Bones for the Magpie

Part Two : Chapter Seven

  Tommy blazed down the street as fast as he could. If The Boogeyman appeared in the middle of the street, he'd run him over without hesitation. Karen and Allyson were holding the bars above the windows, praying he wouldn't hit anything. They reached the Myers house and Tommy stopped—he was caring enough to slow the truck down before coming to a halt so he wouldn't send his passengers flying. He signalled everyone to leave their vehicles. That's when he saw it—them. Marion and Lonnie. He knew right away they were dead and was sick to his stomach at the display of them. Tommy made sure not to approach, but from what he could see from afar, Lonnie's face looked smashed in, Marion's chest was ripped open, and the two seemed to be missing fingers. Karen stepped out of the truck and walked ahead of Tommy. The two had rehearsed their plan but it still left Allyson nervous. Karen intended to lure the murderer out of hiding, but she knew it would be easier said than done. She tried not to look at the two bodies lying in the middle of the street but it was hard to avoid. She was in front of the Myers house now—a little bit away from Tommy. He chose to park far enough that Michael wouldn't be able to see them. A noise rattled on the porch of The Myers House, catching Karen's attention. She would have to investigate if she were to get him to reveal himself. She stood at the bottom of the steps, looking through the front door and examining her surroundings.

"Is someone there?" She asked in a fake cautious voice, "Hello?"

She took a step up on the stairs, her feet prepared to launch her off the porch and run back to Tommy. She looked at the source of the noise and found a finger. It was covered in blood and seemed to have fallen. She began to panic but still remained on the porch. If she ran too soon, the monster might buy her bluff. Something sounded off behind her and she gave in to her fear and fled down the stairs. She missed a step and felt her entire weight fall under her as she began to fall to the ground. But something caught her—the one time she didn't want to be save from falling. She turned around and saw it. She'd had an encounter with him earlier in the evening—shot his face too, she knew he had a score to settle with her. His nails dug into her wrist as he pulled her closer to him and sent a knife into her gut. He removed it and began slashing at her face, chest, stomach and arms, soon changing to stabbing motions. Allyson heard her mother's scream and ran, but Tommy stopped her. He couldn't afford careless running, this had to be done with precision. In this moment, Tommy knew he seemed heartless, but he was aware that in order to kill Michael Myers, there had to be casualties.

Blood kept pouring from Karen's wounds, soaking both their clothes and dripping to the wood floor. He finished his attack with a slash across her stomach, deep enough to cut whatever was inside her. He grabbed her neck and flung her off the porch, stepping down with her. For the first time in forty years, Tommy laid eyes on the root of his fears. While he knew he was Michael Myers, in this moment Tommy was back to being a child—this was The Boogeyman. The Magpie Child legend Annie told him and Lindsey about. And he didn't look a bit different from when he first saw him.

"Now!" Tommy shouted, collecting himself.

They began to charge at Myers from both sides. He put up a good fight, ripping weapons away from people, using human shields, breaking necks and stabbing others. But his victims never stopped coming. Gun shots ricocheted off his bone collar, sending shrapnel flying. Every time one aimed for his head, he would make a quick move behind someone, causing a lot of friendly fire to occur. Myers didn't tire but was starting to get overwhelmed. A man tried to tackle Myers to the ground.

"No, don't!" Tommy cried.

He watched the old legend scrape the man's face against his bone collar, creating gruesome and ugly scars across his skin. The man screamed but it was silenced once Myers cut his throat. Another man ran up to him but made sure to keep his distance—he was accompanied by another person, both ready to hit this monster's head. Myers sprang at them, cutting the man's belly with his knife and reached in with his injured hand, pulling whatever he could from inside. As he retrieved his hand, the guts followed—he'd had a fistful of gore in his grasp. He couldn't identify what was what, but only knew that something looked identical to a rope. He grabbed the meat rope, darted behind the man's partner and wrapped it around his throat choking him to death. Both stared in horror as they fell lifeless, the crowd had to stop, some gagged. Myers knew this would get the crowd to stop. They might have been fighters but they weren't immune to the horrors of blood. With hesitation, they charged at the killer. Myers grunted as multiple weapons hit his back and face. He was able to rip a few eyes out of some of the people as their heads reached too close to his hands. Myers finally grabbed a sharp weapon one of the townsmen was holding and snatched it from their grasp. He began swinging his arm left and right, cutting anything in his path. The weapon he held appeared to be a tire iron with a rusted piece of metal strapped to the end of it. He heard the slices of skin, the screams of people he was cutting, soon he was out of the crowd. He turned to deal his final blows on them, sinking the weapon into their backs. Tommy was amidst the crowd but backed away as he saw The Shape escape. He stared in horror as this darkness cleaned through his entire army of people. The Shape was bleeding everywhere but didn't seem to care. The wounds only added to his nightmarish appearance. Tommy made sure to keep the kids at bay—told them to stay with the cars, but Cameron saw his father's body and joined the mob.

..

The screams of his victims were mere songs to him—a choir of ghastly people, regretting their last attack, their final mistake that landed them in the wake of Michael Myers. The man saw Cameron charge him but Michael raised his weapon and sent it down on Cameron's skull. He heard a satisfying crack as it split his skull.

Tommy seemed frozen. Move, damn it! He shouted at himself. But he couldn't move. Not with what was lying before him. The guilt washed over like a wave of doom—he was the reason they died. This was the worst time to get his humility back, he'd been doing good keeping his emotions to himself, but now it hit him. He sent them to their deaths. Right now he was the little boy forty years ago. He wasn't a soldier, he wasn't a leader. He was just a scared little kid wanting to end his seemingly infinite nightmare. The thing before him stood tall, soaked in black blood, it stained his face, his hands, and those God awful bones. He smelled of decay and fire, like a demon emerging from the pits of hell, evil in its rawest form. He couldn't move. He wanted to run but couldn't abandon the random people he'd picked from the street to fight this...Thing, yet he knew that he alone stood no chance. It was starting to sink in. Michael Myers was the legend of this town. The Boogeyman—The Magpie Child. A savage picking up scraps of the dead, eliminating whoever wandered into his path. A cryptid of a man, standing with no remorse at what he'd just done. His breathing pattern was the same now as it was when he was locked away in a peaceful setting. He was calm. Tommy fixated on those wretched bones. Who did they belong to? Were Marion's ribs in the mix, were Lonnie's? How many more would he have after tonight? He grew enraged, the shadowy monster was taunting him, daring him to make a move.

Allyson watched from afar, she wanted to avenge her parents—her friends, but she knew she had to drive away from the scene. There were still people at the hospital, but would they even be able to stop him? She just witnessed the nightmare sweep through an entire crowd of people. She saw Tommy run towards him. He fought his fear—or perhaps gave in to his guilt. She heard him yell as he ran, but The Boogeyman didn't hesitate.

"You bastard, look at me!" Tommy shouted, rearing his bat to the sky.

Myers ducked to the ground. He had lost his weapon but picked up a large piece of bone fragment. He held it like a piece of glass, charged upwards as Tommy approached and stuck it in his abdomen. Tommy stopped, but Myers continued—he drew this piece of bone across his belly, above his chest and past his shoulder with no struggle. It all happened in a flash. Tommy dropped his bat and let out an agonized whimper. The blackened shadow grabbed him. Tommy breathed heavy as he was face to face—literally—to this monstrosity. The world seemed to slow—in its own way, Tommy found these last moments enamoring. Myers was of a violent nature he'd never heard of, never seen in any type of movie. Yet he seemed so in tune with his murders like a pianist being drowned out in their work, ignoring the world around them. A dark beauty was what his half-dead mind conjured up—not a beauty defined by a person of attractive features, but a beauty of exotic wickedness, hypnotized and you couldn't look away from him. He stared into the blackness of this thing's eyes, specifically the one Laurie Strode had taken. Tommy's wound was throbbing but Michael knew he didn't deal a killing blow. He reached up to his own neck and removed one of the larger bones.

The Shape knew Tommy was staring at his blind eye. Tommy was there the night he received it. He held this bone in his hand, shoved Tommy back with his other, and drilled the bone into Tommy's eye, pushing it as far as it would go. Tommy struggled for a moment before Michael dropped him. He would retrieve the bone later. Michael Myers stood in the middle of the body pile. The cryptic legend remained alive, despite everyone's struggles, he still walked the streets. Tommy squirmed on the ground recounting the events of tonight. How he'd thought it'd be another boring Halloween filled with reminiscing. But then he remembered his speech, the final thought he had:

"He became a rumor—if you sneak out on Halloween night, The Boogeyman might get 'ya. So leave your bones for the magpie to pick and you might be spared."

...