Chapter Two

The Shape of Evil

"You're talking about [Michael Myers] as if he's human. You shouldn't. That part of him? It died years ago." Dr. Samuel Loomis to a journalist when asked about Michael Myers, 1981

October 30th, 1979

Haddonfield, Illinois

It had been a year since the fire… since his doctor tried to kill them both. It had taken days for him to heal from that, and it would be much longer before he could continue his work. His clothing hadn't been able to regenerate as he had but that was of no consequence. He could find more. He just needed to find the right time to escape. The sewer he had found was damp, cold, and dark, but it was hidden.

He didn't care about the dampness, darkness, or cold. He no longer felt any of that. Hadn't since that fateful Halloween night fifteen years ago. He hadn't really felt anything at all since then. No real emotions or sensations. The only real emotion he could even feel now was the rage.

There were some small, fleeting moments where sadness or disgust won against the rage. These gave him a small window of sanity. In those few moments, he was Michael Audrey Myers, the six-year-old boy who had a wonderful family. There were very few instances of those moments. Most of his life he'd spent as "The Shape". He was, in essence, as the doctor had put it, evil "shaped like a man".

It was beginning to rain outside. Perhaps this would be the night he could escape? The rain would make visibility hard, and he could slip away, find a new set of clothes, and continue after his sister. The rain had started out light but was growing heavier. It was most certainly time for him to go.

He stood up and began to walk to the sewer's run-off pipe. He was sure he wouldn't have issues leaving his temporary hideout. That's when he heard the vehicles outside. One had the familiar rumbling of a tow truck while another sounded like it had engine issues. They had to be close by…

He shielded his eyes from the light of day despite it being overcast. Four days with very little sun meant that he was blinded for only a few moments. That, and the not totally healed injury to his eye from his sister meant that the vision in that eye wasn't particularly good. As his eyes adjusted, he looked to where he could hear the pair of vehicles.

One was a tow truck, as he expected. The other was a cream-colored nineteen-seventy-seven Delta eighty-eight. Smoke was billowing out under the Delta's hood, and he could see a pair of teens looking very embarrassed beside the tow truck. An older man in a set of coveralls almost exactly like his own. He glanced at the company name on the tow truck and had his suspicion confirmed. The tow truck driver was from Phelp's Garage.

He carefully crept up the hill where the two vehicles were parked. He gave a quick glance to the teens, making sure they weren't paying attention to his current target, before looking to the bridge itself. There were no cars coming from either direction. Good.

The mechanic was looking into the engine, oblivious to his surroundings. The Shape was deadly silent as he came up behind the mechanic. His hand reached down to the toolbox next to the mechanic's feet. He grasped the hammer that had been lying atop the other tools in the box before flipping it around in his hand to where the claws faced his knuckles.

The claws on the hammer found themselves embedded into the mechanic's spine when the Shape swung. The mechanic dropped instantly, blood pouring out of the wound. The Shape walked to the other side of the Delta after slamming the hood down. The teens were both startled by the noise, but the Shape ignored their reactions and moved toward the teen who had stayed by the truck.

Before the teen could figure out what was happening, the Shape put his hand over the teen's mouth and his other hand on the back of their head. A loud, crackling noise echoed into the night, and the Shape could no longer hear the teen's muffled cries. He let go of the dead teen and swiftly but silently approached the final teen still focused on the mechanic. the Shape wrapped one hand around the teen's throat when he turned toward him before bashing them against the Delta's hood. By the time he was done, the hood was dented and the teen's skull was like a cracked eggshell.

The Shape dragged all three bodies away from the cars before rolling them down the hill towards the sewer. He stripped the keys and uniform off the mechanic before taking off his own ragged clothing. The mask he'd worn was serviceable, but it would be better to find a replacement. That was easily accomplished since most stores would still have the mask. He would need to go outside Haddonfield, however. It was far too dangerous to get one here. He wouldn't be surprised if the police still had the hardware store that he'd taken the mask from under guard.

Grabbing a selection of tools from the mechanic's toolbox, he stashed them inside the tow truck's passenger side. He sat down in the driver's seat and started the truck after that. The truck started with no issues. He removed his mask as he got onto the bridge. Once on the bridge he took the burnt and bloody mask off and tossed it into the passenger's side.

It wouldn't be long before he got a new mask. After all, the closest town to Haddonfield was Ridgemont, and that was only twenty miles away. Then all he needed to do was find his sister. What could possibly go wrong?

April 30th, 2014

Male Dormitories, Yokai Academy

Tsukune woke up in an utterly dark room, though a crack in the window curtains told him it was still night. He turned to look at the clock next to his futon to see what time it was exactly, wanting to know if he could go back to sleep, which was very unusual for him.

Ever since he'd met Moka, the nightmares had become more infrequent, allowing him to go to sleep without medication. It was nice to get a good night's sleep on his own. That didn't come without the dangers of having a nightmare though. He put up with it, however. They were only dreams after all.

The clock read two-forty-five a.m. That meant he had roughly six hours left to sleep. Feeling that would be the smart idea, he turned away from the clock and shut his eyes once more. He drifted off in a matter of minutes. As he drifted, his blank-faced counterpart woke to take control of their body. The blank-faced Tsukune sat up like a Vampire out of an old movie. He surveyed his surroundings for only a moment before standing.

He grabbed the mask from where his human side had placed it: the desk near the window. He slipped it over his head before stalking over to the door. He had no weapon, but that was no issue. His hands would suffice. He could do many things with them, from breaking someone's neck to bashing their brains out. He silently opened the door and began his trek to his newest target.

It had become a new thing, the people he targeted. It was to sate a need that had begun when the big monster had nearly killed his human side a week ago. He could not let his human side die. If he had, he'd end up like his recent ancestor, what his human side referred to as "the ghost"... or possibly even worse.

The ghost was what many like himself became if their human side was weakened far too much. For the ghost, and the others of their kind, that was when they experienced the dream that created them. The dream that told them of the curse that had been placed upon them seventeen hundred years ago. The dream that showed them why they were cursed. The dream of their kind's original sin. The dream of that cold Samhain night, when Enda killed Deidre, the woman who humiliated him, and Cullain, her betrothed, then cursed to pass his murderous rage onto those who shared his soul.

His ancestor was the most recent of those to be affected by the curse, not counting him of course. Others in his "soul line" were considered some of the worst killers in human history. Monsters like "Jack the Ripper" and "The Zodiac Killer". The ways of their trade differed, of course, but what connected them was the soul of Enda. His ancestor was the first to be related by blood though. He didn't know what the significance of that was and he didn't really care.

All that mattered was keeping his human side strong enough to fight back the curse when it played its trump card: when it showed him the dream. They are Enda in that dream. When Enda kills his humiliator and her husband-to-be, they are then literally torn apart by the tribespeople who had been there that Samhain night. Because of that, their human side is severely weakened, and that allows their cursed counterpart to run rampant. This then begins their new nightmare; when they become killers.

The only way for their new nightmare to end is when the human part of them gains enough strength to kill their cursed counterpart. Once that is done, the two will be allowed to rest finally. In the rarest of cases, the human has enough strength to continue living past the death of their counterpart.

What many of those human sides do not know is that their cursed counterparts assist in ending the nightmare. They are simply their human counterparts with an unquenchable need to kill. They share personalities, memories, emotions, anything that makes their human side human… as long as the human part exists enough to affect the cursed counterpart.

His ancestor's human side was far too young when he saw the dream of Enda. It took the human side thirty-five years to end his counterpart's reign of terror, and even then, it required the help of his sister. Not that she'd known that of course. She'd seen him as many of his kind's victims saw them: insane nigh-unstoppable murderers who'd ruined their lives.

His human side might be able to survive, but he had to make sure that could happen. That meant killing those that would pose a threat to that. It was not an easy task to accomplish, but he'd managed to do it so far. This night should be no different. He already knew where his target was. It was simply a matter of getting the drop on them.

As Tsukune's cursed counterpart walked toward the exit of the dorm, he began formulating a plan.

Six hours later

Yokai Academy

Tsukune Aono yawned as he walked toward school. Despite easily going back to bed earlier, he still felt tired. That wasn't out of the ordinary of course. People were naturally tired when they first woke up. It took a little movement to get them ready for the day… and caffeine. He hadn't gotten that crucial second part due to a long line of students in front of the vending machine.

"Not a problem," he'd thought, "I'll just get some tea from the vending machine."

He hadn't known that the second nearest vending machine would be on the school campus proper. He yawned again as he gazed around, wondering if he would see the ghost again. He didn't see him behind the trees on the right or left and a quick look behind him confirmed the ghost wasn't in his immediate vicinity. He guessed it was somewhat early for the ghost.

Amazingly, he wasn't that bothered by the ghost anymore. It had taken a couple of weeks to get used to it if he was being honest. When he realized it wasn't going to do anything more than watch him he'd stopped caring. He wondered if ghosts were a nuisance here… or if anyone else could them. Perhaps it was a human only thing?

He had also gotten used to the Monster World's look. Sure, it was creepy, but after a while it lost its effect. It was only some graves and dead trees after all. Not really all that scary in comparison to the monster students. The students also weren't quite as terrifying as they were that first day. They acted just like human teens. Evidently how hormonal teenagers acted were one of the things the Human World and the Monster World had in common.

"Good morning Tsukune!" a familiar voice called to him from behind. He turned and smiled at the rapidly approaching Moka.

He tilted his neck to the side as part of how the pair started their day. "Morning Moka. Sleep well?"

Ever since Moka drank his blood on the first day, she was hooked on it. She'd mentioned how his blood was better than the tomato juice she usually drank and wasn't as sour as monster blood was. He'd been a little apprehensive about it at first but found it didn't hurt as much as it had the first time. Since the second day of school, it had become a routine.

Moka smiled as she bit into his neck, having her meal before answering him. "Yep! How about you? Any nightmares?"

"Nope. Slept like a baby, though I'm still a little tired. I'm thinking it might be the fact I haven't had any caffeine yet."

Moka giggled at that as they continued to the academy. They noticed a commotion near the academy's entrance as they got closer. It was hard to tell what it was all about, but it could only be two things. One was the pervert who kept plastering pictures of the female students undressing on the outdoor bulletin board… the other was far worse. Judging by the faces of the other students, it was the latter thing, another body.

People started dying four days after Tsukune and Moka's "fight" with Saizo. There were seven bodies to everyone's knowledge. The first one had been tame, a pair of stab wounds to the back, around where the lungs were. The ones after the first were far less tame. This body, the eighth by Tsukune's count, was the worst.

It was a girl from what he could tell, but the face and head were so mangled it was impossible to be sure. He could see a broken bone sticking out of the body's right arm. There were sixteen stab wounds all around the torso plus enough slashes across the throat to nearly decapitate the body. Both legs were quite obviously broken.

Her body was quite slender, and he would have mistakenly thought it was a guy had it not been for the way her hips were shaped. She was about five foot three inches if his math was right. Her nails, those that remained on her hand, were a mint-green color. He could see the beginning of a tattoo under her left sleeve.

He couldn't stomach any more details, feeling sick, and had to step back. Moka joined him, looking even worse. The murmuring from the crowd didn't help.

"Fuck me…" one voice said, their voice barely above a whisper.

Another was seething, growling out a curse in a language Tsukune had never heard before. "When are they gonna catch this sick freak?"

"Anyone know who this is… er… was?"

"I-I think it was Konatsu Imari from Class 3-C. She… always wore that nail polish."

"Clear off, all of you!" a voice louder than the others cried as the crowd parted and formed a path to the body.

A group of teens in black and white uniforms approached the corpse, one holding a sheet to cover the body with. The crowd around them looked terrified, and Tsukune had a pressing urge to move away from them. He noticed Moka beginning to turn as green as her school uniform. He led her inside the academy, stopping at a nearby vending machine.

"Feeling better?" he asked as she took a sip from her tomato juice.

She nodded before rubbing her eyes. Tears had started to well up from what she'd seen. He grimaced as he saw her wet eyes. Remembering how his mother once helped him after his nightmares, he reached up to rub her back. She glanced at him and gave a fragile smile.

"My mom did this whenever I'd had a nightmare. Usually calmed me down pretty well."

"She sounds nice, Tsukune."

"She is… come on. Don't wanna be late, now do we?"

Homeroom, Yokai Academy

Their class wasn't all that far from the entrance. It was empty for the most part due to the body outside. Nekonome was sitting behind her desk looking quite sad. The tufts on her head, which Tsukune knew now were actually cat ears, were twitching every so often. Tsukune remembered reading somewhere that that meant a cat was nervous.

When their teacher noticed them, she tried to become cheerful. It wasn't successful. Tsukune gave what he believed was a reassuring smile before heading to his seat. He pulled out what he needed for his first class, which considering that it was a Wednesday, was his English booklet.

He had zero trouble with English. It had been his second language growing up as his father was American. His father had taken his mother's surname when they'd been married, changing his name from Tate to Aono. Thanks to his heritage this class was one of the easier ones.

Moka wasn't far behind as she too sat down. They chatted quietly as other students started coming in. One in particular caught his eye as they sat down in front of him. It was a girl wearing a light brown skirt, a white sweatshirt with navy blue sleeves, a gold pendant, dark & light purple striped stockings, and white shoes. She was also wearing a belt that was tied to her left leg. She had light purple hair from what he could tell. He hadn't gotten a good look at her face but that was neither here nor there.

He hadn't ever seen her before. The seat in front of him was empty usually, so to see her sit there was new. He heard something crinkle before he noticed the small sucker in her hand.

"It's rude to stare," the girl said quietly as she turned to face Moka and him.

He flushed and looked at the desk surface before replying. "Sorry… it's just that no one sits there. I was wondering why you would."

"Because it's my seat. I had to miss the first couple of weeks here. Seeing as I'll be here for the rest of the semester, I should introduce myself, huh? I'm Mizore Shirayuki."

"I'm Tsukune Aono and the girl behind me is Moka Akashiya. It's nice to meet you!"

"Likewise. Say, do you two know anything about what's been going on while I've been away? I noticed a crowd by the entrance when I was coming in."

"Oh…"

"I'm surprised you weren't told by the staff when you came here. There's been a string of murders recently. The crowd was for the latest victim… I'll spare you the details, Mizore, but suffice it to say it was horrific," Moka answered sadly.

"Hm," Mizore replied simply before turning back around without another word.

Tsukune wasn't surprised by this. Moka had told him on his second day here that the graves outside weren't just for show. They were the graves of students who'd been found dead at or killed in the academy. The Monster World was naturally far more violent than the Human one, so everyone was used to such violence. It was why the academy wasn't being shut down.

It didn't take long after their small conversation with Mizore for everyone else to enter the classroom. English got underway quickly as an attempt to distract the students from the newest victim of the "Yokai Academy Slasher". Nekonome asked him and the other students to flip to page twenty in their booklets before beginning the lesson. He lost track of time as she spoke, the material fairly boring as he was already an English speaker.

Lunch came quickly for Tsukune. With no clock in the classroom, he'd focused on the lesson to stave off the boredom of simply sitting at his desk. Moka was standing next to his chair already, a smile on her face.

"Ready for lunch, Tsukune?" she asked as she held out a hand to him.

Tsukune took the offered hand as he stood up from his desk, his hand unknowingly wiping away the 'Samhain' he'd wrote. "Sure. Wonder what they are serving today…"

As the pair were about to start moving, they noticed Mizore was sleeping on top of the desk. She was snoring lightly and had a small line of drool connecting her to the desk. He absently wondered how long she'd been sleeping, while unbeknownst to him, his cursed counterpart studied the girl.

The cursed counterpart knew far more about the students and staff at this school than most. He knew what kind of monsters they all were due to his kind's dealings with them. In a way, it was like a supernatural version of genetic memory. He knew the teacher was a Nekomusume for instance, though she didn't do a very good job of hiding her monster form. Every so often her tail appeared behind her.

That was how he could tell the sleeping girl was Yuki-Onna. As he gazed at the Yuki-Onna, he felt a sense of familiarity. Considering this was the first time he had come across this Yuki-Onna he was intrigued. Why was she familiar? He began to search his kind's memory, another ability of the Shi no Ō, to see if he could find an answer.

His answer came swiftly. The reason for her familiarity was due to her looks. She looked similar enough to a little girl his ancestor had met and spared during his time in the Monster World. Similar in the fact that the two were obviously related. This was most likely that little girl's daughter. It was probably a coincidence her being here, nothing more.

Tsukune thought about waking her up before deciding against it. He didn't want to die for literally waking up a monster. He went to move past her when her snoring stopped. She lifted her head from the desk and gazed around blearily. She looked up at him while wiping her chin, "Lunch?"

"Yep. Moka and I were just gonna head down. Want to join us?" Tsukune asked even though he was already regretting it. He wasn't great with people, Moka seeming to be the only exception so far.

"Sure," Mizore replied as she stood from her desk. Moka's smile, from what Tsukune could see of it, dimmed a little but was back to its usual bright self in no time.

Cafeteria, Yokai Academy

The trio entered the cafeteria and were unnoticed in the throng of students either sitting, waiting in line, or eating. They picked up their lunch trays and selected their lunch easily enough. There was an empty table near one of the various exits the cafeteria had. As they walked to the empty table, students near them grew quiet.

Many were glaring at Tsukune, who now had two beautiful girls accompanying him, while others were leering at Moka and Mizore. He wasn't comfortable with the looks the two girls were getting but was used to the glares. They weren't anything new in his life. He was glad when they reached the table.

Tsukune set his tray down first at the end of the table, away from the other students. Moka sat down next to him while Mizore sat across from them. Her gaze had focused on Tsukune. It seemed like she was trying to remember something.

"Something wrong, Mizore?"

"No… but there's something about you that seems… I don't know, familiar, maybe?"

"Maybe we passed one another in the hall sometime?"

"Haven't been here, remember?"

"Oh yeah… Maybe I just look like someone you knew?"

"Maybe…" Mizore murmured before picking up her utensils and beginning to eat.

Tsukune and Moka looked at each other before they shrugged and began to eat too. As they ate, Moka's rosary glowed softly and the red gem in the center of it changed to look like a cat's eye. It was focused on Tsukune, not that he knew that, of course. His counterpart was aware on the other hand. Despite both the Outer personalities of Moka and Tsukune being completely unaware of the interaction, the two Inner monsters in both were staring each other down.

Inside the Rosary

The interior of the rosary reminded the Inner version of Moka of her room in the family castle. Everything was colored maroon red, her favorite color, and the moon shone brightly through a glass window. It wasn't real, of course. All a façade created by her father for her. That wasn't particularly important at the moment, however. What was important was the being standing only a foot or so away from the bed.

The being was almost an exact duplicate of the picture she'd seen in that forbidden book: the emotionless white mask, a black mechanic's jumpsuit, and black work boots. The differences were few but distinguishable. He was lankier, shorter, and for lack of a better term, younger than the picture version. He was unarmed, and though his mask hid his eyes, she could tell he was looking at her.

She wasn't intimidated by him. She was, on the other hand, wary of him. She had read about the picture version's time in the Monster World. The monsters he'd slaughtered from the villages of witches and warlocks to his brief stint in her father's territory. He had killed close to one hundred monsters if she remembered correctly.

"Well?" she began, crossing her arms, "Are you going to explain yourself?"

The being tilted his head slowly. He never moved from his spot but his attention on her seemed to intensify. The room seemed… fuzzier almost before it changed entirely.

The room the pair found themselves in was decrepit. There was no furniture, and the wallpaper on the walls was peeling away. There were three windows, the rightmost one cracked and slightly broken. An old bloodstain marred the floor where Moka's bed had been. It was also incredibly dark in the room, the only light being the tree-filtered moonlight outside.

The cursed counterpart knew this room well. It was where his ancestor had first killed. He wouldn't be surprised at all if he looked outside and the ghostly silhouettes of children in costume were walking around, calling out "Trick or Treat". Then again, judging by how old this room was now, the children wouldn't be there. Halloween was not celebrated in Haddonfield anymore after all. Not after his ancestor's spree in nineteen-seventy-eight.

"I suppose this is where you came from?" the Vampire asked once she finished studying the room.

The being shook his head. He then bent down and kneeled on the floor before seemingly grabbing a sheet of paper and a pencil from thin air. He turned and walked to the back wall of the room and used it to write something. When he was finished, he held out the sheet to the Vampire. She glanced between him and the sheet before taking it.

{This is not my home. It is my ancestor's. I chose it as I did not want to sully my human side's memories. You already know what I am, Vampire, as I know what you are.} The sheet read.

Moka grimaced before she replied. "You are a Shi no Ō. The second one to actually enter the Monster World from what our history books say."

The text on the sheet changed before her very eyes.

{There were others. My ancestor's time here was much less quiet than theirs. Our kind has dealt with monsters since their creation.}

"Your ancestor? You mean the one who was wearing that originally."

{Yes. I took this form as it was the only one suitable for this meeting. Also, the Monster World does not need to worry about him now. He is dead.}

"When exactly did he die, then? It must have been recently if he had you."

{I am not his offspring. I am the offspring of his sibling's offspring. He died fifteen years ago. It will be sixteen years on the festival of Samhain.}

"'Festival of Samhain'? You mean Halloween, don't you?"

{Indeed.}

"Right. What are your plans for my Outer self? We only know your kind as killers. Are you planning to kill us both when we least expect it?"

{No. She… kept my human side from making a grave mistake; Going home as we are now. We need to remain here for him to get stronger. It is nearly time for our curse to take effect. I would ask that you two remain near him. I would speak more on that, but our time grows short.}

"Why would I agree to stay near a killer?"

{Because it is the only way for Tsukune to remain himself. It is because of my nature that he is alone. I do not want that for him. He is a good soul despite what my being here has foisted upon it. If he were to finally lose his sanity, the world would be forced to deal with another incarnation of my ancestor. Despite what the Monster World believes, he is an exception to the rule of what we Shi no Ō are.}

With that final bit of text, the being disappeared, and her room returned. The only way she could tell that he'd even been there was the note he'd left with her. She mulled over the note in her hand. She set it down on the dresser next to her bed before lying on said bed. She had nothing else to do but sleep, so sleep she did.

Seven Hours Later…

Yokai Academy

The forest was beginning to darken as Mizore Shirayuki made her way back to the female dormitories. She wasn't looking forward to it. She had a lot of makeup work she had to do since she'd missed the first weeks of school. She'd need to work on those if she wanted to get her grade up.

As she walked back, she noticed that the forest was making her feel uneasy. That was a strange feeling. There was nothing unique going on with the forest. It was the same as it had been since that morning. Sure it was getting darker, but being a monster meant being afraid of the dark was silly. She glanced behind her, trying to ascertain if it was some kind of sixth sense thing.

There was nothing back there of course. She could be wrong though. In the Monster World, it was very easy for stronger monsters to dominate weaker ones. That was why all monsters were ready for a fight most of the time. She scanned her surroundings just in case someone was hiding behind the trees.

Satisfied with her findings she continued on. As she turned to look ahead, she thought she spotted movement off to the left. She backed up a step and created a pair of Ice Claws when she got a better look at what caused the movement.

There was no mistaking who it was. The white mask, black jumpsuit, and black boots were a dead giveaway. She remembered the description of the evil before her in her village's stories plus those of her mother. Her eyes narrowed and jaw clenched as she saw the "The Butcher of Mifuyu".

She'd been there, once. Her family had taken a trip to her mother's old village. She was quite young at the time. If she remembered right, she had been about seven years old. Her mother had been even younger when it happened. Her mother had been about five or six years old when her village was massacred.

Her mother had nightmares sometimes. Nightmares of the white-masked man and what he would've done had he decided not to ignore her. She had only been inches away from the man after all. She'd stood right in front of him, close enough that she had to crane her neck to even see the mask.

Her mother was sure she was going to die too. The masked man didn't touch her though. He'd simply cocked his head to the left before looking up and walking off. Her mother couldn't move from that spot even hours after that. It had taken a party from the village she now lived at searching for survivors to get her to move.

"You have a lot of nerve showing yourself here," Mizore growled darkly, getting her claws up and ready to stab him.

The butcher tilted his head to the right. She had the distinct feeling that he wasn't all that threatened by her. She began to advance, trying to make herself more threatening, when she got a better look at him.

He had a large puncture wound in his side, most likely from something the size of a spear. His clothing had tears along his chest and left sleeve. She saw singe marks on his clothing as well before noticing the faint portion of smoke that drifted off of him. Blood covered his right hand from where it had been nearly split in two. His right leg was halfway severed, and she could see a hint of bone through the cut that nearly severed his leg. He was quite clearly dead.

She stopped advancing and scrutinized the butcher further. There was a strange sort of blurry quality to him, and the blurriness only intensified if she tried to focus on him. He was not breathing as well. All factors pointed to the fact that he was a ghost.

"Serves you right you evil bastard."

She heard something snap behind her and spun around to look. There was nothing there that she could see, and when she turned back to the ghost, he was gone. She began to relax with his disappearance. Perhaps the people he slaughtered at Mifuyu would rest easy now, knowing that their killer was dead. She also hoped the bastard was suffering the worst torment imaginable.

She sighed to herself before continuing onto the female dorms. She had homework to do, after all. She didn't think she was going to do well on any of it but dammit she would try to get it all done at the very least.

The cursed counterpart watched the Yuki-Onna leave, intrigued that she could see his ancestor's ghost. Perhaps it was a trauma thing? His ancestor's time with her kind leaving that deep an impression despite it only being a day was impressive. Then again, his ancestor had done that before. Haddonfield was a good example. One night in nineteen-seventy-eight was enough to start the town's decline. That had taken time, of course, but no one forgets a tragedy like the one that Halloween night.

He watched the girl from behind a tree about forty feet back. He hadn't been the only one, but at least his watching was more wholesome than the boy he was currently holding. The boy had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and make the girl his. All in all, the boy would satisfy his need for killing better than the girl from last night.

Konatsu Imari was an unfortunate casualty of his curse. She had been a kind, sweet, and caring young woman from what he knew of her. She was a subspecies of Jorōgumo that had fewer spider attributes than their normal brethren. He'd waited for her on the main path. It was ironic. Here he was, a Shi no Ō, trapping a Jorōgumo. In most cases it was the human who was trapped and the Jorōgumo the trapper.

He shook his head to stop thinking about Imari. It was done and that would be that. He hoped this kill would be less disturbing. He glanced around, wanting to ensure no one was around to see him. Witnesses meant more people to kill. More people to kill meant a higher chance of discovery. A higher chance of discovery leads to his counterpart's capture and execution. That finally culminates in a new Michael, and no one wants that. He was satisfied with the lack of other people.

He dragged the boy deeper into the forest and away from the main path. He found the perfect spot for this kill fairly quickly. It was one of the various graveyards around the academy. The fence that surrounded it was topped with sharp fleurs de lis. He got close to the fence and could feel the boy stiffen in his hand. The boy's thrashing resumed as the cursed counterpart lifted him up to a standing position.

The boy threw a few punches to his gut, chest, and side. None of them did anything as the cursed counterpart wrapped his other hand around the boy's throat. He then proceeded to start pushing the boy down onto the fence. The boy's thrashing grew more intense as it became easier and easier to push him through the post.

The boy tried one final time to escape by clawing at the cursed counterpart's arms. It was a futile gesture. As soon as the claws were off his arms, the cursed counterpart slammed the boy's head down onto the fleurs de lis. What resulted was something similar to the joke hats that made someone look as though they'd been shot in the head by an arrow. As he looked upon his work, he thought about the possibility of his fingerprints on the corpse. He gazed down at the pair of gloves he'd acquired from the lost and found. This was his eighth pair, and he'd need to find new ones after this killing. Glove prints were just as damning as fingerprints after all.

He rummaged around in the boy's pockets for his dorm keys. Finding them, he began his trek to the male dorm, and more specifically to the boy's dorm for more gloves. Monster apparel was able to conform to any monster's size. This made gloves an easy issue to fix as they automatically shrank or grew to the size of his own hands. He turned and gave one last look at the body, feeling like something was missing. It clicked instantly and he picked up a nearby stick.

He wrote a message below the corpse that was so large one would have to be blind to miss it. He was certain that many students wouldn't understand the word as it was written in the Latin alphabet though. It didn't matter of course. He finished writing a minute later and walked away from the writing and body. He needed those new gloves after all.

The word written in the dirt below the body… was {Samhain}.

November 20th, 1979

Unknown Area

The Shape had managed to hide for weeks. Ever since his second attempt on his sister's life this past Halloween, he'd been hunted by the police. He should have known that it was stupid to mess with her so soon. He'd waited fifteen years for a reason. He'd managed to make her more miserable at least, killing that EMT he'd failed to kill during the first attempt on his sister. When he'd escaped the police, he'd gotten far enough away from any towns or cities in Illinois that he felt secure. He'd been wrong.

Someone… or rather something had managed to knock him out and drag him to this place. He had no idea where he was. He was inside a cage made of iron, and from what he could see, he was inside a cave. There were torches strewn about all over the place. Creatures and humans wearing red and black robes walked about and he saw some preparing an altar. It was probably meant for him. He'd seen the other bodies in the room next to him when he first awoke.

They had no idea what they'd brought into their home. The Shape had found a part of the cage that had rusted to nearly nothing, and with a little bit of force, he'd broken it off the cage. The part was tucked inside his sleeve and held in place by his palm. As soon as the people outside his cage opened the door, it would be over.

Tonight was the night. A pair of red and black-robed people approached his cage. One of them, a Lizardman if the Shape remembered correctly, reached for the door and the Shape got the little rusty piece of cage ready to strike. The door opened and in an instant the piece of cage found itself lodged in the Lizardman's neck. Blood splattered the wall and a good chunk of the Shape's face. The Shape didn't spare the first body a second glance as he let go of the piece of cage and grasped the second red and black-robed figure.

The second figure tried to fight but the Shape was too strong. The figure screamed as the Shape's thumbs pushed his eyes into his brain. More blood found itself on the Shape as he used the second figure's eye sockets as an impromptu hand hold. He swung the second figure toward the group of other figures swarming toward him with enough force to rip the figure's head from his shoulders. The Shape let go of the figure's head and waded into the mass of others.

One by one his captors met a gruesome end. By the time the Shape was through, he'd been stabbed a total of six times and clawed twice. None of the injuries had had any effect. He bent over and picked up the knife one of them had used to stab him. It looked like an old dagger, something from the age of knights and dragons.

The dagger was made of black metal with a silver engraving. The engraving was near the tip of the blade. It looked like an amateurish drawing of a witch's hat, with a straight line as the base and two lines joining to form a point in the center of the line, which created a small triangle in the center of the three lines. The handle was wrapped in tight leather. The dagger's pommel was made of the same black metal as the blade. It was obviously high quality given the design.

The Shape kept a hold of the knife as he searched the cave for the last part of his outfit. It wasn't hard to find. The first place he'd checked was near the altar, and sure enough, his mask was laid out on a small table, along with a number of other items. The other items didn't concern him as he donned his mask with reverence.

With his mask back where it belonged and his new dagger in hand, the Shape searched for an exit for the better part of an hour.

The Shape exited the cave and found himself in a dead forest. Above him was a moon as red as blood. The Shape was utterly lost, and so he did the only thing he could think of.

He began to walk.

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. Finals were annoying to deal with. I'm going to work on my other fic's next chapter then begin another new fic to replace my first crossover fic. Lost my passion for that crossover. My writing schedule will look like this:

1. Issei Hyodo, Apprentice of Vader

2. Fallout X Overlord Fic (To Replace ROTIGTA)

3. Rosario+Vampire: The Blackest Eyes