Haddonfield, Georgia
A series of leaves and twigs got tangled in her reddish hair as sixteen year old Jenny Baylor tripped over the roots of a large tree and landed in the dirt. "Oh great," she groaned. "I'm going to get bullied to death near the Giving Tree!" Mud caked her cheek as she got up and listened to her evil classmates stalking her.
"Find the bitch!" Mean girl Deedee Martin ordered her boyfriend Pit Lassiter while clutching a hammer in her hand.
"We'll make her pay!" Pit smirked, playing with his baseball bat. "Snitches get stitches!"
Their mutual friend, Martha, agreed as she tightened her grip on her knife. "I can't believe that bitch blabbed about cheating on our math exams! She's trying to get us kicked out of school!"
"Not if we shut her up permanently," her boyfriend Jose said menacingly while slapping a lead pipe into his hand. "Now fan out before it gets dark!"
The crowd dispersed as they went to look for her. Jenny waited behind a tall tree trunk until her bullies disappeared into the forest. She tried to remember what happened early in the morning that got her in the position she was in. She recalled how she saw the quartet in scary masks in her bedroom putting a chloroform rag over mouth, knocking her out unconscious and the next thing she remembered was waking up tied up in the boiler room of Green View Academy, the school she attended on scholarship.
A week ago she had caught the four, Deedee, Pit, Martha, and Jose and their ringleader, Sandra Tremayne, cheating on their math exams and informed the faculty about it but to no avail as their rich parents covered up the incident with monetary donations to the school. It was a case of affluenze, the affluent and wealthy make all the rules. With a slap on the wrist and a warning, Jenny's classmates got off scott free and threatened her with retaliation. However, she never imagined them making good on their threats.
Now here she was. In the woods alone, seeing the sky get dark as she was being hunted by her enemies and having no idea exactly where she was. A tiny grass snake slithered past her bare feet as she knelt down in her soiled nightgown and picked up the tiny reptile. "Okay, little guy, maybe you know the best direction to go. Instantly, her new friend answered her. Gently, she put down the grass snake and followed it over the roots and plants and toward the other side of the forest and hopefully away from danger.
From the secluded foliage, he watched and shook his head. A group of bullying teenagers picking on their helpless classmate. He hated bullies. He hated rich, privileged bullies. He hated rich, privileged white bullies especially. Slipping through the brush in his dark navy, auto mechanic's jumpsuit and faded white William Shatner Halloween mask, he gripped his knife and began to stalk the group of teens.
It was seriously getting dark. Jenny followed her new friend, the grass snake, to a series of trees before someone slammed into her hard. It was Jose.
Shoving her to the ground, the Latino teen slapped the metal bar against his hand and grinned at her. "Going somewhere, gringa?"
Dazed, Jenny tried to get her bearings. Her nightgown covered in dirt, she turned to face him defiantly. "You're one to talk, Jose. Selling your cultural identity out to appease those pendejo gringo rich kids!" She glared at him, much to his own shock. "Yeah, I said it! My family worked in the fields with the migrant workers so I learned a little Spanish including the curse words Guess what, cabrone, your rich gringo friends will never make them one of you! You're a token!"
"Callete la boca!" Jose sneered. "Shut your mouth! You have no idea what you're talking about…"
Before he could argue back, Deedee, Pit, and Martha stepped out of the concealed trees, weapons in hand, and joined Jose.
"Great work, Jose," Deedee congratulated their friend. "You found the bitch!" She tossed her light brown hair as her overly made face did nothing to compliment her pale skin. She pointed her hammer at Jenny. "You didn't think we were going to let you go, did you?"
Jenny rolled her eyes. "Seriously? I'm surprised you four were smart enough to kidnap me. Seeing how Sandra does all the thinking for you! Where is your queen cunt?"
"She's not the boss of us, you hillbilly bitch!" Martha snapped, lifting her knife. Even with her dyed auburn hair, her dark roots could not hide the fact that she was really a brunette. "We're smart too! We came up with the plan to kidnap you at your home and hold you hostage at the school! Sandra isn't the only one who can think up things!"
Jenny scoffed, a bit of her southern twang shining through. "Y'all dumbasses are too stupid to think up a threatening kidnapping plot. This has to be Sandra's. At least, when you were caught cheating, you could've changed your answers a little so it wasn't so obvious! You idiots can't even do that right. Where is the boss lady anyway?"
Pit stepped in, swaying his baseball bat. "Sandra is trying to use her father's connections to cover-up the cheating rumors. It helps when your daddy is a powerful state senator. He's up for reelection and can't have any negative press targeted at his family. She told us to kidnap you and keep you at the school until she deals with stuff and then she'll show up later…"
"Shh," Deedee hushed her boyfriend. "You're not supposed to tell her our plan, moron!"
Once again, Jenny shook her head. "Yup, definitely idiots!"
"Fuck you!" Deedee snapped, she pointed her hammer at the teen in a threatening manner. "Before we put the hurt on you, tell us how you escaped from the boiler room. Those ropes we had on you were tied tight."
Jenny shrugged. "Would you believe that I can make friends with snakes and they chewed through the ropes and helped me escape?="
"You're one fucked up liar," Jose snorted. "No one is going to believe some smelly, crazy bitch! I guess I'll put the hurt on her first." He told his friends. "Sandra said to wait to kill you but she said nothing about bruising you first!." He grinned wickedly as he raised the pipe in his hand.
Jenny remained unfazed. "Do it, cabrone!" She said in defiance. Shutting her eyes, she expected the first strike of the metal pipe. It was going to hurt.
Then a scream and a splash of something touched her cheek and the tip of her bottom lip. It smelled and tasted metallic.
She opened her eyes to see a large, muscular, man in a white mask impaling Jose through the chest with a huge machete. A flood of scarlet poured from the Latino boy's body forming a pool of a bloody puddle as the killer released his knife from the dead teen who collapsed lifeless in front of her. Jenny's eyes widened as she was rendered speechless.
Martha was next. Frozen in fear, she dropped the knife in her hand as the killer grabbed her by the neck and began lifting her up off the ground. Martha struggled as the air was constricted from her lungs before the horrid sound of a snap displayed the mean girl no longer moving and laying as lifeless as a rag doll. The killer then tossed the teenager to the side like yesterday's trash.
Pit and Deedee screamed in terror as they raced into the forest, hoping to evade the masked killer but the assailant remained in place just as the night sky completely blanketed the entire woods. Left alone with the hulking murderer, Jenny knew her demise would be coming soon, she pulled up the hem of her soiled nightgown and hugged her knees as she waited for the inevitable to come. She then closed her eyes and prayed.
"Make it quick and painless!" Jenny pleaded. She pushed her head into knees and waited for the pain to come. It didn't.
She opened her eyes to see the strange killer staring at her with soulless eyes through his white mask, observing her with curiosity.
"Aren't you going to kill me?' She asked him confused.
"What?" The killer replied through a muffled voice of his William Shatner white mask. "In cold blood?" He ripped off the offending disguise and threw it down, including his blood machete to the ground. "Fuck no! Give me a little credit as a serial killer! There are rules and a code of honor here!"
Jenny took a minute to really look at the attacker. Even with the night sky and stars above, the moon illuminated the amazing radiance of his handsome, chiseled face. The killer was an African American Adonis with the body of a Greek God mixed with the male model features of Denzel Washington, Rege-Jean Page, and Idris Elba to match. The awkward teen started to swoon.
Damn, I'm thirsty! She said to herself. He extended his hand and helped her to her feet.
"Thanks," the teen blushed, cleaning the dirt of her nightgown. She slowly lifted her eyes, still cautious. "Are you sure you're not going to kill me? I mean I kinda fit your modus operandi of virginal, nubile teen girl sacrifices. I thought you serial killers were into that kind of thing."
The killer clucked his tongue. "That went out during the Dark Ages of Jack the Ripper, Albert Fish, and Ed Gein. Now we serial murderers, as we'd like to be called, have a rhyme and reason for our motives. Killing is an art form now. We just don't do it all willy nilly."
The teen scratched her chin. "Oh, I didn't know that was a thing now. I've been told it's stab stab, you're now a slab!" She scratched her chin as she pondered the etiquette of serial murdering." She found herself blushing as she stared at his striking mug. "So, does my would-be killer have a name?"
"It's Michael Meyers," said the serial murderer proudly.
Jenny gasped. "Michael Meyers? Thee Michael Meyers? You're famous here in Haddonfield! You're like a boogeyman of our town! The serial killer fan clubs make pilgrimages here just to visit all the places you murdered teenagers and babysitters! It's our number one tourism economy resource!"
Michael kicked the machete on the ground and blushed. "Aww shucks! I'm simply doing my job and killing is my passion. I'm glad people enjoy my work!"
"I'm Jennifer Baylor, Jenny for short." She introduced herself. "Is it true you killed your older sister because she was having sex with her boyfriend instead of babysitting you?" The teen asked the famous killer.
Michael exhaled. "Well, Jenny Baylor. It's more complicated than that. You gotta remember that Haddonfield is a sundown town and there is a long history of racial genocide particularly toward the original slaves that were brought here and the freed blacks people that ended up staying making a life. Haddonfield has always been a hotspot for the KKK, white supremacy, and Neo-Nazis as well as many deaths focusing on anyone who is a person of color that has been covered up by the townsfolk, law enforcement, and many corrupt people in charge. I, myself, am a product and victim of it."
Jenny cocked her head. "In what way?" She wondered, listening to his story intently.
"It started with my adoption," Michael informed her, painting a picture. "Good Christian white family adopts an orphaned black boy that looks good on paper, in their church and their local community. By all appearances, it's picture perfect but behind closed doors is a web of lies of neglect, deceit, and abuse. My family locked me in a closet, starved me, and called me every racist name you can think of Eventually, six year old me snapped and when my adoptive teenage sister was doing the deed with her boyfriend, I snuck into her bedroom, killed them both, and made my escape. However, the police caught me and threw me into a mental asylum where my adoptive family left me there to rot. It's all very sad but it became my villain origin story."
Jenny covered her mouth. "That's horrible! How did you escape?"
"To make a long story short," he continued. "Sold my soul to some demon named Samedi, became a trained murderer as an adult and got transformed into this immortal serial killer ever since, righting the wrongs and the sins of every POC that has been unjustly killed in Haddonfield, and seeking vengeance on all the descendants of the original hate groups who founded this town. It's rather cathartic."
"Does that include the family of Laurie Strode?" Jenny asked the killer.
Michael seemed impressed by her research and nodded. "Ah, you know my arch nemesis?"
The teen shrugged. "Who doesn't? Laurie has made the celebrity victim rounds as the famous Final Girl on talk shows, movies, and even her self-help books. I mean she's worth millions. Who wouldn't want to murder her to get a share of the jackpot?"
"Yeah," Michael nodded. "No matter how much we face off, she always survives in the end. It's getting pretty annoying to do this whole reboot, remake thing, and it's getting really old, not to mention boring."
"Ever thought of not killing her?" Jenny suggested.
Michael shrugged again. "I mean it's the principle. Her family comes from a long line of racists including her great great grandfather who was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Haddonfield. However, the townsfolk covered that fact up after the civil rights movement. Laurie won't admit that side of her family and that her legacy is based on bigotry and hatred."
The teen pouted. "That sucks."
"Yeah, tell me about" Michael released a breath. "But someone's gotta do this job." He leaned in toward the teenager. "What's your story? Why did your bullies want to kill you?"
Jenny twisted her lips. "Elitism and the fact that I don't take shit from rich folks. I'm from a working class family in the Appalachians and I got lucky to get a scholarship to the prestigious Green View Academy. My classmates aren't exactly welcoming. They made my life hell in school, and the fact I exposed their academic cheating made me their target as well, and their social pariah. They decided to kidnap me and hold me hostage with the intent of maybe killing me afterwards but then you came along and…well, you know what happened next."
Michael bowed down to her. "You're very much welcomed." He went to grab his mask and machete off the ground. "Now I have a job to finish, so you'll have to excuse me." He pointed to the south end of the woods. "Cross through those trees which will lead you to the nearby road. Flag a car down and they'll take you back to civilization"
"What are you going to do?" She asked him.
"I can't have witnesses, especially wicked, sinful ones," the killer informed her. "It would ruin my reputation. I have to finish what I started. Right now, your bullies have a head start. It'll take me a while to stalk and kill them."
"Oooh!" Jenny remarked excitedly. "Can I watch? I want to stick it to Sandra that her friends were killed and she wasn't here to see it!"
Michael flinched. "Man, for an innocent victim, you're weird."
Jenny shrugged again. "I get that alot. I even throw my whites with my colors when I do laundry. Yup, I'm evil!" She laughed.
"Fine," groaned the serial killer. "Just don't get in my way!"
"Okey dokey," replied the teenager.
They marched into the woods until they came to a clearing that was lit up by the moon's rays. Near the center of a tree stump, Pit laid lifeless; his eyes torn out as a large hulking demonic figure in a trenchcoat and leather pants was munching on an organ that appeared to be attached to Pit's dead corpse. Jenny gasped.
Upon hearing her and Michael approaching, the thing shifted to face them as its grotesque face roared and spread out its batlike wings. Despite this fearful stance, Michael remained unimpressed.
"Chill, JC!" He told the creature. "She's with me!"
The demon retracted its wings and wiped its mouth. "Oh, Michael," said the monster apologetically. "Sorry, it's a force of habit to scare stupid teenagers and nosy bystanders." He extended his clawed hand to her. "Jeepers Creepers, or JC for short."
The teen girl nervously shook it and introduced herself. "Um..Jenny Baylor."
"Good to meet ya, Jenny Baylor." His face turned to the mutilated body of Pit. "Sorry, I'm a messy eater sometimes. I hate to eat his liver and kidneys to replace my damaged ones. I have to consume body parts and organs once mine expire. It's an endless cycle."
"JC is a demon descendant of an Aztec God," explained Michael. "His MO is killing sinful victims and taking their body parts as a form of honor." His face scowled. "He usually stalks his prey on the west coast of the U. S. Killing in the south is my territory!" He folded his arms and frowned. "Rude!"
The Creeper shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I was hungry! Besides, killing and hunting is fair game unless it's on someone's personal property like an apartment, condo, or a huge mansion like in the ATL! Finders keepers!"
Michael rolled his eyes. "At least we have one victim left."
"Too late," noted the Creeper as he pointed to the empty well a few feet away. The trio stared at a decayed and rotted well a few feet away. Something rumbled as they heard a splash and a mound of wet, naked flesh that had been stripped flew from the inside the dark well and landed on the ground with a hard slap. Jenny took a minute to identify the strange, damp mass and realized that the pile of skin was once Deedee Martin. She retched to the side.
Gently, Michael patted her back. "There. There. It takes a while to get used to a yokai when it kills."
After releasing the last of her bile, her head turned to see something moist and grotesque with long, black hair, climbing out of the well and toward the group. It got close to the fleshy mound that once was Deedee and stood up to reveal its decomposed face of dried, bluish pale skin and lifeless white eyes.
"Sadako?" Michael smiled. "Is that you? Long time, no see, girl!" The killer addressed her excitedly.
The yokai dead spirit let a smile through her rotted teeth and released an air of friendliness and warmth. "Michael! It's so good to see you! How long has it been? Seven years?"
"Eight," Michael corrected. "I thought you were cursing videotapes and DVD's in Japan?"
The yokai known as Sadako folded her arms and clucked her tongue. "I was but with the new technology, I'm barely making a mark and bringing my killing curse to stupid teens and ignorant ghost hunters. At least with social media and viral videos, I can make an impression and reach out to my victims but it's a rarity. CGI and even AI has made haunting impossible because no one believes in the paranormal anymore. That's why I'm forced to haunt all old wells across the globe hoping some idiot victim will throw me a bone so I can curse them to death." She then eyed Jenny. "Wow! A virginal, final girl! It's been a long time since I've encountered one! What brings you to this neck of the woods? No pun intended."
"Jenny was almost bullied to death by her classmates before I intervened," Michael replied. "It looks like we all took care of that. I killed two and you and JC got the last ones, so it's all evened out."
Sadako pouted. "I'm glad. The one thing I hate is bullies. My bullies, the Japanese government, hated that I had supernatural psychic abilities and threw me into a well to die. Little did they know, my death turned me into a vengeful yokai spirit who curses anyone who dares watch some VHS tape or social media video. My schtick is killing idiotic teenagers and curious ghost hunters as a lesson to stay away from the unknown." She then looked at the teenager with curiosity. "You don't seem bothered and scared by any of this?"
Jenny shook her head. "Like I was telling Michael, I grew up in the Appalachian region. I'm used to skin-walkers, witches, werewolves, and even those little green men who kidnap the locals in their spaceships to do anal probes. Basically, my family told me to respect these people from the underworld and leave them be and they'll do the same. Trust me, I'm used to seeing and experiencing weird shit!"
"Oh goody!" Sadaka clapped her hands. "Now we're besties! You have to come with us to the All Hallows Ball!"
The teen cocked her brows. "The All Hallows Ball?"
"We like to call it the Killers' Expo," responded the Creeper. "Tonight is Halloween and that means that all supernatural and monstrous creatures attend to celebrate the holiday! Werewolves, vampires, witches, you name it!"
"I was on my way there before I came across your bullies," said Michael. "It was just a coincidence!"
"But I'm a normal virgin victim," protested Jenny. "I wouldn't fit in with you guys." She looked down at her soiled nightgown. "Besides, I would have nothing to wear!"
"Will this do?" Sadako pulled out a wrinkled designer top and skirt that once belonged to the now dead Deedee. She shook it and all the water poured out, soaking the ground, until it was completely dry. The yokai looked at the shriveled mass that once was Deedee Martin. "It's not like she would be needing it. Say you'll come, please?"
Jenny hesitated and shrugged. "Um, sure, why not."
"Yay!" Sadako clapped her hands again. "We're going to have some much fun. Scaring, cursing, and maybe killing a victim or two! It's going to be the best All Hallows Ball ever!"
"The problem is how are we going to get there," noted Michael. "It's twenty miles down the road. I mean I was doing my normal stalking thing so me being late is kind of my reputation. The rest of you would be late to the party."
"Not quite," remarked the Creeper. "I got my truck, remember? I can drive us to the event."
"Then it's settled," Sadako responded. "We get in JC's truck and head off to the ball!" She raised her decayed hand. "I call shotgun!"
Before Jenny could protest, she was wearing her dead classmates clothes and getting into the backseat with a hunky Michael Meyers.
This definitely was not what she was expecting her night to go.
