unlocked the front door and pushed through the threshold. With the sun hovering close above the the horizon, the shadows had stretched over every part of the interior. The house was oddly empty and her father wasn't at home. Either he was kept up at work or he was avoiding her, but she didn't dwell on it.
Last night's events had certainly influenced her to not care in the least.
Having missed lunch at school at the expense of completing homework, Carmen went into the kitchen and fixed herself a sandwich. She returned to the counter rather content with her would-be meal, until from the corner of her she saw a large black blur.
Except her two hands flying up to clutch her chest, Carmen was so deathly still she couldn't register the sound of her heartbeat.
The floorboards creaked. Slowly and deliberately. Near her. And Carmen screamed.
Bolting so fast out of the kitchen, she barely registered the tip of her sneakers grazing over a shadowy lump on the floor. Carmen smacked into the back sliding door. In chaotic haste, her fingers unlatched the lock and tugged it open, sprinting into the open yard. Relief flooded her.
She was outside.
She was safe.
Stumbling onto her knees, Carmen squeezed her hands to her chest and waited.
And waited.
The longer she held her breath, the faster it seemed daylight was disappearing and her hopes were dying because with the sky bleeding red from the sunset, Carmen knew her greatest enemy would soon become darkness.
It could have been a robber. Or it could've been her imagination. Nevertheless, Carmen lacked the ability to scare them both away.
Let them take what they wanted. She could always call the police later. That thought wasn't so comforting as night closed in on her like a ravenous pack of wolves.
A wave of nausea wracked through her body, clawing at the deeper parts of her conscience.
How could it have possibly passed her notice? Her father's car sat innocently in the rear of the driveway, where the drooping branches of the willow in the front yard hid it from plain sight. Her father worked on the other side of town. Her father had no reason to be home late. Even if he refused to answer her, he father wouldn't avoid his daughter like the plague.
Her father…
...was home.
And in her hysteria, the desperate need to be as far away from danger as physically possible, overcame her potential to notice that she'd stumbled over his body.