Someone In the Dark

Jen shifted in her sleep, her face furrowed with confusion. She could see someone, or at least their shape, but she wasn't sure who they were. They were calling to her, and so she went closer and was surprised to see her mother, Laurie Strode, only much younger.

"Am I dead?"

Laurie shook her head. "No one here is."

Michael watched as she slept, his bottom lip clenched tightly between his teeth, his heart pounding. Was she trying to wake up? Oh please God say she was... Please...

God, he hadn't thought there was a God in so many years, at least not just one god. He thought back to his youth, little Laurie playing in the garden while his mother worked in it, Judy sitting on the porch reading... Laurie and Judy... They were both dead now, and at his hands. So many people were dead at his hands.... Jamie... and now would Jenni die? This woman he had secretly grown to love, but never known it... His little niece...

God, he was sick! That's exactly what she was, his niece! His flesh and blood, forced to be with him, forced to have his children, she could be off with someone else her own age, in college preparing for a great career, instead she was here, fighting for her life so she could wake up and play Mommy for his four boys.

He reached out and touched her hand, small and white, and quite frail. He shook his head, she had been through too much in five years, no woman her age could survive it, he was sure. The poor girl, she'd lost her mother, been alienated from her family, had three children, been kidnaped twice.. Now stabbed after giving birth.

The door opened and he looked up as a doctor entered, quietly shutting the door behind him. "Mr. Brennan." The doctor said softly. Michael avoided grinning, they had needed a name and what better than his sister's dead lovers name?

"Yes?"

The doctor sat by him. "What... what are you to Miss Strode?"

Michael thought fast. "A friend."

The doctor nodded. "How did you find her?"

"I saw them with her, saw them stab her... I knew she'd been missing, presumed dead." He tried to hide the disuse of his voice.

"Then you wouldn't know." The doctor shook his head. "Mr. Brennan, shortly before being stabbed, hours before, Jennifer gave birth. We found this during surgery, we noticed her uterus was hemorrhaging while we were stitching her up, and decided to check it out." He took a test tube from his pocket, it was marked with her name and closed tightly, the fluid inside was clear and thick. "Placental fluid," the doctor casually remarked and replaced it. "From her pelvic alignment we'd say she's had two others at least."

Michael avoided flinching in his best interest. "What kind of sick person would do that?"

The doctor sighed. "That's where it gets... interesting. We took another sample of the fluid, sent it off to a lab, and our suspicions of that are correct." He handed him a case folder. "Sam Loomis allowed us a DNA sample from Jennifer's uncle, Michael Myers. And it matches with the DNA from the fluid, apparently, she's been having his kids, or at least this one was his. Loomis suspects some kind of cult ritual."

Michael sighed and covered his face with his hand. "Tell me something... How much chance does she have at living?"

The doctors face was grim as he looked at the younger man. "Sugar coated or straight up?"

Michael sighed. "Straight up."

The doctor shook his head. "Not much, she really is very weak, lost a lot of blood. Not to mention how young she is, her body was completely unprepared. Now it doesn't know what to do, don't get me wrong, we're trying our damnedest to help, but now she's really on her own."

Michael couldn't hide the pain in his face. "She was moving, mumbling."

The doctor's eyes widened. "What?" He moved to her and felt her pulse, checked her blood pressure and began to chuckle. "She's totally conscious, just asleep, sir, this truly is a miracle!"

Michael watched in astonishment as nurses and other doctors piled in and looked at her vitals, and a wry smile spread over his face as she woke from the commotion and looked at them all, quite startled. Her eyes met him, and for a moment he didn't understand why she didn't recognize him, then he remembered he wasn't wearing his mask.

She sat up and was given some pain pills and a brief explanation from her doctor. Soon under the doctor's order they all left, and with a brief pat so did her doctor, but Michael remained in his chair, watching her as she slowly turned and looked at him.

"Who are you?" She asked softly. Her green eyes were bloodshot and her usually pale face was paper white.

He breathed deeply, suddenly unable to speak, how could he tell her? She studied him as he tried to come up with something to say and he was surprised to see her smile at him knowingly, and lay back. "Never mind, I could never mistake those eyes."

He felt a wisp of air leave his lungs and mouth and quickly gather it again. "You know them too well."

Surprised, she sat up again. "Now I'm confused, is it you Michael?"

He smiled and nodded. "But to them, I'm Will Brennan. How are you feeling?"

"Soar, but all right." she said, laying again and closing her eyes.

He frowned deeply. "Jenni, I'm so sorry about what happened! It was the voices, impulse, fear..."

"No," she said softly. "Don't be sorry, it's all right." she shrugged. "I expected it to happen, Loomis warned me about it."

He sighed and shook his head. "Good ol' Loomis. You were tossing and turning, did you have a bad dream?"

"No, it wasn't bad just..." she searched for a word. "Weird."

He frowned. "How so?"

"I don't know. I was there, there was lots of light, I thought I was dead. Then Mom was there, and she was so young! I asked her if I was dead and she said no one there was, but that makes no sense, I remember the news, they found her dead in that house."

He sat silently a moment, then sighed. "That is weird. Might not have meant anything, probably didn't."

She sighed. "I hope so." Sleep was coming to her quickly and she yawned, then spoke again. "Michael?"

"Hmmm?"

"You won't leave me will you? Now that you're not cursed?"

He froze and stiffly watched her. "Sleep."

She sighed. "I figured so much."

And so she fell asleep, and once he was sure she had, Michael left the room.

*Yawns* Interesting morning. Got into a car accident on the way to work, nothing serious, but I didn't have to go in....

Well, review while I plot the final two chapters.

SA