-14-
THE PURGE OF FIRE
As they approached the institute, Laurie and Lee drove towards the gate.
"Well, I suppose there's no point in playing it quiet," Lee sighed as he turned to Laurie for verification.
Laurie nodded, staring straight ahead, her focus zeroing in on the gate, and the security booth beyond it. "Floor it."
Thus taking a hint from the Shape, they barreled the van through the gate, and smashed it through the booth. The security guard barely had time to register his shock, as the van crushed him, and then came to a screeching halt. The two other guards at the gate quickly ran into the scene and began to draw their guns. Laurie leaned out the window and fired a perfect shot into each of their heads, bringing them down quick.
"Jesus!" Brackett turned to Laurie, his jaw agape.
They quickly exited the van, and prepared for more resistance, only to discover the deadly quiet of the outer yard. Reaching down to one of the dead guards, Brackett retrieved a set of master keys. Laurie retrieved another set of keys from the second corpse and pocketed them.
"Jackpot," Brackett said. "It looks like we can play this quiet after all."
"Michael was right, they're probably preparing for the ritual. We've got the element of surprise." Laurie pragmatically emptied her clip and replaced it with a fresh one. "Do you think those diagrams of the institute he drew are accurate enough?"
"We'll soon find out," Brackett began as he retrieved the drawings. "So how do you want to do this?"
"You take the back route, be ready for the snipe. I'm going in through the front door. Perhaps we can make the most of the advantage of surprise. With any luck, maybe I can get my hands on the boss."
"Loomis?" Brackett questioned, already knowing the answer.
Laurie nodded. "It's always the same with these cultist types. Cut off the head, and the body will fall. Maybe we'll even get out of here without killing anyone else."
"Wishful thinking," Brackett said, and began to trot on his way. "I'll be waiting for the mark. Good luck."
Loomis donned the ceremonial robes, and made his way into the inner chamber. His congregation was waiting, and his offerings to Cernunnos were brought to the inner circle. Tommy Kara and Stephen were aligned in procession, flanked by two armed guards. At the mouth of the chamber room's entrance, two armed ushers greeted the remaining members of the congregation who had filtered in late. On the stone altar was a baby lamb.
The doctor smiled fiendishly as he approached his hostages. He was quick to take in the blank and worn stare of the woman, in particular. There was deadness in her eyes that he took great pleasure in. She had received his gift of pain and death, and soon he would end her. He turned to Tommy, still smiling.
"Hello, dear boy," Loomis began. "It's been a long time since we've talked. It would seem that you no longer have any time for the likes of your old friend, Sam Loomis."
Tommy's eyes narrowed in an icy stare. He spoke, his voice gravelly and dry. "Ram the charade up your ass, Myddrin. We know who you are – what you are."
Loomis (Myddrin) registered a brief moment of surprise in his aged distinguished features, the smiled brightly, anew. He leaned over to Tommy, who was bound and forced to sit on his knees onto the floor.
"My, my, aren't we the clever little scholar, as usual," Myddrin began. "Or so you think." Tommy's eyes dropped from Myddrin's gaze. Myddrin cupped Tommy's chin, and jerked his head back up to face him. "You have no idea how deep over your head you're in, boy."
"Fuck you," Tommy spat defiantly. "Give it up. In case you haven't noticed, Michael hasn't shown up, and your little plan's a bust."
"Oh, he'll show. After all, I have you… and his darling boy." Myddrin glanced over to Stephen and noticed with great pleasure that the boy's already pained features had gone pale at the words of Myddrin's admission. Horrified, the boy stared silently, his eyes pleading with Tommy, searching for validation. Tommy put his head down, and cruelly, Myddrin laughed.
Tommy's eyes glared back up at Myddrin, and with a snarl he uttered, "You'll have to fucking kill me before I let you harm a hair on his head."
Myddrin leaned down once again, and with his face very close to Tommy's he whispered, "All in due time, dear boy. All in due time." Myddrin patted Tommy on the cheek, then pressed down, ripping a stitch open, which caused Tommy's face to bleed once more. Tommy bit down to avoid a scream from the pain flooding back into his head.
"Now shut your mouth...and wait your turn." Myddrin gave Tommy's face one last dismissive shove then turned back to the altar.
Myddrin picked up his ceremonial dagger, and raising his hands, he addressed his congregation.
"Let us give great praise for this glorious night. The Eternal Hunt awaits. Praise be to Cernunnos, as we await his coming on this glorious eve of Samhain. Summer ends and the Eternal Hunt shall begin. Give praise."
To which the congregation began to chant: "Praise to Cernunnos, praise, praise!"
Myddrin turned to the lamb and slit its throat. "Tonight, Cernunnos, Herne, the horned one will feast on the blood of the children of the Jesus- god. Their time is at an end, and the old ways will rein once more."
Laurie turned, and made her way though the front entrance. She trotted lightly down the corridor, and at the end, stopped to look at the diagram. She headed for the basement, and before long, the corridor dimmed, and she could see the illumination of candlelight, at the hall's distant end.
Bingo.
Her pulse quickened, as she made her way to the first door. She came across two guards at the entrance. Their attention was turned on the ceremony and she quietly made her way to the second door. She entered the room, after ascertaining that it was the backstage leading to the outer chamber. She approached a large curtain, and peered out.
It occurred to Laurie briefly that however much or little she had believed of Tommy's story before, she was now convinced of every word of it. She peered out and took in Loomis, submerged in the rite of ceremony, and found the experience entirely surreal. It was impossible to imagine the gentle man she once knew, uttering those words and committing those actions, as to her horror, Loomis slit the throat of a small lamb. More so, she could feel an ominous energy emitting from the man, something much darker and intuitively dreadful then anything she had ever felt before. Thus she concluded to herself that the impossible was, in the end, the only answer.
Loomis held his hands up in praise, and the congregation began to chant. With their attention on the ceremony, Laurie made her move. Quietly, she snuck out from the curtain, and crouching over, she crept in a straight line behind Loomis, using his very form to avoid detection. She drew a knife, and closed the distance.
Loomis, enraptured in the sacrifice, slowly lowered his dagger and glanced upon it. With a cloth, he wiped the dead animal's blood away from it, unearthing the reflection of Laurie Strode Lloyd in its glint.
The Doctor pivoted, and buried the blade to the hilt in Laurie's right shoulder, bringing her to her knees.
"Hello, my dear," he said as he grabbed her by the hair, and retrieved the knife she had dropped. "I've been expecting you." He placed the blade tightly up to her jugular. "No sudden moves."
Loomis stripped her of her weapons, kicking them to the side. "It would seem that Neil has failed to do his job. No matter. I trust that you ended him painfully. He was growing quite tiresome anyway. You've saved me the trouble of dealing with him myself, and for that, I thank you."
"Go to hell."
"Tsk, tsk," Loomis shook his head, disapprovingly, as he waved his finger in the air. "It's talk like that that will make you our first volunteer for the next sacrifice."
Loomis approached her once more, under the cover of his guards, and ripped the knife from her shoulder. Laurie screamed.
"You bastard!" Tommy wailed in outrage. "Leave her alone! Just leave her the hell alone!"
Loomis spared a final glance at Laurie as she held her gaping wound, then turned back to the procession. Staring down the aisle, he found that his most valued guest had arrived.
"Hello, Michael."
The crowd turned, to see Michael standing at the front entrance. Loomis stepped down from the altar, past Tommy and the others, to face Michael directly across the main aisle.
"Welcome home, son."
Michael said nothing and stared intently at the Doctor. Several minutes passed, as a hush fell over the audience. Finally, Loomis broke the silence.
"I trust that you are ready to complete your duties as our chosen brother."
"No."
"I see. And what pray tell did you have in mind?"
Michael opened his trench coat, to reveal a mass of explosives strapped to his lower torso. From under his shirt, he pulled out a trigger switch, which he held from a chain around his neck.
A rustle of panic filled the air, and the room exploded with gasps and sighs.
"Ah," the Doctor said, tilting his head back, as he put his hands behind his back, taking it all in. "I see. You hope to rob me of my plan, is that it? Do you think that if you blow us all up right now that you can stop this?"
Michael stood silently, and listened.
"You are wrong, dear boy," Loomis continued as he walked back over to the inner circle and stood behind Kara, Danny and Stephen. "If you blow up the building, it is true that you will take us all with it, but you will have changed nothing. Whether it is by dagger or fire, the boy will still have died by your own hand, and he will rise from the ashes as Herne. The Eternal Hunt will begin regardless."
Loomis placed his hands on Kara's shoulders. She seemed not to notice, and stared ahead, oblivious, as if in a trance. Michael noticed the deadness in her eyes, and turned his attention back to Loomis.
"On the other hand, you can sit idly by, and watch me butcher each one of them one by one, until you finally give in, and I know you don't want that. Either way, they die. Take the boy, and I may spare them."
"No."
Loomis sighed. "Very well, then. It would seem that we are at an impasse. If I kill them you blow the place up, is that it? Perhaps I'm bluffing, and the purge of fire will end it. Then again, perhaps, you're bluffing as well."
Loomis brought his face down, resting it directly over Kara's shoulders, while all the time, his black serpentine eyes continued to stare deeply into Michael's face.
"I call your bluff," Loomis said, and brought his dagger across Kara's throat. Her eyes widened, as she gasped for air and began to choke on her own blood. Blood began to gush from her throat. She brought her hands up to her throat, in a futile attempt to stop the blood flow. Briefly, she pulled her hands back and stared at the blood on them, and then she collapsed to the floor.
"NO!" Tommy screamed his face contorting in anguish as he tried to wrestle free of his bonds, to no avail. "KARA!!!!!!!!!!!"
"MOMMY!!!!!!!" the boy screamed as he bent over to his mother and tried to rouse her. Tears began to pour out of his eyes "Please don't die please…"
Stephen picked his mother's hand up and held it to his cheek, while sobbing uncontrollably. Dimly, Kara glanced up at him, her eyes wide and desperate, as she gasped for a final breath, and choked out blood. Then her eyes rolled over white, and she was gone.
The echo of the boy's grief-stricken, high-pitched wail flooded through the room, as he bent over his mother and cried. Laurie fell limp, dumbfounded by grief-stricken horror, her face going numb and pale with shock. Tommy's eyes went killer-red, and he lunged at Loomis like a rabid dog. One of the guards brought the butt of the gun down onto the top of his head, bringing him down.
The guard went to pull Tommy back, when Tommy swung his head up and slammed it into the security guard's face. The guard fell back in pain, his nose gushing, when the second guard rushed over and kicked Tommy hard in the stomach. Tommy spat blood.
"You FUCKING BASTARD!!" Tommy snarled, his eyes furrowed and his teeth bared, making him barely recognizable as a human being. "I'LL FUCKING RIP YOUR THROAT OUT!!! I'LL…"
Tommy's words were cut short as the guard with the bleeding nose brought his gun down hard on Tommy's head in two hard slams. Tommy dropped back to his knees, and went silent, struggling to maintain consciousness.
Loomis shook his head, and walked back up to the altar. He then turned back to Michael and flashed him a disapproving look. "Michael, Michael, Michael. Can't you see how difficult you're making this? End their suffering and give in."
Michael stared gravely ahead, contemplating his next move. For the first time he could remember, he was completely unsure of what to do.
"Unless you're ready to watch me take the pretty little head of your darling sister," Loomis said, as he stood behind Laurie and placed the dagger to her throat. "It's like riding a bicycle, really. All too easy. Kill for him, Michael."
Michael's blood went cold with Loomis' last words, for he had heard in that moment, the voice beyond Loomis' own; the voice of Evil.
"Kill for him."
Michael began to quiver, feeling the presence of the Evil suddenly manifest. It was as if a cold swirl was spinning around him, and the very air itself had turned foul and was trying to seep its way into him.
He looked down at the boy, cowering over his mother. It would be so easy. So quick, the most simplest of actions.
No.
Yet, the voice persisted, growing ever aggressive, as the Evil pounded on his skull to let it in. Michael's nose started to bleed, as he closed his eyes, trying to assert his will and defy it.
Kill for him!
NO.
KILL!!
Suddenly the congregation began to chant, like bloodthirsty Romans, awaiting a gladiator to claim his victory.
"Kill, kill, kill kill kill…."
The veins in Michael's neck began to stand out as his body began to shake in convulsions. The true voice of the Evil was now screaming at him from what seemed like the inside of his own skull, and his head ached from the force of it's pounding beat.
Kill for him.
No.
Kill for him.
Michael's eyes flashed open, black, and glossy. He stared at Laurie. She looked to him, and then flashed her eyes to the right. She repeated the gesture, and Michael recognized it as a signal.
Brackett.
Somewhere beyond the congregation, Brackett was poised with his rifle waiting for the mark. Michael spared a final glance to Laurie and noticed her give a slight nod. The look in her eyes was clear and resolved. Live or die, she was ready to act. Then the aggressive pounding of the voice returned, and he closed his eyes one final time.
Kill for him
No.
KILL FOR HIM!!!!!!!!
Okay.
Michael's eyes flashed open again, and glanced down at the boy. He then grabbed hold of the two supervising guards, while they were still preoccupied with Tommy, and slammed their heads together. The mashing sound of meat and bone shattered the air, and the two guards fell instantly dead.
Loomis was caught off guard in a dizzying moment of disbelief, and that moment, as short-lived as it was, was enough for Laurie. She snaked the bridge of her arm up between Loomis' blade and her throat. Loomis brought the knife in, and it dug into Laurie's wrist. Ignoring the pain, she bit into his hand causing him to drop the dagger, while at the same time she rammed her elbow into Loomis' gut.
The Doctor fell back, but quickly recovered, and as Laurie began to pick herself up off of the floor, he delivered a hard kick into her stomach. She fell back winded, and Loomis began to flee.
Tommy lunged for the dagger, and then used it to cut his bonds. The sound of a bullet whizzed by his head, and he looked up to see that the two guards at the entrance were approaching the scene, their guns poised. Suddenly, in a spray of red, the top of one of the guard's heads blew off, at the sound of distant gunfire.
Brackett, Tommy thought, his last intelligible rational thought, before the bloodlust set in. Tommy bared his teeth and picked up the dead guard's rifle.
Suddenly, a rage of fury erupted from him in an animalistic scream, as, to Stephen's horror, he opened fire on the audience.
"You sick, twisted FUCKS!!! YOU WANT YOUR SACRIFICE? YOU WANT YOUR BLOOD? YOU GOT IT!!!!" Tommy screamed again, his face flushing red with rage as he fired madly.
Stephen crouched behind the altar, horrified, as he watched his father fire into the crowd. Before his eyes, Tommy had turned into a full-fledged monster. The slashed and bruised, bloody face on his father bespoke of an image of sheer terror, as it screamed obscenities, and he fired mercilessly into the crowd. Some members of the congregation tried foolishly to reach for him, and were blown back in a riddle of bullets and blood. Most turned to run towards the exit. Tommy didn't have a problem with shooting them in the back.
"STOP IT DADDY!!!!" Stephen screamed, in vain. "STOP IT!!!!"
Brackett watched from the distance as the Doyle kid completely lost it. He sighed and raised his gun to cover the kid. Brackett didn't like the idea of a slaughter, but they were in far to deep for him not to have Tommy's back at this point. Some of them, after all, were armed, and returning fire. His eyes then fell to Kara's still corpse, and he found he didn't have any trouble pulling the trigger, as he began to fire into the audience.
Quickly Michael went to Laurie and helped her to her feet. She waved him off, gathering her breath while holding her knees.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she managed in a series of hard pants, as she looked up and made eye contact with him. "Stop him, Michael. Don't let him get away. End it, once and for all."
Michael paused for a moment, then quietly he said, "Get the boy safely out of the building." He looked deeply into her eyes and then added: "You should have about five minutes."
Laurie's eyes widened, as she glanced down at the explosives strapped to Michael's chest, with the dawning revelation of just what he had planned. With one last somber glance, he turned from her, and began to pick up Loomis' trail.
"Michael,"
Michael turned back around, at the sound of his sister's voice. Despite the urgency of the moment, he couldn't help but notice how conflicted she seemed. Her mouth opened, then closed again, unsure of what she wanted to articulate.
"Good-bye, Michael," she said, finally.
Michael's gaze dropped for a moment, absorbing her words, then he stared back into her eyes.
"Good-bye Laurie," he said, and then he was gone.
Laurie watched him leave for a moment, and then her attention was turned back to the chaos behind her. She turned, and noticed that Tommy had gone completely nuts. She glanced to the boy cringing behind the stone altar, screaming and begging for his father to stop.
"STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!!!!!!!"
Laurie turned from the boy and looked to Tommy. "Tommy!" She yelled, trying to get his attention. "Tommy!" Her call was cut short as a bullet grazed by her arm. "SHIT!" she yelled, and she leapt behind the altar for cover. Stephen continued to sob and scream, as the gunfire continued its maddening roar. Laurie took the boy in her arms, and waited for it to end.
The last standing security guard jumped up from a mass of piling bodies, and fired his gun. A big, meat- grabbing slug tore through Tommy's left shoulder. Tommy didn't let on that he noticed, other than by returning with his own gunfire. The guard's body shook as bullet after bullet ripped through him, when finally he crashed to the floor in a bloody heap of mangled meat.
Tommy's machine gun went empty, and he threw it to the side and picked up the other guard's gun, and still screaming, continued to fire. Brackett and him finally overcame them all. Nobody made it out.
Laurie peered over the altar, and concluded that Tommy was now firing on a mountain of dead meat. No one moved, save for the bullets that impacted and tore into their flesh.
She stood, and made for Tommy. He was still screaming and firing the gun. "Tommy! Tommy!!! GOD-DAMN IT!!!"
Laurie ripped the gun from Tommy's hand, and gave him a large slap to knock him to his senses. "THEY'RE ALL DEAD! Are you satisfied?"
Tommy's eyes were glossy and blind. His teeth bared in a snarl, with lack of recognition, and for a moment, Laurie was dreadfully scared of Tommy. Then gradually, the anger from his face dissipated, leaving him looking pale, and lost. He stared around at the mass of dead bodies, taking them all in, for the first time. He looked down at his hands, and began to quiver. Laurie recognized it as shock. She took him by the arm and looked deeply into his eyes.
"Tommy!" She said with deadly sharpness. "Snap out of it! We've got to get out now!"
"Wha..?"
"This place is going up! We've got to move!"
Finally, Tommy came to his senses, and they gathered up the boy and began to run for the corridor.
"Brackett, haul ass!" Laurie shouted as they began to move. Brackett heard the desperation in her voice, and didn't stop to think twice.
Michael turned down the hallway, as he continued his pursuit of the Doctor. They were in the deepest recesses of the building's basement, and the exits were few and far between. Sensing the Doctor's presence, Michael made his way through a large storeroom. The room was in a surprising state of disarray, and heaps of old furniture and hospital beds were stocked and piled at various points in the room. Suddenly, Michael paused, and stared down at the remains of a dead body.
Danny.
Beside the corpse, lied some of the remains of the fence from the Tower Farm. Michael turned, and Loomis rammed one of the large iron fence posts straight into his chest.
Michael's mouth spurted blood once again, as he was impaled against the wall for the second time that night. He looked up to see the Loomis' black eyes staring back at him as the Doctor growled like an animal, and tried to twist the fence post to the left, to puncture Michael's heart.
Michael grabbed the doctor by the shoulders, and violently jerked him forward, impaling him on the very post he had used for a weapon against him.
"NO!!" Loomis (Myddrin) screamed in a futile fit of outrage, as blood spewed from his mouth. His hands began to flail like talons, as he reached up and tore at the leathery scorched flesh on Michael's face. Michael grabbed the Doctor's left arm, and snapped it in two. The thing inside the Doctor let out a howl of pain.
"It is time, Doctor." Michael said as he stared deeply into the seething, growling face of the Doctor as he pulled the trigger switch out from under his shirt. Myddrin's black eyes went wide with sudden mounting fear one last time, and then he was gone.
Staring back into Michael's face were the warm and gentle eyes of a grandfather.
"Yes, Michael, you're quite right, " Doctor Sam Loomis said, as he smiled gently and took Michael's hand in his own, like a father to his son.
"Thank you, Michael."
Michael returned the Doctor's embrace with a gentle squeeze, and nodded. He then found himself doing something that he hadn't done for a very long time.
He smiled.
Then he pressed the trigger, and the two were consumed by the purge of fire.
THE PURGE OF FIRE
As they approached the institute, Laurie and Lee drove towards the gate.
"Well, I suppose there's no point in playing it quiet," Lee sighed as he turned to Laurie for verification.
Laurie nodded, staring straight ahead, her focus zeroing in on the gate, and the security booth beyond it. "Floor it."
Thus taking a hint from the Shape, they barreled the van through the gate, and smashed it through the booth. The security guard barely had time to register his shock, as the van crushed him, and then came to a screeching halt. The two other guards at the gate quickly ran into the scene and began to draw their guns. Laurie leaned out the window and fired a perfect shot into each of their heads, bringing them down quick.
"Jesus!" Brackett turned to Laurie, his jaw agape.
They quickly exited the van, and prepared for more resistance, only to discover the deadly quiet of the outer yard. Reaching down to one of the dead guards, Brackett retrieved a set of master keys. Laurie retrieved another set of keys from the second corpse and pocketed them.
"Jackpot," Brackett said. "It looks like we can play this quiet after all."
"Michael was right, they're probably preparing for the ritual. We've got the element of surprise." Laurie pragmatically emptied her clip and replaced it with a fresh one. "Do you think those diagrams of the institute he drew are accurate enough?"
"We'll soon find out," Brackett began as he retrieved the drawings. "So how do you want to do this?"
"You take the back route, be ready for the snipe. I'm going in through the front door. Perhaps we can make the most of the advantage of surprise. With any luck, maybe I can get my hands on the boss."
"Loomis?" Brackett questioned, already knowing the answer.
Laurie nodded. "It's always the same with these cultist types. Cut off the head, and the body will fall. Maybe we'll even get out of here without killing anyone else."
"Wishful thinking," Brackett said, and began to trot on his way. "I'll be waiting for the mark. Good luck."
Loomis donned the ceremonial robes, and made his way into the inner chamber. His congregation was waiting, and his offerings to Cernunnos were brought to the inner circle. Tommy Kara and Stephen were aligned in procession, flanked by two armed guards. At the mouth of the chamber room's entrance, two armed ushers greeted the remaining members of the congregation who had filtered in late. On the stone altar was a baby lamb.
The doctor smiled fiendishly as he approached his hostages. He was quick to take in the blank and worn stare of the woman, in particular. There was deadness in her eyes that he took great pleasure in. She had received his gift of pain and death, and soon he would end her. He turned to Tommy, still smiling.
"Hello, dear boy," Loomis began. "It's been a long time since we've talked. It would seem that you no longer have any time for the likes of your old friend, Sam Loomis."
Tommy's eyes narrowed in an icy stare. He spoke, his voice gravelly and dry. "Ram the charade up your ass, Myddrin. We know who you are – what you are."
Loomis (Myddrin) registered a brief moment of surprise in his aged distinguished features, the smiled brightly, anew. He leaned over to Tommy, who was bound and forced to sit on his knees onto the floor.
"My, my, aren't we the clever little scholar, as usual," Myddrin began. "Or so you think." Tommy's eyes dropped from Myddrin's gaze. Myddrin cupped Tommy's chin, and jerked his head back up to face him. "You have no idea how deep over your head you're in, boy."
"Fuck you," Tommy spat defiantly. "Give it up. In case you haven't noticed, Michael hasn't shown up, and your little plan's a bust."
"Oh, he'll show. After all, I have you… and his darling boy." Myddrin glanced over to Stephen and noticed with great pleasure that the boy's already pained features had gone pale at the words of Myddrin's admission. Horrified, the boy stared silently, his eyes pleading with Tommy, searching for validation. Tommy put his head down, and cruelly, Myddrin laughed.
Tommy's eyes glared back up at Myddrin, and with a snarl he uttered, "You'll have to fucking kill me before I let you harm a hair on his head."
Myddrin leaned down once again, and with his face very close to Tommy's he whispered, "All in due time, dear boy. All in due time." Myddrin patted Tommy on the cheek, then pressed down, ripping a stitch open, which caused Tommy's face to bleed once more. Tommy bit down to avoid a scream from the pain flooding back into his head.
"Now shut your mouth...and wait your turn." Myddrin gave Tommy's face one last dismissive shove then turned back to the altar.
Myddrin picked up his ceremonial dagger, and raising his hands, he addressed his congregation.
"Let us give great praise for this glorious night. The Eternal Hunt awaits. Praise be to Cernunnos, as we await his coming on this glorious eve of Samhain. Summer ends and the Eternal Hunt shall begin. Give praise."
To which the congregation began to chant: "Praise to Cernunnos, praise, praise!"
Myddrin turned to the lamb and slit its throat. "Tonight, Cernunnos, Herne, the horned one will feast on the blood of the children of the Jesus- god. Their time is at an end, and the old ways will rein once more."
Laurie turned, and made her way though the front entrance. She trotted lightly down the corridor, and at the end, stopped to look at the diagram. She headed for the basement, and before long, the corridor dimmed, and she could see the illumination of candlelight, at the hall's distant end.
Bingo.
Her pulse quickened, as she made her way to the first door. She came across two guards at the entrance. Their attention was turned on the ceremony and she quietly made her way to the second door. She entered the room, after ascertaining that it was the backstage leading to the outer chamber. She approached a large curtain, and peered out.
It occurred to Laurie briefly that however much or little she had believed of Tommy's story before, she was now convinced of every word of it. She peered out and took in Loomis, submerged in the rite of ceremony, and found the experience entirely surreal. It was impossible to imagine the gentle man she once knew, uttering those words and committing those actions, as to her horror, Loomis slit the throat of a small lamb. More so, she could feel an ominous energy emitting from the man, something much darker and intuitively dreadful then anything she had ever felt before. Thus she concluded to herself that the impossible was, in the end, the only answer.
Loomis held his hands up in praise, and the congregation began to chant. With their attention on the ceremony, Laurie made her move. Quietly, she snuck out from the curtain, and crouching over, she crept in a straight line behind Loomis, using his very form to avoid detection. She drew a knife, and closed the distance.
Loomis, enraptured in the sacrifice, slowly lowered his dagger and glanced upon it. With a cloth, he wiped the dead animal's blood away from it, unearthing the reflection of Laurie Strode Lloyd in its glint.
The Doctor pivoted, and buried the blade to the hilt in Laurie's right shoulder, bringing her to her knees.
"Hello, my dear," he said as he grabbed her by the hair, and retrieved the knife she had dropped. "I've been expecting you." He placed the blade tightly up to her jugular. "No sudden moves."
Loomis stripped her of her weapons, kicking them to the side. "It would seem that Neil has failed to do his job. No matter. I trust that you ended him painfully. He was growing quite tiresome anyway. You've saved me the trouble of dealing with him myself, and for that, I thank you."
"Go to hell."
"Tsk, tsk," Loomis shook his head, disapprovingly, as he waved his finger in the air. "It's talk like that that will make you our first volunteer for the next sacrifice."
Loomis approached her once more, under the cover of his guards, and ripped the knife from her shoulder. Laurie screamed.
"You bastard!" Tommy wailed in outrage. "Leave her alone! Just leave her the hell alone!"
Loomis spared a final glance at Laurie as she held her gaping wound, then turned back to the procession. Staring down the aisle, he found that his most valued guest had arrived.
"Hello, Michael."
The crowd turned, to see Michael standing at the front entrance. Loomis stepped down from the altar, past Tommy and the others, to face Michael directly across the main aisle.
"Welcome home, son."
Michael said nothing and stared intently at the Doctor. Several minutes passed, as a hush fell over the audience. Finally, Loomis broke the silence.
"I trust that you are ready to complete your duties as our chosen brother."
"No."
"I see. And what pray tell did you have in mind?"
Michael opened his trench coat, to reveal a mass of explosives strapped to his lower torso. From under his shirt, he pulled out a trigger switch, which he held from a chain around his neck.
A rustle of panic filled the air, and the room exploded with gasps and sighs.
"Ah," the Doctor said, tilting his head back, as he put his hands behind his back, taking it all in. "I see. You hope to rob me of my plan, is that it? Do you think that if you blow us all up right now that you can stop this?"
Michael stood silently, and listened.
"You are wrong, dear boy," Loomis continued as he walked back over to the inner circle and stood behind Kara, Danny and Stephen. "If you blow up the building, it is true that you will take us all with it, but you will have changed nothing. Whether it is by dagger or fire, the boy will still have died by your own hand, and he will rise from the ashes as Herne. The Eternal Hunt will begin regardless."
Loomis placed his hands on Kara's shoulders. She seemed not to notice, and stared ahead, oblivious, as if in a trance. Michael noticed the deadness in her eyes, and turned his attention back to Loomis.
"On the other hand, you can sit idly by, and watch me butcher each one of them one by one, until you finally give in, and I know you don't want that. Either way, they die. Take the boy, and I may spare them."
"No."
Loomis sighed. "Very well, then. It would seem that we are at an impasse. If I kill them you blow the place up, is that it? Perhaps I'm bluffing, and the purge of fire will end it. Then again, perhaps, you're bluffing as well."
Loomis brought his face down, resting it directly over Kara's shoulders, while all the time, his black serpentine eyes continued to stare deeply into Michael's face.
"I call your bluff," Loomis said, and brought his dagger across Kara's throat. Her eyes widened, as she gasped for air and began to choke on her own blood. Blood began to gush from her throat. She brought her hands up to her throat, in a futile attempt to stop the blood flow. Briefly, she pulled her hands back and stared at the blood on them, and then she collapsed to the floor.
"NO!" Tommy screamed his face contorting in anguish as he tried to wrestle free of his bonds, to no avail. "KARA!!!!!!!!!!!"
"MOMMY!!!!!!!" the boy screamed as he bent over to his mother and tried to rouse her. Tears began to pour out of his eyes "Please don't die please…"
Stephen picked his mother's hand up and held it to his cheek, while sobbing uncontrollably. Dimly, Kara glanced up at him, her eyes wide and desperate, as she gasped for a final breath, and choked out blood. Then her eyes rolled over white, and she was gone.
The echo of the boy's grief-stricken, high-pitched wail flooded through the room, as he bent over his mother and cried. Laurie fell limp, dumbfounded by grief-stricken horror, her face going numb and pale with shock. Tommy's eyes went killer-red, and he lunged at Loomis like a rabid dog. One of the guards brought the butt of the gun down onto the top of his head, bringing him down.
The guard went to pull Tommy back, when Tommy swung his head up and slammed it into the security guard's face. The guard fell back in pain, his nose gushing, when the second guard rushed over and kicked Tommy hard in the stomach. Tommy spat blood.
"You FUCKING BASTARD!!" Tommy snarled, his eyes furrowed and his teeth bared, making him barely recognizable as a human being. "I'LL FUCKING RIP YOUR THROAT OUT!!! I'LL…"
Tommy's words were cut short as the guard with the bleeding nose brought his gun down hard on Tommy's head in two hard slams. Tommy dropped back to his knees, and went silent, struggling to maintain consciousness.
Loomis shook his head, and walked back up to the altar. He then turned back to Michael and flashed him a disapproving look. "Michael, Michael, Michael. Can't you see how difficult you're making this? End their suffering and give in."
Michael stared gravely ahead, contemplating his next move. For the first time he could remember, he was completely unsure of what to do.
"Unless you're ready to watch me take the pretty little head of your darling sister," Loomis said, as he stood behind Laurie and placed the dagger to her throat. "It's like riding a bicycle, really. All too easy. Kill for him, Michael."
Michael's blood went cold with Loomis' last words, for he had heard in that moment, the voice beyond Loomis' own; the voice of Evil.
"Kill for him."
Michael began to quiver, feeling the presence of the Evil suddenly manifest. It was as if a cold swirl was spinning around him, and the very air itself had turned foul and was trying to seep its way into him.
He looked down at the boy, cowering over his mother. It would be so easy. So quick, the most simplest of actions.
No.
Yet, the voice persisted, growing ever aggressive, as the Evil pounded on his skull to let it in. Michael's nose started to bleed, as he closed his eyes, trying to assert his will and defy it.
Kill for him!
NO.
KILL!!
Suddenly the congregation began to chant, like bloodthirsty Romans, awaiting a gladiator to claim his victory.
"Kill, kill, kill kill kill…."
The veins in Michael's neck began to stand out as his body began to shake in convulsions. The true voice of the Evil was now screaming at him from what seemed like the inside of his own skull, and his head ached from the force of it's pounding beat.
Kill for him.
No.
Kill for him.
Michael's eyes flashed open, black, and glossy. He stared at Laurie. She looked to him, and then flashed her eyes to the right. She repeated the gesture, and Michael recognized it as a signal.
Brackett.
Somewhere beyond the congregation, Brackett was poised with his rifle waiting for the mark. Michael spared a final glance to Laurie and noticed her give a slight nod. The look in her eyes was clear and resolved. Live or die, she was ready to act. Then the aggressive pounding of the voice returned, and he closed his eyes one final time.
Kill for him
No.
KILL FOR HIM!!!!!!!!
Okay.
Michael's eyes flashed open again, and glanced down at the boy. He then grabbed hold of the two supervising guards, while they were still preoccupied with Tommy, and slammed their heads together. The mashing sound of meat and bone shattered the air, and the two guards fell instantly dead.
Loomis was caught off guard in a dizzying moment of disbelief, and that moment, as short-lived as it was, was enough for Laurie. She snaked the bridge of her arm up between Loomis' blade and her throat. Loomis brought the knife in, and it dug into Laurie's wrist. Ignoring the pain, she bit into his hand causing him to drop the dagger, while at the same time she rammed her elbow into Loomis' gut.
The Doctor fell back, but quickly recovered, and as Laurie began to pick herself up off of the floor, he delivered a hard kick into her stomach. She fell back winded, and Loomis began to flee.
Tommy lunged for the dagger, and then used it to cut his bonds. The sound of a bullet whizzed by his head, and he looked up to see that the two guards at the entrance were approaching the scene, their guns poised. Suddenly, in a spray of red, the top of one of the guard's heads blew off, at the sound of distant gunfire.
Brackett, Tommy thought, his last intelligible rational thought, before the bloodlust set in. Tommy bared his teeth and picked up the dead guard's rifle.
Suddenly, a rage of fury erupted from him in an animalistic scream, as, to Stephen's horror, he opened fire on the audience.
"You sick, twisted FUCKS!!! YOU WANT YOUR SACRIFICE? YOU WANT YOUR BLOOD? YOU GOT IT!!!!" Tommy screamed again, his face flushing red with rage as he fired madly.
Stephen crouched behind the altar, horrified, as he watched his father fire into the crowd. Before his eyes, Tommy had turned into a full-fledged monster. The slashed and bruised, bloody face on his father bespoke of an image of sheer terror, as it screamed obscenities, and he fired mercilessly into the crowd. Some members of the congregation tried foolishly to reach for him, and were blown back in a riddle of bullets and blood. Most turned to run towards the exit. Tommy didn't have a problem with shooting them in the back.
"STOP IT DADDY!!!!" Stephen screamed, in vain. "STOP IT!!!!"
Brackett watched from the distance as the Doyle kid completely lost it. He sighed and raised his gun to cover the kid. Brackett didn't like the idea of a slaughter, but they were in far to deep for him not to have Tommy's back at this point. Some of them, after all, were armed, and returning fire. His eyes then fell to Kara's still corpse, and he found he didn't have any trouble pulling the trigger, as he began to fire into the audience.
Quickly Michael went to Laurie and helped her to her feet. She waved him off, gathering her breath while holding her knees.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she managed in a series of hard pants, as she looked up and made eye contact with him. "Stop him, Michael. Don't let him get away. End it, once and for all."
Michael paused for a moment, then quietly he said, "Get the boy safely out of the building." He looked deeply into her eyes and then added: "You should have about five minutes."
Laurie's eyes widened, as she glanced down at the explosives strapped to Michael's chest, with the dawning revelation of just what he had planned. With one last somber glance, he turned from her, and began to pick up Loomis' trail.
"Michael,"
Michael turned back around, at the sound of his sister's voice. Despite the urgency of the moment, he couldn't help but notice how conflicted she seemed. Her mouth opened, then closed again, unsure of what she wanted to articulate.
"Good-bye, Michael," she said, finally.
Michael's gaze dropped for a moment, absorbing her words, then he stared back into her eyes.
"Good-bye Laurie," he said, and then he was gone.
Laurie watched him leave for a moment, and then her attention was turned back to the chaos behind her. She turned, and noticed that Tommy had gone completely nuts. She glanced to the boy cringing behind the stone altar, screaming and begging for his father to stop.
"STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!!!!!!!"
Laurie turned from the boy and looked to Tommy. "Tommy!" She yelled, trying to get his attention. "Tommy!" Her call was cut short as a bullet grazed by her arm. "SHIT!" she yelled, and she leapt behind the altar for cover. Stephen continued to sob and scream, as the gunfire continued its maddening roar. Laurie took the boy in her arms, and waited for it to end.
The last standing security guard jumped up from a mass of piling bodies, and fired his gun. A big, meat- grabbing slug tore through Tommy's left shoulder. Tommy didn't let on that he noticed, other than by returning with his own gunfire. The guard's body shook as bullet after bullet ripped through him, when finally he crashed to the floor in a bloody heap of mangled meat.
Tommy's machine gun went empty, and he threw it to the side and picked up the other guard's gun, and still screaming, continued to fire. Brackett and him finally overcame them all. Nobody made it out.
Laurie peered over the altar, and concluded that Tommy was now firing on a mountain of dead meat. No one moved, save for the bullets that impacted and tore into their flesh.
She stood, and made for Tommy. He was still screaming and firing the gun. "Tommy! Tommy!!! GOD-DAMN IT!!!"
Laurie ripped the gun from Tommy's hand, and gave him a large slap to knock him to his senses. "THEY'RE ALL DEAD! Are you satisfied?"
Tommy's eyes were glossy and blind. His teeth bared in a snarl, with lack of recognition, and for a moment, Laurie was dreadfully scared of Tommy. Then gradually, the anger from his face dissipated, leaving him looking pale, and lost. He stared around at the mass of dead bodies, taking them all in, for the first time. He looked down at his hands, and began to quiver. Laurie recognized it as shock. She took him by the arm and looked deeply into his eyes.
"Tommy!" She said with deadly sharpness. "Snap out of it! We've got to get out now!"
"Wha..?"
"This place is going up! We've got to move!"
Finally, Tommy came to his senses, and they gathered up the boy and began to run for the corridor.
"Brackett, haul ass!" Laurie shouted as they began to move. Brackett heard the desperation in her voice, and didn't stop to think twice.
Michael turned down the hallway, as he continued his pursuit of the Doctor. They were in the deepest recesses of the building's basement, and the exits were few and far between. Sensing the Doctor's presence, Michael made his way through a large storeroom. The room was in a surprising state of disarray, and heaps of old furniture and hospital beds were stocked and piled at various points in the room. Suddenly, Michael paused, and stared down at the remains of a dead body.
Danny.
Beside the corpse, lied some of the remains of the fence from the Tower Farm. Michael turned, and Loomis rammed one of the large iron fence posts straight into his chest.
Michael's mouth spurted blood once again, as he was impaled against the wall for the second time that night. He looked up to see the Loomis' black eyes staring back at him as the Doctor growled like an animal, and tried to twist the fence post to the left, to puncture Michael's heart.
Michael grabbed the doctor by the shoulders, and violently jerked him forward, impaling him on the very post he had used for a weapon against him.
"NO!!" Loomis (Myddrin) screamed in a futile fit of outrage, as blood spewed from his mouth. His hands began to flail like talons, as he reached up and tore at the leathery scorched flesh on Michael's face. Michael grabbed the Doctor's left arm, and snapped it in two. The thing inside the Doctor let out a howl of pain.
"It is time, Doctor." Michael said as he stared deeply into the seething, growling face of the Doctor as he pulled the trigger switch out from under his shirt. Myddrin's black eyes went wide with sudden mounting fear one last time, and then he was gone.
Staring back into Michael's face were the warm and gentle eyes of a grandfather.
"Yes, Michael, you're quite right, " Doctor Sam Loomis said, as he smiled gently and took Michael's hand in his own, like a father to his son.
"Thank you, Michael."
Michael returned the Doctor's embrace with a gentle squeeze, and nodded. He then found himself doing something that he hadn't done for a very long time.
He smiled.
Then he pressed the trigger, and the two were consumed by the purge of fire.