Michael grinned in dark triumph as his latest victims succumbed to the chloroform and collapsed to the floor. Now he had everyone he'd been aiming for.

Behind him, his sister was moaning loudly in terror at the sight of her friends' capture. She threw herself around in her chair with such fury that it almost tipped over. Michael stormed over and jammed the chloroformed rag over her face. With the gag already holding her mouth shut, she quickly passed out again. Michael turned and chloroformed the popular girl as well, for she was in the middle of her own hysterical fits. He hoped they'd all stay out cold until he got everything set up in the torture chamber, for he was now completely out of chloroform.

There was only one thing left to check: he shuffled over to the front door and glanced around to see if his sister's friends had brought anyone with them. As it was, the street looked completely deserted, and even better, there was no sign of Loomis anywhere. Satisfied, he closed and locked the door and jammed a long bulk of loose wood over the knob to block it to outsiders. Returning to the closet, he pick up the curly haired girl in one arm and the blonde in the other and carried them down the stairs into the chamber. He snapped his fingers at the hypnotized Clugg in the corner. He'd need their help setting everything up for the final phase of his plan...

9:20 p.m.

"Well Dr. Loomis never told me he had anyone working with him," Sheriff Brackett told Samuel, who was leaning against his cruiser, parked in front the Doyles' house once more, "What did you say your name was again?"

"Just call me Mr. Smith," Samuel said.

"Well if I knew about you, maybe we wouldn't have jumped you like that," the sheriff said in a half-apology. He activated his radio again. "Anything, Danny?" he asked his deputy.

"Nothing yet, Sheriff," the deputy told him, "We're searching around Haddonfield High now; no sign of the Strode girl at all."

"Keep looking," Sheriff Brackett urged him. He sighed in frustration. "What am I going to tell her parents when they get back?" he asked out loud. He rounded on Samuel. "Next time I see your friend Loomis, remind me to chew him out for letting this guy out. If he kills even one..."

Samuel abruptly groaned loudly and doubled over, clutching his chest in agony. "What!?" Sheriff Brackett rushed towards him, "Heart attack!?"

"No," Samuel grimaced heavily, "But I do believe something terrible has happened." He put his hand under his shirt and felt a large scar on his chest that he knew hadn't been there before.

There came the squealing of brakes as two cars pulled over across the street. Mr. and Mrs. Strode popped out and rushed over toward the sheriff's cruiser. "Lee," the former greeted him worriedly, "Any news!?"

"None right now, Morgan," Sheriff Brackett shook his head, "I saw Laurie myself when I was leaving for work earlier today. That was around three; nobody's seen her since then. My associate Mr. Smith here," he gestured towards Samuel, still clutching his chest in pain, "believes he knows exactly who...oh my good Lord...!"

He glanced in shock up the block. For the Loomis of the present was staggering towards them, clutching his chest much the way his future self was. "What happened!?" Samuel ran up to him.

"He jumped me in the asylum's car," Loomis groaned, removing his hand to reveal a large bloodstain, "He turned around and rammed the cab I was in head-on. I tried to stop him from taking out the cabdriver, but I failed, and he left me with this."

"He did!?" Sheriff Brackett looked grave now, "That does it, I'm calling the radio and TV stations right away; we need to get the word out that..."

"Will someone please tell us what's going on here!?" Mrs. Strode interrupted.

"I believe I can best handle that," Samuel stepped forward. "Sheriff, take Dr. Loomis here to the hospital and ensure he's all right. Then the two of you circle up to the north end of town and search block by block. Mr. Strode, Mrs. Strode, come with me; we'll search the south side. We'll meet at the Myers house in an hour if we don't find anything."

"I feel perfectly fine to..." Loomis started to protest, but a raised eyebrow from his future self and a quick jerk of his finger towards his chest made him nod softly and mumble, "Very well." He slowly climbed into Sheriff Brackett's cruiser while Samuel waved the Strodes into his own car. "Mr. Smith, would you please tell my wife and I what's going on with Laurie?" Mr. Strode demanded once they were in the back seat.

Samuel held up his hand and waited until he'd pulled out into traffic before explaining solemnly, "I'll be perfectly frank with the two of you on this whole matter: your daughter's life is almost certainly in grave danger as we speak. I'm sure you remember the circumstances in which you adopted her? Well..."

9:42 p.m.

Laurie was starting to feel very sick from the repeated chloroforming as she came to again. Her head was spinning wildly, but she was conscious enough realize she was lying on her back, and something heavy seemed to be holding her in place.

She opened her eyes-and let out a scream that would have carried for miles if she hadn't still been gagged. Hanging from the ceiling above her were two corpses, their lifeless eyes staring blankly back down at her through the dim light in the room she was in. She squirmed about and found herself solidly secured to a table of some kind-her wrists, chest, waist, knees, and ankles were all strapped down tight enough to hold her completely motionless-inside a room that looked like something out of one of the low budget horror films aired this time of year by the independent stations serving Haddonfield. Only this wasn't a film. This was deathly real.

Her mind flashed back to her last moments of consciousness-the Shape capturing her friends. So that had been what its game had been. Her heart froze as she thought of what might have befallen them-whether they were even still alive...

But the sound of loud muffled cries to her left gave reassurance that she at least wasn't alone. She turned her head-the only part of her body she could move at all-to see Annie, gagged herself and strapped down to a large chair, but apparently unhurt as she jerked about from side to side trying to get loose. Then again, Laurie couldn't help noticing the wires trailing out from under Annie's pant leg that seemed to be connected to a generator of some kind behind the chair, like electrodes of some kind...

More heavily muffled cries also filled the air, in front and behind her. Laurie tried to look backwards, but her view was completely blocked by a thick stone slab of some kind that had been laid on the edge of the table behind her head. The view in front of her was wide open, though, and there she saw Lynda, who was also gagged, straitjacketed, and locked upside-down in a tall metal and glass case. She was twisting around in circles inside the case, apparently trying to simultaneously get her arms up over her head and get her feet out of the stockades at the top of the case that had her locked in her upside-down position-clearly a very tall order from what Laurie could tell.

The whole ordeal now made even less sense to her. What was the Shape's motive in kidnapping them all? Money clearly wasn't its driving force anymore...

Speaking of the Shape, it now approached her from her right, still breathing heavily. Just the sight of it sent chills down Laurie's spine. She turned her head away, hoping it would just leave her alone, but it continued standing there, apparently just staring at her. Finally she could take no more and opened her eyes again in the other direction-and screamed into the gag again to find two very ugly men-one of them deformed-staring at her as well with blank, soulless glances. It was then the Shape snapped its fingers, and the men shuffled off out of sight behind the stone slab at Laurie's head. She strained to look around it-and noticed the edge of what appeared to be a coffin set on sawhorses shaking violently, thus revealing Janet's fate to her-but could no longer make out the men, apart from a loud clanking sound. She craned her head, and got a good look at the slab. It was actually a tombstone with the name JUDITH MYERS written on it. Judith Myers...there was something familiar about this name, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it...

The clanking grew louder, and the next thing Laurie knew, she was looking right up at a large iron slab with long, sharp spikes pointing downwards...RIGHT AT HER. Her heart froze as the Shape and its associates locked the structure the spikes were on into place around the table she was strapped down to. Now she knew all too clearly what its intentions were. And it scared her to death.

She dared to look up at the Shape. It gave her a brief, emotionless glance before turning its blank gaze to the spikes. It ran its hand down the length of one of them, nodded, and walked briskly out of sight behind the tombstone again. There came loud muffled cries from Annie to Laurie's left as she took in what her friend's apparent predicament was to be. Laurie rolled her head over and noted her friend straining harder than ever to get out of the chair. She more than appreciated Annie's concern for her-even if it appeared Annie seemed unaware of the possible danger she herself was in-but Laurie knew it would take too long for her friend to be able to help her directly. She started straining hard against the straps holding her down to the table, hoping her time-and that of her fellow prisoners-wasn't nearly up...