DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Halloween series in anyway =(. But I DO own Katarzyna and my other OCs.
Chapter Twelve
To say Michael was angry would be an understatement; he was livid. Beyond that even. The sounds of nighttime surrounded him as he angrily stalked down the streets of Haddonfield, hidden amongst the shadows.
His mind kept replaying the scene in the hospital room; how Kat had screamed at him to leave and never come near her or Emmy again. She even denied taking back her dagger, the one he had given her; the only connection left between them from their past.
He hadn't missed the quiver in her lip when she told him she never wanted to see the dagger again, and he certainly hadn't missed the way her eyes filled with tears throughout their exchange or the way her voice cracked the more she insisted he leave. Unbeknownst to Kat, he had lingered outside her hospital window for a few minutes after she assumed he had left. A strange, almost constricting feeling formed in his chest when he watched her bury her face into her hands and begin to sob miserably.
And it was his fault.
His mind took him back to Halloween when he had gone to the diner Kat worked at. He had grown tired of her never being afraid of him and remembered once when they were kids she had nearly shattered his eardrums when she saw a dead animal carcass and screamed bloody murder. Then he remembered that one of the neighborhood kids had buried their pet earlier that day; a guinea pig. It seemed like the perfect thing at the time.
But instead of fear, he had received anger that rivaled his own. All he could see was red as he followed her back into the diner and blocked her from leaving. She glared at him and demanded he move; more of that bravery he couldn't decide whether to hate or admire. He finally found a falter in her when he stepped forward and she immediately backed away, taking out her dagger. That was when he lunged.
He had victims fight back before, desperately trying to save their feeble lives, but he always found it bothersome on his part. But with Kat, he found himself purposely missing opportunities to take her down, prolonging their struggle. He hated to admit it, but he was enjoying himself in their fight.
She had remembered everything he had taught her all those years ago and she even picked up a few new things of her own. But it all ended too soon when he knocked the dagger from her hand and it slid across the room. Making sure his knife was turned in a way so not to hurt her, he gripped her upper arms and yanked her body towards his. He stared into her mismatched eyes, silently challenging her; to what, he didn't know.
It hadn't gone unnoticed by him about the position they were in; it was the same one they were in seven years ago, and it led to things that he tried hard to forget. Then, she whispered his name, her voice sounding different than it did on normal days. He leaned forward, silently demanding to know what she wanted to say; one of his many mistakes that night.
His entire body tensed when Kat leaned forward and kissed him through his mask. Despite the barrier, he could still feel the heat from her lips and the pressure of them against his own. This was the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen!
When he felt her begin to pull away, even he couldn't explain what led him to kissing her back from his side of the mask. She made a noise of surprise before mirroring his actions by gripping his upper arms and continued to return the kiss. It was bringing up more memories that he had fought to forget. Memories like those nights in the asylum…
Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he shoved her away, forgetting that he was still holding his knife until he saw the red begin to stain Kat's top. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked between her wound and the blood that dripped from his knife. He finally got to see the terror in her eyes that he had been desperate to get since she moved back to Haddonfield.
So why wasn't it satisfying?
She ran past him and into the street. He could still hear the sound her body made when the car hit it and she landed on the ground. That wasn't what he wanted either.
After the ambulance had taken her away, he slipped out of the diner with the dagger in hand while the police investigated. A few short minutes later, Michael found himself back at the house, not focusing on anything else; something that was beyond uncommon on his part. He found himself in the attic where piles of boxes sat that held things from Kat's childhood to stuff she never felt like unpacking. He had come across one lone box that was marked 'FRAGILE' and used his knife to cut off the tape and peek inside. It held two casts, one small one and one larger one. He remembered when Kat had gotten those. She had always been a wild and reckless girl.
He took out the smaller cast and remembered it was from when Kat broke her arm. He easily found his name in big red letters and below it were Boo's colorful scribbles. Then he turned the piece of plaster over and saw his mother's smooth handwriting; the same handwriting he and Judith had tried to forge for years to avoid their mother's wrath whenever they got in trouble at school. It never worked.
He sat on the floor of the attic, observing both the casts. He looked over the many drawings that adorned the leg cast; the more girlish ones were obviously by Kat while he had drawn the more…darker images. Putting the casts away, he knew he had to visit Kat in the hospital and return her blade.
But when he had gotten there, he had seen the full extent of his actions. A nasty bruise covered her cheek and the wound he inflicted was bandaged up. He knew she had sustained more injuries but they were covered by her gown. He could see the fear in her eyes when he moved to touch her knife wound and felt a jolt of electricity when the tips of his fingers touched the bandaging.
But then it all went straight to hell.
And that's what brought him to where he was now; seething while standing in the shadows of Lampkin Lane, staring at his home. He couldn't go inside and risk destroying everything in his path; Kat would definitely hunt him down for blood if he ruined everything she owned; not that he wasn't looking forward to another fight.
Unable to keep in his anger anymore, Michael stabbed his knife into a nearby tree with all his strength, hearing the sound of wood splintering from the impact. He needed prey, craved blood. His rage was boiling in him and part of his mind screamed for him to search for Laurie and succeed in his goal of killing her, especially since he missed his chance at Halloween.
But he couldn't harm his sister. Not anymore. She had finally found a loophole in their little cat and mouse game…
She was Emmy's caretaker now when Kat was unavailable.
But, why should he care that the little girl loved and idolized his sister? He shouldn't be feeling such things! For eighteen years he repressed every possible emotion and seven of those years erasing anything Kat brought back to him. Now that child was doing it all over again. He felt like he should be protecting her if anything. Not a good sign.
He felt his rage slowly being ebbed away at the thought of Emmy. She had become like his shadow over time and seemed to be turning into a mini version of him. Another reason for Kat to hate him.
But something about Emmy didn't sit right with him. When he looked at her, he felt like he was looking in a mirror, except for the fact she was a girl. But they shared a lot of the same qualities: the dirty blonde hair, the pale skin, the twisted sense of humor. The only real difference was her mismatched eyes.
The same mismatched eyes as Kat…
He shook the thought from his head; there was no possible way. He turned on his heel and walked down the street towards the house Laurie now lived in. What Kat didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
/oo/
For a girl who had spent half her life trying to stay alive from her homicidal brother, Laurie seemed to neglect to lock all the windows on the first floor. Walking silently up the stairs, he weighed his options on which door to go through. Finally he settled on the on the door with foam flowers scattered on it.
It led him to the guest room where he found Emmy curled up under the covers, sucking her thumb as she slept. Whatever rage was left in him seemed to vanish, much to his chagrin, as he walked up to the child, sheathing his knife into the waistband of his suit, and staring down at her.
Seeming to sense she wasn't alone, Emmy stirred and let out a few annoyed moans before opening her eyes. Her face suddenly lit up when she saw he was there and Michael couldn't help but notice, for the first time, her smile was the same as Kat's.
No, it was impossible.
"Hi, Michael!" she whispered, sitting up in bed and leaning over to turn on the light resting on the nightstand. She eagerly patted the spot beside her, demanding he sit down. Instead, Michael found himself kneeling down to her level.
"Did you see Kat?" she asked bluntly and the constricting feeling returned in his chest. Michael forced himself to nod. Suddenly, Emmy's smile faded.
"Can I ask you a question?" she asked and Michael found himself nodding again.
"Kat has a bad cut right here," she made a line with her finger along the same place Kat's wound was, "Did you do that?"
When he didn't answer right away, Emmy's voice became panicked, "It was an accident right?!" she kept her voice down but she became more frantic at his silence,
"Right?!" her bottom lip jutted out and her wide eyes suddenly became glassy as a few tears slipped down her cheeks, "You didn't mean to do that, right Michael?"
Why was she bringing such foreign feelings out of him? For so long he had been the boogeyman who showed no mercy and never left any survivors. Hell, he even hunted his own sister for how many years now? Now, here was a seven year old who was doing the impossible in a matter of five minutes.
"Michael?" he was brought out of his thoughts at the sound of her pathetic voice, laced with tears. He wasn't sure what he was thinking when he brought his hand up and patted the top of her head.
"It was an accident," she said softly and he gave a small nod in response. She sniffled one more time and used her sleeve to wipe her nose and face. Then almost shyly, she twisted the blankets in her hand and asked,
"Did she happen to tell you anything?" Michael only stared at her. What would Kat have told him besides that she hated him, never wanted to see him again, and to stay away from Emmy? What more was there to say? How she wanted him to die next?
Michael moved to pat the top of her head again, but ended up somehow brushing her hair from her face, and soothing her to sleep.
"Goodnight da-," another yawn interrupted her words as Emmy grabbed Michael's other hand and held it in a vice grip before falling asleep. Michael didn't move for the few minutes that followed, allowing her to tighten her grasp on his hand; she did have quite a grip, he had to admit.
What was she about to call him before she gave into exhaustion? It couldn't have been what he thought it was. There was no way, right? In his head, Michael did the math and found that everything added up. She couldn't be…
He had gotten a good look at Emmy during their conversation and found one more quality they shared. Emmy's blue eye was the same color as his. And her other eye was black; an attribute that was too obvious to ignore. She had Kat's heterochromia, a hereditary trait, yet her eyes were the same color as his.
Everything was leading to the same conclusion no matter how he looked at it. Her appearance, the similarities she shared with him and Kat, her disturbing side and, from what he witnessed over the past two months, her unusual talent with sharp objects. That alone explained why Kat was reluctant to let her handle anything with a point. Now it was becoming even clearer. Everything was staring him right in the face.
He couldn't deny it anymore.
Emelyn was his daughter.
Kat had been pregnant when she left for California.
And she had looked him dead in the eye when she told him multiple times that Emmy was her cousin.
Carefully pulling his hand free from his child's, Michael left the room. He casted a glance at Laurie's door but continued on his way out of the house. He had more important matters at hand.
He needed to see Kat again.
Review! I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the best. So Michael has figured it out and is now angry again! What will happen when he forces another meeting with Kat who wants nothing to do with him?
Oh and next chapter you guys may hate me a little. If not next chapter then one of these chapters soon. But don't worry! I will make it up to you!
Until next time, read and review!