"Wait, what about my friends? They were with me when I saw him, and he saw them too. They could be in danger too." Tim and Kara glanced over at each other before nodding.

"Quickly." Tim opened the front door and went to make sure Max was okay. He closed and locked the door behind him. Cynthia frantically called Laurie. Thankfully, she answered.

"Laurie, you need to lock all your doors and windows and stay inside, I can't explain right now. Just call Corey." Cynthia couldn't wait for an answer as she hung up and went back to her mom downstairs.

"Where's dad?"

"He's fine, he went to make sure Max's okay. Here." Cynthia was surprised as Kara handed her a pistol. Kara had a handgun as well.

"Just in case," Cynthia smirked. "Yeah. Just in case."

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Corey picked up the phone as he answered Laurie's call. "Laurie is everything okay?"

"Corey you've gotta get out of the house now!" Corey spared a short glance around not seeing anything. "Why? What's goi-" Corey's voice cut out.

Laurie tensed, fear creeping its way through her. "C-Corey? Are you still there?... Corey?!" The only response she got was quiet static feedback.

Corey desperately gasped, trying to get any noise to come out that wasn't just incoherent gurgling. But nothing else would come as the phone twine was digging into the skin of his neck, his head viciously forced backward away from the phone's speaker. Corey's shaking hands came up to grab the gloved hands tightening the cord around his neck until the cord snapped from the home phone.

"Shit!" Laurie dropped her home phone and grabbed her cell phone, running to help her friend after the line went dead.

The pressure of the cord was released only to be followed by the gloved hands wrapping around his neck to crush his windpipe as Corey still clawed at the masked man who didn't seem to notice, or rather simply not care. The teen's windpipe popped and cracked under the immense pressure. The kid's struggle was stopped in an instant as his windpipe burst and his neck was completely crushed. Corey dropped lifelessly to the ground, The Shape just stood in silence over the body.

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The Shape wandered the neighborhood, aimlessly, just watching as the kids ran around in their little costumes, older brothers and parents chasing after them, trying to keep up with them. Michael tilted his head when he saw a group of kids wearing masks just like his own. Odd...

Michael curiously followed the kids to see what the masks were about.

The kids lead him to a house, hurrying inside as Michael scoped out the place. He watched through the window as the kids laughed with their mom trying to jump up and grab their trick-or-treating bags the mom was holding. Michael recalled doing the same thing on Christmas when he was five, jumping as high as he could to the present before his mom set it down. When Michael opened the present he got a white Halloween mask for trick-or-treating that year because he couldn't find a suitable costume. It was the last Christmas he'd had before the incident and it was one of the best.

The Shape was pulled back to reality at the sound of the house's front door opening. It watched as a man walked in. He looked panicked like something bad was about to happen.

The Shape moved silently, following the man's voice as he ushered his son outside. "Dad, why do we have to leave already? I haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet!"

The Shape crept behind them. The boy's father opened the door to their house and quickly rushed his son inside. "Just get inside Max, it's alright."

Cynthia ran downstairs at the sound of her brother's voice. "Max?!" Max scrambled to his mom and sister, not understanding what was happening.

Before another word could be said a small whimper sent a cold silence through the air. All eyes landed on Tim. Blood dripped from his mouth, his body twitching stiffly. He made a small gurgling noise sending more blood from his mouth, his body going limp.

"Dad!" Kara held Max back as a tall Shape loomed beside Tim, holding the knife in his back and twisting it slow, and steadily feeling the man's inside move as the knife weaved its way deeper into Tim's back.

Cynthia stood flabbergasted, staring at the same figure that had been stalking her all day.

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Loomis trailed the two officers as they headed to their police car. Hawkins and Bracket had agreed to patrol the neighborhood closest to the Myers house, probably just to humor him, but it didn't matter as he could stop Michael in his tracks, never mind how.

"I'm not stupid, ya know! I have worked with Michael for fifteen years! I think I'd know if he was planning a damn killing spree!" Hawkins sighed, eyeing Loomis. "No one's denying you, alright? It's just pretty hard to believe that if the guy was so dangerous you could just let him get away."

Loomis scoffed. "Let him get away? Wha-do you think we just opened the door and said, 'Go ahead, Michael.' We did our best with what we had! Besides, you shouldn't be berating me! You need to be actively looking for this monster before it slaughters your entire town!"

Hawkins shook his head in annoyance. "You know he's a person, right?" Loomis was getting even more impatient. "He might as well not be judging from what I've seen. You have to stop thinking that you're dealing with a normal man here or a man at all! We-we're dealing with a soulless killing machine driven by nothing more than sheer animal instinct. A monster who will not stop killing unless someone kills it first! You have no idea what you're dealing with here!"

Bracket cut in, throwing his hands up. "Then tell us! Tell us what the Hell we're dealing with if you're done arguing like children! Seriously!"

Loomis sighed, collecting his thoughts. "I met him fifteen years ago. I met this six-year-old boy with this blank, emotionless, pale face, and the blackest eyes...the Devil's eyes. The only thing I was told about him was that he'd murdered his sister and hadn't spoken a word after. That there was nothing left. No conscious, no remorse, no fear, no understanding of good or evil, right or wrong. That the boy was just a hopeless case that would waste our time for nothing. I spent the first eight years trying to reach him, to get him to respond, to say something, anything, even just to show any kind of emotion. Then I spent the next seven years trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind Michael's eyes was purely and simply...evil. Guess everyone else was right about him all along."

"Shit..." Bracket sighed in disbelief. "Where was his family in all this?" Hawkins thought maybe they could help somehow.

Loomis shook his head at that. "No use. His mom's dead, and his father's...well, he couldn't care less. The family he has left doesn't even know him anyway."

Hawkins narrowed his eyes. "Wait, who was the other family member you were talking about?"

"Her name was Cynthia Myers, she was adopted after Edith killed herself." Hawkins slammed on the break. "Shit. I know where he is!"

All eyes landed on Hawkins as he veered the car off course. "What? How do you-" Hawkins cut Bracket off. "Thirteen years ago I got this call about someone hearing a gunshot, and when I got there, I found Edith's body. But then, I heard this noise, like a whine. And I followed it. I found this adorable little girl, just sitting there staring at me. I left her out of my report because I knew the attention that would attract. Poor kid had already gone through Hell, I wasn't going to let it get any worse, so I took the kid to a friend of mine. They ended up adopting her. Fuck, I should've known!"

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Laurie finally got to Corey's house, it was unlocked and she pushed it open, holding her father's gun in the other hand as she scanned the area.

'Shit, Corey!" Laurie scrambled to her friend's side placing a hand on his chest, feeling for any sign of life, but there was nothing. The only thing left was a mangled corpse, with a messed up neck dripping blood into a small puddle on the floor. Laurie pulled out her phone, gun still raised just in case, and called 9-1-1.