Part 13: Halloween
12:00 AM, October 31
Ever since Starfire had fallen over and given herself a nosebleed back when this whole sordid spectacle had begun, she had felt the bloom of a terrible feeling within her, a special kind of torment, that had risen and fell during the entire evening as she had worried about friends, out of sight and by her side, as well as her own self. True, Starfire had felt fear before, but never anything like this. And now, as she stared at the dead white mask that Michael Myers wore as he approached her, his huge form clad in a dull blue boiler suit, a large kitchen butcher knife clutched in his right hand, as the sickness and horror roiled up again, consuming her guts, her heart, her soul, she could finally give it, if not a name, an exact reason for being.
The T-Tower was many things: a strangely shaped building, a base, a memorial, a symbol, but above all else it was HOME. Tamaranians were highly emotional creatures, and to Starfire, home was very important. She has lost hers as a child, been pulled from it for the sake of the so-called greater good, cast into slavery and hell. When she had escaped she was almost as afraid of what possibly lay ahead of her then what she had fled from. And then she had crash-landed on Earth…and wonder of wonders, she had found a new home there. And it was here, in this building.
Home was very important to people. They said home was where the heart was, there was no place like home, that a "heap of lovin' can make a house a home." People were told to keep the home fires burning, and when fighter pilots finished their missions they radioed that they were "coming home." Robert Frost said it best, perhaps, when he said that home was the place that, when you went there, they had to take you in. Home was important to normal people, it was important to Tamaranians, and it was definitely important to metahumans who took upon the title of "superheroes."
Because home was where you could go, no matter what crime or horror or atrocity you had seen/prevented/been part of, a place where you could go and lock the door and, at least in theory, lock all the madness of the outside world away. It was where you could lay down your weapons and armor, where you could rest, where you could safely be VULNERABLE. It was where Starfire slept, where she showered, where she engaged in intimacy with her love, where she took care of her embarrassing but necessary bodily functions not talked about with polite company. It was where one could supposedly go when the chaos in life became too much to bear, your rock, your anchor, your center.
And even though the theory didn't always match up to the reality…it was something Starfire could accept. She'd seen a lot of things happen to her home. She'd been inside it when a demonic lord had used it as a base for his attempt in conquering the world. She'd seen a mad god raze it to the ground. She'd seen another hostile deity tear it from the earth and use it as part of his castle. She'd seen it attacked and invaded and taken over and tainted and haunted and a hundred other things…but she could accept all those things in the end, because in the end, when the threat was defeated, the chaos calmed, she could go back to it…even if it had to be repaired, rebuild, or replaced. Buildings came and went…but homes…they were once in a lifetime. She didn't think she'd find another one when she had been sold to end a war, and she severely doubted she'd get so lucky a third time. This place, this tower, it was her HOME.
And then this had happened to it.
And this was something she could not accept. She had swallowed a lot that life had thrown at her, ingested more bitter pills then she had ever expected or ever knew EXISTED. She KNEW that this life she had chosen was hard, and painful, and a mad mad mad mad mad world…but all that, she could accept. She could make it part of her reality and move on.
But when horror movie villains are coming to life, attacking her friends, harming them…that was too much. She could accept a cold-heated megalomaniac like Slade, or a zealous madman like the Lord, or a merry psychotic like Asphyxiation, or a bloodthirsty sadist soldier like the White Hole, or a terrible evil power like Bloody Sam Caine…but this was going too far. It wasn't just attacking her frail reality, it was seizing her world and exploding it in her face, forcing her to deal with things that she simply could not deal with.
Like Raven, she could handle all that…but horror film villains belonged on the other side of a TV, the shown part of something filmed that ended when the director yelled cut. The lunatics took off their masks and makeup, their victims got up, washed off the fake blood, and went to collect their paychecks, and the terrible rages and vengeances and bloodthirsts disappeared until the camera turned back on again. It was a world of absolutes, lacking rationality and sense, celebrating death and horror…and yet somehow that made it enjoyable…as long as one knew, deep down, that in the end it was all a movie, constructed, manipulated, FAKE.
When that fakeness became REAL…
The author Shirley Jackson, in her definite haunted house novel The House On Haunted Hill, had summed up the world of the troubled abode in the first paragraph:
"No live organism can continue to exist for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
A nice bit of prose, and a poignant juxtaposition that basically said that while Hill House did not exist under conditions of absolute reality, it also did not dream, and therefore was not sane. For sanity to exist, dreaming was needed, the shifting murky world of the subconscious, where things we would never accept in real life become as common as breathing.
But to Starfire, the opposite was true was well. No creature could exist sanely under conditions of absolute dreaming. Eventually, reality had to intercede, even in a world as crazy and messed up as Starfire's in comparison to our own, humble reader. Starfire wanted to stop dreaming, was DESPERATE to stop dreaming, and yet time and again on this night, she found she could not.
And that was the heart of the sickness within her. She wanted to wake up, and not just in regards to our once again departed dream master, Freddy. She wanted to hear that same voice Raven had dearly wanted to hear when she had seen Ghostface. She wanted reality to speak up, to say "Ok Koriand'r of Tamaran, it is true you live in a world where there are beings that can snuff out stars with a snap of their fingers, where bathing in radioactive chemicals grants you amazing power rather then giving you lymphoma, where the laws of physics, time, and space seem to exist only to the convenience of more then a few beings, where Mommy was lying when she said there were no monsters in the closet, because there WERE monsters out there, supernatural, organic, and human, and where life is strange, uncertain, and damn scary…but it is a world where horror movie slashers stay in the fake world created for them, and don't cross over to yours, because they don't exist in the first place, so how can they exist in any form at all?"
And with Michael Myers walking towards her, as big as life, as sure as death, closing in, defying that little condolence she had…
The crack was opening in her mind.
And so, after all she had endured, despite her pain and exhaustion and empty reverses, somehow Starfire found it within herself to raise her hands and scream, the green power glowing on them, not because she found one last reverse to tap or received a burst of desperate adrenaline from the animal instincts that fired when it felt she was truly trapped in a corner or not because she was afraid for her life, because after all this she had moved past all those things.
She had finally become offended.
"YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!" Starfire screamed, and she opened fire.
Perhaps eight Starbolts slammed into Myers' form, rocking his massive frame and burning dark scorch marks on his blue suit as he staggered back under the assault and collapsed.
And Starfire screamed/groaned again as the backlash of what she had done washed through her. When you fire energy bolts and your normal energy stores are empty, said energy has to come from SOMEWHERE. In this case, Starfire's own body. The resulting feedback was much like a reactionary entire body cramp, albeit with a lot less pain. It had a worse side effect though: weakness, as Starfire's legs gave out and she collapsed on her knees. Her arms hung limp on her sides, and though she tried she could not move them: she had screwed up her own bioelectricity and her body needed to reroute. It was a good thing she'd fallen the way she had: a little more weight at the wrong angle and she would have collapsed on her face and suffocated in the carpet.
But that near-miss didn't seem so great after a second, because it was increasingly clear she couldn't move.
As Myers sat up, seemingly unperturbed about what had happened, and casually got to his feet and headed for Starfire again.
Starfire furiously commanded her body to move as Myers approached, but she was out of luck: she'd used up her last "I command you to do something you cannot do body!" card with the Starbolts. Maybe not the brightest move…but when do people behave brightly in horror films?
Myers' shadow fell over her.
She wondered what to do. Should she scream? Beg for her life? Cry? Curse him out? Would anything work?
Myers stopped in front of her, regarding her through the black slits of his mask, his eyes completely concealed by shadow, and then he began to draw the knife back.
In the end, Starfire did nothing. She said a private goodbye to Tim and her friends in her head as she looked up at Myers, her eyes hard. She would die with dignity…
"Michael."
Starfire's eyes widened at the voice, but Michael didn't seem to notice, as he started stabbing the knife forward…
A Shimmer strand lashed out and struck Myers' hand, knocking the knife away as Michael recoiled from the sudden blow. The knife flew across the room and impaled in a wall.
"MICHAEL." Savior repeated from the doorway he was leaning in.
Michael took a look at his attacker, and then he turned back to Starfire as he reached his hands out for her.
A Shimmer line lashed his back.
"MICHAEL MYERS." Savior said again, now slightly angry, but in the way of someone who cannot get the attention of someone. Myers stopped his attempted choke at the blow, and then he turned around, looking at Savior.
And then he started walking towards him, slowly. Savior took this as a cue to step from the shadows. He had an ugly wound on his forehead that had left a trail of blood down his face, but he didn't seem to care much. He was looking at Myers, even as he began stepping to the side, slowly and deliberately, matching Myers' pace so that a constant distance was kept between the two. Myers didn't take the hint and do something like run: that wasn't what he did. So he kept walking, as did Savior, while Noel spoke.
"Michael Myers. Became known to movie audiences in 1978 when director John Carpenter released the film Halloween. Back then, horror movies were not the way most people know them now. There was no concept of a slasher film. Hell, there wasn't anything like a slasher film. But much like the video game Resident Evil, which pioneered a new kind of game genre, Survival-Horror, Halloween was the pedigree. Though it was not the first kind of film that had a plot like a slasher. The grandfather of such films is generally considered to be 1971's Twitch of the Death Nerve, by Mario Bava. Another spiritual ancestor was 1975's Black Christmas, for which Halloween began in its very early stages as a sequel to. Makes sense, right? And of course, some kind of nod must be given to 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It most likely was some kind of influence." Savior said. By now he had managed to walk over to Starfire, and though he did not turn his head towards her, he walked in such a way that his face could be seen. He gave her a brief wink. Starfire, having been given time to rest, could only summon enough strength for four seconds of flight, but she used those four seconds to fly through the hole in the roof she had made on her way down, leaving Savior alone with Myers. Who was starting to make a little ground. Savior quickened his pace a bit, keeping Myers in his sight as the masked killer stalked him.
"You wouldn't think Halloween was destined for any kind of greatness. The budget was only $300,000, and for a professional Hollywood screenplay, that's chicken feed, even in those days. Certain things had to be cut. Most of the cast wore their own clothes, did you know that? No wardrobe department for them. Hell, they couldn't even afford an original mask for the killer. So what they did was they found an old William Shatner mask, teased out the hair, spray painted it white…and voila. Mix in soon to be legendary scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and veteran character actor Donald Pleasence…and in the end, we had something notable."
If Myers had any idea what the hell Savior was talking about, he gave no indication. Nor did he speed up. He seemed content to follow Savior around the room and wait until he stopped or decided to get close.
"The film was a monster. It grossed over $40 million worldwide. And it deserved it. It was something new at the time, I'll say. Carpenter's direction, Curtis' performance as both plucky heroine and terrified victim…but what really solidified it was Michael Myers. You." Savior said, gesturing. "What is truly effective is that Michael, you, are only referred to by name twice during the film. Even the ending credits list you as "The Shape". If anything, that was the final touch, as you brought a new character into the mainstream: the concealed killer, who would not stop no matter what, who wore a mask that could provide a great moment when it was removed, and a villain that made you wonder: was this a man, or something else? You also became the only slasher who could drive, though I'd like to know how you got a license considering you spent fifteen years locked up in an asylum."
Savior was passing by Myers' knife, but he barely noticed.
"BUT…there was a downside to this. Now, horror films were nothing new. One of the very first films that was ever made was an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff made careers playing Dracula and Frankenstein. But at the same time, it was demonstrated that audiences would only tolerate so much. When Hollywood attempted to out-horror Frankenstein, the result was Freaks, which succeeded too well: it was SO terrifying, even now, that it was repeatedly banned. But the genre continued on. There were the giant atomic mutants in the 50's, the Hammer films, Alfred Hitchcock, The Twilight Zone, Herschell Gordon Lewis…And gore, especially considering Mr. Lewis, was nothing new as well. In fact, during the 70's some kind of Hollywood brouhaha left the industry without any kind of ratings system for a bit, which allowed people to try stuff they'd never tried before. But…with Halloween, Hollywood truly found a use for the red stuff. And therein lies the problem…"
Myers' had reached his knife, and he paused to yank it out of the wall. Once again in possession of his weapon, he continued to stalk Savior around the room. For once the size of the room worked for the Titan: Myers, unlike several of his peers, had no magic powers or special abilities to hit at far range. Combined with the fact that Myers always walked, and Savior wasn't going to let him out of his sight for a second lest Myers teleport behind him, and Savior had plenty of room to keep him at bay.
"You see, like I said, audiences are fickle creatures. They go to horror movies wanting to be scared, and when something like Freaks comes along, they ban it because it's TOO scary. And yet, at the same time…it's very hard to scare to audience. Children yes, but anyone over the age of 13? I wonder if there was a single quickened pulse at ANY of those drive-ins during all the giant monster eats the town films. You see…it's HARD to SCARE people, because for them, real LIFE is scary enough. Why get scared by the obviously fake suits and costumes when you have bills, and puberty, and those damn Commies planning to nuke us all? I think that if special effects has been in any way realistic in those 50's monster movies no one would have gone to seem them. It would have reminded them too much of what could happen if the United States and the Soviet Union looked at each other the wrong way. Scary movies? No way…with a few exceptions, of course. But with Halloween, Hollywood discovered something. While it can be truly hard to SCARE people, it is not so hard to SHOCK them, gross them out, HORRIFY them rather then TERRIFY them. The words may sound similar, but there is a world of difference. And to studio execs, a few shocked gasps when a knife went into someone's chest was far better then the more subtle fears exerted in such work as Psycho. And when Friday The 13th was released two years later and also became a smash, well, that was it. They were off and running, as Hollywood and executives everywhere did what they did when something becomes popular: fire off enough knockoffs and similar junk to try and grab a brief piece of the market before the oversaturation makes the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. See also early 90's comic books and reality TV shows. BAM!" Savior said, smacking the palm of his hand with the back of his other hand. Myers' paid it no mind: he just continued to stalk Savior, though Savior thought that even HE was beginning to get annoyed that he didn't have Savior in a small locked room, in a long hallway with a locked door at the end, or the ability to catch him by surprise.
"Out came all the wanna-be's! Everyone began throwing out their films with angry men and women wearing masks and costumes and stalking nubile teenagers. And when they couldn't think of anything new they went back to the well and made sequels. And the very thing that started the boom was what killed it. People started making all these movies because they found it easier to horrify and gross out people. But the thing is, the more people see these movies, the more desensitized to the violence and gore they become. And the more desensitized they become, the more they start to notice the little things, and the big things, that's necessary for these films to have their violence and gore quotients. And eventually people began to notice how stupid the films were, how messed up their plots were if they had any plots at all, how people acted like such retards. Not to mention how killers never died or kept coming back, or after murdering a bunch of victims went to the time to artfully arrange said victims with none of the survivors noticing a huffing and puffing psycho lugging all the dead weight around, or how all the killers always WALKED, yet ALWAYS caught up or even PROCEEDED the victims." Savior said, his tone snarky. Myers, once again, just kept walking as the two continued to circle around the lounge.
"True, there were a few gems in there. Sleepaway Camp has some truly innovative deaths and one of the best shock endings ever. The Burning really showed how to make use of a pair of hedge trimmers. And the ending to April Fools' Day, well, you don't know whether to applaud or throw things. But even these showed the problems, the clichés, the utter nonsense people did. In the end, the genre pretty much rotted away, consumed by sequelitis and the lack of understanding that people weren't getting scared any more. Hell, why do you think Freddy went from being a vicious murderer to a jovial prankster? He was only reflecting an audience that couldn't suspend their disbelief any more."
On went the walk. You had to give it to Myers: he was patient.
"In the mid-90's though, a revival began. Movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer began to draw in the crowds. The reason? They were slasher films that made fun of themselves, films that mocked the clichés while FOLLOWING THEM AT THE SAME TIME! It was cute at first, people referencing the 80's slasher glut…but history repeated itself. Everyone tried to come out with their cool, ironic slasher film, and went on with the sequels when the original idea well exhausted itself. At least Scream was smart enough to make itself a trilogy and stop there. I hope." Savior said.
He sighed, and then he was silent, even as he continued to walk away, once again completely a loop around the room. This time though, he started heading down the center of the room instead of going around its perimeter again.
"Do you know why the Blair Witch Project worked? Because it knew that people's fears had changed. Your films, Jason's films, Freddy's, they were once scary because of the unreality of the concept. An unstoppable monster that deals horrible death! It was creepy, I'll admit, I can see it. But the thing is, eventually people start seeing the zipper running up the monster's back, and eventually they start calling everything before it happens. It had become predictable, and that is BAD when you want to scare someone. You want to REALLY scare someone, you don't need over the top gore effects or the disposal of fifty different victims each via a different weapon. That'll get you a few startled gasps…but TRUE fear? I guess I can't blame them for not getting it, but Myers, when it comes to TRUE fear in this world you have invaded, you know what works? LESS IS MORE. People's IMAGINATIONS will do a FAR worse job then ANYTHING you can put on screen. You can make the sound effect of something scratching at the door, but when someone opens the door and reveals a ten-foot bug, people are going to go "AHHHHH!" and then go "Well, a ten foot bug is pretty awful, but I can handle that. I was afraid it was going to be a HUNDRED feet tall." And if you open up that door and reveal a hundred foot bug, it's going to be "IYYYEEEEE! Well, a hundred foot bug is pretty awful, but I can deal with it. I was afraid it was going to be a THOUSAND feet tall." And so on. The bug is wasted. What is needed is what goes on in HERE when they hear the scratching at the door." Savior said, pointing to his head. "Suggestion, nuance, hints so faint you're barely aware of them…THAT'S what will keep people up at night."
Savior kept backing up, as Myers came away from the wall and followed.
"And THAT'S why the Blair Witch Project worked. While Carpenter struggled by on 300 grand to make a glossy Hollywood film, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez took a budget of less then $15,000 and made one of the best horror films in thirty years. It didn't work because it was in a terrible unreal world, it worked because IT WAS SO DAMN REAL. It looked exactly like a documentary some college students would make for their film class. Early promotions promoted the film as actually BEING real, that the film was found somewhere in the woods a year after the students filming it disappeared. You didn't need a giant bug, ten or a thousand feet, for scares. All you needed was to take something very simple, like a college documentary…and then…."
Savior noticed that he was almost out of room: ten more feet and he'd hit the TV's the Titans had set up to watch their horror films several hours ago. One stand was empty, the TV a broken ruin, and the other had been smashed and stood destroyed on its podium, but the middle one was, somehow, still intact, hooked up to the melted wreck that was once a VCR. But he wasn't worried. He was almost done.
"Slippage, I call it. We start off with something that just looks SO real. The kids heading to the small town, interviewing the locals, acting like young adults do. We KNOW these people, this IS our lives. And then they head into the woods…and things…start…to go…OFF…." Savior said, gesturing with his thumb and forefinger to indicate that this "off" degree was very small, and that this was a good thing. "Ever so slightly, this world, our real world, starts to slide away from what we know to be real. They can't find their way out of the woods. They awake to find strange piles of stones around their tent. They find they're going in circles, that the map they have is useless. They find strange wooden crosses in the trees. Strange noises sound off in the woods. By the time one of them disappears, our unease has grown as deep as the Grand Canyon. We demand that either the film return to reality as we know it or take the plunge and open the door to reveal the ten-foot bug, but it doesn't. He just lets us hear the scratching…and lets us hear it…and hear it…and by the time they find the house…and the last shots of what they find within…we're so stunned it's over, and yet grateful that it is. For a typical audience, there would have been no screams, no groaning, no noise at all except maybe a few nervous whimpers. THAT is a horror film, Myers. Not someone stalking teens with a power tool…because that just doesn't happen. But the Blair Witch Project…that we can see happening. We look at real life and see it SLOWWWWLLLYYY start to slip into something…else…and by the time it is done, we are left with a feeling of great trepidation and disquiet. It's not FEAR, per say…but it's something far more potent then a million lame slasher flicks could ever install."
Savior stepped onto one of the broken, squashed parts of the couch, and decided he had gone far enough.
"Who knows what direction the genre will go in in the future? The current thing to do seems to be either bringing Japanese films over or just remaking them. I suppose this is deserved. The Japanese may also rely on the gore overabundance that spawned your masses, Myers, but they combine it with some truly disturbing imagery and filming. Not really all that surprising: there are a lot of good things about them, but man are they a repressed culture. I mean, machines powered by zombies that move them through flatulence? A town cursed by spirals? Only they could think of that. But that's good. It's different. It's…scary." Savior said. "And that's why I'm not going to fight you Myers, or run away. You aren't scary any more. Maybe once, yes, but times have changed. People have gotten used to you. After 6 sequels you may have finally gotten your sister, but people don't care any more. Some people may study your original film in school, but that's about all you have left Myers. You and all your kind. You're a dying breed, the creators of your own apathy that consumes everything. So why don't you just stop, and go back to your realm, where at least you can scare a few newcomers to the genre every now and then, instead of staying here, where I cannot only see the zipper running up your back, but I'm calling you on it?"
Myers didn't answer, as he drew in close to Savior. Savior stood his ground, locking eyes with the dead black slits on Myers' mask.
"All right then. Come on Myers. Do your worst. I think you will find that your worst can't even SCRATCH the horrors of this world." Savior said as Myers finally stepped up close to him and raised his butcher. "Come on Myers! Come and see the truth! You're a relic, a product of a bygone era, the thing that everyone was fascinated with when he first showed up but now wonder why they cared about so much, like pet rocks or internet catchphrases! You're a dusty remnant of an older style of filmmaking, one that no longer works! You're not scary! You're not dreadful! YOU AREN'T THE BOOGEYMAN ANYMORE!"
The knife stabbed down.
And plunged right into Savior's chest.
The look of surprised shock in Savior's eyes was monumental. His whole tactic, when he had seen Myers, had recalled how the previous fights with the movie characters had gone. With that in mind, he had decided to call Myers on his own fakeness, to effectively turn his back and deny his existence. He thought it would work. Instead, Myers had called HIM on his own assumptions…and as blood slowly flowed out of Noel's mouth, it looked like, in the end, as Myers yanked the knife out, his mask looking at Savior's face, that he had made the right one.
"……………….Then…again…" Savior said, as he felt shadows begin to flow into the sides of his vision. "In horror films…the non-believers…are always…proven…wrong…"
And Savior took one step to the side and then collapsed to the ground.
Myers' mask showed no expression, but even that could not hide the impression that he was…satisfied.
"Myers!"
Some things never change, says another old saw. Apparently Myers had heard THIS one, as he turned around at the sound of his name.
We do not know if he was surprised to see all the remaining Titans standing there, arms raised and weapons armed, even as Beast Boy brought up the prototype cannon he'd been carrying around with him, that Cyborg had fixed with a few crossed wires to give him another few shots, even as all the other Titans mirrored his actions, Myers in their sights.
Myers cocked his head at them.
"GO HOME." Beast Boy said.
And all the Titans opened fire: Starbolts, force blasts, chunks of earth, twin sonic cannon blasts, Birdarangs thrown from two hands (Robin and Scalpel) all bombarded Myers, who was driven backwards under the onslaught, his knife blade broken off by a pebble hurled at high velocity as his body was savaged, his mask ignited and erupting in flames, as he stumbled back…
And Gauntlet leaned over Robin and fired off a huge battering ram of power, sending Myers back even faster…
As his flailing right arm smashed into the lone remaining TV screen.
Myers began to thrash and jerk as electricity poured out of the TV, enveloping his being. But what drew the Titans' eyes was that it was red tinted electricity, crimson power that coursed through Myers, making his huge body twitch and jerk like a puppet, even as smoke poured from his eye holes and the power crackled down to the ruined VCR and out to the other remaining TV sets.
And the lights began turning on and off crazily, the Tower rumbling, as the Titans looked around in surprised fear, not knowing what had happened…
One gigantic series of flashes that consumed Michael Myers and enveloped the Titans in white…
And then the lights went out again.
The lights turned back on, a few seconds later, once again at full strength, bathing the room in light…a normal room. The couches were fixed, the holes in the wall repaired, the debris gathered and removed, the smashed TV's back on their pedestals, the screen fixed and once again hooked up the VCR's…on one of which rested a stack of six horror films. The bowls of snacks, upturned and ground into the carpet, had been replaced neatly on the two different coffee tables.
And Michael Myers was gone.
The Titans lowered their arms and looked around, blinking away the flashes that the bright lights had caused in their vision.
"….Ok…what just happened?" Cyborg asked.
"NOEL!" Raven said, as she ran the several feet to her love's side, as Savior, groaning, sat up…revealing a perfectly normal shirt. There was no stab wound, no blood, not even a hole in his shirt, as Savior, with great surprise, felt along the region that Myers had stuck his knife in. "Noel…?" She said, confused by this sudden change, as she had been under the impression that Savior was a few seconds away from death.
"I'll be damned." Savior said, looking at his hand as if that held the answer to his questions, and at that time Raven realized the huge hole in her shoulder was gone too. It had vanished, as if it had never been. The Titans were coming to similar realizations that their injuries were gone as well.
"Ok…not that I'm complaining…but what just happened?" Terra asked.
"……….The film ended." Beast Boy said.
"The world the monster created through this accident…Myers must have acted like a key somehow…when he broke the television he opened the door again…this time in reverse…" Robin said, though it was a lot more theorizing then answering.
"Yeah." Cyborg said. He'd walked over to the VCR, on which the six horror films were stacked, and pressed the eject button. The tape exited the machine. "We sent him home."
And he held up the tape to reveal what it was.
Halloween.
"They did not belong here." Starfire said, her face grave. "They came here through an accident, leaving a world that they should have never left. When we sent them back…our world fixed itself, removed what they had done…reasserted what was right."
"Or in other words, it struck the set, took the makeup off the actors, and told us filming was done, thanks for your time." Savior said, standing up.
For a moment all the Titans stood there.
"So…what do we do now?" Gauntlet said.
"I don't know about you, but I've had enough horror films to last me a lifetime…" Beast Boy said. The Titans agreed, as Beast Boy retrieved the other two films from their playing devices and collected them in a pile, taking them away from the TV's and any kind of electrical outfit. Just in case.
"That was stupid, you know." Raven said to Savior. He glanced at her. "You could have been killed. Probably would have been if THIS hadn't happened."
"So why did you stay there and help attack Myers when you could have floated over and at least closed up my heart?" Savior replied. Raven's eyes widened at the realization that she'd done just that: she'd been too far into the "I want this to END" mindset.
"Um…tactical decision?" She said weakly.
"Well, no harm done." Savior said, and left it at that.
"I don't know about you, but I am totally bombed. I think I'll go sleep right here." Terra said, as she lay down on the couch.
"Sleep? After what just happened? I don't think I'll sleep for a week." Scalpel said.
"Just wait until your body finally realizes that it's safe and can come down from its heightened state. The crash and burn will be like a bomb going off inside you." Savior said.
"But…how can we sleep…I'm…afraid…" Starfire said, trembling. Robin put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she continued to tremble like a leaf.
"Ok guys…instead of a horror marathon, why don't we all have a sleepover in here. For tonight."
"Sounds good to me." Beast Boy said, as he finished locking all the films in his small personal cabinet. He'd have to remember to return the rentals in the morning. "But, ah…who's going to go fetch our stuff from our rooms?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Halloween Eve.
Though the Titans had eventually (after all deciding to go in one large group that tip-toed around the Tower the whole time) formed their sleepover, planned activities of snack gorging and girl talk quickly fell apart as all the Titans fell asleep. They slept through most of the morning as well before all of them awoke. Daylight and distance finally allowed them to put last night's events in perspective, and they got to work.
They quickly discovered their whole Tower was back to normal…and Control Freak's remote and the Eye of Archetypal were back on their pedestals in the Evidence Room. Cyborg swiftly got to work repairing the computer system, while Raven took the Eye, contacted Jason Blood, and passed the artifact into his possession. As for the remote, Robin had taken it and gone off with Savior, and no one had seen them for a bit. When they returned, Raven had asked her boyfriend what they'd done with it. Savior had simply replied "He'll make sure no one ever finds it." Raven didn't ask any more questions, but she had a feeling she knew where the remote was, soon to be buried in the deepest corner of a bat-filled cave…
With that done, the Titans had finally relaxed and prepared for the evening. They had all acquired Holopins for one costume party, where they were going to go as normal people (with the holopins changing their hairstyle, skin color, and even facial features a bit to ensure no one could accurately guess at their secret identities), and after that one was winding down they had headed for another, where they had turned off their Holopins and gone as themselves. The youth of Jump City were always happy to see their teen protectors, and with several local bands playing, the Titans partied it up among them, the incident already fading from their minds.
Almost.
Starfire sat at a table, sipping mustard. Robin pulled himself from a crowd, noticed her, and headed over.
"You ok Star?" he asked.
"Yes Robin. I am just resting. Then I will reengage in the purposeful flailing and thrashing…" Starfire said dully.
"You don't sound ok Star."
"…..No Robin. I'm not."
"Is it about last night? Star, Cyborg and I went over the whole Tower with a fine tooth comb with electronics, and then Raven did the same thing with spells. Nothing's there any more. The boogeymen are back where they belong. Let's leave them there. Look, even Savior and Raven have been able to do it." Robin said, pointing at the couple. True, Savior was usually the type to ponder the ramifications of whatever the Titans had done, but at the moment he was sitting with Raven, their arms intertwined, as they fed each other a Twix bar.
"I know they are Robin. I just…wonder." Starfire said.
"About what?"
"Those creatures did not belong on our reality. Yet somehow they came here. We would have the scars to prove it had they not been undone, especially Scalpel…how long are Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Terra going to wait on him hand and foot?"
"He took a LOT for the team last night Star. So…possibly until NEXT Halloween." Robin said, looking over to where Scalpel was sitting with Sophie, his girlfriend, who had joined them at the party dressed like Abraham Lincoln, complete with fake bullet hole in her forehead, as Beast Boy and Cyborg ran to fetch him drinks and other things, which he sat and sipped contently, completely accepted by a crowd that would usually look at him leerily at best. After all, it was Halloween. "So…what are you afraid of?"
"Well…like I said Robin. They did not exist. Yet last night, they did. We opened a door to someplace Robin, a bad place. I am just worried…did we close and lock the door behind them when we sent them all back…or did we just…close it?"
Robin thought it over.
"All I can say, Star, is that you might be right. This is a strange world. But…if they decide to make a sequel…let's just say I pity anything that comes though that gateway."
Robin then smirked.
"Besides, we sucked as a horror film. There wasn't a single victim! What kind of a horror film has a zero body count?"
"One that won't make up the grosses, I'd hope." Starfire replied, and then she finally grinned again. "Now, let us move our body in those ridiculous ways!"
And she yanked Robin off his seat and onto the dance floor, where the last song was coming to an end, as the band tuned up and the crowd celebrated horrors rather then running from them and dying at their hands.
"This next one's from Rob Zombie. Hit it boys!" Said the singer, and the band fired up.
(Camera pans up to massive crowd shot, as credits start to roll, song playing over them. The lyrics used to appear here, but they don't any more unfortunately. You just get the mock credits) Supporting Cast
Zombies
Moanus ahhhhrunawayus
Played By: Hundreds of Extras in various degrees of makeup.
Footage: Hundreds of films.
Body Count: Probably in the millions.
Slasher Star Classification and Stats
The Fisherman
Slickerus hateslovehewittus
Played By: Muse Watson
Footage:
(1997) I Know What You Did Last Summer by Jim Gillespie
(1998) I Still Know What You Did Last Summer by Danny Cannon
Body Count: 12(plus 3)
Ghostface
Fatherdeathus wescravencomebackkus
Played By: Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Timothy Olyphant, Laurie Metcalf, Scott Foley
Footage:
(1996) Scream by Wes Craven
(1997) Scream 2 by Wes Craven
(2000) Scream 3 by Wes Craven
Body Count: 24
Jack Frost
Frostyis royallypissed
Played By: Scott Macdonald, Matt Falleta
Footage
(1997) Jack Frost by Michael Cooney
(2000) Jack Frost: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman by Michael Cooney
Body Count: 21
Chucky
Gijoes myass
Played By: Many talented puppeteers and a few midgets, voiced by Brad Dourif
Footage:
(1988) Child's Play by Tom Holland
(1990) Child's Play 2 by John Lafia
(1991) Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking by Jack Bender
(1998) Bride of Chucky by Ronny Yu
(2004) Seed of Chucky by Don Macini
Body Count: 25 plus whoever buys it in the yet unreleased as of this writing Seed of Chucky.
The Leprechaun
Notascutes asyodas
Played By: Warwick Davis
Footage:
(1993) Leprechaun by Mark Jones
(1994) Leprechaun 2 by Rodman Flender
(1995) Leprechaun 3 by Brian Trenchard-Smith
(1997) Leprechaun 4: In Space by Brian Trenchard-Smith
(2000) Leprechaun In The Hood by Brian Trenchard-Smith
(2004) Leprechaun: Back 2 Da Hood by Steven Ayromlooi
Body Count: 43 (He also turned a man into a spider by altering his DNA…don't ask)
The Candyman
Cenobitus honeybeeum
Played By: Tony Todd
Footage:
(1992) Candyman by Bernard Rose
(1995) Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh by Bill Condon
(1999) Candyman: Day of the Dead by Tury Meyer
Body Count: 30 proven victims, 21 alleged but unseen extra victims
Michael Myers
Kirkus afterjamieleecurtis
Played By: Nick Castle, Tony Moran, Dick Warlock, George P. Wilbur, Don Shanks, Chris Durand, Brad Loree
Footage:
(1978) Halloween by John Carpenter
(1981) Halloween II by Rick Rosenthal
(1988) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers by Dwight H. Little
(1989) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers by Dominique Othenin-Girard
(1995) Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers by Joe Chappelle
(1998) Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later by Steve Miner
(2002) Halloween: Resurrection by Rick Rosenthal
Body Count: 85
Freddy Krueger
Facejobius desperatlyneedius
Played By: Robert Englund
Footage:
(1984) A Nightmare on Elm Street by Wes Craven
(1986) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge by Jack Sholder
(1987) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors by Chuck Russell
(1988) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master by Renny Harlin
(1989) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child by Stephen Hopkins
(1992) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare by Rachel Talalay
(1994) Wes Craven's New Nightmare by Wes Craven
(2003) Freddy vs Jason by Ronny Yu
Body Count: 41
JASON VOORHEES
Hockeymaskus wontgiveupum
Played By: Ari Lehman, Warrington Gillette, Richard Brooker, Ted White, C.J Graham, Ken Kirzinger, KANE HODDER
Footage:
(1980) Friday The 13th by Sean S. Cunningham
(1981) Friday The 13th Part 2 by Steve Miner
(1982) Friday The 13th Part 3 by Steve Miner
(1984) Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter by Joseph Zito
(1985) Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning by Danny Steinmann
(1986) Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives by Tom Mcloughlin
(1988) Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood by John Carl Buechler
(1989) Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan by Rob Hedden
(1993) Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday by Adam Marcus
(2002) Jason X by James Isaac
(2003) Freddy vs Jason by Ronny Yu
Body Count: 160
The T-Tower was dark, it's occupants out celebrating. And so it stood, like Hill House, though a great many dreams passed through it's halls and being.
Not needed any more, the spare TV's had been packed up and placed back in the storage room. And after the events of that night, who knows how long it will be before they are used again…
The room is dark and silent…
And then one of the TV's flicked on.
That was bad enough…if you didn't consider if it also was NOT PLUGGED IN.
A shifty screen of white appeared on the screen. It wasn't like static though. It was more like…a misty fog…
And we have to wonder if Beast Boy guessed the number of films right.
And of Starfire's last words…
Did we close the door and lock it…or just close it?The TV flickers for a few seconds.
And then it shuts off again.
Maybe whatever had happened couldn't find a way through…
But there was always next time…
And once again, the room was silent and dark.
Except for the sound of dripping water.
The End?