A Darkness in Mind 4 - or 'This Horror World is way more scarier with its Lewdness' (Semi-Lewd Horrorverse SI)
Smith's Grove Sanitarium.
The name of the place for someone that had watched the 'Thorn' timeline was a dreadful one. I had to verify a few things first before I snuck into the old office once owned by Samuel Loomis and then taken by his 'student', Dr. Sartain. The receptionist was kind enough to give me the piece of information which left me in a very unnerved state of mind. Terence Wynn existed in this timeline and while he had died a few decades ago, his successor was his son, Dr. August Wynn.
These two were potential threats for a simple reason: Terence had been in charge of the Cult using Michael as the Avatar of a bloodthirsty demon. I want to say that this timeline kept the 'Druidic' nature of this monster, but as I was able to sneak in the Sanitarium and make my way to my destination, I was introduced by numerous documents which proved the situation was very bad.
I had to close the door locked, prepare a window from where make a potential escape in case my worst fears were proved right and also use the small USB I bought with the emergency money my 'boss' gave me to get the info I needed saved up as evidence. With all of that dealt with, my research started and... I could tell shit was quite fucky considering what I found on the matter.
Samuel Loomis was a good guy in most timelines. There was a known instance where that wasn't truly honest as a representation and that was within the '4-6' timeline. The symbol of Thorn in his palm suggested he once had a connection with the cult, but cut away from it in his youth. In this timeline, a Cult existed, but while Loomis had cut ties with them, he still kept a journal of investigation where he would keep this stuff ready for anyone to learn from it.
Sartain preserved it and I could tell it was one of the factors that fueled his obsession about Michael Myers. The first pages within the journal saved up in his computer were a bit of a study on the Cult's action. The Cult of Thorn was not some sketchy cult that tried to use druidic magic to save Haddonfield from plagues and damnation by cursing a child, but a Nazi Cult that came to be around the late 40s through a small group of refugees setting base near Haddonfield. Most had their names changed, with Loomis' own father having been a 'local assistant' to the cause.
That explained the name as Nazi Germany had a boner for Nordic revivals of this kind. Still, I was a bit surprised of what I read next: the source of these powers was no 'Demon'. It wasn't even a general entity as the Cult had found a way to tap into an unknown dimension where an essence would corrupt and 'empower' a being to produce super-soldiers.
Michael Myers was a candidate within fifteen other children, such a case starting right by birth when the candidates being subjected to special concoctions that were lethal in general and yet allowed for the children to absorb the essence provided by the scientists with ease. When all the children of that batch died, the experiment got close enough to be labeled a failure, but Michael's survival from being a temporary stillborn granted the cult hope.
A few years in being nurtured by his family, Michael felt a strong urge to kill during Halloween. The reason why this happened was ruled out as 'the essence amplifying the animal instincts and tapping into young Michael's psychotic mindset' during Halloween. Similar events rarely happened also in times of great distress and frustration, even going as far as increasing during times of closeness to death.
Michael was brought to be studied and 'tutored' for an eventual return. Time goes by, but Loomis is kept in the dark about what the Cult was doing with Michael as the child-turning-teen said nothing at all during their sessions. By the time he was 21, Michael managed to escape and 'miraculously' make it to Haddonfield despite the place being quite far from the town and requiring a vehicle to get there as quickly as the killer did.
Loomis suggested a potential 'training' being involved where Michael was taught how to drive, how to blend with the background and how to kill as ruthlessly as he was able to. Not only that, but something happened to Michael during the events of the first movie. Something made him quit from trying to kill anyone for a time. Loomis put a metaphorical leash on him after the events that saw Laurie Strode as the only survivor, expecting Michael to try another escape.
Multiple Halloween passed, but Michael made no effort to escape.
Instead, Loomis had the chance to finally dig deeper on what was going on with Michael as a medical examination warranted by the state allowed him to see his current physical conditions and... it was off the charts. The strength, the endurance- heck, the production of dopamine was off the charts and Michael's emotional balance was yeeted out of the window.
The more he looked into it, the more Loomis understood why Michael's psychosis, coupled with his pseudo-supernatural power, made him a dangerous threat to humanity as a whole. Extermination was asked but denied on several grounds. Terence Wynn made it a personal mission to oppose Loomis whenever it was possible. He even tried to have him fired, but many statal officers pushed back on the notion as they found Loomis to be 'lucid and capable' to handle his current work as an 'exceptionally-gifted psychiatrician'.
In this stalemate, one good thing was reported by Loomis. Nothing much happened during a few decades beyond trying to have Michael break free from the institution earlier than he did in this timeline. None of these attempts worked, Loomis' insistence to keep him locked up and the media regaling the subject intense attention made any chance close to zero. It definitely didn't help that Michael was reluctant to do much of what he would usually need to do to live. Eating, barely moving, and then drinking- nothing else was done beyond a few other necessary actions his body demanded.
That didn't stop the Cult from plotting other means to go around it.
October 31st, 1998- a child that bore the Myers last name was born. A year before, Loomis had noticed a bizarre attempt of the administrator to try a 'different practice to get Michael to talk'. Dawn Serafine, the administrator's secretary and experienced pediatrician, was given the chance to take more than half the usual sessions Loomis had with Michael.
For hours, Loomis was denied the means to know what would transpire from these sessions, only to see Michael 'horribly frustrated and annoyed by something'. No words were uttered on the matter, but the child's birth was enough to give him a chilling realization. If Michael couldn't be their soldier, then his child would. Maria 'Serafine' was thus born and Loomis had opened a journal about her too... which wasn't penned much by him since he found his death in 1999.
Sartain's documentation takes over from this point onward, and while he had an easier time getting the confidence of the Cult, the things he wrote made me realize how depraved the bastard was. The study on Maria Myers was intensive, but also not conducted by Sartain- he just took notes as the child was being monitored by other doctors. Years passed, but Sartain had the chance to get more info on how Maria was born. Michael had to be sedated and restrained heavily, but the 'deed had to be done'.
As much as I was horrified by Michael Myers as a killer, I really couldn't find it in me to just ignore the fact he got raped by some bitch trying to get a baby out of him in the name of a 'greater good'. I swear, the indoctrination mentioned by Loomis over the new generations of the cultists had to have been so intense to get these sickos to be like this...
Still, years go by and Sartain had a greater grasp of Maria's early life. She wasn't pushed into murdering anything until she was five, where, out of deep murderous urges, killed three squirrels. What 'worried' the cult was the fact Maria spent days crying after that accident. She was 'punished' for thinking it was wrong, yet the regret shown at this young age predicted a lengthy 'tutoring' to fix that.
Time goes by and the reports about Maria started to grow scarce. Something happened which made the Cult nervous of giving info on Maria, something that went on until the last notes about Michael Myers being sent to another facility to 'lock him up for good'. Sartain brought up the two journalists that 'triggered' his resurgence, and he noted how his soul reacted strongly to the mask that was brought to him. It was the same as the one he used decades ago and something about it called at him.
He started to talk more, showing some degree of 'nervousness' for something that was about to happen. Sartain could tell the mask returned him these primordial voices that demanded him to murder, and that's where Sartain found the solution: the Avatar of Thorn wasn't to find their full potential until they were old enough and given a strong enough catalyst to channel their murderous selves.
The mask worked perfectly for Michael but... nothing said it would work for Maria. In fact, as I looked at the last reported height, comparing it to the girl that I met at the grocery shop and the height of one that killed Laurie Strode as they were caught on cameras, I could tell one thing-
The one that killed Laurie was not Maria. Someone else did this. Someone that wanted to emulate Michael.
It had been hours since I started digging in this matter, and since most of the workers around were just cleaning out their offices first, no one noticed the small light I had in the dark room while I read this stuff. That was until I started to upload the journals in the USB pen, and saw a figure standing right by the doorstep. By the height alone, I knew it was Maria.
Fuck's sake!
The door shook as she slammed her knife through it, starting to break into it as the download continued swiftly and it was soon done. As the door was one push away from collapsing, I collected the USB and rushed out of the window. There was an emergency staircase, giving me the chance to reach the streets, rush at the nearest bus and get back to Haddonfield for one last task at hand before these pseudo-Nazis got what they wanted.
For Maria to be able to reach her full potential, Sartain had mentioned in his studies, she would have to draw the blood that 'shattered' her father's legacy. If it wasn't Laurie, then it was going to be her granddaughter, Allyson.
AN
Altered lore of '4-6 Timeline' to fit with the 2018 continuity, but the cult still exists. Michael is dead, but someone is emulating him and Maria is not the only one owning to his legacy. Next time, a battle with three monstrous killers.
